Page 2 - NewsandViews 2023 whole publication

Editorial.

Change and Difference.
These seem to be twin themes present in this edition of News and Views. Seasons change – autumn to
winter; circumstances change – where and how we live; relationships change – with people, our planet
and changes are encountered along the Journey-of-faith.

Change.
During the history of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Friends’ faith has evolved. Evolution,
among biologists, has come to means change in a species according to natural selection pressures.
Through many years, Quakers’ faith has been subjected to many selection pressures resulting from
changes encountered in politics, economics, philosophy, theology, and changes in the structure and
values of society through which Quakers have lived.

Change in Quaker faith; from its roots in the ‘world-turned-upside-down’ of the seventeenth century,
to the Enlightenment-thinking of the eighteenth century, to the nineteenth century’s challenges of the
industrial revolution, with its consequences for good or evil, and on to the last century and Quakers’
encounter with idealism, mysticism, modernism and post modernism. All have challenged Quakers’
thinking.

Difference.
The contributors to this edition illustrate the healthy differences which now exist in Friends’
understanding of the faith of Quakers. There is a Chinese proverb which states:
“There are many paths to the top of the mountain,
but the view is always the same”.

Different paths, different viewpoints - but all looking to reach out, or to reach within, to the truth.
Could it be that God, (however we interpret that term), could be reaching out to us - or reaching
within?
Take heed, dear Friends, to the prompting of love and truth in your hearts,
which are the leadings of God. Advices, 1964
.

Eric and Dorrie Johnson.
Joint editors.

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