A West Rindge Quaker

Simplicity and Mystery

2011-11-25T20:35:00.003-05:00

Is the Quaker way simple? When you've got three committees in one week, it can get to feeling pretty complicated. And when you try to see the goodness in all the branches of Friends, the chorus of voices can be cacophonous and confusing. Where's the simplicity?

When I first came to Friends, I was impressed with their simplicity, their openness, and the modesty of their claims. I was a seeker in college; I checked out the Unitarians, the Presbyterians, the Buddhists, some evangelical Christians, some Wiccans, and Rudolph Steiner's Anthroposophy by way of the local Waldorf school. Some of these were open but vague; some of them promised paths to enlightenment, but required leaps of faith or commitments to initiation. I wanted substance -- but I was wary. The Quakers clearly had something to teach, deep resources in tradition; and yet they didn't hide anything, didn't reserve anything, didn't demand anything. They simply invited you to settle down and listen in the silence, and see what you found.

That was the way for me. And you know what? It turns out there's more to it than the silence; more to it even than the Light. Now I see that the religions that do require initiation have good reason, because there are depths that aren't apparent at first. But as my experiences lead me in a spiral of deepening understanding and growing trust, meeting for worship stays pretty simple.

Sit down, stand still, listen in the Light, stay close to the root. The simplicity is at the root. As that Seed in us grows and flowers, we may find it's a lush plant with many branches and much fruit. Abundance to harvest!

We had a CSA share from the Meeting School this fall, and preserving their abundant harvest took a lot of learning and effort. But there was no doubt in our minds that it was simpler living than buying from the supermarket. A simple meal of sourdough bread, steamed greens, baked squash, and eggs, all from scratch, and all from a place we love; it was simple; it was satisfying; it was home.

Miami Meeting - Waynesville, Ohio

2011-07-30T23:08:00.002-04:00

Two old meetinghouses --elegant, plain, lifting your heart as you approach the top of the hill. One Hicksite, one Orthodox... built side by side. Still friendly neighbors? The shared graveyard, next to the Orthodox meeting; one school, across the graveyard from the Orthodox meeting; a Friends boarding home, for elderly Friends and young singles (women school-teachers), next door to the Hicksite meeting. Below the hill, a hundred yards away, the stores, shops, and traffic of the business district of Waynesville, Ohio. In New England, we have our village greens, with church, school, library, and town hall arrayed around the sides of the common. Here I suppose the library and town hall were in the business district. Yet the vision of community seemed the same -- even, stronger.

Imagine a time when most residents of Waynesville were Friends. They must have been friends, too. I caught a glimpse of the community that we yearn for in a fragmented postmodern age. Did they visit each other's church yard sales? Did they have afternoon committee meetings at one meetinghouse or the other, then walk across the yard to the school to pick up their children? At the Friends Boarding Home, our guide said that businessmen came to lunch at the boarding home daily, walking the two blocks from their offices.

I live in intentional communities -- co-ops, boarding schools, maybe co-housing someday. I think our broken American society needs more local community. But visiting this small Ohio town, I saw how from the 1810's to the 1910's they could have had that real community support and fellowship that I love, using simply the monthly meeting structure. As a historian, I know that local historians must know the real stories behind Waynesville. Evidence is surely preserved in journals, newspapers, diaries, meeting minutes. I'm sure it wasn't all rosy. But after all, the place is on the National Register for being well-preserved and representative; and their hilltop is spacious and green; and I could see the rhythms of a whole community of shared lives of caring, lived out there between White Brick and Red Brick meetinghouses. I hope it's really true.

West Rindge No Longer! ~ Motivations for Quaker Theology

2011-07-29T21:46:00.007-04:00

Can a Quaker who doesn't live in Rindge still call himself a West Rindge Quaker with integrity? I'm moving this summer, heading for graduate school, to study Quaker theology.

Quaker theology? My liberal friends among the General Conference Friends might say that Friends don't do theology; I've heard that before at the Gathering and I think it's not true. Of course, my evangelical Friends think Friends have a theology – though some of them might say there isn't any difference between “orthodox” Christian theology, and Quaker theology – and I'd differ from them there. But did you know there are liberal Christian theologies? Not politically, no: I mean religion thought of in a broad, generous, liberal, progressive way. Did you know there are liberal Quaker theologies? (such as Patricia Williams, Quakerism, A Theology for Our Time, Infinity Publications; I haven't read it yet... tell me what you think.)

