A big thank-you to all the Quaker Ranter fans who donated last week to get the websites back up. Two nonprofit jobs and four kids mean web bills are not always near the top of the family’s must-pay juggle of expenses. The websites should be good for another few months. If anyone missed on on the fund appeal, you can always click on the support link to help keep the lights on.
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Links
January 30, 2024
Wanna work with me? Friends Journal is looking for a part-time, paid intern to work on Quakers Today podcast. You’ll get to work most directly with its most excellent host, Peterson Toscano. Learn more at Friendsjournal.org/job.
It was wild for me to read this story about housing, race, and money in West Philadelphia and realize it wasn’t just an article about my old block but my actual apartment. I lived upstairs in 1250 South 45th and Margaret Strothers was my landlady. It was easily my favorite apartment ever and it’s a shame to see that most of the row has been leveled for shitty student housing.
Faith and Public Ministry
December 29, 2023
Windy Cooler is back with the second of a multipart series based on interviews with public Friends, this installment called “The Concerns of Public Ministry” (see my take on part one). This one is about the power dynamics that public ministers face in institutional Quakerism. Here’s one quote:
Resentment about power imbalances and the suppression of acknowledging power imbalances is at the heart of many public ministers’ call to right relationship, in fact: “What I thought was wrong with me was that I have leadership potential. Being wrong, it turned out, was just leadership abilities. Nothing was wrong with me. “
This is a brave topic to cover and I’m glad Windy’s doing it.
Notably absent is much talk about faith in this. Where’s this call to leadership coming? What is it in service to? I suspect that if you asked this question of rising leaders in Liberal Friends you’d get all sorts of answers. That’s not terribly surprising. In theologically diverse meetings secularized language is the lingua franca. The Hicksite Quaker movement was born in large part as a critique of power and this remains an easy conceptualization to turn to. I myself often look at Quaker history and current dynamics in a sociological way; it’s not a wrong framework, just incomplete if left unmoored.
Personally I don’t think I could have made it through Friends this long without trusting in the inward Christ and simultaneously deepening my life in traditional Quaker theology. It’s helpful context to read the journals of old ministers. The challenges they faced aren’t always so very different from those of the present day. George Fox was serially disappointed and betrayed by the ministers of his time until he had a vision and realized that this disappointment was literally the lesson he was being taught. From one of the most famous passages in his Journal:
I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,” and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus, when God doth work who shall let [i.e. hinder] it? And this I knew experimentally.
Of course we shouldn’t romanticize grief and disappointment. Sometimes a soul-crushing disappointment is a lesson but sometimes its just people doing shitty things. The old adage “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” overlooks the people left as roadkill in the first place. I talked about the “Lost Quaker Generation” a lot twenty years ago; it remains an open question if some of the ones who left were the smarter ones.1
Also in my news feed is a post from Brian Drayton, “New wine, new wineskins.” Brian uses very Christian language and is talking about current wars in the world, but it’s possible to read much of this as a take on public ministry:
Thus, our response in our living and thinking to the conditions of today, leavened with His life within us, must be put in vessels that not only contain the new life, but enable it to keep working and gaining in virtue, in active power. These are vessels of thought, of collaboration, of priorities or valuation, of hope and intention, of method and of celebration.
Year-end list
December 29, 2023
We’ve done the year-end numbers at Friends Journal and have the list of the top-five most-read articles this year. This stats are for the website of course — no way to tell what articles people might be skipping past in the print issues — but since we have more online readers than print subscribers these days, it’s a fair count. Interesting to see that Olivia Chalkley’s “Young Adults Want What Early Friends Had” took the top spot. I think that’s because it combines three topics that people love to read about: the boundaries of Quaker beliefs; what’s happening with young Quakers; stories of beloved Quaker institutions.
Another perennial favorite topic among Friends is membership and FJ is looking for articles on that for next May’s issue. Good chance that 2024’s most-read list might have something from this issue. If you or anyone you know might want to write for it, read our Editor’s Desk call for submissions.
