Scrupling

Scrupling with Friends

by Anne Mitchell

This article was published in Quaker Concern (Summer 2010), a publication of Canadian Friends Service Committee, the peace and service arm of Quakers in Canada. www.cfsc.quaker.ca

Scrupling is an old Quaker practice in which Friends and neighbours meet to listen to each other, share concerns, and examine their consciences. A scrupling session is not a debate, a panel discussion, or an argument. The purpose of a scrupling session is to address uneasy feelings that arise from conscience or principle, feelings that tend to hinder action, and to identify the scruple – that which makes us uneasy – so that we might be freed to act. 17^th Century Friend John Woolman refers to scrupling in his Journal in the context of his own struggle to articulate the scruple that led him to oppose slavery and to engage with those who held slaves.[1]

The scrupling session at Toronto Monthly Meeting (TMM) arose out of a strong feeling of helplessness and frustration at the lack of response from the Federal Government to our concerns, particularly when faced with requests from KAIROS for letters of support concerning cuts to their funding. A decision was made at the December 2009 business meeting of TMM to explore other options for obtaining clarity and response that might be open to us. With a recognition that the problems we saw as manifestations of the large structural problem – the erosion of representative democracy that is affecting our country – we wanted to search for understanding with those outside Quaker circles who suffered under other manifestations of the same root problem.

A proposal came to the January 2010 business meeting to consider a scrupling session. TMM agreed, and a small group undertook the planning. The objective was to consider how scrupling could be used to help us understand the structural issues that result in the fact that our concerns are not addressed by our elected representatives, whose salaries we pay.

During the TMM scrupling session, held on 7 February 2010, a group of about 50 Quakers scrupled with two local sitting Members of Parliament. The session began with an introduction and the presentation of the two questions around which we wished to scruple:

1 Why do certain policy issues of concern to us and others not receive parliamentary attention or resolution?

2 What can we, as a community, do, after the traditional means of communication we have tried have been so unsuccessful?

The lively and successful scrupling session lasted for more than an hour and closed with silent worship.

Based on comments from those who attended, most people, including the two MPs, felt that the session was a helpful and constructive, and that the discussion had yielded a number of good insights. Many commented that scrupling might be a useful format and approach for other communities to adopt as they attempt to stem the erosion of democracy in Canada and to move discussions to a level of common and urgent concern.

This February session was followed by a report on the experiment sent out by the clerks of TMM to Quaker Meetings and Worship Groups across Canada. The next step was a working session during which 14 people from different religious backgrounds gathered to consider how scrupling might be used within their communities.

TMM encourages others to acquaint themselves with the concept and practice of scrupling as a principled way of drawing individuals together into a process of discernment and collective action. Guidance for those interested in planning a scrupling session is available in several formats:

• A diagram illustrating the structural disconnects that TMM scrupling participants perceived as the problem is available as part of the brief document, “Scrupling Session Principles,” available in TMM’s library and here.

• Weeks after the TMM scrupling session in February, Ursula Franklin was interviewed about scrupling for The Current, on CBC Radio One. An audio version of this interview is available at <www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/05/may-06-2010.html>.

• Participants from the TMM scrupling session will share their experiences at a Special Interest Group during Canadian Yearly Meeting in August.

Anne Mitchell (Toronto MM) is a member of their scrupling planning group, and an Associate Member of CFSC’s Quaker Peace and Sustainable Communities Committee for her work on biotechnology concerns. She invites you to visit her blog at <www.annemitchell.ca>.

[1] For Woolman, the scruple was owning slaves: if we believe that ownership of human beings is wrong, it is not possible to support or participate in slaveholding, no matter how kind or well-intentioned an individual might be. An online edition of Woolman’s Journal is available at: http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/woolman.html