Towards Quakerism in Switzerland

76 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION time those representatives of such groups invited to Monday's meeting (see Minute 17 x) to be regarded as serving temporarily. 5.Carl Heath and Fred J. Tritton as officers of the International Committee to be asked to serve temporarily as Chairman and Secretary of the Consultative Committee. 6.The Committee to be asked to consider what financial support will be necessary and how it will be provided. TOWARDS QUAKERISM IN SWITZERLAND By Hélène Monastier Secretary of the Continuation Committee of the Group of Swiss friends of the Friends which met recently at Berne Reprinted from the Friends Intelligencer, July 17, 1937 IT WAS during the Great War that Quakerism became known to pacifist circles in Switzerland. The example of Quaker Conscientious Objectors was a powerful encouragement to several hundreds of young men in Switzerland, who paid for their refusal to do military service not by martyrdom, but by ten to twenty months' imprisonment and great material sacrifices. Quaker ideals and the relief work carried on by Friends during and after the war inspired Pierre Cérésole, the most well-known C. O. in Switzerland, to create the International Voluntary Service for Peace, which now has so many positive achievements to its credit. Cérésole never lost an opportunity of telling his friends and followers of the great impression made upon him by the attitude of Friends ; and from the beginning the large numbers of young men and women in Switzerland who were enthusiastic supporters of the I. V. S. became drawn towards Quakerism and tried to work in the same spirit. On the other hand, there were many students from Woodbrooke and Kingsmead, who had taken part in Quaker Meetings for Worship, experiencing in them a living silence, and who had returned to Switzerland bringing with them a longing for a true spiritual religion. And so slowly, very slowly, the way became prepared. When 1 Minute 17 approves of a proposal "to consider means of further consultation and interchange of thought among Friends," and asks the Business Committee to appoint a representative temporary committee to carry the concern further. QUAKERISM IN SWITZERLAND77 the Friends' International Centre was established in Geneva few Genevese were attracted to the Quaker Meeting. True its main object was not to proselytize. None the less, the Centre formed a gathering ground for those in sympathy with Friends ; and those few who had become members of the Society could return there, perhaps from far away, for strength and refreshment. The writer cannot express adequately the inspiration she drew from the Geneva Group in the days when she was the only Quaker in French Switzerland. IN 1934 it was felt that the right moment had come for a reunion of the Swiss "friends of the Friends." It was under the guidance of Geneva Friends that the first conference at Berne was organized in the autumn of 1934, to which were invited all those whose interest in Quakerism was known. They came together with an eagerness which testified to the desire and need for the Quaker message in Switzerland. Even in this first meeting a profound unity was evident; which was not surprising, perhaps, since most of them had already met through active service and in fighting for the same cause. Why, since they already knew the fellowship to be found in service, did they welcome with such enthusiasm the prospect of meeting on religious grounds through the Society of Friends? Because, to an increasing extent in their service, they had become aware of the necessity to strengthen and deepen their spiritual life. To believers, tired of the conventional forms of a church where the message of peace found so little response; to lonely seekers anxious to discover a spiritual home where they would find comfort and proof of the eternal truth of the Message of Christ; to the pioneers of the I. V. S., distrustful of speeches and words which excused action, believing rather in the message of the pickaxe and shovel; to all these Quakerism brought that for which they were longing. Few words, but a living silence waiting for the voice of God. No rites...