July 2006" $5 Quaker Thought and Life Today

SPECIAL ISSUE An AMONG FRIENDS independent magazine serving the Relating to Money Religious Society of Friends riends and Money: This topic could be more controversial, more sensitive to many Friends than discussions about politics, racism, religion, or sex. Might Editorial this be because, as a group, we Quakers are better educated and have higher Susan Corson-Finnerty (Publisher mzd E:ecutive Edit01), Robert Dockham (Senior Editm), Rebecca Howe household incomes than the average American? That when we choose to live simply (Assistant Editm), Judith Brown (Poeny Edit01), Ellen or in voluntaty poverty, it's generally a choice and a statement, not an unavoidable, Michaud (Book Review Editor), J. Brent Bill (Assistant Book Review Editm), Joan Overman (Book Review crushing fact of life? Are we conflicted by these facts? In our Januaty 2004 issue, Kat Assistant), Christine Rusch (A1ilestones Editm), Robert Griffith summed up her ambivalence about money exceedingly well ("Where Your Maries, Nancy Milia, George Rubin (News Editor,), Kara Newell (Columnist), Lisa Rand, Marjorie Schier Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also"): "I have personally labored for years to (Proojimdm), Patty Quinn (Volwztm), Dana Henty achieve a kind of detachment from money-an attitude I have imagined to be a (Intern) hallmark of a 'spiritually evolved' person. But I am compelled to admit that it has Production Barbara Benton (Art Directm), Alia Podolsky been an uneven struggle. Money and I have a complicated relationship, a (Assistant Art Direct01), Peter Deitz (\Veb Mmzagez) love/hate/ignore relationship that plays out in odd ways. I alternately pay no attention Advertising, Circulation, Development to and obsess over money. I go back and forth from feeling resentful of others' wealth Nagendran Gulendran (Advertising Managez), Nicole Hackel (Circulation Assistant), Gabriel Ehri (and sense of entitlement to it) to feeling guilty about my own. I am alternately self­ (Director ofN!arketing, Circukttion, and Special Projects), righteous, materially envious, ludicrously penny-pinching, and wantonly generous. Patricia Boyle (Database A1anagez), Margie Garrett (Devefopmezzt CoordinatO!), Kay Bacon, Ruth Peterson My behavior might all balance out in the long run to some kind of karmic neutrality, (Volzmtem) but detached it is definitely not!" I loved her candor-and could identifY with many Administration of her comments. Money is a tough subject. Tough to regard objectively; tough to Marianne De Lange (Office Managez), Tom McPeak (Accounting Services) discuss without tensions developing, particularly when money is tight or short; tough Board ofTrustees to sort out in regard to one's spirituality; not to mention the spiritual thrust of one's Barbara Andrews, Michael Baldwin, Jon Berry, Paul meeting. We Friends have a religious tradition that is opposed to many of our Buckley, Katharine Clark, Karen Cromley, John mainstream cultural norms, one that leads us to paddle upstream much of the time. Darnell, William Deutsch (Assistant Clerk), Mary Ann Downey, Walter Evans (Iimsurez), Linda Houser, Paul This is certainly true when it comes to money, but we are more private, and perhaps Landskroener (Recording Clerk), Pat LaViscount, Linda conflicted, about money than we are about a great many other issues. Lyman, Jay Wade Marshall, Ellen Massey; Ron McDonald, Larry Miller, Nancy Moore, Petra Perkins, A range of views is presented here, from personal finance and finding a positive Claire Reddy; Janet Ross, Susanna Thomas, Lyrm relationship to it, to guides for corporate spending, to encouragement to Friends to Waddington, Margery Walker, Catherine Bell Wetteroth, Pamela Williams, Elizabeth Yeats (Clerk) become personally involved in for-profit business and banking, bringing Quaker values, literally, into the marketplace. Carolyn Hilles was a co-leader of a Friends FRIENDS JOURNAL (ISSN 0016-1322) was established in 1955 as the successor to The Friezzd (1827-1955) General Conference Gathering workshop on "Your Money or Your Life" in Amherst, and Friezzds lntelligezzcer (1844-1955). Mass., in 2004. I was fortunate to participate in that workshop and encouraged her • Friends Journal is published monthly by Friends Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, and Penny Yunuba, the other co-leader, to write something for us on this subject. Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone Carolyn Hilles has done so in "Our Money and Our Lives" (p.6), and it seems a (215) 563-8629. E-mail [email protected]. good place for this issue to begin, with questions about how we want to use our life Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, Pa., and additional mailing offices. energy, how much is enough, and how to align our spending with our values. Some • Subscriptions: one year $39, two years $76. Add $12 of our writers refer to the fact that FRIENDS JOURNAL must run like a business, which per year for postage to countries outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $5 each. is certainly true, although we are a business that has a ministry, rather than profit, at • Advertising information and assistance is available on the heart of it. Perhaps for this reason, I share the concern of Mark Caty ("Friends' request. Appearance of any advertisement does not Attitudes toward Business in the USA" p.30) and Paul Neumann and Lee Thomas imply endorsement by Friends Journal. • Postmaster: send address changes to FRIENDS JOURNAL, ("Why Young Friends Should Consider a Career in Business" p.32) that many 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Friends fail to recognize the opportunity to promote Quaker values that the business • © 2006 Friends Publishing Corporation. Permission world offers. William Spademan, in "Common Good Bank: A Society to Benefit should be received before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. Everyone" (p.33), finds himself surprised to be venturing into banking, but doing so Available on microfilm from Bell and Howell precisely so that his religious values can find an outlet that benefits the community. Information and Learning. Ideally, all of us will seek ways to impact our culture positively by our choices about PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER Min. 20% post-consumer how we earn, spend, invest, and donate our money.

Moving? Let us update your subscription and address. FRIENDS JoURNAL, nr6 Arch St., 2A Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 • (2r5) 563-8629 Fax: (215) 568-1377 • [email protected] Web: www.fi·iendsjournal.org 2 july 2006 FRIENDS jOURNAL JULY 2006 VOLUME 52, NO. 7

FEATURES 6 Our Money and Our lives Carolyn Hilles 9 Reconsidering Finandal Security Joanna Hoyt 12 Fighting over Money Ron McDonald 14 Quaker Money, Old Money, and White Privilege Elizabeth Cazden 16 living with Beggars POETRY Anna Redsand 18 The Costs of Quaker Faith I I Dreamwalker Glenn L. Reinhart Becky Banasiak Code 20 Asking for Money for the Monthly Meeting Caroline Balderston Parry DEPARTMENTS 21 Ministry and Money in the Experience of Earlier Friends 2 Among Friends Marty Grundy 4 Forum 23 The Right Use of Money 5 Viewpoint David H. Ciscel The FGC sweat lodge and related issues 24 Money as a Proxy for the Gifts of Spirit Nadine Hoover 35 Reference Queries and advices on money 25 Quakers and Capitalism Steven Dale Davison 36 Reflection 28 Friends and the Stock Marl.

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 3 FORUM

The legacy of Norman points out the almost uniform criticism of become as vibrant as Deaths? The quotation Morrison's action, then quotes a "lone" from Paul Sheldon certainly enlivened the Morrison Detroit correspondent who said, "I believe announcement of his marriage. I would have the message, loud and clear, reached the end liked to know what his new wife, Fran, Norman Morrison, the Quaker from of the Earth. Who is prepared to say this act thought, too. Mostly, I wonder who are these Baltimore who immolated himself in front was futile?" Branch continues that on folies who are marrying? I would be interested of the Pentagon on November 2, 1965, to November 6, 1965, a draft protest took to know what Paul and Fran do, and have protest the Vietnam War, had with him his place in Union Square in New York City done, with their separate lives that now they almost-one-year-old child, Emily, whom he with heclders in large-enough numbers to decide to join. Thus, biographical information handed to safety before he poured kerosene shout down Dorothy Day; one of the would malce this section come alive. That is over himself and ignited it. I remember the speakers. When Muste prayed, "let us certainly the heart of the Deaths section, for event vividly and the debate that followed, A.J. weep for the lethargy of this nation," the me at least. mostly critical of his action. Dorothy]. hecklers shouted, "Give us joy! Bomb Ricardo Wilson-Grau Mock, in her article ''A Journey of love and Hanoi!" and when five pacifists burned their Arnstelveen, Netherlands, Entreaty'' (F]Nov. 2005), describes her four­ draft cards the hecklers shouted, "Burn and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hour vigil at the Pentagon one year later to yourselves! Not your cards!" commemorate the death of Morrison and On November 9, a divinity student, her attempt to deliver a letter to Robert Physical and spiritual Roger La Porte, soaked himself in gasoline McNamara, then Secretary of Defense. and ignited himself in front of the United Following her four-hour vigil, Mock was realities Nations building. He lived for a day and is joined by a group from the Committee for Thomas H. Jeavons' commentary about quoted as saying ''I'm against war, all wars. I Nonviolent Action in New England, who "Suggestions for Explaining Quakerism'' to did this as a religious action." He was taken came also for a commemorative vigil with a others (Fj March) allows us a broad and to Bellevue Hospital when massive electrical picture of Norman, candles, and flowers. inclusive explanation of God, which leaves failure paralyzed the city. He died at In the March 2006 Forum there was us room to fill in details from our various Bellevue. Branch ends this chapter with a a letter under the headline, "let's not personal perceptions. Surely, we can fit a fair quote from Rabbi Hesche! who told his endorse destructive behavior," which range of insights into the idea of an "all­ Union Seminary Class: "Indeed, there is a criticized Dorothy Mock's article, her vigil, encompassing, challenging, comforting, and light in the midst of the darkness in this and the Morrison self-immolation. transforming" God. hour. But, alas, most of us have no eyes." Without wanting to debate the ethics of As for my own perceptions, I feel as I would ask: Can we learn from the this action further, there is more to be told, though God is the universal conscience of Viemamese? Isn't it time to forgive and ask for most of which I did not know or remember. creation-something like an electromagnetic forgiveness? I would join the Rabbi to conclude Norman Morrison's widow, Anne Morrison field, gravitational field, or quantum matter that since 1965 there have been many lights, Welch, wrote a Pendle Hill Pamphlet field, perhaps. For example, we !mow from although in different forms, and our nation published in 2005 entitled, Fire ofthe Heart: science that we are immersed in a sea of has not seen them. Norman Morrison's Legacy in Vietnam and at electromagnetic fields of numerous frequencies. Rich Vcm Dellen Home. This partly autobiographical Waves of energy pass through each other Rochester, Minn. pamphlet includes the fascinating account of without interference. Matter is condensed her visit to Vietnam in 1999 with her energy. We see that form of energy; but there children, including Emily. I learned several A further suggestion for the is a lot of energy we cannot see. things: 1) The Vietnamese call this war the Scientists have already discovered the United States or American War. 2) Norman Milestones column existence of countless worlds within worlds. Morrison was a hero in Vietnam-men I am a fellow-traveler for whom FRIENDS Stephen Hawking writes of "baby cried remembering his sacrifice, and they JOURNAL is my regular linlc to the Religious universes." Other physicists are searching for were convinced it helped shorten and end Society of Friends. (My "organic" the ten dimensions of"space-time," only the war. 3) On November 7, 1965, just a involvement with Qualcers ended a quarter three of which have been experienced by few days after the event, a Vietnamese poet, of a century ago, after four years working human beings as far as we know. This is To Huu, wrote a poem, "Emily, My Child," with AFSC and seven with Friends World !mown as "super-string theory." And, dedicated to Norman R. Morrison. Almost College-alas laid down-all in Guatemala.) quantum physicists are searching for everyone of the war generation knew the I love the publication. And the Milestones "universe splits." They say new universes are poem. 4) The Vietnamese people seemed to section is what I read first, as soon as the generated evety instant. hold no rancor, only forgiveness, despite the JoURNAL arrives. I agree with Paul Sheldon When I reflect on both our religious fact that almost every family suffered from (''A suggestion for the Milestones column," tradition and modern science, it seems to me the war and their land was devastated. in the Forum, Fj March) that the obituaries that the physical reality we see and sense When their guide was asked about this he are interesting and inspirational and, for me, might be an inner world connected to outer seemed puzzled and replied: "It's just our occasionally sadly informative. I learned of worlds, each of us being animated by energy nature. Now, we want to look ahead, not the deaths of the Holloways, the Hunts, and and inspiration. As John Steinbeck described hold grudges." the Gonzalezes, all Friends from Guatemala. it in The Grapes ofWrath, "Casey says one Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor I know soon I will read about recently time he went out in the wilderness to find Branch, in his most recent book At Canaan's deceased Elizabeth Watson. I look forward to his soul and he found that he didn't have no Edge: America in the King Yean 1965-68, being reminded of her important life, and soul that was his own. Says he found he's got writes about this event and adds additional her importance to my life. information, quoting part of the poem. He How can the Marriages/Unions section Continued on page 58

4 july 2006 FRIENDS }OURNAL VIEWPOINT The Friends General Conference sweat lodge and related issues: a statement

he Indian Committee of Philadel­ Native lives, lands, and resources by non­ strictures about their implementation. phia Yearly Meeting welcomes the Native people is a salient and constant theme These ceremonies and practices don't T extended dialogue concerning of the historical record in this country and travel lightly when they travel at all the Quaker sweat lodges at Friends Gen­ beyond. The takings, often done without beyond those communities. Our strong eral Conference (FGC) Gathering. The dis­ acknowledgment and usually without ade­ negative reaction to having non-Native cussion reflects extensive searching and quate redress or compensation, have also been use of these practices reflects not only our examination among many Friends; it is more than the physical and the material. They committee's mandate and experiences, also an important dialogue to which we include the direct loss of nations, cultures, but, more importantly, those of many feel compelled to contribute. We are spirituality, and sovereignty. The recital here is Indian tribes and nations. We certainly putting forward our collective perspective a familiar one. But this record and the resist­ appreciate the sensitivity and care that in the spirit exhibited thus far, acknowl­ ance to it form the backdrop for the sweat Friends involved in the sweat lodge cere­ edging the differences of opinion on the lodge controversy, particularly for us. mony have sought in implementing it. issue as well as the related difficulties For non-Native peoples sensitive to this But our hesitation remains and we do feel and the profound challenges that have history of overt pillage and plunder and anx­ that it concurs with the weight of general emerged about our understandings and ious to move to a better relationship with sentiment from Native peoples, including practices as Friends. Native peoples, there are cautions to be those from other areas of this country as We speal<: with appropriate humility, observed. Insensitivity and a residual sense of well as indigenous peoples from the rest of responsive to our committee's longstand­ entitlement have too often subverted non­ the world, on this issue. ing charge to promote understandings of Native efforts to rectifY these long-standing and support for Native Americans. We are grievances. Such insensitivities are frequently Related issues also fully mindful that there is wisdom characterized by inadequate and often unilat­ Bur mere negation by the prevention and spiritual integrity by all participants eral and presumptive communications where of a ceremony is an inadequate response in this conversation. personal sympathy is not accompanied by in the dialogue here. It is obvious that this mutuality, knowledge, and real partnership. discussion reveals broader issues for this Sweat lodge cancellation We on the Indian Committee have experi­ spiritual community. We state clearly and emphatically that enced our share ofsuch incomplete and unsat­ Among those issues we would note we support the decision of the FGC to isfactory encounters. They usually occur on the following: cancel the sweat lodge at the Gathering in terrains that inevitably include dimensions of The need to deepen the understanding Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2004 in the race, culture, and nationhood as well as those of the historic Friends relationship to face of sharp criticism from the Mashpee of gender and class. We can't argue for our Native American communities and its Wampanoags. Given the strong negative superiority on this front, we only claim what­ applications to the present; reaction from Native people in the region ever wisdom comes from the pain of having The need to strengthen the range to the sweat lodge and the lack of prior stumbled there before. Hence our strong feel­ and quality of communications with consultation and discussion between ing that before FGC entertains again the pos­ Native peoples; Friends and the Wampanoags and others sibility of a sweat lodge or a similar Native The need to reconsider the role of the about it, we agree that the short term based activity under its aegis there must be sacred in cultures other than our own; response to cancel the sweat lodge was the extensive consultations with local Native peo­ The need to communicate and work proper decision, painful though it was. ples before it should proceed. more effectively with Qual<:er youth to We regret that the Indian Committee The desire by non-Indians to incorporate, understand their spiritual needs; had not engaged much earlier in a full synthesize, and universalize Native religious The need to explore ways, ceremonial dialogue with the leadership of FGC practices such as the sweat lodge is under­ and otherwise, including drawing from and other concerned Friends about the standable. The beauty and power of those our own historic precedents and tradi­ sweat lodge. For that omission we take practices make them alluring and inspiring. tions, which can enhance our own spiri­ our due share of the responsibility. Per­ Such practices clearly resonate with many tual practices. haps with earlier dialogue many of the non-Indian people who desire spiritual We are grateful for this extended concerns might have been anticipated authenticity and depth. The extent to discussion that focused on the Quaker and given more time to be aired and sea­ which many young Friends have responded sweat lodge ceremony at the FGC Gath­ soned, though full resolution would have positively to the Quaker sweat lodge at the erings. It has become something larger. remained difficult if not elusive. FGC Gatherings speal<:S profoundly, we feel, We hope that the dialogue can be contin­ The concerns that have arisen are cer­ to this point. ued in some structured way with the tainly not new ones. The experience and But as noted by others in this dialogue, various stakeholders including Native understandings of the Indian Committee Native ceremonies and practices are rooted Americans and Quaker youth participat­ over the years underscore the most obvi­ organically in the experiences and histories of ing. We would be happy to assist in ous and grievous concerns. The taking of specific Native communities with particular such a process. 0

