Essentials of Quaker Practice?

Last month I was asked by the clerk of my Quarterly Meeting to say a few words about the essentials of Quaker practice. In preparation I asked a few Friends what they thought were the essentials. One Friend had a concise and concrete list which I like:

• attendance at meeting for worship
• attendance at meeting for business
• serving on meeting committees
• making a financial contribution to the meeting

What I like about this list is that it’s all about participation in the community: showing up and doing your share, whatever your gifts or abilities might be.

I have two further ideas about the essentials, both of which I learned from George Fox.

What stood out for me from Fox’s journal is how he talks about what this new movement is doing. He says (and I paraphrase) their work is to bring the people out of their “chaffy, light minds” (p.353, see Chapter XI), to lead them to the feet of their Inward Teacher, and leave them there.

Notice there are three parts to that. The first is to help people leave behind the distractions to their souls, to separate the wheat from the chaff in their lives. The second is to help people to find and hear the voice of their Inward Teacher – which presupposes that we believe that every person has and can hear that inner voice and that we have learned a few things that can help us listen (like sitting in silence). The third is that we have to get out of the way. Like that other old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. We have to remember that we do not convince or convert anyone – God does that. For our part, it’s enough to model good listening and good living and to teach people how to listen.

The other essential idea from George Fox is that "There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition."(p. 82, see Chapter 1) We can hear God – Christ Jesus – the Holy Spirit – that Inward Teacher – speaking to us about our true condition and we can do something about it. In the 17^th century, it was a radical idea that we were not predestined to a life of sin. The amazing thing about this concept, then or now, is not that God tells us we’re all basically fine and good, but that we can all change. We can hear and obey. Whether it’s a personal improvement or a social or political concern, we can hear those nudges from God, Quakers call them leadings, and we can follow. It takes practice and discipline to develop that ability to obey, but Quakers have learned a few things that can help with this too.

These I think are the essential Quaker practices in College Park Quarterly Meeting and beyond. As I have traveled more widely among Friends in the last few years, I have seen a variety of forms of worship, and I think those differences are less important than these essentials: that we all make time to listen to God, we rid ourselves of the things in our lives that impede our ability to follow, and we act on what we hear.

Page numbers are from The Journal of George Fox, edited by Rufus M. Jones, published by Friends United Press, 1976. Hyperlinks are to the relevant chapters of the Journal on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Theology and Covered Dishes

It seems to me that sometimes church is about theology and sometimes it’s about covered dishes.

We need to talk about what we think and what we believe (all of us some of the time and some of us a lot of the time) AND we need to bring meals to people who are sick or have new babies or are otherwise overwhelmed by life and to know people who will do this for us.

Both of these are important parts of our spiritual development. Both the giving and the receiving. The speaking up and the listening to others.

I think that when people are looking for a new religious community or choosing whether to join a new community, they will decide based on some balance of these two elements.

As a meeting, do we make both kinds of opportunities available to people?

As individuals, do we make the time and have the courage to participate openly and honestly

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

I'm supposed to write about Climate Change because I signed up to be part of Blog Action Day today.

But really, I want to write about something that happened last Thursday. I went to the Quaker Vigil for Peace and Justice at noon in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco. The same vigil I've been to before. The same vigil that's been meeting there every Thursday for eight years. Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the US bombing of Afghanistan on Wednesday, and the eighth anniversary of the vigil on Thursday. These are some faithful folks. Me, I just show up when it's convenient for me. Or last week, I went for ten minutes to show support for the really diligent vigilers. (It takes my whole 30 minute lunch break just to get there and back.)

While I was there, Norman Solomon spoke about how women's rights are important in Afghanistan, and that poverty is important because it defeats women's rights, and he made the explicit connection that our war is impoverishing more women in Afghanistan every day.

In the ten minutes I spent at the vigil, I prayed as I always do at the vigil for women who have to stand in line, very inconveniently, for basics of food and clothing and water and soap. For women who don't have those things for themselves or their children.

Today, I think I just want to make the connection that climate change is also contributing to poverty in more places, through droughts and storms and unpredictable weather.

Dear God, be with the people who are suffering most acutely the effects of climate change, whether they know that's what's happening to them or not. Help all of us who can make a difference to have compassion and courage to act, today and every day. Amen.

