May 2001 Quaker Thought FRIENIS)S and Life OURNAL Today
The Miracle of Forgiveness Quaking and the Rediscovery of Primitive Quakerism An Among Friends independent magazine serving the Religious Society of The Ministry of the Friends Editorial Written Word Susan Corson-Finnerty (Editor-Manager), Kenneth Sunon (Smior Editor), Robert Dockhorn (Assistant Editor), Judith Brown (Poetry Editor), Ellen akers Uniting in Publications (QUIP) is an international consortium of Q uaker Michaud (Book &view Editor), Brent Bill (Assistant book publishers, book sellers, authors, and periodical publishers. This year its Book Review Editor), Christine Rusch (Milestones annual meeting was held at Pendle Hill, and its theme centered on the challenges Editor), Julie Gochenour, Robert Marks, Cameron McWhirter (News Editors), Kara Newell Q faced by Friends periodicals. I had the pleasure of attending its sessions, along with (Columnist), Lisa Rand, Marjorie Schier Senior Editor Kenneth Sutton, and Assistant Editor Bob Dockhorn. {Volunteers), Ellen Knechel (Intern) It was thrilling to have representatives of so many publications gathered together in one Production spot to share joys, ideas, and challenges. Yet it was sobering to hear of the difficulties faced by Barbara Benton (Art Dirmor), Alia Podolsky many: declining readerships, rapidly rising postal and printing costs-and for some-reduced (Assistant Art Dirutor) budgetary support from their governing Quaker bodies. Circulation and Advertising As an independent Quaker publication, receiving no funding except those funds we raise Nagendran Gulendran (Marketing and Advertising Manager), Nicole Hackel (Circulation Assistant), Kay ourselves, FRIENDS jOURNAL is not in danger of losing significant financial support in the event Bacon, Ruth Peterson, Robert Sunon (Volunteers) that a line item in an umbrella Quaker organization's budget is cut. And, happily, I can report Administration that our readership has increased by 4.3 percent over the past 18 months. But we do face the Marianne De Lange (Office Manager), Pamela same tremendous hurdles of rising postal costs, increasing printing expenses, and keeping up Nelson (Devewpmmt Assistant), Tom McPeak with computer technology that our sister Friends periodicals are encountering. (Accounting Services), Terry Fowler (Volunteer) One of the financial pillars of the JouRNAL is the deep loyalty of its readers. You good fo lks Board of Trustees are the ones who donate our articles, poetry, art, photography-and add your financial Lucinda Antrim, Aaron Buckley, Paul Buckley, support. With this reality in mind, it is my pleasure on occasion to introduce individuals who TylaAnn Burger (Treasurer), Katharine Clark, Linda Coffin, John Darnell, William Deutsch, are volunteering significant time and skills to help us put together such a strong publication. Mary Ann Downey, Marsha Green (Recording This month I'd like to introduce Brent Bill, who has been working for several months as Clerk), Dan Hewitt, Li nda Lyman, Barbara Mays, our assistant book review editor. Brent is a member and pastor of Friends Memorial Church Larry Miller, Ruth Peterson, David Runkel, Larry in Muncie, Indiana. He also is instructor of religious creative writing at Earlham School of D. Spears, Wilmer Tjossem, Elizabeth Yeats (Clerk) Religion and the author of nine books and numerous magazine articles, short stories, First FRI ENDS jOURNAl (ISSN 00 16-1322) was established day school curricula, and more. Brent serves as a yearly meeting representative to Friends in 1955 as the successorto The Frimd (1827-1955) and Frimds lnteUigmcer (1844-1955). World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, where he is on the Finance Committee. He also is on the board of Quaker Hill Conference Center in Richmond, • FRIENDS j OURNAL is published monthly by Friends Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, Indiana. Additionally, I am pleased to introduce Kay Bacon, who has joined the wonderful 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone little group of volunteers who help us with our renewal mailings each month. Kay has (2 15) 563-8629. E-mail Friends)[email protected]. returned to the Philadelphia area after many years of living in New York state, both in New Periodicals postage paid ar Philadelphia, Pa., and Paltz and O ld Chatham, where she and her late husband, Bob, were very active members of additional mailing offices. O ld C hatham (N.Y.) Meeting. Kay and I first became acquainted at Powell House, the • Subscriptions: one year $29, two yeass $54. Add retreat and conference center ofNew York Yearly Meeting, when she was one ofPowell $6 per year for postage to countries outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $3 each. House's very loyal supporters and most dependable volunteers. She is now a member of • Advertising information and assistance is available Gwynedd (Pa.) Meeting. I'm quite delighted to have the opportunity to work with her again! on request. Appearance of any advertisement does While at the Q UIP meeting at Pendle H ill, I was struck by how very rare and precious it is not imply endorsement by FRIENDS JouRNAL. to have worship, fellowship, and communication with Friends across the branches of • Postmaster: send address changes to FRIENDS Quakerism who feel called to the ministry of the written word, and who are faithfully jOURNAl, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA endeavoring to be Publishers ofTruth. On page 15 we feature an interview with one of these 19107-2835. Friends, Anthony Manousos, energetic editor of Friends Bulletin, whose work with Western • Copyright© 2001 by Friends Publishing Friends in the three independent yearly meetings (Intermountain, Pacific, and North Pacific) Corporation. Permission should be received before has led to his editing ofA Western Qwzker Reader: Writings by and about Independent Qwzkers reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. Available on microftlm from Bell and Howell in the Western United States, 1929-1999. I encourage you to read the interview and get a copy Information and Learning. of his book! PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER Min. 20% post-consumer
Moving? Let us update your subscription and address. FRIENDS j OURNAL, m6 Arch St., 2A Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 (215) 563-8629, Fax (215) 568-1377 E-mail [email protected]
2 May 2001 FRIENDS j OURNAL May 2001 FRIENDS Volume 4 7, No. 5 OURNAL Features Departments 6 Be Thou Perfect Kirsten Backstrom Didjesus learn from a mistake? 2 Among Friends 8 The Miracle of Forgiveness: A 4 Forum Journey of the Heart 5 Viewpoint Roxy Jacobs Ecology oflearning Long-forgotten seeds reached fruition during a dream. 20 Quaker Profiles 11 "The Power," Quaking, and the Arlene Kelly Rediscovery of Primitive 22 Witness Quakerism The faith and practice ofsustainability Scott Martin Is the presence ofGod within us just an idea-- Poetry 14 Hallowed Be Thy Name Peg Edera 19 Remembering Richard Nancy Esther James Memorial: October 26, 1994 R.N. Lauder Cover photo © Virginia Bergey FRIENDS Jou RNAL May 2001 3 Forum Let's remain focused in limitedly personal or an impersonal force. and rhe Religious Society of Friends. Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, and Hindu rheists, If you are a member or attendee of a Christ plus orhers who acknowledge a personal Friends meeting and are willing to Marty Walton (F]Oct. 2000) looks to a God, have much in common wirh participate, please contact me at one of the universality of religious experience "quite Christians. Neverrheless, rhe revelation in addresses below. All answers will be treated separate from any particular historic each case is configured differently and the with tenderness and kept strictly confidential framework or system of beliefs." While configuration gives each tradition its special (I am an experienced medical researcher and commenting favorably on liberal Quakerism character. Christian rheism has a divine understand and wholeheartedly support moving much furrher from its roots in revelator, who also serves as a human such confidentiality). Christianity, Marty also calls for Friends "to paradigm. This is rhe doctrine of the David Rush sray anchored to rhe trurhs George Fox lived Incarnation, which is a two-way action: rhe 68 Foster St., Cambridge, MA 02138 or and preached." divine becoming human, and the human Woodbrooke College, 1046 Bristol Rd., The chiefTrurh rhat George Fox lived becoming divine. Carholics understand the Birmingham B296LJ, England or and preached was Jesus Christ. This is not a process as one of grace-and-works, e-mail: 4 May 2001 FRIENDS JoURNAL Viewpoint An Old Idea, Yet New ree years ago, as a volunteer to conceptual framework, a research base, a pro riculum," family-like and memoring rela the Scattergood Friends School fession or institution to help us understand or ~onship~ : and of course, a spiritual "cur TiLong Range Planning Process, I guide the larger learning process. nculum. was invited to have a conversation with Afrer all, it is a fact that our children spend In the absence of a profession or insti Iowa Yearly Meeting (Cons.) at its annual only 19 percent of their annual waking time tution to provide U.S. society with un gathering. I began with a question: 'True in school with 81 percent spent in the other derstanding and guidance on its rapidly or False, the school is the only setting settings. Perhaps it is time to understand and changing "ecology of learning," the where important learning takes place?" support the other settings. Scattergood School Committee has un The answer was a robust "False!" We talked a lot about the scope of what we dertaken a modest effort to fill the vacuum. The second question was, "0K, ifyour learn, academic learning being only a small It has sought to communicate this idea to answer is false, where else does important part ofthe life-learning curriculum. We talked the Iowa Quaker community in a variety learning take place?" Again the answers about how we learn, reminding ourselves that of ways, not the least of which is a com came quickly, informing me that learning intentional, cognitive learning, whether puter network, QuakerNet. They also have occurs in the family, neighborhood, teacher-led or self-directed, is only one, albeit sought to communicate it to the larger church, peer group, media (although there a very important, pedagogy. Recent work on Iowa community in the hope that the was a lot of grumping about its role), and the importance of peer groups and neighbor political, policy, and professional leader through our self-directed learning using hoods is leading corporate America to rede ship will move the state to understand the library and more recently the com sign the workplace in fundamental ways. It was and strengthen its "ecology of learning." puter and especially the Internet. pointed out that the media would object to a thus providing a model to the rest of the Properly chastened, I put the third more intentional "ecologyoflearning" since it nation. question: "If all of us know that learning would lead to greater media accountability. From time to time Quakers take on a occurs in many settings and that they are The discussion with Iowa Yearly Meeting cause to which they give dogged leader all important, how is it that the national is reflected in the specifics of the Scattergood ship. Perhaps it is time for another cause? education debate over the past two de long range plan. Initially focusing on the If you think we are on the right track, let cades has focused only on the school?" No strengthening of the academic curriculum in us hear from you. easy answers to this question. The audi the computer age, the internal agenda has Reck Niebuhr ence was stumped. So, having worried been broadened to an intentional focus on 1924 Bucksnort Road this question for decades, I offered my the school as a learning community, as hous Blairsville, GA 30512 answer: We don't have a vocabulary, a ing a peer group "curriculum," a work "cur- FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2001 5 by Kirsten Backstrom Peifection is not a static state of self satisfaction. It not only permits growth, it requires growth. Did not Christ grow in wist:Wm and stature? (Luke 2:52) -Howard Brinton Friends for 300 Year.s n this lucid definicion of the Quaker concept ofperfection, Howard Brinton I refers to a verse from the Gospel of Luke as illustration. If]esus "increased in wisdom and stature" in the course of his lifetime (as Luke 2:52 says), then his "per fection" must have been a growing pro cess rather than a finished state. This is a hopeful perspective for modern Friends as we try to redefine perfection for ourselves. Many of us reject the very word for its implications of static self-satisfaction or unrealistic and self-defeating standards of as an example of this very human kind of knowledge may be mistaken and is cer behavior imposed by some outside au perfection, I should state my own biases. I tainly limited. Probably, we would all agree thority. But any true definition of perfec think of Jesus as a human being with that the historical Jesus had many human tion must allow for growth-for the cre exceptional personal grace and compas qualities, and it is specifically those human ative capacity to change our beliefs and sion, someone who had a profound rela qualities that I would like to discuss here. our very selves as new wisdom becomes tionship to the Divine but was not uniquely If human perfection is possible, as early available to us. To live up to this larger, divine himself I feel that he can be a guide Friends and many modern Friends con more flexible idea of perfection we must and model for us precisely because he was tend, then the human Jesus almost cer be capable of welcoming the opponunity essentially like us, not innately and abso tainly exemplified that perfection, re to grow and learn. True perfection re lutely superior. I hope that those who see gardless of whatever divine qualities he quires an acceptance ofour present imper Jesus as the one Christ will not take offense may or may not have embodied. This fections, an acknowledgment that we can at my interpretacion of his actions as de human kind of perfection, however, is a always know more than we know now, picted in the Gospels, but will try instead process ofdevelopment rather than a final that we can always grow more. to imagine that I am writing only about the state; the perfection consists not in the Before I go on to use Jesus ofNazareth human aspect of the Christ they know end result (if there is such a thing) but in Kirsten Backstrom, a member of Multnomah and revere. Although I myself do not find the rising progression of apparently im Meeting in Portland, Oregon, is a frequent con reason to believe that Jesus was ofa differ perfect stages along the way. For Jesus to tributor to FRIENDS Jou RNAL ent order from ourselves, I accept that my "increase in wisdom and stature," he had 6 May 2001 FRIENDS joURNAL to go through stages oflesserwisdom, lesser his community; neighboring nations had most impressive here is not the healing of stature, in human terms at least. been at war for centuries, and there was the woman's daughter, but the ease with much bitterness. For Jesus to voice this which Jesus accepts correction and makes tory is told in the Gospels of bitterness in a way that amounts to ordi immediate changes based on what he has Mark and Matthew that illustrates nary bigotry contradicts all that we know learned. A this perfection-through-imperfec of his character. How can it be that the Often, in studies of Scripture, these tion wonderfully. While it shows Jesus in man who spoke for the outcast, ignoring panicular verses are passed over rather a rather imperfect light (at least by today's social, national, and even spiritual distinc quickly, since they may seem at first to standards), it also gives us an opportunity tions and refusing no one, can dismiss this challenge our idea of an always sensitive, to see him in the process of growing: woman with what sounds like self generous, and compassionate Christ righteous superiority when she asks for his figure. How did Jesus, the human being, For a certain woman, whose young daugh help? When I first read this and realized come by this sensitivity, generosity, and ter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and what I was reading, I was shocked at the compassion in a world that was (and is) came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician bluntness of it. often explicitly unfair, selfish, and harsh? by nation; and she besought him that he The story does not end, however, with Only through a capacity to grow and learn would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. the dismissal. Strangely, it is the woman from mistakes, to be guided by the good But Jesus said unto her, Let the children who displays the more traditionally Christ to be found in others, even when this first be filled: for it is not meet to take the like perfection of speech and action. She meant relinquishing comfortable cenain children's bread and cast it unto the dogs. responds to Jesus with a humility, forbear ties, admitting the possibility of being And she answered and said unto him, Yes, ance, and grace that reaches him. Both wrong. These verses tell us that Jesus' Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the versions of the story emphasize the meta perfection consisted not in holding the children's crumbs. phor that he introduces and she eloquently "right" views innately, but in a willingness And he said unto her, For this saying go transforms. Her response expresses the to discover for himselfwhat was right, not thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. value of the bread and her respect for the only through his experience of God, but -Mark 7:25-29 (King james Verrion) provider of that bread without challeng also through the guidance ofother human ing him in his statement that the bread is beings (and God in other human beings) And, behold, a woman ofCanaan ... cried even, and perhaps especially, those con unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, 0 only for the children of Israel. She even Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is accepts the epithet of"dog," while quietly sidered socially and spiritually "inferior." grievously vexed with a devil. reiterating her request for help, even if it is But he answered her not a word. And his only crumbs. The mildness of this re Friends today consider how we disciples came and besought him, saying, Send sponse is genuine, yet the woman is also may "be therefore perfect" (Mat her away; for she crieth after us. employing a traditional rhetorical tactic A thew 5:48), the key, perhaps, may But he answered and said, I am not sent by which elders in many communities lie in how willing we are to listen and to be but unto the lost sheep of the house oflsrael. apply discipline through gently reproach changed by what we hear, how willing we Then came she and worshipped him, say ful acquiescence rather than punishment, are to accept a condition of perpetual ing, Lord, help me. so that those who have behaved inappro learning and renewal of our essential It But he answered and said, is not meet to priately may come to understand for them knowledge. In order to grow, and in order take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs. to be perfect, we must allow our cenain And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat selves (and admit publicly) that they have of the crumbs which fall from their masters' made a mistake. The woman shows great ties to be challenged so that we do not table. skill in the way that she makes her point become locked into a static state of self Then Jesus answered and said unto her, 0 without expressing anger or humiliation, satisfaction. Perfection may mean that woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even and especially without evoking defensive when we encounter our own imperfec as thou wilt. And her daughter was made ness or hostility in others. tions, we allow our imagination and gen whole from that very hour. erosity of spirit to come into play rather -Matthew 15:22-28 (King james Verrion) he real point of the story, I believe, than responding automatically with right is that Jesus hears her, learns from eous, self-protective indignation. What is happening in these verses? Ther , and grows-not only because The generosity of spirit exhibited by Mark is rather circumspect, and it is diffi of how well she speaks, but because of his Jesus in response to the woman in this cult to tell why Jesus at first refuses the openness, his lack of rigidity. Instead of story is all the more perfect because he had woman and why her answer leads him to defending his position, Jesus listens, and to learn it, had to open himself to receive change his mind. But in Matthew, the superbly demonstrates perfection in prac wisdom from an unexpected source. I like story becomes clearer. Though the tice. In these panicular verses we only see to think that there was a distinct moment woman's nationality is different in the that he rewards her for her "faith" by when he heard and understood that she two versions, both emphasize the fact that granting her request, but elsewhere, every not only was asking him for crumbs and she was not an Israelite, that she was a where, we see the results in Jesus himself. for her daughter's healing, but also was Gentile, a stranger. It is for this and noth Perhaps this story illustrates the very mo asking him to change-and that this mo ing else that Jesus scorns her: he refers to ment when Jesus lets go of the usual preju ment of hearing, understanding, and then his own people as "children" and to her dices ofhis community and opens himself actually changing was meaningful and people as "dogs." This was cenainly in to a new understanding regarding people wonderful for Jesus himself: a break line with the popular views ofhis time and ofother nations and religions. And what is through, a moment of perfect joy. 0 FRIENDS j OURNAL May 2001 7 The Miracle of """'FORGNENESS: .. ~ . ' . .I \ :.