Making meetings simpler

British Friend Helen Drew­ery writes about what might be a uni­ver­sal desire to make Quak­er orga­ni­za­tion­al life simpler

How can we achieve a flex­i­ble sim­plic­i­ty – liv­ing by the essence of the Quak­er approach but not treat­ing old habits as sacro­sanct? Ear­ly Quak­ers saw sim­plic­i­ty as strip­ping out of their lives the super­flu­ous activ­i­ties and things – John Wool­man called them ‘cum­ber’ – so that they could more ful­ly fol­low the lead­ings of the Spirit.