Planet Quaker

Here where I am, the end of the summer is marked by what is called the Great Minnesota Get-Together: the Minnesota State Fair.

One theme for the food that is sold at the fair is "food-on-a-stick": fried Twinkies, chocolate-dipped cheesecake, and caramelized bacon--on a stick.

The other day while hanging out with some Quaker friends, one of them suggested we could have a Quaker booth at the fair next year and sell Silence-on-a-Stick.

The idea got some laughs, but in light of what is happening with the increase in "Islamophobia" in the U.S., I was struck by our initial corporate Quaker silence across the country. When I started this post a few days ago, I took heart at what rabbinic student Rachel Barenblat wrote shortly after a drunk man urinated on the rugs of a New York mosque. I left the following comment:

...Not only did I post the link on my Facebook page but I also called my local TV station and referred them to your blog, asking that some air time be dedicated to the GOOD THINGS that Americans can do for one another.

One downside to the portion of Quakers that has no formally recognized clergy is that we sometimes lack the leadership such as what you and apparently Stu provided in this instance: in a moment of inspiration, to act and not just pray.

While I search my own heart for how I might be led in these horrifying times, I also ask that others point me to positive responses and goodwill outreach that is taking place.

What are the Quakers in your corner of the world doing to refute the blame and the hate that is going on?

What does our faith call us to do, in addition to pray?

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

I'm grateful to see messages now put out by New York Yearly Meeting in collaboration with AFSC, as well as a statement from Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Some highlights from these statements:

NYYM and AFSC:

We dare to imagine the site of the World TradeTowers surrounded by the evidence of our nation’s commitment to religious freedom, and our nation’s pluralism. We welcome it alongside current mosques and other houses of worship, and other interfaith and community centers near the site and throughout our city.

FCNL:

To counter the distrust and misinformation, more people need to state publicly that they support the freedom of American Muslims to worship and to gather together.

But I also return to this haunting piece, which could just as easily begin with "First they came for the Muslims..."

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

What do these melancholic words impel us to do, at the very least...?

Blessings,
Liz

September 01, 2010 06:40 PM

a. Why are you a Quaker?
b. How are you a Quaker?
c. Please give an example of how a Meeting for Worship is conducted in your tradition.

These are three questions that a friend of Wess' asks and for which she seeks answers from a wide variety of Quakers. My answers are below, and I acknowledge that I skimmed a few earlier posts I've written, believing I had covered some of these topics... and curious to know what, if anything, still holds true.

a. Why am I a Quaker?

When I am asked to consider this question, I often think of when I was in elementary school, and some classmates of mine would ask me things like, "Be honest! Do you like my new dress?" ...or "Tell me the truth: Am I your best friend?"

I don't know why, but I was never taught to tell even a white lie, so when I discovered a people of faith who--as human and as flawed as we all are--do their best to be honest in all their affairs, well, I was relieved to learn that I wasn't the only person in the whole world who believed it was more important to be honest than it was to be liked.

There are other reasons why I'm a Quaker, like this one:

Doing something that feels right, even if no one else around me is doing it, is more important to me than doing what my peers--or my mother!--want me to do.  

I yearn to be faithful to the leadings I am given.

Or this one:

I believe that all of us have more potential and magnificence in ourselves than we ourselves believe. We just don't always know how to help one another get there. A lot of times, only God can do that.  

We can help one another live up to our measure of the Light. And if we can't, then the Light itself can.

But perhaps a more important question for long-time Friends to answer with one another is this:

Even after a number of painful experiences and disillusionments, why am I still a Quaker?

After each painful experience, I certainly reassess if I am to remain among Friends or not! But I believe I have remained among Friends because I have reached outside of my monthly meeting when I have been hurt or disillusioned by something that's happened--I've reached out to other Quakers to hear me out, give me counsel, and hear a bit about how they themselves "came out the other side."

I'm still a Quaker simply because I have chosen to stay--to stay in worship, to stay engaged with the pain until God shows me the way through, to stay involved in the life of the meeting that exists outside of the painful incident.

And I'm still a Quaker because so much of Quakerism brings me emotional and spiritual fulfillment.

b. How are you a Quaker?

This question reminds me of the query, If you were accused of being a Quaker, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

I hope my life as a Friend reflects the practice of living according to how we are led by the Spirit; that I live from a place of Love in my life, even and especially through conflict; that I fall into worship when I have large and small decisions to make; that I seek out others when I am not clear of the way forward; that I place God at the center of my days, of my worship, of my faith.

There are certain Quaker practices and traditions I engage in, like (most recently) intervisitation among Friends, along with seeking and receiving eldership from seasoned Friends.

Most important, I am a Quaker because I place myself in Quaker contexts--not exclusively, but primarily: be it with other Quakers for socialization; or reviewing Quaker writings for inspiration and guidance; or engaging in corporate worship, even on a sometimes irregular basis.

But as I read over what I've already offered, I find myself returning to this:

I am Quaker because of how I open myself to listen for and follow God's guidance. The "how" is based on 350 years of practice by my Quaker predecessors.

c. An example of how a Meeting for Worship is conducted in your tradition.

In recent years, in addition to worshiping with Liberal Friends, I have had the opportunity to worship with Conservative Friends in the U.S., mostly during their yearly meetings. As a result, I have learned to talk about how both Conservative and Liberal Friends worship in the unprogrammed tradition. I worry that there's a misconception that Conservative Friends are more fundamentalist in theology than Liberal Friends (more fundamentalist, not entirely; a bit more Christocentric, yes) and therefore there's the misconception that Conservative Friends have programmed or highly structured worship with a pastor of some sort (they don't).

From the outside looking in, Meetings for Worship have looked the same in these two U.S. branches* of Friends: people gather in a meetingroom that has chairs roughly in a circle, or in concentric circles, and quietly take it upon themselves to "center down"--with no outward direction by a person or a chime.

"Centering down" is not a phrase I often use, but what I mean by it is that the worshipers begin to get less fidgety; their mind-racing usually slows down; maybe their breathing even deepens or becomes more intentional for a time. If we could get a glimpse into the most invisible workings of these worshipers, we might understand that their hearts, souls, and minds all turn away from the rush of the outside world and turn toward the Light.

Ideally, we become entrained to one another and to the Living Presence that has been awaiting us.

Among a group of Friends who know one another very well, I have found this shared or corporate centering to be nearly palpable and somewhat invigorating, and I feel like we are all leaning forward, spiritually, as if someone is whispering something to us and we strive to hear...

And when in fact a worshiper confirms for herself or himself, in a wordless, internal discernment process, that she or he has heard God's message, that person speaks out of the silence, being mindful of staying close to the message that was given and keeping away from, as much as possible, the temptation to change the message, lest it be made "nice" if it's a challenge to the community, or lest it become needlessly "polished" if there are parts that seem uneven.

For about an hour, unless someone has specifically convened an "extended" Meeting for Worship, the worship continues in this manner, mostly worshiping in a cohesive and active silence (ie. corporate worship), with perhaps one or more spoken messages adding to the experience--that is, ideally, deepening the stillness in which we listen for the Loving Principle that many Friends call God or Christ or the Inner Light.

At the close of the hour, Friends shake hands and quietly greet one another. A number of monthly meetings then move into an added bit of time to share of their experience--either what they experienced during the worship itself, the sense of the Spirit among them; or about thoughts and reflections that emerged for them in the worship but "didn't rise to the level of vocal ministry" in their own hearts and minds. Some meetings share prayer requests during this time or share news of how the Spirit and Truth has been moving among them during the previous week. Usually then there is a time for announcements, fellowship, and maybe a bit to eat.

A final reflection

Putting words to the experience of Meeting for Worship is a difficult task, because there is a qualitative difference between the words I use (and you read) and the experience of worship itself. It's like searching for words to describe the water that one might swim in, as compared to swimming in the water itself.

Blessings,
Liz

*Because of my service on the Central Committee of Friends General Conference, I know not to call FGC a "branch." There are FUM Friends, Conservative Friends, Liberal Friends, and even friends of Friends who participate in programs or otherwise use the services that FGC offers. But because of how FGC talks about affiliation and constituent meetings, there remains a persistent misconception that meetings in the U.S. or Canada might be "FGC meetings." Not so: Monthly meetings belong to a yearly meeting, which typically has its roots of one branch of Quakerism or another; and monthly meetings are accountable to their yearly meeting (and vice versa), not to FGC.

RELATED POSTS:
Ten Reasons Why I'm Quaker
I Should Have Known I Was a Quaker

September 01, 2010 09:50 AM

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Take This Bread by Sara Miles
Jesus Freak, also by Sara Miles

These are three of the books I’ve read in the month of August. They all have to do with God, food and love.

Eat, Pray, Love is one of the biggest cultural references to religion in America today, and now a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts. Have you read it yet? I finally did, when my mother offered to loan it to me. People have been asking me about it ever since it came out, but I’ve been resisting. Why, you ask? What’s not to like?

Well, it’s because I used to know Liz Gilbert. Not very well, to be honest, and it was a long time ago, back when she was first dating the guy she got the horrible divorce from at the beginning of the book. She was a charismatic young bartender back then. Somehow the articles on EPL never mention her time at the Coyote Ugly Saloon. As I have mentioned before, the bar was not as crazy then as it is in the movie, but the plot is basically a fictionalized version of an earlier chapter of the Liz Gilbert story.

So anyway, it felt like a bad omen to read the story of the bitter divorce of a woman who got engaged on the same day as me. But when my mother said she was done reading it, it felt like the time had come.

Other people, I’m sure, have written more about the Eat and Love parts of the book. I was more interested in the Pray part. In fact, I really liked it. It reminded me a fair amount of Mary Rose O’Reilley’s account of her time at Plum Village (Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastery in France) in her book, The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd. Very similar struggles with the ascetic life in a foreign culture. Both are funny and profound, sometimes within the same sentence. And they both do a decent job of trying to explain the attraction of a stint in the monastic life.

Liz Gilbert’s accounts of her mystical experiences ring true for me. I don’t know how I would have reacted to hers if I hadn’t had my own. Mostly I just nodded as I went along. It is so hard to take something so intense and effervescent at the same time and make it come out in words. I’ve never been able to write about my most profound mystical experiences in anything like a coherent manner. Liz does a good job AND I’m sure that the words are inadequate. God is like that.