· ·' . I • . ; ~~ ~I ~ .. I ,.t • -' ' h .... . ~r: ./ ~. ~.,.:, ,; .. · /~/ AJourney - ofthe Heart by Roxy Jacobs eeds, whether planted by the human hand or sown by the wind, endure. Covered by earth Sthey rest unseen, waiting in faith to be called forth at God's appointed time. So it is that deserts will bloom from long-forgotten seed. The blessing of forgiveness came to flower in me from seeds planted in years past. The hatred that I carried was so deeply rooted that it had become a part of who I was. It was not just a passing thought or a flash of remembered anger; it had grown and matured as I had, ·from the age of three when the abuse began, not ending 1When I left home at sixteen. The abuser was my stepfather. . · .... I was encouraged to write the following account of my 'miracle by two dear Friends with whom I felt led to share my • experience, separately and months apart. At first I wondered ifi could find words powerful enough to convey the nature of the gift that God had given me. Writing became a burden that felt heavier and heavier. After holding it in the Light for some time and not seeing the way forward, I bundled it together and laid it all at God's feet. Some months passed, and the season of harvest was upon \.US. One evening, after a full day in the field, I heard my \' husband telling a non-farming friend that the crops were almost in. All things had come together at the right time: \ spring rains, good sun, no drought; the seeds planted in the spring had flourished. It would be a good harvest. Days later I knew at least how to begin. May 2001 FRIENDS jOURNAL adult prisoners. It was in this setting that I dream. My husband and I crossed main Sowing Seeds met my first Quaker, Paul Landskroener. land China and then flew to Lhasa. It had The same week that we met, he invited taken 14 years to save the money for this he first seed of which I am aware me to Duneland Friends Meeting. I guess trip. It was there in Tibet, the Land of was planted approximately 18 years that I had always been a Friend, so I'm still Snows, that I experienced a spiritual awak T ago. In conjunction with my work there. Another seed fell into the soil. ening. I am not a Buddhist, but the Tibet (teaching juveniles who are incarcerated), I have been teaching in detention for ans spoke to my condition. I found some I attended a lecrure on conflict resolution. the last 20 years and know that this is the thing that I was not aware of seeking. We The speaker asked us to think about some work that God had in mind for me all traveled through the villages and passed one with whom we were in conflict or along. Five years ago we moved into a countless pilgrims. We climbed to mon someone we intensely disliked, and in new, state-of-the art facility, designed spe asteries and followed caravans of yaks like stead of holding the image of that indi cifically to meet the needs of the young long black threads strung through the vidual in the present, to picture that per people in our care. I have two full-size mountain passes. We reached Nepal, then son as a baby or as a small child. This new, classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, and continued on to Bhutan, a mountain king nonthreatening image would be one we large windows that look out upon a dom, and finally into northern India. T he could hold more comfortably, thus allow meadow and a grove of trees. I also super stirrings in my heart that began on that ing ourselves to experience some positive vise a second teacher who works part-time. pilgrimage continue to this day. feelings for that person. Immediately my I work every day with children who are Nine years after this trip I was present stepfather leaped into my consciousness, victims of sexual abuse, and I believe that in a small audience given by the Dalai but before I was able to complete the in some small measure I have helped them. Lama just prior to his public appearance assigned thoughts, I rejected the idea so I also work daily with young sex offenders, and address at the Medinah Temple in violently and with such anger that I re and they have touched me deeply. T hey Chicago. I lightly touched his hand in member nothing else about that after are children who are desperate for love. greeting before he began to speak to those noon. Nevertheless, that seed was planted. Most are lonely children, lacking in social of us gathered in the small room. He I have been a secondary school teacher skills, who want .very much to belong. spoke on the subject of hatred. In an for many years. My first teaching assign They often seem less emotionally marure attitude of love and with a quiet voice he ment after university was in Gary, Indi than their peers and have very low self said, "Give up hatred. It is too heavy to ana. My students were, for the most part, esteem. T hese are the children who are carry. Hatred is only a burden to the one victims: of neglect, violence, abuse, and most difficult to place in foster care. They who is hating." I never really thought poverty, both financial and spiritual. I was experience "placement failure," re-offend, about hate in this way before. It seemed to ill-prepared for the task, and I will always and are shuffled throughout the juvenile make sense. I briefly entertained the ques be thankful to these students for the les system until they reach the age of 18, tion, "Can I give up my hate?" My whole sons they taught me about survival. The when they then become adult offenders. I being dosed in upon itself crying, "No!" demands of geography next found me can picture these young people as chil However, this seed offorgiveness was bur teaching in a small, rural high school where dren, because I first knew them as chil ied deep into my inner soil. I taught English literature to juniors and dren. On February 21, 1997, I traveled by seniors. It was also in this rural setting that Through the years I have learned many rail to Missouri to be trained as a listener I met the man who would become my things. Abuse exists in all colors; it thrives by Herb Walters, who developed The husband a few years later. It was with great in the city and on the farm. It occurs in Listening Project. The goal of this project sadness that I left this school, protected as settings of wealth and education, just as it is to help participants begin a process of it was, hiding among the fields of corn. does in poverty and ignorance. Much of actively listening to each other systemati I believe it was God who sent me to my what I know, I have learned ftom these cally so that all "views are heard and ex next assignment, as I arrived there by acci offended and offender children. With grati plored respectfully, without a preset goal dent. I mistakenly answered an advertise tude to God I can truly say, "I have loved in mind . . . seeking to discern the will of ment for a job in juvenile corrections, them all." It was hard for me to consider God b,y openly stating what is in our thinking the position was something else. forgiveness in my own life, but a few more hearts . Quickly realizing my mistake, but loathe seeds were planted. Armed with pamphlets, journals, mys to break the connection, I inquired about In the mid-'80s I collected my courage teries, my ever-present Bible, and a selec the education program offered to the and traveled to a seminar given by survi tion of crossword puzzles cut ftom my young offenders. I was informed that there vors of child sexual abuse. It was during daily paper, I boarded the train. Some was no program and no teachers. At that this period that I felt I could deal more hours into my journey I opened my Bible time in Indiana most juveniles were held openly with my own pain and be more to the book of Matthew. It was not my in adult jails. T his detention center had able to accept help from others. I will first reading, but this time the words of recently opened and was one of less than never forget one of the women who spoke Chapter 5 held me fast as they had never ten such facilities in the entire state. It was at this gathering. She had found that for done before: located on the second floor of the county giveness was truly a part of her healing 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the jail. Here, though they occupied the same journey. I felt such distress at her words altar, and there rememberest that thy cells that until recently had housed the that I couldn't stay. A very tiny seed fell brother hath aught against thee; adult population, the young offenders were into the soil. 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and separated and thus protected from the In October 1987 I realized a lifelong go thy way; first be reconciled to thy FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2001 9 brother, and then come and offer thy gift. does not seem to understand the serious was filled with an internal excitement. And again, ness of what he has done and seems un Though I did not speak ofit, I continued moved by the pain of the dying bird. At in a state of joy like I had never known. 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, the same time he seems confused by my Alone on the train, I kept checking to see Thou shalt wve thy neighbor, and hate deep emotion and concern. if I still believed that I had received the thy enemy. At this point the image of the eagle miracle of forgiving. For the first time in 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them recedes into the background and I make my life, I said a short prayer commending that hate you, and pray for them which the decision to confront him with the my stepfather's soul to God. (He had died despitefully use you, and persecute you; pain that I have felt and the suffering that over 20 years ago.) I asked God to bless 45 That ye may be the children of your I have experienced from his sexual abuse. him and heal him. For the first time I was Father which is in heaven: for he maketh He expresses a mixture of surprise and able to say his name, Edward. his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, regret that his actions had hurt me. He With the passing of many miles, I fell and sendeth rain on the just and on the says that at the time he felt that they were into a light sleep. When I awoke, it came unjust. of very little importance, since they were to me that such an important happening Once again I questioned, "Can I do only about sexual feelings. in my life should be written down lest I this?" In the dream I begin to picture him as a ever forget. I began to make my notes and The answer was still, "No." I didn't beautiful, perfect child . .. easy to love and look back upon the events in my life that even want to give up my hate. I prayed, to protect. In that moment I physically led me to this place. The sense of release "Please God, accept my worship anyway." was still very real. I had truly forgiven. I ... More seeds, heavy seeds. had begun to harvest those seeds planted I won )t ever fm;get by the sowers of God. The following day at the training ses I finished my journal entry and looked sion, Herb opened by talking to us about the bodily sensations out of the window into the setting sun. the need for empathy and the value of I experienced There I saw a white tank car sitting alone finding common ground when listening as all that hatred left me. on a siding, on the side of which was to those whom we dislike, or to those whose scrawled in huge red letters the message, views we find extreme and difficult to I lack the words) "No Time To Hate." (I think God wanted tolerate. He suggested imagining the dis but I believe to make sure I was paying attention!) liked person as a baby, full ofGod, beauti The train slowed to a stop, and passen ful and perfect, not born evil, depraved, or that something like a sickness gers struggling with luggage and small perverted. I remembered hearing a similar flowed out of me) children left the train. We had arrived message all those years ago. safely and on time in the city of Normal, Still I thought this task was too much from every cell Illinois. Perhaps I too had reached "nor to ask. Why, even at the distance of so ofmybody. mal." I was a child who had kept her many years could I not give up my hatred? hands wrapped in dishtowels and rags Perhaps the hate was, at one time, the only because I couldn't bear to touch anything part of myself that I knew was mine, my that he had touched. I was the child who sense ofpersonhood. Hate felt like power. feel the old hurts and hatred dissolving, held her breath whenever it was necessary Maybe to give it up would be to again falling away, leaving my body. I tell him to pass through a room in which he was become a victim, to be powerless, to dis that I forgive him. His image now leaves present, because I had to shield myself appear once more. Doubt, foar, ... light? my dream and does not return. from his breath. Perhaps I was now re Seeds falling to wait unseen. Soon a bus arrives, bringing a friend I leased from the bedtime rituals I had tried The first, long day of training ended, have known and loved for a very long to let go offer so long. There seemed to be only to be followed by committee work time. I run to him and hug him with great so many possibilities in the new freedom I late into the evening. That night, after joy. I tell him about the eagle, which has was feeling. prayer and meditation, I gratefully relaxed now reappeared looking well and happy. Four years have passed since that train into sleep and received the gift ofa dream. My friend and I take the huge bird to a ride, but my journey has barely begun. mountaintop and set it free. The moun Where the old hatred had been, there is tain looks like Annapurna in Nepal, the now a new awareness ofGod as a constant The Dream most beautiful mountain I have ever seen. presence, not just in times ofdifficulry but I won't ever forget the bodily sensations also in the ordinariness of everyday life. am walking on a warm and sunny I experienced as all that hatred left me. I Forgiving is still a developing aspect ofmy day; I feel at peace. My tranquil walk lack the words, but I believe that something growth, and I find that I am not quite I is interrupted when I come upon a like a sickness flowed out of me from every finished with all the "old stuff." Maybe I large, beautiful bald eagle that has been cell of my body. I could feel it leaving. I never will be, but with God, family, and wounded near to death by my stepfather, awoke and the sensation stayed with me F/friendship, I am happier and more whole who is standing nearby looking at what he through the remainder of the night. than I ever have been. 0 has done. I feel torn between my need to Morning came, bringing breakfast and flee and my desire to gather up and minis the train ride home. I was unable to speak ter to the wounded eagle. My stepfather about what had happened in the night. I 10 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL "THE POWER'' Q]taking and the Rediscovery ofPrimitive Q]takerism by Scott Martin he Power of the Lord," or just the "Power of the Lord," however, appear the power was often associated with some simply, "The Power," was a very 388 times, and it is the single most often kind of involuntary physical or mental important concept to the early used phrase in his journal. phenomenon. When seized by the power, T Quakers, but it is virtually un "The Power of the Lord" had multiple some Friends quaked, vocalized, or fell known among Friends today. In The Power meanings for Fox and other early Friends, unconscious to the floor, while other ofthe Lord Is Over All· The Pastoral Letters but the most common use of the phrase Friends saw brilliant light, had visions, ofGeorge Fox, T. Canby Jones notes that was to refer to a sensible, divine power or experienced healing, or felt a force ema Quakers frequently say that Fox's central energy. Friends would experience this nating from them that was capable of teaching was there is "that of God in every power surrounding them or flowing subduing an angry and hostile mob. one." Surprisingly, this phrase appears only through their bodies under a variety of Not all 17th-century Friends were of 108 times in his writings. Variations of conditions, but most often at the point of one mind regarding the power, and so it Scott Martin is a longtime attender at Centre convincement, when facing a trial, or dur should not be surprising to find many Meeting in Centreville, Delaware. ing meeting for worship. An experience of different opinions of it among Friends FRIENDS JOURNAL May 200] 11 today. My guess is that some of us find blocked energy system can handle the power fascinating, while others dis whether as the result of meditation, ener miss it as excessive religious enthusiasm, getic exercises, or religious practices and superstition, or as simply irrelevant to ceremonies-this excess energy must be our lives as Quakers today. I am of the expended in some way, usually in the form first opinion. To me, the experience of of involuntary movement or sense experi the power and its accompanying phenom ence. William James, in The Varieties of ena constitute what Harvey Cox, in Fire Religious Experience, called these phenom from Heaven, might term "primitive" or ena "automatisms," and he believed that "primal" spirituality. Far from being all of the great religious figures exhibited some kind ofaberration or even unique to them. Christians throughout history have Quakers, these phenomena represent "ar experienced them too. When moved by chetypal forms" of religious expression, a the spirit, it is not just the Quakers who "surging, ever-present undercurrent" of Before Quaker notions quake, but Shakers shake, Holy Rollers roll, religiosity, usually suppressed, but occa and Pentecostalists speak in tongues and sionally breaking to the surface when such as ccinner light') or are slain in the spirit. These physical and conditions allow. While I am not suggest ccthe seed)) were abstract sensory phenomena, however, are not all ing that we return to the 17th-century that important in themselves. What is im worldview, I do think that we have a theological concepts, they portant is the energy that gives rise to them. lot to learn from these experiences of the I believe the energetic experiences of early Friends, if only we take them seri were, I beliwe, actual early Friends greatly influenced how they ously and view them from the vantage bodily experiences. conceptualized their faith. Before Quaker point of the increased knowledge avail notions such as "the power of the Lord," able to us today. "inner light," or "the seed" were abstract theological concepts, they were, I believe, ultures as different as the an For example, his statement in John 7:38, actual bodily experiences. As John Mann cient Greeks and Romans on "He who believes in me, . . . from his and Lar Short