A Quaker Elder reflects on Chain of Prayer
Liz Hoffbauer, Quaker Elder and representative on the leadership group of NWCT, gives a personal reflection on the 2024 Norwich Chain of Prayer
In January, the Quaker Meeting House hosted this year’s international Chain of Prayer in Norwich. The city has a long tradition in holding this annual event that has been running for over 40 years. Liz Hoffbauer, a Quaker Elder and representative on the leadership group of Churches Together in Norfolk and Waveney (NWCT), had the pleasure of being there from start to finish. Here she gives her personal reflection on the day.
“Representatives from different denominations came to participate for their 15-minute slot. There was much coming and going and each contribution was unique. I felt grateful to be able to witness so many different kinds of worship. The greatest surprise for me, however, was that the very first contribution and the very last were remarkably similar in their approach to an idea of how we see God (or not).
“The first speaker was Julian Pursehouse, Chair of the East Anglia Methodist District. Part of his presentation, which has stayed with me ever since, was a reading of The Absence, by R.S.Thomas:
It is this great absence
that is like a presence, that compels
me to address it without hope
of a reply. It is a room I enter
from which someone has just
gone, the vestibule for the arrival
of one who has not yet come.
I modernise the anachronism
of my language, but he is no more here
than before. Genes and molecules
have no more power to call
him up than the incense of the Hebrews
at their altars. My equations fail
as my words do. What resources have I
other than the emptiness without him of my whole
being, a vacuum he may not abhor?
“Concentrating on this poem, I remembered one of the guests at the B&B which my husband and I ran in Old Hunstanton. She was a regular guest, a delightfully cheerful and kind woman, who was very devout. During her last visit, when she had started to suffer from dementia, she told me that she had lost the love of God “which passeth all understanding”, so she was waiting patiently for it to come back.
“Myself, I have always loved the medieval expression ‘the cloud of unknowing.’ We can never be certain about anything, as people, places and conditions are constantly changing around us. But if we live confidently in the knowledge that nothing remains static (particularly in the realms of science, where new knowledge replaces old knowledge nearly every year), we can attain the stability of knowing that even an absence can feel like a presence. This was confirmed when, during the Quaker Meeting for Worship, which finished the Chain of Prayer, Danene Rogers, one of the Quaker Friends, read out a passage from “Quaker Faith and Practice”, our book of Quaker discipline:
True faith is not assurance, but the readiness to go forward experimentally, without assurance. It is a sensitivity to things unknown. Quakerism should not claim to be a religion of certainty, but a religion of uncertainty; it is this which gives us our special affinity to the world of science. For what we apprehend of truth is limited and partial, and experience may set it all in a new light; if we too easily satisfy our urge for security by claiming that we have found certainty, we shall no longer be sensitive to new experiences of truth. For who seeks that which he believes that he has found? Who explores a territory which he claims already to know?
Charles F. Carter, 1971
The Norwich Chain of Prayer is part of a well-established international annual initiative to foster and nurture Church Unity. Dr Ian Watson, County Ecumenical Officer for NWCT, says:
“I also attended the full day and hugely enjoyed the variety and richness of the different sessions, which all focused on the theme of loving our neighbour and the parable of the ‘good Samaritan’. I am really grateful to the Quakers for hosting the event so generously. As NWCT is responsible for organising this event, I want to ensure that we continue the tradition well into the future. Part of doing so means we keep it under review in terms of format and the different ways to run the event. Accordingly, I would really welcome views on how we should run the Chain of Prayer for next year. If anyone wants to express a view or submit ideas, then please do get in touch.”
Photo: Liz being greeted by Bishop Peter, courtesy of RCDEA
To pass on any ideas for next year’s Norwich Chain of Prayer please email: Dr Ian Watson - CEO NWCT