P.S. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a Friend who is a little older than me and has children the same age as mine. We were talking about how climate change is really a big issue for young people today, and she compared it to the way young people used to be really concerned about nuclear weapons when we were younger. I said that the good thing about climate change is that children today can feel like there is something small that they can do that will help. Not that turning the water off or driving less will change it all, but they can feel like they are helping. When I was younger, I didn't feel like anything I did would make a difference about nuclear weapons. I like an issue with something for everyone to do.

A good enough reason to pray

My Friend Brent Bill has a series going on his blog that he calls, "Quaker Wisdom for Today"

I commend it to you on a regular basis. But last Friday's quote was just so good that I want to copy it here to remind myself.

“A feeling of real need is always a good enough reason to pray.”

-Hannah Whitall Smith

For more on Smith, I commend to you my series of posts related to her book, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life.

End of the Year at Quaker Center

An amazing trio of workshops to finish out 2009.

November 6-8
The Sacred Depths of Nature
Exploring the religious potential of our scientific understandings of nature.
Ursula Goodenough faculty webpage Wikipedia entry interview on beliefnet.com

December 11-13.
Quakers and Social Class
(rescheduled from March, now full but you can still get on the waiting list)
A challenging exploration of how Friends relate to the divisions of social class
George Lakey Training for Change bio

December 27-January 1, 2010
The Annual Year End Retreat (registration isn't open yet, but keep checking the Quaker Center website)
Celebrating the old and new years, in good company.
Dan Seeger Wikipedia entry

Sojourners Prayer of the Day 10/7/09

Spirit of God, let us be attentive to your leading. May we be open to the surprises you may lay in our path, and respond with courage and boldness to your call.

In my spare time, I subscribe to Sojourners' Verse and Voice daily email list. It comes with a social justice Bible verse, a quote from a modern religious leader, and a prayer of the day. I thought today's prayer was especially Quaker in nature.

October 2009 worship at HSBF

Just a reminder that there will be an hour of unprogrammed worship this Sunday, October 4, 2009, 10:00 am, in front of the Banjo stage at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. You can find more details (map, schedule, etc) at www.strictlybluegrass.com. The whole point is that you don't have to choose between going to worship and getting there early.

Three years ago, I wrote about how bluegrass gospel brought me to Christ, sort of. You can find it here.

A couple of years ago, I put together this half-page/double-sided outreach flyer. I still have most of the ones I printed then, I'll bring them on Sunday, but this is what they say:

Welcome!

You’re welcome to join this informal meeting for worship in the manner of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is being held here in order to allow Friends to worship together and not miss any of the wonderful music here today. We expect to end around 11:00 am.

---

Regular meetings for worship are held Sundays at 11:00 am and Tuesdays at 6:00 pm. For those new to Friends or unprogrammed worship, we offer an orientation to meeting for worship at 10:40 am every Sunday. All are welcome.

San Francisco Friends Meeting (Quakers)
65 Ninth Street, between Market and Mission, near Civic Center
www.sfquakers.org
www.quakerfinder.org

[other side]
Our meeting for worship, which is at the core of Quaker practice, is focused on the response of the human spirit to the call of the Divine. Worship begins when the first worshippers settle into the silence. This meeting for worship will end when the host of the meeting shakes the hand of another person seated nearby. At that signal, everyone may shake hands and greet each other.

You may find it helpful to close your eyes for most or all of the worship hour to reduce distractions and increase your focus on the presence of God among us. During worship people may meditate, pray silently, inwardly offer praise or thanksgiving or confession to the Spirit, or reflect on a passage from the Bible or other spiritual reading. In our corporate worship, we seek communion with God. We wait and listen together, seeking divine guidance or inspiration from a source known among us by many names: Wisdom, the Light, the Inward Christ, the Seed, the Word, Jesus, the Lord.

All present share in this process. At times an individual may be moved to speak, to offer a prayer or a message that has come out of the silence. All are welcome to do this. Listen to the ministry of others with an open spirit. If it is not God's word for you, it may be for others. After a message has been given, allow time to ponder its meaning and to let the Meeting return to silent worship.

The responsibility for the spiritual depth of the meeting rests with each attender. Those who keep silent as well as those who give a vocal message do their part when they yield their minds and hearts to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Friends hope that in the meeting for worship a consciousness of the Divine Presence will be felt by every attender, and will be a source of direction, strength and comfort after leaving the meeting.