point out in The Body of the one hand, and Native innermost being shall flow rivers ofliving Light, "the physical body is the mediator CAmericans on the other, have water" is a beautiful description of the of all our experiences," and this is espe had words in their languages referring to a activation ofthe dan tien, an energy center cially true ofour profound religious expe life force or divine energy. John Mann that the Chinese place just below the na riences. The body is truly the temple of and Lar Short, in The Body ofLight, have vel. The account in Mark 5:30 of Jesus the Holy Spirit. identified 49 cultures with words for this walking through a crowd and exclaiming kind of energy. This idea is also very im "Who touched me?" because he felt eorge Fox was gifted with an portant in Asian religions and cultures; in some of his power leaving him is a clue extraordinary charge ofenergy. China, the life force is called chi, and in that Jesus was not only aware of his energy In fact, I wonder if much of India, it is known as prana. Both cultures but understood its connection to healing. Gthe psychological turmoil he have developed an elaborate science of The practice in religious art of depicting experienced early in life resulted from his energy, complete with maps of how it Christ and the saints with a halo or radi struggle to control the powerful energy moves in the body through a network of ance surrounding their bodies may have that flowed in his body. He exhibited a energy centers and connecting pathways. been, on some level, a recognition of their host of automatisms, both physical and Eastern cultures also have developed so extraordinarily strong energy. And there psychic, such as visions and telepathic ex phisticated psychospiritual technologies for are many fascinating references to ener periences. Many people commented on cultivating energy. These practices are getic phenomena in the lives of the Chris the power of George Fox's eyes and the known in China as qigong and in India as tian saints. energy that seemed to radiate from him. yoga. Cultivation ofenergy is at the heart While Asian religions conceptualize There can be no doubt that Fox knew of the spirituality and traditional medi energy as an impersonal life force coming how to use his energy for self-healing. cine of both cultures. from within, Christianity tends to use the When walking barefoot through the snow It is not just ancient or Eastern cultures image of the indwelling ofa personal Holy covered streets of Lichfield, Fox felt the and religions that speak of subtle energy. Spirit from above. Both, I think, are speak "fire of the Lord" so in his feet and all over References abound in Christianity too, ing about much the same experience. him that he suffered no discomfort. On although you often have to read between When the Holy Spirit descended upon another occasion, Fox was hit on the arm the lines to see them. The curious state the apostles at Pentecost or moved among and lost all use of it. Although onlookers ment in the Bible, "If thine eye be single, the believers during America's many re were sure he would be disabled for life, thy whole body will be filled with light" vivals, the resulting physical and mental Fox focused his attention on the arm and (Matthew 6:22) sounds very similar to phenomena are not all that different from the Lord's power sprang through it, heal what would be called in the East "the the experiences reported by practitioners ing it instantly. Fox was credited with opening of the third eye." And there is of qigong, yoga, or meditation. many miraculous healings ofothers, often good reason for believing that Jesus was When more energy begins to flow in a involving the laying on of hands. His aware ofenergy flowing through his body. person's body than an undeveloped or reference to seeing the "sparks of life" 12 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL suggests to me, at least, that he was accus to understand the outpouring ofthe power we might experience deeper states of tomed to seeing auras. that occurred in that day. Worship in the centeredness? The writings of Isaac Penington con 17th century went on for many hours at a tain many clues to his experiences with time. There was an intense, emotional f course, there is only one energy. Penington's advice to sink down tone to those meetings that is lacking way to know if the power is daily to the seed planted in the heart (a today, as one Friend after another would real and ift he cultivation ofit 17th-century term for "center") is identi rise, voicing deep contrition for sin. Many O will be beneficial to you on cal to instructions that might be given by a hours of sitting, coupled with the strong your spiritual journey, and that is to begin qigong teacher today. The Chinese con catharsis ofconfession, probably triggered a daily practice. If there is a qigong or yoga cept of the dan tien is indistinguishable powerful, energetic releases, not only in teacher in your area, that is probably the from Penington' s idea of the seed when those speaking, but in the rest of the best way to go, but you can also do some seen not as an abstract theological state meeting as well. (When I think of those experimenting on your own. Find a quiet ment, but as an actual location in the early meetings with Friends quaking, place in your home where you will not be body. In fact, I thought of Penington moaning, and becoming incontinent, and disturbed. Sit down on a chair, not lean immediately when I read the advice of then compare it to worship today where a ing against the back, but sitting more to Deng Ming-Dao, a modern-day Taoist: rumbling stomach or persistent cough can the front of the seat so you will have room sit still and "fertilize the seed within; let it be a cause for some embarrassment, I to move, if necessary. Relax totally and sit sprout into a flower of pure light" (365 begin to wonder just who the Puritans up straight with your feet firmly planted Tao Daily Meditations). Furthermore, are-them or us!) on the floor. Tuck your chin in slightly T eresina Havens has pointed out in her It would be a mistake, however, to and allow your head to raise up as if pamphlet, Mind What Stirs in Your Heart, think that the power is no longer present extended by a string from above. Don't that Penington's references to "true in Quaker worship today. Modern Friends force this, just let it happen as it will; breathings" and the "breathing life of the may no longer quake, but we still experi energy cannot move where there is physi seed" suggest that he understood the con ence the power flowing through our bod cal tension. Place the tip of your tongue nection between breathing and prayer, ies, although many do not recognize it as on your upper palette, just behind your and, I might add, the cultivation ofenergy such. Quaker worship, whatever else it front teeth. This connects two very im in his own body. I think Havens is abso may be, is clearly a form of corporate portant meridians that in time will allow lutely correct when she implies that qigong, or group energy exchange. When energy to fill your torso. Place your hands, Penington's frequent use of phrases such we center down in meeting, clear the mind, one over the other, on your dan tien, the as the "rising of the power" and "purely and breathe deeply, the charge of energy spot three finger-widths below your navel. springing life" suggests that these were in our bodies increases and the field of Place your concentration there, too. Shift actual, bodily experiences. He says as much energy surrounding us expands. As our your breathing from your chest down to when he writes, "In your meetings ... be energy field interpenetrates the energy the abdomen. With each inhalation, every one of you very careful and diligent fields of those around us, the charge of the allow your belly to swell like a balloon in watching to his power, that ye may energy field ofthe entire meeting increases, and push outward against your hands. have the sensible living feeling of it." bringing everyone to a higher level. It is When exhaling, allow your belly to con Why is it that the early Quakers had this heightened energetic state, I think, tract and your hands to fall. such an intense experience of the power that Quakers have traditionally called a Practice this form of seated qigong for while we do not today? My guess is that covered meeting. Robert Barclay's meta 20 minutes daily for at least three to six the widespread practice of daily retire phor of many candles lighted in one place, months. In time, you may feel that your ment in that time may have been a factor. augmenting the light of all, is a beautiful body wants to shake, sway, or bounce. Both Fox and Penington, for example, description of what actually may be hap Yield to this impulse, knowing that you were known for their ability to sit for pening on an energetic level. When can always stop the movement if you many hours at a time. Tranquil sitting is a Friends, during worship, experience sen wish. Do not allow the movements to powerful method of energy cultivation, sations of tingling or vibration, warmth in become too intense-the idea here is to and although from the outside it may look the abdomen or streaming down the legs allow yourself to move with the energy, like the body is inactive, much is happen and arms, or a rootedness or groundedness not injure yourself or fall off the chair! ing inside on an energetic level. In aban (as though sinking into the bench or floor) You will find that periods of movement doning the practice ofdail y sitting, which along with a feeling oflightness or expan will be followed by periods of deep relax might legitimately be called the "Quaker siveness, they are experiencing the very ation. If you feel nauseous or dizzy, yoga," modern Friends may be cutting same "Power of the Lord" that animated discontinue the movement or end your ourselves off from a deeper, more pro Fox, Penington, and the early Quakers. practice for the day. found experience of worship. It is only It has never been surprising to me that In China, what I am describing is logical that Friends who sit only on First early Friends quaked. What I find puz known as "spontaneous movement Day simply cannot have as deep an ener zling is that modern Friends do not. Just qigong." The movements arising from the getic experience as those who have done what do we do with the excess energy we practice, called "chi-induced movements," this every day for many years. generate in ourselves and absorb from are the result of energy trying to navigate However, the way in which early others during meeting? Could it be that through areas of tension in the body. (In Friends conducted their meetings for wor ifFriends felt free to shake, sway, or bounce yoga, involuntary movements such as these ship also has to be considered when trying when needed during worship today, are known as kriyas.) By cooperating with FRIENDS ]OURNALMay 2001 13 the impulse to move, you are assisting the energy to eventually make its way through the blockage. Since the movements that each person experiences are different, dic tated by their particular energy blockages, it has been argued that spontaneous move ment is a faster method ofenergy cultiva tion than following a prescribed choreog raphy, such as in tai chi or yoga. I recently visited several hospitals in China where qigong is used to treat illnesses. The doc tors, all qigong masters, emit energy from their own bodies, usually from the hands, to increase the flow ofenergy in the bodies of their patients. Often during these treat ments, patients will begin to move spon taneously. Certain qigong masters, it is said, are capable of filling large auditori- § urns with energy, causing some in the t:; audience to begin moving or even to expe ~ rience spontaneous healing. I have often HALLOWED BE THY NAME ~ wondered if George Fox was doing some ~ thing similar when he was able to have Hallowed be thy name such an effect over large groups of people, The stones, the shells, even angry and hostile crowds. The sticks, the air, the sea, By the close of the 17th century, the power and quaking had begun to fall out The ways we name thee. offavor among Friends. There were prob ably some political reasons for this, but Coming back to where I first clearly things were getting out of hand. Take, for example, the accounts ofF riends Learned what is holy, trying to use the power to raise people from Returning to where it is easiest the dead! There were casualities of the To see, power, too; the intense energetic experi ences common in that day were more than I arrive stunned by longing some unbalanced people could handle. That fills my sleep with wrecked boats, I think the time is right for a rediscov Dead-end roads and pathless mountains. ery of the power and daily sitting. Many Friends, like me, are experiencing what Harvey Cox calls an "ecstasy deficit." We I collect this place day by day: read the accounts of the early days of The white and golden bits of shell, Quakerism with a certain amount ofenvy, Chips of pastel sea glass, dried buttercups and sensing that there is a greater depth to our faith than we are experiencing today. Fern fronds pressed in books, Worship often feels flat, and we wonder Mica crusted stones, if we are doing something wrong. We Small strange sticks whose omens I can't read. feel frustrated that our practice does not seem to transform us. Those traditional Quaker qualities of peacefulness, accep Hallowed be thy name. tance, and love seem to elude us. We are I hold you in the stones. tired ofreading books about other people's experiences. We want to get out of our I bring you back each year heads and into our bodies. We seek a As though I am alone. deeper healing. Isaac Penington's advice to the seekers -PegEdera of the 17th century applies equally to the seekers among us today: Oh, sit, sit daily and sink down to the seed and "wait for the risings of the power . . . that thou mayst feel inward healing." 0 Peg Edera attends West Hills Friends Church in Portland, Oregon. 14 May 2001 FRIENDS JoURNAL The Making of A Wfstern Qyaker Reader by Kenneth Sutton and Robert Dockhorn AN n 2000, A Western Q}ulker Reader: Writ First Friends Meetings. In 1992 he INTERVIEW ingr by and about Independent Quakers authored a Pendle Hill pamphlet, Spiri I in the Western United States, 1929- tual Linkage with Russians: The Story ofa WITH 1999 was published by Friends Bulletin, Leading. In 1993 he helped to start a the official publication of Pacific, North youth service program jointly sponsored ANTH C) NY Pacific, and Intermountain Yearly Meet by American Friends Service Committee MANOUSC)S ings. This anthology contains articles, in (AFSC) and Southern California Quar terviews, memoirs, and commentary by terly Meeting. He is a frequent contribu and about Western Quakers. tor to FRIENDSJO URNAL and Quaker Life. We interviewed the editor of this book, Western United States-David l..e Shana's Anthony Manousos, who is also the edi What led you to work on this book? Quakers in California (1969) and Errol tor of Friends Bulletin. Anthony became a The immediate reason was to com Elliott's Quakers on the American Frontier Friend in 1984 when he joined Princeton memorate the 70th anniversary ofFriends (1969)-were written from a pastoral (N.J.) Meeting. In 1989 he moved to Bulletin, which was founded in 1929 by Friends' perspective. What was missing, California to marry Kathleen Ross, a Meth Anna and Howard Brinton as the official and sorely needed, was a book conveying odist pastor whom he met while sojourn publication of the College Park and Pa the adventuresome spirit of independent ing at Pendle Hill. He is currently a dual cific Coast Association. As I became more Quakerism. member of both Whitleaf and Whittier involved with this project, however, I be gan to realize that there was a practical as So you distinguish the two kinds ofWest Kenneth Sutton is the senior editor and Robert well as spiritual need for this book. The ern Friends as "pastoral" and "indepen Dockham the assistant editor ojFRIENDS JouRNAL two major studies about Quakerism in the dent"? Yes, I do. I generally use the term "pas toral" to refer to Friends United Meeting (FUM) and Evangelical Friends Interna tional (EFI). Others prefer the term "pro grammed" to designate these Friends. "In dependent" refers to those meetings that eventually became associated with Col lege Park/Pacific Coast Association, whose original founder was Joel Bean. Some of these unprogrammed meetings were started by Friends churches, one (Orange Grove) was founded by Hicksite Philadel phians, but most of these early meetings sprang up more or less spontaneously. This is in sharp distinction to the vast majoriry of meetings/churches that were founded by pastoral Friends from Iowa and the Midwest and formed California, The final selection committee for A Western Quaker Reader: (left to right) Vickie Aldrich (Las Cruces, N.Mex.), Nancy Andreasen described in this book are now quite eld erly. In order to draw from the memory banks of these elders, we needed to con sult them while they are still with us. Finally, our book has a spiritual pur pose: "building the (independent) West ern Quaker community." The three West ern independent yearly meetings are a g widely dispersed group of Friends who f.::; range from Montana to Hawaii and from j Washington State to Mexico City and ~ Guatemala. Many meetings and Friends '§ in the Westarequiteisolated. This book (5 and just about everything I do as editor of ~ Friends Bulletin-is intended to help fos- ~ ter a sense of community among these Jl widely scattered Western Friends and also © to share our work with "Friends every- where." came to know and appreciate more deeply "Quaker mavericks" (mavericks are cattle How did you go about putting this book some of the significant personalities who without a brand), but my committee found together? helped to shape the history of Western this tide a bit too colorful. We settled for a We used Quaker process as much as Friends- people like Josephine Duveneck, title (A Western Quaker Reader) that evokes possible so that the book would reflect the Floyd Schmoe, Gordon Hirabayashi, a similar work by a Western Quaker, concerns ofa broad cross section ofWest Franklin Zahn, Emmett Gulley, Juan Jessamyn West. ern independent Quakers. This meant as Pascoe, Steve Thiermann, Bill Durland, sembling an editorial board consisting of Leanore Goodenow, Earle Reynolds, Elise How do the origins ofthe three indepen half a dozen seasoned Friends from each Boulding, Bob Vogel, Ann Stever, dent Western yearly meetings (Pacific, of the three independent Western yearly Marshall Massey, Gene Hoffman, Jim North Pacific, andIntermountain) fit into 16 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL Far left: Joel and Hannah Bean, founders of College Park Association of Friends Center: Anna and Howard Brinton, founders of Friends Bulletin, with their family, 1935 Adjacent: Dancing during a recent North Pacific Yearly Meeting the long history ofseparation and reunifi Rocky Mountain region that were at first have drifted further and further apart. In cation ofFriends in North America? part of Five Years Meeting (the predeces dependent Friends have become less fo Quakerism changed radically as Friends sorofFUM). These Western yearly meet cused on Christianity and more universal moved westward. One of the major ings eventually broke away from FUM to ist in outlook. Another issue separating changes was brought about by the evan form Evangelical Friends International. independent and Evangelical Friends has gelical revival that swept across the West Today there are approximately 12,000 been the question of same-sex marriage. after the Civil War. Revivalism dramati Evangelical Friends and 3,200 indepen Not only did two Western yearly meet cally changed the way that Quakerism dent Friends in the Western United States. ings approve minutes of support ofsame was practiced, eventually leading to the sex marriage in the 1990s, Notth Pacific pastoral system among Friends. Iowa What is the relationship ofthe three inde Yearly Meeting also appointed two clerks Yearly Meeting, set offfrom Indiana Yearly pendentyearly meetings to the three Evan who had same-sex marriages. This would Meeting in 1863, was one of many meet gelical yearly meetings in the West (Rocky have been unthinkable among Evangeli ings that split because of this evangelical Mountain, Northwest, and Southwest)? cal