FRIENDS JOURNAL jufJ 2006 5 s by Carolyn Hilles

Money ;, ah"'d If I don't have as much financial secu­ take the leap of faith to trust that money thing for Quakers to talk about. rity as some in my meeting seem to have, will follow if the action is right, and those That's my experience, at least­ am I resentful? Am I ashamed? Do I feel practical Friends who always need to whether it be in conversations with indi­ I should be asked to give nothing to sup­ lmow how a proposal will be financed. vidual Friends, or in corporate discern­ port my meeting, since others have so Everybody feels bad in these exchanges. ment. Ask us about sexual orientation, or much more? Quakers who believe they are considering about our spiritual journey, or about our Do I believe that thinking too much the lilies as Jesus asked them to do feel politics. Most Friends I know are willing about money is somehow not spiritual? undercut, and those members hewing to to navigate these conversationally tricky Do I feel judgmental about what others in what they believe is the prudent fiscal waters, sparing few details. my meeting consider the simple life? path of their Qual<:er forbears feel judged But talk of money brings up issues of At a table of Friends gathered for din­ as being less spiritual. I've seen this kind privilege and self-restraint within our­ ner to prepare for a State of Society report of tension everywhere from my own selves, our meetings, and our Religious for my meeting recently, the topic came meeting business sessions to the final dra­ Society that seem to challenge us in a up of high-end stoves such as those made matic minutes of the 2004 Friends World more direct and personal way. We may be by Aga and Viking. "It's not Quakerly to Committee for Consultation Triennial in more at ease talking about how we earn spend that kind of money on a stove," one New Zealand, when the body went for­ and invest our money than about our person said. "Yes it is," another replied. ward with a decision to continue deficit spending and giving, but I think we have "They're expensive but well-made, and spending rather than cut expenses, despite more guilt and confusion than we admit last a lifetime or more." The conversation the passionate objections of some dele­ about our own finances. We probably stopped there, as so many relating to gates who felt this action was a betrayal of have more interior conversations about money do in Friends' gatherings. The her­ Quaker principles. money than actual ones. itage I was handed from my own genera­ Contemporary Friends may well won­ Are my finances in right relationship tions of Quaker forbears would have sided der how distinctive we are now from the with my Quaker principles? Why isn't it with the "plain-but-well-made" party; larger society in which we live. This is a easier for me to figure out how to manage you bought the most simple, functional, valid question about liberal Qual<:ers in my money? Could I, should I, make dif­ and well-made you could afford, and if general, but I believe particularly in the ferent choices in my spending that would you were well-flXed, that could be a pricey way many of us view our personal finan­ allow me to give more to alleviate suffer­ if aesthetically simple stove. But my point cial lives. Certainly many Friends feel ing in the world, or to support my meet­ is, there isn't even a shared understanding overwhelmed by consumer debt, or are ing financially? Ifi have enough resources about the values underlying a decision as confused about when or how to say no to to be comfortable, should I feel guilty basic as the selection of one stove over their children's materialistic desires. As a about spending on some of the pleasures another. Given this difficulty; how do we religious group we are notably cheap in my life condition allows me to enjoy? Am find the common ground to cover the ele­ our faith giving. I living too well? Can I speak without mental differences ofview between Quak­ It is also undeniable that earlier gener­ self-consciousness about my trip to Italy ers who choose lucrative business and pro­ ations of Friends had a more unified, con­ in the presence of a Friend who cannot fessional lives and those who tty to live servative philosophy about money. Fru­ afford to travel? beneath the IRS radar? gality was once a well-known distinctive In corporate discernment, financial for our members. Thomas Clarkson's Carolyn Rilles is a member ofBeacon Hill Meet­ discussions have a way of bringing up a examination of the Religious Society of ing in Boston, Mass. great divide, between those who dare to Friends 200 years ago explains part of the

6 july 2006FRTENDS JOURNAL financial success of its members by listing seen that when even a portion of a reli­ What I have found most impressive in the areas of spending that were off-limits gious community works on personal this work is that Friends welcome the dis­ to them (gaming, drinking, expensive finances in a spiritually grounded way, its cipline of holding their finances in the libraries, costly paintings, splendid dress voices begin to provide a new depth in same Light as they do the rest of their and hair, elegant furniture, packs of corporate discernment about money. activity. Relief is the only way to describe hounds, theater, balls, music, etc.). This To appeal to Quakers, an approach to the reaction of many of our workshop is not to say that we would want to step personal finance (and there is a publishing participants as they find clarity about this back to the expectation that we live this boom in this subject right now) needs to murky and often painful topic. Being able austerely, or that we disown members offer guidance in examining spending, to share financial experiences and strate­ who declare bankruptcy, or send a team of savings, and investing in a way that is in gies with others has also been powerful for elders to a Friend's failing business to keeping with our testimonies on Simplic­ them. In Boston, Penny Yunuba has supervise the bookkeeping and schedule ity and Integrity. An approach that has established a community of people who the repayment of debts. Nevertheless, I helped many Friends get to a place of have been through the program. More believe many Friends hunger for more deeper spiritual and practical discernment than one Quaker says of this community guidance about what it means to live as a about their finances is the one based on that it provides the same kind support for Quaker, including the practical manage­ Your Money or Your Lift: Transfmming living financially counterculturally as the ment of their finances within a philo­ Your Relationship with Money and Achiev­ meeting does in many other areas of life. sophical framework that is consistent with ing Financial Independence, the 1992 best­ In the Your Money or Your Lift pro­ their faith and practice. seller by Joe Dominguez and Vickie gram, participants face their spending, earning, and savings realities directly. They are asked to collect historical data about their lifetime earnings to date, to do an inventmy of their material possessions with encouragement to declutter, and to calculate what they really earn after job­ related expenses and hours are taken into account (including hours in therapy talk­ ing about job stress and those spent decompressing and complaining with spouses and friends). Money is not seen as distinct from life, because the precious, limited hours of our life go into earning it-what the authors call life energy. Another assumption is that the value of our lives is not primarily defined by our getting and spending, but by purpose. Why are we here? What is our money for? If I weren't working, how would my life contribution be different? ·t::l Participants go on to track their spend- § ing in detail and begin to calculate how ~ their savings rate will build towards even- ~ tual financial independence, with the ~ Robin that has become one of the expectation that this release from the need required reading texts in the voluntary to work for money will be used to carry simplicity movement. out with less hindrance our life's purpose Penny Yunuba, a member of Beacon on Earth. Though not Friends them­ Hill Meeting in Boston who is cited as an selves, the authors of Your Money or Your example in this book, began hosting study Lift echo a financial philosophy from an groups and giving workshops on person­ earlier period of Quaker history, when al finance shortly after its publication. there was an expectation that you would Many Friends signed up for these oppor­ live well beneath your means and retire, or tunities in the Boston area, and also at her develop what was called a competency­ popular offerings at Woolman Hill, Pen­ work that would allow income and time I don't have a simple solution, and it die Hill, and later the Friends General to pursue your ministry. John Woolman's would be disingenuous to propose one. In Conference Gathering, to name a few. I self-limited tailoring business is a familiar my personal experience, though, I've seen joined her in this work nine years ago and example of this practice. that Friends respond well when given the was a part of the oversight committee cre­ Another attraction to YMOYL (its opportunity to practice aligning their ated by the meeting to uphold what it rec­ shorthand name) is that it promotes sim­ spending with their values. I have also ognized as a ministry. plicity without austerity. It recognizes that FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 7 life needs to include some comforts and purpose? How might this expenditure though, willing to say; based on my expe­ even luxuries. We live in a culture that change ifi didn't have to work for a living? rience, that we would be strengthened as makes this belief easy to hold, probably After nearly a decade of working with individuals and as a Religious Society if too easy. What our larger culture does not both Friends and non-Friends in the we offered more corporate help to our do is help us distinguish between spend­ capacity as workshop or study group lead­ membership in thinking about our finan­ ing that brings joy and purpose, and er, I have yet to see a consistent difference cial lives. between Friends' financial attitudes and When I look in my grandfather's copy the attitudes of others, when compared of Rules of Discipline and Advices, I find with peers of their generational or social not only guidance about right livelihood, background. As a group, Friends seem but directives to keep clear accounts and about as confused about how to set fiscal inspect them frequenrly so as to "live priorities, how to resist overspending, within the bounds of your circum­ how to manage debt, or how to decide stances"; to write a will and leave financial how much money to give away as anyone matters in good order; and to seek advice else in similar financial circumstances, from "judicious Friends" if you find you and probably as many Quakers drop the can't pay your debts. My own Faith and practice, and for the same reasons when Practice, written less than a century later, they do. Friends do have the experience of also gives ethical guidance about occupa­ taking discernment seriously; however, tional choice, but has little else to say on and that can sustain them when others money or finance beyond a job descrip­ spending that we end up resenting or weary of tracking and querying. tion for finance committees and generali­ regretting. And it certainly does not When you have your financial life in ties about stewardship and moderation. encourage us to discern about the ques­ order, many wonderful things can follow. It's hard to know where to begin when tion that is at the heart of the program: Seeing discernment about how we get and looking ahead. This year the development what is enough? The people I have known spend our money as part of our spiritual committee of our yearly meeting is work­ over the past decade who have used the journey leads to a more completely inte­ ing on money and spirit queries and quo­ YMOYL approach, Friends and non­ grated path. Living within one's means is tations to propose for the upcoming revi­ Friends alike, have found the fulfillment nearly as radical in our consumerist 21st­ sion of Faith and Practice. We know that curve, the tool used to answer this ques­ century culture as refusing to take up some Friends would find such contribu­ tion, one of the most valuable pieces of arms was in an earlier one. I've seen peo­ tions challenging ("uncomfortable"), but wisdom in the book. ple retire debt, choose work that is closer see it as our responsibility to offer sugges­ The investing step of the program is to their life's purpose, plan for retirement tions that support responsible behavior in often not used in these workshops, since without stress, get their work and leisure our homes, and to encourage the support its recommended investment strategy is more in balance, leave working for mon­ of Quaker organizations and efforts. confined to federal treasuries, which is too ey on their own schedule, and figure out There will never be a return to the days limited a choice for most people's taste that they have more resources-time and when anyone could assume to know (though interestingly; at least one Quaker money-to give away. In my own life, I someone's fiscal philosophy based simply historian has written about the bond­ have found relief from the cloudy uncer­ on the fact that he or she is a Quaker. But based retirement funding of the early tainty that comes from not looking at I think any meeting that finds ways to Pennsylvania Valley Quakers.) finances in a direct and clear-eyed way. work on personal finance in its commu­ There is, however, no shortage of excel­ I've learned that sometimes I need to nity will find that modern Friends are lent advice on how to invest savings spend more money; not less, in order to more eager and willing to examine their diversely and wisely. What is harder to live in alignment with what I deeply val­ fiscal lives through a spirit-centered and find, and what this program or similar ue-a place of growth for a natural saver yet practical discipline than you might ones can provide, is a strategy for analyz­ like me. Especially with the help of a guess by seeing their checkbook records or ing spending in light of our ultimate val­ women's finance support group, I've their credit card bills. ues. Saving for more than ever-more-con­ begun to lose my fear of major fiscal deci­ Most of us go to the mall. But most of sumption gives a different focus and pur­ sion-making. I still have trouble figuring us are also seeking a way to align even our pose to saving-to learn what our money out how much to pledge to my monthly shopping with the principles of our faith. (and our life) is really for. meeting or to other Friends' groups whose Quakers before us have struggled with the A central step of the program is a set of work is important to me. same question. Even if their solution isn't queries, which is probably another reason I'm not proposing that every meeting ours, we will be the richer for the search.O Quakers often feel at home in the pro­ take up Your Money or Your Lift. No one gram. Every month you ask three ques­ approach is perfect, and in fact Penny and tions about each category of your spend­ I have found resources from other church­ ing, or, in some cases, about individual es valuable for our work, from the Men­ purchases: Did I receive fulfillment, satis­ nonites to the Church of the Savior's Min­ faction, and value in proportion to life en­ istry of Money program. Friends would­ ergy spent? Is this expenditure oflife ener­ n't react well to having one imposed on gy in alignment with my values and life them, even if that were possible. I am,

8 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL R E C 0 ~ Sf D E R I N G •

by Joanna Hoyt

Eend> >pe,k of living in f.Uthfulne>> gift was the early realization that what ple as I tried to face to God, of letting our outward lives be other children (and their parents) took as these difficulties. And I wholly patterned by obedience to the an unalterable fact of life was really a found more queries. In indwelling Spirit. For a time this led early choice. In my teens I decided that I "Becoming a Friend to Quakers to live in ways that broke should study economics and get the big the Creation" I came on through the assumptions of the wider cul­ picture before I had money of my own to the unattributed query; ture. They spoke of"colonies ofHeaven," manage. I read through a hefty econom­ "Do I, in all my pro­ groups of people who had stopped living ics textbook and a large number of other ceedings, keep to that by the standards of the society around books considering the effect of the global use of things which is in them and begun to live in the come and economy on humans and the Earth. I accordance with uni­ coming Kingdom. learned something about the conditions versal righteousness?" I Friends still cany a great concern for under which people grew the food I ate knew that my answer justice, mercy, and a Spirit-led life, but too and made the clothes I wore, and decided was still No, and that often we share in the wider culture's to seek alternatives. was uncomfortable; but assumptions about what is necessary and As I searched, I found myself increas­ possible, especially in economic matters. ingly uncomfortable in the Protestant We allow ourselves to live in alienation church I was then attending. People there fi·om or opposition to the Life within us were pur off by my questions, and urged After our first visit, because we do not believe that it is possi­ me to concentrate more on normal activ­ ble to do otherwise. We do not even see ities such as shopping and dating. In the the amount and the choices we are making; we accept course of our studies my family read John them as givens in the world. We pray or Woolman's joumal and essays, and we complexity of the march or work for peace, and we pay tax­ were all impressed by the courage, faith­ es that support war. We speak of reliance fulness, and gentleness with which he worlz and the laclz on the Spirit, and we pursue financial spoke and lived his truth. I kept returning security. We try to reach out to our neigh­ to his outcry in A Plea for the Poor, "Oh, of an obvious bors in their need, and we continue to that we who declare against wars and support an economy that relies on debt acknowledge our trust to be in God only; security system for its growth and on poverty to provide may walk in the Light and therein exam­ seemed daunting, workers for the jobs nobody wants to do. ine our foundation and motives in hold­ Guilt about these things is stifling rather ing great estates! May we look upon our but in the silence than transforming. The knowledge that treasures and the furniture of our houses there are real choices to be made can be and the garments in which we array our­ I felt called to both challenging and freeing. I have come selves and try whether the seeds of war to this knowledge experientially. have any nourishment in these our pos­ be here. I grew up in a family that could afford sessions." We decided that we had to meet to buy whatever was necessary and to buy some Quakers, if they were still around. some things just for pleasure. My mother We found Portland (Maine) Meeting it was freeing to realize that such a ques­ made it possible for me to learn at home and knew ourselves at home. For my first tion could be asked. I decided it was time instead of going to school. This was good few meetings I enjoyed a deep sense of to start working my way into what I felt for me in many ways. One unintended peace. Then I began to be uncomfortable led to do. in a new way. Instead of objecting to what I was used to doing volunteer work joanna Hoyt, a member of Po 1tland (Maine) the people around me said and feeling with my family and gardening organical­ Meeting, is currently living in upstate New York. She is listed as "an isolated Friend" within trapped, I was made painfully aware of the ly, so I decided that I'd start volunteering Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting. She par­ things in my life that prevented me from on organic farms and see where that led. ticipates in a Meeting for Faithfulness, a group of following the Spirit, such as self-aggran­ I went to the regional headquarters of the Friends in western New York who gather month- dizement and the wish to avoid difficult Heifer Project, a hunger relief organiza­ 6; or as able, for extended worship focused on truth. Friends in the meeting supported tion, and worked on their demonstration foithfitlness to the Spirit's leading in their lives. me by their listening, presence, and exam- farm. I met other volunteers and heard

