Quaker Alphabet Blog 2014 - B for A Neave Brayshaw

Drawing of A Neave Brayshaw in 1930

Alfred Neave Brayshaw, generally known as Neave, was born in Manchester in 1861, the eldest son of Alfred Brayshaw, a prosperous grocer, and Jane Elizabeth Brayshaw, born Neave. Both his parents came from established Quaker families and followed the habit among Friends of that time of emphazising the fact by giving their sons family surnames for first names. Alfred Neave was followed by Elizabeth, named for her mother, then Stephenson, Edith Jane, Shipley Neave (a double dose) and lastly Edmund Russell.

When he was nearly 10 years old Neave was sent as a boarder to the Quaker school Sidcot in Somerset. He thrived there, excelling academically but also enjoying sports, especially any kind of ball game, and various hobbies. He later recalled that 'there were few flowers in the district - hills and plains - which I could not name at sight'. From Sidcot Neave returned home to study at Owen's College, Manchester where he obtained a London B.A. degree before he was nineteen and then entered a solicitor's office, being destined for the legal profession. He continued his studies and in 1885 was the first to win a Bachelor of Law degree from the new Manchester University.

Oliver's Mount school Scarborough, now a hotel.

Between 1885 and 1889 Neave practised as a solicitor in Manchester but in the evenings he also acted
as a tutor to the younger students at Owens College who were resident at Dalton Hall. He befriended the young men too, playing and watching cricket with them and juggling four or five balls for their amusement. Eventually Neave decided to give up the law in favour of what he felt was a call to teaching. He learned his profession first as an assistant at Oliver's Mount School in Scarborough which had been opened by Thomas Walton, another Quaker. When Neave was there this was a very popular school for the sons of the principal families in the Society of Friends both in England and Ireland. Then, in 1892 when he was 31, Neave became a master at Bootham, the Quaker boy's school in York, and remained there for the next eleven years.

Neave Brayshaw was an inspiring teacher in several subjects, remembered for his reading of poetry and for the earnestness with which he told stories of Quaker history. He also invited groups of the boys, who he referred to as his 'laddies', to take part in archaeological excursions and informal discussions about the life before them. The boys fondly remembered the 'hot toast and potted meat in his room, and the books there, and his kind chatty way'.

Bootham School in 1880

As well as a good education Neave was particularly concerned that the boys he taught should become leaders of the Society of Friends. He was himself inspired by John Wilhelm Rowntree to become part of the movement for a new Liberal Quakerism, questioning and reacting against the evangelical tradition in which he had been brought up. He was not trying to indoctrinate his 'laddies' however but to give them the tools and confidence to make their own way and to show them the possibility that if they followed the Inward Light they might be called to serve the Society of Friends.

While still teaching at Bootham Neave became a leading  light in the Young Friends movement which began at the beginning of the 20th century. As Thomas Kennedy says, Neave believed the purpose of the Young Friends Movement was 'not simply to expend excess energy or to make new friends, but to inject renewed life and vigour into meetings for worship, the central spiritual exercise of Quakerism'. He also wanted to encourage a depth of vocal ministry as well as silent worship. This was a noble aim but it has to be said that Neave's vision for Young Friends did not encompass the contribution of girls until the Yorkshire 1905 Committee made a point of ensuring female participation in all its activities. Some female Friends of the period felt that Neave had little use for women in general.

Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre today

In 1903 the new Quaker College at Woodbrooke was set up and Neave left Bootham to become a
lecturer there. Although he still inspired those he taught he did not always see eye to eye with his colleagues and only stayed for three years. From 1906 he settled in Scarborough and devoted the rest of his life to the service of the Society of Friends, travelling all over the country visiting meetings, lecturing and attending committees. He actively promoted Woodbrooke and served on the Home Service Council (the forerunner of the present Quaker Life committee). He was also an enthusiastic member of the Sidcot Old Scholars Association, the Friends Historical Society and the Friends Guild of Teachers.

During the 1914-1918 war Neave's convictions on war and peace became gradually stronger until he reached an 'absolutist' viewpoint. He would travel to tribunals to speak for those of his 'laddies' who were trying to register as conscientious objectors, but he refused to withdraw his support from those who felt compelled by conscience to take a different path.

After the war Neave Brayshaw wrote two books which still repay reading today. His knowledge of George Fox and his writings was deep and expressed in The Personality of George Fox first published in 1919. He also wrote a short but very approachable history of the Society, The Quakers, their Story and Message which appeared first in 1921, with editions revised by the author following in 1927 and 1938, and was then reissued into the 1950s.

