“Putting language on the experience of that of God within us, I think, is a risky business,” says Christopher Sammond. “Any language is inadequate, and language that I might use will not speak to somebody else.”
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Tag Archives ⇒ faith
Top 10 Quakers in fiction
January 9, 2019
Although the title gives potential readers the impression that this is yet another click-bait listicle, the article is by a Quaker novelist and starts with nice observations about Friends and creativity:
In the light of our high ideals, it can be hard for individual Quakers not to feel inadequate. I certainly do. We’re exhorted to “let our lives speak”, and I often feel like my life doesn’t have much to say. But I am a writer. As a community that listens patiently for the truth, Quakers provide a unique place for creativity. The faith that can sit through hours of Meeting – through boredom, frustration, distraction – is the same thing that keeps me going when I’m struggling for my next idea. We worship in silence, but we’re waiting for words, which somehow gives me faith that, if I wait in front of a blank page for long enough, the right story will come.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/09/top-10-quakers-in-fiction?CMP=twt_gu
Trustworthy Friends
January 3, 2019
Johan Maurer has put together a survey for Friends to talk about setting up trustworthy churches:
A lot of Quaker energy has gone into reassuring skeptics and wounded refugees that we Friends are not like “those people,” referring to the zealots, authoritarians, and religious entrepreneurs who have sometimes given faith a bad name. But what are we affirmatively promising? And how do we increase our capacity to keep our promises and become more trustworthy?
https://ino.to/dKKV1T3
UK Quakers will not profit from the occupation of Palestine
November 20, 2018
British Friends become first church in UK to pull investments in companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine. From recording clerk Paul Parker:
As Quakers, we seek to live out our faith through everyday actions, including the choices we make about where to put our money. We believe strongly in the power of legitimate, nonviolent, democratic tools such as morally responsible investment to realise positive change in the world. We want to make sure our money and energies are instead put into places which support our commitments to peace, equality and justice.
As you’d might expect, there’s been backlash. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has condemned Britain Yearly Meeting’s decision as a “biased and petulant act.”.
The freedom to seek sanctuary
November 1, 2018
From Lucy Duncan at the American Friends Service Commitee:
What if, instead of characterizing folks seeking home as “threats” or “invaders,” we understood them to be our neighbors, that our futures are interlocked and that how they are treated is connected to the well-being of us all? What if we understood love as not constrained by borders or walls, but abundant, and that caring for one another and those most violated by systemic oppression is the pathway toward liberation for us all? What if we, as people of conscience and faith, greeted the migrants at the border as our brothers, sisters, and kin, opened our homes and communities to them, and greeted them as resourceful contributors to figuring out the planetary threats we currently face together?
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/acting-in-faith/freedom-to-seek-sanctuary-quaker-perspective-migrant-caravan
Letter of condolence from Friends General Conference
October 29, 2018
FGC’s Central Committee is meeting this weekend and wrote a letter of condolences to Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, site of the recent shooting
We are deeply saddened by the brutal slaying and injuries to members of your community and the law enforcement officers who intervened in the attack on your congregation on Saturday.
That this violation occurred during your worship together is especially distressing to us. We stand united with all people of faith in praying for everyone affected.
You can read the full piece on Facebook
Friends Committee on National Legislation is also sharing their Principles for Gun Violence Prevention backgrounder, a document that I wish wasn’t newly relevant every other week.
Jeff Kisling: Resist not evil today
August 18, 2018
When looking back to Nazi Germany in the 1930s are we so sure God Could not have found a way?
Henry Cadbury believed the Jewish people should have appealed to the German sense of justice and national conscience. Then those Germans would have stood up for the Jewish people, and prevented the Nazis from acquiring power. The death camps would not have happened.
Many probably think that is naive and could not have worked. But that is what nonviolence is about, connecting with those you are hoping to change. Listening deeply and being willing to change yourself. This is also what faith is about, believing in the presence of God today. Believing that as you listen closely you will be guided by the Inner Light. Believing somehow God will find a way.
There’s a fine line between idealistic naiveté and realistic solidarity. I’m still of the mind that Cadbury should have harbored more cynicism of what was happening as the Nazi Party grew in Germany but I can see Jeff’s point: in 1934, was the future we know inevitable?
Correction: I got my Jeffs mixed up in the original version of this post. This was written by Jeff Kisling.
Quakers minute on the child camps
June 20, 2018
San Antonio Quakers’ minute on child separations
Friends Meeting of San Antonio finds the policy of the present administration of separating children from their families at the border to be shameful and contrary to American values. Further, using the Gospel to claim that “God has ordained” such actions is appalling to us as a people of faith.
A few years ago Friends Journal ran an article on the border humanitarian crisis, co-written by one of San Antonio’s clerks, so we’ve added this weekend’s statement to the article for context.
Friends Journal