FRIENDS ]OURNAL}uly 2006 9 several variations on "I love this they had. work, it seems right to me, this Friends in our meet­ is what I really find worth ing supported our search, doing-but I have to get a pay­ and we kept writing let­ ing job soon, because I have ters and asking questions. student loans to pay of£ Maybe Finally we found St. Fran­ ~ afterward I can come back and cis Farm, a small commu­ ~ do something like this." I won- ·t: nity of prayer, service, :;:: dered about that. I had talked and simple living in the J; with others who exchanged sat­ Catholic Worker tradi­ e:;§ isf)ring low-paid work for less tion. After our first visit, ~ satisfYing jobs with better bene­ the amount and com­ ~ fits, and who felt unable to go plexity of the work and ~ back to living with less. the lack of an obvious ~ I had already decided that security system seemed "' college was a choice, not a daunting, but in the ~ requirement. I looked again at silence I felt called to be the assumptions involved in choosing a there was a way forward. I wondered if I here. We spent a summer living into this career. I knew many people who had had been hopelessly unrealistic. I kept place and discerning the call, and in the interesting jobs but had no time to walk returning to the stmy of the Israelites fol­ fall of 2001 we loaded the car with what in the woods, to read books outside their lowing Moses out of Egypt-leaving their we needed and wanted from home and area of specialization, or to lmow their slavery, leaving their leeks and onions, came back to stay. neighbors. And I knew more who desper­ leaving the life and the world they knew, We are trying to model a Spirit-based ately tried to juggle the different things and following the God Who Is into an alternative to consumer culture. We do as that mattered to them and always felt that unlmown land. They were glad to be much of our own work as we can-grow­ they were falling behind. I realized that I free-but afraid of hunge1~ and they were ing food organically to eat and share, cut­ was called to a life that integrated work, angry with Moses and with God. Food ting firewood to heat the building, etc. worship, outreach, and fellowship instead and water were given each day as need­ We don't have salaries. We live by gifts giv­ of keeping them in separate compart­ ed-but they wanted to have the food to en and received. People give us the mon­ ments and trying to find time for all of which they were accustomed, to see ahead, ey we need to keep the place open and the them. My mother and brother were work­ to have enough food stored up for the tools we need for our work; they also give ing on similar questions and ready to next days and weeks, and to be in control. us children's clothes, art materials, bicycles, explore alternatives. When we talked to Still, after all their grumbling and rebell­ and other things to pass on to our neigh­ other people about the call we heard, we ing and doubting, they were finally led bors. The support that comes to us allows were often told, "That's nice, that's lovely; into the land to which they had been us to be present here, to listen to the peo­ but you can't do that in the real world." called. I thought, too, of the journey of ple who come to us, and to provide prac­ We didn't know whether we could or not. Friends in this country who felt called to tical help when we can. We mentor trou­ We decided to start trying. leave slaveholding, which must have bled children, take in injured migrant For a while the search was confusing meant a total departure from the life workers, do errands and yard work for and discouraging, and I was not sure that they knew and the security they assumed elders, build wheelchair ramps and repair homes, and otherwise try to pass on the gift that has been given to us. This life has made me more aware of the price others pay for our comfort. It is one thing to read about the long working hours and unsafe conditions to which migrant workers are subjected; it is another to have men come with hernias, missing fingers, lungs full of dust, tired and afraid and homesick. It is one thing to object in general to consumer culture and the influence of advertising; it is another to work with families who can't afford decent food and shelter, and who are con­ vinced that they will be stupid, unat­ tractive, and worthless if they can't buy the gadgets that are being sold on TV. It is one thing to think

IO july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL abstractly about the ethics of interest and Society of Friends may reconsider the with another quety (from Martha Man­ the debt-based economy, and another to promises of financial security, as it has glesdorf, quoted in Catherine Whitmire's listen to people who are hopelessly already considered the promises of mili­ book Plain Living): What would I do ifl indebted and see no way out. tary security. The pursuit of both kinds of were not afraid? 0 Our lives are still full of contradictions. security often involves sacrificing con­ When migrant workers are hurt at com­ science, freedom, and other things that we mercial farms nearby they come here to hold dear. And making these sacrifices heal. We buy groceries to help feed them doesn't really ensure economic security, and wonder who was hurt in the growing any more than the preparation for war of that food. We try to teach people about ensures physical safety. Jobs disappear and peace, and we buy gasoline. We talk of investments lose their value as a result of relying on God, and we buy insurance. fluctuations in global financial markets. We try to live outside the boxes, and we As our environment is degraded and as oil have organized as a nonprofit corporation grows scarcer, it may be harder to get (I couldn't see another viable choice-but access to the basic goods we need, whether was there one?); and evety year we have to or not we have money to buy them. explain ourselves inside the very confining I have heard "trust in God" used to jus­ boxes provided by the IRS. tifY carelessness, impulsivity, and self­ I am also aware of the grace and abun­ indulgence. I lmow the importance of dance that surround us, even when our tempering our impulses with sound judg­ first impression is one of scarcity. We ment. I also know that nothing we do can started taking vegetables to the people in keep us safe as we usually understand safe­ the subsidized housing complex in town. ty. I believe that, as finite beings, we are Neither we nor the social-service agencies wholly insecure. Our lives are profoundly in the area knew how to meet the over­ affected by forces beyond our control, and whelming needs there. We decided that at eventually we die. I also believe-amid least we could bring them tomatoes and many doubts and fears and reservations­ cucumbers and stop to listen. We are be­ that the Light, the Spirit, is and endures, ginning to see the strength and commu­ and we can immerse ourselves in it, and nity alongside the poverty and violence, so enter into Life. I am journeying now and to help some of the tenants there to affirm and build on these strengths. Miguel stayed with us for three months, recuperating from a hernia and DREAMWALKER. looking for work. He was the first migrant worker to come to us, and we were appre­ hensive at first; but his presence was a gift. You beckon me into uncertainty, oh God. F)d::"''i'''''*'''', He had enough English to communicate That is your embrace. with us, and he taught us enough Spanish so that we could communicate with the But I race to a well-lit space next non-Anglophone who came. He worked with us as much as we would let where my books are lined up neatly on the shelves, him while he was healing, and he taught where my bed has been meticulously made, my brother a lot about carpentry and con­ struction. His singing and his encourag­ ing words kept our spirits up when we where I can be alone to construe a certain certainty of fate, were tired and discouraged. He also found something he needed here. He said before where my fingers can trace the face of fantasies that would, will, never leave me, leaving that he had decided to go home where I can gaze into the eyes of ivory idols, to Puerto Rico and stay there with his family if he could; he would buy goats safe in the arms of my fabricated heartaches and plant a garden, so they could be fed even when he was out of work, and they while you, oh God, pace in my shadow and wait for me to sleep. could learn to live with fewer things so that he could have time to teach and play with his children. -Becky Banasiak Code We are still trying to live into faithful­ ness ourselves, and we seek to encourage our neighbors and guests on their own Becky Banasiak Code attends Athens (Ohio) Meeting. journeys. We also hope that the Religious

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 II Fighting oney

by Ron McDonald

you noticed that most fights money at a conflict, and it will go away. involve triangles-two people or groups Experience tells us something different, and a sticky issue? The sticky issue is often though: money is surrounded by avarice, money. Couples, even countries, fight greed, jealously, and gluttony. Money over you, me, and money. and wealth can create new conflicts, I tell people that triangulation is stran­ sometimes even escalating the old ones gulation. Between two individuals, inter­ rather than solving them. actions are simple: you to me, and me to It's also tempting sometimes to claim you. Just two things are happening. But that we'd be better off without money. If add a third party to the transaction-in we view money as the source of a con­ this case, an "it"-and there are ten things flict, then rising above money should happening at once-five times as much as resolve the conflict. Thus, we often are with two parties. It's like jumping onto a fooled into thinking that peace depends fast-moving merry-go-round. Instantly, on not needing money. everything becomes a blur. Both of these approaches assume that Money is a trap that we can't live with­ $1,000 item as if it's not any more valu­ peace depends on not needing more out. Despite protests against materialism able than a $100 item.) And second, money. Either you don't need it because and wealth, it is impossible in today's money as income occasions the flow of you have enough ofit already, or you learn world to ignore money. Even ifyou decide money that makes modern social life pos­ to transcend money and live with very lit­ to live in a cave in the backwoods, you sible. Economist David Ciscel [see his tle of it (we sometimes label this simplic­ have to buy or rent the property or know article on p. 23 -eds.] says that the love ity). From this it appears that only the someone with means who is willing to be of money is the love of money as income. wealthy or those who take a vow of pover­ your benefactor. Ethical living requires We fight over the desire for more income. ty can be peaceful. The rest of us, those who dealing with money. Bartering for what How is it possible to reap the benefits live between wealth and poverty, fight. we need is scarcely a real option any more. of money without fighting over it? Or, But of course this is not true. In fact, What money does to our transactions put differently: How can we live in a soci­ there are just as many feuds among the is twofold. First, it makes exchange easier. ety where money is the primary measure­ wealthy and among religious communi­ Things are given monetaty value that is ment of security without feeling insecure ties that believe in transcending the mate­ objective, negotiable, and easy to under­ about how much money or income we rial world as there are for everyone else. stand. Many fights over money are have? And more directly to the point of The wealthiest and simplest can be just as attempts to restore money as a measure­ our daily lives: How can a couple stop dissatisfied as those of average means. Fur­ ment of value. (For instance, compulsive fighting over money? thermore, if you want to cause a major spenders lose sight of this and will buy a Money is central to our hopes for har­ marital fight, just give a couple a whole lot Ron McDonald, a member ofMemphis (Tenn.) mony because it appears, on the surface, of money-or take away just enough Meeting, is a pastoral counselor and the author to be a means for minimizing conflict. We money to force the pair to simplifY their ofa new book, The Spirituality of Communi­ try to get more money so that peace can lives. Money and the lack of money are ty Life: When We Come 'Round Right. prevail. We often think that we can throw both great sources of fighting. Peace, it

12 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL appears, is not created by making people objective but horrible experiments, he was but that doesn't diminish the importance wealthy or cutting incomes. Peace depends seeking to numb himself from excellence of the myth. Transcendence happens even on something else. and the sublime. He wrote that some­ during times of darkness. What, really, is money? If it were just a times excellence is like a spear into our The money trap is not really about medium of exchange, then it would be hearts; or, as I would say it: sometimes the exchange or about goods. It is a trap of neutral in our quest for peace. But mon­ light of transcendence breaks into our darkness. It is the trap of elevating sec­ ey is much more than that. It is symbolic darkened souls. Haley moved beyond ondary concerns above what needs to be of something beyond production, market focusing on the conflict of Nazi cruelty to primary. We cannot-we should not­ value, and net worth. Money is really sensing with awe the conflict inherent in ignore or neglect secondary concerns; about feeling nurtured, valued, secure, the encounter. that's the best way to elevate them into first and free. This is the first clue towards Once a woman who struggled with place. What we have to do is treat second­ understanding the relationship between despair and its companion, cynicism, said aty concerns with great respect and self­ money and peace. that she so missed some wonderful bread discipline, and in the middle of those mun­ Philosopher Jacob Needleman, author she used to enjoy in Europe that she dane matters, resist the urge to ignore the of Money and Meaning, sheds light on would cry over it. She moaned, "Why do in-breaking of transcendence. We must what money is about. He suggests that I have to remember such things? They look for, name, and enjoy the mystical there are two sets of concerns in our lives. only hurt me." Her companion asked her, moments that are right there, freely given. One is secondary, the other is primary. "Would you rather stay cynical and Back to the leading question: How can Secondary concerns are about our basic despairing?" She replied with tears, "No, we stop fighting over money? The answer needs: food, clothing, shelter, retirement, it's just that something that good comes is paradoxical: Treat money with more and the like-the external life. Money is along so rarely that I ache for more of it." importance and it will be less important. involved in almost all secondary concerns. That ache is the conflict inherent in Primary concerns are about love and peace. A cynic might reply, "If you make meaning-the interior life. Money is a enough money you can fly back to great liberating factor in enabling us to Europe for some of that bread." But a focus on our primary concerns. In other more insightful comment on that craving words, when we manage money well we is that we all might be missing the in­ become free to focus on what really mat­ breaking of transcendence in our daily ters-on that which makes humans dif­ lives, in the midst of all of the mediocrity ferent from other animals. In contrast, surrounding us. when we don't manage money well we Dorothee Soelle, author of The Silent elevate secondary concerns above what Cry: Mysticism and Resistance, suggests really matters, which creates the conflict that we erroneously think that the only we strive to transcend. true mystics are those who experience Peace, I believe, is more than the great mystical experiences. Instead, she It's the same way with food and fat: eat absence of conflict. Peace must go beyond says that we fail to recognize the many, more deliberately (slowly) and you'll eat the conflicts that destroy, while paradoxi­ many mystical moments in our daily lives less, enjoy it more to not get fat. cally embracing another kind of con­ that, strung together and named for In the mid-1990s I had extra money flict-the craving for transcendence, for what they are, can define us in new and for the first time in my life, and I invest­ what is truly excellent and sublime. transforming ways. I experienced this as I ed in the stock market. Like other invest­ For example, Phillip Haley, author of walked to work recently. On the way I saw ment "geniuses," I bought into a couple Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, was research­ four or five sassafras trees manicured in a of mutual funds and watched my money ing Nazi cruelty, trying to understand way I had never seen before. They were grow rapidly. Fascinated at my growing how otherwise good people could engage beautiful. I stopped with mouth agape to wealth, I began to spend a lot of energy in torturous medical experiments on Jew­ look at them. Wow! It was, I believe, a tracking earnings and predicting when I ish children. He discovered an article mystical moment. Then, only a few might become a millionaire. I found about Le Cham bon, a town in France that blocks later, I suddenly became aware of myself feeling like a miser. I didn't want to became a haven of nonviolent protection how relaxed I had become. It felt great. spend anything; I just wanted to amass from Nazi deportation of Jews. Reading Another mystical moment-two of them wealth. One day, fortunately, I got sick of about this oasis of morality in those dark just a few blocks apart! By resisting my it-or, rather, I realized that I was sick times, he felt a strange sensation on his habit of driving to work, I had stepped with it. I kept saving a reasonable amount cheek. He found himself wiping away a out of my mediocre world, out of the of money, but I stopped watching the pot. tear. He immediately chastised himself for mainstream, and had been blessed by the Qust in time, too, for when the market losing his sense of objectivity and went in-breaking of light. crashed in 2001 I was no longer drooling home disgusted with himself But later he This is exactly what I understand to be over becoming a millionaire investor and felt that tear again and returned that night the meaning of Christmas. In the middle didn't jump off a building.) It took me a to his office to reread about Le Chambon's of the darkest and coldest time of the year few years to distance myself from money courage. It was then that he realized that (in the Northern Hemisphere) God management addiction, but when I did, I just as some people numbed themselves offered Light for the world. Of course, from disgust in order to continue their Jesus was probably not born in December, Continued on page 48

FRIENDS JOURNALju(y 2006 13 QUAKER MONEY, OLD MONEY,

by Elizabeth Cazden a birthright Friend, she degrees, even when less than half of the really lmew her antiques." This comment population finished high school. I com­ opened a testimony to the life of a beloved monly overhear after-meeting conversa­ 104-year-old Friend. I wondered, "What tions about which elite and/or Quaker does antique furniture have to do with colleges our children attend. (By contrast, Quakerism?" most of my children's public school class­ What the spealcer alluded to is that mates applied only to in-state public col­ although the Religious Society of Friends leges.) Our books, magazines, and news­ includes people of diverse backgrounds, a letters assume a high level of literacy. large number of Qualcers in North Amer­ We recognize that some Friends may ica come from "old money'' tamilies. Those not be able to afford all of this, and so sub­ of us who do often take for granted inher­ sidize "deserving" Quaker participation in ited money and its benefits: nice homes colleges, retirement communities, Pendle (and second homes), private college and Hill conferences, FGC Gatherings, and often secondary school, travel abroad, even yearly meeting. Many "poor" comfortable retirement communities. Friends are highly educated individuals Like other "old money'' folks, Friends who have chosen to live below taxable tend to frown (usually silently) on signs of worn wool tweeds are suitably Quaker; income or to work at low-paying social newly gotten wealth or ostentatious dis­ pastel polyesters are not, at least among service jobs. They have a choice, in other play. In the old phrase, Quaker clothing, liberal unprogrammed Friends. (It's dif­ words, unlike our neighbors who are furniture, and living should be "of the best ferent in the Midwest, where basketball stuck in minimum-wage jobs or depend­ sort, but plain." In earlier generations, and golf are more common than Nation­ ent on Social Security. fine silk was "plain" if it was the right col­ al Public Radio.) Well-used wool Oriental The Quaker tradition of offering and or of gray; homespun dyed with local rugs are acceptable; synthetics from the depending on gracious home hospitality brown or green dyes was not. Today, well- local Wal-Mart are not. Finely crafted for traveling Friends also assumes a certain furniture, especially handed down within level of affiuence. Old journals, trying not the family, is good (unless too ornate); to complain, describe spartan living in mass-produced from the local big-box frontier areas. But the norm is a well-fur­ store is not. nished home with at least one guest bed­ I have seen Friends judge new atten­ room, a large dining room with a well­ ders for their cars (foreign and, recently, filled table, and husband and wife both hybrids, good; American, SUVs, or pick­ free to entertain company thanks, until ups, bad), clothing (suits and ties odd, but recently, to the unnamed cadre of servants may be OK if dark-colored; nylons and behind the scenes. An early FGC Gather­ high heels, questionable; blue jeans ing photograph shows well-dressed and T-shirts with left-wing slogans, (white) Friends outside their rustic tents one of us). With these criteria, new­ and, lined up in the background, their comers from other old-money fam­ (black) servants. ilies "fit in," while others can feel That picture identifies another often­ uncomfortable or out of place. silent question: how did Friends come to Education is both a marker of do so well? The standard story is a variant family wealth and, frequently, a way on the Puritan one: Quakers became to pass it on to the next generation. wealthy by working diligently; extending Elizabeth Cazden, a member of Concord Since at least 1930, unprogrammed meet­ their experimental approach to religion to (NH) Meeting, is a writo; Quaker historian, ings in most parts of North America have invent new industrial technologies; trad­ and fimner lawyo: She is cum:ntly researching had an astonishing percentage of men and ing honestly (thereby attracting cus­ Qpaker slave-owning in Rhode Island women with doctorates and professional tomers); making productive use of