I'll be studying the history of Quaker theology. Why history? Because it's easier for overly-analytical skeptics like me to grapple with history than to adopt faith uncomplicatedly. But let me be clear: I do grapple with faith. In fact, I even have faith – faith in divine providence. It's humans I'm skeptical about. The history of human foibles, unacknowledged influences and interests, biases and oppressions, confusions and failures. Quaker history is full of splits, as any studious Quaker soon discovers. Some Friends prefer not to investigate them – averse to re-opening old wounds. Other Friends like to choose their theological label from among the old options. It's like a parlor game – maybe I'm a Wilburite, except with a willingness to join worldly social reform groups? [Ed. note: but wait, are you Maulite, Kingite, or Otisite branch of Wilburite? ...nevermind]– or maybe a Hicksite, but the mystical Christian kind exemplified by the born-again theology of late-eighteenth-century traveling minister Job Scott? A Conservative-leaning, social-activist-oriented, Christ-encountering, liberal within FUM, traditionalist within FGC? Playing at Twenty Questions, Quaker-style. The categories get so confusing, though; better to just be a Quaker-Quaker, like the website's title.

I came to this path through following a leading. And I don't use the term loosely. I had a clearness process about it. (Yes, another one. They're old hat now – yet ever renewed and renewing. [Ed. note – wait, clearnesses are like library books?]) I remembered George Fox's insight that "that being bred at Oxford or Cambridge, was not enough to fit and qualify men to be ministers of Christ". I chewed on whether it was right for an unprogrammed Friend like me to go to a school where they train pastors. And I can report that my clearness committee was quite clear. We saw this leading growing out of my earlier leading to visit other branches. The purpose of those visits was about building bridges of understanding between the varied branches of Friends; including raising awareness among my own Friends in New England about the positive aspects of other kinds of Friends. So this new move is a broadening of that earlier leading: getting seriously into understanding the depth of the Quaker tradition – and presenting it so that Friends in New England can access it. Well, true to the traditional experience of Friends, way opened for me as I followed the leading. I found funding; I found time; I loved writing the applications; I found appreciative support in my monthly meeting. And this past year I've been taking courses already. The readings are like drinking cool water to slake my thirst; the papers have felt easy and energizing to write compared with memories of late-night nail-biters in college. All in all, “way opened” in a very fulfilling way. I'm grateful, and eager.

Remarks at an interfaith service

2010-08-30T12:03:00.005-04:00

"Greetings and Prayer from the Quakers"
Remarks prepared for the 65th Anniversary Service
of the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, NH
8/28/2010
The Cathedral of the Pines, located in the town where I live and work, is a sort of outdoor chapel, founded as a memorial to a young man killed in World War II, and as a place for all faiths to gather to remember the service of veterans and to promote peace. That's a complex mission, and over the years it has sometimes honored war more than promoted peace. So this service was meant to emphasize the interfaith and peace elements. There were speakers from as many religious traditions as they could recruit, including Christian (a UCC minister), Jewish, Muslim (Sufi), Buddhist (Nipponzan Myohoji), Wiccan, Dagara (West African), Native American (Abenaki), ...and a Hindu song... each for five minutes. I was placed last in the line, so I tried to emphasize an inclusive, reconciling approach toward all. It was a moving service, impressive to see all those prayers expressing the same hope in their own ways. I will say, there was a lot to listen to, and I got many thanks afterwards for the moment of silence!

Greetings and Congratulations to the Cathedral of the Pines on your 65th anniversary -- from the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers, in New England! I'm Frederick Martin, a member of the local Monadnock Quaker Meeting in Jaffrey and a history teacher at the Meeting School in Rindge.

Quakers are well known for our pacifism, and so we were very pleased to hear of the Cathedral's renewed emphasis on promoting peace. We're helping sponsor the upcoming talk here next week on Gandhi's life and message -- especially his movement for satyagraha, or nonviolent soul-force.

But it's a little-known historical fact about Quakerism that many of the first Quakers fought in the English Civil War, in the 1650's, alongside the Puritans. They were soldiers and officers. And they were fighting for a vision of a better world. We Quakers came together as a faith when we discovered, as they wrote in 1660, that the Spirit of God, the Seed of good in our hearts, "which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world." They began to follow Christ's call, to love our enemies.

