July 2009
British Quakers agree to record and recognise same... →
Quakers in Britain today concluded a long and profound process of discernment about the way forward for Quaker marriage and approach to same sex partnerships.
Johan Mauer with disciplines than can help us go... →
Preferring depth over more and better is something that many of us would find difficult. If our meeting or church waited for action until everyone had been in that deep place where we meet God, we…
Peterson Toscano on the British minute on same-sex... →
This will not be the first time British Quakers stirred up the marriage waters or took on the gay issue. Early on in the late 1700s Quakers refuse to get married by priests of the established church
Free as in Friend →
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Quaker Sues U.S. for Recognition of Conscientious... →
A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms.
Click for video:
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Timothy T on the process of a new Faith & Practice →
This process should not have the Committee on the Faith and Practice at its center. It should not be a discussion, a “negotiation,” between “this” group of Friends and the Committee and then “that” group of Friends and the Committee with the Committee—in the end—trying to reconcile it all to the satisfaction of all. The process should be, rather,...
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Wee Dragon: When does Quakerism become not Quaker? →
The original intention of these pioneering Quakers was that everything shoud be stripped away so that all that was left was G-d, and Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures, and experienced in every person’s heart as our Inner Teacher. George Fox would be rolling in his grave to know that not only has everything been stripped away, but Christianity ITSELF has been stripped away and demolished....
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Embracing Complexity on those times way doesn't... →
But what does it mean when way doesn’t open, at least not easily or immediately? It is tempting to take this as a sign that the path we are trying to take is really not the right one, but is this always the case? If you study historical examples of transitions from injustice to justice, you see that the resistance can be considerable, and the most successful movements are successful because...
Haverford Friends Meeting →
This Quaker meeting sits along Philadelphia’s Main Line suburbs and is making special efforts at outreach. They wanted a design refresh that would allow the heads of committees direct access to…
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Chris M. reporting from Pacific Yearly Meeting →
[The clerk] said we are here as a community of faith. Yet the Spirit blows where it will. Friends need to present their ideas or proposals, then step back and make space for the Spirit to enter. We don’t have a product to create or a goal. We have a process we know works, our Quaker process, and we need to give it space to work.
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WatchShatner Does Palin as Beat Poetry (ht to @davidinindy (of course))
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Brooklyn Rich dreams about the direction of... →
It’s worth noting that ostensibly the dream is about a yearly meeting and its deliberations about its own state. In the dream the yearly meeting is moving downward rapidly and possibly falling. In the dream I am sitting near the back, far from the clerk, nursing doubts and fears that aren’t heard. In the dream the meeting takes place in a classroom, but those of us attending it...
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“You should never do this. It should be illegal.”
– Tom Dingus, referring to study that found texting drivers were twenty-three times more like to be involved in collisions.
Click Ric on digital Quakers and the future →
It seems to me that we are at a critical time for the future of the Religious Society of Friends. Will we continue to just limp along with aging and declining numbers of attenders and members at our…
Colin Saxton talk at Northwest Yearly Meeting to... →
Starts at 7pm US Pacific time.
Daily round-up from Britain Yearly Meeting →
Blog posts and videos about the current annual sessions
Wee Dragon: the draw of plain dress →
Religious dress has always fascinated me, in all of its incarnations. Through my many turns in and out of various religious expressions, I have come to love the idea of dressing in a manner that says, “I belong to Something/Someone Else”. I am a daughter of the King, and I want what I present to the world to be emblematic of that. Here’s the trouble: as a girl who will sit and watch American Idol...
Emerging Diane on "paths up the mountain" metaphor... →
The truism that we are all on “different paths up the same mountain” can be countered with the truism that “the journey is the reward.” As apartheid has shown us, separate but equal doesn’t work….
Valiant Micah's travels to Evangelical Friends'... →
Eastern Region is the original. Here, ever since the Revival experience of the mid-1800s, Friends have greatly emphasized the tradition of Evangelical Protestantism, often at the expense of Friends…
Chris M.: not just pro-peace but anti-war (and... →
A lot of pro-peace people say, “It’s not enough to be against war, you also have to be for peace.” While I agree with that, I can’t help but think: “It’s not enough to be pro-peace, you also have to…
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Jezs on getting Friends into the media →
If it is true that the public at large doesn’t know who Quakers are, then now is as good a time as any for us to raise the Quaker profile in the media, with local stories providing the ‘bread-and-butter’ coverage and some national ‘garnish’ with stories connected to the news.
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Ekklesia: Same-sex commitment controversy likely... →
The event is likely to be dominated by a decision on whether to carry out same-sex commitment ceremonies on the same basis as heterosexual weddings. The change is thought to have the support of a majority of British Quakers, but it is vigorously opposed by a vocal number of people who insist that marriage can only involve individuals of opposite sexes. Rather than voting, Quakers will seek the...
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New Blog: Wee Dragon, "A Quaker Family in Search... →
We have to be careful not to FILL ourselves with so much noise and emotional machinations that we think we are hearing G-d. It is in silence, simplicity and living by the sweat of our own brow that we hear the Spirit working inside of us. The rest of it is just laces and bows. The real garment of G-d is to sit in silence and simplicity before H-m, and see how He speaks with the quiet and still...
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Even mafia goons play Mafia Wars (on Facebook)
Another North Jersey corruption scandal is in the headlines, with that always potent mix of politicians, developers and religious authorities. Curious, I looked up a minor racketeering goon who was part of some research I did a year ago, wondering if he was caught up in today’s events.
I didn’t find any connection but I did find his Facebook profile, newly public due to FB’s...
Britain Yearly Meeting coverage on QuakerQuaker →
Annual sessions starts this weekend! Links to the multiple group blogs, hashtags and other social media goodies.
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Passionate Ashley on the dred of feeling ministry... →
“By Sunday morning, I was in bad shape. I knew I would have to give a message during the worship that morning, but I had no idea what that would be. Worst of all, I could not feel God, not even to be angry with God. I felt desolate and prayed for words, anything to give me an idea of what I was supposed to say.”
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North Carolina Book of Discipline (Faith &... →
Full text online and it’s a relatively short read.
How much continuity is there from this and your yearly meeting’s current book of discipline? If you gave an elevator pitch about what Quakers believe, could you find matching evidence of it in an early Faith & Practice?
A unofficial blog about New York Yearly Meeting... →
From “QuakerPastor,” “a middle aged, Quaker pastoral minister who lives, works and plays in ‘the north country’ of New York state.”
Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering Blog 2009 →
Alice Morningstar Yaxley, Gil Skidmore and other members of the wider QuakerQuaker family are live blogging the yearly meeting!
“Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to...”
– NYTimes: U.S. Withheld Data Showing Cellphone Driving Risks
Among Friends John on daily spiritual practice →
Only God can tell us how often we should set aside time to give ourselves over to a spiritual activity He’s chosen for us. It’s one thing to float through each day’s activities in a mild, pious haze,…
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