I haven’t seen the movie, and I’m not sure I will. Probably I will, eventually. I’m curious about how the religious aspects of the book come across in a Hollywood movie. But I heard that Julia Roberts converted to Hinduism after her experience. That sounds intense. If you’ve seen the movie, feel free to comment here with your opinion. At this point, there’s not point in worrying about spoilers.

I wanted to read Take This Bread a couple of years ago when it first came out, but for some reason I didn’t until Chris checked it out of the library last week. (Thank you, sweetheart.)

It’s the story of how this radical, leftist, political, lesbian journalist ate Jesus, became a Christian and started the food pantry at an artsy Episcopal church maybe a mile from the SF Meetinghouse. (For the story of how SF Meeting started our own, much smaller food pantry, on the model established by St. Gregory of Nyssa and the SF Food Bank, read Chris’s blog.)

One of the funny coincidences is that Miles went to Friends World College, an experiment in education, in the early 70s. She says that mostly what she knew about Quakers at the time was that they were mostly old and they had opposed the Vietnam war. Which is pretty much what she thought about communists then too. Along the way, she developed a fierce need to experience things for herself and then help others to understand them. Which basically explains this book.

She starts with how eating Jesus in the form of good homemade bread in the Eucharist was the central element in her conversion. Nothing about it made sense, but she couldn’t stop. And then she wanted to feed others. So she started the food pantry right in the sanctuary of the church. She quotes the inscription on the altar at St. Gregory’s,

“Did not the Lord dine with publicans and harlots? Therefore, make no distinction between worthy and unworthy: all must be equal in your eyes to love and to serve.”

She writes about finding God in real food and in real people. How being a Christian means loving and forgiving everyone, including fussy middle-aged men who are overly concerned about doing things the right way, and little kids who spill rice everywhere, and really big guys who’ve done time in the army and in prison, and pushy little old Chinese ladies, and all the perfectly ordinary looking people who seem fine now but will probably be annoying any minute now. The ones at the food pantry on Friday and the ones at the 10:00 service on Sunday.

The two things that struck me were 1) you can’t control where God will show up, and 2) when you truly encounter God, you have to do something about it. Amen.

Jesus Freak is the book I’ve been waiting for. The book that explains why following Jesus is important, in language that doesn’t take for granted that you think being a Christian is a good thing. The quotes on the back are like the pantheon of religious writers I’d most like to meet: Anne Lamott, Rob Bell, Diana Butler Bass, Tony Campolo, Phyllis Tickle and Brian McLaren. Like Gilbert (and O’Reilly and Lamott), Miles is laugh-out-loud funny and made-you-cry profound. It has great exegesis of Biblical stories and everyday stories from Miles’s life. Maybe the right word for this is midrash.

I will quote here the end of the Introduction, pp. 19-20:

“Everything Jesus has revealed, through stories and parables, bossy directives and patient touch, remains available to his disciples. He’s shown that we have the power not just to feed and heal, forgive and cleanse, but to do these things in new ways that reflect God’s nature and give us life.

It doesn’t take a special kind of person – the selfish and obtuse are welcome, too. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment, or training – little kids can lead. Jesus is still with us, which means we can say yes to God’s call, without knowing what the outcome will be. We can jump right in, instead of waiting for a committee to authorize our work. We can come and see what God is doing, all over the place, instead of worrying that we’re not good enough. We can get over our fear of strangers, free ourselves from superstition, and find sweet streams of mercy in the middle of the world’s driest places. We’re not alone.”

I am deeply moved by Sara Miles’s ability to articulate the kind of Christian I want to be. And I’m grateful that I was able to read her books while cooking, because she inspires me in that sense too. The peach pie I made for our Friendly 8’s potluck last weekend, with vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries on the side, I wouldn’t have been ashamed to serve it to anyone.

September 01, 2010 12:17 AM

I can only get what I need from Christ--the Spirit, the Divine.

No manifestation of Christ--no person, no set of ideas, no story, no testimony, nothing on this earth-- no matter how perfectly it may (or may seem to) embody the Divine (or what I wish the Divine to be), can spark the transforming fire in me and bank it such that the heat burns away the sinful states of mind that disgrace, distract and bother me.    Only the Spirit who did that work in others, and not those others, can do that to and for me. 

No one can go up the mountain for me, no one can bring down that lightening in a bottle--safe and smooth, warm and comfortable--that can change me and save me.

I have to go up there, myself.  I need to feel the shaking, smell the smoke, endure the heat, and get what I need for myself (which is freely given to all who seek it), directly from the Source.  Because when I  do, and when I come back down, my skill at living my life is improved--as are the lives of the people who must deal with me day to day.

Often I think about the number of times I have made that trip, and how I sometimes have to go, again, about things I thought long since settled.

But experience has taught me that the more open I am to going, notwithstanding the fear of making the journey, notwithstanding the dread of the humbling I will endure at the top, that  the more faithful I am about going when called, the easier it will be to face what needs to be faced and to be brought out on the other side of it.

The clarity, and the certainty, also grow that all this relentless drive to perfect me, to make me mature, to put me back into good order,  Gospel Order, to fit me for some particular purpose is not for my own benefit, at all.  It is for all those people I encounter every day who--in big and in small ways--need me, need all of us, to be the best people we all can possibly be,

Sigh.  My salvation is not about me, at all.   I am not the crown of creation--I am a means to an end that is not my own, not of my own choosing, nor even of my own understanding.   I cannot know what that end is, what it is of which I am a part.  I have learned, though, to do as I am told to do and to trust that in doing that--no matter how much difficulty and fear it pulls into my life,  I am, in some way, contributing to its unfolding.

There is no way that I can prove that, which is not to say that there is no way I can know it.   In knowing it  I have come to trust in it, and to be faithful to it.  From the trusting, and the faith, comes the proof--in the outcomes.

By our fruits, it is written, we shall be known.  We shall be tested--proved.  But it is not, actually, us that is known, tested and proved.   It is that which we worship--glorify, magnify in ourselves and on this earth--that is so revealed.

August 29, 2010 11:19 PM

Unions are against globalization. To listen to them, unions are a force for good for all workers (rather than just the workers who pay the union its dues). But to watch them, you can see that they're in favor of cartelization. They don't mind other people competing against them, as long as those people are hobbled by the same pay rate, protections, and benefits as the union members have. In other words, they're not allowed to use a lower cost of living, or a lower regard for their own safety, or a longer work week as a competitive advantage.

Sigh. Unions! Still selfish, after all these years.

August 25, 2010 03:52 AM

In the room where the worship group meets, there is a single large pot with five plants that look like miniature palm trees. Sometimes they look thirsting for water, their slender leaves folded down, close to the candle-stick sized trunk.

This past First Day, I couldn't help but wonder if those five trees were root-bound, given that the pot was only about eighteen inches tall, was about a foot in diameter, and has been there, unchanged, since we started worshiping in this location, I think.

That got me thinking:

Our meetings can get root bound, can't they? ...Like when we fall into spiritual ruts of faith and practice, never seeking new opportunities to listen for God's call, or letting those new opportunities slide by, or failing to take a stand publicly for an important social-justice issue because it's too much work to organize and step out into public.

Or when our committees are root-bound, they tend to focus on whatever is on their plate in front of them and seldom take time out to consider rising concerns that might lead the committee and its members onto a new and interesting path, maybe incorporating a longer view or a way to involve more worshipers over time.

Our worship can get root bound, when we stop anticipating the Living Presence to dwell among us and we fall into our own private reveries, or when we stop sharing our experience of God in our lives and substitute such tender sharing with a litany of complaints about our worldly concerns.

Similarly, having too little soil in the pot can leave the roots overly exposed to air pockets and without enough nutrients. There is a necessary Something in the ground that surrounds the roots and fills the pot, and we must be careful to learn when the pot's soil is too dry; when it is too wet; and when the plants themselves need to be transplanted to some new pot for greater freedom for the roots to grow and for the soil's nutrients to be refreshed.

Maybe my choice a few years ago to begin worshiping with the worship group was a way to transplant myself into a pot that seemed to have more fertile soil, more nutrient-rich dirt. More than once, though, someone in worship has cautioned us to be wary of becoming "spiritually sleepy," and we have stayed open and alert for an opportunity to participate in a service project, to stretch ourselves beyond our familiar pattern of worship.

This fall, we'll be finishing a formal commitment to help a refugee Somali family resettle in the Twin Citiesl. Also we'll return to our experiment with providing some Quaker adult education for the worship group. We may also consider having a retreat since recently the worship group has added a few people who are new to Quakerism.

And always, always I'll be on the lookout for an opportunity to travel among Friends or to bring a visiting Friend to us: Such opportunities are good reminders for me that no one has to stay rooted in one place; that we often grow from being exposed to new environments and even to some cross-pollination.

We can remain grounded in our tradition, faith, and practice but that doesn't mean that we must restrict our roots from branching out...

Blessings,
Liz

UPDATE: While reading additional Quaker writings on the internet shortly after I posted this piece, I came across this Minute of Exercise from the 2010 annual sessions of New England Yearly Meeting.

August 19, 2010 03:24 PM

Update: I received some thoughtful questions and comments. I answer them at the end. Meredith Angwin and Rod Adams posted discussions about those who suggest that we all need to reduce waste in our lives ignore the world’s poor, who have very little energy. We all agree—InterAcademy Council makes this their first point in Lighting [...]

August 18, 2010 01:32 AM

A number of studies show that increasing CO2 is an important environmental change for plants. Now Ocean acidification impairs olfactory discrimination and homing ability of a marine fish (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) studied the effect of ocean acidification on clownfish larva: The persistence of most coastal marine species depends on larvae finding [...]

August 17, 2010 07:22 PM

A short while ago while traveling in southern Oregon, I worshiped with South Mountain Friends in Ashland. A couple of us shared after worship that we each had been reflecting on Thomas Gates' pamphlet Members One of Another.

In addition to thinking on the relationship between the meeting and its members, I was thinking about those who have written about the qualities of the Inward Light, especially Samuel Caldwell.* I then found myself considering what are some of the primary qualities of a healthy and vibrant Quaker worship community, be it a monthly meeting or a worship group.

*I believe I've read at least one other Friend's remarks on the topic but can't come up with who it was or with any link...


Qualities of a Quaker worship community

Provide spiritual nurture and pastoral care for one another. It seems like many meetings provide pastoral care pretty well: when a Friend is in crisis, our meetings rally around the person to help her or him over the hump, providing careful listening and regular support--be it financial, medical, familial, vocational. On the other hand, how regularly do we ask questions of one another about God or the Loving Principle in our lives, or how the Truth prospers, when our lives aren't in turmoil...? Must we wait for workshops or adult education sessions to learn of and share about our spiritual lives? Must spiritual nurture be limited to confidential clearness committees and ad hoc care committees?