Neave Brayshaw at the seaside, possibly in Normandy

Although no longer on the staff, Neave's links with Bootham school remained unbroken for the rest of his life. He visited regularly both to lead archaeological expeditions and to lecture on Biblical Criticism to the older boys. He organised reading parties for Bootham boys at Scarborough and Whitby and sometimes entertained groups of three or four in his home. One institution for which he was long remembered were his Normandy tours when he would take a group of boys, at first just from Bootham but later from other Quaker schools as well, to France for two weeks in the summer. The tours began in 1895 and continued for forty years, broken only by the First World War and then by the shadow of the Second in 1939.

All the burden of organisation fell upon Neave but he was glad to see his 'laddies' growing together. One participant remembered the Sunday evening worship particularly - 'He would quietly and earnestly speak, out of the depth of his own experience, of the things of God. He would remind us of the homes and schools from which we came and to which we owed so much, of the sacrifice made for us by parents and friends, of the need of the world and the call which comes to each of us to leave the world better than we found it. He called us to no impossible task, but to begin with what experience of good we have, to "mind that which is pure within you to guide you to God" and to consecrate ourselves'.

Neave Brayshaw never ceased in his labours to inform Friends about his vision for the Society of Friends and to inspire new generations who he hoped would carry on his work and bring 'healing in the sickness of the world'. At the beginning of 1940, at home in Scarborough, he was struck by a car during the black-out and died from heart failure not long afterwards at the age of 78.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2014 - A for Living Adventurously

Ron Waddams. Living adventurously

'Live adventurously' is a very popular Quaker slogan, one of those phrases which we often repeat without always thinking much about what they mean. The words are usually attributed to George Fox although I have not been able to track down a reference. Perhaps readers of this blog may be able to help me with this?

What is certain is that 'Live adventurously' are the first two words, in fact the first sentence, of paragraph 27 in Britain Yearly Meeting's Advices and Queries as approved in 1994. The whole paragraph reads,
 Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join with others in seeking clearness, asking for God's guidance and offering counsel to one another?

Looked at in context we can see that the paragraph is about making choices and taking decisions and the best way to do that as Quakers. We are not necessarily asked to go out and have adventures but to live our daily lives with a sense of adventure, of being willing to go somewhere or do something new if that will help us make the fullest use of our gifts. The advice also stresses the need to live adventurously not just as individuals but in community, seeking clearness together. For me perhaps the  most important part of this advice is its insistence that this adventurous living is part of our response to the guidance of God, as this has been my experience.

Expressing this phrase in art Ron Waddams's 1994 painting Living Adventurously is full of colour, life and people.We do not have to set out on our adventure, whether it be spiritual, mental or physical, alone. We have our Quaker community and we also always have our Inward Teacher and Guide.

Quaker Alphabet Blog Week 52 - Z for Zed

Well here we are at the end of 2013and I have come to the end of this year's Quaker Alphabet blog. This post is about Zed, the ending (or not) and what I have learned over the year.

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to my fellow bloggers, Rhiannon and Stephanie. Without their inspiration and different take on subjects I think I would have given up long ago. Rhiannon has already started a new project based on the liturgy and I look forward to finding out what Stephanie will do next.

The format we agreed on, with two consecutive posts for each letter, allowed me to divide my posts up into one biography and one general topic for each segment. I made a plan at the beginning of the year and sketched out some possible subjects, some of which I stuck to and some of which changed. Sometimes I really did not know what I was going to say until I sat down at the computer to write while other posts took more than a week to research. I also enjoyed finding images to go with the words.

My blog has never been one to attract a lot of traffic. My statistics would normally show me fifty viewings or less although sometimes I seemed to say something that more people wanted to read and my views reached several hundred. For the Quaker Alphabet the picture has not changed a lot, although I have become aware of what a difference sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter can make. However occasionally this year my posts have been noticed by Quakerquaker and this has made quite a difference. I am not expecting to reach vast numbers of people but I have enjoyed the comments, both on the blog and on Facebook, and am glad that sometimes what I write seems to have been helpful.

Having said that I am not playing the numbers game I have done some analysis of the first 50 weeks! My most popular post was on Solitude and Sociability with 730 views, way out in front of the next contender Visiting at 358. 5 posts reached more than 300 views and 8 posts more than 200. The largest group of posts (23) were viewed over 100 times with 13 posts reaching less than 100 views. The least popular post at the moment is Y for Yearly Meeting with 44 views but even that is not bad for my blog. On the whole the topics were more popular than the biographies but I am happy to report that it was a close run thing and my fourth most viewed post was on Solomon Eccles. 

It was good for me to write regularly and I hope to continue to do so. I shall therefore be starting another Quaker Alphabet blog in 2014 although this time I will be writing it every two weeks. I hope that the space between will fill with other posts on a greater variety of topics - let's wait and see! I also hope that more people will take part in this endeavour so that we can share a greater variety of Quaker voices. I have set up an 'event' on Facebook which I hope will have some result and if anyone reading this feels inspired to try a Quaker Alphabet blog for 2014 do please comment. There is no restriction on the form which such an enterprise should take - short or long, words or pictures or a combination of both - just give it a go!