Yearly Archives ⇒ 2020

Living the Quaker life

July 18, 2020
· Martin Kelley

From Sofia Lemons:

I was recent­ly asked what it means to live a Quak­er lifestyle (which for me is a Chris­t­ian lifestyle), and I felt a strong pull to reflect on it more than just the casu­al answer that I could have giv­en. In that reflec­tion, I kept hear­ing the guid­ance of Mic­ah over and over again. And each time it came up I asked myself in what ways I was liv­ing these words. Here’s an account of some of the things that came to my mind.

https://www.snlemons.com/2020/07/18/a‑reflection-on-micah-68/

It’s time to flip our meetinghouses. Again

June 23, 2020
· Martin Kelley

From Kath­leen Wooten:

What if rather than say­ing “when we get back to in-person wor­ship we will do these things again” – we just assumed this video gath­er­ing is the new way to “do church”, for at least a year or more? What is the rush to get back to what was? Is this a time for inno­va­tion and exper­i­men­ta­tion? Can we just relax and lean into a word that is being reshaped around us, and be respon­sive and accept this as the new tool for these times?

It’s time to flip our meetinghouses. Again.
It’s time to flip our meet­ing­hous­es. Again. 

I am by trade a teacher – for­mer in employ­ment – always on my heart.  There was a…

QuakerKathleen QuakerKathleen 

A Quaker Antiracist Reading List

June 11, 2020
· Martin Kelley

A remix of con­tent brings a list of antiracism books reviewed by
Friends Jour­nal over the past few years:

Over the years, Friends Jour­nal has dis­cussed many of the works they select­ed, as well as oth­er books about the lega­cy of racism in Amer­i­can cul­ture. We’ve made a par­tial list below, with excerpts from our reviews. Any one of these books will help read­ers gain a fuller under­stand­ing of what life is tru­ly like for non-White Amer­i­cans today, and present ways to work toward a bet­ter, more just coun­try for peo­ple of color.


A Quaker Antiracist Reading List

A Quak­er Antiracist Read­ing List 

12 books that reflect the real­i­ties of the con­tem­po­rary non-White Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence, and show the way to a…

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

Hidden City Philadelphia on the policing of Black bodies

June 11, 2020
· Martin Kelley

Inter­est­ing arti­cle over­all but I was espe­cial­ly sad­dened by the laws passed when Friends were firm­ly in con­trol of the city’s gov­ern­ing council:

The coun­cil passed a law, in 1693, pro­hibit­ing African peo­ple from gath­er­ing in the city’s pub­lic spaces for the per­for­mance of reli­gious dance and music. They called them “tumul­tuous gatherings.”

Sev­en years lat­er, in 1700, the coun­cil pro­hib­it­ed gath­er­ings of more than four black people. 

1732, no black danc­ing or singing in pub­lic on Sunday.

1741, no “dis­or­der” pro­duced by African peo­ple at Court House Square.

https://hiddencityphila.org/2020/06/performance-of-freedom‑1/

Quaker education in a pandemic

June 5, 2020
· Martin Kelley

Johan Mau­r­er starts with the recent pub­lic con­tro­ver­sy over Sid­well Friends but then trans­vers­es a long sweep of Quak­er school iden­ti­ty debates, includ­ing one at a parent-led school coop with which he was involved:

The one I remem­ber most vivid­ly echoed the West­town debates: how much overt Quak­erism is too much for a school that was already attract­ing non-Quaker fam­i­lies? After lis­ten­ing to some of this debate, Earl­ham’s Paul Lacey said to me, “Instead of being ‘in the world, but not of it,’ too often we Quak­ers are of the world, but not in it!”
https://​blog​.canyoube​lieve​.me/​2​0​2​0​/​0​6​/​q​u​a​k​e​r​-​e​d​u​c​a​t​i​o​n​-​i​n​-​p​a​n​d​e​m​i​c​.​h​tml

Reinventing Pendle Hill’s morning worship

May 19, 2020
· Martin Kelley

It seems I tend to for­get to share some of the work I’m most involved with here on the Quak­er Ranter email list and blog. In April I inter­viewed Fran­cis­co Bur­gos and Traci Hjelt Sul­li­van about Pen­dle Hill’s Zoom wor­ship. I’ve writ­ten before that I’ve been par­tic­i­pat­ing a cou­ple of times a week and it fas­ci­nates me. Every­one’s doing Zoom wor­ship, of course, but this one is dai­ly and com­plete­ly open to the pub­lic. It has man­aged to hold onto a dis­tinct sense of place.

Here’s a quote from Fran­cis­co on how the wor­ship mir­rors in-person wor­ship yet has dis­tinct challenges.

This is an ongo­ing learn­ing expe­ri­ence. At any month­ly meet­ing, you will have First Days in which the wor­ship expe­ri­ence is like a pop­corn meet­ing, with a lot of min­istry. Oth­er times, it is com­plete­ly silent. The online expe­ri­ence will be sim­i­lar to that. We are work­ing to find out what resources and sup­port struc­ture we can make avail­able to peo­ple. Some peo­ple real­ize that they have a stage with 140 peo­ple and feel the need to speak not just long, but very often. How can we encour­age Friends to sea­son the mes­sage that they are receiving? 


Transcending Geography

Tran­scend­ing Geography 

Rein­vent­ing Pen­dle Hill’s morn­ing worship.

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

Jennifer Kavanagh’s parallel universe

May 12, 2020
· Martin Kelley

In Friends Jour­nal, a look at the mys­ti­cal depths of creation:

To live in the world is an explic­it prac­ti­cal accep­tance of the dynam­ic nature of the Spir­it. Our rela­tion with God is not in iso­la­tion, apart from our fel­low beings; as we are blessed, so we too are able to bless. The Spir­it works on us to enable us to give some­thing of what we have received to oth­ers, to act as a mir­ror. So it is that God works not only direct­ly but through human beings, each upon anoth­er. As we open our hearts and receive, so we give to and receive from oth­er peo­ple. How we relate to the world and to oth­er human beings is part of how we relate to God. 

I like the empha­sis on bal­ance she talks about toward the end, “Spir­it with­out mat­ter is as unbal­anced as mat­ter with­out Spir­it, which is materialism.”


A Parallel Universe

A Par­al­lel Universe 

Find­ing the place where deep hunger can be met by deep joy.

Friends Journal Friends Journal