14 july 2006FRIENDS ]OURNAL It will serve us to acl

FRIENDS ]OURNALjury 2006 I5 WI Many spiritual by Anna Redsand traditions teach that every person

man walking towocd me truth would be: "I have a dollar, but I we meet is our r need it"? have a dollar, but it's mine"? grinned broadly from several feet away, "I and at first I thought he was being friend­ "Yes, but I worked for it. Why don't you teacher, provided ly. I smiled back. When his smile didn't get a job"? I felt best when I was out for a soften, widen, or disappear, I realized that walk and didn't have any money with me we are willing it was a smile with a purpose, and that his because then my "No'' was guilt-free. purpose had fixed his face into a carica­ In the United States, the person who to learn. ture. Before he reached me, I had accu­ hasn't been asked for money by a street rately predicted what would happen next. person is rare. In parts of the country that "Do you have a dollar?" he asked are temperate year-round, such encoun­ and varied. The one I hear most often is through his paralyzed grin. ters are more frequent. After wrestling the concern that if we give, we might be "No," I lied. Immediately I felt with my conscience over the man with the enabling addicts to purchase their next uncomfortable, less with his question eternal grin, I decided it was long past fix. I remember a conversation with than my answer. Whenever a panhandler time for me to do more than indulge in a Deirdre, my friend from Hawaii, who had used to accost me, I spent at least the next few minutes of guilt. The next time some­ been part of a spiritual movement based few minutes thinking about my response. one asked me for money, I wanted to have on Hindu principles. When I met If I gave someone money, my reactions a thoughtful, ethical policy I could live Deirdre, I lived in Berkeley, California, ranged from feeling that I'd done a good with. where the climate invites a large homeless deed or feeling guilty because I lmew I'd When I got home that afternoon, I population. I knew she walked to work, just bought the person's next drink, to began to research the guidance offered by and I asked once how she dealt with pan­ thinking grudgingly that they should act various spiritual traditions. I lmew that handlers on her way. more grateful. If I lied, I wished I'd told Hebrew law clearly spells out the obliga­ "I just set aside a certain amount of the truth. Then I struggled with what the tions of the faithful to the poor. Genera­ money every day," she said. "Every time tions after the laws were written, a long someone asks, I give them a dollar. When Anna Redsand is especially interested in writing line of prophets found it necessary to take the money I set aside is gone, I tell them about social justice issues. She teaches high-risk the wealthy to task for ignoring the poor. I don't have any more to give that day." high school students in Albuquerque, NMex., They threatened national extinction if the "How about if you know the person is and has also spent many years as a psychothera­ rich didn't change and promised great bless­ heading for the liquor store on the cor­ pist and counse/01: Her young adult biograph)~ Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living, will be ing if they did. The need for these con­ ner?" I asked. released by Clarion Books in December 2006, stant reminders points to a deeply in­ "It's not up to me to judge what they and her book reviews have appeared in Third grained pattern ofavoidance, not unlike my do with the money. They ask, I give." Coast magazine. She has a meditation practice own way of responding to panhandlers. As I continued my research, I ran that draws on several traditions. Our reasons for not giving are many across a surprising verse in Proverbs. This r6 july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL verse goes beyond Deirdre's principle of many panhandlers try to ingratiate them­ needing a drink to allay her delirium nonjudgment, advising, "Give strong selves for something as miniscule as a dol­ tremens, one with the man sleeping in a drink to one who is perishing, and wine lar. We can rationalize that a gift of mon­ church doorway under layers of coats and to those in bitter distress; let them drink ey lowers the supplicant's self-esteem. blankets in the freezing weather. If we are and forget their poverty; and remember However, it's likely that desperation born the same, it seems that the Golden Rule their misery no more" (Prov. 31:6-7). If a of hunger reduces self-esteem to a level of must apply. What would it mean to treat potential giver followed this advice, fear of secondaty importance. Besides, is it really a panhandler as I would like to be treat­ supporting an addiction would no longer the panhandler's act that denigrates him, ed? Would it mean creating a job for be an obstacle. or is it our society's attitudes? There are him? Sending her to the Salvation Army? The Christian Bible also supports giv­ societies where giving directly to the poor Or granting him the dignity of trusting ing to panhandlers. Jesus told a story in is honorable, a way of maintaining social that he knows what he needs, at least in which a beggar named Lazarus was the equilibrium. Many Native American that moment, and is asking for it, and hero. A rich man, who despised Lazarus tribes have give-away traditions that help that if I have it, I can give it to him with and refused him even the crumbs from his to equalize the wealth in the community. a dear conscience? table, ended up in hell, at least in part In medieval China, the rich saw charity as Many spiritual because of his stinginess. Lazarus was car­ a way to make up for being excessively traditions teach ried to heaven in the arms of the angels, wealthy. In those contexts there is no that every person to rest in the bosom of the great patriarch shame to the giver or the receiver. we meet is our Abraham. There are also several accounts Some fear that street people are simply teacher, provided of Jesus telling wealthy people to sell all taking advantage of them. They point to we are willing to they have, give the money to the poor, the odd folklore about wealthy panhan­ learn. There is a and follow him. dlers, con artists who beg hundreds to Zen story (from It's easy for me to protest that I'm not thousands of dollars a day and live high Zen Flesh, Zen rich, and can therefore be excluded from on the hog, their tattered "work" clothes Bones by Paul Reps) in which a well­ the injunctions addressed to the rich. Yet to the contrary. There may be a few known teacher had disappeared from by most standards in the world, and even wealthy panhandlers, bur I think they are public life. One day one of his disciples in the United States, because I eat three so rare that they don't present a genuine ran into him. He was very excited, and well-balanced meals a day, live in a warm obstacle to giving. I'm prepared to include asked permission to become a follower house and drive a car, I am wealthy. Al­ them with addicts and alcoholics. again. "If you can live the way I do, even though a sense offairness sometimes makes In the end, many of us don't mind giv­ for a couple of days, then maybe," the me want panhandlers to work as hard as I ing to the poor, if we just don't have to master told him and took him to a place do, I found nothing in the religious liter­ give to them directly. We may feel that if under a bridge where he lived with other ature, including the Koran and the Upan­ we give to the Salvation Army or the food beggars. The first night one of the beggars ishads, to support justice in that form. pantry, we can be sure that our money will died, and the master and disciple buried Furthermore, many years of experience as be spent on food, clothing, and shelter­ him in the morning. "We won't have to a therapist and counselor have taught me the right things. I would never suggest not beg today," said the master, "because our that the circumstances that bring people giving to such groups; the work they do is friend left some food behind." The disci­ to the point of living on or from the invaluable. However, our reluctance to ple tried to eat the food and couldn't make streets are so varied as to defY judgement. give directly may be less for altruistic rea­ himself do it. "I knew you couldn't live the Some of my friends won't give money sons than for our own comfort. If I look way I do," the master said. "Now leave to street people because they feel it's essen­ into the eyes of the person on the street, if and don't bother me again." tial to look at the bigger picture. They I make any kind of real contact, I have to I'm not sure I even begin to under­ believe that if we support panhandling, reckon with the possibility that I could be stand what I might learn ifi lived the way we are supporting the deeply flawed sys­ her. I had a dream once that I had become the Zen master did. My Danish friend tem that creates the panhandler's way of a drunken derelict, a bag lady. The dream Jan tried it briefly, living in a park with coping with poverty. "The whole econo­ starkly represented how out-of-control homeless people. Afterwards he told me, my needs to be changed," one fi:iend says. my life had gotten. Upon awakening, I "It was amazing. You would expect that "Money for the military-industrial com­ knew that only grace was holding things people who have nothing would take plex needs to be done away with, so we together for me. The homeless people I whatever they can, that you would have can create jobs that support the country's meet face-to-face remind me how easily I to guard everything you have. But it isn't infrastructure and social needs." While I could slip from living paycheck-to-pay­ like that. They have so much respect for agree that we need massive systemic check to living on the streets. Most often each other. One time I left my guitar on change, I also know that this kind of when I have given to a panhandler, I have a park bench by accident when I went to change is long-term and does nothing to studiously kept my eyes on my wallet; get something to eat. When I came back, answer the immediate needs of the poor. said a fast, most often insincere, "You're it was still there, exactly where I left it. There is a cherished belief in the Unit­ welcome"; and gone my way as quickly Anyone could've pawned it while I was ed States that charity is shameful to the as possible. gone; instead they watched it for me. recipient. And there is something shame­ My dream also had a much deeper There's all this caring and watching out ful about the bowing and scraping, the message: we are all the same. I am one unchanging smile, the ways in which so with the bag lady, one with the alcoholic Continued on page 49

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 The Costs of the

by Glenn L. Reinhart

enjamin Franklin once said, proportion of expense reflects what is selves from a different perspective, I was "Rather go to bed without dinner than to most important in this religious context. thinlcing as a photographer would think­ rise in debt." This might be difficult Can living simply within our means as a as if I had taken a camera to a different advice for us to hear in 2006-exactly community free us to make the right deci­ height, moved or modified a light source, 300 years after the birth of our most emi­ sions more easily? Do our decisions or used a different lens to make an image nent scientist, statesman, and publisher express the remarkable nature of our faith? more telling or more dynamic. emeritus. Ben was not a Quaker, but he My first essay for FRIENDS JoURNAL Returning to the realm of Quaker lived and worked comfortably with our ("Quakers in the News," August 2005) finance but continuing with a photo­ ancestral Friends. Can his sage words also was about Friends viewing our Religious graphic metaphor: After some travel, speak to the economy of our modern Society from an exterior perspective: how thought, and inspiration, I hypothesized a Quaker faith? the broader informed public sees us in the "Quaker Rule ofThirds" analogous to the I was hungry during my first year in news. I wrote, "We know ourselves from photographic "Rule ofThirds." To illus­ college. There was enough money for one the worlcings of our internal business af­ trate the latter concept: in a portrait com­ meal a day in the cafeteria. I later found fairs." But sometimes generalizations ex­ position the main focus is usually the eyes work part-time to make money to bridge press half-truths. In reality, I believe, most of the subject, which are located on one of the gap. During that period I was a dou­ Friends know the why but not much of the "third" lines: ble major, in Business and in Music, and the what or the how of our own affairs. I became aware of two different, coexist­ I've experienced two different worlds ing worlds. I began each day in an old the­ among Friends, too. I've served as treasur­ ater hanging with tie-dye shirt wearers er for a large monthly meeting, and on the tallcing jazz chord changes. Then I'd go Financial Services Committee of New across the street to sit in new fluorescent­ York Yearly Meeting. Both jobs were lighted classrooms next to students mostly thankless and solitary. I've been to dressed in suits and ties tallcing marketing "financial Friends" support meetings in plans and internal rates of return. Philadelphia, and discovered that I was Similar to the misunderstood relation­ not alone. However, these isolated cau­ ship between the worlds of music and cuses, comforting though they are, don't Not every photograph I make obeys business, how do religion and the costs we really affect how the majority of Friends the rule; but when I break it, there is usu­ incur within our Religious Society work think about money. So, I decided to ny to ally a good reason for doing so. But it is together? Not well, one could say. make Quaker finance approachable and critical for any photographer who breaks I once spoke in meeting to what I felt accessible to larger numbers of Friends by the rule to do the hard work of thinlcing the economy of Mozart's composition using graphic illustrations to describe through why the photograph is better meant to the beauty, longevity, and genius what I see in the numbers. because of brealcing it. that the music expresses. (The year 2006 When visiting local communities, my My hypothesis of the "Quaker Rule of marks the 250th anniversary of Mozart's message is that the money each monthly Thirds" also draws on my experience in birth.) Many great musical works, includ­ meeting spends is an outline for the Life monthly meeting finances, on my readings, ing his, were made of few thematic ingre­ in that meeting-a roadmap to the mis­ and on casual queries of Friends far and dients within a framework of harmonic sion and purpose of that community. I've wide about their meetings' expenditures. restrictions. I asked if Friends similarly heard numerous monthly and yearly The symbol I use to illustrate this rule could consider our own economy, and meeting State of the Society reports that is the peace sign that appeared widely dur­ how it relates to the endurance and the are worded thoughtfully. Words are fine, ing the 1960s and '70s. I'm hopeful that beauty of our faith. but what really speaks plainly and suc­ my generation, and elder Friends whose I travel among and ask them to con­ cinctly to me are the financial statements. faith was heavily influenced by the social sider the ways monthly meetings spend The numbers tell a stmy of a meeting that upheaval of that period, will respond pos­ money. Do these costs speak to the Life in Friends mostly ignore. In fact, most itively to the symbol. And my use of the each community? I ask if the scale and Friends are quite defensive in a discussion word "rule" is deliberately provocative, of money. Some meetings even refuse to since our Religious Society has grown Glenn L. Reinhart is a member ofManhattan Meeting in New York, NY. To join a Quaker share their financial statements. from 350-year-old antiauthoritarian Finance Discussion Group and to download free After college, I taught myself photog­ roots. We tend to bristle if someone sug­ Quakerfinancial data and a monthly meeting raphy and worked commercially for ten gests that we should obey rules. eY:pense planning tool, please send an e-mail mes­ years. So when I referred in my first I'm not suggesting that any monthly sage to David Clements at . FRIENDS JOURNAL article to seeing our- meeting has to obey the Quaker Rule of r8 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL Thirds any more than that a photogra­ pher has to follow the photographic rule of thirds. As in civil disobedience, if your meeting doesn't conform to the rule, you might consider worshiping about why the expenses don't conform. Once your meeting has considered its expenses deeply, and then has approved a noncon­ forming budget, any member will be able to articulate the reasons why. This will be quite a step beyond the practice of most meetings, which tweak their expenses each year from the previous year and do not come up with zero-based rationales for continuing or discontinuing expenses. Let me illustrate the Life of a meet­ ing-its wholeness, its integrity-with a circle. The monthly meeting is the grass­ roots unit of the Religious Society of Friends, and the circle symbolizes both the unity of the group and its total expen­ Can we have peace without integrity? ditures. By the Quaker Rule of Thirds, monthly meeting expenses are grouped in three major sections, with each compris­ will likely vary from the proportion of the live. And Christians are called by the ing one-third of the total. The third sec­ "peace pie" of the Quaker Rule ofThirds. Gospel to be 'pure in heart' (Matt. 5:8), tion is further divided in half, Of course, evety local community is dif­ which implies an undividedness in fol­ into nurture costs (focusing ferent. Deviations give special meaning to lowing God's rules." inward) and witness costs rules. Your meeting's expenses and how So my question-Can we have peace (focusing outward): they differ from the benchmark rule tell a without integrity?-asks Friends to con­ story about your monthly meeting. I sider seriously the size and proportion of I've seen conflict in small and large think that if your meeting has done its monthly meeting expenditures as critical to groups of Friends where there was dis­ homework-the hard work of discern­ the underlying harmony in the monthly agreement as to whether the size and ment-your community will be richer meeting community. Is your meeting apportionment of expenses of the com­ spiritually for it. budget a moral document? Does it give munity was right. This is, I believe, the occasion for real peace and unity to live in main reason why many of us turn our your local community? attention away upon seeing full pages of Rules numbers. I think Friends are better at the Some Friends have said in discussions why than at the how, and the budget is an Pieces of the Pie , .... T ...... , that there are no rules about anything, and , I ' outline for the how. that we as Children of the Light should When I compare my music school :' t>'\ face committee and business meetings Witness (17 percent) \'(:"" I experience to the how of Quaker finance, and the world as children-seeking, ,_ I focus on the basics that every musician na'ive, trusting. Some feel that we should This part of the pie is where we show the learns thoroughly. One learns to play jazz just ignore our material surroundings and outward world what we feel are the most by playing scales up and down and back­ restrictions. But just as a ballet dancer has important inward lessons we've learned. wards and forwards until you don't have to learn first and second position before We sponsor homeless shelters, we serve to think about them anymore. Then one performing at Lincoln Center, and a mu­ meals to needy community residents, we is able to finally let go of the mechanics, sician has to learn scales before playing jazz counter-recruit to militaty recruiting, we move forward, and play beautiful music. at the Vanguard, a member of a Qualzer sponsor local economic development and I don't think that most Friends have learned meeting has to learn the basics offaith and reconciliation programs-we do many the basics of our own financial affairs. finance to participate responsibly. things. I know of one monthly meeting In his book Integrity, Stephen L. Carter that has a rule that 25 percent of its annu­ Your Montbly ~1eeting explains what rules might mean in reli­ al expenses are spent in witness activities. Expenses gious context: "In Islam, this notion is captured in the understanding that all Nurture (17 percent) ,.~T-, Here is a valuable exercise: Take the rules, legal or moral, are guided by ' I \ expense lines of your meeting's budget the sharia, the divine path that God This part of the pie is the most :<1': ': and group them in the above sections of directs humans to walk. In Judaism, study neglected section in meetings ' '';./ the pie. The components will form a of the Torah and Talmud reveals the rules I've seen. Consequently, over- ~" graphic where the proportions of the pie under which God's people are expected to support of other sections of the meeting's

