Quaker Spirit-led Concerns* in the World
Peace and Social Justice
- Immigration
- Ukraine Conflict
Earthcare
* What does the word "Concern" mean to Quakers?
Characteristics of a Quaker Concern
". . . I shall call attention to seven characteristics of Quaker social concerns in general. First and foremost, a Quaker concern requires a prepared individual. This preparation, in the great among us, seems to have a pattern which is visible in retrospect but is not visible to the individual at the time he is being prepared. . . . It seems that faithfulness in apparently unrelated aspects of life is preparation most necessary for a Friend who will be subsequently called to carry through a concern.
A second characteristic of a Friends’ social concern is that the concerned individual makes direct contact with the evil which needs attention. That is why Elizabeth Fry had so much more practical insight than other prison reformers of her day.
A third characteristic of the concerned Friend is his ability to establish empathy with the objects of his concern, e.g. to achieve imaginative identification with prisoners as Elizabeth Fry did. . . .
A fourth characteristic of the concerned Quaker is his willingness to work for any minor, unspectacular, partial solution of a big problem, which seems, at the moment, achievable. Often minor reforms are the only realistic possibility and to over-reach is to prevent any progress. . . .
A fifth characteristic of a Quaker’s concern is that it does not rest until it has penetrated through the superficial evil to its root causes. In looking for causes, Quakers cannot, as many Christians have done, fall back upon the hopeless depravity of man as the cause of social evils. Friends recognize that man's depravity is real, but they have never considered it his essential quality nor felt obliged to wait till man is less depraved before attacking social evils. They have, on the contrary, felt that, since every man contains the Divine essence, we need not be without hope. Friends, therefore, look for social causes and at least partial cures for social evils. . . .
A sixth characteristic of social concern is that the person who is sensitive to one social concern becomes inevitably more sensitive to all social evils. . . .
Lastly, the person with a social concern is willing to accept censure and ridicule. . . . Yet in the last analysis, obedience to the Light is the only satisfying course. Approval is not the criterion. . . . Results are not the criterion. I am convinced that if one is obedient, failure is impossible. . . . The results, when they appear, will rest upon the foundations laid by many anonymous builders. To be one of these is not to fail."
—Dorothy H. Hutchinson: The spiritual basis of Quaker social concern, 1961, pp. 4-10. Friends General Conference.
