In the video interview we talk about navigating controversies—a fight over carpets in the past and struggling with wildly divergent attitudes around COVID policies more recently. I was most interested in how she’s changed over the years. How do you go from a newcomer still trying to understand Quaker lingo to a pillar of the meeting, the kind of person who steps in when something needs to be handled (the short answer is that this happens over time).

— YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and…

www.youtube.com

As an editor I often trim away bullet-point “listicles” in article. They often feel like they’re a remnant of the outline the author used to construct the story. Nothing is lost if I select them a delete. But Nancy’s list at the end really felt like the message I think many of us could take to heart when tempers run high:

1. Stick around. It gets better, and you help make it happen.
2. Love anyway, and forgive. It’s the only way.
3. Nurture each other tenderly, and listen to each other. We are all carriers of Truth.
4. Know that the Spirit is present and will transform us as we are open.

I was remiss in sharing the March Quakers Today podcast, which looked at Quakers, Birds, and Justice. Friends have long been especially interested in the natural world. One of the interviewees is Rebecca Heider, who wrote A Quaker Guide to Birdwatching in last month’s issue of FJ.

It has been the task of the whole meeting not just of one or two; there has been an awareness that what they are doing now will need to change and evolve. And there has been a care and nourishing of us as parents too, with our own spiritual journeys and need for nurture.

I know, from talking to other Quaker parents – and, very sadly, from parents who would love to explore Quakerism but who have felt discouraged or unwelcomed – that we have been particularly lucky. Lucky not because we found a Quaker community with a ready-made children’s meeting, but because we found a meeting willing and ready to welcome, to make space, where there was a sense of gladness that we were there.

Welcoming families in meetings

How do we rejoice in the presence of children in our meetings and nurture their spiritual growth? Alistair…

Quakers

I don’t want to exaggerate the ease of the transition. I remember an elderly Friend who opposed a proposal to hold business meetings at another time than the Sunday school hour. She argued — and I think this is nearly verbatim — “We tried that back in 1937 and it didn’t work.” As much as I wanted to laugh out loud, I had to acknowledge that her entire history at the meeting exemplified selfless service.

https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/03/trustworthy-part-four-churches-choices.html

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)

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

www.nytimes.com

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.

From the exterior, there may not appear to be very much different between a group of individuals doing individual meditation or individual contemplation in the same room and a group of Quaker worshiping together. But there are a number of things that are, as we experience them, different. One is that these practices that have as their goal achieving stillness of mind or perfect quiet or single-pointed awareness, as a goal, are actually quite different from what we are attempting and achieving in meeting for worship. For Friends, this point of stillness is only a way station, and we pass though that. It is not our goal, but it is how we get to a point of encounter with God.
 
http://quakerspeak.com/why-do-quakers-worship-in-silence/

It is through prophecy, through continuing revelation, that the Religious Society of Friends moves forward into God’s next work for us. And we very often get our first inkling of that new truth from someone’s vocal ministry, in a meeting for worship, or a meeting for worship with attention to the life of the meeting, or in a consultation or Triennial or world gathering or FGC Gathering,

The Importance of Vocal Ministry: Prophecy and Continuing Revelation