I mentioned Emily Provance’s blog series, “answers for a small‑f friend,” a few weeks ago but now she’s gone and organized them into a easy-to-read series. Check it out at her Quaker Q&A.
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Tag Archives ⇒ Emily Provance
Emily Provance on QuakerSpeak
April 18, 2020
The first remotely recorded QuakerSpeak interview of the Coronavirus era is appropriately given to Emily Provance, a traveling Quaker minister who has been devoting herself to both in-person and online travel, with a particular concern for making our worshipping communities accessible for all.
As someone who travels in the ministry, Emily Provance is already used to connecting with her home meeting remotely. In this virtual interview, Emily explains how Quakers can use online tools to worship together — and not just in emergency circumstances.
https://quakerspeak.com/online/
Could Quakerism? Yes? Will Quakerism? Ehh…
April 21, 2018
Chris Venables spent a year working with Quakers in Britain (see update below) and now asks Could Quakerism be the radical faith that the millennial generation is looking for?
The nature of religion has changed, within Quakers we have seen the numbers of young people engaging in our community fall as the effects of economic insecurity have taken hold. And perhaps more importantly, because ‘young adults’ have no time for institutions that often seem arcane and irrelevant, and which have failed to engage with the realities of life for the vast majority of people in our society.
I wish I could share more of his enthusiasm. I’m not seeing anything particularly game-changing in his article. Half of it is generic cliches about millennial preference with extrapolation that they should align with decontextualized Quaker values. He cites a few happening young adult Quaker scenes in the UK and a promising Young Quakers podcast five episodes old; he’s fond of American Emily Provance’s blog. Good stuff to be sure, but you could pick pretty much any year in recent memory and point to similar evidence and imagine an imminent surge. It’s 2018 and we’re still saying “hey this could happen!” It could but it hasn’t so why hasn’t it and what can we do about it?
Also in these contexts “radical faith” sometimes sounds like buzzwords for non-faith. Is the Quaker meetinghouse just a quiet empty room for participants to BYOF (bring your own faith)?
Update: Chris chimed in via Twitter to add that his piece’s observations aren’t just from the year of working with BrYM Friends:
Ah, I’ll take a read of yours too — but those thoughts come from my experience of being around Quakers over the last 8 years, inc setting up a new young adult group (Westminster!), visiting Qs across Britain, and interviewing many of our community over the last year!