Thoughts about Quakers in the media

Yesterday, Thursday 23 July, the Quakers sent off their press release about committed relationships coming up at Yearly Meeting. It is an interesting angle to take. Put cynically, all that is being announced is that Quakers are going to do some talking and listening. Is that all that Quakers can offer ahead of their Yearly Meeting?

On the other hand, should the Quakers nationally be trying to get national media coverage at this time? Would it be better afterwards?

I don’t have specific answers to these questions yet, but we do know that the only journalists allowed into Yearly Meeting sessions are those who are members of the Religious Society of Friends or who are attenders of Quaker Meetings and who have the relevant letter of introduction from their clerk to the Yearly Meeting organisers.

For the most part, then, the traditional coverage will be in the Friend, but as more Friends embrace newer forms of media, there are potentially many journal writers (like those at this blog) putting the word out.

Aside from us, how has the press release been picked up so far?

It was immediately picked up by William Heath (who served on Quaker Communications Central Committee from 2006-9) and has also been turned into an article by Ekklesia.

At Religious Intelligence, a piece by Judy West repeats part of the press release, describing Quaker faith and practice as the Quaker “‘rule book’”.

Similarly, Jessica Green at Pink News has also repeated parts of the press release.

As the press release isn’t up on the Britain Yearly Meeting website at time of writing, here it is:

23 July 2009

Quakers consider committed relationships

More than 1,600 Quakers will be in York next week for their annual meeting to discern the way forward for Quakers in Britain. This Yearly Meeting Gathering (Saturday 25 July to 1 August) will include discussion on committed relationships.

Quakers regard all human beings as unique and equally worthy of respect. They have acknowledged same sex partnerships since the 1960s. Now they are ready to consider if it is time to request legal authority to allow Quaker registering officers to register same sex partnerships in the same way as marriages. They will listen to and reflect on the experiences of Quakers talking about their partnerships and they will consider

• how Quakers should celebrate and recognise committed relationships within the Quaker community;
• whether to revise  Quaker Faith and Practice, the book of Christian discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, to include equal treatment of marriage and other committed partnerships.  First published in 1738, the book is revised each generation.

Michael Hutchinson, for Quakers in Britain, said: “We recognise that many homosexual people play a full part in the life of the Society of Friends. Many of our meetings have told us that there are homosexual couples who consider themselves to be married and believe this is as much a testimony of divine grace as a heterosexual marriage. They miss the public recognition of this in a religious ceremony. We hope our discussions this week will help us recognise, in love, the Friend whose experience is not our own, and will lead us forward in exploring what true equality means.”

Also, during the Gathering, the Swarthmore lecture, established in 1907, will be given by Manchester Quaker, Peter Eccles. “The Presence in the Midst: reflections on discernment” will focus on what Quakers mean by God’s guidance, how they understand God’s role in the universe and how Quakers reconcile God’s actions with the scientific laws which govern its behaviour.

ends

So, if Yearly Meeting isn’t rocking the media world, what Quaker stories are?

As usual, there isn’t much going on nationally, but the attempted take over of Friends Provident has led to a lot of mentions of Quakers recently, though most often in a historical context.

See for example here (The Times), here and here (Sky News).

I wonder if a news release and background sheet explaining Quakers’ historical involvement in finance, plus where they’re at today with the issues, might get us some column inches.

At Consultant News, Mick James writes about sustainability and the finance sector: ‘My correspondent laments the lack of guiding values in the sector and refers with admiration to the sort of solid, Victorian values that underpinned some of the enterprises set up by, for example, Quakers or Methodists. I suspect nowadays it would be hard to gain a consensus around a set of religiously-derived values. However, sustainability is a concept that sits well with many audiences these days—although I do balk off a bit when it takes on a pseudo-religious air.’

A background paper on Quaker involvement in finance could have been of use to Mick when writing this piece. As an example of what can be achieved, the work done by the Quaker media officer in 2002 when Elizabeth Fry appeared on the £5 note is a good example. See for example here (BBC) and here (the Economist, partial article). Admittedly, the coverage was helped by the 350th anniversary of the founding of Quakers, but you get the idea.

Most are more localised, such as mentions in Bognor Regis and Salisbury. These sorts of stories are important to giving Quakers publicity in the media. I’ve been told recently that most people don’t even associate us Quakers with the Quaker Oats cereal any more, instead they just don’t have any idea who we are or what we are.

If it is true that the public at large doesn’t know who Quakers are, then now is as good a time as any for us to raise the Quaker profile in the media, with local stories providing the ‘bread-and-butter’ coverage and some national ‘garnish’ with stories connected to the news (like the Elizabeth Fry example above).