I love complicated identities like this. There’s a lot of discernment that goes on about how to incorporate Indigenous and Quaker elements into life. For many, it seems a surprisingly natural fit. This is true elsewhere, in parts of Africa and South America, where missionary Quakers’ beliefs meshed with the belief systems of pre-colonial ethnic groups, allowing an easy transition.
Also of interest is that these meetings are all Christian, which demographers tell us is the norm for Native Americans today.1 Decolonialism means something very different for those who are committed to hold on to Christianity.
Early blogging was slower, less beholden to the hourly news cycle, and people were more inclined to talk about personal enthusiasms as well as what was going on in the world because blogs were considered an individual enterprise, not necessarily akin to a regular publication.
I appreciate her comments on invested readers. The number of people who were part of the “Quaker blogosphere” back in day was not that large but something about the crucible of the writing and debating meant that they developed ideas that have outsized influence today. The same sorts of conversations continue to happen today in corners of Facebook, Reddit, and Discord but there’s not the same sort of feeling of shared community.
I mentioned this back in May but there’s still time to join “Christ and Creation: Illuminate Bible Study” this Saturday, October 18, an online Bible study co-sponsored by Barclay Press and the Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke study centers. I’ll be one of the panelists talking.
It’s pay-as-led so come join us if you’re available. When it starts depends on where you are of course. It’s 11:00 am here on the U.S. East Coast, which translates to 4pm UK time and 8am Pacific Time. It will last about two hours. You can sign up with either Woodbrooke or Pendle Hill.
I don’t know what my Lutheran grandmother would make of seeing my name on a Bible curriculum. She always judged my mom for not churching me and had a bit of a sneer when she would describe me as a “Bible illiterate” right in front of me.
“Speaking into the Silence” from the August 1991 Friends Journal.
People have been commenting a lot on this chart Friends Journal shared on social media last week. Originally published in the August 1991 issue, what I love most about it is its 1990s-era flowchart design. What would it be today — some punchy infographic perhaps? We dove into the archives because this month’s issue is all about Quaker vocal ministry and at least two of the feature articles mention these kinds of charts.
There is a frequently reproduced diagram that graphically guides potential speakers through a series of questions they are to consider when they feel an urge to rise and speak. These examine whether a potential message is divinely inspired; whether it is intended for the speaker alone or for others present; and whether this is the right time and place to deliver it. These resources are all useful, but they only address one half of the act of vocal ministry: one that is, by far, the smaller and perhaps less important portion. The other part is the ministry of listening, and we are all called to be listening ministers.
Since the beginning of the Religious Society of Friends, written advices have guided Friends. Yearly meetings’ faith and practice books, Pendle Hill pamphlets on vocal ministry, and individual monthly meetings’ “Welcome to Quaker Worship” handouts have guidelines for speaking or not speaking in meeting for worship. In 2019, Friends General Conference even published a poster of a circle flow chart with guidelines for delivering a message during worship.
This version is below. Yes, it is very 2020’s infographical in design! (PDF; a similar version was produced for a Pendle Hill pamphlet by FGC staff Barry Crossno and Brent Bill, PDF).
But I link to the articles because these kinds of when-to-speak kind of charts can always become problematic. As Betsy Cazden replied on Twitter: “The people who need it least will spend the full hour obsessing about the flow-chart and will never speak. The people who need it most never will.” Just a few weeks ago I was sitting on a bench in Cropwell (N.J.) Meeting testing and retesting my motivations and leadings to rise and give ministry. I gave a final breath to stand up when I heard the “good morning Friends” followed by the sounds of hands slapping on hands in rise-of-meeting handshakes. Over the years I have learned not spend my whole hour obsessing but had not realized this meeting’s worship was only 45 minutes!
Further reading: An Expected Miracle, a 2023 post about the (often unnecessary) pressures of Quaker ministry.
The March 2022 issue of Friends Journal, Safety in Meetings, has brought up important questions and ideas for Friends concerned with pastoral care and abuse prevention. How do we recognize when the unthinkable happens; how do we heal? How can we be open and welcoming to all people; do clear boundaries and community expectations contribute to that? Is there a Quaker witness to protect the vulnerable in our community?
Our panelists are QPCC’s Bruce Heckman and Friends Journal authors Kody Hersh (Sacred Responsibility), Jade Rockwell (Sheep Among Wolves), Melinda Wenner Bradley and Sita Diehl (Friendship and Care), joined by facilitators from both Friends Journal and QPCC.
Big props to FJ’s volunteer co-news editor Windy Cooler, who’s been organizing all this (she also conducted an interview for the issue).
Over forty people came to the presentation. It was quite moving and itself modeled a caring community. I’m grateful to see this issue be getting more attention from Friends. It was not recorded, for privacy’s sake, but there will be follow up.
The longtime peace activist is interviewed on QuakerSpeak:
I’ve chosen nonviolence and nonviolent action as a means of social change partly because I believe that we’re all God’s children. We’re all brothers and sisters, and an injury to any person is an injury to me. We’re all related. So it’s morally right and it’s trying to walk our talk that love is not just something to talk about with your little family — the world is our family.
David’s all over the Friends Journal websites right week. Last week the magazine published his account of needing emergency heart surgery while on a friendship visit in Iran. True to form, he made it a teachable moment by using it to explain how American sanctions hurt everyday Iranians (I’m happy to report everything turned out okay). His most recent book is Waging Peace; FJ’s former senior editor Bob Dockhorn reviewed it in 2015.
I think about the people I’ve cared about who have needed to talk to themselves and make noises. Who need to pace and say things we don’t understand. Spirit is moving through them, in this incarnational way. Reminding them they still have bodies that can make noises, that they still can breath words into being.
Johan Maurer has put together a survey for Friends to talk about setting up trustworthy churches:
A lot of Quaker energy has gone into reassuring skeptics and wounded refugees that we Friends are not like “those people,” referring to the zealots, authoritarians, and religious entrepreneurs who have sometimes given faith a bad name. But what are we affirmatively promising? And how do we increase our capacity to keep our promises and become more trustworthy?
Friends Journal 
Elizabeth Spiers