Welcome the stranger as one of our own. I sometimes fantasize that as worship breaks, the Friend who closes worship rises and says, "Before we move into announcements and introductions of visitors, please look around the room and if you see someone near you who you don't know, please welcome them and introduce yourself to them..." It seems like a challenge to discipline ourselves so as not to rush across the meetingroom at the rise of meeting in order to talk to a fellow committee member, when what we could do is take the time to welcome the stranger and the visitor to meeting, asking these newcomers why they came that particular day, what their experience of worship was, and what questions they have about Quakerism.

Call out and provide stewardship for each other's spiritual gifts. Especially in large meetings, this task seems to have been relegated to the Nominating Committee. But what about the spiritual gifts that don't apply to "regular" committee service? What about the Friend who has a gift for providing hospitality when people come to visit in her home? or the Friend who can build an intergenerational community through storytelling and games? or the back-bencher who whispers spot-on insights to his neighbor during Meetings for Worship for Business? How do we ourselves feel when someone "finally" affirms a talent, gift, or perspective we have but feel like few others ever notice? I have had the opportunity to witness one Friend in particular who will say, "I wonder if Such-and-so Friend could help us with that particular task, since I see she (or he) has a gift for such-and-so..." It's one way the worship community becomes responsible for the nurture and stewardship of the spiritual gifts among us, since these gifts belong not to the individual but to the community.

cf. Lloyd Lee Wilson has an excellent chapter on "Community Stewardship of our Spiritual Gifts" in his book of essays on Gospel Order.

Guide one another into greater faithfulness, discipline, humility, obedience, and love. In order to offer such guidance, we have to be willing to share our vulnerabilities, our leadings, our struggles, and our overall experience of the Inward Teacher more openly with one another and with the community as a whole. We learn not only by formal study and by informal discussion but also through watching how we conduct our lives both in and outside of the meetingroom. When under stress, do we take time out to pray and to seek God's guidance? During a conflict within our meeting, do we respond to others harshly or with kindness? When a particular activity goes well, are there Friends who insist on grabbing all the credit, or is there gratitude for the Spirit for having led us into such a happy opportunity?

Knit together the corporate body in the Spirit and sustain the corporate nature of the faith's tradition. This is perhaps the least tangible, least visible element of our worship communities. There's a wordless, visceral experience, though, when we are gathered as a corporate body, whether it be during a Meeting for Worship on the occasion of a marriage, or having a special event to celebrate all the young people in the meeting. That said, there are ways to watch and listen for the increeping of individualism in our Quaker community, such as giving weight to personal and individual preferences; the use of the phrase "I think we should..." or "I'd like to see us..."; the (unintended?) attempt to hold a meeting for worship for business hostage by saying "I'm going to stand in the way of that decision" or the more subtle "I'm not in unity with that decision so therefore we don't have sense of the meeting and can't move forward."

How to live into a vibrant and healthy Quaker community

Here are a few specific steps we can take to strengthen and deepen our worship communities as Friends.

Study together: Scripture, Quaker writings. By studying and learning about our faith tradition together, we develop a shared language about Quakerism. We also develop a shared understanding about our earliest roots, about our growth as a "people to be gathered," and about the people and events that continue to shape who we are in modern times.

Worship together. During tragic events; to honor momentous occasions; during times of struggle; and out of a yearning for healing, worship is our touchstone where we come to lay aside our personal agendas and to lift up our hearts, be it in celebration or in sorrow. Contrary to what it looks like to those visitors unaccustomed to Quaker worship, we are not individuals sitting in a dead silence: we are seekers of the Truth who yearn to know God's message for us, to live out God's call in our daily lives, individually and as a body joined in the Spirit.

Cherish one another as family. Bitterness toward our fellow worshiper cannot easily coexist with our desire to cherish one another. We can learn to love one another without condoning irresponsible or disrespectful behavior: it is a discipline for which we need much practice--and much forgiveness when we ourselves fall short. But let us try what Love can do, regardless.

Provide measures of loving accountability. In a healthy, vibrant Quaker community, there is what I call an "appropriate nosiness" for us to engage in with one another. Surprisingly, setting limits and providing accountability--such as testing our leadings with one another and meeting with a care-and-accountability committee--can be a source of support and spiritual nurture. When we understand that such things are part and parcel of Quakerism's practice, we feel cared for when members of our Quaker worship community engage with us around sharing our spiritual gifts and around our steps and missteps on the way to being faithful to God's call.

Labor together... and stay to see the results over time. Sometimes it is easier after a hard, contentious decision has been made to leave the community altogether, especially if things did not go "our" way. As a corporate body, staying despite the pain or disillusionment allows the community to reflect on how things are going afterward, whether or not there are fruits of the Spirit, or how good or poor those fruits actually are. Plus, when we are struggling with one another, those may be the times when God breaks through and reveals a new way to move forward. Laboring together can also mean finding a service project or a hands-on activity in which to participate as a worship community. Sometimes unknown gifts are brought into the Light when we are taken out of our comfort zone and we are forced to draw on resources that we otherwise hadn't known were available to us. New voices among us might be drawn out; previously hidden skills may appear, and we learn anew who we are as a community.

Bear witness together. Similar to laboring with one another, bearing witness together can develop or strengthen a sense of interdependence, a reliance on one another when witnessing to Truth in public or against "the establishment" may feel risky or even dangerous. Bearing witness can also be less visible--not as confrontational--while still carrying weight because the entire worship community has agreed to take action together. When we feel responsible to a group we care for, we are likely to engage in action to which the group as a whole has committed itself.

Point out to one another when individualism is threatening to take hold and then re-engage our corporate practice. When our Quaker worship community and the worshipers within it are surrounded by the distractions and even lusts of the secular world, even Quakerism's corporate nature can be undermined by the wider culture that swirls around us. We need one another to remind us of our Quaker heritage, of the disciplines of corporate worship and corporate discernment, of the practice of waiting on the Lord rather than making decisions out of convenience of time or of money.

Speak openly of our struggles, joys, and successes in following the Inward Teacher. We grow our identity as Friends and sustain our worship communities as Quakers by telling our stories of God in our lives and by remembering the roots of where our peculiar practices, vocabulary, and witness come from. If we gather only for worship, we miss the opportunity to hear about the rest of our lives as we strive to put our faith into action.

Critical mass, "togetherness," and being a corporate body

As I was finishing up my list of the qualities of a Quaker worship community, I realized I wanted to address the concept of doing things "together" as it relates to the corporate body.

"Being a corporate body" does not mean having 100% of the body together 100% of the time, but it does mean striving to have 100% of the body engaged in the entire life of the community over time.

By "life of the community," I mean worship; meetings for worship for business; committee service; projects involving the community; intergenerational activities; care and nurture of our youngest and of our eldest community members; and so on.

It's unrealistic to assume that everyone within a Quaker meeting or worship group will be available to participate in a given activity on a given day. But it is realistic to assume--and I would say reasonable to expect--that over time, everyone will be able to participate in a given activity; that no one will completely and forever stay away from worship, or from meeting for worship for business, or from an opportunity to bear witness against injustice.

The element of participating in a corporate body together is more than having critical mass for any single event. Through worship, struggle, witness, service projects, adult education, intergenerational activities, learning about Quakerism, there is a cumulative experience that occurs over time and it is the cumulative experience among Friends that both shapes and is shaped by the worshiping community and all of its participants.

As always, thanks for reading me.

Blessings,
Liz

August 13, 2010 09:12 AM

Friends Energy Project is now updated to the 21st century. I hope to change news and events at least once every 2 weeks, possibly more often. Is there anything you would like to see added? The revised post on discernment has received comments, but none online. Do you have anything to say online or off?

August 09, 2010 04:53 PM

JOSM doesn't support WMS Capabilities, so I created a crutch for it. These two programs (the first calls into the second) create three files for each state. One is the capabilities file downloaded from Seamless. Another one contains just the WMS URLs. Another one is an OSM file containing bounding boxes for each of the WMS layers. Load it into JOSM to see what layers cover what.

I find that it's helpful to initially turn on a WMS layer while zoomed out enough to see the entire bounding box. You get a very low resolution layer, but you can see if it overlaps your area of interest. Then you can zoom in enough, right-click on the layer name in the Layers box, and selecte "Change Resolution" to get a nicely rendered layer.

#!/usr/bin/python

# pulled by hand from http://seamless.usgs.gov/wms_services.php?layerid=15
all = """USGS_EDC_Ortho_Coastal	http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Coastal?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_StateLocal	http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_StateLocal?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Urban	http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Urban?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
BLM_Ortho	http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/BLM_Ortho?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NYSDOP_Grid	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NYSDOP_Grid?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Alabama	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Alabama?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Alaska	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Alaska?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Arizona	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Arizona?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Arkansas	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Arkansas?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_California	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_California?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Colorado	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Colorado?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Connecticut	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Connecticut?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Delaware	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Delaware?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_DistrictOfColumbia	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_DistrictOfColumbia?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Florida	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Florida?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Georgia	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Georgia?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Hawaii	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Hawaii?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Idaho	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Idaho?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Illinois	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Illinois?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Indiana	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Indiana?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Iowa	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Iowa?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Kansas	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Kansas?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Kentucky	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Kentucky?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Louisiana	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Louisiana?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Maine	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Maine?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Maryland	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Maryland?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Massachusetts	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Massachusetts?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Mexico	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Mexico?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Michigan	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Michigan?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Minnesota	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Minnesota?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Mississippi	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Mississippi?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Missouri	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Missouri?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Montana	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Montana?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Nebraska	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Nebraska?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Nevada	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Nevada?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewHampshire	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewHampshire?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewJersey	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewJersey?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewMexico	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewMexico?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewYork	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NewYork?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NorthCarolina	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NorthCarolina?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_NorthDakota	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_NorthDakota?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Ohio	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Ohio?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Oklahoma	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Oklahoma?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Oregon	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Oregon?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Pennsylvania	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Pennsylvania?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_PuertoRico	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_PuertoRico?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_RhodeIsland	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_RhodeIsland?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_SouthCarolina	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_SouthCarolina?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_SouthDakota	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_SouthDakota?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Tennessee	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Tennessee?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Texas	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Texas?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Utah	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Utah?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Vermont	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Vermont?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Virginia	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Virginia?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Washington	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Washington?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_WestVirginia	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_WestVirginia?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Wisconsin	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Wisconsin?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS
USGS_EDC_Ortho_Wyoming	http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Wyoming?REQUEST=capabilities&SERVICE=WMS"""

for one in all.split("\n"):
    state, url = one.split("\t")
    state = state.replace("USGS_EDC_Ortho_", "")
    # if for any reason, you need to run this program twice, comment out the following line
    print "wget -O %s.xml %s" % (state, url)
    print "./capabilities-to-osm.py %s.xml >%s.wms" % (state, state)

capabilities-to-osm.py follows:

#!/usr/bin/python

from xml.sax import saxutils
import sys
import time

class OSM():
    nodenum = -1
    waynum = -1

    def __init__(self, outf=sys.stdout):
        self.outf = outf
        self.outf.write("""<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<osm version='0.6' generator='osmgen'>
""")
        self.startnum = None

    def point(self, x,y):
        self.outf.write("<node id='%d' lat='%s' lon='%s' />\n" % ( self.nodenum, y, x))
        self.nodenum -= 1

    def start(self):
        self.startnum = self.nodenum

    def stop(self, name=None):
        self.outf.write("<way id='%d' visible='true'>\n" % self.waynum)
        self.waynum -= 1
        for n in range(self.startnum, self.nodenum, -1):
            self.outf.write("<nd ref='%d'/>\n" % n)
        self.outf.write("<nd ref='%d'/>\n" % self.startnum)
        self.outf.write("<tag k='area' v='yes'/>\n")
        if name is not None:
            self.outf.write("<tag k='name' v='%s'/>\n" % name)
        self.outf.write("</way>")

    def close(self):
        self.outf.write("</osm>\n")

class print_track(saxutils.XMLFilterBase):
    chars = None
    baseurl = None
    def startElement(self, name, attrs):
        if name == 'LatLonBoundingBox':
        # <LatLonBoundingBox minx="-79.810565637" miny="0" maxx="-71.8388440985" maxy="45.1013683371"/>
            osm.start()
            osm.point(attrs['minx'], attrs['miny'])
            osm.point(attrs['minx'], attrs['maxy'])
            osm.point(attrs['maxx'], attrs['maxy'])
            osm.point(attrs['maxx'], attrs['miny'])
            osm.stop(self.name)
        elif name == 'Name':
            self.chars= ''
        elif name == 'OnlineResource':
            self.baseurl = attrs['xlink:href']
    def characters(self, ch):
        if self.chars is not None:
            self.chars += ch
    def endElement(self, name):
        if name == 'Name':
            self.name = self.chars
            self.chars = ''
            if self.baseurl:
                print "%sservice=WMS&version=1.1.1&request=getmap&width=500&height=500&format=image/png&SRS=EPSG:4326&layers=%s&" % (self.baseurl, self.name)

from xml.sax import make_parser
from xml.sax.handler import feature_namespaces

if __name__ == '__main__':

    import sys
    # Create a parser
    parser = make_parser()


    # Tell the parser we are not interested in XML namespaces
    parser.setFeature(feature_namespaces, 0)

    osm = OSM(open(sys.argv[1].replace('.xml', '.osm'), "w"))

    # Create the handler
    dh = print_track()

    # Tell the parser to use our handler
    parser.setContentHandler(dh)

    # Parse the input
    parser.parse(open(sys.argv[1]))

osm.close()

[Tags openstreetmap, josm ]

August 08, 2010 07:40 PM

A new upload, you can discuss it. Differences Among Friends on Energy: Friendly and UnFriendly responses to Friends Energy Project

August 04, 2010 02:35 PM

How is it that I am refreshed after four days of this routine, with 12 hours of worship, neither drained nor eager to return home?

These are the words I posted on The Good Raised Up after returning from my first visit to Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative during its annual sessions in 2005.

This year I return from sessions--my fifth journey there--with the same sense of sweetness and fullness, though I came home a day early, missing the final business session and the closing worship on First Day.

Unlike last year, which I missed entirely, I was able to attend most of the annual sessions for Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). I was eager to get to the Scattergood campus, in part because my summer had involved travel and activities that made it hard for me to have quality continuity with Quakers. I also was looking forward to seeing a few Friends I knew who would be visiting IYMC for the first time: I think of these Friends as having a deep and alive relationship with the Inward Light, and I was looking forward to getting to know them better during the week.


Panel on outreach for the 2011 FGC Gathering

The evening when sessions started, we heard a few stories from five Conservative Friends who have been to FGC's Gathering. Part of the reason for having this panel is because the Gathering will be held for the first time in Iowa next year at Grinnell College.

There are questions at FGC's end about whether Friends will be willing to travel to Iowa--after all, it's not part of the densely Friend-populated areas of the Mid-Atlantic or of New England; and it's not in a "destination" like the Pacific Northwest, when the 2006 Gathering was held in Tacoma, Washington. Another concern is whether eastern Friends even know where Iowa is--and I'm not being facetious. It wasn't until I moved to the Midwest that I began to care about knowing which Midwestern states were what and where!

Anyway, the panel was a way to explain to IYMC Friends a bit about what the Gathering is (or isn't), as well as to hear any concerns from the body about the event coming to the region.

I was impressed that there were two young adults and one high school student on the panel, as well as two older adults. Some had experienced the Gathering only once ("It was a really important experience for my family."), and others had attended a number of times ("I went through spiritual depths and growing; anger and exhaustion. But there's something to being among Quakers and not feeling weird about being Quaker.")

One of the younger Friends commented on how the Gathering can help "cement" one's identity as a Quaker... which may be true for a young person, but I personally worry that the "cement" at Gathering is more often associated with being among a peer group and having fun, often with activities that aren't necessarily rooted in the practice of Quakerism, or in the growing together in the Light and in the Life of the Spirit. (Some Friends familiar with the Gathering call it a "hot house"--an artificial environment where community grows quickly but might not be able to be sustained outside of the event itself.)

I was also struck by an insight that a particularly shy young adult Friend said:

The Gathering is the best when you come out of your shell and put your best self into it.

This reflects some of my own peak experiences at Gathering, when I feel I am pulled into a greater measure of the Light than I had experienced in my local worship community back home.

The remarks that caught my attention the most, though, came from Marshall Massey, who used to write regularly for a wonderful Quaker blog and is now very active on Facebook... Marshall is knowledgeable and challenging, and sometimes I'm uncomfortable in my skin when he takes up an issue and speaks very thoroughly about it, sometimes calling on us to see the world--or Quakerism--through a new lens. I've learned to continue to listen for the Light in anything he has to offer.

This particular night, he raised the question--and I'm paraphrasing here:

Is FGC bringing the Gathering to IYMC as part of a "courtship dance," to build ties with us, hoping we might affiliate with FGC? As a host to the Gathering, how do we explain ourselves, how do we explain how we practice our faith, and how do we share the stories of how IYMC has shaped our lives?

After a few other remarks from the panelists, we moved into a quieter time when those of us there could speak of our own experiences or concerns. Here are some that particularly stay with me:

• One Friend commented with some disgust that he had once seen a sign at a Liberal Friends' event saying, "You can believe whatever you want." The Friend went on to testify that being a Quaker isn't about believing what you want. It's about living your life by following the leadings of the Spirit.
• Another Friend spoke about the rootedness that is encountered and experienced within IYMC, and that FGC sees that IYMC has something that other Friends not only lack but also hunger for.
• And one or two Friends spoke to the possibility that perhaps IYMC is being called to minister to the FGC Gathering in some capacity, and we may not know what that is just yet.

It was just the first session of our five days together, and already there was a lot to think about!


Interconnectedness between the yearly meeting and its monthly meetings

This year as in other years, I again was struck by the nature of the relationship between the monthly meetings and the yearly meeting. (Readers from IYMC: if I misrepresent this relationship or make an error in my summary of the tasks below, please put a correction in the Comments or contact me directly at lizopp AT gmail DOT com.)

As I understand it, several monthly meetings are responsible for the non-business sessions during annual sessions, and that responsibility rotates among all the monthly meetings, rather asking for individual volunteers to serve on a planning committee (though it may be that individuals from each of the appointed meetings comprise the committee).

Each year a monthly meeting is identified to serve as the "Document Committee," reviews all the epistles received by the clerk of IYMC, and identifies excerpts of epistles that are to be read aloud during annual sessions. That responsibility also rotates among the meetings.

Each meeting is to appoint one of its own members to serve on the yearly meeting's Nominating Committee--no need for a Naming Committee!--as well as the Representatives Committee, which proposes a budget and a few other things. The same process is used to identify what IYMC calls the Caretakers for the annual session: the Friends from across the yearly meeting who will help with the logistics of the annual sessions: setting up rooms, getting water to the clerks' table, making announcements, etc.

Also, a good number of meetings--maybe all of them--have Friends who participate on the yearly meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee, and it appears that many meetings actually take action in response to recommendations made and issues discussed during sessions.


Ken and Katharine Jacobson

On the second night of sessions, Ohio Yearly Meeting Friends Ken and Katharine Jacobson spoke tenderly on the theme "The Way of Love."

It happens that in recent years, I have been counseled and encouraged to meet these Friends, especially since they moved to southern Wisconsin a few years ago. It seems some of our concerns about Quakerism overlap, or maybe our mutual fFriends believed we would just get along so well... It so happened that last year, Way opened for a phone conversation between us, and I was eager to meet them here at annual sessions. They are warm-hearted people with a generosity of Spirit that is visible in their eyes...

By the sound of things, Ken's engagement and study at Chicago's Theological Seminary has brought important Light to his fellow seminarians. He spoke to us of how astonished they were by the possibility that worship doesn't have to be a "performance" packaged in liturgy, hymn singing, and preaching, but that rather that worship "can come out of nothing and out of Presence." Ken joked about how eager these colleagues were to learn about the Quaker way of waiting worship: "Can you say more about silence?!"

Katharine spoke quietly, in part due to her declining health as she deals with Parkinson's, but her Light shone clear in her words, gestures, and smile. She spoke about her movement into greater Listening and she hinted at her service to Friends as elder and spiritual companion.