FRIENDS ]OURNAL}uly 2000 expenditures can detract from our own that owns the buildings we use. them, but are they sacred in conferring self-development. Having a roof over our heads is some­ the Spirit upon anyone? Friends through­ Some meetings love their newsletter so times taken for granted where I live, out history moved their place of worship much that they feel the cost of such which we owe our forbears, who have set when real estate got too pricey. We haven't should go into the Nurture section. Fine. up trusts to maintain our property. Most done that lately. Place that cost there if Friends feel that meetings in New York City pay much less Building costs, which can increase over way. This tells a meeting something about than a third of their total budget towards time, can skew expenses away from Nur­ itself Nurture costs are generally for their rent and administrative costs. One ture and Witness costs. scholarships to schools, stipends for meeting, abiding by the Rule of Thirds, sojourns, support for participation in pays its rent to a large church for a room yearly meeting sessions, costs of food for in the building. A member there told me Contributions to social hour, costs of the Ministry and once, "We decided long ago that we Wider Quaker Counsel Committee, costs of adult reli­ didn't want to be trust fund babies." Bodies (33 pe1·cent) gious education, First-day school, and Quite telling, I'd say; this is the same costs for welcoming and outreach to greet meeting that made the rule about the per­ An overcommitment to wider Friends new members and attenders. centage of witness expenditures in their bodies is also an example of how month­ annual budget. ly meetings can find themselves, over That most of our members worship in time, losing the responsibility for their Building/ 150-year-old meetinghouses that are own nurture and witness activities. I've also Administrative/ New York City landmarks is both a bless­ seen overcommitment to wider bodies ing and a curse. This especially when we cause neglect of meetinghouses. Communication have declining membership and soaring Friends sometimes lose the perspective (33 percent) costs for maintaining these buildings. We that a wider body, like a quarterly or year­ can sometimes erroneously feel that a ly meeting, is the tail, not the dog. Many I've grown up in monthly meetings that quaint meetinghouse in a nice neighbor­ feel that a dog wags its tail, especially are not proprietors of real property. We hood is the essence of Quaker faith. We rent or mal<:e contributions to an entity have famous actors getting married in Continued on page 50

Asl~ing for Money for the Monthly Meeting by Caroline Balderston Parry Assistant Treasurer's Report to Ottawa Recently I attended a Unitarian Uni­ ment. Yet the usual atmosphere around Monthly Meeting, November 2005: versalist Sunday service in Montreal, money for many of us is one of-if not In 2004, there were 54 contributors to where the congregation was in the dishonesty-evasiveness or secrecy, ten­ our meeting. Of these, 39 were members midst of their annual fundraising cam­ sion and a lot of unexplained taboos. of our meeting or other Quaker meetings; paign to raise the necessary money for How I would love us to grow to be able 14 were attenders; and one was an institu­ their budget. These funds would be to tall<: very openly about money and to tion. Total contributions were $33,019 in used to support their staff (full-time be relaxed about money matters in our 2004. There was a range of contributions minister and part-time administrative meetings, as a Society-and in small-S from $35 to $2,100. and religious education staff), main­ society, too! The budget for 2006 prepared by tain their building and administer their I note with pleasure that my own Finance Committee totals $53,500. programs. To my surprise, the various monthly meeting has been increasingly Approximately $15,000 of this should be members who read out short testimo­ straightforward about money matters. covered by rentals, fees and interest. The nials about how important their UU For some years our assistant treasurer remaining $38,550 will have to come lives were to them, spoke very frankly has prepared notes to give guidance to from the contributions of members and about their actual incomes and intend­ donors, and last year wrote about our attenders. If we divide this amount by the ed pledges, naming dollar amounts. meeting's budget process in The Cana­ number of contributors we get an average To my ears, this openness was un­ dian Friend. This year's text was not of $715 approx. It is worth noting that in heard of, but very refreshing, as I have only read during announcements, but some years in the recent past we had major seldom known what anyone donates. minuted. (See box; figures are in Cana­ contributions from a few older Friends. Those UU testimonials were variations dian dollars.) This kind of contribution is dwindling in on "honesty is the best policy," I sup­ This kind of openness really helps number. It is necessary for each person in pose-frankness is so much more use­ me figure out how to decide how much the meeting to consider well how much ful than secretiveness or embarrass- money to give my own meeting. I wonder if we can go further and find he/ she can give to the meeting to cover our operating and programme costs. Caroline Balderston Parry is a member of ways to be as unself-conscious as these Ottawa Meeting in Canada. Unitarians? 0

20 july 2oo6FRIENDS jOURNAL llllS nd on y

by Marty Grundy

~"connection between money md Friends. Friends' understanding of God's God has shown us the corruption and ministry is such a hot-button issue for kingdom stood in stark opposition to the unchristian character of this ministry and many unprogrammed Friends. It might ecclesiastical, social, economic, and legal called us from it. He has gathered us into his be useful to start a discussion by clarifYing systems of their time. Compulsory tithes own power and life to be a people apart. We why early Friends were so opposed to supported a church structure Friends dare not join with or hear these anti-Christian hirelings or put food into their mouths. what they characterized as found outside of God's Life, with power "hireling ministry." and position given to men who, often as In The Beginnings of Quakerism to First, we have to deal not, had no particular divine gift of min­ 1660, historian William C. Braithwaite with the issue of tithes, istry. Tithes often went to maintain summed it up: "Friends refused to pay which supported the younger sons of the gentry, thereby sup­ tithes, as being forced payments for the .._. hireling ministers. porting an unjust class system. Tithes were maintenance of a professional ministry, ·~ Tithing-giving one forcibly collected from those at the lower but they approved a voluntary provision for f:;., tenth of the end of the economic scale, while the the needs of those whose service prevented ~ produce and wealthy often found ways to be exempted. them ftom earning a livelihood " (Italics ~ profits of the land George Fox's evangelical message was added.) That second part seems too often to God-is rooted in the Mosaic law of inextricably combined with an appeal to forgotten by modern Friends. It is clear the Hebrew Scriptures (Gen. 14:20, socio-economic reform. God's Gospel that Friends expected to contribute-and 28:22; Deut. 14:22; Lev. 27:30-32). But Order is just; Christ is come to teach his did-to the financial needs of Friends over the millennia it became corrupted. people himself how to live in God's King­ who traveled in the ministry. By the 17th century, 40 percent of the dom here and now. Fox tapped into Fox wrote in 1653, using his familiar tithes in England had been placed in the popular opposition to tithes and then word "carnal" to mean physical things secular hands of local gentry. The contin­ clearly tied it to his religious message. He such as food, money, and other practical uing radicalization of the Reformation, likened hireling priests and their tithes to assistance: the widespread abuses of inadequate cler­ the false prophets mentioned in the Bible. If any minister of Jesus Christ ... who said, gy (especially in the north and west), and Quakerism was well received and took freely ye have received, freely give,-comes to unsettled economic conditions led to root in small towns that suffered under our houses and minister[s] unto us spiritual protests focusing on tithes. Tithes were tithes and were poorly served by the estab­ things, we will set before him our carnal seen as the major support upholding a lished church. things: and he that soweth unto us spiritual deceitful ecclesiastical structure, which, in Witnessing against participation in the things, it is the least that we minister unto him turn, supported an unjust class system. In unjust tithe system, by refusing to pay, of our carnal things. the 1640s (when George Fox was in his quickly became a defining Quaker testi­ Fox clearly intended that traveling period of struggle and seeking), Fifth mony. Robert Barclay's "Proposition X" ministers should be given tangible assis­ Monarchists, Anabaptists, some Seekers, spelled it out quite clearly: tance by those to whom they ministered. and radicals within Parliament's New An appeal letter from Margaret Fell for Model Army were already vociferously The obligation of those among whom God calls a minister, or to whom he sends one, to the Kendal Fund in late 1654 stated: opposing tithes. provide for his worldly necessities is freely Within the context of Fox's sounding acknowledged. . . . It is lawful for him to re­ So I knowing at this time that they are out of "the day of the Lord" on top of Pendle ceive whatever is necessary or convenient.... purse, I see in the eternal unchangeable light Hill, with its references to the call for rad­ of God that all ... who are of the body ought ical economic justice as preached by Jesus, What we are opposed to is, first, that com­ to ... administer freely according to their abil­ tithes became a defining issue for early pensation should be fixed and compulsory. ities, as they have received of the Lord freely, Second, that such recompense should be ... therefore, that there may be some money Marty Grundy is a member ofCleveland Meet­ granted when it is superfluous and unneces­ in a stock for disbursing ... either to Friends ing, Lake Erie Yearly Meeting. She is a former sary, that it should be chargeable against a that go forth into the service or to prisoners' clerk of Friends General Conftrence's 11-tzveling county or parish, or that it should involve necessities, I . . . am moved of the Lord to Ministries Committee. large outlay or lavish expenditure .... acquaint you with it, that in your several

FRIENDS ]OURNALju£y 2006 21 meetings ... [funds] be gathered and sent ... developed the structures necessary for In his Apology, Robert Barclay summed to be disbursed according as the Lord requires, them to meet together to worship, and to up Friends' understanding: and that the burden may not lie upon them cany out the minisny/evangelizing/work more than on others. Those who have received this holy and laid upon them by God, the Children of unspotted gift [of minisny] have received it Richard Hubberthorne wrote in 1659: Light had to deal with the issue of financ­ without cost and should give it without charge ing the work. In 1660 in Skipton, a Gen­ (Matt. 10:8). They should certainly not use it Let every one that will preach the Gospel live eral Meeting approved a letter to the par­ of the Gospel, and not upon any settled or as a trade to earn money. But, if God has ticular meetings that made a number of State maintenance ... for the cry of the hon­ called any of them from their regular employ­ est and godly people of this nation is to have practical suggestions, among them ment, or the trade by which they earn their a free ministry and free maintenance, and are appeals for funds. It directed that the living, they should receive such worldly neces­ willing freely to maintain those that minister monthly meeting (probably more like our sities as food and clothing. It is lawful for them unto them the word and doctrine. present quarterly meeting in that it con­ to accept these as far as they feel allowed by sisted of a number of local, particular the Lord, and as far as they are freely and cor­ dially given by those with whom they have In other words, when Friends spoke of meetings) "should supply the needs of shared spiritual matters. "free Gospel minisny" they did not mean Friends in the ministry among them, there was no payment or cost, they meant where necessary, and should relieve Barclay went on to admonish anyone that it was volunta1y. It was free from Friends who are in prison or suffering for against "malcing a bargain beforehand," state intervention and coercion. It was Truth's sal<:e, malcing collections from and against those who "will not preach to assumed that Friends would donate cash time to time for these purposes." Since anyone until they are assured of so much or in-kind contributions. money seems to bring up sticky issues (for a year." He clarified: "Fixed remuneration As their somewhat fluid movement us as well as for them), they specified that is far from being something that a true each meeting, whether particular, month­ minister should aim for or expect, but ly, or general, should rather that being reduced to such a neces­ have full disposal of its sity that he desires it is a cross and a bur­ own collections, "that den for him to bear." as Friends according to Barclay seemed to assume that most their freedom do con­ ministers would only need some support tribute, they may be now and then; if a minister was wholly also satisfied it is laid dependent on Friends' support, it would outbythepowerandin be a cause ofconcern to the minister, since the wisdom of the body the minister would not want to be a bur­ to whom they commit den on Friends and would be uneasy it." The funds were about receiving his or her sole support in carefully specified for exchange for the gifts of minisny God the needs of the meet­ graciously had given him. The question ings in general, and not then was not payment-it was assumed limited for those in the Friends would support ministry-but ministry, "who will be discerning who should receive payment, as much grieved as oth­ and under what circumstances. The issue ers offended to have a for 17th-centmy Friends was to witness maintenance or hire against the state-mandated "hireling" Friends jit:quently quoted two raised on purpose for them." So while it ministers that were paid by compulsory supeificially contradictmy Bible was clear Friends were not establishing a tithes extracted from everyone whether or passages on the issue ofpayment for group of ministers whose sole support was not they attended that "corrupted" church. ministJ)'.' through contributions paid into a fund Tithes and support of a state-estab­ <

22 july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL by David H. Ciscel

oney has always caused Chris­ largely for goods that were traded across tians-and modern Quakers-a host of long distances, for purchasing luxuries, problems. We all know some version of and for investments in large business en­ the injunction from Paul: "For the love of terprises. If you used a lot of money back money is the root of all kinds of evil and then, you were clearly not living simply. in their eagerness to be rich some have Thus it was easy to view money as an wandered away from the faith'' (1 Tim. interference with a day-to-day spiritual 6:10). One of our key testimonies, Sim­ life. In the circumstances of early Friends, plicity, seems to guide us toward a life that concern for money seemed to be a clear minimizes the use of money or other indicator that a life was focused on world­ Let's stop for a minute and think about worldly concerns. ly issues rather than on right behavior and what money really is. What we call mon­ Our meetinghouses don't have fancy the Inner light. The tale of Ebenezer ey is not a thing at all, but three different steeples, we don't take up collections, and Scrooge, although not written by a Quak­ activities. Of course, there is actual mon­ we don't support a professional clergy. Or er, is still a powerful reminder of the social ey: the coins, greenbacks, checks, and do we? American Friends Service Com­ and spiritual perils of the love of money. debit cards that we use for daily exchanges mittee, Friends Committee on National in the marketplace. There is also money Legislation, and Friends World Commit­ income: the flow from productive activi­ tee for Consultation are all part of the Money turns out to ties that allows us to purchase the con­ Quaker religious bureaucracy where sumption goods necessary for ordinary legions of functionaries do Quakerly be the lubricant /or life. Finally, there is money wealth: pro­ deeds throughout the world. And they all ductive property in terms of stocks and run on money. A lot of it. simplicity, just as it is bonds and pensions and annuities that In fact, we live in a world where mon­ sustain us through emergencies and into ey is ubiquitous. Everything we do /or equality, because old age. involves money. The goods and services So what does money do for us? It that make our homes function are pur­ it allows its possessor makes life more impersonal and more chased with money. The income from our equal. That is, it is very liberating. No labors is in the form of an electronic pay­ to make good, longer are goods delivered at the goodwill check-denominated in money. And we spiritual choices. of the family patriarch. They are for sale. all save money for crises, to purchase a No longer are you indentured for five home, to send children to school, and to years to learn a trade. You pay for a college support ourselves in old age. But the world was moving in a direc­ education. And a money-based market It is not clear whether we love it or hate tion that would exalt the role of money, will sell to anybody, regardless of social it, but, without money, modern life is and today these old cautions and suspi­ standing, as long as you have the money. impossible. This is a huge change since cions about money make little or no You don't have to know or like the person the beginning of Qual<:erism and an even sense. It was not just modern technology who is selling to you and they don't have larger change since the origins of the and modern markets that gave us our to know or like you. The exchange will Christian faith. Just a couple of hundred money-centered world; we actually have still take place. years ago, most people lived in a world Qual<:ers to thank for the change. Quaker Equality is important to us. The easy where goods and services were still dis­ businesses helped invent modern retail­ part of equality is recognizing that people tributed by custom, habit, or consensual ing, the finance industry, and many early are equal in spite of gender, racial, and agreement. Most goods and services were forms of factory production. Each of ethnic differences. We spend a lot of time still made inside the household, produced these enterprises replaced handmade as Quakers reminding ourselves of the gifts according to a strict gender- and age­ goods made in the household with man­ of different people from different back­ specified division of labor. Wage or ufactured goods exchanged for money. grounds. But when we get to equality and salaried labor was unusual, not the norm. Surprisingly, some of the most important economics, new prejudices rise to the sur­ Money existed, of course, but it was used economic philosophers who shaped the face. We actually say what we are thinking: creation of a money-structured world, • If only Jacob had applied himself in David H Ciscel a member ofMemphis (Tenn.) particularly David Ricardo in the 19th school, he would be better off today. Meeting, is a professor ofEconomics at Univer­ century and Kenneth Boulding in the • If Rebecca were harder working, then sity ofMemphis. 20th century, were Quakers. she'd get ahead.