Friends. movement. Joel Bean, a highly respected There have been a lot of ups and downs On the other hand, there have been and internationally known Friend, who in the relationship between independent effons to build bridges between these two had been recorded as a minister in 1858 and Evangelical Friends. Although they branches of Quakerism. One such effort by West Branch (Iowa) Meeting, was pre have always had profound theological dif was the Western Gathering of Friends, siding clerk when Iowa Yearly Meeting ferences, independent Friends often which convened at Lewis and Clark Col split in 1877. For five years, Joel tried to worked with pastoral Friends on common lege in Portland in 1992. Though over reconcile Friends, but in 1882 he "retired projects relating to Q uaker testimonies on 250 showed up for this gathering ofEvan from the conflict" and moved with his peace and justice. For example, Orange gelical and independent Friends, many wife, Hannah, to San Jose, California. Grove Meeting in Pasadena worked with felt that it was a mixed success. T he vast There he started an unprogrammed wor First Friends Church in Whittier to found majority of participants were unpro ship group. When Honey Creek Quar the Southern California office of AFSC grammed Friends. There were many ex terly Meeting refused the group recogni and Friends Committee on Legislation of pressions of goodwill and good feeling, tion as a monthly meeting, they built a California (FCL). Individual Evangelical but little or no follow-up. meetinghouse and became incorporated, Friends have also worked on AFSC com A much more sustained effort at bridge in 1889, as College Park Association of mittees in the Pacific Northwest since the building was undertaken by women in the Friends, independent of any quarterly or beginning of their regional offices. Un Pacific Northwest. Annis Bleeke (a former yearly meeting. The Discipline of that programmed and pastoral Friends often member of the board of Friends Bulletin group was intentionally brief, inclusive, worked side by side in workcamps or Ci and now assistant executive secretary of and vague, characteristics of independent vilian Public Service Camps and formed Friends World Committee for Consulta Friends today, who wish to stay out of the deep and lasting friendships despite theo tion [FWCC] in London) and Cilde divisions of Friends. logical disagreements. Glover (currently executive secretary of As this independent Quaker movement Since the 1960s these common projects FWCC, Section of the Americas) started slowly grew, pastoral Friends formed yearly have mostly disappeared, and indepen the "Multwood Group," an informal gath meetings in California, Oregon, and the dent and Evangelical Friends in the West ering of women from the local Friends FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2001 17 church and unprogrammed meeting. De to stick with FUM. In order to do so, First spite theological differences, these women Friends had to start its own mini-yearly found they had a great deal in common meeting called theWestern Association of spiritually. Eventually this group led to Friends. Some Pacific Yearly Meeting the formation of the Pacific Northwest Friends joined this group since Whittier Quaker Women's Theological Confer First Friends has always had cordial ties ence. These conferences have had a pro with unprogrammed Friends, and it was found impact, bringing together small taking a risk by aligning with FUM rather groups of women from the liberal and than EFI (thereby expressing its support evangelical traditions for a weekend of for AFSC, Friends Committee on Na spiritual sharing. These gatherings have tional Legislation, FCL ofCalifornia, etc.). helped liberal Friends understand more When I moved to Whittier, I decided to deeply the Christian foundations ofQuak follow the example ofHelen O'Brien, the erism, and they have helped Evangelical clerk of my unprogrammed meeting, and Open your child's Friends appreciate the spiritual basis of become a dual member of both Whitleaf liberal Quakerism. An Oregon Friend and Whittier First Friends. I therefore mind to the world named Marge Abbott was deeply involved. have the distinction of being the first edi After a profound midlife spiritual experi tor of Friends Bulletin to belong to both ABINGTON ence resulting from these discussions, she Pacific Yearly Meeting and FUM. I think FRIENDS was led to write a Pendle Hill pamphlet that Joel Bean would have been very SCHOOL called An Experiment in Faith: Quaker pleased! Women Transcending Differences (1995) The efforts by Earlham School of Re A Quaker coeducational as well as an anthology of liberal and ligion (ESR) to reach to Friends across the day school grades Preschool through 12 evangelical writings called A Certain Kind theological and geographical spectrum ofPerfection (1997). These works are, in have had a significant impact among West For more information, call my view, two of the most important con ern Friends, especially over the past 10 to 215-886-4350 tributions to Quaker spirituality by West 15 years. Western Friends from both un 575 Washington Lane • Jenkintown, PA 19046 ern Quakers to appear in the last decade. programmed and programmed meetings have enrolled in ESR and are excited by What are the most important things that the opportunity to be exposed to its theo Eastern Friends in North America don't logical diversity. ESR is planning to con know about Western Friends? duct an extension program in Southern My experience is probably typical of California. If this program is successful Eastern Friends-I knew absolutely noth and I hope it will be-it could open up a ing about the Beans and the spiritual very important channel of communica pioneers of Western Quakerism when I tion between Western and Midwestern first came from Philadelphia to Califor Friends involved with ESR and FUM. nia. I also knew nothing about Evangeli Hopefully, it will also attract pastoral (609) 714-0100 cal Friends and their role in the develop Friends. callighrf@ aol.com ment of Quakerism. • MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES • How do you see Western Friends influenc • INSCRIPTIONS • SCROLLS • And what don't Western Friends know ing Quakerism as it evolves into the fu about Eastern Friends? ture? 22 New Freedom Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 As you know, it is unwise to generalize This is a big topic and could be the about any group of Friends. However, I subject of another book! I see Western hope that this book will encourage better Friends as a kind ofsp iritual laboratory for informed intervisitation. experimenting with new ideas and new developments in Quakerism. Our book Excelling How do the interests andconcerns ofWest deals with some ofth e growing-edge trends ern Friends contrast with those ofthe Mid ofth e 1990s-same-sex marriage, dialogue IN A CHANGING WORLD west? among different branches of Q uakerism, The main connection that Western renewed interest in mysticism and Quaker FRIENDS SELECT Friends had with Midwestern Friends was service-but where Western Friends will through Friends Church Southwest (for be led next, only the Spirit knows. 0 merly California Yearly Meeting) and Pre-K to 12th grade FUM, but this tie was severed a few years For more information about Friends 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway ago when Friends Church Southwest de Bulletin and A Western Quaker Reader, see Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I9103-I284 cided to become part of EFI. 18 May 2001 FRIENDS JoURNAL Remembering Richard Microphone on a cord Amen passes from hand to hand And amen in church room too small And again, amen. for this special forum ... Soothing syllables through the perfi.uned air, To begin our dialogue, sturdied in ascent by the hope of a minute apiece to speak about people whose parched lips a gay or lesbian person you know. utter the ritual cadence. Visitor from another time zone, I rummage in my mind for To whom, for what? students taught, acquaintances ... Still, death comes needless- someone I might mention young men scissored from the living world without tears. like dolls from fancy paper. Voices around the circle Water, wine, body and blood, utter bouquets for friends sacred weapons, impotent against this enemy ofpromising tomorrows. or hang wreaths for the lost. Cherished hymns, sung with stentorian fervor, When the microphone will not make whole families broken falls to my hand, by this early death. I pass it on, do not risk drowning fragile words Churches fill, processions begin, half-formed within: the open spaces above prepare my dearest college friend to receive the anguished cries, died seven years ago ... echoing against marble floors, my eyes barely harbor the flood polished smooth by the repetition. I did not realize till now Again how strong. And again Passing me by, the microphone And again, amen. amplifies one old man's credo: just as in Christ there is no east or west, -RN Lauder in Christ there is no gay or straight. Into the groundswell of assent falls the only word my mouth will dare: Amen. On the far side of the room someone says, the gay person I know best is myself The microphone rounds to its starting point, and still, silence bears me up-- until the last to speak: a young couple proud to name their child Michael for their friend who died of AIDS. And I, who have no child, sign the name of my grief in spite of strangers ... tears break at last baptize my memory and will never end. -Nancy Esther james Nancy Esther james lives in Seven Fields, Pennsylvania. &bert Lauder wrote "Memorial» soon after the death ofa friend who died ofAIDS. FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2001 19 Quaker Profiles the wisdom and strength among themselves. "I am a rather willful person, so 'not my Arlene Kelly will, bur thine' has been the major discipline for me as a Quaker. I know from experience by Kara Newell that the Spirit doesn't let one down. I rake rimes to center, mainly in solitude, emptying ne of the difficult issues for Quakers myself, remembering that I serve best when I is leadership. Somehow we know get our of the way, especially if there's business O we need leaders, yet we are all sup about which I have strong opinions. I have a posed to be leaders, which makes being fol sense of those things I do well and try to give lowers a somewhat prickly business- for our my time to those." leaders! Arlene Kelly, in being faithful to her While the Quaker form of worship was ministry, has been called into various leader what initially drew Arlene in, and she contin ship positions, for which she has spent much ues to feel "it is crucial to attend meeting for ofher adult life learning, preparing, and grow worship as the most shared experience in a ing in her skills. meeting, it is not," she says, "what nunures "In college I was a counselor at a Y camp, chapter is not acceptable,' telling me what me most fully. When I am in a leadership where we looked at different religions, includ needed attention. I didn't understand the position with the meeting, journeying together ing Quakerism, which interested me. I started point she was making, bur I knew from to witness to 'walking the talk'-those are the attending Central Philadelphia (Pa.) Meeting struggles we had already had that I couldn't rimes I find the richest." as a junior in college. I liked Friendly Persua question her because she wouldn't rake it Family has had both joys and sorrows sion, agreed with the Peace T esrimony, and well. So I did my best to become an active for Arlene. "My parents were active in the was drawn in by the form of worship. I soon listener. After wrestling with it for three days, Episcopal Church but divorced when I was joined, even though I was spiritually imma I understood what she had been saying. I about seven. After the divorce, my mother ture. Sometimes, in working with new Friends, reworked the chapter, raking into account saw to it that my brother and I were con I find it good to remember that!" her comments, and turned it in. When I went firmed, but we didn't attend church because Arlene cites several mentors to her spiritual to get it she said, 'I cried when I read it,' she she didn't." Alcoholism has affected the lives development. When she joined meeting she was so happy." of several close family members, and even was the young person! "Joseph Karsner took The integration ofArlene 's Quakerism and caused the death of rwo. Arlene says, "Being a me under his wing," she remembers. "I went her professional career began in the mid-70s. counselor and not being able to help those I to the World Conference in '67 because Joe She recounts, "Annemargrer Osterkamp, whom loved was very difficult. My only blood rela said, 'I've suggested your name and I want I call the grande dame of Friends Counseling tives now are my brother's rwo sons and their you to go.' I don't remember whether he Service, invited me to participate. I was to work families, who are very important to my part really wagged his finger at me, but it felt that three hours a week, developing a presence at ner, Helene, and me and with whom we have way. He also suggested me for overseers and Friends Center. Although the goal was not a good relationship. said, 'I want you to say 'yes"' (even though she well defined, I began to reach out to meet "Helene and I have been together 22 years. had to ask what an overseer was). ings-an opponunity to integrate my profes Ours is a significant F.unily relationship. It has "Mary M. Rogers, who has been dead for a sional life and my spiritual life, and to visit been important to me that by and large Friends number of years, was another model. In the many meetings within the yearly meeting.'' in the Philadelphia area have been hospitable middle of a difficult discussion she could par Her work with meetings has continued to to me as a lesbian, obviously integral to who I ticipate actively, with a kind of equanimity develop. Currencly she has three major leader am, bur I don' r see it as relevant to the work I that I found remarkable, admire, and even ship roles: clerk ofher monthly meeting, clerk do in active leadership. sr.rive for, bur it's not my strong point." of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and a newly "Sometimes working collaborarively is hard Arlene has always lived in or near Philadel funded project the yearly meeting has adopted, for me. Wanting to fulft!l my high expecta phia. In graduate school at University ofPenn "Deepening and Strengthening Our Meet tions can sometimes be a gift and sometimes a sylvania, where she got her Master's in Social ings as Faith Communities." Arlene says, royal pain in the neck. Also, it's important to Work, she learned important skills from rwo "When I go to a meeting I must help people me to be able to count on things. I'm not a of her advisors. The first, Laura Downs, "I be clear about which hat I'm wearing!" Isn't person who likes to shift gears at the last wanted to emulate. She was very clear about this a bit of an overload? "I felt it was appro minute, especially if my head is into some who she was; she didn't fear those different priate to say 'yes' to being clerk because I see thing else. Predictability has high value for from her. So you could be yourself and wrescle clerking and the work it entails, both for the me. But I know that gets boring!" with things-she would engage back, which monthly meeting and the yearly meeting, in What does she do for relaxation? "Watch was very liberating." terms of strengthening community-! see it football games-I'm a Philadelphia Eagles Arlene recalls her second-year advisor, who as congruent ministry approached from dif fan. I enjoy watching those who are athleti was the exact opposite, but also imponanr. ferent ways and fitting together. cally skilled like Donovan McNabb. I like "She said to me, 'You're stronger than I am; "I know listening well is one of my other sports, too, certainly the Olympics. all I have is my authority' {including whether strengths, which is imponanr in clerking, Arlene added with a smile that "Years ago, I her advisees could remain in the program where one must help people hear what they played Ms. Pacman-don't do that now, and graduate). When I handed in the topic are saying, sometimes in a deeper way than doesn't fit my image!" chapter of my thesis, my advisor said, 'This they might hear themselves. I also know that I She's a Quaker leader, spiritually disci must always remember, this is nor in my plined, self-aware, serious about her work, Kara Newell is a member ofReedwood Friends hands, turning it over to the Spirit's having continuing to learn, and she has a wry sense of Church in Portland, Oregon. room to work- allowing people to discover humor. What more could we ask? D 20 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL "Even for those who already know it Mary Dyer's story is a compelling narrative. Robert Burgess has told it well. Mature young people wil l find inspiration here, and Quaker readers particularly will find here affir mation of their most cherished aspirations." -Gordon Browne Copies may be purchased from: RobertS. Burgess, P.O. Box 144, Hanover, NH 03755 $19.95 +b. so shipping/handling Quaker Roots Run Deep. ince the mid-1700s Quakers have been changing seasons with temperate winters, and Smoving to North Carolina. Before you a stimulating quality of life in an active Quaker make a retirement decision, plan to visit community. The area is home to several Greensboro, North Carolina and find out w hy Quaker meetings as well as one of the so many Quakers have settled here. You will nation's most well respected Quaker institutions, find Friends Homes, Inc. owns and manages Guilford College. Call (336) 292-9952 two outstanding continuing care retirement for more information or to arrange a visit to communities. You w ill enjoy the beauty of four Friends Homes. FRIENDS HOMES, INC. EQUAl. HOUS&NG Providing Retirement options since 1968 OPPORTUNITY F ruENDS JouRNAL May 2001 21 Spirituality Witness New England Friends in adds the dimension of time and long-range and the Arts consequences. Peace and justice actions sup Unity with Nature port sustainabilicy when they address the causes (NEFUN) Committee of conflict and oppression and work for strat Clay, Myth and Fairy Tale egies that put living and replicating solutions George Kokis july 15-19 he current work ofthe NEFUN Com in place that last through time. If limited mittee supports cliscernment around resources foster conflict and injustice (as A Yoga Retreat TNew England monthly meetings of they do in a large proportion of global con Bob Butera & Dawn Mehan the faith and practice of sustainabilicy as re flicts), it follows that a stable supply of re quested by yearly meeting in 1998. To focus sources and equitable access to them are es july 27-31 and unify New England Yearly Meeting on sential to peace and justice. Simplicity can the issue of sustainabilicy, we sought claricy then be understood to be about personal re Landscapes of the Soul about suggesting corporate action. In fact, source use, and "conformicy to this world" to Helen David Brancato there are lots of relevant activities around be about greed and waste. There is a connec August 1-5 New England Friends- some of them locally tion with our testimony on plain-speaking and some of them globally focused. and honescy too: some of us labor to over Singing for Shy People In the end, we found no clear leacling for come the denial ofenvironmental destruction yearly meeting and realized that our large body on which our global economy rests and from David Roth August 1-5 may take a little more time to discern right which we have profited. Creativity as Sacrament action. O ur expectation is that, over the next 3. We are of Earth, physically and spiritu few years, a clear issue or leading will emerge ally. We were created to live in Eden, and ]an PhiUips August 5-9 from one or more of our monthly meetings Eden was created to be our home. The Divine Writing for Life and gain the support of yearly meeting. is in the garden as surely as within each of us. Our members have worked hard this year As Cambridge Meeting tells us, "the universal Lynn Nelson August 10-14 surveying monthly meetings by phone, travel processes that establish and maintain the forms ing to lead workshops, and holding on-site we find in nature, including the forms we call Storytelling as a Sacred Art dialogs with individual meetings-to connect 'life,' are a