Ken did much of the talking, and his exuberance for living in the Life was palpable:

• Practicing the Way of Love is something that not a lot of Friends know we have: it can come and go very quickly.
• Tapping into God's Love means that God's Love is close, available, and accessible.
• There are three words connected to the practice of the Way of Love: choice, obedience, and discipline.
• The rhythm of Friends' life moves in three steps: releasing all that we hold onto, that keeps us from living the Way of Love; receiving the Light and the Love that is available to us; and the offering out to others and to the world all the Light and the Love that we ourselves have received.
• All of us are being called to live the Way of Love, so we have a responsibility to help one another live into that call.

It's this last point that gives me pause:

All of us are being called to live the Way of Love, so we have a responsibility to help one another live into that call.

Isn't that truly what is meant by answering that of God in everyone, to help one another live into that deep, silent call from the Inward Teacher...?

And wouldn't that reminder put an end to all the fuss over theological differences--and even the seeds of war--when all we need to focus on is how we are being called to live the Way of Love?

There were other evening presentations but this one had the most impact on me.


Meetings for Worship for Business

When the yearly meeting takes up its business, the first session or two consist mainly of reports from a number of smaller committees, reading of excerpts from epistles of other yearly meetings in the U.S. and from around the world, as well as the sharing of epistles from the two other Conservative bodies, Ohio Yearly Meeting and North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative).

This year it was noted that each of the three Conservative yearly meetings has welcomed a new monthly meeting into the fold: Crossroads Meeting (Michigan) became a part of Ohio; Davidson Friends Meeting (North Carolina) became a part of North Carolina; and Yahara Friends Meeting (Wisconsin) became a part of Iowa. (For the record, Laughing Waters Friends Worship Group remains unaffiliated, with some worshipers having affinity for Iowa, and others having affinity for Northern Yearly Meeting.)

Among the reports that I was able to hear--I left a day early and missed the final business session--there was one from the Earthcare Subcommittee of the very-active Peace and Social Concerns Committee. The Earthcare Subcommittee included information on Yahara Meeting's program on evaluating the true cost of travel. Apparently, this program includes information on how to calculate one's petroleum use and the true cost of that use. Friends who are following this program then put the amount of money needed to cover that "true cost" into a fund for Scattergood Friends School to use as the school explores the use of wind power on its campus. (The school was recently made local news about its new solar panels and about its new head of school.)

Other energy-conservation related initiatives were mentioned, such as

• the Transition Movement;
• the 20-Minute Neighborhood;
• and the 2,000 Watts Society.

Each of the above websites offer some creative thinking that is going on around the world in order to address climate change.

Two other topics brought to the yearly meeting in recent years and again this year address immigration issues and the events surrounding the Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors raid. This year in particular, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee crafted a minute, which the yearly meeting approved, encouraging each Friend and monthly meeting of the yearly meeting to come under the weight of the concern for how the U.S. is addressing immigration. The minute, as I recall, directs Friends to become "well versed" in the issues and explore how to get involved locally, making the issue more personal.

As someone who typically doesn't care for the activist element of many Friends' meetings, I am taken up by the hope and by the real-world practicality--grounded in Friends' testimonies, practice, and faith--that IYMC and its Peace and Social Concerns Committee lift up year after year. There is a humility among these Friends that I seldom experience in other monthly and yearly meetings, as they seek the way forward with complex and potentially overwhelming issues. That humility and keeping low appeals to me and speaks to me of the abiding Love that makes us all of one Family...


Answering the Queries

Every year, at least in the years I've attended, each monthly meeting sends answers to the Queries to the the assistant clerk, who then selects a representative response to each query to be presented during annual sessions. First the query is read aloud, followed by the selected response, with no mention made of the monthly meeting from where it comes.

What was different for me this year as compared to other years was that for a number of months in 2009, the worship group I attend experimented with answering these queries "in the manner of Iowa Conservative Friends." As the queries and their responses were read, I fell into my own silent review of what some of our own comments were, as well as the overall deep worship and holy fellowship that we engaged in each month to consider that month's query. I found myself missing those opportunities of collective reflection, now that the worship group's ad hoc committee on affiliation has been laid down for a time.

Answering queries as a body requires all of us to listen for and help articulate the True Response that exists wordlessly in the life of the worshiping body--which pragmatically means resisting the temptation to write "One Friend said this; another Friend said that; still another Friend added such-and-so..."

Instead, when recording a response to a query, that response is to be representative of the extent to which Truth and Love prosper among us, as a gathered body, and relative to the topic of the query. When our replies authentically express our struggle as well as our success, and when those replies are shared with a larger body, such as a yearly meeting, we are likely to work harder to live in Gospel Order, tap into God's Love, and reach out to the stranger in order to bring about God's kin(g)dom.


A few miscellaneous closing thoughts

During one of the business sessions, we heard a report from the Ministry & Counsel Committee of the yearly meeting. Part of the report included a reference to the concern that some meetings have about diminishing numbers of worshipers. The committee encouraged Friends to resist the usual worry that accompanies this decline and instead focus on the opportunity that is given: to work together to deepen and grow the Life that is within the remaining worship community, to continue to focus on the Presence of God's Love in their midst, and to continue to answer God's call as it is revealed to them.

To me, such counsel speaks to tending to the quality of the practice, not to the quantity of the practitioners.

Lastly, this year is the last that Friend Deborah Fisch is serving as presiding clerk of the yearly meeting. She has served as clerk for more than ten years, and the clerk before her, Bill Deutsch, also served for (I believe) ten years.

IYMC's practice has been to have a committee discern, together with the clerk, whether that Friend is to continue serving as clerk the following year. So it goes, year after year, allowing the Spirit to guide Friends as to which gifts are needed by the yearly meeting at what point and from whom.

While it may well be true that my Conservative leanings as a Friend have been impacted directly by my personal friendship with Deborah over the years--I believe we met in 2000 when I began serving on the Central Committee of Friends General Conference, where she works; and she has provided me with loving eldership over the years--I'll learn experimentally about the deeper nature of Conservative Quakerism in the midwestern U.S. as the incoming clerk presides over next year's annual sessions.

I have put the dates in my calendar already: 26-31 Seventh Month 2011.

Blessings,
Liz

August 01, 2010 02:35 PM

Martin returned with his vlog series, talking today about the recently-launched Quaker Ad Network.

July 30, 2010 12:10 AM

Yo! Stupid conservatives! Y'all keep whinging about how wonderful it is that Arizona is FINALLY doing something about immigration. It sounds like you wish that the Federal Government would do its job and keep those dratted foreigners out.

Well, I have exactly zero words for you:

[nelson@desk ~]$ grep -i immigration ~/Constitution 
[nelson@desk ~]$ 

Yes, that's right, immigration is not one of the enumerated powers. Maybe you'd like it to be? Maybe you wish that it was? Maybe you're willing to give this one power, just this one, to the Feds?

Well, I have exactly one word for you: emigration.
If the Feds can control immigration even though the Constitution doesn't give them that power, then they can also control emigration. So when the USA turns into the communist USSA and Der Presidente for life decides that you can't leave, where are you going to be THEN??

The Feds don't have the ability to stop people from entering or leaving the United States, and that's a good thing.

[Tags stupid, conservatives ]

July 29, 2010 12:51 AM

Reading Ian McEwen’s excellent Solar, I ran across some numbers and checked them with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From Working Group 2, chapter 8 (pdf, go to document to see sources) 8.2.10 Ultraviolet radiation and health Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure causes a range of health impacts. Globally, excessive solar UVR exposure has caused [...]

July 27, 2010 08:49 PM

I'm forcing myself to interrupt my preparation for the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) so that I can spit out a blogpost that's been sitting with me recently.

I've been reading a few pages a day of Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship. Some of it is truly educational, at least for me, like the two competing abolition movements among Friends: one that advocated for the gradual ending of the slave trade--first by prohibiting the importation of Africans to the colonies, then moving into requiring the freeing of enslaved Africans and African Americans--and the other advocated for immediate emancipation of all those who were enslaved.

Other parts of the book--at least, the first few chapters--have been rather horrifying and ego-busting, like just how few Quakers of European descent truly worked for abolition and how many Quakers were reluctant to give up their privilege of "owning" one or more Africans. ....I'm pretty sure if I had been an adult back in those days, I would have been among those who enslaved my African brothers and sisters. ...though I'd like to think, too, that I would have been opened by the Spirit and would have lent my help in some regards to the Underground Railroad or other elements of the abolitionist movement, but it's hard to know for sure. After all, these days I'm still slow to act when I see an injustice occur...

And still other parts of the book are kind of a mirror for today. Back then, there were extremely wealthy Quakers of European descent who could direct enormous sums of money to efforts like the establishment of schools for emancipated African Americans. It makes me reconsider just where am I directing my surplus money? Am I sacrificing enough? It can't possibly be rightly ordered for me to hold onto my financial privilege, so how hard will it be for me to surrender to just what is rightly ordered?

This book is not just about debunking "the myth of racial justice." It's also about allowing God to transform the book's readers by way of seeing how Friends from earlier times either turned from the Light or heeded it.

Blessings,
Liz

July 26, 2010 09:31 PM

Recently the informal fellowship-through-singing group of Quakers called Nightingales got together at a family farm in Wisconsin.

In recent years, we've been moving through a transition that has meant saying goodbye to many of the long-time Friends who founded Nightingales. Most have either passed away or have become too frail to participate. As most of these "Celestial Mamas" have left us, their biological and spiritual offspring have been reluctant to step forward, but we've kept at it anyway. The thought of not having Nightingales is more painful than the work of understanding who we are as the torch is passed to us.

We still gather about once a quarter to sing, eat, and camp. We still take work-shifts to help with food prep and clean-up. We still rent a Port-a-Potty and set up tents on people's land. And we still wrestle with how to welcome newcomers and who will say any words of explanation about "Nightingales' culture"--like, that we encourage folks to look into people's eyes and sing to one another, rather than have our noses pointed into our songbooks.

Or that we have no designated leader but we ask that each person pick a song and then wait for others to have a chance to pick a song before requesting another one.

Or that we allow the person who has requested a song to start it off as she or he wishes, to set the pitch and tempo, to select any alternate verses we are to sing (or skip), to ask someone else to start the song if he or she doesn't want to do so.

It sounds like a lot to keep track of, but in practice it's very very simple.

There's a comfort in sinking into the small pools of silence that frame each song, allowing us to consider what song to ask for next, or letting us absorb the tenderness of a hymn we just sang with especially sweet and delicate harmonies.

There's another element to being a non-hierarchical Quaker-based somewhat-transient fellowship of Friends, and that is that on occasion, we have a request to address some business as a group.

