Useful to Ourselves and the Outside World: York Quakers during the Twentieth Century (review)

40Quaker History Useful to Ourselves and the Outside World: York Quakers during the Twentieth Century. By David Rubinstein. York, Eng.: Sessions, 2001. xii + 227 pp. Tables, illustrations, notes, and index. Paper, £10.50. In many ways David Rubinstein's portrait of York Friends' passage through the twentieth century reflects the transition experienced by London (now British) Yearly Meeting as a whole. During the Edwardian years York Friends, like most British Quakers, had largely, though not unanimously, adopted a newly assimilated liberal theology, au courant perhaps, (and anathema, certainly, to the diminishing ranks of evangelical Friends), but still indisputably Christian. Their politics were also mainly Liberal, but most were still socially conservative, maintaining censorious attitudes towards gambling, alcohol and other forms ofmoral laxity while generally limiting their circle of friends to members of their own religious Society. Recently, the Anglo-Boer War, while creating trauma and division among Friends, had also generated a timely revitalization of Quakerism's traditional but long-dormant peace testimony. The majority of York Quakers were birthright Friends and most were members ofClifford Street meeting, one ofthe largest in the country and unique in the sense ofhaving to absorb, often uneasily, the student populations oftwo Quaker academies, Bootham and The Mount. Many York Friends, like Quakers throughout the British Isles, were intensely involved in various philanthropic activities, especially the Adult School movement. York Monthly Meeting, with an unusually large percentage of working class members, was dominated by a small coterie ofupper middle class families, like the Rowntrees, who were often socially,politicallyandeconomicallyprominent,nationallyaswellas locally. By the end ofthe twentieth century, the order ofthings on York Monthly Meeting had changed considerably and, in some ways, dramatically. For while Friargate meeting, like Clifford Street before it, was still very large by Quaker standards (nearly 500 members and 250 attenders), the students have disappeared from the scene and the ambiance is markedly different in a number of other ways. The prevailing theology, such as it is, remains liberal, but probably half of the members, few of whom are birthright Friends, would identify their faith as centered in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, a reflection ofthe "post-Christian pluralism" (192) or ethical humanism so conspicuous among contemporary British Friends. While many ofthe twentieth century members complained about a lack ofvocal ministry in meeting for worship, some contemporary York Friends believe there are frequently too many contributions, especially when this ministry seems personal, unfocused or secular rather than Light-inspired, universal and centered in the historical traditions of Quaker Christianity. Indeed, as Book Reviews41 Rubinstein cogently points out, few York Friends ofany theological stripe have muchknowledge oforinterestinthehistory oftheirReligious Society. Mostoftheupperclass andnearlyall oftheworking classmembers are gone from the York Monthly Meeting, but the membership remains socially and politically active, a "society ofmiddle class do-gooders" (214), according to one somewhat uneasy current member. As a body these northern Friends probably give even stronger public witness to the peace testimony than did their Edwardian forbears, but like Quakers in early twentieth century, York Friends' stand against war and violence sometimes brings them into alliance with groups and individuals about whom many are anxious or dubious. For all the things that have been altered over the century, some others seem never to change. An Edwardian Friend's complaint about "Quaker caution and love of detail running to seed" (J. W. Rowntree, Essays and Addresses, xxiii-xxiv) seems mirrored in Rubinstein's discussion of the excruciatingly painful process by which the old Clifford Street meeting house was, eventually, transformed into the current structure in Friargate. Thus, Rubinstein illustrates, at least implicitly, that while Quakers are still intent on changing the world, they often have grave difficulties in attempting to change anything within their own microcosmos. But for all of thataMinute composedafterthe completion ofthebuildingproject avowed: "All felt that worship at Friargate was much richer than in former times at Clifford Street." (166). A hopeful sign indeed. David Rubinstein took on a difficult assignment in agreeing to produce this history of York Friends. He has fulfilled his charge with considerable panache and grace not only by drawing upon a range ofsources, especially Meetingrecords, to provide abalancedperspective but also byusing dozens of interviews with mainly elderly members...