Links
December 14, 2023
In UK’s The Friend, Craig Barnett writes of false dichotomies between spiritual and activist Friends and has wise thoughts on discernment: “Most often, the Inward Guide seems to work by showing us not the ultimate destination, but just the next step.”
At Friends journal, Judith Appleby writes about charitable giving and Steven Davison has an ambitious piece taking on the Quaker covenant with creation.
Guarding Dreams, Making Opportunities
December 6, 2023
I had a great time talking with Debbie Ramsey about Dream Protectors, her article in this month’s Friends Journal. Even before we hit record we were chatting away like old friends, despite this being the first time we’ve never talked. Eventually we had to stop ourselves just so I could hit record and start the interview. Debbie is a retired police detective who works with youth in Baltimore — it’s their career dreams she’s helping to protect — but we talked about being open in all sorts of settings. One of her stories in the article, which she retold in the interview, revolves around an unexpected opportunity for ministry that arose from a casual conversation with a stranger on a bench. She told me it felt like “the universe wanted me to be there” to have that talk.
It felt very much in line with the mysterious promptings I talked about last month so of course I had to explore that with her:
Martin Kelley: I really love the old Quaker lingo of opportunities. An opportunity is like this kind of worship-connection-love that happened spontaneously when you run into someone and realize there’s so much more that it’s going to happen here. It’s just being open to these sorts of moments where we might find ourselves on a bench next to someone and we’re suddenly deep into connection and ministry. It’s hard to do this in our lives now. We’re always rushing about, but I do try to think that sometimes I need to stop and have conversations with people right here and now.
Deborah B Ramsey: Yes, yes. And then as we were departing he said to me, “I want to take our conversation back to my wife.” So on another dimension, I was at his home. He literally, on another level, took me to his home. Physically, I was not there, but the spirit, and the vibration, and the rhythm, and the conversation, and how we related to his wife what my words meant to him. Hopefully, they would give her some comfort. So I feel like the non-tangibles: we don’t them enough credit. Oftentimes we invite 50 or 100 people, if there’s not a large crowd, then we’re feel like we’re not getting anything across. But who’s to say that she would not say something about what her husband told her to someone else — or either to her son! Is it the quantity or the quality? It’s easy to start a conversation with someone you’re in a relationship with, but how about a stranger? As Quakers, can we be so curious about one another’s condition that we would take — as you say an opportunity— to just take a look? As Quakers we have so much opportunity to speak to conditions, out of a general concern and love. How can you go wrong with that?
Deborah B. Ramsey: Guardians over Dreams. A Friends Journal author chat.
Watch the full interview:
Early December Links
December 5, 2023
NPR interviewed Palestinian American Quaker Sa’ed Atshan. He talks about the three students recently shot last month in New Hampshire, two of whom he mentored, and also Quaker worship. Very thoughtful and well done.
Quaker Studies has a special issue out on John Woolman. I’ve written about this well-known Friend, many times, naturally, including a three part series back in 2006, but it’s great to have academics share the latest takes. As guest editor Jon Kershner writes in his introduction, “The fresh ground cultivated by these authors demonstrates that there is much still to say about Woolman.” Best of all, this is open access! I think it’s really tragic that so much good academic writing today is completely inaccessible and I’m not sure why, as I don’t think the authors are getting much of the money. I hope new academic publishing models start to win out, as it’s important for lay Friends to think about history in a more thoughtful way. I’m a big stan, as the kids say, of Jean Soderlund, and am devouring her contribution to this special edition.
I looovvee Goldie’s, the Philly Israeli-American vegan falafel mini-chain, so I’m not just appalled but personally upset that some pro-Palestinian protesters accused its owners of genocide. Once again people: it is possible to be against violence on all sides and also to not scapegoat any side. It sounds like owner Michael Solomonov’s response has been muted and understanding: good for him. I do hope this dies down. Protesters on all sides say stupid things in the heat of the moment and it sounds like they were there for less than four minutes. Can we move on?
