Friends Journal seeking articles on Quakers and Christianity

August 7, 2018
· Martin Kelley

The Decem­ber theme of Friends Jour­nal will look at the juicy top­ic of Friends’ rela­tion­ship with Chris­tian­i­ty. I wrote up an “Edi­tor’s Desk” post about the kinds of arti­cles we might expect. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s a series of ques­tions that has dogged Friends since we did away with cler­gy and start­ed call­ing bap­tism a “sprin­kling,” and it has been an issue of con­tention in every Quak­er schism: Are we Chris­t­ian? Are we real­ly Chris­t­ian? Does it mat­ter if we’re Chris­t­ian? What does it even mean to be Chris­t­ian in the world?

One rea­son we began pub­lish­ing more themed issues begin­ning in 2012 was so we use the top­ics to invite fresh voic­es to write for us. While we’ve long had reg­u­lars who will send us a few arti­cles a year on mis­cel­la­neous top­ics, themes allow us to tempt peo­ple with spe­cif­ic inter­ests and min­istries: rec­on­cil­i­a­tion from war, cli­mate activism, work­place reform, men­tor­ship, ecu­meni­cal rela­tion­ships, the wider fam­i­ly of Friends, etc.

More recent­ly I’ve start­ed these “Edi­tor’s Desk” posts as a way of shar­ing some of the ideas we have around par­tic­u­lar upcom­ing issues. The post also gives us a URL that we can share on social media to drum up sub­mis­sions. I also hope that oth­ers will share the URL via email.

The absolute best way of reach­ing new peo­ple is when some­one we know shares an upcom­ing theme with some­one we don’t know. There are many peo­ple who by chance or incli­na­tion seem to strad­dle Quak­er worlds. They are invalu­able in ampli­fy­ing our calls for sub­mis­sions. Ques­tion: would it help if we start­ed an email list just for writ­ers or for peo­ple who want to be remind­ed of upcom­ing themes so they can share them with Friends?


Writing Opp: Quakers and Christianity

Writ­ing Opp: Quak­ers and Christianity 

It’s a series of ques­tions that has dogged Friends since we did away with cler­gy and start­ed calling…

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

Apologies…

August 7, 2018
· Martin Kelley

Sor­ry for the strange dou­ble post­ings late­ly, espe­cial­ly of some old­er links. The semi automa­tion that lets me eas­i­ly share arti­cles has start­ed behav­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly glitchy. I’ve adjust­ed some set­tings so that I will check posts man­u­al­ly before they actu­al­ly go up.

Generational strategies for Quaker outreach

August 5, 2018
· Martin Kelley

From Emi­ly Provance:

An under-45 com­mu­ni­ca­tions strat­e­gy, in con­trast, would most­ly involve social media (Face­book, Insta­gram, Twit­ter, pos­si­bly Tum­blr or Pin­ter­est). Arti­cles would be short and would con­tain most­ly con­tent direct­ly rel­e­vant to the read­er — or, if the con­tent were not direct­ly rel­e­vant, it would be single-story nar­ra­tives with an empha­sis on per­son­al impact. Announce­ments would come out through mes­sen­ger apps or text mes­sages, with a strong ele­ment of user con­trol about which announce­ments to receive and which not. Pho­tos and videos would be used frequently.

I’m always a bit wary of gen­er­a­tional deter­min­ism. I think gen­er­a­tional ideas are more like under­ly­ing trends that get more or less trac­tion over time. And Quak­er dig­i­tal out­reach in par­tic­u­lar has been a thing for a quar­ter cen­tu­ry now. But the under­ly­ing mes­sage — that some peo­ple need to be reached dig­i­tal­ly while oth­ers are still best served by print — is a sound one and I’m glad Emi­ly’s bring­ing it up.

But it’s still kind of sad that we still need to make this kind of argu­ment. I remem­ber hav­ing these dis­cus­sions around an FGC out­reach com­mit­tee table fif­teen years ago: sure­ly we’re all on board about the need for dig­i­tal out­reach in 2018?

