In all the various responses to Girlguiding’s new Promise,
there is one question that has stuck out. One question that I truly believe
needs to be answered now, by everyone who believes in the organisation and what
we do. One question that is being whispered by people both within and outside
Girlguiding, on various sites and media outlets.
How can you abandon 100 years of tradition?
Funnily enough, that wasn’t the one question I intended to
write about, but it is the one that feels most prolific and important right
now. It’s the one that’s burning inside me, that I am desperate to answer on
Twitter but haven’t the expertise or eloquence to answer in 140 characters.
Tradition is a beautiful thing. It’s embracing the wonderful,
varied and rich heritage that we have. Tradition comes in the form of the
Promise, the laws, various activities that we do, but traditions do evolve and
change over time. We look back to our
traditions, but we embrace what works for us as an organisation. Tradition is
important, but so is relevance.
But is the wording of the Promise the tradition, or is the
act of a Promise and the beliefs it represents the important tradition?
Personally, I would say the latter, but I can understand the nostalgic value of
past wording.
The truth of the matter, however, is that we are not
abandoning 100 years of tradition, but rather making that tradition more
explicit. For the last twenty years, Girlguiding has been desperately trying to
explain that “love my God” means to develop your beliefs, whatever those
beliefs may be. Now, we’re actually saying what we mean, rather than alluding
to it through religiously-loaded language. This is not pandering to minorities,
it’s not being overly-PC, it’s simply changing the wording to what they meant
in the first place.
Of course, to some, the removal of God from the Promise
makes us no different to any other youth group. I beg to differ. We still
promise to explore our beliefs, we promise to serve our community and help
other people. The essence of our Promise is still to look outside ourselves and
find value in the world around us, and to give back. That is not the aim of most other youth groups. We still strive to develop our girls and young women give
them leadership opportunities, let them speak out for their respective causes.
That is also not the aim of most other youth groups.
We are not abandoning 100 years of tradition, we are
preserving it.
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