The Loss of a Faithful Servant

A humble giant among modern Friends passed away this weekend: Bill Taber. All of us doing the work of mapping out a "conservative liberal Quakerism" owe a huge debt to Bill. Although others are more qualified to share his biography, I know he taught for many years at Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative)'s Olney Friends School and then for many more years at the Pendle Hill Center outside Philadelphia. He and his wife Fran were instumental in the 1998 founding of the Friends Center retreat and conference center on the campus of Olney.

I had the honor of meeting Bill and Fran once, when they came to lead a meeting retreat. But like so many Friends, Bill's strongest influence has been his writings. Four Doors to Meeting for Worship was his introduction to worship. I'll quote from the "About the Author," since it explains the root of much of his work:

This pamphlet's metaphor of the four doors grew out of his awarness of a need for a more contemporary explanation of "what happens" in a Quaker meeting. He feels this lack of insturction in method has become an increasing problem as modern Friends move farther and farther away from the more pervasive Quaker culture which in earlier generations played such a powerful teaching role, allowing both birthright and convinced Friends to learn the nuances and spiritual methodology of Quakerism largely through osmosis. In sharing this essay Bill hopes to help nurture a traveling, teaching, and prophetic ministry which could reach out and touch people into spiritual growth just when they are ready to receive the teaching.

One of the spiritual methodolgy's Bill shared with his students at Pendle Hill was a collection by a old Quaker minister named Samuel Bownas--regular readers of this site know how important Bownas's Descriptions of the Qualifications has been to me. But other books of his have been invalable too: his history of Ohio Yearly Meeting shared the old culture of the yearly meeting with great stories and gentle insight.

Bill Taber might have passed from his earthly body Friday morning but the work he did in the world will continue. May we all have the grace to be as faithful to the Teacher as he was.