The 45-Yard Line

A view of the Wilmington YM schism from the rising clerk

August 5, 2018
· Martin Kelley

From JP Lund:

The Wilm­ing­ton Year­ly Meet­ing that emerges will be small­er.  It will still be diverse, includ­ing a range of views on same gen­der mar­riage and Bib­li­cal author­i­ty.  It will con­sist of meet­ings that have cho­sen Chris­t­ian fel­low­ship over dog­ma, the Gospel of Love over the let­ter of the law.

Wilm­ing­ton Year­ly Meet­ing 2018: The Schism Begins Anew

Earlham College seeks to roll back expense budget by a decade after president’s resignation

August 4, 2018
· Martin Kelley

From Inside High­er Ed:

Wor­ries mount that the col­lege has strayed too far from its lib­er­al arts core. Sus­pi­cions run high that col­lege lead­ers reached recent impor­tant deci­sions with­out regard for one of the key gov­er­nance prin­ci­ples root­ed in its Quak­er iden­ti­ty: consensus.

https://​www​.insid​e​high​ered​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​2​0​1​8​/​0​8​/​0​1​/​e​a​r​l​h​a​m​-​c​o​l​l​e​g​e​-​s​e​e​k​s​-​r​o​l​l​-​b​a​c​k​-​e​x​p​e​n​s​e​-​b​u​d​g​e​t​-​d​e​c​a​d​e​-​a​f​t​e​r​-​p​r​e​s​i​d​e​n​t​s​-​r​e​s​i​g​n​a​t​i​o​n​#​.​W​2​I​x​c​z​v​6​v​J​c​.​f​a​c​e​b​ook

Seeking a People

August 2, 2018
· Martin Kelley

If we are con­verg­ing on his­to­ry and prac­tice, we are miss­ing the point. If we are depend­ing on insti­tu­tions to cre­ate a new soci­ety or ush­er in the King­dom, then we are deceived. These will not bring the rad­i­cal­ly egal­i­tar­i­an and Spirit-filled com­mu­ni­ties that God fos­tered among ear­ly Friends.

Seek­ing a People

Wilmington Yearly Meeting splinters

August 1, 2018
· Martin Kelley

Not a sur­prise: Wilm­ing­ton Year­ly Meet­ing (west­ern Ohio and Ten­nessee) is splin­ter­ing along famil­iar lines:

The sep­a­ra­tions stem from a dis­agree­ment over whether same-sex wed­dings are to be per­mit­ted in mem­ber church­es, or as they are often called in the Quak­er tra­di­tion, meet­ings. The church­es leav­ing WYM regard same-sex mar­riage as against the will of God.

It looks like many of the more Evan­gel­i­cal church­es are the ones pulling out of the year­ly meet­ing. The lines of con­tro­ver­sy are sim­i­lar to recent sep­a­ra­tions in Indi­ana and North Car­oli­na Year­ly Meet­ings. The big-tent cen­ter of Mid­west­ern FUM Friends seems to be pret­ty per­ma­nent­ly fractured.

https://​www​.wnewsj​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​7​8​9​3​9​/​s​e​v​e​r​a​l​-​c​h​u​r​c​h​e​s​-​l​e​a​v​e​-​w​i​l​m​i​n​g​t​o​n​-​y​e​a​r​l​y​-​m​e​e​t​i​n​g​-​o​v​e​r​-​s​a​m​e​-​s​e​x​-​m​a​r​r​i​age

Bathrooms as hospitality ministry

July 31, 2018
· Martin Kelley

Macken­zie Mor­gan reminds us that some kinds of hos­pi­tal­i­ty begin in our church bathrooms:

Now imag­ine a par­ent with a scream­ing baby sud­den­ly real­iz­ing they for­got the dia­per bag at home. Imag­ine it’s their first time at your meet­ing. Many peo­ple are self-conscious about their baby cry­ing, espe­cial­ly with unpro­grammed worship.

Bath­rooms as hos­pi­tal­i­ty ministry