Also, chef’s kiss to the writer of The Inquirer headline, Berks County woman named Time’s 2023 Person of the Year.
Public Friends
December 1, 2023
Windy Cooler has a new article on the Friends General Conference website, What is a Quaker Public Minister? Windy’s been researching the concept of public Friends this year, interviewing people about their understanding and experiences.
The startling lack of support for many public ministers as agents of creativity and growth is partly because many Friends are unfamiliar with the term “public minister” and uncertain how to support their work. Additionally, a misinterpretation of the testimony of equality, which often leads comfort-seeking elders to criticize or “cut down” those who stand out among us (referred to as the “tall poppies” by Marty Grundy in her 1999 Pendle Hill pamphlet of the same name), causes many Friends attempting public ministry to encounter hostility or apathy in their local meetings. Even in cases where a faith and practice document outlines the practice, it remains largely taboo in liberal Quakerism to seek a minute acknowledging the gifts of ministry, much less more substantial support.
Windy interviewed me as part of her research. If “public Friend” means someone who is visibly taking on a teaching role for Friends, then I’ve been one since my mid-20s when I started putting together mailing lists and websites organizing young adult Friends (YAFs in Quaker speak); this eventually branched out into blogging, hosting a social network, leading workshops, and giving talks now and then. The longetivity gives it a certain authority, I suppose, as have my professional roles with Quaker organizations (though of course on my blog I’m only speaking for myself).
But this belies just how independent, dare I say ranterish, this process has been. I know how public ministry should work, but it hasn’t ever worked out that way for me. Even now, I don’t have a special designation or support for my volunteer Quaker work.
I should note that I once had a brush with institutional legitimacy. When I applied for a grant from the Clarence and Lilly Pickett Endowment for Quaker Leadership, they required a support letter from my meeting and Atlantic City Area Meeting provided me with one. It wasn’t a recording minute, per se, and didn’t come with any followup support but it was something. The Pickett fund specifically supported younger Friends. It’s a small world so I know a lot of other recipients and many had interesting stories about going their meetings for support letters. In retrospect, forcing a generation of twenty-something active Quakers to get these letters might have been the Pickett fund’s most important legacy (it closed down in 2019).
Full disclosure and mea culpa to say that I’ve never asked for formal meeting support. I have a tendency to land at small, minimally organized meetings that don’t have any experiences of supporting ministries. It always felt like it’d be too much of a push to ask an overburdened small group to take on one more responsibility.
I know some larger Quaker meetings have more formal support structures in place, with clearness and support (sometimes now called anchor) committees supporting their public Friends. I’m a bit jealous but also have been told by Friends in these positions that they sometimes still feel somewhat rogueish and alone. Of course maybe this is just how it is. Did people like John Woolman and Joshua Evans really feel fully supported by their meetings as they traveled about? And did they have now-forgotten contemporaries who felt the “tall poppies” effect and elected to stay home? Benjamin Lay comes to mind as someone who had to minister without support. Windy writes:
While it’s true that many of our famous historic public ministers were disliked in their time and praised in ours as if they represent our own actions, it is inconceivable that these leaders could have traveled, spoken, and effected change in their quest for right relationship without robust support. It is something of a miracle then that so many dynamic Friends today are attempting to do just that out of love for who we are and can be and we are treading water with all the faith in the world that the undertow of the status quo will not overcome us.
FGC promises this to be the “first of four short essays in a series on public ministry in the liberal tradition.” Glad to see FGC exploring this work. In the early 2000s they did important work with the Traveling Ministries Committee2, which did a lot to re-legitimate the idea of ministry among Liberal Friends. Windy also gives a shout-out to the he Quaker Leadership Center, which I know is doing good work around these questions too.