Tag Archives ⇒ Quaker

Foodways and Folkways

June 10, 2019
· Martin Kelley

I wrote the intro to the June-July Friends Jour­nal, our issue on “Food Choic­es.” There was a strong inter­est in some cir­cles to have a whole issue advo­cat­ing veg­e­tar­i­an diets. Although I’m sym­pa­thet­ic (I’ve been a veg­an since my ear­ly 20s) I’m aller­gic to claims that all Quak­ers should adopt any par­tic­u­lar prac­tice. It feels too close to Mar­garet Fel­l’s sil­ly poor gospel, a mis­un­der­stand­ing of way Quak­er process medi­ates between indi­vid­ual and group behavior.

Food unites and food divides. It both marks us into tribes and gives us oppor­tu­ni­ties to reach past our soci­etal lim­its. From chick­en bar­be­ques to vegetarian-dominated potlucks, what we put on the table says a lot about our val­ues, and how we wel­come unfa­mil­iar food choic­es is a mea­sure of our hos­pi­tal­i­ty. How do kitchen-table spreads of tofu and chick­pea dips rein­force cer­tain stand-apart cul­tur­al norms? Are Friends who like bar­be­cue ribs less Quak­er? What about meet­ings that still host the annu­al chick­en din­ner or clambake? 


Foodways and Folkways

Food­ways and Folkways 

Among Friends: Our intro­duc­tion to the June-July 2019 issue on Food Choices.

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

Walt Whitman: A prophet found under your boot-soles

June 3, 2019
· Martin Kelley

A brief look at some of the Quak­er influ­ences on Walt Whit­man’s spirituality:

Whit­man absorbed deist prin­ci­ples from his father; he was equal­ly influ­enced by his mother’s Quak­er back­ground. He embraced the Quak­er empha­sis on indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ence of the divine — what Friends call the “inner light” — as well as the con­cept of “that of God” exist­ing with­in every per­son. Whitman’s poet­ry reflects Quak­ers’ rad­i­cal­ly egal­i­tar­i­an theology 

https://​www​.churchtimes​.co​.uk/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​2​0​1​9​/​3​1​-​m​a​y​/​f​e​a​t​u​r​e​s​/​f​e​a​t​u​r​e​s​/​w​a​l​t​-​w​h​i​t​m​a​n​-​a​-​p​r​o​p​h​e​t​-​f​o​u​n​d​-​u​n​d​e​r​-​y​o​u​r​-​b​o​o​t​-​s​o​les

Twitter thread of the day

May 31, 2019
· Martin Kelley

So this happened:

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So yeah, THAT Lin-Manuel Miran­da. I’m going to have Moana songs in my head all day now. See the line where the sky meets THE sea? It calls ME, And no one KNOOOOOWWS, how far it GOOOEEES. (okay, it sounds bet­ter when my 8yo daugh­ter sings along in the car).

Nicole Cliffe is a for­mer athe­ist turned Chris­t­ian (but AFAIK, not Quak­er (yet)) who told her con­ver­sion sto­ry in Chris­tian­i­ty Today a few years ago. One of her claims to fame is co-founding The Toast, which stop pub­lish­ing in 2016 but still has some­one pay­ing for the web serv­er.

And in case Lin-Manuel swings by, he should know that his­to­ry geek Quak­er hip hop is a thing.

Are Quakers Christian?

April 15, 2019
· Martin Kelley

Steven Davi­son takes on one of the trick­i­er ques­tions of mod­ern lib­er­al Quakerism:

I am going to make a bold apol­o­gy for a clar­i­fied lib­er­al Quak­er iden­ti­ty that retains its roots and recov­ers wor­ship in the spir­it of Christ, but yet releas­es us from the ortho­dox Chris­t­ian pre­oc­cu­pa­tions that no longer speak to so many unpro­grammed Friends. 

Are Quak­ers Christian?

Ashley Wilcox talk on Quakers and the prophetic tradition

April 12, 2019
· Martin Kelley

From thr Guilfordian:

Wilcox began the dis­cus­sion with a ques­tion of whether or not the Guil­ford com­mu­ni­ty should seek out prophets and prophe­cies. Wilcox sought to relate this ques­tion to the Quak­er tradition.

“This talk is about prophets and prophe­cy,” Wilcox said. “So the first ques­tion is, ‘What does it mean to be a prophet?’ I don’t think Jere­mi­ah would rec­om­mend it.” 

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.guilfordian.com/news/2019/04/12/wilcox-talks-quakerism-and-the-prophetic-tradition/&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjk1NzUwOWM3NjZmNTA4MzU6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNGr3hjx9Dxd8r_5amP0l6AQfRXDcg

What Chairs can learn from the Quaker Business Method

April 10, 2019
· Martin Kelley

The author Shiv­a­ji Shi­va isn’t talk­ing about the fur­ni­ture we sit on but rather the leader of board meet­ings. The sec­tion on the role of a clerk is very use­ful, cov­er­ing sec­tions like “Humil­i­ty,” “Con­tri­bu­tions and ‘air-time’, and “Nav­i­gat­ing con­flict­ing views.” He concludes:

If some of these approach­es are less famil­iar to you, why not find out more about Quak­er busi­ness meth­ods and how a gov­er­nance tool kit used for more than 350 years could work for you? 

What Chairs can learn from the Quak­er Busi­ness Method

‘I would like to… make life kinder, freer and more respectful for for the women coming after me’

April 4, 2019
· Martin Kelley

An inter­view with British Friend Lucy-Anne Holmes:

I’m sit­ting in a cafe in Pot­ters Bar and lis­ten­ing to a Quak­er telling me about an orgasm she had that felt like it could cre­ate world peace. Yes, real­ly. Being British, I shuf­fle in my seat awk­ward­ly and take a sip of my tea, only too aware of a man on the next table who keeps glanc­ing at us. 

https://thefriend.org/article/i‑would-like-to-do-what-i-can-to-make-life-kinder-freer-and-more-respectful

A more modern commission

March 7, 2019
· Martin Kelley

As an East Coast unpro­grammed Friend, Quak­er mis­sion work is still a bit exot­ic. We’re used to read­ing of well-meaning nine­teenth cen­tu­ry Friends whose atti­tudes shock us today. But here’s a sto­ry of some Mid­west mis­sion work with the Shawnee in the 1970s and 80s.

Their “mis­sion” work con­sists of farm­ing, teach­ing, music and wood­work­ing and lan­guage trans­lat­ing, lots of trans­port­ing chil­dren and teens. It also involves preach­ing each week, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in funer­als, wed­dings, and oth­er tra­di­tion­al pas­toral duties, all aimed at intro­duc­ing peo­ple to Jesus.

Their “mis­sion” work con­sists of farm­ing, teach­ing, music and wood­work­ing and lan­guage trans­lat­ing, lots of trans­port­ing chil­dren and teens. It also involves preach­ing each week, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in funer­als, wed­dings, and oth­er tra­di­tion­al pas­toral duties, all aimed at intro­duc­ing peo­ple to Jesus. 

http://​www​.lib​er​al​first​.com/​o​p​i​n​i​o​n​/​o​u​r​-​g​r​e​a​t​-​c​o​m​m​i​s​s​ion