Brian Drayton
This activity is seen as somehow presenting a paradox. How could Friends square all this outward activity (both the self-interested and the philanthropic) wit
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Author Archives ⇒ Martin Kelley
Polarization
January 31, 2019
Lynn Fitz-Hugh on polarization and conflict within a Quaker meeting:
But also being new to the Meeting it was very clear to me that the conflict like some sort of bull dozer was pushing up to the light of day all the dark places, all the dysfunctioning and broken places in the Meeting. And it becomes increasingly clear that there is no way through this conflict without fixing all the broken places….which if we fail will leave us shattered and if we succeed will make us stronger and vastly better as a community.
https://thefriendlyseeker.blogspot.com/2019/01/polarization.html
What is our vocation?
January 25, 2019
From Johan Maurer, a return to a question he first pondered twelve years ago: do Quakers have a vocation among the larger body of Christians? There’s lots of good observations about our spiritual gifts, like this one:
A community empowered by spiritual gifts is not culturally narrow. This assertion is backed by vast hopes and very little experience. Many Friends meetings and churches yearn for cultural and racial diversity, but seem to be stuck arguing about theoretical ideals rather than choosing to examine hurdles: location, unintended or unexamined “we-they” messages (no matter how benevolent or progressive the intention), and a tendency to see non-members as objects of service rather than co-equal participants already part of “us” in God’s story. But most of all, I believe that spiritual power unites while cerebral analysis divides.
https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/01/what-is-our-vocation.html
What is Renewal?
January 19, 2019
From Transition Quaker:
The Quaker way offers us a key to recognising what is authentic within any religious tradition, including Christianity, and distinguishing it from the distortions of power, privilege, literalism and dogmatism that tend to corrupt every human enterprise. Whatever stories and images display the guiding power of the Inward Light, in any tradition, can help to reveal the life of the Spirit and encourage us to encounter it for ourselves.
transitionquaker.blogspot.com The rise and fall of Harmonia, Battle Creek’s Spiritualist utopia
January 16, 2019
A nice profile on a Quaker community in Michigan that went full-in in Spiritualism:
As they came west, a number brought Spiritualism with them. A lot of liberal Quakers were very interested in Spiritualism. Battle Creek had a Quaker base, they predominated for a while. They converted to Spiritualism as a body, and Battle Creek became this southwest Michigan center for Spiritualism.
Quakera were among many of rhe early leaders of the Spiritualist movement; while it eventually mostly burned out, a lot of the ideas about authority and spiritual diversity in turn influenced Hicksite Friends.
https://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/life/2019/01/16/rise-and-fall-harmonia-battle-creeks-spiritualist-utopia/2214809002/?fbclid=IwAR2veCNZVtIzlqSkaLs152yCp0x3vjiJvmil3TBBbfOk95P0eGPYjKSrmmU
Life after Death
January 14, 2019
Rhiannon Grant on Liberal Quakers’ view on the afterlife:
Spending some more time with this idea, including during Meeting for Worship, I realised that I actually have a strong intuition against there being any form of life after death. Not only do I not think that any life which may or may not occur after death should affect my actions now (I don’t do things because I want to get into heaven or generate good karma for my next life, and nor do I accept eschatological verification), I actively think it’s unlikely, even impossible, that such a thing exists.
Friends Journal devoted an issue to The Art of Dying and the Afterlife a few years ago, including an introduction I wrote.
Decolonizing Quaker faith
January 11, 2019
An AFSC interview with Oskar Castro:
Me as a Puerto Rican coming into Quakerism, I find a lot of white paradigms, silence in and of itself is not exclusively colonialism, but I think the way that Quakers sometimes lean into silence beyond the spiritual side of it, the conflict avoidance side of being a Quaker, these are the things that don’t necessarily resonate with me, culturally speaking
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/acting-in-faith/quakers-afsc-oskar-castro
Lost Bayard Rustin interview
January 10, 2019
The Making Gay History podcast featuring Quaker Civil Rights Bayard Rustin is available now:
The challenge we faced in telling Rustin’s story in a Making Gay History episode was the apparent absence of any recordings where he talked about his experiences as a gay man. But thanks to the dogged researching efforts of Sara Burningham and the generosity of Rustin’s surviving partner, Walter Naegle, who recorded and saved the rare interviews Rustin gave on the subject of his sexuality, we’re able to bring this aspect of Rustin’s experience to life through his own voice.
https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/bayard-rustin/