manifestation of God in which we Hugh Morgan HiU with all of the New England meetings and are blessed to participate." (Brother Blue) hear about their experiences as they open this 4. This work is a call to unicy with Earth, a issue to the Light. There is a wide variecy of call ofs uch claricy and urgency that we should August 10-14 vital, luminescent experience and concern feel joy and love as we prepare and begin. across New England related to exploring and Sustainable living is as much for our own Writing for Publication creating sustainable pathways. spiritual health as for the health of the world. Tom MuUen August 15-19 Some meetings are just beginning to un In loving and honoring whatever part of the derstand and others are clearer in their leadings web of life that draws us, we are helping to Meditations on the Psalms to work toward sustainabilicy. Some individu sustain it. G uilt and dismay are not effective Lynda Lambert als work outside their faith communicy on strategies for the problem-solving and change these issues, and others find vital connection that are needed. August 15-19 to life in the Spirit through their meetings. A 5. Technology is intertwined with our deep connection with and appreciation of economy and our communicy, both impor nature as a revelation of God in the world is tant issues for sustainabilicy. Technology also widespread among New England Yearly Meet drives our use of Earth's resources. Bob ing. Many, many people ask for more infor Hillegass suggests that sustainabilicy requires mation or express continuing confusion about artention to the intersection of technology the status of environmental problems, solu and Quaker testimonies. T he Full Moon tions that can be tried, and the right stance of Group at Mt. Toby M eeting urges that we Friends toward these problems and solutions. take time to understand technical complexi There is emerging among Friends a com ties, that we may better understand this inter mon understancling about sustainabiliry con section. This means learning about emerging cepts that help us with its complexities. What cleaner and more efficient production and call today to sign up! follows are some basic themes from writings transportation, product design with environ and gatherings, especially from Mr. Toby and ment in mind as well as the normal concerns Cambridge Meetings and from the NEFUN for cost and performance, toxic chemical Committee. threats, fair access to resources, and other 1. Sustainabilicy is about limits to Earth's issues, as diligently as we learn about injustice, -~~!::~~~ resources, especially the use and protection of prisons, and preparation for war. 338 Plush Mill Road air and water, and responsible use of energy How will New England Yearly M eeting Wallingford, PA 19086 and materials. Fair and equitable access to support this work? Our committee found that ext.142:(800) 742-3150 (US only) or these resources is as important to sustainabilicy resources are scarce or nonexistent in some as preservation, conservation, and attention meetings and concentrated in others. Increas (610) 566-4507 (available worldwide) to waste. ingly we have focused on the creation of a www.pendlehill.org 2. Quaker concerns of peace, justice, and sourcebook, a resource for monthly meetings simplicicy are linked to sustainabilicy, which filled with writings, ideas, queries and ques- 22 May 2001 FRIENDS jOURNAL tions, workshop tools, and initiatives co ex l -janet Clark, clerk New England Friends in Unity with Nature Committee 22 Spackenkill Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 1-800-843-3341 www.oakwoodfriends.org August 2000 FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2001 23 Books my encounters with others, and I appreciate A Glove on My Heart that opening very much. -Kirsten Backstrom By judith Reynolds Brown. Peace Kirsten Backstrom, a writer, is a member of Works International, 2000. 143 Multnomah Meeting in Portkmd, Oregon. pages. $10.95/paperback. In her preface to A Glove on My Heart, Judith Reynolds Brown intro Prayer and the Five Stages of duces her story and her subject: I knew ofa private, nonprofit men Healing tal health agency that housed 15 per By Ron Roth with Peter Occhiogrosso. Hay sons. This agency required its residents House, Inc., 2000. 256pages. $13.951 to be psychiatrically treated and medi paperback. cated, but at the same time it tried to Ron Roth challenges the spiritually com pay "proper attention to the foil needs fortable as he offers an engaging introduction and feeling.r" of the people under its to one way of integrating Eastern, New Age, care-people who had come to a point in their an open end), the poetry tells of the same and Christian thought and practice. His work mental illnesses where they needed to live some events in glimpses that encapsulate the mean is a useful resource for the spiritual journey, where with more support than they were able to ing of the moment. Occasionally, poems and although some Friends are likely to have prob get at home, if they had homes. The executive prose actually tell the same story in the same lems with it. director of this agency was a personal .friend. words (though with shorter lines and selected Borrowing from the writings of others, Having helped to found this agency in the !dte details in the poems)-but when the poems Roth attempts to deconstruct the develop 70s, my husband was still on its board ofdirec are at their best, they convey a more personal ment of a spiritual life into five stages: tors. I knew the house made use offoil-time touch, a different angle on the experience, and 1. Awakening: It is in this initial stage that volunteers on a limited stipend. Twelve years an element of transcendence that heightens the seeker is brought, often through a life after I retired from teaching gifted students, and the impact of the narrative as a whole, just as crisis, to reflect on the value of a "creaturely after a good deal ofwork abroad, I was ready the narrative expands upon the glimpses in existence," asking, "Is this all there is?" for something new.. .. the poetry. The prose and poetry together 2. Purification: The seeker becomes con Although it is difficult to discern Brown's create a unique voice. sumed with an awareness of God and begins deeper motivations and personal challenges in In one poem, Brown quotes herself as to remove those obstacles that prevent an volunteering with the mentally ill from such saying, experience of God. matter-of-fact language, in the course of her . . . '1 have a name for this work: 3. Illumination: It is during this stage that book these motivations and challenges emerge atmosphere altering. I try to taint spiritual phenomena, or the gifts of the Spirit, in understated ways through the stories she the air to make the house be happy. " are experienced. These can include healing, tells of her experiences. She writes of being . . . "I don't do therapy. I stage prophecy, and receiving "hunches." I would "afraid of the mentally ill"-as many of us a scatter ofgood moments add the gifr of receiving and discerning are--before undertaking her work, and she for any one ofmy cronies leadings. explores her own goals and hopes, and the in any one day. " 4. Dark Night ofthe Soul: This is the time process of facing her fears. The residents themselves, as Brown con of challenge identified by many spiritual writ Yet she seems refreshingly pragmatic in veys them to us, are the heart of the book. ers, when "God rakes over, although we may her overall approach. It is an open-hearted, There's Mike, who during a medical appoint feel as if God has abandoned us." tender sort ofpragmatism , a Quaker pragma ment gets Brown and the nurse to join him in 5. Divine Union: The person goes beyond tism perhaps, that relies upon direct experi singing "Morning has broken .. .";W illiam, belief in a God "out there" to the experience ence and trusts the gradual unfolding of un who "watched television and longed to be in of a God "in here," eventually experiencing derstanding instead of attempting to explain love"; and Daphne, crocheting baby booties the transformation of one's own will to align too much, or reaching for abstract conclu to give away. ment with God's will. sions and generalizations. After following so many individuals into While useful in helping Friends reflect on The format for the book is an interleaving their own stories, the final chapter was some their own spiritual passages, Roth's five stages of poetry and plain, descriptive prose. Brown thing of a disappointment; with irs scatter of are limited by his apparent belief that the stages tells the individual stories of her encounters poems, each briefly described in prose, it unfold one afrer the other, progressing linearly with particular resident clients in the house seemed to lack the rich, personal quality of the toward that most coveted goal: perfection. hold where she volunteered-giving us a little rest of the book. Instead, I wanted to meet My experience is that spiritual stages, which I background on each person and his or her more of these people through Brown's experi believe Roth aptly describes, are cyclical, and history with mental illness, and a lot ofsmal l ences with them. And although the afrerword, that we move through them repeatedly, each incidents that reveal qualities of personality written by the parents of one of the residents, time with greater complexity as we journey and inter-personality within the household. was moving and illuminating, I would also our way to a deeper and broader experience of In the process of describing her relationships have liked some sort ofafrerword from Brown Spirit. Again and again we awaken to a new with each resident, she shares as much about herself, to learn where the experiences de level of discontent with our spiritual lives. her own learning process and characteristic scribed in this book have led her since. Again and again we encounter new levels of manner--congenial quirks and foibles in Still, A Glove on My Heart makes a fine readying ourselves for a more profound expe cluded-as she does about theirs. opening for further ponderings of my own; it rience ofGod . Again and again we experience While the prose text of each story has a makes me feel less "afraid of the mentally ill" the many gifts of the Spirit in prayer, healing, beginning, middle, and end (albeit sometimes and more attentive to small, vital elements in love, courage, and wisdom. Again and again 24 May 2001 FRIENDSJ ouRNAL we encounter challenges that try that experi ence. And again and again we reach new levels ofholy communion with the All-Loving One. I would describe, in fact, the stages ofspiritual growth as an infinite spiral, not as the five stepped staircase offered by Roth. Roth also identifies specific kinds of prayer that he associates with each stage. Given his staircase approach, it is probably not surpris ing that he is critical of the types ofprayer that he associates with the "earlier" stages. For example, he relegates prayers of supplication, in which one asks God for support, to the initial stage. ("God, help me get through this experience ofshame.") He even urges his read ers to move beyond this type of prayer so that they can take up the more "evolved" prayer of affirmation in which one remembers and af firms what is known to be true. ("I am the salt of the earth.") The publisher, Hay House, is big on Our services change affirmations. Yet although affirmations, prop erly availed, can be extraordinarily useful in and adapt with the needs helping us remember and live out ofTruth, to identifY them as a higher form of prayer is both destructive and untrue. What's more, of each person. there are many times in life when the help of God is rightly called upon. Why set up ob Wellness Clinic Mrs. Fox wanted a more interesting place to stacles by labeling such prayer as "immature?" Home Health Care spend her day. Together, she and her children Despite its faults, Prayer and the Five Stages decided on C handler Hall's Adult Day Program. of Healing is worth reading. One advice in Aquatic Programs particular should be taken to heart by Friends: Not only did her interest in life improve, Mrs. the advice to pray in silence and solitude. It is Adult Day Program Fox came to feel so comfortable with the people here that the challenging experiences of the and programs, she asked to live there. One of the dark night are experienced. Early Friends spoke Assisted Living of being convicted, of facing the ocean of unique advantages of Chandler Hall is our ability darkness, ofallowing God to bring them face Memory Care to change and adapt to the needs of the people to-face with their personal frailties and pov we care for as they change. Our personalized erty of spirit. Their experiences of the dark Nursing Care night led them to repentance and convinced approach to aging sets us apart. We believe in life them of the saving Light of God. Hospice Care involving activities- from crafts classes with our We might ask ourselves ifwe regularly use on-site daycare children to swimming in our silent prayer in solitude to enter these depths. Or might we be choosing, instead, to stay indoor pool-we make life interesting and more comfortable, relegating silent prayer to First like home. Visit us and meet our staff of caring, day meeting for worship, perhaps distracting compassionate professionals who give every life ourselves from anything else? We would do well to consider deeply the role of private they touch more meaning. spiritual practice in our personal and corpo Every Lift Has Mta >ling .. rate life. -- -Merry Stanford • Merry Stanford is a member ofRed Cedar Meet ing in East Lansing, Mich. Our Expanded Community I. i v i n g · T h < Q u a k < r T ,. a d i 1 i o n The Unofficial Guide to Living Facility Information Center: Beating Debt Opens Soon! By Greg Pahl. IDG Books Worldwide, 2000. 474 pages. $15.95/paperback. Visit Our A nonprofit, nondiscriminatory QUAKER facility The Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt is, 99 Barclay Street, Newtown, PA without doubt, the perfect gift for anyone Model Today! ( 215) 860-4000 graduating from college this month. Surveys www.chandlerhall.org FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2001 25 show that few are graduating without carrying 1949) was one of the early 20th century's This book would make a welcome addition to enormous debts-the average student loan best-known Canadian writers. Her work ap any meeting library and well worth reading upon graduation is somewhere around peared in Maclean s, Canada Monthly, The for any Friend interested in our rich Quaker $16,000- and few understand exactly what Home journal, The Westminster, and many literary heritage. being in debt means. Owing mom for long more. Her most well-known work was the -Brent Bill distance calls to your girlfriend just doesn't adventure book Lefty: A Story ofa Boy and Dog J Brent Bill the JOURNALs assistant book review give you a clue. that went into four editions. For many years editor, is a member ofMuncie (Ind.) Meeting Complicating the situation, as a recent Louise served as editor of The Canadian Friend. and an instructor ofreligious creative writing at national news program pointed our, is the fact That her name is largely forgotten today is a Earlham School ofReligion. that credit card companies have been courting tragedy-and we can thank Kyle Joliffe for students since freshman orientation. They have bringing her back to our consciousness through gotten free T-shirts, water bottles, and pre this book of selected writings. As Way Opened: A History approved credit applications- this to kids with no jobs, no bank accounts, and no sources of of Atlanta Friends Meeting income!-right along with their class sched ules. So after four years of using their cards to 1943- 1997 charge pizza, movies, and haircuts-those little By janet Boyte Ferguson and janet Adams incidentals that allowances, school jobs, and Rinard. Atlanta Friends Meeting, 1999. 225 educational loans never seem to cover-they pages. $20/paperback. are graduating nor only with huge educa As Way Opened is a Meeting history that tional debts, bur with the bad habit of using tells the story of Quakers who fled Georgia credit cards to help make ends meet. before the Civil War because they opposed Fortunately, Greg Pahl, a practical down slavery and violence, then returned a century to-earth fellow who clerks my monthly meet later to Atlanta still moved by the same testi ing, has written a guide to getting our of debt monies to human equality and peace. that's just as practical and down-to-earth as he Social action, often against great odds, has is. Spiced with Greg's own particular dry hu characterized Atlanta Meeting from the very mor, The Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt is beginning. And as the city grew, it attracted clearly written and organized into 17 chapters new members to the community at least as that cover getting in over your head, knowing much as did the meeting's spiritual and pasto when it's time to rake action, dealing with ral ministry. Promoting draft resistance in creditors, figuring out where to go for help, Georgia during the Cold War years was very repairing your credit report, and reestablish The subtitle is a bit misleading, however, risky. Even harder was making headway against ing credit-or as Greg calls it, "Up from the in that not all these pieces are stories. Included entrenched segregation. As Professor Max Ashes." are essays, devotionals, editorials, poems, and Bond from the all-Black Atlanta University The book is also loaded with practical, more. While all pieces show the mark of a told Friends in 1948, "The perfect punish money-saving tips and strategies for dealing good writer, in my mind it is her short stories ment for Hitler would be to make him black with everything from banks to the IRS. It's a that best stand the test of time. "Gold and and live in Georgia." Atlanta Friends met solid reference work, but special sections deal Frankincense and Myrrh," the short story these and other challenges by establishing a ing with "credit problem psychology"- ac &om which the book draws its name, is time Quaker House and engaging John Yungblut cepcing responsibility for your debts, under less in theme and presentation, and "Gleam o' as its director from 1960 to 1968. His social standing what motivates bad spending, deal Dreams" is as fine a story as one could hope to witness and spirituality made a profound and ing with anxiety-as well as "Escape from read. Some of the other writing is dared and lasting impression. Affiuenza," "Downshifting," "Voluntary Sim sentimental (as compared to today's short sto This book is more than a factual account. plicity," and "The New American Dream" ries), but all exhibit careful writing and vivid Adanta Meeting's experience mirrors many take this book out of rhe formulaic self-help detail. Many of them bring to life a wilderness unprogrammed meetings begun in the 20th genre and lift it into a category all its own. of Canada that has long since passed. century as it contended with finances, prop My biggest complaint is that the pieces are erty, membership, noise in meeting, music, -Ellen Michaud not identified as to where and when they first school, problematic behavior, changing Ellen Michaud, a member ofSouth Starksboro appeared in print. I would have found that lifestyles, gender issues, record management, information helpful as I looked to see Rorke's and afftliation with a yearly meeting and other (Vt.) Meeting, is the JouRNALs book review editor. growth as a writer in the various genres. And Quaker organizations. Although the non Joliffe's introduction contains too many "may Atlanta reader may skim over the many names, haves" for my taste. I also wish he explained if the issues are invariably interesting to Friends Gold and Frankincense and there was any significance to her writing un at large, in no small part because they are der various pen names (Claude R. Vafu and sympathetically and insightfully analyzed Myrrh: Stories by Louise Luke Train). with commendable Quaker discernment. In Richardson Rorke "The most critical task of any storyreller," their commitment to truth, the authors speak says Joliffe, "ifhe or she is to be compelling, is candidly of personality differences, failures, Edited with a foreword and introduction by that the story being told must reflect the tension-filled business sessions, employee prob Kyle joliffe. Friends United Press, 2000. 