Maybe it's that there's a request for us to consider holding Nightingales at a campsite or joining with our smaller sister group to the south, the Meadowlarks, composed of Friends from Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative).

Or maybe there's a concern that we don't make explicit enough the extent to which we welcome and incorporate children and young families, and we take some time to consider that need and craft some language that may (or may not) be used in future mailings.

Lately, there's been a repeated concern about how we can be consistent from gathering to gathering so Friends may find it easier to join with us: What if the gatherings were the same weekend in April, July, and October? What if we had some guidelines around how many stories can be shared before introducing a new song?

At the recent spring Nightingales, there had been some discussion about how to be more welcoming, how to make the most out of our time together, and how to "foster gathered singing," but what wasn't clear was what to do about that discussion. So it was that when we gathered for our summer Nightingales, a Friend asked that we have a short business session to follow up from spring.

When the time came, though, the Friend realized she was not in a place to clerk, and the question came up, Who will clerk the session?

A number of what I think of as "clerking decoys" were offered:

What if we each just said what we wanted to say and made sure there was time between each sharing?

How 'bout we go through the list of topics that was brought up last time?

Let's just do worship-sharing around whatever the concern is.

Why not use a talking stick?

That last offering, as many readers might guess, turned my stomach. So of course that's when I spoke up:

All of us here are at least familiar with Quaker practices so I prefer we not use a talking stick!

Eventually, and in part because I felt a couple of Friends were hopeful I'd offer to clerk, I went on to say that I felt like we often talk about these same topics--how do we become more welcoming; what would help us be more consistent from gathering to gathering; how do we get the word out that Nightingales is gathering again...?

I think I also added something like, Rather than rehash these same topics, I think we have to start living into the answers.

To say the least, I was frustrated. We ultimately moved on to firm up plans for fall Nightingales (in October, outside of Milwaukee) and for spring Nightingales (in April, hopefully at the same camp in western Wisconsin where it was held this past spring).

But what I came home with and have been reflecting on are two questions:

When does a gathered body need a clerk, and when does it just need space to reflect on something together?

and

Would Nightingales be served if one or two Friends were identified ahead of time to step in as clerk if a matter came up that warranted clerking?

Of course, as an ad hoc group with little infrastructure between gatherings, there's no clear process to nominate anyone, other than in the moment.

But as I was re-reading the summary of spring's discussion, I saw these two things, which had a way of making the other concerns melt away:

We like to talk with each other and we don't want too many rules.

And:

We come together to sing because we love each other.

I would add:

We come together to sing because we love singing with each other. Somehow the Spirit just rises up in all of us, singing, and we are gathered in that experience.

Blessings,
Liz

July 22, 2010 02:44 PM

Hey you, over there. If you were offended by Mark Williams blog posting about a letter from Colored People to Abraham Lincoln, THEN YOU ARE STUPID. And you lack any sense of historical perspective. Many many people thought at the time that colored people could not take care of themselves. That freedom was too much for them. That they would have to think for themselves, and suffer the consequences of their choices. That colored people couldn't do that, and so for example, if you wanted to free your slaves, you first had to put up a bond against them becoming wards of the state.

So to pretend that "Colored People" were writing to Lincoln to agree with the racist opinion of the time, is just too delicious for words. It's absurd theater at its best.

[Tags prejudism ]

July 18, 2010 10:12 PM

Greg Craven in his excellent What’s the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate, spends chapter 3 explaining why we should never trust ourselves, and chapter 4 on which sources he does trust and why. Greg Craven Reading these two chapters and doing his exercise on sources may help center [...]

July 14, 2010 04:59 AM

A Friend posted a comment to my last blog post and, in responding to it, (here’s a shock) I wrote much more than fits into the comment box.  I am putting it up as a new post.  For context see the comment.

Dear Friend

Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment.  I need all the help I can get looking at all sides of this thing going on with me.

First, let me say again that the primary thing to me is moral outcomes--being transformed so as to re-produce in me the characteristics that have been identified with Quakers (and some others) for centuries.  These are the result of actions I take, not things I believe or think.   I need guidance about what to do, not about what to think.   Christ gives me plenty of the former, directly, but not about the latter.  "Faith" and "belief," to me, mean having the confidence to do what I am told, as hard or frightening as that might be.  It doesn't mean accepting unknowable intellectual propositions about the nature, character and plans of God.

Second, let me say again that I don’t claim that people who find theology an edifying spiritual discipline, something that improves their condition and contributes to their conversion of manners, are deficient in anything.  I know what being considered “deficient” feels like.  I have heard it said about me plenty of times by people who cite chapter and verse about such things as war, sexual orientation, the state and the place of my daughters in the church (and in the world). Ouch.

You have struck the nail’s head true:  my view of spiritual authority is anti-intellectual, which is just another way of saying that it is not based on reason.  To say it is not based on reason, however, is not to say it’s not empirical (because it is).  It is also not another way to say that this experience and its outcomes are not predictably reproduce-able (because it has been in both method and consistent outcomes, within the Society and outside it, for centuries).  It is also not to say it’s irrational.  It’s non-rational. I am sure you understand the distinction.

It is true that the “rational” Protestant establishment—which has gained far more than a toe-hold in the Society of Friends since the “great walking back” that saved the second generation of Quakers from being persecuted out of existence--has certainly used that term as an effective epithet to refute—to the satisfaction, at least, of children of the Enlightenment—any spirituality that doesn’t fit in with the notions that form the ideological base of its orthodoxy.  This orthodoxy is the set of speculations about the character, nature and plans of God from which it reasons its theologies.  At its least common, but most “pure,” such rationalistic religion is what people today—mistakenly—are most apt to call “fundamentalist,” where scripture is a closed data base and only arguments that come from and are consistent with it are “valid.” 

I can say that the intellect, reasoning, has proven at best, for me, to be beside the point in matters spiritual.  At worst it has been a hindrance to me in re-producing the kinds of outcomes that make my life better for both me and for those who have to live with and around me.  It has also proven the quickest way for me to get on the wrong side of Christ in  regard to basic morality and ethics. 

You are correct that reading Barclay is “experience” and  I have a hard time, from my life’s outcomes, with the idea that an intellectual or an emotional experience—such as reading a book or hearing music—is a spiritual experience.  First, because one is engaged with a work of art (or letters) and not with Christ (however one conceives of the Transcendent Reality that moves in our lives).  In the second place, and most telling, these are intellectual experiences, or emotional experiences, that have not proven, for me, capable of creating the lasting transformation of my character, the set of outcomes we call Quaker testimonies (old or new).

As I have often said, if the transformation that is at the root of the Quaker experience were reproduced in me as the fruit of intellectual or emotional experiences that’s what I would be doing.  It hasn’t, for me.  I have written at length about how that has worked in my life. 

For example, I can’t figure how I could possibly say that “God is love,” with intellectual integrity.  It’s beyond my knowing.  There are things I can know and those I can’t know.  I can very clearly know that God is forever on my case to be loving toward other people.  If I don’t do that, in some actual situation in my life, I hear about it and hear about it until I shape up. 

But to get from “God tells me to be loving” to “God is love” is a leap.  If I wrote that on a paper in a class on logic I’d get a big red check mark.  My Dad used to tell me to be all kinds of ways that he wasn’t, and I recognize a little of the Elmer Gantry in a lot of people who go on and on about love in regard to things spiritual.  If telling me to be loving makes one "love" or even "loving" then why aren’t my Dad and Elmer Gantry “love?”  These are the kinds of problems I see the intellect giving me in such matters of theology.

Leaping to belief that “God is love,” and proclaiming that to the world—which is completely unnecessary to get done what I am told to do—creates problems because almost always someone says something like “what about childhood cancer?”  Consider the mental gymnastics I have to go through to square a loving God with that.  No one has ever come up with a satisfactory answer for the question of how an omnipotent and loving God can allow evil to exist in the world—and they never will. 

How many people remain "turned off" to Christ because they cannot buy the speculative notions about the nature, character and plans of God that are totally beside the point in living in, as it is written, the Kingdom? People need not "believe in" atonement, the trinity or a lake of fire to have Christ transform them such that their lives reproduce the fruits of the spirit.  That not only squares with our observations about people through history but it also lived in Quaker "theology" at least through Penn's writings.

I don’t know if God is omnipotent or loving—none of us does, notwithstanding the fierce belief among us that “He” is—because I can’t know those things.  Those are notions—speculations.  Those things don’t square with the evidence at hand--although that does not disprove them.  It is a good thing I don’t need them to know what I am supposed to do and to get those things done—and in that process becoming the kind of person doing them is turning me into, in that process have the outcomes associated with Quakerism reproduced in me.

What matters is that I am loving.  I know that because I've been told by Christ who keeps the heat on me if I get out of line on that score.   I don’t “know” it in the sense that I figured it out or it “made sense” to me.  I have relied, in my life, on a lot of things that “made sense” or that I figured out but that, it turned out, were not true.  Bad berries for me and, too often, for other people. 

I trust my capability to reason for a lot of purposes.  I am not anti-intellectual, in general.  The first thing I do when facing a novel problem is to find a book (or, anymore, something Google finds for me) for guidance.

Back to Barclay, I would never say that reading The Apology was of no use or value to me.  I read from it frequently, although not as frequently as I do from the Bible.  It’s about discernment, though, and that doesn’t mean, to me, “thinking things through” (except, perhaps for comparing things to my own outcomes).

My experience, for example, with Christ made me wonder what Barclay meant when he talked about “the day of visitation.”  It is a time limited offer for salvation, as he explained it.  That did not fit with my experience of Christ who, over a lot of years put up with a lot of being ignored by me and never went away, was always trying to get my attention and develop my condition—even when I loudly trumpeted that I was an “atheist.” 

At one time I wrote down all the scripture that Barclay quoted to “prove” that the day of visitation was not an open-ended offer of salvation and, after studying them I concluded that they did not actually “prove” his point, not in the sense that I once was required to decide if some lawyer proved that his client was entitled to prevail in a legal case.  That is, all the verses Barclay strung together did not add up to his notion of the day of visitation, logically.  I shared that with Friends, by the way, and none thought Barclay “carried the day,” either, when they read his “proof,” rather than accepting it on the basis of his reputation.

Does that mean he was wrong?  I don’t really know because I can’t know that, one way or the other (and neither could he—or you—or anyone).  But I do know that, intellectually, rationally, Friend Barclay did not, as he set out to do and as he claimed he had done, prove that one should take up the offer of salvation now because it would be too late, later.