Yet we too still work and struggle for a vision of a better world. And as we stand here today, surrounded with these monuments honoring the sacrifices of these war dead, who also were fighting for a vision of a better world, I pray that we will honor and compassionately remember all those who have worked and fought for that better world, in their own way -- since all have that Spirit, that seed of goodness within them. All of us -- from all faiths, and all nations, all walks of life, all have that spirit of goodness.

Quakers are also known for worshiping in silence; so I invite you to join me in a moment of silent reflection and prayer, with this query: When the founder of Quakerism, George Fox, was offered a commission in the army, he records in his Journal that "I told them that I lived in the virtue of that Life and Power, which takes away the occasion of all wars." ..... What does that mean for you? For us? In the silence, I invite you to hold in prayer how we all might come to live in the virtue of that Life that takes away the occasion of all wars.

---held silence for about two minutes --

Thank you.

Summer Reading

2010-07-05T15:35:00.003-04:00

Free Schools by Jonathan Kozol (1972) A period piece by an important critic of the American education system; from his position as a well-educated white person working in solidarity with African-Americans and Hispanics in low-income areas, he offered some fascinating critiques of the middle-class phenomenon of "free schools" (which seems to have been more extensive in the 1970's than contemporary education debates would like to remember...). Working as I do in a small independent school out in the countryside, I found some good perspective in the book on what we need to offer our students to keep them politically conscious.

Are We Rome? The fall of an empire and the fate of America by Cullen Murphy (2007) It's fun to read about ancient times, and fun to have some of my views validated about the imperial nature, and the imperial overreach, of the United States. He points out ways we should down-size; he also thinks our political system is more flexible than Rome's. But Rome lasted for longer than we have so far... It's sad that three years later, we're still in Afghanistan.

The Desert Fathers, translated by Benedicta Ward (Penguin Classics) Among the seekers I hang out with, folks often excitedly point to quirky sayings collected from mystics and monastics of various faith traditions, such as Zen Buddhists, Rumi, Taoist masters (I love Lao Tzu myself). Well, Christianity can play that game too, I discover. They're full of hyperbole, paradox, sincerity, indirection, and wisdom. (Thanks to Han for leaving this one lying around in Bliss House, where I found it, when he left for summer vacation, and thanks to Landis for lending it to Han in the first place. Ah, community.)

Stay tuned for updates on the books I finish next...

Over on Bad Quaker Bible Blog...

2009-09-28T20:51:00.003-04:00

...I have just posted a long article, which I'd be honored if you'd like to read. And you'll find other great meditations by some very interesting Friends, too!

(The BQBB grew out of a Facebook group called The Association of Bad Friends, a collection of probably-pretty-good Quakers poking fun at themselves.)

"Friend Speaks My Mind" and cross-branch Quaker dialogue

2009-09-26T15:48:00.002-04:00

I wrote the following post as a "Note" on Facebook, and a few people who aren't on Facebook have asked to see it, so I thought I'd reproduce it on this blog. Jon's YouTube video stirred up a lot of comments, many coming from Friends outside of General Conference (unprogrammed) Quakerism, while the song was written about Jon's experience growing up in FGC (and I would say it was directed toward FGC Friends too). Like any in-group work, it contains lots of in-jokes and shared assumptions, and puzzles over particular concerns. This Note was my attempt to explicate some of them for non-FGC folks. This difference between speaking within your sub-culture versus speaking across sub-cultures was the topic of my very first post on this blog; I think it's quite beneficial to get influenced by the other branches of Quakerism, but it can be easy to be mis-understood.

So, I just posted a link [on my Facebook page] to a light-hearted YouTube video of Jon Watts' song "Friend Speaks My Mind." But it has a repeated line which may seem pretty negative to some of my more traditionally-Christian contacts on Facebook. Hence this sober, serious Note about a funny, light video.