210 experiences and personal truth of its author." lems, and clashes ofstrongly held convictions; pages. $12/paperback. These pieces by Rorke fit that criterion. They but they always do so with charity. Quaker Louise Richardson Rorke (1878- show her to have been a masterful storyreller. As Way Opened underscores the impor- 26 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL tance Friends have placed on accurate and Khan taught nonviolence to an ethnic group He was revered by Gandhi, who viewed Khan complete record keeping. The information normally associated with ruthless brutality, and his Pathan follwers as an illustration of from taped interviews of older members by the Pathans of Pakistan and Afghanistan. the courage it takes to live a nonviolent life. the authors and others add a great deal to this Khan established schools in the villages be This book opened me to a perception that volume. It reminds us that every meeting can cause he believed that education was the way Islam can be in harmony with nonviolence. be truer to its belief in the continuous revela out of poverty, and he raised an army of over tion of our faith if it follows Atlanta's example 100,000 followers. Both the British and, after -joy Pile of reviewing its history every 40 or 50 years, independence, Pakistani governments fre while many who experienced that history are quently imprisoned Khan for the political Soul of a Citizen: Living with still living. threat they perceived from his actions. Like Conviction in a Cynical Time Today, 100 or so Friends gather for wor Gandhi, he was against the partitioning of By Paul Rogat Loeb. St. Martin's Press, 1999. ship every Sunday at a new meetinghouse in India. He was a Muslim voice for tolerance. 376 pages. $15.95/paperback. Many people Atlanta, where, true to their tradition, during in the United States have turned inward, feel the other days of the week a great variety of ing powerless to change anything, and have groups translate faith into action. retreated from the activist era of civil rights and Vietnam War protests. Loeb describes -Frances and john Beer how even small actions can make a difference Frances and john Beer are members ofNewark within a community. He uses the story of (DeL) Meeting. a man shaking a pecan tree, who said, "If I shake it enough, the nuts will come down. In Brief ~ I can't know exactly when they'll fall or ,:;: how many, but the more I shake it, the more Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: ~ I'll get." Cynicism or hope? Loeb asks. This Badshah Khan, a Man to ~ is the choice now facing us for continued Match His Mountains o survival. This book documents how involve '-2 ment in our convictions can enrich each of By Eknath Easwaran. 2nd ed. Nilgiri Press, ..§ us spiritually as well as benefit the entire 0 . 1999. 274 pages. $13.95/paperback. Eknath ·:;: commumty. Easwaran has written a biography of a man c:: who was a revered disciple ofGandh i. Badshah Z - joyPile A Living Faith The Journal and Major Reminiscences An Historical Study of Quaker Beliefs Essays of John Woolman of Levi Coffin By Wilmer A. Cooper Edited by Phillips P. Moulton Edited by Ben Richmond 270 pp., $20.00 336 pp., $20.00 430 pp .. $20.00 This second edition of The secret of Levi Coffin was first Wilmer Cooper's A Lioillg Faith Woolman's purity called "president of popular systematic of style is that his the Underground theology of Quaker eye is single and Railroad" by frustrated beliefs includes \Vilnvr A. Cooper that conscience slave hunters in the updated statistics on dictated his words. years leading up to the the North American Filled with insight Civil War. Coffin's "Quaker n-ee." Study and a message autobiographical questions at the end of each chapter for our time, this window on the times includes hundreds make this book popular for group study is a major classic of dramatic stories of the risks that of Quaker beliefs, including the sources of of American attended slaves and those who helped religious authority. Quaker understanding spirituality. them in their escape to freedom. of Christ, sacraments, and testimonies. Glossary of theological terms. Index. FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2001 27 Personalized Care in the Sourcebook of the World's Quaker Tradition Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality Since 1896 Edited by joel Beversluis. 3rd ed New World Library, 2000. 442 pages. $24.95/paperback. A Quiet, An anthology that brings together informa tion about the world's religions and spiritual Home-Like Setting in a paths, this book includes passages for infor mation, wisdom, inspiration, and for discus Beautifully Landscaped sion groups. Because the Sourcebook includes Atmosphere a broad selection, it would be a useful addi tion to any meeting's library. It is a reference for both adults and young people interested in • Private Rooms, Suites and • Recreational Activities reading about and comparing different reli Apartments gious practices and beliefs, on their own spiri • 24 Hour Security tual journeys as seekers. • Assistance With Activities Of Daily • Some Financial Living -joy Pile Assistance Available • Emergency Response System • Three Nutritious, Home-Cooked For information please Meals Served Daily In Elegant call856-235-4884 Surroundings 28 Main Street, • Linen And Housekeeping Services Moorestown, NJ 08057 " ... this year was the most incredible experience ofmy life. It provided me with the opportunity to see the world, and then to look through the world's eyes and see myself. In the eight months I grew an incredible amount, and I owe so much of that to [the Friends World staff} ... As a visiting student to Friends World, my experience was second to none. Every faculty member that I have met with at my home institution since my return can attest to what this year has done for me ... It has been the most incredible journey of my life, and I am totally humbled by that fact." Frontiers of Justice 28 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL TRAVEL primarily punish those who commit in the BEST of Company! ; victimless crimes, such as drug of with members, spouses and friends of fenses. Some ofthe articles point out Peace Links, the United Nations Association, League of that although drug use in this country Women Voters and FRIENDS ! is evenly spread International cultural tours for peacemakers, featuring home and school visits, Embassy over classes and visits, cultural exchanges, as well as highlights and pretrip study material. races, a dispropor tionate number of Discover the world so you can make a difference! ~ African Americans Share new learning experiences! Expand your horizon! <1·····...... / and Hispanics end Well balanced tours • Great values • Top guides up in prison, and that no one who was rich has ever ended up in the electric chair. Ruth Morris and many of Prague & Budapest, August 31- Sept 10 Guatemala • Nov 26 -Dec 4 • Honduras ext the authors quoted in this book are Quakers Bhutan & N.India • September 17 - Oct 6 Egypt • Dec 27 - Jan 5 • Jordan ext who have spent time visiting prisoners and are South China • October 5 - 23 • Tibet ext Vietnam • Jan 24 - Feb 6 • Cambodia ext actively working to change the current system to include restorative justice rather than incar Iceland • October 6- 14 • optional ext Myanmar (Burma) • Feb 7- 18, 2002 ceration. I found their offering to be a pro Ancient Cities of Persia • Nov 2- 14 A Week in Mexico City • Feb 16-23 vocative book that strongly argues against Tuscany &Campania, Italy • Nov 3- 18 Cherry Blossom Time in Japan • March building yet even more prisons as a method of Thanksgiving in Russia • Nov 19- 26 Turkish Delights • April 5 - 14 • ext avail reducing crime. -joy Pile Travel Concepts International, Inc. 5500 Bucks Bar Rd. • Placerville, CA 95667 joy Pile, a member ofSouth Starksboro {Vt.) 1(800)762-4216 • www.travelwiththeleague.com Meeting, is a librarian at Middlebury College. The Gods of the Hills: Piety and Society in Nineteenth Century Vermont By T D.S. Bassett. Vermont Historical Society, 2000. 324 pages. $26.95/paperback. Friend Tom Bassett has produced an eminently read able work that can be enjoyed beyond the bounds of the Green Mountain State. Before 1900, Vermont was dominated by Method "I am convinced that the ists, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Episco palians, with a growing challenge from French all-merciful God, who has given Canadian and Irish Roman Catholics. Vari men and women freedom and responsibility ous small groups, Friends included, also ap pear on the scene, but usually to decline for their lives, has also left to dying people through schism (the fate of Vermont Quak ers) or absorption (as happened with Univer the responsibility for making a conscientious salists). Bassett goes beyond denominational ism, however, to survey the ways that religion decision about the manner and time ofth eir manifested itself in the life of the society, deaths .. . there should be no compulsion to ranging from holidays to church architecture to orphanages. Probably no one knows the die but there should be no compulsion to live history of religion in Vermont better, and Bassett tells its story with a style that mixes either. " wry humor with considerable insight and an awesome command of relevant sources, Hans Kung in "Dying with Dignity" not to mention an admirable Quaker toler ance of ambiguity and human frailty. Cal/800-247-7421 for a free copy of "Assisted -Thomas D. Hamm Dying as a Moral and Ethical Choice: A Thomas D. Hamm, a historian at Earlham College, is a member of New Castle (Ind.) Physicians View" or visit www.hemlock.org Meeting. FRIENDS }OURNAL May 2001 29 .p-.untJ "lot. News An article and pictures appeared in the Janu discharged our obligation." -Lloyd Lee Wil /ML"'' ary 11 New York Times about the beautiful, son, board clerk ~ r. new Live Oak Meetinghouse in Houston, Texas. Designed by Quaker artist James The Internal Revenue Service has placed a Turrell and built with support from Houston lien on the home of Jim Satterwhite and 1780 Friends, art patrons, and the Friends Meeting Olwen Pritchard, at Bluffton College in Ohio, "When we're gone, our hearts will still belong" House Fund, the building is a work of art. who have been withholding the military por Summer Camp 2001 Members of Friends General Conference's tion of their federal taxes for the last few June 18 through August 17. Executive Committee had a special opportu years. The Bluffton Worship Group has agreed Age K through 6th Grade nity to experience this very unusual build to act as an ad hoc committee to react if the 2150 rJutler Pike, PI!Jmouth Meeting ing-and the friendly and caring meeting IRS takes the extraordinary step offoreclosing Pit 19462 • (610J 828-2288 members--during its winter sessions. The on the house. Satterwhite, Pritchard, and the meeting began during sunset on Friday evening worship group ask Friends to hold them in with the roof open to a clear sky, and the the Light. For more information, contact Pro committee joined Live Oak Meeting in its fessor Satterwhite at (419) 358-3279, write to Satterwhite, Bluffton College, 280 W. Col 2001 inaugural First-day worship in this extraordi nary new space on Second Month 4th. Many lege Ave., Bluffton, OH 45817, or e-mail: Congratulations were deeply moved by this architectural cel 30 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL •Clean air, clean water, clean energy • Minimize waste • Conserve resources • Treat toxic wast es • Encourage~ f-' ("t Must you sacrifice your principles to be a successful investor? We don't think so. In fact, we believe that f-'·~ principled investments can be sound investments. ~ So we've created the Pax World Fund Family, four mutual funds that subject potential investments to rigid social and environmental-responsibility screens as well as rigorous financial scrutiny. Principles can be profitable. For example, our flagship Pax World Balanced Fund is ranked in the top 4% of balanced f d Average Annual Total Return (as of I2/3II00)2 un s ~ 3-year 5-year ~ 20-year t~acked by 5.66% 15.57% 16.34% 13.02% 13.07% L1pper for the 3- and 5-year periods ended 12/31/00.1 For more information. including charges and expenses, please call us or visit our Website for a prospectus, which should be read carefully before investing. Pollution. JJ We're not ~~G ~ ! buying it. Principles +Performance FFA{\MNILDY : N 1-800-767-1729 www.paxfund.com ro ·.~ i ::i 1. Lipper Balanced Fund rankings as of 12/31/00; 1-Yr: 1120 of 471; 3-Yr: #10 of 374; 5-Yr: #10 of 2571()-Yr: #1 6of 63. 2. Figures include reinvested dividends, capital gains distributions, and changes inprincipa l value, and represent past ro .S pertormance, vmich is no guaralltee of future results. Investment return and principal value may rise or fall so that shares, vmen redeemed, may be worth more or less than their orig inal cost. March 2001. Distributor: H.G. Wellington & Co., Inc. ~ • U0~4nTTod 4UBAe~d • e1J~e~ 'eJnpe~ • S4Se~OJ ~+MO~D-PTO 4Je40~d • pee~B 40U 'uae~8 • ~~~ ~eTJ • eTJAJe~ For additional information contact Julie at (908) 595-6500 100 Monroe Street • Bridgewater, NJ 08807 FRIENDS J OURNAL May 2001 31 and a former member of the Oakland Ciry past, is seen as useless. -Dan Johnson, World stockpile of low-level contaminated soils Council, at (4 15) 565-0201. -FCL Newslet Future Society could be safely used for a number of private ter, january 2001 and public endeavors such as home landscap Over 200 people representing 4 5 states came ing projects, athletic fields, and playgrounds. Canadian Friends Service Committee, along to Washington, D.C., between March 7 and -Conscience Canada with other nonprofits, will support several 10 for the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines' agricultural and textile cooperatives in Nica Legislative Action Conference. Participants China's "Three Gorges Dam" has been called ragua and Guatemala with more than talked to their members of Congress about a social and environmental nightmare. The Can$200,000 during the next three years. landmine issues and garnered support for re International Rivers Network reports that the CFSC, which up to now has been registered cently introduced legislation in Congress. Sena project is currently facing massive corruption, only as charitable status under Canadian law, tor Leahy {Vt.) introduced the Landmines spiraling costs, technical problems, and re is now a full not-for-profit corporation. See Elimination and Victim Assistance Act of200 1 settlement difficulties. Before the dam's pro 32 May 2001 F RIENDS JouRNAL NEW from the FGC Bookstore! Peacemaking in for Adults South Africa: Resistance and Obedience A Ufe in Connia Resolution to God: Memoirs of David by H.W. van der Merwe Ferris ( 1707-1779) Tafelberg. 2000, 224 pp., paper back $20.00 edited by Martha Paxson Grundy FGC, 200 I, 17 6 pp., paperback $15.00 for Children Quaker Witness: An Elizabeth Elliot Mystery Lighting Candles in the Dark: Stories by Irene Allen of Courage and Love in Action St Martins, 200 I, 2 72 pp., paper back 5.99 ..,...... ,-....;...,. Elinor Briggs, Marnie Clark, Carol Passmore, editors FGC, 200 I reprint, 224 pp., paperback $13.00 Searching the Depths: essays on being a Quaker today God's Little Seeds • •••• •I ,.,..,., God's Little Seeds: A edited by Harvey Gillman Book of Parables and Alastair Heron by Bijou Le Tord Quaker Home Service, 1998, Eerdmans, 1998, 32 pp., II 0 pp., paperback $16.00 hardcover $15.00 A Friend Among the Senecas: The Quaker Mission to Cornplanter's People Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, compiled by David Swatzler and edited by Margo Stackpole Books, 2000, Lundell 320 pp., hardcover $24.95 Scholastic Press, 1999, 64 pp., hardcover $16.9 5 Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but not Uterally Just the Way You Are by Marcus J. Borg by Max Lucado, illustrated ~~~=tj Harper San Francisco, 200 I, by Sergio Martinez fl! 332 pp., hardcover $24.00 Crossway Books, 1999, 32 pp., hardcover $15.99 Catechism and Confession of Faith: A New Edition Edited in Modern English by Robert Barclay, ed. by Dean Only Passing Freiday and Arthur 0. Roberts Through: Barclay Press, 200 I, 144 pp., The Story of paperback $6.95 Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell, Reminiscences illustrated by Gregory Christie of Levi Coffin Knopf, 2 00 I, 40 pp., hardcover $16.9 5 abridged and edited by Ben Richmond FUP. 200 I reprint, paperback ON SALE! $20.00 1998-1999 Directory for Coming this Summer! Traveling Friends New England FGC, 1998, 149 pp., paperback Quaker Meetinghouses WAS $11 .00 NOW ONLY $5.00! by Silas B. Weeks FUP. 200 I, paperback $18.50 FRIENDS j OURNAL May 2001 33 Bulletin Board Residential and Assisted Living Upcoming Events since 1891 •June 1-4-Switzerland Yearly Meeting •June 2-"The Spirit and the Arts: The Im In addition to The Hickman's portance of the Process of Creativity in Our Lives," Northeast Regional Gathering of "not too big, not too small" Friends World Committee for Consultation, size, Bill and Becky Mcilvain at SUNY in New Paltz, N.Y. Workshop leaders include Jeri Allyn (visual art), liked the retirement Maria Darlington (photography), Eric Booth community's in-town location. (spiritual dimensions), C huck Fager (storytelling), Donna Henes (spirit and art in nature), and Elizabeth McGowan (walking "There are so many things meditation). For information and registration you can do within walking call: Robert Baldridge, (2 12) 388-7999, or distance. We're still driving email 34 May 2001 FRIENDS jOURNAL GuideOne Insurance is America's leading insur McCutchen, general secretary of Friends er of religious institutions, and has been pro United Meeting. Register by May 14. Call tecting Friends houses of worship and schools Leuola Beck at (937) 382-1223. for more than 20 years. In fact, since 1979, •July 24-29-Baltimore Yearly Meeting: note GuideOne has been the Friends Insura nce changed location, Randolph-Macon College, Group property and casualty insurer of choice. Ashland, Va. (just north of Richmond). To arrange for a FREE premium quotation, and (The annual Calendar of Yearly Meetings is to learn more about GuideOne Insurance, call available from FWCC, 1506 Race St., Phila 1-877-448-4331 ext. 5429. Gu1deOne· delphia, PA 19102.) r. lnsur~nce' Opportunities • Hominy (Okla.) Meeting is collecting a dol lar from each member to forward to the Asso ciated Committee of Friends on Indian Af fairs (ACFIA) and challenges all North Ameri can Quakers to do likewise. At the Executive Committee meeting at Carmel Friends in December, it was learned that ACFIA was Friends' Central School facing a $60,000 deficit for the year. In the past Hominy Meeting, a nearly all-Indian ''Friends' Central School has been congregation, was a financial beneficiary of my home for thirteen years. the ACFIA. Now the meeting is largely self supporting, and these Friends would like to The encouragement that the faculty show their gratitude for past support. If the provides has inspired me to follow vision of Hominy Meeting should be realized, not only would the current deficit be wiped my dreams. The support that they out, reserve funds could be restored, all debts offer has given me the strength to repaid, and reserves even increased. Dona tions can be sent to: ACFIA, Peggy Lear, actively pursue them." Treasurer, P.O. Box 2326, Richmond, IN 47375. The deficit for 2000 is still $24,000. Adam Griska '00 -Quaker Life, March 2001 BROWN UNIVERSITY • Earlham School of Religion plans to launch an off-campus study program, "ESRAccess," National Merit Scholar Commended Student for people looking to earn a Master's in Di Cum Laude • AP Scholar 1999 vinity or the Ministry but who can't relocate to Richmond, Indiana. Earlham will set up FCS Drama Award • Jazz Band • Vocal Jazz Ensemble four extension sites: California (Whittier or Susan Durnford Snipes Memorial Award Orange Grove Meeting); Hartford, Conn. Debate • Lacrosse • Soccer (West Hartford Meeting); Marshalltown, Iowa (Marshalltown Friends Church); and Greens Lower School, Grades Pre-K - 4 Middle/Upper School, Grades 5 - 12 boro, N.C. (First Friends Meeting). Study 228 Old Gulph Road I I 0 I City Avenue will start with a two-week orientation in Rich Wynnewood, PA 19096-1 098 Wynnewood, PA 19096-3490 mond in August, but thereafter classes will be held at these four sites. Contact Sue Axtell, Call: (610) 649-7440 ro register director of recruitment and admissions, at FRJENDS JouRNAL May 2001 35 NEWTOWN FRIENDS