Comments on: Turning workshops into worship

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:30:24 +0000

Unbeknownst to me, FGC staffer Emily Stewart snapped a picture of the “intergenerational post-interest group interest group”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/26138485@N00/191745334/in/pool-16654293@N00/.

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:12:50 +0000

*Hey Kwakersaur*: oooh, what’s your workshop on?!? Not like I can really afford a trip north but I’m sure we’d all love to live it vicariously here. I have to admit I’m not too good at convening committees myself (in this way I’m still very much a ranter). Part of the (healthy) challenge for me when working with others is the giving up of my over-developed desire for control (e.g., in the case of the interest group I had to resist my occasional desires to completely rewrite the description in Martin-speak!). I think there’s something important in the Quaker/Christian process of doing things in two’s (was it you who blogged about that last year?) and I’d like to get away from completely solo work in the future.
*Hi Wess*: I think a healthy sign of whatever movement we’re noticing here is that we all can’t be at every event, but I’m still bummed I won’t be with you next month!
*Hey Delonna*: don’t blame me. The latest Quakerquaker links are from “Robin”:http://www.quakerquaker.org/contributors_robin_m/, “Wess”:http://www.quakerquaker.org/contributors_c_wess_daniels/ and “Johan”:http://www.quakerquaker.org/contributors_johan_maurer/!

By: Delonna

Delonna — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:58:01 +0000

Martin! What have you done!?!? I had planned on getting to my classroom to do some work but have spent all morning on quakerquaker!! It is all so inspiring and exciting and… wow!! Thank you.

By: C. Wess Daniels

C. Wess Daniels — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:12:01 +0000

Martin, Great post and it’s good for me to hear about how this went especially as I am preparing for our gathering in August. I will be using these ideas.

By: kwakersaur (aka david)

kwakersaur (aka david) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 19:55:39 +0000

Thank you for this posting.
I will be facilitating a workshop in April. And it had not occurred to me to seek a committe of committed Friends to meet with me as I plan my agenda(s) and undergird this work in waiting worship.

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:17:00 +0000

Hi Paul & Robin, Don't give me too much credit for speed: the core experience I've written about here happened five months ago! I was able to include last week's interest group only because I had been chewing through similar workshop dynamics since February. Shaman? Well, I haven't spent enough time with Inuits to speak to their spiritual practices (grin!); my attempts at ministry are indebted most to teachers like Bownas and Woolman (I was called for jury duty today and spent my hurry-up-and-wait hours reading Woolman's account of his stormy ocean crossing in steerage; it made the non-air-conditioned-but-otherwise-comfortable Atlantic City Courthouse seem okay). It seems to me that many Westerners writing about non-Western spiritualities are really writing about their own but I still I wouldn't be surprised if _islumatook_ had similarities with expectant Quaker worship. It's the same Light that promises to teach us all, after all. I very much doubt I could repeat either of these experiences and I don't think I'd want to be able to: the real point is not what workshop leaders want but what God wants for us; all we can ever do to facilitate that is to hold as close to the Guide as we can.

By: Robin M.

Robin M. — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 14:09:58 +0000

Thanks Martin for getting this up so quickly. I tried, but I found that I couldn’t write about anything that was happening until we were on our way home. Yesterday I was scribbling in my notebook in the airport. I just got home last night, and I’m glad that Friends are beginning to find their ways to post about FGC.
Robin

By: Paul L

Paul L — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 01:24:33 +0000

Nice report, Martin. I'm amazed at how quickly you could process & get it up. I've been reeling for days after. There's a passage in Barry Lopez's book Arctic Dreams where he describes what some Arctic natives call an "islumatook" (this may be misspelled; I don't have the book with me). He says it's usually translated as "shaman", but that it really has a literal meaning of "one who creates the space in which wisdom can be revealed." That's what you guys did on Monday night.