Maybe Christ told Barclay that it was time-limited but Christ never tells me stuff like that.  If Christ told that to Barclay that's fine with me.  I'm thinking, however, that he parsed it out of scripture as a means to bolster Quaker evangelism.  Doesn't matter, though.  

To be fair, Barclay finishes his argument much as the public health people do, today, about the dangers of smoking.  As it is possible that the effects of smoking won’t catch up to you before you die, it is also possible, Barclay says, that your “day” of visitation may last until you die.  To also be fair, however, that does not “save” Barclay’s argument rationally, intellectually.  It only saves mine; whether there is a day of visitation is a question we can never really answer, for sure.  Either way we answer it is speculative:  it’s a notion and it’s not important.  Reproducing the Quaker transformation in our lives is what is important.

Thank you for providing me the occasion to, first, restate that I am not advocating that all throw theology over the side like so much ballast in a storm.  If it is a spiritual discipline that contributes to reproducing the set of outcomes called "Quakerism" it’s fine with me.  

If people, however, are “into” theology but are arrogant, prideful, argumentative people seeking to dominate others with an orthodoxy and divides their meeting, creating factions and strife, then they might consider whether intellectual theology is doing their condition—or the condition of the Society--any good.  I have been there, myself, and found it very uncomfortable.  I see it in the history of the Society and I mourn its outcomes, here.  Righteousness, not "right thinking," makes a person a Quaker--a Christian--saved from being bonded to the world.


Thanks, again.

Off to Annual Session!

July 12, 2010 08:41 PM

A Friend of mine was wondering where the concept of Quaker Queries came from and what they are used for. He sent the question to a few people. Here is my answer, slightly edited for public distribution:

I think the queries were originally provided by the yearly meetings for their monthly and quarterly meetings to report back to them. The closest thing to that in Pacific YM today is the State of the Meeting report, which each monthly meeting completes annually and sends to the quarterly and yearly meeting Ministry and Oversight committees. But I don't know of any meeting in PYM which uses the queries to structure their report, even though I have suggested it before. Just wait 'til I'm clerk...

But really, the queries in our current PYM book of Faith and Practice weren't written with that in mind. They are read out loud, one section a month, on the first Sunday of the month in our meeting for worship, and at the beginning of our monthly meeting for business. Sometimes individuals respond to them in worship, but mostly we just consider them in silence. If you asked most PYM folks, this is what they would say the F&P Queries are for. (which is not much, IMHO)

The Advices and Queries in PYM F&P are the closest we come to a statement of our faith and practice, and they always go together in the book. The A&Q were written by a committee that labored for a long time to come to unity on the right language and the right topics and the right number of sets of A&Q. That committee is called the Discipline Committee, and they wrote the whole F&P, the last version took 10 years or so from the time they started until they finished in 2001.

When we have opportunities for worship sharing, at PYM gatherings or quarterly meetings for example, there is usually a new set of queries developed for the occasion - on the theme of the gathering, or something like that. They are usually developed shortly before the meeting by one or two people from the M&O committee. One SF Friend says that it doesn't matter what the queries are in worship sharing, it always comes down to "How is the Spirit moving in your life?"

In my monthly meeting, we have had a couple of series of worship sharing opportunities, after meeting for worship, or in the evening, to respond specifically to the queries in our F&P. Sometimes, these have been rich opportunities for spiritual formation and sometimes they have ended up being just a gathering for the most lonely or conflict-desiring people in the meeting. But that's true for any series of events in our meeting.

In your experience, how are queries used? Are they useful?

July 11, 2010 09:10 PM

I’ve been asked a number of times to include water on my greenhouse gas spreadsheet, and now have the numbers to do so. Energy demands for water use are significant. Unfortunately, most of the water we consume never appears on our home water bill. Our bill doesn’t show us water use for eating and showering [...]

July 06, 2010 10:28 PM

A correspondent asked me, in an email, whether my my chosen definition of theology might use some careful examination.   I think that I can distinguish the kind of writing and discussion of spiritual and religious "doctrine" with which I have become so dissatisfied.

In contrast to the act of talking up and elaborating on that kind of doctrine, there is something that Marge Abbot writes about (To Be Broken and Tender, p. 58--get this book, by the way, for yourself and your meeting's library) called “narrative theology,” which does not appear to me to be exactly the same as the Narrative Theology “movement” that is said to have begun with Niebuhr.

What she has in mind, she writes, is the kind of writing found in traditional Quaker journals.  Friends wrote (and write) about their encounters with God.  This kind of narrative amounts to telling our stories and by so doing we help point others to that essential connection to the Light and with their own developing sense of discernment.

This speaks to me because my experience is that the faculty of discernment is basic to living in the Spirit, to recognizing which “spirit” is speaking to me at a particular time or what it means when more than one such spirit is.  This faculty of discernment is different from the faculty of reason, which is what we use to figure out choices we should make based on an ideology or a theology pieced together out of second hand sources like the Bible or some other "received tradition."  (This paragraph is my own, not part of  Marge’s, take.)

This kind of narrative opens the heart, Marge writes and, to me, it models the process of convincement of which George Fox wrote, this kind of narrative takes people to Christ and leaves them there; it takes people to the base of the mountain so that they may climb, themselves, to experience the transformational thunder, lightening and shaking of the earth/soul that is where the spiritual perfection and maturation Quakers seek, and others have undergone before us,  takes place.

This kind of narrative speaks from one’s own experience (and not from, as I say, “second hand” or “hearsay” religion) and, if one does not run ahead of one’s measure of light, this narrative will not incude unwarranted, speculative and divisive conclusions about the nature, character or purposes of God that are not part of and do not come from the experience, itself (even though we might be led to defend such speculation because it fits in with, or we can rationalize it into, some pre-existing ideo-theological framework or a notional part thereof).

I also appreciate this "kind" of theology because it supports the appropriate relationship between the Spirit and the letter:  the former should validate the latter, not the other way around.  I continue to be amazed the people believe the notion that the Bible provides some kind of constant meaning that curbs the danger of "unanchored" revelations claimed to  be "from the Spirit."   Human rationalizing capacity has led to many completely delusional "leadings" straight out of the book.  Whether one is listening to the Spirit or using the Bible like an oracle, seasoned discernment is essential to keep from being overcome by the power (or the powers) of one's own ideas and agendas.  "Moral relativism" is about reasoning/rationalizing, whether one reasons from a propositional data base that is secular or religious.

Finally, it seems to me that the kind narrative theology of which Marge writes tends to support orthopraxy/spiritual practice  rather than orthodoxy/religious belief, focusing on what is functional, on what reproduces the transformational outcomes that Friends (and others) have experienced in the past.  These common, consistently reproduced, unifying outcomes are a stronger basis for community than is intellectual assent to a set of propositions about who and what God might be.  It was this shared transformational experience, rather than a set of intellectual beliefs about God, that initially gathered Friends, at least according to Barclay in Universal Love.

With my take on "narrative theology" I contrast, then, theological works such as Barclay’s Apology (published a year later than Universal Love) which does not open the heart to God but floods the mind with human wisdom, that moves the reader toward an orthodoxy that is rational, abstract (and often speculative), incorporating Protestant notions (chief among them the subordination of the Spirit to scripture—reversing the proper relationship between the two).  (I know that Fox said that, after his experience with Christ, everything he was taught he found in scripture did he also say that he found in that experience everything that is in scripture?  I can't say that--there are a lot of things in the Bible that are not confirmed and, instead, are contradicted by my experience.)

That rational religion (or religion of rationality) is one of the main "gifts" that the Enlightenment, with its deification/idolization of human reason, gave to us:  a rational "spirituality" (or a spiritual rationality) that literally tries to talk me out of the trusting the experience of God and instead into trusting my ability to figure things out (or the ability of "certified smart" theology types who know more about such things than I do) based on what I know or have been told and my ability to reason.   Dr. Dobson, just like Dr. Dawkins, looks to reason as the ultimate authority.  Both point me away from the work Christ is trying to do in me toward their own notions about what God or reason "wants."  (If I am unsure what God wants me to do I listen to what God is telling me to do.   No "figuring" necessary.)

It was this kind of rationalistic theology that, on legs provided by revivalism, ran the Society to distraction, division and disintegration in the 19th Century.  That outcome should not have come as a surprise given that, whatever else The Apology may have set out to accomplish, it was a part of a conscious "walking back" of radical (from the root) Quakerism that was necessary to purchase toleration from the Protestant establishment.

It is the value of this rationalistic theology—which I think is most of what I hear people talking about--that I have of late been questioning.   It is actually the outcomes of this rationalistic theology, and the human reason that animates it, that has me turning my back on it.

I quickly add that if reading and studying the Bible, and reasoning from it, has the outcome for some people that they are drawn into the spiritual unity (or humanistic consensus) that is summed up in the Fruits of the Spirit, the Quaker Testimonies of the so-called Liberal domain of the Society or the Golden Rule, then it's fine with me for them to reason away.   My personal experience is that trying to live that way led me to be characterized by completely different lists.  I don't care if people paint themselves blue and wear mismatched socks--if it leads to spiritual transformation, maturity and completeness, as Friends (and others) have experienced it for centuries then I am heard to have no complaints.  I am more concerned, in myself, with righteousness than I am with orthodoxy.  Harvesting to feed the hungry, and healing the infirm, are fine with me anytime--even on the Sabbath.

July 04, 2010 05:22 PM

At the end of June, I met with Friends and spoke (mostly) out of the silence on the topic On Being A Quaker. Normally for a presentation or workshop, I use a combination of outline and mindmap, but the closer I got to actually opening my mouth for this event, the more strongly I understood that I was supposed to lay aside my handwritten notes and speak out of the silence.


The outward preparation

Originally, I was thinking of what it means to be "a new kind of Quaker" as compared to "an old kind of Quaker." But I kept coming back to the theme of belonging to one another, belonging to Quakerism, and belonging to God.

As I was rereading Thomas Gates' pamphlet Members One of Another, I found myself drawn into considering how his themes of transformation and obedience intersect with the theme of belonging, and so I took some time to clarify what was beginning to take shape in me by creating a chart, which I've included below.


The inward preparation

A few things caught me by surprise.

One was that a few weeks prior to the 2-hour presentation, I became clear that I needed to have a companion in ministry--what used to be called an elder. I hadn't requested that sort of spiritual companionship for a short thing like this but I'm glad I did for this occasion. One person's name rose up for the Friend who was providing all the arrangements--and it was a person I had met literally just three or four week's prior. It all felt rightly ordered.