cion Fund. Proposals up to two pages in length indx.htm#fcn> and download it as a PDF file. SCHOOL should be sent by e-mail to the foundation at Copies of previous Perspectives papers, on [email protected]>. Proposals must include Women and Poverty, Economic Sanctions documentation of nonprofit status. For more and Iraq, and the Death Penalty Information informacion, contact Kathleen W. Lee, Pro Packet are also available. For more informa gram Officer, Tides Foundation, T he Presidio, tion, contact Alicia McBride at FruENDS JOURNAL May 200I 37 Pendle Hill Resident Program in the early '50s, first Old Haverford Meeting, and then transferring their membership to Norristown Meeting. Bill is survived by his wife of 58 years, Kay Lindsley Camp; sons David, Nelson, and A time of intellectual and spiritual growth Anthony; and seven grandchildren. and a deepening of what it means to be a Cope-Harold (Hal} Cary Cope, 82, on February cooperative, responsible citizen within 5, 200 I , peacefully, in Sandy Spring, Md. He was born in 1918 in Chester County, Pa., to Joshua the community and the world. Alban Cope and Edith Cary Cope. His family lived for a short time in Baltimore before moving in Courses in scripture, prayer, 1924 to Ithaca, N.Y. He graduated from Westtown Quakerism, creativity, literature, School in 1936 and Cornell University's Hotel social action. School in 1941. A conscientious objector during World War II, Harold was assigned to Civilian Public Service camps in Petersham, Mass., Coleville, Contribute to the work of the Calif, and Orlando, Fla. In 1943 Hal married Ann community. Elizabeth Reeves, a classmate from Cornell. In 1946, the couple moved to Richmond, Ind., where Daily meeting for worship. Hal began work as director of food service at Earlham College. During the following 26 years at Scholarships and internships Earlham, he held various positions from chief ac countant to vice president for business affairs. He available; apply early. was a member of Clear Creek Meeting, and later, First Friends Meeting. He served as clerkoflndiana Yearly Meeting, director of the board of AFSC, treasurer ofFriends Fellowship Retirement Home, PENDLEHILL and in the Richmond community as president of the YMCA Men's Club and chairman of the Rich A QlAKER CEYTER FOR STIJDY A.'li D CONTE.IIPlATI0'\1 mond Housing Authority. In 1972, Harold be 338 Plush Mill Rd · Wallingford, PA 19086 came president of Friends University in Wichita, (800) 742-3150 EXT. 126 Kansas. He was a member of University Friends [email protected] · www.pendlehill.org Meeting, and he continued serving Friends United Meeting, Friends World Committee for Consulta tion, Earlham School of Religion, and Friends Association for H igher Education. Following his service in Wichita, Hal and Ann were Friends-in residence at the Quaker study centers in Pendle Hill (Pa.) and Woodbrooke (England). In 1982 they moved to Kenya for eight months to support the local Kenyans in their preparations for a Trien nial and World Conference of Friends. In 1984, STAPELEV the couple moved to Friends House Retirement n IN GERMANTOWN Community in Sandy Spring, Md., where Harold became a member of Sandy Spring Meeting and Friends gather here ... served on the board ofSandy Spring Friends School. He was predeceased by his wife, Ann Reeves Cope, . . . where each resident and by a sister, Mary Elizabeth Probasco. H e is survived by a son, David Cope; three daughters, enjoys a comfortable, Sarah Putnam; Beth McDonald; and Hannah Rich secure and caring ter; a brother, Jim Cope; and nine grandchildren. Hinshaw-Pauline Doris Hinshaw, 88, on Octo environment ber 16, 2000, in Allenspark, Colo. Pauline was ... where newcomers born in Rose Hill, Kans., on September 10, 1912, to Quaker parents, Issac and Esther Smith. After quickly feel at home and graduating from high school and attending one year ofsecretarial school, she married Cecil Hinshaw long-time residents find in Rose Hill on April16, 1932. Following Cecil's new delights every day graduation from Friends University and Iliff School of Theology in Denver, they together served sev eral Friends churches in Kansas and New Hamp shire. In 1943 the couple moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where Cecil became president of William A Quaker Sponsored Continuing Care Retirement Community Penn College. In 1949 they became the center of • Independent Living • Assisted Living • Skilled Nursing Care an intentional community in St. Louis, after which they returned to New England. In 1956 they 6300 Greene Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144 moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where they served AFSC in several capacities. In 1972 the couple 215-844-0700 moved into the Allenspark cabin they had been EQUAL HOUSING building for several years. They transferred their Visit our Internet site at: www.stapeley.org OPPORTUNITY membership to Boulder Meeting in 1980. After Cecil's death in 1982, Pauline moved to a Menno- 38 May 2001 FRIENDS JoURNAL nite retirement center in Newton, Kans., to be near her son Robert and family. For the last seven years ofher life, Pauline required dialysis for renal failure. In May 2000 she returned to the Allenspark cabin WESTIOWN for her final months. In early October, after a called meeting for worship at the cabin attended by 40 of her closest friends, she removed herself from dialysis. She attended a Smith family reunion the following weekend in Oklahoma, and upon her return, a three-day reunion with her four children. During this gathering she passed away. She is survived by her sisters Marilyn Hines and Joyce Parnell, and by her children, Esther Hinshaw, Elizabeth Hinshaw, Eleanor Mullendore, and Robert Hinshaw. Holtz-Edek Holtz, 82, on May 20, 2000, at the Asheville Health Care Facility in Swannanoa, N.C. Edele was born on March 9, 1918, in Boston, Mass. She and her husband, Alwin, who died in 1999, worked in refugee and education programs in the Middle East for ten years beginning in 1948 as field staff members of the UN Quaker Project for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza. In the early 1960s, the couple became friends with choreographer Alvin Ailey when a colleague of the young artist ap proached Edele about rehearsal space at the YWCA branch on Eighth Avenue and 53rd Street in Man hattan, where she was director of activities. Edele eventually set up programs to benefit dancers, musicians, and actors working in the theatre dis trict. Edele was also the executive director ofYWCA branches in Brooklyn and New Orleans and served as staff member to its national board. She is survived by two sisters: Greta Rikard and lnga Hoffman. Howarth-Mary Barclay Howarth, 79, on De cember 7, 2000, at Loving Light Center, Albu querque, N.Mex., ofchronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Mary was born in Wichita, Kans., on October 30, 1921, to Martha Jane (Pattie) Hyde FRIENDS jOURNAL announces the publication of and William Houston Barclay. Her grandfather was AA Hyde, philanthropist and founder of the Mentholatum Company. She attended Westtown School in the 1930s, her introduction to the Reli gious Society of Friends. While an undergraduate BENJAMIN at Wichita University, Mary realized that she was a I pacifist. She transferred to Middlebury College in The Meetznghouse Mouse Vermont, where she majored in Sociology. In her graduate work at Haverford College during World by Benjamin, as told to Clifford Pfeil, War II, Mary prepared to work on relief and re with illustrations by John D. Gurnmere construction in Europe after the war. At the same I time she organized and led inner-cityworkcamps for AFSC in Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago. Ifyou remember the Benjamin stories Mary met a Canadian conscientious objector named Wilfred Howarth in 1944. When the war ended, in past issues, you will be happy to share Mary was sent to Scandinavia to set up workcamps. them-now in book form-with your She and Wilfred married in Helsinki in April 1947. Following their return from Finland, the children, grandchildren, and Friends! couple moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where they joined the meeting, taught First-day school, and Look for Benjamin in Friends bookstores or order directly from FRJENDS jOURNAL: helped to organize a low cost burial service and a Please send me ___ copies of Benjamin @ $6.oo each, plus $2.00 shipping and handling cooperative nursery school. In the early 1950s the couple and their ftrst two children moved to Ft. ($3.50 for shipping and handling outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico}. My check is enclosed. Collins, Colo., where Mary set up another nursery Name ______cooperative. In I 957-59 the family spent two years in Barpali, India. For the next 12 years the family Address ______settled in at Pendle Hill. Mary studied early child City ______State __ ZIP _____ hood education at Cheyney State Teachers' College and taught in Chester, Pa. They joined Media Country, if other than U.S.------ Meeting and were active in the First-day school. Mary served several years on the Religious Educa Please mail to FRJENDS j OURNAL, m6 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835· tion Committee ofPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting. In If any questions please call (215) 563-8629. 1971 the Howarths moved to Estes Park, Colo., FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2001 39 where they operated the Estes Park Rem-All, which they sold in 1980 ro go ro Rindge, N.H., ro help get The Meeting School back on its feet. Then, after another year as students ar Pendle HiU, they spent ten years in Seattle as sojourning members of the Scanergood Friends School, founded meeting there. Mary taught at the Little School in in 1890, is committed to fostering Bellevue, Wash., and began work on a second lifelong and self-directed learning, Masters degree, in Human Development. In 1985 developing a sense of personal she and Wilfred began to construct by hand a responsibility and cultivating global passive solar house in the Retreat development in citizenship. G len Haven, Colo. In 1988 the Mentholatum Company was bought by Japanese inrerests, and the • All recent graduates have gained Howarths used the resulting windfall to make co llege acceptance bequests to Pendle H ill, Haverford College, AFSC, • Student-to-reacher ratio: 4 to 1 and other favorite causes. During this period Mary • Innovative block scheduling set up Goose Girl Productions, promoting the use • Community service graduation of fairy tales in early childhood education. She also requirement • Shared work program provided articles for Frimdiy Woman. After Wilii:ed's • Organic garden, farm death in 1997, Mary moved to Eden V aUey ViUage, • Comprehensive, exciting outside Loveland, Colo. In September 2000 she Arts Department moved again toA!berquerque, N.Mex., to be near • Daily Collection, weekly her daughter Rachel and two grandchildren. Mary Meeting for Worship kept in touch with people d iligently through corre spondence. A lifelong tax resister, Mary believed in For information, call toll-free at simple living as a tool to promote world peace. She 1-888-737-4636, or e-mail made a conscious decision to discontinue the [email protected] oxygen that had been keeping her alive for the last six years. She is survived by two daughters, Rachel 1951 Delta Avenue Boone and Barclay Walsh; two sons, D avid West Branch, Iowa 52358 Howarth and Paul Howarth; nine grandchildren; two brothers, William Barclay and David Barclay; vvvvvv.sc;, t' and many nieces and nephews. A memorial for Mary will be held May 12 at the Pattie Hyde Barclay reunion building, YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colo. Jensen-PatriciaAnn (Pat) Tarrant jensen, 72, on May 9, 2000, in Rockford, Ill. Par was born in Iowa Ciry, Iowa, on September 7, 1927. Her mother was a nurse, and her father an X-ray tech nician for University oflowa Medical School. Her @Broadmead fu.mily, including a sister, Ruth, and a baby brother, D avid, moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, /i/liT /l adS 'lJp to. fman £tbtltg / where she graduated from high school and worked in the public Library. Par mer Kenneth Jensen, her future husband, at an ice skating rink. Their daugh • Picturesque 84-acre country campus offering an ter, Christine, died when she was two years old, a active lifestyle, near the attractions of Baltimore. tragedy from which Pat never fully recovered. In 1954 Par and Ken moved toahomeonAvon Street across from Friends House in Rockford, Ill., where • One-story, garden style apartments. they lived for more than 30 years. Pat discovered the Camaraderie Arts group at Friends H ouse, where • Well ness program she helped reach children's classes and developed her own artistic skiUs. She loved flower gardening • A good value in retirement living-your meals, and animals, especiaUy cats. She was active in the weekly housekeeping, prescriptions, medical bill Friends House Block Club. Three generations of processing, health care, long-term care and children on Avon Street were her friends, and they called her "Aunt Par." She joined Rock VaUey much more are included In the basic monthly fee. Meeting. She continued to love the Bible passages and old gospel hymns of her Southern Baptist youth. Pat was a fine storyteller with a colorful Broadmead is an Accredited, Not-for-Profit vocabulary. For the last two years of her life, she Continuing Care Retirement Community lived in the Collier Garden Apartments in Rock Founded and operated in the caring Quaker tradition. ford, blossoming into a leader of the community. 13801 York Road, Cockeysville, Maryland 21030 Kennedy-Thomas Kmru:dy, 88, on December 27, 2000, in Kennett Square, Pa. Thomas was born on June 20, 1912, in Altoona, Pa. As a young man 410-527-1900 he enjoyed hiking in the mountains near his home and canoeing on the Juniata River. He became a Friend as a srudenr at Swarthmore College, from www.broadmead.org EQUAL HOUSING which he graduated in 1934. He met Ruth, h is OPft O RTUNI TY future wife, at a Young Friends' dance at Providence 40 May 2001 FRIENDS JoURNAL Meeting in 1937. Thomas received his Ph.D. from Part-time Job Openin~ at Friends jpurnal University ofPennsylvania, where he specialized in Coordinator (2 days/wk.) will write Web Manager {I day/wk.) will update our labor relations. After giving a presentation on labor Devewpment management negotiation at Friends General Con grant proposals and reports, assist in preparation new website weekly, add new features ro it ference in Cape May, N.J., in 1950, he was invited of proposal budgets, draft appeal letters, establish as determined by the editors, provide train to work for Atlas Powder Company ofW"limingron, an enhanced planned giving program, arrange ing for staff as rime permits. Must work Del., as director of industrial and public relations. donor visitation, and prepare a biannual newslet well in a ream environment that includes While living there, he, Ruth, and fam ily worshiped ter. Excellent writing and organizational skills, nontechnical members. Ability ro use web at Wilmington Meeting. In 1956, he left Atlas to computer skills, and experience working with software in a Macintosh environment re accept a professorship in Business Administration at Friends required. Experience with The Raiser's quired; experience with PhoroShop and Harvard Business School. During these years, he Edge software and fundraising a plus. Dreamweaver a plus. and his family were members ofWellesley Meeting. After his retirement, he and Ruth returned to the We offer a warm and congenial work environment, flexible work ho urs, and the excitement of Philadelphia area and renewed their ties with Provi work in a hub of Quaker communication. dence Meeting. In later years, he shared his love of FRIENDS Send resume and three references to: Susan Corson-Finnerty, Editor- the outdoors with his family, camping and hiking Manager, Friends journal, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107. in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and ca noeing on the Concord River in Massachusetts. In JOURNAL Fax: (215) 568-1377. 1990, he and Ruth moved ro Kendal in Kennett Square. Thomas is survived by his wife, Ruth Kennedy; a daughter, Patricia Ascher; a son, Tho mas C. Kennedy; five grandchildren, Catherine, a .Mirillby ofPrayer andJ-eaming devoted to Andrew, and Michael Yare and Esther and Joey Kennedy; and one great-grandchild, Abigail Yare. G-ree~t~EJ ib.e r:Scb.oo~/if!.e r:Spiril Mohler-Mary B. Mohkr, 81, on October 22, ON,,,_,,, BE;~G 2000, at Crescent House, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. BornonJune22, 1919, in Lancaster, Pa., to Samuel " the small school that and Harriet Stewart Mohler, she spent summers at makes big people" her family's cottage on Swans Island. She attended Shippen School in Lancaster and received a Bach elor of Arts from Dickinson College, a Masters in Education from Smith College, and a Master of SP~~~~R Social Science from Bryn Mawr College. She en F:EB ~i' listed in the Navy during World War II and served 2002/- NOVl: 2003} from 1942to 1945.Later,sheworkedin opposition to the Vietnam War. She served as chief social worker at Philadelphia State Hospital for 17 years. Following that she served as coordinator for Com :,::j/~tiii~~~·! munity Coordinated Child Care in York County, transforming, '8i;:f(f:l'S(#1fealing work. Maine, and worked in the Community Mental Greene Street Friends School ·-··:::::;::::::::-····· Health Center at Maine Medical Center. She was a 551 1 Greene Street Test the waters at the charter member of the National Association of Philadelphia, PA 19144 Franciscan Spiritual Center in Social Workers, a member of Veterans for Peace, • Aston, PA September 14- 16,2001 and a member ofLeague ofWomen Vorers. She was Pre-K through Grade 8 a founding member of the Memorial Society of Founded in 1855 Maine, which helps Friends avoid excessive display For more information: at the time of death. She was a member ofPorcland (919) 929-2339 • quaker.org/sosministry/ Meeting and served on its Peace and Social Con Please call TODAY for a cerns and Pastoral Care Committees. She rarely tour. 215-438-7545 A Project of the M~on Worship and Ministry of missed meeting for business, and her pecan pies and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Religious Society of Friends apple strudel could be counted upon for any pot luck. In 1986 AFSC presented her a prize in recog nition of her active dedication to peace work in Maine. Mary enjoyed walking along C rescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth and sailing in the small sailboat The Meeting School built by her father. She summered at her fam ily's 56 Thomas Road, Rindge, NH 03461 cottage and wintered near Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth. She was predeceased by a sister, Sally Organic Farm Stojowski. She is survived by two nieces, Christine ~ heirloom breeds, active student involvement Singer and Nancy Harris; a nephew, Steve Stojowski, two grandnephews; and a grandniece. / Caring Quaker Community putting faith into practice in our daily lives Sanders-Phyllis Aden Sanders, 81, of kidney fail ure, on December 4, 2000, at Medford Leas Re Progressive Secondary Education tirement Center in Medford, N.J. She was born day/boarding, small classes, hands-on learning Phyllis Rae Aden in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 27, 19 19, to Methodist missionary educarors Fred and Meda Aden. She earned a BA. in Educa tion and Music ar Pasadena's Occidental College and a Master in Religious Education from Scarritt College in Nashville. Married in 1947 after a three email:[email protected] (6 03) 899-3366 www.meetingschool.org month courtship, she and her husband Olcutt FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2001 41 Sanders started their family in Austin, Tex., where fi spirite~ they helped found Austin's first Quaker meeting communzty ... and its first interracial nursery school, and where .....