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 23 • James needs to find himself before now we come to the love of money. things will get better. Well, as it turns out, in one important And what is it we think they are lack­ sense the Bible was just plain wrong. ing? Is it a spiritual foundation, a path Money is what makes the world possible toward right living? Rarely. We are usual­ in an industrial or service economy. Mon­ ly talking about an inability to earn an ey buys growth and money buys the eco­ appropriate amount of money. And so logical repairs when that growth destroys parts of the world. But most importantly and ve1y surpris­ ingly, money makes equality and simplicity possible. When we see inequalities between people, we know the to the non-producers (as rewards for pro­ solution is to tax away the ductivity earlier in life). Money makes excesses from the rich and/ or to these transfers possible. Money allows invest in schooling, healthcare, society to take from the rich without and nutrition for the poor. In engaging in Robin Hood-like activities order that the elderly will no (distinctly unquakerly behaviors). Money longer live lives of despair, we allows both public and private transfers to transfer wealth from producers those in need without the burdensome (either in terms of Social Securi­ ty or interest from investments) Continued on page 52 Money as a Proxy /or the G;fts o/Spirit by Nadine Hoover

etween a Christian distrust ofwealth 10 For the love ofmoney is the root of all evil, to service. As stewards, not owners, we use Band witnessing massive contempo­ which while some coveted after, they have what we need and pass on the rest for the rary greed, it's no wonder we react to erred from the faith, and pierced themselves needs of others. Seeking clearness and dis­ money in emotional and dissonant ways. through with many sorrows. cernment with others committed to faith­ Matthew 19:24 says it is easier for a camel 11 But thou, 0 man of God, flee these things; fulness should guide our personal finan­ and follow after righteousness, godliness, to go through the eye of a needle, than for cial planning, management, and giving. faith, love, patience, meekness. a rich man to enter into the kingdom of I have greatly simplified my relation­ 1 Tim. 6:7-11 God. One interpretation is that "the eye ship to money by understanding it as a of the needle" referred to the narrow "nee­ The Bible presents money as danger­ proxy for the gifts of Spirit. Certain gifts dle gates" that led out of town; a camel ous for the soul and leaves a feeling of dis­ are pure gifts of God: time, talent, health, could go through, but only if it were dain and distrust for money-the sense of and natural resources. We exchange these unloaded. Is the point that money is evil a necessary evil that plagues us each day. gifts for money. Money is just a proxy for and one can't enter heaven, even on Earth, But again, is the point that money itself is gifts of Spirit. In this understanding, if one has wealth, or is the point that the temptress that one should turn away spending money is sacramental. As I say a money, being essential to all, must be from or that worshiping or coveting mon­ grace before my meal, I say a grace when shared in order to enter heaven? Timothy ey is what destroys our soul? I purchase or consume something. I 1 echos: Quakerism, however, reclaims our acknowledge it as from the Spirit and am experience of a Living Spirit and our grateful for it. I find much more joy in 7 For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. direct relationship with Spirit in all life. that which I do have or use and I find I 8 And having food and raiment let us be "Quakerism, as a way of life, emphasizes spend less money. The money accumu­ therewith content. hard work, simple living and generous lates and I am glad for the opportunity to 9 But they that will be rich fall into tempta­ giving; personal integrity, social justice invest in the many needs of others in the tion and a snare, and into many foolish and and the peaceful settlement of disputes" world. This sensibility of money changes hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction (Swarthmore College Bulletin, 1973). An my feelings. I do not feel money is "Mine, and perdition. inward focus on Spirit simplifies our out­ all mine, mine, mine." I use what I need ward lives, personally and corporately. To and pass the rest on to others. I expect Nadine Hoove1; a member of A/jit:d (NY) live in the Power of the Presence and be money, my own and others', to be used Meeting, travels under a minute.fi-mn New York available when called, we use what we with integrity in accord with its nature Yearly Meeting, ministering to Friends in the need, live within our means, settle our and in so knowing am saved from the United States and to people in tsunami-and debts promptly, and plan for the care of temptation to seek or worship it in and war-torn Aceh, Indonesia. the young, sick, elderly, and those called ~~& 0 24 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL by Steven Dale Davison

t the World Conference of cal), but the Foundations represented a had been "won." Friends held at Guilford College in North momentous brealz with the past 250 years But with the restoration of the monar­ Carolina in 1967, some young Friends of Quaker testimony on the economy chy in 1661, the onset of the persecutions crossed over from a concurrently running when they were approved. Not since the shortly after (lasting until the 1690s), and young Friends conference to raise a con­ 1650s had Friends corporately addressed the imprisonment and death of most of cern that became known as Right Sharing economics as a system so clearly and delib­ their leadership, Friends gave up their of World Resources. The new concern erately. Even in the 1650s, early Friends apocalyptic expectations of seeing all recognized poverty in the world econom­ saw the complete restructuring of the things (including the social order) made ic system as in part a sys­ new, and their zeal for shalcing temic problem, and as a things to their roots. George legacy of colonialism. In Fox brought Gospel Order to doing so, Right Sharing Quaker meetings, remaking went beyond the vener­ Quaker institutional life with an able concern Quakers innovative approach to Spirit­ have always had for led discipline. And, as Doug their relationship with Gwyn has described in The money, as individuals Covenant Crucified, Quakers and as meetings. struck a deal with the system: In this way, Right religious toleration from the Sharing also echoed the state, privatization of faith by key testimonial innova­ the Church. The state gave up tion of the first Friends control over private worship; World Conference, held and religious communities, in London in 1920-the Foundations of including Friends, gave up radical claims a True Social Order. London Yearly Meet­ on the social order. ing had brought these eight principles to In the late 17th So began what I like to call the "dou­ the Conference from their own landmark centuxy the state gave ble culture" period in Quaker history. On sessions of 1918, when the yearly meeting the one hand, Friends withdrew from the had deliberated over the report of its War up control over private world into quietism and their "distinc­ and the Social Order Committee. Con­ tives"; on the other hand, they engaged vened in 1915 to explore the causes of the worship; religious with the world with incredible energy and Great War, the committee had concluded creativity as innovators in business, sci­ that colonial capitalism was in large part connnunities gave up ence, and technology. They almost single­ responsible for the horrors they had just radical cla:ims on the handedly launched the industrial revolu­ been through. tion, developing all the key technologies They seem rather mild and general social order. that made it possible, creating whole new today (and in fact, the original proposal industries and the leading companies in from the committee had been more radi- those industries, and reshaping the econ­ social order as part of the Lamb's War omy to its roots. and what Doug Gwyn has called the They revived the iron industry, invent­ Steven Dale Davison, a member ofYardley (Pa.) Meeting, is currently working on two books: a "apocalypse of the word" -the feeling ed coke as a fuel, and perfected cast iron; new reading of the Gospel with a focus on eco­ that they were witnesses for the Second then moved into steel, inventing cast steel; logical issues, and an economic hist01y ofFriends Coming of Christ. They expected that all then the railroad, interchangeable parts, and a hist01y of Quaker economics, with some social institutions would be transformed household goods as consumer commodi­ thoughts toward a Quaker economic testimon)l. along with the church when the "war" ties, the department store, English porce-

FRIENDS ]OURNALjuly 2006 lain, hot chocolate, the coffee house, and his ideas to Parliament. Bellers was the Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) more. They built whole new industries first to propose institutional remedies for and Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), besides iron, steel, and porcelain: lead, the terrible plight of the newly emerging who dominated the new field until at least zinc, and silver mining; confections; soap; social class of industrial workers: colleges the mid-19th century. Joseph John Gur­ pharmaceuticals; watch and clock making; of art and indusuy. These institutions ney wrote a book about Chalmers and canal and rail transport. They dominated combined workhouses for the poor with helped him lobby against the Poor Laws the textile industry (woolens, anyway) vocational-technical schools, for-profit in Ireland. and became major players in shipping and businesses, and industrial research insti­ As evangelicals, these men saw the finance (Barclays, Lloyds, and the Bank of tutes. He is quoted verbatim economy as one aspect of Notwich, to name three banks). The key in Karl Marx's Das Kapital God's providential gover­ breakthroughs were high-quality steel and and was required reading in nance of the world. Market steel casting, which made it possible to the Soviet Union, which downturns and bankruptcies mass-produce machine parts, the piece makes him perhaps the were God's chastisements for necessary for the industrial revolution to third-best-known Friend in corporate and individual sins. take off. history, afi:er William Penn Poverty was the result of moral And they did all this with a surprising and Herbert Hoover (I'm not character and thus the cure for lack of reflection and theory about the counting Richard Nixon). poverty was repentance and creature to which they were midwives. A hundred years later, conversion. They supported Three individual Qual<:ers stand out as David Ricardo (1772-1823) laissez faire (deregulation) notable exceptions-John Bellers in the founded the classical school because they believed humans early 1700s, David Ricardo in the early of economics with his land- had no business interfering 1800s, and Seebohm Rowntree at the with God's judgment. They turn of the 20th century. opposed state-sponsored, tax- In contrast to John Woolman (a true based welfare because they quietist in that he mostly directed his Qual~ers a1nost thought it encouraged idleness energies in A Plea for the Poor and other single-handedly launched and the other bad moral character writings inward, toward his own commu­ traits that were the cause of pover- nity and toward the Christ within his the indushial revolution, ty in the first place, and because it readers), John Bellers (1654-1725) sent interfered with individual res­ developing all the l~ey ponsibility for one's own soul, technologies that made both as giver and receiver of moral exhortation. They believed that it possible, creating voluntaty personal philanthropy, not reform of the system, more whole new industries effectively served the real (spiritu­ al) needs of both the philanthro- and reshaping the pist and the pauper. Evangelical economy to its roots. moral philosophy dominated political economic thinking, pub­ lic policy, and popular social atti­ tudes in Great Britain until the terrible suffering of the Irish mark 1815 essay On Profits. famine of 1846-1852 made people ques­ Born Jewish, Ricardo emi­ tion its assumptions about God's invisible grated to England from Hol­ hand in the economy. Philanthropy land and became a Friend remained the characteristic response to when he married his Quaker the harshness of industrial capitalism wife. Afi:er making a fortune throughout the Victorian period. in the stock market, he re­ In the 1890s, Seebohm Rowntree tired and turned his extraor­ helped to decisively overthrow this con­ dinaty mind to the problems servative evangelical emphasis on individ­ of governing the emerging ual responsibility and private philanthro­ new economy. Classical econ­ py with his book Poverty: A Study ofTozun omists like Ricardo, Adam Lifo (190 1). A statistical sociological study Smith (the first economist), of his hometown, York, the book proved and John Stuart Mill held scientifically that most poor people actu­ chairs in moral philosophy, ally worked-and thatlowwages, not bad but their approach to politi­ character (that is, sin), were the cause of Top, chocolate from the Cadhury company; cal economy was a secular counterweight their poverty. (The irony was that, along started in 1824. Above, Barclay's Bank. to the evangelical political economists lil<:e with the railroad, his own family's choco-

july 2006 FRIENDS JoURNAL late company was the only employer of innovations that they believed would best of the apocalyptic Friends of the 1650s, note in the city.) A young Winston serve the public good. And these people and ofBellers, Rowntree, and Boulding. I Churchill called it "a book which has fair­ were Quakers whose faith informed their would have us strive for an integrated ly made my hair stand on end." David practice of the "dismal science." social testimony that fuses our religious Lloyd George brandished the book before So, Friends have quite a rich history of witness into a coherent, comprehensive large crowds all over Great Britain cam­ both faith and practice regarding capital­ vision for complete social transformation. paigning for the New Liberalism that had ism as a system. With Rowntree and his I am hoping for modern radical Quak­ been inaugurated in 1906. Poverty helped fellow reformers, including a small but er political economists-because the pave the way for Britain's revolutionary influential group of socialists centered in world needs a compassionate counterbal­ general welfare programs-for the mod­ Manchester, British Friends caught up ance to the thinking that dominates both ern welfare state-and, among Friends, with Marx (and Bellers), recognizing the corporate practice and government policy. for the work of the War and Social Order structural economic inequities (if not It needs Quakers to get involved because Committee, the Foundations of a True oppression) of capitalism, and responding political economics since the 1980s has Social Order, and the social witness theme with government programs. I've not yet been a creature, in part, of religion: con­ for the first Friends World Conference. discovered much political economic think­ servative evangelical Christian theological Rowntree himself had a long career in the ing among American Friends at the turn of assumptions, especially about the causes Liberal government as a protagonist ofland the century. This reflects, I think, the enor­ of poverty and its solutions, have become reform, and his work reached deep into mous economic power of British Friends political ideology and public policy. We the 20th century to help shape President going into the 20th century compared to a already know what conservative econom­ Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty," which much smaller minority of U.S. Friends, ics leads to from its history in the 1800s used his methods to define the poverty who had never played a similar role in the and from the changes visible today: the line and eligibility for Head Start and oth­ development of the U.S. economy. Corn Laws and Poor Laws of the 1820s, er anti-poverty programs under the new­ Then came World War I, and Friends and the initial response to the Irish famine ly formed Office of Equal Opportunity. Service Council, American Friends Ser­ in the 1840s were disastrous for the poor. Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993), who vice Committee, and Friends World Con­ Today we have the assault on the dispos­ reintegrated economic thinking with eth­ ference. With the Great War as back­ sessed victims of Hurricanes Katrina and ical, religious, and ecological concerns in ground, the Foundations of a True Social Rita as the authors of their own suffering the 20th century, should also be men­ Order articulated a new vision for the cap­ and the gutting of the vety programs that tioned. Anticipating the rise of eco-eco­ italist system-what its motivations, would minister to their needs. This calls nomics by decades, Boulding questioned goals, and methods should be-and they for engagement by religious people who economic assumptions on ecological expressed a yearning for justice, peace, have a more perceptive and faithful grounds in 1958. He was one of the first and the relief of suffering. England's wel­ knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus and a analysts of the knowledge economy, and fare state, Roosevelt's New Deal, the New more universal understanding of grace he worked tirelessly to integrate all the Society, and the War on Poverty of the and the role of religious community. social sciences into one conversation 1960s all continued in the vein of com­ Finally, Quakers should become po­ about social betterment. One might also passionate political economics as defined litical economists because capitalism­ by Rowntree. especially industrial capitalism-is itself However, beginning with the partly our responsibility. Just as we helped Reagan administration and intensi­ to create the modern prison system with So where are we as F1-iends fYing with the George W Bush the innovation of the penitentiary, so today? I hope we will be administration, the political eco­ Qual<:ers were the driving force behind nomics of poverty have retreated the industries and economic structures called to refon:n an again to the conservative evangelical that shaped emerging industrial capital­ worldview that favors faith-based ism. Industrial capitalism would have economic syste1n we did programs vety like the ones Thomas happened without Friends-but it didn't. Chalmers developed in the 1820s, Just as we feel called to reform a penal sys­ much to create. and a moral economic ideology that tem that has lost its way, so I hope we will stresses personal responsibility and be called to reform an economic system the transformation of character as we did much to create and which has the cure for poverty. And the politi- become carcinomic, an engine of unlim­ include Herbert Hoover, who botched cal economics of business has taken the ited consumption and growth, not to the response to the crash of 1929, and simple laissez faire philosophy of Ricardo mention the blood on its hands, from the Jack Powelson, who is an ardent defender and other early classical economists to a Western Front in World War I to the of globalization and of economic devel­ new extreme: radical deregulation of vir­ streets ofBaghdad. opment on the Western model. tually every industry and privatization of The problem is daunting to the point All of these people were political econ­ even such traditional government func­ of paralysis. How do you change an entire omists. That is, they pondered the rela­ tions as public education, incarceration, economic system the way Quakers and tionships between the economy, politics, and warfare. other industrialists did 300 years ago? and public policy, and they proposed poli­ So where are we as Friends today? cies, government measures, and market I would like us to build on the legacy Continued on page 54

FRIENDS JOURNAL}uh' 2006 27 Friends and the Stocl~ Marl~et by Teddy Milne

A, Qt~ke" involved in the "ock The stock market market, and if so, why? My own conclu­ 4 supports fraudu­ sion is that the stock market is antipa­ lent manipulation. As thetic to Quaker ideals. with most gambling, Let's take a look at what the stock mar­ the neophyte loses. To ket represents and supports. make a profit, you The stock market supports the U.S. must buy low and sell 1 notion of getting money for noth­ For any system to work, there must be high. Most small investors buy when a ing. We have been brainwashed to believe some goodwill. This is not just a moralis­ stock is on the way up and panic-sell that it's right and proper that "our money tic notion. Picture a project on which 12 when it is on the way down. They buy is working for us." There is even a biblical people are working. All 12 of them are high and sell low. It's easy for big players basis for this, the story of the servant who selfish, greedy, hardnosed, uncompromis­ to manipulate this, pocketing as gains didn't make his money "work'' but only ing. Is that project going to succeed? You what the small investor loses. buried it in the garden-and was scolded can tell that it won't. There has to be some The stock market supports illusion for it. I think this philosophy needs fur­ give and take, some flexibility, some will­ 5 and panic. Suppose AI puts $5,000 ther scrutiny. How right is it for people to ingness to cooperate for the common into the stock market, sees it rise to get rich without doing anything produc­ good-in short, goodwill. Yet, increasing­ $30,000, and then sees it drop to $4,000. tive or useful, without contributing to ly, there is less goodwill in our culture; not AI very naturally will think, and truly their society? And not only how right is it, only on the streets and in our businesses, believe, that he has lost $26,000, a devas­ but how tenable is it, in the grand scheme but in our political structure. Witness the tating amount that sends him into a deep of things? What would happen to society times when our evenly divided partisan depression. Bob goes through the same if all of its members contributed nothing? Congress has brought the government to thing but sees that he has only lost $1,000 Would they continue to get rich? It's hard a halt, tied up the budget, wrangled for and is not devastated by it. But how many to imagine that. days and weeks, and failed to find agree­ will have the more sensible attitude? ment. In business, this lack of goodwill The Dow and other indicators are The stock market supports the makes eve1yone involved focus on the irrelevant. With so many profit-tak­ greedy, antisocial self-interest of bottom line, money. Clean air and water? 6 2 ers manipulating the market daily, it is multinational corporations that are mov­ That costs money-forget about it. Work­ unrealistic to suppose that the numbers ing factories to other countries in order to er safety? That costs money-get away posted mean anything at all, especially pay less in wages, get women and even with as much as you dare. Workers' pay? when the Dow, S&P, NASDAQ, etc. children to work long hours in unsafe It costs less elsewhere; move to Taiwan. conditions, and to avoid safeguards and remove low performers from their lists regulations. The stock market supports gam­ when it suits them. 3 bling-"playing the market." You Are these goals we want to support? don't hear much about investing any Instead of NAFTA and other globaliza­ Teddy Milne, a founding member ofNorthamp­ more, because most people are so eager to tion regulations that give multinational ton (Mass.) Meeting, is a writer and a song­ make money, they don't invest for the corporations unbelievably coercive pow­ write!: She has been a co-director of Powell House, a clerk of Friends General Conftrence's long term, they study short-term trends ers over us, we should be aiming for sus­ Publication Committee, a member of Quaker and gamble that the price will go up or tainable self-sufficient communities. Home Service in Britain Yearly Meeting, and down, bringing them a profit. Thousands Think about this: when the multination­ has led Q;taker tour groups to Britain's 1652 of day-traders fine-tune the daily ups als have no more competition, will prices country and to the former USSR. and downs. remain low? If most of us are by then out