I also put out a number of prayer requests--again, not something I had done for other presentations. One Friend offered to bring the prayer request to a group of Friends she knew who intentionally prayed for traveling ministers.

And just a few minutes before I was to begin speaking at the event, I sat with my companion in ministry on the back stoop of the meetinghouse, overlooking the Meeting's very old cemetery. I felt myself being called out by the presence of those Friends long buried, and I sensed their affirmation of the need for me to "go deep" and stay deep during my remarks.

The last thing that caught me off-guard was the number of times that I myself was moved to tears as I was speaking! I recall the Power that was expressed, for example, when I spoke about the need for us to make ourselves vulnerable with one another, to be deeply authentic, as a way for us to belong to one another and to understand how it is that the Spirit is moving among us... that we cannot keep the stories of how the Spirit is prospering in our lives out of a secular need confidentiality, for if I, as a new or maturing Friend, never or seldom hear these stories from my Quaker brothers and sisters, from my Quaker parents and grandparents, how am I to know what such movement of the Spirit looks like or feels like or is like? How is a newer Friend supposed to learn these things...?


A synopsis of what I shared

As what sometimes happens when I speak out of the silence during a Meeting for Worship, I don't recall exactly what I said, though I did touch on a number of things I had previously written down for myself, about how we might go about inviting one another to consider how we as Friends belong to one another, to Quakerism, and to God, regardless of how long we have been among Friends--that is, regardless of whether we are a "new kind of Quaker" or an "old kind of Quaker."

And after organizing my notes and my thoughts into a systematic whole--a chart!--I realized that if I had had the opportunity, I may have changed the title of the presentation:

Love and Belonging: Consideration of how we as Friends belong to one another, to Quakerism, and to God, regardless of how long we have been among Friends.

Or maybe I would have called it "Transformation and Obedience," since those are the threads I seemed to return to...

Anyway, below is the main part of the chart I created and referred to during my message. It's not complete by any means, so feel free to shape it and rework it and fill it in or expand it as you feel led.

In particular, I paid attention to the "cautions" and the challenges or "inconveniences" of each of these layers of spiritual development and belonging. I also emphasized the word "belonging" by breaking that word apart:

BE ... LONGING,

as in:

Be longing for one another;

Be longing for Quakerism; and

BE longing for God.

At the very end of the evening, I closed with a number of queries that had arisen for me as I was finishing up my outward preparation, so I share those after the chart.

NOTE: In the chart, I use the notation TG, in brackets, to refer to language used by Tom Gates in his pamphlet.

(UPDATE: If you have trouble viewing the chart below, or to view a more extensive version of this chart, click here.)

TOPIC	Belong to one another	Belong to Quakerism	Belong to God
WELCOME & ACCEPTANCE [TG]	Provide and request care and nurture; be curious about the movement of the Spirit, of Love, in one another's lives
SHARED VALUES [TG]		Act together and reflect together on the Root and fruit of the Testimonies, on indiv and corporate levels; commit to engage in Quaker practices and disciplines	Maintain Love at the center of our life and faith; wait upon the Light in times of difficulty
TRANSFORMATION [TG]	Share our ministries, leadings, and struggles with one another; be vulnerable with each other and bear witness to the transformation of one another	Be willing to seek new Light in difficult times and from difficult people; be willing to labor with others	Be willing to wrestle with God; be willing to grow into our measure of Light
OBEDIENCE [TG]	"Exhort one another daily" to be faithful to how we are called	Test our leadings with one another; provide mutual accountability and mutual encouragement	Engage in faithfulness and a humble obedience; be willing to yield
CAUTION	Feeling accepted does not provide an automatic "in" for membership; feeling accepted does not mean individualism and secularism should replace tending to the Root and minding the Light	Can the Meeting allow itself to grow because of a Friend's ministry/new Light? "what is important is not how far one has traveled, but rather one's commitment to travel this particular path we call Quakerism" [TG, p. 36]	Can the Meeting allow its members to grow beyond the confines of the Meeting; can we avoid pressuring one another to conform to the Meeting's "culture"?
CHALLENGE	Inconvenience ourselves to make time for others	Inconvenience ourselves to uphold Quaker practices and to grow as a Meeting	Inconvenience ourselves to receive God's love, to be broken open, to be obedient to God's call

The queries I shared

What new ministries or new messages are emerging, or are struggling to emerge in the meeting? Who is carrying them? Are the Friends who resist the new Light being held in Love? How ready is the meeting to outgrow its old skin? Can the meeting allow its members to grow beyond the abilities and even the identity or culture of the meeting? What would help?

What ministries have long-time Friends brought into the current life of the meeting? What of their Light and spiritual gifts still needs attention and nurture? Can the meeting live into the tension between supporting the emerging ministries and laying down the ones that may be outliving their usefulness, and can that be done with compassion and care for all involved? Can the meeting embrace both fresh and “institutionalized” perspectives, allowing each to inform the other? Does the meeting grieve together what was, in fair balance with rejoicing what is being birthed?

What would it mean if we saw Quakers as one family? How do we wish to treat our younger and older brothers and sisters? Do we feel like we belong to one another, that we belong to God? What would help?

If your meeting and you heard that Quakerism offers you and the meeting more than what you and the meeting are currently experiencing, would you be interested? Would your meeting be interested? When has God called you to be More than Who You Are, and to what extent were you able to live into that call? Are you willing to let go of “your version” of Quakerism to discover how else the Spirit is moving through Friends?

As always, thanks for reading me.

Blessings,
Liz

July 04, 2010 02:01 PM

NOTE: This chart is more extensive than the one I embedded in the previous post (I had abridged it for easier reading, but oh well). At least one reader reported to me she had trouble viewing the first chart.

Note, too, that many of the terms and phrases in the far left column come directly from Thomas Gates' pamphlet Members One of Another. The notation I used in the previous chart didn't carry over to this one... and neither did any of the links, it turns out.

Blessings,
Liz

	Belong to one another	Belong to Quakerism	Belong to God/Love
Welcome & Acceptance	provide and request care and nurture
	be there for one another (crisis of faith; marriage; memorials; clearness; etc.)
	be curious about the movement of the Spirit, of Love, in one another's lives
Shared Values	participate in one another's lives, not just knowing about each other	commit to engage in Quaker practices and disciplines	maintain Love at the center of our life and faith
		be active in the life of the Meeting during and between Meetings for Worship	waiting upon the Light in times of difficulty3
		act together and reflect together on Root and fruit of the Testimonies (indiv and corporate levels)
Transformation	share our ministries, leadings, and struggles with one another; be vulnerable with each other	be willing to seek new Light in difficult times and from difficult people; be willing to wrestle with others	be willing to grow into our measure of Light
	bear witness to the transformation of one another	provide mutual accountability and mutual encouragement	be willing to wrestle with God
Obedience		test our leadings with one another	Engage in faithfulness and a humble obedience; be willing to yield
		"exhort one another daily" to be faithful to how we are called1
Caution	feeling accepted does not provide an automatic "in" for membership; feeling accepted does not mean individualism and secularism should replace tending to the Root and minding the Light	can the Meeting allow itself to grow because of a Friend's ministry/new Light?  "what is important is not how far one has traveled, but rather one's commitment to travel this particular path we call Quakerism"2	can the Meeting allow its members to grow beyond the confines of the Meeting; can we avoid pressuring one another to conform to the Meeting's "culture"?
Challenge	inconvenience ourselves to make time for others	inconvenience ourselves to uphold Quaker practices and to grow as a Meeting	inconvenience ourselves to receive God's love, to be broken open, to be obedient to God's call

1.  Epistle XXII, by George Fox.

July 04, 2010 01:58 PM

I just have to shake my head. Again, at global government meetings, you have so-called "anarchists" who are demonstrating for their concept of peace and justice, which seems to include violence. But violence doesn't cause people to say "Hey, my government is engaging in violence. I must want less government". No, they say "Hey, my government isn't going enough to stop the violence. I should give them more power (money and privilege) so that they can keep these protesters in line."

It's like shooting yourself in the foot to promote foot health, to mix a metaphor.

[Tags anarchidiots, peace, protesting, g20 ]

June 26, 2010 08:18 PM

This passage from Acts 17 made me laugh in recognition. How many of us are like the First Century Athenians, followers of anything that is new: academic trends, social networks, the 24-hour news feeds? Paul's message was simple: that the God and peace we seek is close at hand and the one we're most tempted to overlook.

June 26, 2010 05:33 PM

republication of a comment left on on a blogpost that published the epistle.

Reading the epistle from this year’s Quaker Women’s Theology Conference I shared the sadness expressed at the lack of support for women’s ministries in the Society and at the continuing sexism that divides us.

It may well turn out, when we reach a situation in which it is possible to have some hindsight on this struggle, that overcoming the self-comforting illusions to which we cling about ourselves will turn out to have been as important to success as the Other overcoming the illusions they use to limit and control us.

I know of no Quaker who does not share the unity that our Society must work through the issues of sexism and come free of them.  It is not, however, the devil that is in the details of getting that done.  It is, rather, walking in God’s ways that will lead us to this as to all other iterations of salvation.   This transformation will be a fruit of the Spirit, not a fruit of the flesh.

When that happens we (or perhaps our grandchildren) all will have been transformed into different people than we are now, having laid down, among other things, the stereotypes we held that limited the Other.  We will also have laid down those stereotypes with which, although we cherished them, we came to see that we were limiting ourselves.

June 25, 2010 10:55 AM

Sojourners, July 2010
The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change by Beth Kanter and Allison H. Fine
Challenge at Second Base by Matt Christopher
Western Friend, June 2010
To Be Broken and Tender: A Quaker Theology for Today by Margery Post Abbott
The Hockey Machine by Matt Christopher
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Via, July-August 2010
Alive and Loose in the Ordinary: Stories of the Incarnation by Martha Sterne
Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices by Angelina Conti, et al.
Kindling a Life of Concern: Spirit-led Quaker Action by Jack Kirk
Opening Doors to Quaker Religious Education by Mary Snyder
The Secret Agent on Flight 101 by Franklin W. Dixon
Boomtown by Nowen N. Particular

It's been a while since I wrote one of these posts. As you might guess, some of these books are really short, and some I haven't finished yet. I'm also learning that my sons have different literary tastes. Surprise, surprise.

June 24, 2010 10:56 PM