September 2009
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FWCC: Flooding in Phillipines and the death of... →
Report from Friends in the Phillipines: “All Friends Churches in Pasig and nearby town are under flood. All members of the Friends church are affected. Our houses including mine are totally destroyed by the 15-18 feet of water.” Includes donation information.
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Life-force Laurie on sharing Quakerism on Social... →
I am, by no means, claiming myself as a missionary. And I have no need to convert anyone from their belief systems or religious traditions. I am only expressing the Light of Friends, as I know it, and that at times has a really nice bonus attached to it. The bonus that others can learn about what Quakers do, that they are not just guys on an oatmeal box, that they have testimonies that are real...
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Wee Dragon on the limits of self-sufficientcy →
These past two months I have been faced with some of the worst parts of myself. I have really seen a clear picture of how, apart from G-d, I am completely incapable of love and sacrifice. Part of my spiritual failings in the past have been that I am chronically self-sufficient. I always see my opinions and my WAY as right. Trouble is, that WAY is always changing, because no matter which WAY I...
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On QQ: Michael asks about "Simplicity in Food" →
Does anyone here similarly feel called by God to eat simply? I don’t mean to be vegetarian or vegan (which I certainly see as valuable as well). I mean to eat just to satisfy your need for nourishment and not for pleasure. I have often felt this calling, but have just recently began to take it more seriously. I want to get to the bottom of it.
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Scott Wells and the "Or-Else" Church →
Universalist Christian minister Scott Wells has been having an interesting series on his new blog this week: the “Or-Else” church, where he looks at the challenges of liberal church planting.
The reason for this exercise is obvious. Unitarian Universalists (and other liberals) aren’t good at gathering churches, even though successive generations of new churches are necessary for a...
Sliding Horizontal Banner Rotator →
Description: “Greatest ever sliding banner rotator!” which display you images/swf with cool sliding effect. Banner can play sequential or random. This banner have all features that you need. Read…
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Eileen Flanagan: Gender and Spiritual Writing →
A man who has written about and read spiritual books for decades… mentioned at the end of our hour-long conversation that most of the readers of his site and of spiritual books in general are women, yet most of the writers of such books are men. He was happy to help promote a female spiritual writer, pointing out a passage in my book about paying attention to our bodies and our dreams that...
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LizOpp's wonders if she's one of the few Quakers... →
These are not gifts that I came to Quakers with. No: these are gifts that, with God’s love and with the piercing and firm eldership of the wider world of Friends for over more than 15 years, I have grown into. Here are a few specific reflections about my experience, both as clerk of the committee as well as being a participant of it.
Levar Burton: My Living Nightmare Of Encouraging... →
A guest piece in The Onion by the long-time host of Reading Rainbow:
Thank god.
After 26 long years, I can finally rest easy. Twenty-six years I spent standing in front of a camera, gritting my teeth, and shilling the latest works of every hack children’s book author imaginable. For 26 years, I’ve told kids they could open a magical door to another world just by reading a book, when...
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Wess: Jesus and the New Family, pt 2 →
In Jesus’ command to “hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,” there is an utterance that breathes into existence a new family, one that is not bound by blood, protection, patriarchalism, or possessions, but one that is completely voluntary, rooted in practices of the kingdom of God like hospitality and generosity, and marked by love for enemies. This is truly a love...
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Obama’s Clove ban creates crisis in Emerging... →
“According to many sources, young emerging Christians need some safe way to rebel. They are not interested in experimenting with drugs, promiscuous sex or even real cigarettes, so they have chosen microbrew beer, R-rated movies, Coldplay and cloves. It makes them feel rebellious as they question their parents’ belief system, but they don’t have to go too far down the road of dangerous...
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One Quaker Timothy: Progress and the journey... →
While I don’t know that “the world” or “history” is headed in a certain direction (how could I possibly know that?) I do know that my spiritual condition—my relationship with Christ and the ramifications of that for me and others—is developing in a predictable direction. That same process, heading in the same direction, is described by Friends (and others)...
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Laurie K proclaims a "Grand Re-Opening" of her... →
A sudden burst of creative enthusiam has led me to start up this blog once again! This blog was originally intended to focus on Quaker matters and my emerging joy, questions, and current discussions concerning these matters. I now feel a sort of leading to move back in that direction, and I hope you will join me in these topics.
