Are Quakers Christian?

April 15, 2019

Steven Davi­son takes on one of the trick­i­er ques­tions of mod­ern lib­er­al Quakerism:

I am going to make a bold apol­o­gy for a clar­i­fied lib­er­al Quak­er iden­ti­ty that retains its roots and recov­ers wor­ship in the spir­it of Christ, but yet releas­es us from the ortho­dox Chris­t­ian pre­oc­cu­pa­tions that no longer speak to so many unpro­grammed Friends. 

Are Quak­ers Christian?

Liberty of the Spirit

March 28, 2019

Every once in awhile a Quak­er­S­peak video comes along that reminds me why I was blown away when I first got to know Quak­ers. Ayesha Imani talks about the first time she wor­shiped with Friends: 

I thought I had wan­dered into a group of peo­ple who actu­al­ly believed that God was able to speak direct­ly to them. I remem­ber say­ing, “Oh my God, this is Pen­te­cost!” I couldn’t believe that these peo­ple think God is actu­al­ly gll­l­l­l­lo­ing to speak to them! I’m down for this. This is where I belong. 

Most of the Quak­ers read­ing this can prob­a­bly guess where this is going – she pret­ty quick­ly got a les­son in the unwrit­ten norms against exu­ber­ance at many Quak­er meet­ings, the rules that pre­vent many expres­sions of wor­ship. Ayesha’s Black and many of the stric­tures on behav­ior are pret­ty middle-class white. But a lot of this isn’t real­ly about race. I’ve been led to do some very non-ordinary things at uptight Quak­er meet­ings and feel­ing incred­i­bly self-conscious over it. When I came to Friends, I loved the idea of the rad­i­cal spon­te­nae­ity of our wor­ship (any­one can min­is­ter any­time!) and the life it called us to but in prac­tice we often are crea­tures of habit, to our detri­ment. I love Ayesha’s talk of “exper­i­ment­ing with free­dom” and the “lib­er­ty of the spir­it.” I real­ize my sto­ries of non-ordinariness are all over a decade old. I wish I felt more of that lib­er­ty again.

How Does Cul­ture Influ­ence Quak­er Worship?

Quakerly competition?

February 13, 2019

A quick update that we at Friends Jour­nal have extend­ed the dead­line for an upcom­ing issue on Friends and com­pe­ti­tion. It’s a real­ly inter­est­ing top­ic and I’d like to see some more arti­cles to choose from. In my “Edi­tor’s Desk” post try­ing to drum up writ­ing inter­est, I dug through the FJ archives to find pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sions on the top­ic. I’ll excerpt a few here:

If you look back through Friends Jour­nal archives, you’ll find warn­ings against com­pet­i­tive behav­ior. In 1955 Bess B. Lane of Swarth­more (Pa.) Meet­ing wrote that schools should “Place empha­sis on coop­er­a­tion, shar­ing, rather than on com­pe­ti­tion” and won­dered if “com­pe­ti­tion is being over­stressed in our schools.” In 1972, Christo­pher H. Ander­son, then a senior at Wilm­ing­ton Col­lege, had stronger words. He con­trast­ed his Quak­er edu­ca­tion with pub­lic schools, which he said “breed a social con­for­mi­ty, an intel­lec­tu­al bland­ness and a repug­nant spir­it of competition.”

If you know any­one who is inter­est­ed in the top­ic, please for­ward this along!

Where do we hear God’s voice?

January 3, 2019

Angel­i­ca Brown on min­istry from unex­pect­ed sources:

I think about the peo­ple I’ve cared about who have need­ed to talk to them­selves and make nois­es. Who need to pace and say things we don’t under­stand. Spir­it is mov­ing through them, in this incar­na­tion­al way. Remind­ing them they still have bod­ies that can make nois­es, that they still can breath words into being. 

http://​www​.meet​ing​house​.xyz/​e​v​e​r​y​t​h​i​n​g​/​2​0​1​8​/​1​2​/​3​1​/​w​h​e​r​e​-​d​o​-​w​e​-​h​e​a​r​-​g​o​d​s​-​v​o​ice

Regina Baird Haag on the sharing of vocal ministry

September 19, 2018

Study turns to some­thing more spon­ta­neous after a failed com­put­er save:

Since that Sun­day wor­ship, I have found myself more inclined and respon­sive to lead­ings to share vocal min­istry out of Silence. While I still pre­pare dili­gent­ly when occa­sions to plan to preach arise, meld­ing schol­ar­ship, dai­ly life, and spir­it over time, I am more sen­si­tive and respon­sive to those inner lead­ings and the Spir­it, from which ALL vocal and non-verbal min­istry are born and enlivened.

http://​www​.nyym​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​m​y​-​e​x​p​e​r​i​e​n​c​e​-​s​h​a​r​i​n​g​-​v​o​c​a​l​-​m​i​n​i​s​try

Spirit-led Structures for Quaker Meetings

September 18, 2018

Steven Davi­son urges us to rethink annover-reliance on committees:

This dynam­ic tends to quench the spir­it behind new lead­ings. All of our tes­ti­monies, and con­tin­u­ing rev­e­la­tion in gen­er­al, start out as new — that is, prophet­ic; that is, Spirit-led — con­cerns and lead­ings. They deserve Spirit-led atten­tion and elder­ship, not a buck­et of cold water. 

http://​www​.nyym​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​s​p​i​r​i​t​-​l​e​d​-​s​t​r​u​c​t​u​r​e​s​-​q​u​a​k​e​r​-​m​e​e​t​i​ngs

March 16, 2018

Now I was come up in spir­it through the flam­ing sword into the par­adise of God. All things were new, and all the cre­ation gave anoth­er smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter.

George Fox, 1648