Fellowship Model of Liberal Quakers
On the train this morning I read Elizabeth Cazden's Fellowships, Conferences and Associations: The Limits of the Liberal Quaker Reinvention of Meeting Polity. This 36 page pamphlet is a must-read for all of us Quaker Ranters.
Usually I excerpt a particularly interesting sentence or two from books I recommend. But for this, I'd have to excerpt the whole pamphlet: it's that good. Cazden really lays out how the "fellowship" model of Quakerism became dominant in the last seventy years and talks about both its limitations and strengths. Here's the description I wrote for Quakerbooks:
A look at the "confusion and disagreement" about how meetings govern themselves. Cazden reviews classical Quaker models and then looks at the "alternate model that has come to characterize liberal unprogrammed ('Friends General Conference-type') meetings in North America." An important read for anyone trying to understand contemporary Quaker debates over same-sex marriage, the meaning of membership, the role of committees and issues of leadership in the Religious Society of Friends.
Cazden talks about many of the issues we've been discussing on this site. She's one of the few Quaker historians that will discuss the Twentieth Century and she's one of the few who remain seriously engaged with Friends, having served as clerk of New England Yearly Meeting. You can order it from Beacon Hills Friends House. I wonder if we could get some sort of online book group going to talk about this?
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Yep, I've ordered it. I also bought a copy of the pamphlet referred to by Liz O. What were you thinking as far as a online book/pamphlet group? I'd be interested.
Thanks again for your comments on beppeblog!
I'll order it today--or maybe tomorrow, depending on the state of the universe when I get home from work--and look forward to a possible discussion.
I finally ordered it, only to find that it is actually an excerpt from a Pendle Hill book, "The Bible, The Church, and the Future of Friends" which we already had.
I agree that it was very good and interesting. So is Ben Pink Dandelion's piece from the same book.
Hi Robin,
Whoops, who was to know you have such a complete Quaker library?!
Your Friend,
Martin
I didn't mean to sound snarky, so please forgive me if I did.
It actually motivated me to re-read several of the essays in the book - and to realize how much I have changed in the several years since I first read it in the Quaker Studies book group at our Meeting. Where before I was much more touchy about the whole Bible/Christian thing, now it makes much more sense to me. The book (Cazden's essay less so) takes on the general topic of the title with relation to sexuality/same sex marriage as their specific examples of how Friends are doing. I'm not sure how far Friends have come in the last few years about this, but for sure the questions haven't gone away.