Tag Archives ⇒ place

What is a Quaker Book of Faith and Practice?

June 20, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Thomas Hamm is one of the most lit­er­ary Quak­er­S­peak inter­vie­wees — you could prob­a­bly take his raw tran­script and pub­lish it as a Friends Jour­nal arti­cle. But it’s good to have a YouTube-accessible expla­na­tion of one of the only for­mal com­pendi­ums of belief and prac­tices that we creed-adverse Friends pro­duce. It’s also fas­ci­nat­ing to learn how the pur­pose and struc­ture of Faith and Prac­tice has dif­fered over time, geog­ra­phy, and theology.

What do Quak­ers believe? How do we prac­tice our faith? The best place to look for the answers might be in a book of faith and prac­tice. Here’s what they are and how they evolved over time.

What is a Quak­er Book of Faith and Practice?

What Does the Outside Say?

March 7, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Also in Friends Jour­nal’s issue, “Out­side the Meet­ing­house,” a piece from Brad Stock­er of Mia­mi Meet­ing in Florida:

Most Friends have an under­stand­ing of the archi­tec­tur­al mes­sage that our meet­ing­hous­es express. We under­stand the sim­plic­i­ty of the struc­ture. We under­stand the rea­son there are no steeples or cross­es on the out­side and why we have clear win­dows placed so as to invite the light to enter. We are equal­ly sen­si­tive to inte­ri­or design. While we come into fre­quent, inti­mate con­tact with the meet­ing­house exte­ri­or, and the land it sits on, we may be less aware of the mes­sage they convey. 

There may be a lit­tle whiplash to talk about but­ter­fly gar­dens after the recent arti­cle on Quak­er wor­ship from prison but I like the inten­tion­al­i­ty of Stock­er’s obser­va­tions: we are always mak­ing state­ments with the care (or non-care) of our phys­i­cal space. Miami’s the kind of coastal city where cli­mate change is very much not a the­o­ret­i­cal issue and Stock­er is very involved in his year­ly meet­ing’s earth­care edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives. The meet­ing­house grounds are a place to mod­el good stew­ard­ship; tak­ing the care to have them be invit­ing and qui­et­ly demon­stra­tive of Quak­er val­ues is impor­tant outreach.

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. 


Never Having Set Foot in the Meetinghouse

Nev­er Hav­ing Set Foot in the Meetinghouse 

When the meet­ing­house is on the oth­er side of state prison walls.

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

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

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

Top 10 Quakers in fiction

January 9, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Although the title gives poten­tial read­ers the impres­sion that this is yet anoth­er click-bait lis­ti­cle, the arti­cle is by a Quak­er nov­el­ist and starts with nice obser­va­tions about Friends and creativity:

In the light of our high ideals, it can be hard for indi­vid­ual Quak­ers not to feel inad­e­quate. I cer­tain­ly do. We’re exhort­ed to “let our lives speak”, and I often feel like my life doesn’t have much to say. But I am a writer. As a com­mu­ni­ty that lis­tens patient­ly for the truth, Quak­ers pro­vide a unique place for cre­ativ­i­ty. The faith that can sit through hours of Meet­ing – through bore­dom, frus­tra­tion, dis­trac­tion – is the same thing that keeps me going when I’m strug­gling for my next idea. We wor­ship in silence, but we’re wait­ing for words, which some­how gives me faith that, if I wait in front of a blank page for long enough, the right sto­ry will come. 

https://​www​.the​guardian​.com/​b​o​o​k​s​/​2​0​1​9​/​j​a​n​/​0​9​/​t​o​p​-​1​0​-​q​u​a​k​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​f​i​c​t​i​o​n​?​C​M​P​=​t​w​t​_gu

Genesis: Outer Space and Inner Light, by

November 20, 2018
· Martin Kelley

John A. Mina­han has writ­ten this week’s fea­tured Friends Jour­nal arti­cle, a nice­ly paced explo­ration that touch­es on per­son­al mem­oir, human mile­stones, cul­tur­al mem­o­ry, and the Book of Genesis:

Now the astro­nauts had used that same rhetor­i­cal strat­e­gy but on a plan­e­tary and even inter­plan­e­tary scale. Speak­ing the words of Gen­e­sis, they sent a mes­sage of heal­ing to a wound­ed world; they expressed a cer­tain cos­mic humil­i­ty about our place in the uni­verse; and, most of all, they shared good­will, jaw-dropping in its sim­plic­i­ty, with “all of you on the good earth.” A moral and exis­ten­tial vision took hold of me in that moment and has nev­er let go. Though I couldn’t have artic­u­lat­ed it as such then, it was a real­iza­tion of orig­i­nal goodness. 


Genesis: Outer Space and Inner Light

Gen­e­sis: Out­er Space and Inner Light 

Out­er space and Inner Light

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

What is “Clerking Consciousness”?

September 18, 2018
· Martin Kelley

From the new clerk of New York Year­ly Meeting:

If all the world inter­act­ed on the basis of con­sen­sus, the world would be a far bet­ter place. But if all the world func­tioned on the basis of sense of the meet­ing, as Friends do, the world would be a very dif­fer­ent place alto­geth­er. Every­one would have full respon­si­bil­i­ty to find the best way for­ward for everyone. 

http://​www​.nyym​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​w​h​a​t​-​i​s​-​c​l​e​r​k​i​n​g​-​c​o​n​s​c​i​o​u​s​n​ess