Sheila Hancock encourages Quakers to speak out

Friends House, the London home of Quakers in Britain, welcomed actress Sheila Hancock to the new Quaker Centre during National Quaker Week, 3-11 October. She said being a Quaker was deeply important to her and she encouraged Quakers to overcome their instinctive humility and to speak up about their faith.

“There is a puritanical perception of Quakers, that we don’t drink, don’t smoke and so on. But nothing could be further from the truth. We are the most open minded religion and people won’t know what we do unless we tell them,” she said.

The Quakers’ recent decision to treat same sex marriages in the same way as different sex marriages was an example of Quakers working for peace.

Sheila Hancock said she values the way that Quakers worship in communal silence. “Silence can be deeply satisfying but it is also hard to be left with your thoughts.” She said she constantly refers to Advices and Queries, the first chapter of the Quaker book of discipline. “This guides my life,” she said. “It is a very good way of making decisions, to test something with honesty and simplicity and to see that of God in everyone.”

She found Quakers through a friend when she was ill. Then Quaker women standing in silence to protest against the cruise missiles at Greenham Common made a huge impression on her. “I loved their silence in total contrast to the noise being made during protests.” An invitation to narrate a recording of a Quaker choir led her to an enquirers’ weekend. “I knew Quakerism was for me.”

In a week-long series of events to mark the opening of the new centre – which includes café, bookshop and worship space- Quakers’ commitment to peace and justice is being reflected in two sessions, on storytelling about the resistance to war and on why Quakers train human rights observers to live in Israel-Palestine today.

Quakers around Britain have been using Quaker Week to say how their faith has challenged and changed them. A special website has been launched for the Week with resources for newcomers. See http://www.quaker.org.uk/you

Ends

Notes to editor:

• Approximately 25,000 people attend Quaker Meetings for Worship in Great Britain, and there are more than 475 Meetings.
• Quakers are known formally as the Religious Society of Friends.
• Photographs of Quaker Week events in the centre are available from annev@quaker.org.uk

Media Information
Anne van Staveren
0207 663 1048
07958 009703
annev@quaker.org.uk
www.quaker.org.uk