It's a song he wrote as a beginning song-writer (still in college at the time), celebrating how deeply he'd gotten into Quakerism and the progress he'd made in wrestling with his faith tradition. The line is --"I'm not a Christian, but I'm a Quaker... I've got Christ's Inner Light, but he's not my savior"--

So I thought I'd explain. What I see in it starts with knowing that a lot of what mainstream secular American culture hears about Christianity is from the political right wing or the fundamentalists. (The first exposure I ever had to Christians explaining themselves was through a Jack Chick pamphlet at age 10. Turned me off for years!) I don't know exactly what Jon Watts experienced growing up, but I think it's fair to say that teenagers from cosmopolitan/suburban east-coast high schools tend to have a negative view of Christianity as a result. So here's Jon Watts, wanting to talk about what he's learned about Jesus, but not wanting to be misunderstood as somehow right-wing. He needs to clear a new rhetorical space, jumble up the terms, try out his own theology, to help people think along new lines the way he has been thinking -- deeper into Quakerism's roots in Christianity. Notice his lines "I don't fully understand it" [Quaker tradition, he's still figuring it out] and "when I heard this Christian stuff I got uncomfortable a lot, I'm like 'what does Jesus have to do with George Fox?'... but now I kinda understand the man, I got a soft spot."

So, within the context of Philadelphia and Baltimore Yearly Meetings (especially Philly), the song is actually being intriguing for just mentioning Christ positively. The real joke/point/fun/message of the video is to see all these Friends at an oh-so-silent meeting for worship get moved (by the Spirit, right?) into dancing. And frankly, the sad reference is to the all-too-many "silent" (aka unprogrammed) meetings for worship among unprogrammed liberal Friends which really are silent, and boring, and dead. (I've been in my share.) Jon's passion (one of them) is to wake people up to being excited about the Inner Light.

The song really speaks to a lot of different levels. Even the verse celebrating the Quaker "alphabet soup" of organizational acronyms -- sure, it's de riguer among active FGC Friends to caution against using too much jargon... but remember the high-school kid or new attender who doesn't know about all the wider Quaker conferences and groups. He's saying -- "there's a big Quaker world out there! get involved! I love these people and you can too!"

So, he's encouraging staid-and-stuffy silent Friends to get involved in their religion, go deeper, sing and dance in worship, and start getting some kind of relationship with Christ. What more could you ask? (In fact, I'm genuinely curious about whether this would fit some of your definitions of evangelism.)

And to my FGC/unprogrammed f/Friends... well, I hope I didn't spoil the fun for you by laboring so much to explain it....

Poem for John Banks, 1654

2008-04-08T11:10:00.003-04:00

There has been some new interest lately in the quaking that earned the first Friends our nickname. (Of course, experiences of trembling or quaking in worship happen today in churches associated with the holiness or pentecostalist movements. But truly, pentecostalism is not a group I'm familiar with at all.) A few weeks ago, the front page of QuakerQuaker included a blog completely dedicated to exploring physical, bodily quaking as an element of renewal in modern-day Quakerism. (Scott Martin's The Ecstatic Quaker) While not everything in his recommendations is true to my own experience, it was very thought-provoking.

Liberal Friends (like me) find the Inner Light to be a useful and treasured name for a central experience. But early Friends had a really nuanced understanding of the Inner Light --the Inward Light, the Light of God shining inward into our souls-- which took account of how sometimes becoming more enlightened can be a painful experience, when it involves becoming aware of parts of ourselves we should change. How many of us have struggled, and taken good refuge in the Comforter we found shining inside?

Poem for John Banks of 1654, from 2008

there’s something you have to know first

huddled on the bed (usually)
or on the dorm room floor,
or the dark library stacks,
or my armchair,
shaking.
That fear, unseen, no reason, no warning,
and sometimes the knowing it was coming was the worst part
because I was completely at the mercy of that overgripping passionate fear.
Twitches first, then shudders, now in a ball wrapped in covers, now flailing in the dark.
My friends whom I trusted told me the way out was through,
but I kept getting stuck.
Discovering over and over that my body existed, and the one feeling it was feeling was fear.

And what was it like for that Quaker, young man my age, in the dawn of his age?
When no one had invented all that -ology of psych.
That John Banks, he used the words of his age to describe....

“...and the same day at evening... I was smitten to the ground with the weight of God’s judgement for sin. ... Great was the warfare and combats that I had with the Enemy of my soul, who... did what in him lay, to betray me from the simplicity of the Truth, that was begotten in me, and to persuade me to despair... I had passed through great tribulation, in weeping and mourning in woods and solitary places, alone, where I had often desired to be.”