------. they esrablished an AFSC presence in Texas. In 1964 Phyllis traveled ro Russia representing Women's International League for Peace and Free dom as one offive American women invited by Mrs. Khrushchev. Phyllis also visited Cuba rwice as part ofsi milar missions of understanding and reconcili ation. While living in Bogota, Colombia, in the late where life continues 1960s, she directed both the men's and women's to bloom. choruses of the Universidad de los Andes. Shordy Since 1967, Foulkeways has after her return ro the U.S., from her kitchen phone in Chappaqua, N.Y., she coordinated the first Con operated under the Quaker ideals gress for Women of the Americas, with 125 women of mutual caring and respect. from 12 countries. Phyllis began her broadcasting We are a non-profit, career in 1972 at age 52 and soon she was the accredited, continuing care Residential Apartments, producer and host ofa weekly radio interview show retirement community. Assisted Living & "The C hanging World of Women" in New York Skilled Nursing City. Phyllis broadcast a weekly feature on "News of New York"; was a commentator for New York City's first 1V series on aging, NBC's "Prime of Your Life" with Arlene Francis; guest-hosted WNEWs "Midday Live"; and worked as a com menrator for the same nerwork's "Ten O 'Clock News." AfTer moving to Philadelphia in the 1980s, she became a media presence there. In 1983-84 1120 Meetinghouse Rd. Phyllis worked as p roducer and host of the weekly Gv.·ynedd PA 19436 Call Nancy Gold, series "Growing O lder with Style." She next worked [email protected] Director of Admissions, . with PBS's national series on aging, Modern Ma www.foulkeways.org at 215-643-2200. . turity, where she secured and conducted exclusive e interviews with Lady Bird Johnson and Argentina's lsabelita Peron. She also filled simultaneous roles as Seniors Reporter on "Noonbreak" and hosted the long-running Sunday morning talk show, "Over 50." She retired from broadcasting in 1993. She was a member of the Older Women's League and the founder and president ofits Philadelphia Chap ter. AfTer several operations and the prospect of more, Phyllis decided to discontinue dialysis. She reblossomed ro a level of happiness and calm. Back home at last from the hospiral, Phyllis surrounded herself with her children, family, and friends, who gathered from all over the country. She then joined others in roasting her Life with her favorite treat, denied her during dialysis: hot fudge sundaes. She said her good-byes with characteristic concern for a Residential- those she was leaving behind, then drifted slowly A Degree program into sleep while her family continued ralking to MA Ministry or Divinity her and to each other. She is survived by five MA of Arts m Religion children, Lynn Edwin Sanders, Marta Sanders Cooper, Jay Olcutt Sanders, Fred Aden Sanders, 0 ESR Access Program and Elizabeth Sanders; and nine grandchildren. Non-residential Her husband, Olcutt Sanders, one-time ediror To Start- Aug 6, 2001 manager of FRIENDS j OURNAL, died in 1983. Audit or Credit, toward D egree or Continuing ed Tatman-Robert F. (Bob) Tatman, 53, unexpect 6 courses per year edly, on October 8, 2000, in Abington, Pa. Bob was born in Philadelphia on January 29, 1947, to a Residential- Cooper and Olive Tarman, and grew up as a Non-degree program member of Merion (Pa.) Meeting. He was edu TheoTogicaiRetlection Year (T.R.Y.) cated at Friends Select School in Philadelphia and Occasional Students- earned a Bachelor ofArts in Public Administration a from Sr. Joseph's University. He read voraciously A Non-degree in several languages, including German and Greek, Up to 2 classes per semester Auditor Credit, Residential or ESR and became a self-taught biblical and Quaker Access Program; Intensive Two Week scholar. H e joined in protest marches in Washing or Weekend Options ton during the 1960s and participated in Move ment for a New Society in West Philadelphia with other Quaker activists. Bob had a gifr for taking esr.earlharn.edu or (800)432-1377 minutes and writing episdes. His early messages in meeting for worship were at times disturbing to 42 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL some members, and although he was hurt by their reaction, these experiences strengthened him. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bob was active with the Give six free gifts- Meeting for Social Concerns ofPhiladelphia Yearly --:;....._, Meeting, particularly the Community Involvement Committee, which worked for racial justice. Bob was known for sometimes fiery statements on this topic on the floor of yearly meeting sessions. Be ginning in 1987, Bob served as administrative secretary to general secretaries Samuel Caldwell and Edwin Staudt Ill. Bob understood computers in the days when Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was just beginning to expand its use of them. In 1993-94 he compiled guides to the functioning of yearly meeting. While working for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Bob and his wife, Terry, became members of Chestnut Hill Meeting. His messages in wor ship revealed that his learning was not a source of pride but ofhumility, an impetus to question, ever more deeply, himself, the world around him, and how his faith should speak to it. On several occa sions Bob's self-questioning spoke to differences the meeting had not been aware of, and brought about discussion of mutual understanding and concerns. He helped lead adult Bible study for two years. In Get six free 1991 Bob and Terry moved to Jenkintown and transferred their membership to Upper Dublin Meeting in Fort Washington, Pa. Bob had a lively sense of humor and was a great punster. He is The strength of FRIENDS JOURNAL is in its readers, so we want to add survived by his wife, Terry Irish, his mother, Olive B. Tatman, two sisters, Katherine T. Blackman some new ones! and Sarah T. Yeager; and his aunt, Ann I. Tatman. Send us the names of up to six individuals who are not currently Thompson-Mmjorie (Marge) Thompson, 80, in November 1998, in Santa Ana, Calif. Marjorie subscribers*, but who you know would enjoy the JouRNAL. We'll send was born near Lewisburg, Kans., on August 15, each ofthem three free issues (along with a gift card from you )- and 1918. After high school she learned drafting at a trade school in Kansas City. There she met her we'll extend your own subscription by one month for each friend, husband, Ernest E. Thompson. They moved to meeting member, or attender whose name you send to us (up to Claremont, Calif., where their three children, Brian, six months). Cecilia, and Kael were born. Marge and Ernie eventually divorced in the 1970s. Marjorie re *(and who have not been for two years) turned to school and received a Master's in Early Childhood Education, after which she taught at l . Name: 5. Name: ______Mt. San Antonio College for several years. She Address: ______joined Claremont Meeting in 1971 and later served Address: as clerk. She worked with the children's programs at Southern California Meeting and Pacific Yearly Zip ______Zip___ _ Meeting. She was also on the board of the South ern California Religion and Psychology Confer 2. Name: 6. Name: ______ence. In 1975 she moved to Santa Barbara, and Address: Address: ______while there she attended Santa Barbara Meeting. She loved music, and with the autoharp, Marjorie brought music into many classrooms. Zip ______Zip __ _ _ Turner-Paul 0. Turner, 91, onJanuary20, 2001, at Reid Hospital in Richmond, Ind. Paul was born 3. Name: on January 1, 1910, in Ann Arbor, Mich., to Ira Address: Otis and Bertha Marshall Turner. He was a 1936 Please extend my current graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and received his Masters degree from Indiana Zip subscription: University in 1940. He taught accounting at 4. Name: Name: ______Earlham College, worked for the Farm Bureau Co Address: Address: ______op in Richmond, and served on the staff ofAFSC in Philadelphia. He was a member of West Rich mond Meeting and the Associated Committee of Zip ______Z ip.____ _ Friends on Indian Affairs. Paul and his wife, Marie, were instrumental in involving Richmond with the Russian Sister City Program. He is survived by his 1216 Arch Street, 2A wife, Marie Elizabeth Thompson Turner; a foster FRIENDS daughter, Mrs. Mary L. Rispoli; four foster grand JOURNAL Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 children; one brother, Albert Turner; one stepsister, Fax: (215) 568-1377 • [email protected] FJosoz Ruby Ludwick; and several nieces and nephews. FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2001 43 Forum, continued from p. 5 One pathway to peace leads right through the conclusion rhar about one in ten of the movement, the antiwar movement, and the halls of Congress largest and most profitable corporations in women's liberation movement. In those the U.S., as represented by the S&P 500, are protests our goals were relatively simple accused of and found responsible for illegal we were all opposed to racism, war, and and/or unethical practices. However, more sexism. Bur the object of the current Call 202 547-6000 than five out of ten of the S&P's (mostly) protests is not nearly so simple. Therefore Ask how you can help I believe that it is essential that we first bring Friends' concern for global corporations can pass a social peace andjustice to Capitol Hill responsibility screen. This means that these make sure that we know the truth before we corporations neither make weapons nor speak. FRIENDs CoMMJITEE ON NATIONAL L EGISLATION parts or supplies for weapons, that they (For more information please see my 245 Second Street N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-5795 neither make nor supply ingredients for articles, "Women, Money, and Economic alcohol or tobacco products, that they are Power" and "Economics: A Pop Quiz" in not involved in any way with gambling or the Winter 2001 issue of Friend!J Woman ~ the nuclear power industry, that they have magazine, 1 I 06 Caldwell Lane, Nashville, ~ VlDVDTnr.....I: aetrearand good records on product quality, consumer TN 37204). lPk l'lll'-l'l'lLJUL StudyCenter relations, environmental performance, and Janet Minshall The "picket and pray" place with employee and community relations, and Douglasville, Ga. ecumenicity at its heart that they have positive policies and performance on hiring and promoting Handling Anger on the Road minorities and women. Free software available to Connectedness Ellen Deacon has apparently drawn her assumptions about global corporations from I'm writing to inform Friends of the Sidney B. Simon the ten percent or so who are guilty of illegal availability of"Donation," a powerful, July6-8 and unethical behavior, but she has ignored simple-ro-use, and free program for tracking the more than fifty percent of global donors and donations and issuing receipts. corporations who function among us as I wrote it originally for Toronto Monthly Summer Sabbath: Seeking Meeting, but it is now used by well over 200 God in Silence and Simplicity exemplary corporate citizens. Is this an unbiased and truthful way to characterize churches and charities in Canada and the Margaret B. Guenther any group? Those global corporations that United States. July 16- 19 are responsible for criminal and unethical Some of you may know me. I co-clerked practices should, of course, be exposed and the planning committee for the I 996 FGC Gathering with Gordon McClure. I have Oigong (Chi Kung) Workshop held accountable for that behavior, but to imply that those corporations are dominant been treasurer and clerk of Finance Brother Bernard Seif, or in the majority is just not true. Committee for my meeting, and I am a July 27- 29 An article in the 2/17/01 issue of The computer programmer with over 18 years of Economist magazine illustrates one example experience. Kirkridge is on the beautiful Kittatinny Ri dge of a multinational corporation, US Steel, So far my "marketing" efforts (if you can of eastern Pennsylvania, only eighty-five which has transformed the poor and call promoting a free program marketing!) miles from New York City and Philadelphia formerly hopeless town ofKosice in Slovakia have not succeeded in reaching other by investing and reaching management Quaker meetings, so that's why I am using Visit our website for more skills. In this manner they have turned a this forum to inform you of the availability information about Kirkridge's poorly run and unprofitable Soviet-era steel of my program. exciting events mill into a successful company that You can find it on the web at 44 May 2001 FRIENDS ] OURNAL Classified Books and Publications Become a Published Author. 80-year tradition of quality Jane Fremon, appreciated the perspectives of For Information call (215) 563-8629. book publishing, promotion, distribution. " Author's Guide the home educator, the special needs teacher Classified rates 65¢ per word. Minimum charge is $15. to Subsidy Book Publishing"-(800) 695·9599 Logo is additional $15. Add 10% if boxed. 10% (with the poem so appropriately tucked in discount for three consecutive insertions, 25% for six. Read " Quaker Theology"- A pathbreaking and pro- Appearance of any advertisement does not vocative Journal: Issue #3 now out; add it to your meeting nearby), Ayesha Imani's honesty (and library. Subscription: $20/yr. Published by QUEST (Quaker imply endorsement by Friends Journal. Ecumenical Seminars in Theology), P.O. Box 82, inspiring story!), and the piece by Bellefonte, PA 16823. E-mail: FRJENDS JouRNAL May 2001 45 To consider mountain view retirement property, near a Scattergood Friends School is currently accepting appli· Friends center, visit Resident Caretaker for Meetinghouse: FGC/FUM Friends Seeking quiet? Healing? Deeper prayer? Study time? Travel to Tuscany and Provence Meeting in Cincinnati seeks two people as meetinghouse Individual retreat facilities. $30/day room, board, and guid· Taste of Tuscany and Friends In France trip programs residents beginning by summer 2001. Quaker presence, ance if desired. Beautiful mountain views, hiking trails. Faith based and interfaith. East Mountain Retreat Center, Lois offered each fall and spring. Learn about art, culture, and liaison with public, and care of the property are the primary Rose-Director (UCC minister and lgnatian spiritual direc· cuisine in small groups of 8-12 people with excellent responsibilities. For further information contact: Search Com· tor). 8 Lake Buel Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230·1450. accommodations, food, and expert guidance. Guests mittee, Community Friends Meeting, 3960 Winding Way, P/F: (413) 528·6617. Website: 46 May 2001 FRIENDS JouRNAL Friends Meeting School. Serving 90 students on 50+ Friendly Financial Services. Let me help you prepare for Retirement Living acres in southern Frederick County between 1-270 and 1- retirement or work out an estate plan. Socially responsible 70. Coed, pre-K to grade 8. Strong academics, Quakei investments-my specialty. Call Joyce Moore, LUTCF, Joyce Affordable Housing-The Quaker House at values, small classes, warm caring environment, peace Moore Financial Services at (610) 966-6127 ore-mail SERVICES FOR OLDER PEOPLE Frankford Friends School: coed, K~ ; serving center city, northeast, and most areas of Philadelphia. We provide Marriage certificates, announcements, invitations, etc. Kendal communities and services reflect sound manage children with an affordable yet challenging academic pro Do justice to your event with our calligraphy and award- ment, adherence to Quaker values, and respect for each gram in a small, nurturing environment. Frankford Friends winning graphic design. (800) 763-0053. individual. School, 15000rthodox Street, Philadelphia, PA 19124. (215) Continuing care retirement communities: 533-5368. Kendal at Longwood; Crosslands • Kennett Square, Pa. Kendal at Hanover • Hanover, N.H. Junior high boarding school for grades 7, 8, 9. Small HENRY 1501 East Main Street Kendal at Oberlin • Oberlin, Ohio academic classes, challenging outdoor experiences, com F REEMAN Centerville, IN 47330 Kendal at Ithaca • Ithaca, N.Y. munity service, consensus decision making, daily work Phone: 765-855-5405 Kendal at Lexington • Lexington, Va. projects in a small, caring, community environment. Arthur ASSOCIATES E-mail: [email protected] Communities under development: Morgan School, 1901 Hannah Branch Road, Burnsville, Kendal on Hudson • Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. NC 28714. (828) 675-4262. Consulting services for educational institutions and Kendal at Granville • Granville, Ohio nonprofit organizations. Fundraising. Capital campaigns. Kendal at Furman• Greenville, S.C. Westbury Friends School-Academic excellence in a Planned giving. Recent clients include liberal arts Independent living with residential services: nurturing Quaker environment for 170 children, nursery colleges, seminaries, independent schools, social ser- Coniston and Cartmel • Kennett Square, Pa. grade 6, on beautiful 17-acre grounds. Small classes and vice agencies, Pendle Hill, FGC, and many other Friends Nursing care, residential and assisted living: highly qualified teachers. Music, art, computers, Spanish. organizations. Barclay Friends • West Chester, Pa. French, gym. Extended-day, vacation/holiday, summer pro .. Advocacy/education programs: grams. Half- and full-day nursery, pre-K. Brochure: Westbury Marriage Certificates. F1ne calligraphy 1n trad1t1onal pla1n Friends School, 550 Post Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590. Untie the Elderly • Pa. Restraint Reduction Initiative styles or decorated with beautiful, custom-designed bor (516) 333-3178. Kendal Corporation Internships ders. Also Family Trees for holiday gifts, births, anniversa For information, call or write: Doris Lambert, The Kendal Sandy Spring Friends School. Five- or seven-day board ries, family reunions. Call or write Carol Simon Sexton, Corporation, P.O. Box 100, Kennett Square, PA 19348. ing option for grades 9--12. Day school pre-K through 12. Clear Creek Design, 820 West Main Street, Richmond, IN (610) 388-5581 . E-mail: FRJENDS JOURNAL May 2001 47 PENDLE ILL A QUAKER CENTER FOR WORSHIP, A Campaign for a New Century STUDY, WORK AND SERVICE Social Action & Social Witness SCHOLARSHIPS 2001-2002 Pendle Hill will award new scholarships for the 2001-2002 academic year to seasoned and skilled social activists to reside at Pendle Hill. Two of the Building a Culture of scholarships will be for Mrican Americans. They Simplicity, Equality, and Peace will serve as mentors and work alongside young adult Friends while volunteering at least three days We are part of an economic system charac a week in a social justice organization, community terized by inequality and exploitation. Such service agency, or a national or international cause. a society is defended and perpetuated by Linking Spirituality and Witness entrenched power. Friends can help relieve social and economic oppression and injustice Historically, God has called Friends to build a by first seeking spiritual guidance in our culture of simplicity, equality, and peace. There is an essential relationship between deep religious life own lives. We envision a system of social and concrete social witness-religious life, unrelated and economic justice that ensures the right to social witness, can often lead to self-absorption of every individual to be loved and cared for; and self-centeredness. to receive a sound education; to find useful employment; to receive appropriate health During the next decade, Pendle Hill will strive to care; to secure adequate housing; to obtain play a greater role within the Religious Society of redress through the legal system; and to Friends in linking spirituality and social witness. It hopes to be known as a center for nurturing live and die in dignity. spiritually-led social witness. Pendle Hill also will strive to serve as a model of community, where Wide disparities in economic and social human respect, equality, care for the earth, and conditions exist among groups in our society social and economic justice are a daily practice. and among nations of the world. While most of us are able to be responsible for our own Scholarship Applications economic circumstances, we must not over Scholarships will provide support for tuition, room, look the effects of unequal opportunities board, health insurance, and local transportation among people. Friends' belief in the Divine costs. Seasoned and skilled social activists should contact: within everyone leads us to support institu tions that meet human needs and to seek to Teresa Pyle, Admissions Coordinator Pendle Hill change institutions that fail to meet human 338 Plush Mill Road needs. We strengthen community when we Wallingford, PA 19086 work with others to help promote justice (800) 742-3150, Ext. 126 for all. [email protected] Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative I--