There’s a number of common gateways for seekers to discover Quakers – activism is a common one (see last week’s QuakerSpeak interview with Lina Blount), as is plain dress (my posts on the topic are my most popular), as is childhood experiences at Quaker schools.
But a big gateway is genealogy. Over the years I’ve gotten countless emails and phone calls from excited newcomers who start off the conversation with details of their family tree (when I used to answer the Quakerbooks phone, I would let these folks go for about two minutes before gently interjecting “wow that’s fascinating!, do you wanna buy a book?!?”)
One fascinating factoid in this week’s QuakerSpeak video comes from Thomas Hamm:
If your family arrived in the United States before 1860, there’s probably a 50 – 50 chance that you have a Quaker ancestor somewhere.
Quaker Meetings shouldn’t try to be the gathering spots for prodigal family reunions. The early Quakers were strangers to one another, joining together because of the fire of their convictions. Ours is a living, breathing, ever evolving spiritual practice. Still: we are also a grouping of people. We look for belonging.
The longer I’m with Friends, the more I think ours is a religious community that draws strength from the tension of paradoxes. I have a soft spot for the old Quaker families. If Jesus brings some of the new people in through Beliefnet quizzes or Ancestry.com search results, well, maybe that’s okay.
http://quakerspeak.com/how-to-research-your-quaker-ancestry/
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