He quaked.
They were quakers!
It sounds to me like the same experience.
He wrestled with the Enemy. He found Truth begotten in him.
And if "sin" is condemning himself when he simply needed to unite Love and Truth....
and if I had to try so hard to remember to be gentle with myself.....
but away with these negotiations.
We look back at that age, and say they received spiritual gifts a hundredfold, an outpouring unstoppable of the water of life.
We think they had some secret.
Did we not both quake? Were we not both smitten to the ground, and despairing?
Do we not both have the same dawn to thank, the same grass and wind?
The same Spirit?
What does this mean for us?

(The quote by John Banks is found in Early Quaker Writings, edited by Hugh Barbour and Arthur O. Roberts, page 183, in selections from "The Journal of John Banks." See especially footnote 34: "Physical seizures of this kind were fairly common among early Friends, along with the more usual quaking.")

Visiting cheerfully over the earth...

2007-08-10T15:04:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago I did indeed travel to Indiana Yearly Meeting, got my letter of introduction endorsed by the Recording Clerk (none other than Tom Hamm, Quaker historian super-hero), visited cheerfully with sundry Friends at IYM's Quaker Haven Camp, and attended every worship session, every business session, and especially every meal!

Then I flew home to Rindge, and the next day hosted two Friends from Kenya in their stop at the school (as they traveled New England between the USFW Triennial and NEYM sessions). Four days later, after doing some actual work on school administration, I left for New England Yearly Meeting.

At NEYM I wore a sticker on my shirt saying "Ask me about Indiana Yearly Meeting" and many friends (and acquaintances, and strangers sitting with me at meals) obliged. And what did I say?

Everyone at IYM was kind and welcoming to me. I felt very included, and I learned a lot. Of course, I knew that most of the worship would be programmed. But they also had an hour of fully unprogrammed worship every day, first thing in the morning. And each programmed service had some open periods of silence when anyone could speak. I've been to programmed worship services before, with Catholics, Methodists, Congregationalists (UCC), and Unitarian-Universalists, but never before with Friends (except once at Pendle Hill!). I will say that the style was more evangelical than I expected -- oriented toward praise hymns and stories of conversion. And I didn't agree with the theology of every message. But that's okay. And I wept for joy during some other parts of the services. The Holy Spirit blessed us, I would say, several times, and not only during the "services of praise and worship" but with spontaneous prayer and song during business sessions! I have been present for such during NEYM business sessions, and I was privileged to be present when IYM found similar centered-ness.

Friend, hast thee read Samuel Bownas' A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister? Okay, okay, I've come clean now: see, I was emulating someone I admired from 250 years ago. I'm a history teacher, go figure. Or maybe --maybe the same spiritual stream runs through the Society from then to now. Anyway, I brought the book with me and read over his advice for how I should act. Some of it was surprisingly applicable. And I wondered whether some events during my journey were signs of way opening: after I missed my early-morning flight (my fault!) the attendant at the ticket counter found me an option that hadn't been available on the Internet (way opening?). I found IYM's Quaker Haven Camp driving from Detroit with no directions. (Now that's guidance...) On my way home, the attendant at a different ticket counter told me that my ticket was technically invalid and he could have charged me $900 for a new ticket, but that he'd let me through anyway (way opening?). In truth, one has to be super-careful in ascribing events to Providence (no, not Rhode Island), since it could lead one out of humility --but it's fun to speculate; and just maybe... I was grateful, too, that while no traveling companion had appeared for me, I was assigned lodging with another traveling Friend from Baltimore YM, which gave me some of the debriefing, support, and daily clearness that a traveling companion traditionally offers.

Back at New England Yearly Meeting, I found myself using explicitly-Christian language much more than I normally do. (Or, as they might say in IYM, "witnessing to Christ.") It felt a bit funny, because I usually use much more metaphorical language. But perhaps we were all prepared for that by our Bible Half-Hour speaker, Benigno Sanchez-Eppler, who spoke movingly about the translation we need to do when speaking and hearing about the Friend of Friends. In any case, I quoted the Bible in my worship-sharing group -twice!- and attended a workshop on missionaries hosted by Eden and Jim Grace (they're awesome!). It felt very natural among my NEYM friends, who know how liberal I am. And it felt natural to be at IYM, gratefully listening. Here on the Internet, trying to explain it to unknown readers with unknown commitments, it's so much harder. But my thoughts about inclusivity, universalism, and the "Christian" label, will have to wait for another post.

