Personal Journey
I was brought up as a Quaker, and have always had a great interest in other faiths. Quakerism has no creed, and being a Quaker is more about practice and faith in action than it is about belief. In Quakerism there is no sense of having a monopoly on truth, but rather an understanding that there can be different paths to God, and an openness to insights from other traditions. I have found my interest in other faiths has been encourged and nurtured by my Quaker community.
As a teenager and young adult I attended a number of Quaker courses related to interfaith, and visited different places of worship. I found myself particularly drawn to Judaism, partly because of an interest in the historical connection of Judaism and Christinity, but I also found a lot of inspiration in modern Jewish traditions. I found Jewish worship refreshingly free of dogma. Like Quakerism, it focuses on practice rather than belief, and allows for a direct relationship with God, unmediated by a priesthood. I was also fascinated by the rich tradition of Biblical interpretation in Judaism. This often seems to be a dialogue between different views, without the need to produce a single definitive interpretation, and this is something I respond to as a Quaker.
The form of Jewish worship is of course very different to Quaker worship. Quaker worship is based in silence, and there is no set liturgy or ritual. There are times when I have found a more structured worship helpful - when I have found it difficult to settle into silent worship, or when my mind refuses to be stilled. Music is also very meaningful to me, and this is something which is rare (though not unknown) in Quaker worship.
During the year I spent at Leo Baeck college and, following on from that, a year in Cambridge studying at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian relationship, I attended Jewish services fairly often. In London I became part of the ‘Ruach Chavurah’, a Jewish renewal group, and in Cambridge I attended the Reform Synagogue. I also spent a summer at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish Renewal retreat centre in New York state, which gave me an experience of living and working within a community organised around the weekly rhythm of Shabbat.
I found these experiences tremendously enriching, and there is much that I have been able to take back into my experience of Quaker worship. There are certain phrases and tunes which I often return to to help me in the process of ‘centering down’ into worship - this is the process of quieting the mind and bringing ourselves to a different level of awareness where we are open to the presence of God. In Jewish renewal I encountered the concept that the Shabbat morning service is structured in a way which leads the worshippers through different stages of awareness - the four worlds of the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual - and this is something I have found very helpful to translate into the experience of a Quaker Meeting.
To experience two different traditions can be to find a creative tension between them. Traditionally, Quakers did not set aside special times, or ‘holy days’, because they believed that all time is equally sacred. One of my Quaker teachers (the one who first introduced me to Jewish-Quaker dialogue) spoke about was the contrast between this Quaker concept, and the Jewish concept of Shabbat as sacred time. If we do not set aside special times, there may be a danger that we forget to make any time sacred. While the ideal may be to live every day as if it were like Shabbat, sometimes to set aside a special day - to experience the celebration of Shabbat - may show us where we are falling short, and remind us of what it is that we are aiming for.