july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL of work or working for low wages, can we certain, in today's conglomerate corporate buy, won't these huge corporations that afford those prices? When these two maze, that "socially responsible" funds were based on volume have to go belly up? worlds collide, won't there be a crash of have no ties to sweat shops, child labor, Don't they realize this? devastating proportions? corruption, or fraud? Wouldn't World­ Third question: It became apparent The communities that will then be Com, Enron, or Arthur Artderson have after September 11, 200 1-if it wasn't so strongest and most able to cope will be the qualified as socially responsible? before-that our lifestyle depends on ones that have worked to build sustain­ We need to be asking many more ques­ buying things we don't need. Our gov­ able self-sufficiency, supporting locally tions. For instance, we seem fixated on ernment actually told us that "being owned businesses and area farms, and growth. If our business doesn't grow, we American'' meant going out and buying. maintaining a workable social infrastruc­ consider it a failure and close up shop. Is Buying what? Don't most of us already ture. This is where our money should be this wise? In order to grow, there must be have enough? Therefore, we are supposed invested-not for questionable profits, an ever-expanding market, which not to buy things we don't need. What kind but for our future. only means increasing transportation of country is this? With much of the rest In order to achieve this goal, we could costs, but perhaps reducing the ability of of the world living in poverty, and so be investing our money in ways that pro­ other communities to be self-sustaining. many desperate families right here in our mote it. For instance: own country, we aren't American unless Instead of falling for the "one-stop­ we buy things we don't need? Here again 1 shopping" lure of supermarkets, we is a scenario that can't possibly go on could spend in small, locally owned busi- My own indefinitely. nesses. Instead of getting a return of mere Fourth question: Didn't we used to ob­ money (which will do us little good in the conclusion is that ject to monopolies and trusts? There must kind of world we are now facing), we have been reasons for that. Yet today, no would be helping that goal of a sustain­ the stocl~ marl~et one seems to be objecting to the huge able self-sufficient community, the one multinationals that spread across the that we would be living in. If we started a is antipathetic to globe, gobbling up smaller businesses, movement in our communities to do this, Qual~er ideals. moving to countries where they pay no those local businesses would thrive. U.S. taxes, pay less to their workers, and We could join with others to buy can ignore environmental protection and 2 apartment houses, and be commit­ worker safety. Can this be considered right? ted to charging reasonable rents. The Multinationals keep prying open new Perhaps even more dangerously, cor­ motive here would not be profit, but markets around the world, but-and this porations are buying up our politicians helping people survive in an increasingly is a big but-we live in a finite world and and getting laws passed to their own unhelpful world. eventually there will be no new markets. advantage, eroding the decades of prog­ We are just putting off an inevitable point ress in laws affecting workers. We need to We could call our area community of no-growth. Artd the more worldwide is become very wary of letting everything 3 development organization to see what our economy, the more worldwide will be lapse because of a perceived "emergency." needs to be done and how we can help. If the resulting depression. We have no idea Fifth question: In many other coun­ there is no such organization, start one. what that will be like. Shouldn't we be try­ tries, people have taken long, hard looks Call the school department and see ing to avoid this? For instance, we could at the gap between rich and poor, and 4 if you can volunteer in the class­ be reading up on E. F. Schumacher's idea have tried to do something about it. In rooms, or ask the libraty, homeless shelter, of steady-state economy, which doesn't this counny, where CEOs make six- or soup kitchen, or other community organ­ depend on growth, on boom and bust, even eight-figure salaries and thousands of izations how you can help. Our commu­ but on steady, local, sustainable provision families live below the poverty line, we nities have had their budgets slashed and of goods and services. haven't even begun a serious conversation are in dire need of our volunteer help. If Artother question: The healthy U.S. about it. Perhaps we are complacent we don't help, many good projects will economy grew to depend on ordinary peo­ because the ''American Dream'' tells us we close down. But I'm sure Quakers don't ple having enough money to buy. Our key­ might all get to be CEOs-an obvious need to be reminded of this! word was "volume." With volume, we delusion. Such inflated salaries seem Subscribe to at least one alternative could bring down prices to an affordable senseless. Nobody needs that much mon­ 5 magazine or newsletter, such as level and raise everyone's standard ofliving. ey, and it's obscene when others are hun­ Hightower's Lowdown, The Nation, or The Our economy is different from the old gty. For justice's sake, the wealth should be Progressive. In these days of consolidating, European model, where ordinary people shared more equitably than it is now. right-leaning media, it's doubly important did not have enough money to buy, and I doubt if many Quaker meetings have to support these voices from another source. therefore the market was intended for a ever discussed these issues. Perhaps it's It is all too easy in this country to be smaller volume of upper-class buyers. time we did. Could our Advices and drawn into being motivated by money. We should ask ourselves whether, in Queries be enlarged to include a section How many of us shop at discount stores their greed, corporations are moving us on the dangers of being motivated by and supermarkets in order to save a few back toward a low-volume, class-based money, of living off interest, of "getting pennies? How many buy into money society. At some point, when ordinary money for nothing," and our relationship market funds? How many really know for people no longer have enough money to to the consumer society? 0

FRIENDS ]OURNALju!J' 2006 by Mark S. Cary

'U~wg

Mark S. Cary is a member ofMiddletown Meeting in Lima, Pa., and cum:ntly a staff biostatistician at University ofPemzsylvania's School ofMedicine after many years in busi­ ness. He has been conducting surveys for Friends for over 20 )'ears. An earlier version of this article appeared as "Classic Liberal Quaker Letter No. 40"atThe Quaker Econ­ omist Online at .

30 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL percent of the Quakers on the Pendle Hill critical or condescending ways about of "higher" things. list and 63 percent of the PYM Quakers business; and it annoys me because such I personally believe that excluding the self-identified themselves as liberal or attitudes show no awareness of how pro-business and more politically conser­ extremely liberal, compared to only 15 Qual\:er history has progressed, let alone vative views from today's Friends' com­ percent of the general U.S. population. the importance of vocations to economic munities is a mistal\:e. In doing so we Thus, these Friends are four to six times life. Suppose there is a cherty pie. It is easy become less diverse, our political and reli­ more likely to be liberal or extremely lib­ enough to share it out, but who is going gious dialogue becomes more one-sided, eral than the U.S. population. Few Qual\:­ to pick the cherries and go in the kitchen and Friends become increasingly out of ers in these samples are politically conser­ and actually make the pie? The answer touch with the wider diversity of views. vative. Compared to the U.S. population, is the business community; including As a Qual\:er who has been in business, Quakers are definitely on the far left of the Friends in business. I think it is sad that I feel increasingly isolated within my faith political spectrum. the prevailing opinion in the Religious community. Where do we turn for support? Almost all the Friends in the Pendle Society of Friends is more focused on eat­ There are some Quakers in business. Hill survey agree that there is too great an ing the pie than cooking it. The British Quakers and Business Group income disparity in the United States Richard Wood, a philosophy professor has a website at today, yet most agree that they themselves and president of Earlham at the time of that contains literature and other re­ have enough money. Likewise, there is sub­ the consultation, makes a similar point. sources. They also have published Good stantial agreement that spiritual and emo­ He contrasts the utilitarian approach to Business: Ethics at Work, made up of tional poverty are more important than ethics to the Kantian. Being concerned advices and queries on personal standards material poverty and that income does, in with the greatest good for the greatest of conduct at work. Here in the United the end, come from business activity. number, the utilitarians pay attention to States, we do not have a national Friends A number of issues split the respon­ the size of the pie, even if it is not always business organization, and it appears that dents into thirds. About a third think distributed evenly. The Kantians tend to few would be interested. Philadelphia socialism is a better economic system than focus exclusively on fairness and distribu­ Yearly Meeting does have a group that capitalism; about a third disagree. About tive justice. Wood said, "Much Quaker meets from time to time. a third say they would agree to some tax­ hostility to business in recent decades Other religious persons have thought ation scheme to level incomes across all seems to me to lie in an uncritical adop­ deeply about these issues. Church on Sun­ people in the United States so that every­ tion oflargely Kantian views. As Plato has day, Worle on Monday is the most detailed one would have about the same income, Glaucon argue in The Republic, a society discussion of the split between the church and a third disagree. A third agree that the might be fair but othetwise hardly worth and person of religion in business. This World Trade Organization should require human habitation." book attempts to explain the view of each worldwide wage standards. There is little Many Friends who work in "clean" pro­ side to the other, and ends each chapter support for free international trade as a fessions like teaching, social work, and the with questions to consider. Also, Michael solution to world poverty. l~e are living off a tax base drawn mostly Noval\:, a Catholic, has written Business as In more conservative circles, the entre­ from business activity. In John Punshon's a Calling, which summarizes many of the preneur who develops new methods of terms, we are a "sustained class" and not a pro-business views. production or new products is seen as a "sustaining class." Even the Friends school Given Friends success in business from creator of wealth, a person who lifts all teacher who complained about capitalism Barclay's bank and Cadbury's chocolates boats even if some gain disproportionate­ admitted in her talk that her Friends to Wharton and Wroe Alderson, who in­ ly. Most Friends in the sample disagree: school could not exist without the money vented the modern consulting firm, what Quaker entrepreneurs are not likely to be from these same capitalists. While the work happened to Friends in business? I suspect held in high esteem. we do may well be useful, we are more like that there has been a gradual drift of more Other Friends are more positive. In the the little fish that symbiotically clean the conservative and free-enterprise-oriented text of a talk given at the 1994 Consulta­ teeth of the big fish than the big fish Friends out of the Religious Society and tion of Friends in Business at Earlham themselves. We want to divide the pie, into more supportive denominations. Al­ College, John Punshon wrote: leaving the work of malcing it to others. though I have no quantitative data, I be­ There are also social class and status lieve the trend is probably continuing. D In recent years, convinced Friends like myself distinctions that affect business. Thorsten have come to be a fairly large majority in the Veblen wrote of the leisure classes and Society, and we wanted to join a religious soci­ their distain for useful work. As we ety that did good because we were already become more academic, we are holding doing good ourselves. But we do not work, as ourselves to be doing "high status" work the old philanthropists did, with their own money, but with taxpayers' money. We are a rather than business work-teaching, sustained class and not a sustaining class. The research, art, literature, pure research, and link between the production of wealth which theory. But someone has to run the local the community can use for socially productive grocery store, manage the garbage collec­ purposes, and the good ideas about what tion, and be a fireman or policeman. I those purposes are, has been severed. think some of our resistance to business is a matter of prestige; we are now wealthy Far too often, I find, Friends speak in enough to indulge ourselves in the pursuit

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 31 hy Young Friends Should Consider a areer in Business

by Paul Neumann and Lee Thomas

A, cl>e time tim the Religiou' es grew as a result. Now everybody does it small company, Universal Woods, reaches Society of Friends first began in England, the Friends way. way beyond the walls of our business. We one had to be a member of the Church of In 1974, David Scull founded Partner­ provide 85 percent of the cost of health­ England to get into a university. Thus ear­ ship for Productivity Service Foundation care for our 50 employees and another 70 ly Friends could not become qualified for to foster the private sector in Kenya. spouses and children. Over the course of professions, and many as a result gravitat­ Many small businesses were started, pro­ the last 10 years, we have increased wages ed to careers in business. The Cadburys, viding goods and employment for a vari­ an average of 1.5 percent over the rate of Rowntrees, and Barclays made substantial ety of people. Some of these were Kenyan inflation, allowing our employees to commercial and ethical contributions to Quakers whom Lee visited during a trip improve their standard ofliving. They are British society in those early days. Similar to Africa. People were feeling satisfied and sending children to college; in some cas­ contributions were made in this country, were having fun, and their lives had been es, buying homes; making car payments; particularly in Pennsylvania. changed for the better. The Barclays and saving money for retirement (our Early Friends created a variety of busi­ Bank, 300 years after its founding, was 401K plan, by the way, includes a social­ ness innovations, a good example being providing funding. They had not forgot­ ly responsible stock fund as an investment the "one price rule." In 17th-cen­ ten their Quaker roots. option)-and that is all made possible by tury England buying any prod­ So are these same the business we run. We have been able uct was analogous to buying a opportunities available to do these things because we have used car. Everybody haggled, to young Friends created products that people want to and different prices were today? Can Friends, buy and use. charged to different cus­ by choosing a career One part of our busi­ tomers. Friends felt, on in business, live in ness, which creates and ethical grounds, one keeping with Friends produces items that can should establish a fair testimonies of Simplicity be digitally imaged price for goods and and Integrity while making and sold for signs, charge it to all custom­ meaningful contributions to soci­ awa1·ds, name ers. Customers could ety? To us, the answer is an obvi­ badges, and the send children to shop ous Yes. Business impacts our like, sells products and they would return lives in a myriad of ways. It that provide a core with the correct change. effects the houses we live in, part of the busi­ Transactions were sim­ buildings we work in, jobs we ness of over 500 and business- work at, our healthcare, the food small retailers. Think we eat, even the magazines we of all of the people they read. FRIENDS JouRNAL is, employ and the impact that after all, a business. It may be has. We provide marketing plans 1\ on a different scale than and support that allow them to com­ !:: 8 Time magazine; but it still pete successfully with much larger ;::: must attract readers, pay businesses in making personalized ·~ ·~ .i:; salaries to those who products. We also make warehouse ;:: work there, and sell flooring with Medium Density Fibre- ~~ advertisements to those board cores, replacing plywood, steel, ~~ \S ~ who wish to obtain and concrete, and positively impact- .... ;::; "" ;::; something in ing the environment as well as pro­ ~ v __~------~----~----- return (Quaker viding a service to our customers. We Paul Neumann is the president and CEO of Universal Woods. Lee Thomas is chair of the dollars, Quaker students, have also eliminated 100 percent of the board of Universal Woods, and he teaches busi­ Quaker retirees) so it can con­ hazardous emissions in our own facili­ ness principles at Bel!m71line University School tinue to publish articles of interest ty during the last ten years, further of Business. Both are members of Louisville to its readers. (Kj1.) Meeting. We know that the impact of our own Continued on page 54

32 july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL Common Good Banl~ A Society to enef·t Everyone

by William Spademan

The Accidental Banl~er Inspiration As Gregor awoke one morningfivm uneasy Whatever you can do or dream you can, dreams, he found himselftransfinmed into begin it. Boldness has genius, pown; and a gigantic cockroach. magic in it. -Franz Kafka -johann Wolfgang von Goethe I never wanted to be a banker. I have So one day, feeling inspired, I set out to always found the financial world boring design a cure for all the world's ills. Not a and distasteful. "Oh my God," says my new government exactly, but a seed for a activist wife, "Never in my wildest dreams new society. A seed rooted in and growing did I think I would be married to a bank­ within the current society. A stable, fast­ er." However, there is nothing intrinsical­ growing seed that could have a good ly wrong with banks. As financial inter­ chance of leading to the world of our mediaries, they serve a useful purpose in dreams within one generation. society. Moreover, as I discovered to my I experienced this as a spiritual calling. surprised relief, starting a bank can be fun. I spent some time imagining yet again a The bank we are starting is called world where everyone has plenty of food, Common Good Bank. It will be in Shel­ clothing, shelter, healthcare, education burne Falls, Massachusetts. On the face and fulfilling work. A world where land, of it, it will be just like any other com­ munity. Member depositors will guide the air, water, the beauty of nature and the munity bank: offering home mortgages, bank's lending priorities and contribu­ wealth we have created a1·e protected and small business loans, car loans, savings tions to the community using an innova­ used carefully for our common good. A and checking accounts, CDs, merchant tive combination of democratic systems. world where community and cooperation accounts, credit cards, ATM cards, and How did I get into this? Twenty-five are at the center of our lives, where we care investment opportunities. years ago I grew weaty of ineffectual about and tal<:e care of each and every one But Common Good Bank is no ordi­ political campaigns and lackluster leaders. of us, delighting in our diversity. A world naty bank. Its mission is to advance the It struck me that our government is so where decisions are made by everyone, for common good of its member depositors, persistently bad, we might have to simply everyone's benefit. A world at peace. the wider community and the planet. By start an alternative government dedicated "Common Good," we mean peace and to the common good, and start ruling. Engineering justice; a healthy, sustainable planet; and "Hey, kids, let's start our own country!" There is no way to peace, peace is the way the well-being of each and every individ­ It was a daydream, a whim, a passing -A.] Muste ual person, beginning with those most in fancy. The idea slept soundly for the next need. Unlike conventional banks, the bulk 20 years. I let my spirit and thoughts dwell in of the bank's profits will go to the com- Meanwhile, I could never forget that that world for days, trying to discern, 15,000 children die evety day of hunger. looking back from the future, how the Quite a few grown-ups, too. I fast one day world might have come to such a divine William Spademan is a longtime attender at a month, so I won't forget. This magni­ condition. Again and again I tried to work Mount Toby Meeting in Leverett, Massachusetts. tude of misery is not acceptable. Hunger it back to the present moment. Then one He provides computer support, programming, is only the tip of the iceberg, but it gives day, in a discussion about cooperative and low-cost web hosting to individuals and small businesses. He can be reached at (413) me a visceral sense of how enormous and healthcare, the idea returned that this 628-3336 or . The pmject described in this arti­ world is in an awful mess. Now, more native infrastructure. Not a full-blown cle has been influenced by the Friendly Econom­ than ever, I feel responsible for working to government, claiming dominion over all ics group at Mt. Toby Meeting. set it right. the world, as in my earlier whim, but a