Traveling in the elder-y?

2007-07-05T03:31:00.000-04:00

I had another clearness yesterday. But this time it was to see if I was clear to travel for religious service. And joyfully, we were clear that I am clear. I plan to visit Indiana Yearly Meeting, and perhaps another, in addition to my now-home-base at New Engand YM. Here are some excerpts from the letter I wrote to the committee to explain myself:

".... I am considering traveling to various Quaker events this summer. I want your help in discerning whether this is a leading. And the reason I want your help with that, is that in proper Friends’ practice (and in proper Friends’ theology, I might provocatively add), a Friend does not declare his/her individual idea to be a divine leading, but seeks the concurrence of his/her spiritual community.

"What are the dimensions of my proposed travel? What kind of leading am I feeling? Well, I would like to foster increased dialogue among the different branches of the Religious Society of Friends. I would like to participate in making the branches feel less alien to each other. I have been following currents of increased dialogue like this among Friends for some time. Some of it is stuff I read on the Internet: the blog website quakerquaker.org, the “movement,” also really a collection of bloggers, calling itself Convergent Friends (ConvergentFriends.org). Some of it is news I hear from young adult Friends such as friends of mine who went to the World Gathering of Young Friends, and the gathering of Young Adult Friends from all branches held in New Jersey this February. Some of it is conversations I’ve had over the years at SAYMA, at Celo, at the FGC Gathering, and at NEYM. They all express a yearning to know more about the other branches, and a yearning that the other branches would wish to know more about one’s own branch. ...

"What about a label for this leading? What’s the correct terminology? I think it’s best labeled as “intervisitation.” Other possible labels include, traveling with a concern (for... dialogue?), and traveling in the ministry. ... This last category –what some refer to as “the free gospel ministry” to distinguish it from, say, teaching high school as a ministry– is much too weighty and august for me to feel it’s what I’m doing. More to the point, I haven’t been feeling lots of clear urgent leadings to speak messages in meetings for worship recently... that’s what I call ministry, and while I’ve had periods of my life where I spoke more frequently in meetings than I do these days, they’ve never bubbled over into an urgency to travel to somewhere else to speak.

"I’ve also sometimes joked that while others may travel in the ministry, I should be traveling in the elder-y (elder-ship?). When I’ve looked over the categories of the traditional gifts and offices in old-time Quakerism –four: the gifts of ministry and eldering, the offices of clerking and oversight– I’ve often felt that my strength is in eldering: helping to identify, draw out, and develop others’ gifts. That’s what a good teacher does, after all. Elders also check bad ministry... and encourage discipline, a role they became unpopular for in the late 19th century, but a natural role at a boarding school. Elders also have a role of encouraging healing and unity in a meeting. [I once served on a yearly meeting committee] whose task when it was created really was to heal suspicions and divisions among different segments of the yearly meeting which weren’t talking to each other about their assumptions and concerns. So visiting meetings seems like a way to participate in this movement of dialogue –and spread it– through face to face contact."

Membership

2007-07-05T03:20:00.000-04:00

I can't keep up with all these bloggers. Just reading all the interesting posts on QuakerQuaker could take me all evening sometimes; and writing for the public takes more from me. But significant things have been happening. To wit:

I finally did it. (This was back in May, actually; letter dated May 13th.) I transfered my membership. It was kind of a leap of faith. But the results have been encouraging so far.

What I Would Have Said in Meeting for Worship Today

2007-03-18T22:37:00.000-04:00

... if it had gone on a little longer. (Or perhaps if I had been a little braver, or "faster," or perhaps the experience wasn't meant for that Meeting, but for me. Or for this blog?)

