This orange booklet, published by the British Council of Churches in 1989, was the culmination of a new initiative started in 1985 titled “Not Strangers but Pilgrims”. It, in effect, appears to try to define a framework where the member churches can agree to work together, sharing resources and skills, in service to God’s world. The Religious Society of Friends was part of this initiative, along with over 50 other churches / Christian organisations.
Most of the book is of little interest to the average church or meeting attender, as it attempts to document and define nearly every aspect of church activities with a role or policy definitions – a bit like our committee polices and procedures but on a much grander scale!
However, there was one section that stood out to me. It concerns, what appears to me, an underlying question in many current topics that we Friends are discussing, namely “What is our message to the world - the message of the Religious Society of Friends?”
This section is titled “Mission and Service” and can be found on page 12. I believe if you can choose not to react to some of the terminology you will find that much of this section is relevant to our own corporate and individual outreach initiatives.”
M G Bow (Wandsworth) June 2018