This morning, I was reminded in a very visceral way that I do have enemies, and while I do believe that the Lord is a God of justice, I also know that Jesus has called me out of the business of setting the world straight.
…if we continue down the course we are on as Conservative Friends, our exchange of epistles will soon be a formality - a fiction that masks a lack of real community. I do not believe it is too late to revitalize these relationships, but it will not happen without care and effort on the part of concerned Friends.
As Quakers, we value the equality of all people to hear the voice of God, and this is something I affirm. But I wonder if the ways in which we talk about this lead our young people to think less of pastoral ministry.
Great Plains Yearly Meeting this year gave me much to think about, especially with regards to how our Quaker Christian faith plays out in different cultural contexts. What makes us Friends? Must we adhere to the British cultural heritage of most North American Quakers, or can the gospel as understood by Friends be adapted authentically to non-British, non-Western contexts and cultures?
Truth and Love?
“The question of how a clear corporate witness can be fruitfully combined with a loving and reconciling spirit has never been resolved among Wilburite Friends.”
This is the faith that we on the planning committee had to have in order to stay sane during this planning process: That God is in control, guiding and caring for us as we seek to be instruments for God’s purposes. We have sensed God’s providence in the way the Spirit has spoken to each of our hearts - not only those of us on the planning committee, but also our speaker, works hop leaders, Bible study leaders, pastoral care team members; indeed, to all of us who will be in attendance this weekend. We have been called together for a purpose, and I am waiting with baited breath to see what God will do with us as we are gathered in God’s name.
The final registration deadline for the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita is fast approaching. As the event nears, I would like to share with you where we are at in terms of our sense of the spiritual state of the gathering, as well as what this conference means for the wider Religious Society of Friends.
“Spirit Rising is a testament to the fact that young Quakers are letting their gifted voices be heard and that they are committed, not to their ideologies so much as to the Spirit of the living God. These young Friends all testify to the fact that the Quaker tradition is alive, and that they not only feel the Spirit moving, rising up, but that they are willing to testify to that. They are willing to be seen with other “programmed,” “evangelical,” “liberal,” “conservative,” “unprogrammed,” because those labels don’t mean that much too us. We are not invested in them, we are invested in learning from one another and learning how to work with one another.”
Laura Goren of Baltimore Yearly Meeting talks about the upcoming Young Adult Friends Gathering and what she, as a Liberal Friend, gets out of inter-branch dialogue.
Earlham School of Religion (ESR) meets at Heartland Friends meetinghouse, in Wichita, Kansas to celebrate our 50th anniversary as a Christian seminary in the Quaker tradition. Learn more about ESR at: http://esr.earlham.edu