So there I was visiting Providence Meeting, reasonably centered, in a reasonably centered meeting in which two or three people had spoken already, when apropos of nothing, I started thinking about the offices of Christ. The thought was one of those little pop-up thoughts one has in unprogrammed meeting for worship (that is, I have them and I hear others do too), where I think, "oh, I could speak about that" but the very thinking of that second thought shows that the first idea isn't (at least not yet) so much a message for the group --the Spirit speaking through me-- as an idea I had -- my ego wanting to do something. Well, I toyed for a moment with what I would say --there were four main offices that I could remember: priest, ruler, prophet, teacher/counselor; that usually popular Christian theology in the U.S. focuses on the office of priest, dwelling on the atonement, the blood, the sacrifice, all that stuff I have such a hard time with; while liberal Friends might perhaps be more interested in the other offices.

Then I got amused by how I might be misunderstood if a listener in the meeting wasn't familiar with the use of the word office to mean "job" or "function" or "capability," and instead might imagine Jesus in his office, doing paperwork. I phrased a joke in my mind: "Mr. Christ, please call your office..." Then the phone rang. In the meetinghouse. Behind my right shoulder. (I thought it was a cell phone, but it turned out later that they have a phone in another room divided from the meetingroom by only a shutter.)

So I was left with a question: which office of Christ is a Friends' meetinghouse?

It's probably the one where he exercises his teaching capabilities; wasn't it Fox who said, "Christ is come to teach his people himself"? And then, if a meeting for business is being held in a rightly ordered way, I suppose it would be held in the office where he's the ruler. (Does Jesus use inches or centimeters on his office rulers? Sorry...)

I was first introduced to the usefulness of thinking about the offices of Christ through the short book Douglas Gwyn contributed to about the peace testimony: A Declaration on Peace: in God's people the world's renewal has begun (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1991). You could look it up here at Herald Press. They begin the book by explaining how the meeting/congregation as a body ("God's people") participates in, or embodies, God's work (these offices), pursuing a "collective vocation." Great stuff.

Evangelizing

2007-02-22T11:12:00.001-05:00

Evangelizing -- let's DO it!

....that was the essence of the spirit I was overcome with two weekends ago. I caused a bit of a stir: I was at this workshop about spiritually-grounded social action for interested folks within New England Yearly Meeting -- they weren't really expecting that word, I think. You could feel that frisson of naughtiness circulate in the room... Oooo... feel the freedom of speaking what you believe, I might say... but more the point: what if it's a service for others, that speaks to their needs and yearnings? We were talking about building a broad movement of political activism (which I do work on) that would speak to the average person and de-polarize our society. But this in a context of The Lamb's War. Spiritual struggle. The 1650's Quakers who actually quaked -- and lobbied their government, and did sit-ins, and preached in public, and prayed for their enemies, and did all sorts of outlandish things. (We brought in Gandhi in this workshop too --and he saw his movement as a spiritual struggle, too, if I understand rightly.)

Well... if we're talking about reaching people politically, in a struggle against oppression that's both political and spiritual.... shouldn't we be reaching them spiritually, too?

More later... in accordance with my community's minute on technology, our Internet server is about to close down for the night...

I just had a clearness

2007-02-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I had a clearness meeting, in hopes of helping me discern what to do about my meeting membership. It was very moving for me. I didn't reach clarity about what to do; but we had less than an hour and I hope to continue. Currently, you see, I'm a member of monthly meeting (Celo) a thousand miles away from where I live; I haven't seen anyone from Celo for a year now. I feel I should transfer; but matters are complicated because my local meeting doesn't satisfy me in some ways. About the clearness, there are two points I'd like to log here on the web:

Clearnesses are great and everyone should have one in their lives soon. I feel so grateful for being listened to so carefully. And they can really help you get in touch.

Meeting membership: an invitation to take it more seriously. Some folks have been surprised that I'm taking it so seriously. Many weighty Friends do urge me to transfer. But I've run into some folks (usually older than I) who are against the very idea of membership, on grounds that it's restrictive or elitist. Others say, oh, I grew up Quaker (go to FGC/a Quaker school/yearly meeting/etc), I don't need to sign a paper in order to be a Friend. And indeed, indeed, the truth of the matter is an inner t(T)ruth. But membership is about commitment, and declaration; and being taken care of. I committed to help Celo; and attended business meeting regularly, and volunteered, and gave them money (and still do!). I declared my commitment to Friends' practices and beliefs {beliefs? which ones are those?...}. And being taken care of: an element many folks don't take heed of. Celo has held clearnesses for me before (three!); has given me money for Quakerly travel; they always asked me how I was doing. Most of all, it's a spiritual joining. I loved them; they loved me. When I sat, one of the group, in worship, I could feel their thoughts around me, as we joined a subterranean river, communicating without words. I want that again.