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LizOpp reminds us that the Quaker blogger book... →
Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader
Printed: 277 pages, 5.83” x 8.26”, perfect binding, black and white interior ink. Paperback: $19.98
Description: This book brings to print the online conversation that has been mending the historical schisms in Quakerism. The contemporary writing by 32 bloggers shatters the stereotypes of who the “real” Quakers are and...
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The Journal of Elias Hicks, new from Inner Light... →
From the Publisher’s site:
For 175 years, the prevailing image of Elias Hicks has been a false one. His opponents in the Religious Society of Friends have successfully misrepresented him as denying Christ and the scriptures. In his last year of life, Hicks reluctantly penned a reply to these charges, recounting in his journal how God had ordered his life. But the published Journal was...
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Sheffield Gordon: Spiritual journey to nowhere →
I have now more or less abandoned the metaphor of ‘Journey’ for talking about my spirituality and experiences. This is because I find that the metaphor is not only no longer useful, but detrimental. It encourages linear thinking and the idea of some sort of progress to some goal - the end of the journey. This in turns leads to an over emphasis on self at the expense of community and...
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Shawna comes out" about homosexuality →
No, I’m not gay. But there’s a closet that I think a lot of Christians find themselves in. And I think it’s about time I came out of it. So, um, here goes. Gulp. *Deep sigh* Homosexuality is not a sin. There. I feel better already. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and laugh. I know this is not exactly a ground-breaking idea. I know that plenty of other Christians before me have said it. But it’s not a done...
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“Finally I’d like to mention something I’ve noticed about my...”
– My wife Julie on her Catholic blog: Lest we wonder, where are the “younger people”
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Internet culture w/o the Internet? An Amish paper... →
An intern who spent time studying the Amish paper The Budget found it’s culture already mirrored the internet:
By assembling detailed reports from around the country, Ms. Best said, the editors of The Budget “have been doing for 100 years what we have only been doing recently — looking at news on the hyperlocal scale and asking each person what is on your mind,” she said in an interview...
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Is this the top US commander in Afghanistan saying... →
Yes, it’s coated in a kind of diplomatic double-speak, but listen to it:
“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible,” General McChrystal writes.
This is an eight year war and the US’s top general is saying he...
Flashbacks: Aging Youth, Vanity Googling, War... →
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Listening to WDW Radio podcast about Walt Disney...
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Eileen Flanagan: Leadings and confronting our own... →
Recently, however, there has been an uncomfortable sense that God is calling us to make and advocate for changes more difficult and radical than adding solar panels or a green roof…. The willingness to confront both our own failings and the ways of the prevailing culture are among the qualities that have enabled Quakers to influence history out of proportion to our numbers.
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Emerging Diane on the pride of some modern Friends →
When I first came to Quakers, I experienced the insider/outsider divide, and would have fled, had I not had a strong sense of calling. I was astonished at how self-congratulatory some Quakers were about the simple fact of being Quaker. Pride. I wouldn’t be surprised if a century from now Quakers won’t look back at this period of their history with embarrassment or shame.
Rosh Hashanah →
The Jewish New Year starts tonight at sunset. I grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood, so for me these holidays were the time when half the class would be out and the teacher would give us light-weight busy work. Nice to actually learn a little bit about what they actually mean, especially now that I’ve read Leviticus, where God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel:
“In the...
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Michael Birkel: Early Friends and Scripture →
Early Quaker writings, filled as they are with Scripture, beckon us to read the Bible as early Friends did. How can we embrace their way of reading and make it our own? As I’ve tried to explore this way of reading, I have become persuaded that such reading was an exercise of attention, memory and openness to the presence of God.
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“Google Maps will just sort of scroll if you press the arrow keys. It’ll roll,”...”
– Two guys who did a real-time, nine day road trip across country via Google Streetview. and uSTream. Insane but insanely obsessive too. Via NYTimes.com.
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“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you...”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 22
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Quaking Harlot James: Standoffishness at Meeting →
I had been coming to this meeting on and off for three years—and yet almost no one even recognized me. That there is the core group of people at any meeting, that they do it all, and complain about how hard it is to get more people involved. Yet, they can be so standoff-ish. That no one attempts to talk with others after meeting.
