On Ekklesia, a love letter between Friends in the two counties most affected by the UK pullout from the European Union.
We recognise that Brexit is not an endpoint, but a step in the continuing relationship between our respective countries. We know that there will be a wide range of emotions felt in our Quaker and wider communities about our arrival at this point, and we ask Quakers to be truthful but tender with those around us.
On Abiding Quaker, Patricia Dallmann tells a story of two very different Quakers:
Unbeknownst to him or to me that morning, we each embodied a force that in relation to the other, as Penington wrote, had “no communion or peace between them”; these forces contend (like the two kings referred to in the epigraph) for the soul of humanity: to edify or to destroy. Though this Sunday morning incident involved only two people in an empty meetinghouse, it was, nevertheless, the Lamb’s War: a skirmish in which the powers clashed, powers which when pitted against one another on a grander scale determine history.
I like the “In a Nutshell” series and their most recent one looks at milk (hattip Kottke). Although I’m a longtime vegan, I’m just as happy to see that a lot of the more sensational health claims for and against dairy have not panned out in the larger studies. For me, environmental impact and the cruelty of the factory farming system are reason enough to limit dairy.
There’s a great chart around 8:38 looking at the environmental impacts of dairy and plant-based milks, which looks at emissions, land use, and water use. It’s helpful to see all three stats since some plant-based milks look good in one category but atrocious in another. To the right is a related chart from a recent BBC article, Which Vegan Milk is Best? (hint: soy and oat are the overall winners).
From Steven Davison:
This transference of blame, hurt, and anger to the meeting calls for a special kind of pastoral care that we don’t seem to do very well or even talk about much. I am not at all clear about what’s called for myself, but I grieve for the people I know who have been hurt in this way and also for the meetings in which this pain and tension lives as a shadow on the fellowship.
He has some good observations here, like this one: “Friends also have a perverse tendency sometimes to minister to the perpetrator in a fraught situation, rather than the victim.” This is certainly a phenomenon. I remember a meeting situation some years back in which everyone at the meeting privately agreed that a certain member was being mean-spirited in their characterization of other members but didn’t say anything even as people started leaving the meeting.
He talks about early Friends’ use of the concept of gospel order, but admits that “modern-day Friends hardly even know it exists.” I’ve seen a relatively traditionalist meeting fail a fairly straight-forward test of gospel order. Why would we pass up an opportunity to help a recalcitrant member find some inner heal? Do we secretly think that people can’t change?
The Friends Journal “From the Editor’s Desk” blog began as ideas for future which I posted here on Quaker Ranter. At a certain point I realized I should share it on Friends Journal website directly. But I still want readers here to know about upcoming issues and to share them to potential writers. Don’t underestimate your ability to inspire: often an article’s birth starts with an experienced friend suggesting a topic to a new writer. If you know a Quaker who might have something interesting to say on this topic, please share this with them. Here’s an excerpt to my Editor’s Desk blog post.
Thin spaces is a term mystics use for those places where our human world and the Divine come closer together. They’ll often cite those historic sacred spaces that catch our breath when we enter, locations where one can feel the echoes of generations of worshipers.
But for Friends, every place has the potential of being a thin space. Indeed, perhaps every place is already brimming over with divinity and only waits on our ability to settle. Our physical spaces testify to that ethos by making worship rooms plain, unconsecrated, and functional, and our worship is based on a divine imminence that needs no pastor or liturgical ritual.
Learn more at the blog post Writing Opp: Thin Spaces.