On reading Friends' Peace Witness in a Time of Crisis

2007-01-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

[This is old news, but in re-reading it I still liked it so I thought I'd let y'all read it if you want.]
Originally written 8/20/2005.

I ended up weeping with joy during this year's [2005] New England Yearly Meeting closing session, while we all sang as the Young Friends came into the auditorium. Some Quaker bloggers have been [were] discussing the minute that NEYM's Young Friends wrote eldering the adult yearly meeting for the quality of worship; but they approved another general minute, about peace. That was the minute that really moved me, because in it they each renounce violence, individually. Now I have no illusions about the process of minute-writing, especially among high-schoolers; doubtless there were a few among them who agreed to it through sleepiness or conformity rather than a profound change of heart. Yet it's a declaration of an ideal, and a membership in an ideal, and I trusted that most of them felt it deeply and meant it deeply.

Now, what I was all choked up about wasn't the Peace Testimony per se; it wasn't that I was overjoyed that there would be more folks at the protests or whatever. Pacifism is the result of a change of heart. A convincement, conviction, conversion, realization. According to their minute, they were all, to one degree or another, feeling convinced about it, and I was happy that they were joining the fold. Trying out the vulnerable power, allowing their hearts to be broken and reborn.

I know someone who got the pulp beaten out of him --went to the hospital-- when he was 14 because he refused to fight back. (Now if he had taken an AVP or HIPP course he might have outwitted or converted his attackers instead! But still, he had the commitment.)

I know a soldier who did his duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and wrestled with it in every letter he wrote me. And I prayed after every letter --and later, every week-- that his soul wouldn't get twisted by the violence he did. [And he's back home now, hurray, safe, whole, and a good and growing person.]

The first time I ever really prayed was before the start of the first Persian Gulf war, because I knew that I'd be complicit in the bombings of Iraq, just by being an American citizen.

I read some of the essays in Friends' Peace Witness in a Time of Crisis (FWCC Section of the Americas, 2005 --report of the January 2003 conference at Guilford) today [2005], and I was left feeling a bit empty. Maybe it's because I didn't read the right essays; or maybe it's because I was skimming and didn't let things sink in. But I missed a sense of what Douglas Gwynn calls "the spirituality of desolation" --a sense of the sacrifice needed for growth, or of the real fear and awe and majesty one feels in trusting to transform death through love. God's love, that is, that we participate in.

Audience and Integrity

2006-12-22T15:18:00.000-05:00

The question of audience is haunting me. Humor me for a moment, dear reader, and envision how many different types of person you could be:
a curious Internet reader, hoping to learn what Quakers are about;
a long-time Friend beginning to look online for an inspiring Quakerly opinion piece;
a confirmed Quaker blogger, more familiar than I with the personalities and agendas of the online Quaker world;
a colleague or friend of mine;
a member of my meeting;
or a student of mine.

I am unknown by some of those groups, partially known by others. Quakers from different regions and branches (and ages) will have different contexts and commitments as you read; non-Quakers will lack background. I would address myself differently to these different groups, to suit their (your) needs, if I was speaking personally. What to do? Now I know that really, a blog is a public document, but one that usually aims at a specialized audience, in my case a Quaker audience including all the varieties above. So, dear reader, please adjust your expectations accordingly. But do note in passing why I felt it worthwhile to post on this:

Friends prize integrity; for me it's the first of the Quaker virtues. When I was a teenager, I would have thought it two-faced to show a different face to different groups. I occasionally hear a student of mine voice the same idea. But then, Paul says somewhere that he sought to be "all things to all people." The integrity I seek here is in the relationship, in the communication between two parties: me and whoever is reading this. One's heart, one's center, indeed must remain unified -- that's personal integrity -- but any good message in a meeting for worship emerges at the intersection of three: the speaker, the hearers, and the divine. I won't assume that my posts here will be inspired in that way. Yet we can hope. Perhaps the Witness in you, dear readers (in thee, dear reader) will find something in my posts that answers; and thereby they may be a blessing.

It's chore time and the cows and sheep await their dinner. Though I've raised more questions, for myself, than I've answered, I must go.