Author Archives ⇒ Martin Kelley

Young Friends in UK write a Trans and Non-binary Statement

March 6, 2019
· Martin Kelley

This seems part­ly in response to con­tro­ver­sies around anti-trans fem­i­nists book­ing Quak­er meet­ing­hous­es for talks.

YFGM aims to be a wel­com­ing and acces­si­ble space for peo­ple of all gen­der iden­ti­ties where peo­ple feel includ­ed and oppres­sive behav­iour is not accept­ed. We recog­nise we have fur­ther work to do includ­ing some more imme­di­ate changes, and cre­at­ing space to nur­ture deep­er cul­tur­al changes with­in both YFGM and the wider Soci­ety of Friends. 

http://​yfgm​.quak​er​.org​.uk/​d​o​c​s​/​t​r​a​n​s​-​a​n​d​-​n​o​n​-​b​i​n​a​r​y​-​s​t​a​t​e​m​e​nt/

Never Having Set Foot in the Meetinghouse

March 5, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Yohannes “Knowl­edge” John­son is a mem­ber of Bulls Head — Oswego Meet­ing even though he has nev­er set foot in the meet­ing­house. He has­n’t because he’s been a guest of the New York State prison sys­tem for almost forty years (mur­der and attempt­ed mur­der in 1980). John­son talks about how he cen­ters and par­tic­i­pates despite the walls and bars sur­round­ing him:

Cen­ter­ing is always a wel­come chal­lenge, for, as one would expect, prison can be a noisy place and com­pet­ing con­ver­sa­tions can be over­whelm­ing. What I do is draw myself into the pic­tures and focus upon the images and peo­ple there­in. I have accom­pa­ny­ing pic­tures of places vis­it­ed by Friends and sent to me over the years with scenery that, for me as a per­son raised on the con­crete pave­ments of New York City, gives me visions of nat­ur­al beau­ty with­out the clut­ter of build­ing struc­tures and the like. 


Just a moment...

Just a moment… 

www.friendsjournal.org www​.friend​sjour​nal​.org

Why are Kenya’s Quakers ‘noisy’?

March 5, 2019
· Martin Kelley

From the BBC of all places:

While known as a tra­di­tion­al­ly qui­et com­mu­ni­ty with­in Chris­tian­i­ty, in Kenya their gath­er­ings are loud and proud. For some, being ‘noisy’ is the rea­son young peo­ple are still being attract­ed to the Church. 

https://​www​.bbc​.co​.uk/​p​r​o​g​r​a​m​m​e​s​/​p​0​7​2​k​cm0

Another Quaker(ish) president?

March 4, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Because the Quak­er pres­i­den­tial track record is so dis­tin­guished (Her­bert Hoover, Richard Nixon) maybe it’s time to put anoth­er Quak­er into the Oval Office. John Hick­en­loop­er, for­mer gov­er­nor of Col­orado and raised in the Philly sub­urbs, has thrown his hat into the ring.

Back in 2010 he told the Philadel­phia Inquir­er he and his wife were reg­u­lar meet­ing atten­ders liv­ing “Quak­er val­ues” but when Friends Jour­nal reached out to him a few years ago it sound­ed like he no longer iden­ti­fied as a Friend.


John Hickenlooper Says He Is Running in 2020, Citing a ‘Crisis of Division’ (Published 2019)

John Hick­en­loop­er Says He Is Run­ning in 2020, Cit­ing a ‘Cri­sis of Divi­sion’ (Pub­lished 2019) 

The for­mer Col­orado gov­er­nor joins a crowd­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic field. Even in his home state, there is skep­ti­cism that…
www.nytimes.com www​.nytimes​.com

Trustworthy, part one: the cost of betrayal

March 4, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Johan Mau­r­er on abus­es in our meetings:

As far as I know, the final set­tle­ment in that case was nev­er made pub­lic. In a larg­er sense, the “final set­tle­ment” demand­ed by God’s grace and jus­tice will nev­er be mea­sured in dol­lars, but there is some­thing sat­is­fy­ing about know­ing that mon­ey was involved: almost noth­ing slices through pious mis­di­rec­tion or sophistry like cold cash. But it’s also true that cash does­n’t cut deeply enough. 

I’m still uncon­vinced we’re all doing enough to bring day­light to skele­tons in our clos­ets or heal­ing to vic­tims. Law­suits make every­one clam up, yet they too often seem to be the only mech­a­nism for shed­ding light on the sit­u­a­tion in the first place.

https://​blog​.canyoube​lieve​.me/​2​0​1​9​/​0​2​/​t​r​u​s​t​w​o​r​t​h​y​-​p​a​r​t​-​o​n​e​-​c​o​s​t​-​o​f​-​b​e​t​r​a​y​a​l​.​h​tml

The Religious SocieChildren of Prophets or Children of Propheticide?

February 19, 2019
· Martin Kelley

A stren­u­ous­ly and lengthi­ly argued dun­ci­a­tion of the fal­l­en­ness of mod­ern Friends, this piece is argued almost exclu­sive­ly from books. It’s inter­est­ing (and much of it is unde­ni­ably true) though the author seem unable to imag­ine thst there might be some sparks of authen­tic­i­ty and propheti­cism still burning.

The fol­low­ing post was writ­ten by Blake Everitt, a Friend the UK and mem­ber of the newly-formed Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Quak­ers. This essay explores the prophet­ic and apoc­a­lyp­tic nature of ear­ly Quak­erism, and sketch­es out how mid­dle class revi­sion­ism took over the Reli­gious Soci­ety of Friends. 

The Reli­gious Soci­ety of Friends: Chil­dren of Prophets or Chil­dren of Propheticide?

Quakerly competition?

February 13, 2019
· Martin Kelley

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!


Just a moment...

Just a moment… 

www.friendsjournal.org www​.friend​sjour​nal​.org

Belonging and difference

February 13, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Gil S on con­ti­nu­ity and change:

Many of us find dif­fi­cul­ty in fac­ing change. The way a meet­ing house is arranged and the way Quak­er faith is expressed have both changed over time. There have always been those who find it dif­fi­cult if not impos­si­ble to let go of what has gone before. In my local meet­ing I always sit in the same place and acknowl­edge that I find change dif­fi­cult, but in spite of this there are ways in which I have changed. 

I sus­pect part of thr con­text of this is the hopes and fears of British Friends as they embark on a reci­sion of their book of Faith and Prac­tice. An edit­ing group has recent­ly been named.

https://​stum​bling​step​ping​.blogspot​.com/​2​0​1​9​/​0​2​/​b​e​l​o​n​g​i​n​g​-​a​n​d​-​d​i​f​f​e​r​e​n​c​e​.​h​tml