Before the pandemic, the handshake was such a commonplace gesture that you’ve probably never thought much about where it came from. Steve Angell reminds us that, when 17th-century Friends took up the practice of shaking hands, it was a radical rejection of the social norms of English wealth and aristocracy.
Learn more about the history Steve discusses in this interview by reading his Friends Journal essay, “The End of the Quaker Handshake?”
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Transcript:
In an interesting reflection by Rendel Harris, who was a British Friend, he said that the handshake for Quakers is sacramental; that you can feel the love flowing out of the fingertips. I don’t know that everybody feels that way but it was, and it is, a form of human contact that has been not only acceptable but something that a lot of people have treasured as a greeting ritual.
The Quaker Handshake as a Sacramental Practice
I’m Steve Angell. I live in Richmond, Indiana, I teach Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion, and my meeting is Oxford Monthly Meeting in Oxford, Ohio, part of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting.
Quakers had a contentious wrestling over the issue of how to greet one another. George Fox in his journal says don’t say “Good morning” or “Good day” because the day is good without having to say it so. So, the customary– custom in 17th-century England for the rich people, the nobles, was to greet each other in a very elaborate fashion. So the need for was a more egalitarian kind of greeting. In the North country, the North of England where most of the Quakers came from, the plain people really took each other by the hand when greeting and when Quakers came to Pennsylvania, to other parts of the New World, they carried this custom with them. And more hierarchical customs were also carried — so the Anglicans who came to Virginia, they wanted to do the bowing and the scraping of the knuckles along the round that the nobles had done in the old country. But over the long run the simplicity of the Quaker practice of greeting and its egalitarian warmth won out.
Reevaluating the Handshake
I think the first week of March there was a letter sent out from Friends General Conference that addressed the ways that Quakers would need to adapt to the pandemic with the novel coronavirus. When my meeting in Oxford got that we pretty much adapted right away. We have the size of membership and the size of the meetinghouse that allows us to meet in person now with masks and social distancing so that’s what we’re doing, but we’re not– we haven’t resumed the handshake yet.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s not a Friend but somebody who many Quakers look up to as an authority, he says, well if I had my way nobody would ever do the handshake again ever because it’s a way of passing along germs. And so I don’t have a neat answer to the conflict that’s being set up between George Fox and Anthony Fauci. It’s really more of a question as to what we want — you know, do we want to resume the practice of the handshake? But what I’m suggesting is that Quakers really haven’t addressed this yet and it’s something that’s worth thinking about talking to each other about as we seek unity on this simple egalitarian practice that has been not often remarked about but still a central part of our fellowship– our religious fellowship for almost four centuries now.
Discussion Questions:
- 1) Should we continue the practice of the Quaker handshake? Why or why not?
- 2) If we were to replace this greeting with something else, what would you suggest and why?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
Wonderful account of the past and present.
Regards, Alan
The Economist magazine has recently suggested that in Buddhist countries, placing the hands together in front, called the wai, may have had a role in helping places like Thailand avoid massive outbreaks of the coronavirus.
Just a thought. Gratifying to know the Quakers promoted, if not originated, the handshake.
Wai, (bowing rather than a handshake) is, according to cultures, silently say more than just our handshake does. Personally, I feel more honored than just shaking hands, to many has no meaning except a
cultural habit.
Namaste
While your discussion and article in Friends Journal was quite interesting, I am afraid that you(we) are falling into the trap of thinking we know better than the experts.
It is my experience that a very large percentage of Friends are either in, or very close to the susceptible category with regards to Covid-19.
That being said, there really is no way that we can, nor should resume the handshake.
While this may seem drastic and a hardship for some lifelong Friends to consider doing away with the handshake, it is, in my opinion, a lot easier to live with than watching our Friends/friends become afflicted with an illness due to our continued implementation of a reckless and ill- advised practice.
We need to collectively find an appropriate substitute that respects our tradition and protects out members.
Personally, I prefer a hand on my shoulder to a handshake; not a reaction to the virus, a residuum from a career spent in health care. You may notice that if your doctor shakes your hand, they do it before, not after, handwashing. And younger docs don’t shake hands at all. Nurses are more likely to tap your shoulder or take your arm. Imaging techs touch the body part being screened. Medical assistants don’t typically touch patients at all except when having gloves on. There are excellent reasons for all that.