FRIENDS ]OUR.l'lALjuly 2006 33 microcosm of the world of our Everyone made an lie gardens, emergency services, commu­ dreams structured as a nonprofit initial deposit and re­ nity development, food pantries, and organization within the current ceived a cute S2BE many other worthwhile purposes. society. An organization offering checkbook with checks Benefits to individuals will include all the fruits of cooperation, so printed on my laser better rates on deposits, better rates on that people could live in that printer. Checks were loans, lower fees, affordable stock with a peaceful world right here, right accepted only by mem­ planned return limited to prime minus now, to whatever extent they ber merchants. Mer­ 1.5 percent (currently about 6.25 per­ might choose to participate. This chants agreed to con­ cent), rebates from local merchants (typi­ is my favorite social change strat­ tribute a small per­ cally 5 or 10 percent), and a local debit! egy. Live the dream just a small centage of each trans­ credit card for purchases and cash with­ fraction of the time, but more action as a rebate, to drawals in evety nearby town. and more. All we would need was be split between the Benefits to local businesses will include a comprehensive design for that customer and the com­ a focus on small business lending, incen­ microcosm of an ideal society; and some munity. I acted as the bank and wrote tives to buy local, funding for economic irresistible incentive for people to partici­ software to manage the transactions. It development, negotiable credit lines, 24/7 pate right away. was a formalized local currency, with vol­ advertising, and local debit/ credit cards It was an impossible task, of course­ untary taxation. Members decided how with no fees and immediate deposit to the except in my dreams. Goethe said, begin the "taxes" were spent, initially to help merchant's account, processed by card­ it. So, what the heck, I gave it a shot. As those in need in our community. swipe or touch-tone phone. a software engineer for 30 years, I am used It sort of worked. We had in fact cre­ to designing impossibly complex abstract ated an alternative economic system and Timetable machines for social and economic pur­ government dedicated to serving the We plan to open the Common Good poses. I am just smart enough to know, common good. But it was too confusing Bank in October 2007, with 3,300 beyond a doubt, that I by myself am too and too disconnected from the real world, founding members. Anyone anywhere ignorant, too biased, too clumsy, and too and there was too much paperwork. can join. You can sign up today (or sup­ dumb to get it right. That's how it nearly port the project) by visiting . Or call me. something ugly and lifeless, then tinker it When we are dreaming alone it is only a Common Good Bank will be a new up, as a team, until it is beautiful and it dream. When we are dreaming together it financial system generating funds to ben­ works. This design of a seed for an ideal is the beginning ofreality. efit the community. Its spending and society clearly would need a whole lot of -Helder Camara lending priorities will be decided by direct tinkering, so it had to be self-adjusting. democracy to serve the common good. In January 2005, we decided to reor­ Common Good Bank will be, in effect, a Alpha Testing ganize as a Savings Bank (a real one). This seedling for a sensible and compassionate Build a new society in the shell ofthe old. would eliminate the problems of our decentralized democratic economy. -Mahatma Gandhi informal system and increase dramatical­ Whether this seedling will grow to ly the immediate benefits to individuals, become the world of our dreams within As expected, the initial design was very local businesses, and the community. one generation, time will tell. rough, but it was good enough to begin. Once we decided to get real, all sorts of I hope you will join us. I sent it out by e-mail and talked it up. people got excited about the idea. Dozens of people read the plan or dis­ That's when I started studying micro­ Chicl~en Soup for the cussed particular problems and con­ economics, risk-management, real-estate tributed their suggestions, criticisms, and investment, automated check-processing Cocl~roach's Soul questions. The seed got polished a bit. technology, and bank management. I did Pursuing this calling has overfilled my In November 2003, we "planted" the feel a little like a gigantic insect for a few cup. At a time when so many people are seed here in Ashfield as the "Society to days. Bur it was fun. Drafting an elegant despairing, I am blessed with an unfail­ Benefit Everyone" (S2BE) and tested it business plan, with help from experts all ingly hopeful vision of our future and a for a year, keeping it small, so as not to over the United States, we prepared to clear view of one possible path from here alienate too many people with our mis­ give birth to the Common Good Bank. to there-seeing it evetywhere in every­ takes. At first we pursued all parts of the thing, like a set of architectural overlays. design at once: healthcare, car-sharing, Spending hours talking to people about tool cooperatives, et cetera. It was way too A Banl~ to Benefit Everyone the bank, I hold our to them this hope for much. We decided to focus on only the As the plan developed, we kept discov­ the future, expecting that each person will most basic infrastructure: economics, ering more potential benefits for evety­ have a piece of the Truth-some nugget governance, and dedication to the com­ one. Our annual financial benefit to the of insight that will improve our plan, so mon good. We would trust in the wisdom community is projected to be as much as that it may truly lead to a society to ben­ of the people to invent the rest later. $100,000 by the end of the first year. This efit evetyone. This feeds my soul. It About 50 individuals, including 30 could provide additional funding for pub­ strengthens my loving bond to all of business owners, signed up to participate. lic education, social services, the arts, pub- humanity. It's a wonderful life. 0

34 july 2oo6FRIENDS JOURNAL REFERENCE Queries and Advices on Money by Frank Piocos

he Quaker Testimonies of Simplicity In accordance, we, as Qualcers, must ask Do we regard our time, talents, energy, and Stewardship are the foundation of how money impacts our lives and the world. money, material possessions, and other Tour spiritual relationship with money. This involves asking ourselves probative ques­ resources as gifts from God, to be held in According to Faith and Practice of North tions: Is this purchase necessary? Can I afford trust and shared according to the Light we Pacific Yearly Meeting, "Simplicity is cutting this? Would this purchase contribute to are given? How do we express this convic­ away all that is extraneous." Thus, the begin­ oppression or war? tion? ning of a life of simplicity is the elimination of Stewardship begins with the realization According to Advice No. 9 of Faith and unnecessary material possessions, or what that all things of the world were created and Practice of New York Yearly Meeting (2001), Quakers refer to as "cumber." This insures belong to God. Psalms 24:1 tells us, "The "Friends are responsible for the manner of that we are not slaves to inanimate objects and earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereo£ the acquiring, using, and disposing of their pos­ allows us to focus on our faith. Advice No. 15 world, and they that dwell therein." We must sessions." To paraphrase Woolman, the busi­ of the Elders Balby (1656) states, "That all ness of our lives is to turn all we possess into Friends that have callings and trades, do labor the channel of universal love. This is the in the thing that is good, in faithfulness and essence of Qualcer stewardship. uprightness, and keep to their yea and Many Quakers are fond of quoting the well­ nay in all their communications; and known statement that "Qualcers set out to do that all who are indebted to the good, and did veq well." A brief study of ear­ world, endeavor to discharge the ly successful Quakers enables one to easily un­ same, that nothing they may owe derstand why they were successful. They of­ to any man but love one to anoth­ fered good products and services at reasonable er." (This last point closely resem­ prices. They were honest in their dealings and bles Romans 13:8.) In other did not overextend themselves financially. They words, we must not incur unnec­ treated their employees well, and they donat­ essaty debt and we must live ed time and money to charitable causes and within our means. social issues. In addition, through meetings Turning again to Faith and Prac- Qualcers were able to establish powerful net­ tice of North Pacific Yearly Meeting, works with other Quakers. Implementing their we find a number of advices and queries beliefs, Quakers were able to accumulate wealth pertaining to the Testimony of Simplicity: and use their wealth to effect social change. The queries ask each one of us: Friends are advised to strive for simplicity in the use of their earnings and property, Are you honest and truthful in all you say and in their style of living, choosing that and do? Do you maintain strict integrity in which is simple and useful. This does not also rdalize that we are entrusted with these business transactions and in your dealings mean that life is to be poor and bare, des­ things of the world and must be faithful stew­ with individuals and organizations? Do titute of joy and beauty. All that promotes ards. John Woolman's simple statement in A you use money and information entrusted fullness of life and aids in service for God Wonl ofRemembrance and Caution to the Rich to you with discretion and responsibility? is to be accepted with thanksgiving. Each (1793) may serve as a beginning for all con­ Through simplicity and stewardship we must determine by the light that is given sideration of stewardship: ''As Christians, all can positively impact our lives and the world. what promotes and what hinders the com­ we possess is the gift of God, and in the dis­ pelling search for inner peace. By improving our relationship with money we tribution of it we act as his stewards; it improve our spiritual lives. To do this we must The queries further ask us: becomes us therefore to act agreeably to that live simply, live within our means, be divine wisdom which he graciously gives informed consumers, be good stewards, and Do we keep our lives uncluttered with to his servants." The principle of stewardship be generous. Simple, isn't it? 0 things and activities, and avoid commit­ thus applies to all that we have and are, as ments beyond our strength and light? individuals, as members of groups, and as Tty to live simply. A simple lifestyle inhabitants of the Earth. As individuals, we freely chosen is a source of strength. Do are obliged to use our time, our various abili­ not be persuaded into buying what you do ties, our strength, our money, our material not need or cannot afford. Do you keep possessions, and other resources in a spirit of yourself informed about the effects your love, aware that we hold these gifts in trust, style ofliving is having on the global econ­ and are responsible to use them in the Light. omy and environment? The queries regarding stewardship ask us: Do we keep to moderation and simplicity Frank Piocos, a public dejende1; attends Billings in our standards of living? (Mont) Meeting

FRIENDS ]OURNALju/y 2006 35 REFLECTION

NEWTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL What is Truth? by Marion Sullivan

n early Christian bishop and martyr destroyed, then worked and reworked until was offered the choice of escaping a sufficiently pure for the smith or potter to be airly horrific death if he would deny able to use the material to create something Jesus Christ. He replied, "I have served him all entirely new. I find it illuminating that purity my life and received nothing but good from in this context also means consistency: neither his hand. How then can I deny my master?" I potter nor smith can work a material that still "The accomplishments of adults used to consider this a pigheaded and foolish has impurities, or is inconsistent. begin as the dreams of children. response-what was required of the bishop To be whole is to become the entire crea­ Newtown Friends is a place but a few words? ture one was born to be: with all the soul and where dreams begin." The bishop, of course, was right. We are all the heart and all the mind and all the body. - NFS Mission Statement called to live in such a manner that all we do, It's also to become something entirely differ­ all we say; and all we think is of one piece. ent or new, even though that which is created Hence Christ's injunction that if the eye is full may always have been implicit as a potential of light, so will the soul be, and vice versa. I in the original being. C. G. Jung once said, "I Pre-K to Grade 8 see now why John's Gospel so frequently refers would rather be whole than good." I like this to Jesus as "the Word become flesh'': the divin­ way of presenting the question of human exis­ For further information, ity lies in a life that was lived utterly consis­ tence. I find that at this level, holy living is not call215-968-2225, or visit tently. Hence his reply to Pilate's question, a matter of right and wrong, good or bad, but us at newtownfriends.org "What is Truth?" with the words, "I am the ofsimple necessity: the necessity of obedience, Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." In the end, God can only be appre­ hended by choosing to live the Divine: the Kingdom of heaven here on Earth, now. Readers will gather that the Testimony of Integrity is looming ever larger in my own spiritual journey. So many of the other tradition­ al testimonies are caught up in it: the Testimony of Hon­ esty; of Simplicity; of Plain Spealcing; of Spealcing Truth JVCa[tl(~Leid~nan to Power; even the Peace Tes­ timony: "The spirit of Car~gr~p~J Christ, by which we are www.mtcalligraphy.com guided, is not changeable, so 11 River Terrace, Holyoke, MA 01040 as once to command us from (413) 529 9212 E-mail: [email protected] a thing as evil and again to move unto it." What I say and what I do, how I live my life, respond to or willingness to cooperate if obedience is too others and interact with the wide world, all much to manage. need to be consistent with each other. Obedience here becomes the ultimate test Since writing these words more than seven of faith, because all the evidence is of a cruel years ago, I have been challenged by the link and faithless God who has abandoned and between wholeness and holiness. To be whole actively injured a loving servant or friend, who is not to be undamaged: I have discovered that sincerely seeks to do rightly. To choose to keep wholeness is forged out of deep pain, grie£ trusting in a good God, and that goodness will and loss. Wholeness is created, and the finally arise from terrible wrong, where every Pre-K through 6th Grade metaphors of the forge and the potter are fiber of one's being and evety ounce of com­ Call the School for 2006/2007 openings accurate descriptions of the process. Both the mon sense cries out at the injustice and the and Summer Camp information clay and the ore in their natural state must be pain and the evil is unbelievably hard. 2150 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting It is hard because the grief and the pain are PA 19462 • (610) 828-2288 www.pmfs1780.org Marion Sullivan is an Australian Friend who has so great; it is hard because there are no been studying at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pa. prompts, no helps, and one can only do this

july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL GuideOne Insurance is America's leading insur­ er of religious institutions, and has been pro­ tecting Friends houses of worship and schools for more than 20 years. In fact, since 1979, GuideOne has been the Friends Insurance Group property and casualty insurer of choice. as a conscious act ofwill; and it is hard because To arrange for a FREE premium quotation, and it turns all that we !mow about God and morality upside down-why should God be to learn more about GuideOne Insurance, call rewarded by this gift of faith when God has 1-877-448-4331 ext. 5429. openly abrogated our trust? How can we con­ done evil by not resisting it? Yet this is the mystery of the Divine Life entering the mate­ rial world and human life: the reversal of all previous standards and lmowledge and ways of being, the overcoming of evil and the cre­ ation of new Life by choosing to lay down life and self and righteous expectations. Kendai-Crosslands' new Wellness Center helps keep you fit Doris Lessing wrote a whole series of sci­ for an active, engaging lifestyle: ence fiction novels that wrestled with this con­ • 18,000 sq. ft., 3-story well ness facility; cept of "living under the Necessity" or • Aquatics area with therapy pool, lap pool, and jacuzzi; "according to the Need," and I love them dearly, rereading them regularly. Through • Regularly scheduled exercise classes including Tai Chi and strength training; imagination she is able to illuminate a prob­ lem that is not amenable to rational logic. Pla­ • Fitness room with cardio machines, Keiser to recorded Socrates' attempts to wrestle with strength training equipment, free weights; the difference between the Divine and the • Therapy area staffed by a physical therapist Good, concluding that the Good took prece­ and occupational therapist. dence over the pantheon of Greek gods as the Not-for-profit; Quaker-related. Full residential test for identifYing moral living. But the real services, lifetime restraint-free health care. Divine, which exceeds all human constructs and understandings of God and Good, over­ turns all human moral referents and demands IJames Nayler, one with the Universe and that "spir­ by Benjamin, as told to Clifford Ffeil it which . . . delights to do no evil, nor to with illustrations by John D. Gummere revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its If you remember the Benjamin stories in hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, past issues, you will be happy to share them­ and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or now in book form-with your children, J",H'-"~'~H.HUL._ ••, :vhat~;er is of a nature which is contrary to ltSe!£ This is holy ground, and you must talce off Available for $6plus $2 shipping and handling ($3.50 for shipping and your shoes to stand upon it. 0 handling outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico) ftom the FRIENDS JOURNAL office.

FRIENDS JOURNALju(y 2006 37 BOOI

for us-and how wonderful to be able to share that reminder with a special young one using A Young Friends' Bookshelf the rhythmic text of these books. contemporary humor that Add to this the colorful, bouncy illustra­ makes them a delight for tions that accompany the text, and these both little ones and parents. books are true winners. You'll enjoy reading Little Miss Muffet may them to your preschooler, and your pre­ indeed sit on a tuffet, but her schooler will enjoy this comforting introduc­ knock-kneed positioning as tion to the knowledge of God's presence in she reads a book on spiders our lives. malces us chuckle. And the -Abby McNear crooked man may indeed walk a crooked mile, but sit­ Abby McNear is a mother oftwo, a write~; and ting on a fence as Anne a member ofEvanston (Ill) Meeting. draws him, he looks as puz­ zled about it as the rest of us. Ages4 to 8 Anne also tries to give us a more comfortable way to Who's Who in the Bible All ages read some of the rhymes that, in their origi­ nal, most of us would never have read to our By Stephanie jeffi. Illustrated by jacqui kids in a million years. Where the original old Thomas. Abingdon Press, 2005. 30 pages. Rosa woman who lived in the shoe whipped her $11. OO/hardcove1: children and sent them to bed because she had The Bible stands as a rich and powerful By Nikki Giovanni. Illustrated by Bryan so many and didn't know what to do, Anne's spiritual resource, and one of the greatest gifts Collie~: Hemy Holt, 2005. 40 pages. indignant parenthetical comments ease our we can give our children is to be acquainted $16.95/hardcoveJ: hearts and almost malce the rhyme acceptable. with the spiritual tools that will help them For all Americans, Rosa Parks is a heroine. throughout life as they continue their wallc She's the one person among us who stood -Ellen Michaud with God. While there are many excellent up-or sat down, as it were-for what was children's Bibles available, it can be difficult at right when a lot of us, from every race and times to locate a new approach to the Bible gender on the planet, were ducking our heads, that is intriguing to children, yet is theologi­ muttering under our breath, and shuffiing Little One, God Made You cally comfortable to Quaker parents. It was sideways. Little One, God Loves You therefore quite a delight to open ®Jos Who in An unlikely heroine, perhaps-an atten­ the Bible by Stephanie Jeffs. tive wife, a seamstress, a quiet person by all By Amy \timen Hillike1: Illustrated by Carol Expecting a rather dull compendium, accounts-she single-handedly made us all Thompson. 12 pages each. Zonderkidz, 2005. what I found instead is a clever and humorous ashamed ofwhat we had or had not done and, $6.99/board. approach to organizing material drawn from literally overnight, ignited a movement that These sweet, cheerful board books were Biblical accounts. Whos Who in the Bible offers would change our society forever. inspired by the popular book The PU1pose­ information about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Mrs. Parks' story, told in a painterly way by Driven Lift, and are written by that author's Jacob, Moses, the Judges, Samuel, Saul, poet Nildci Giovanni and illustrated with the daughter. Both books use sweet, rhyming text David, Elijah, Daniel, the Prophets, Esther, layered watercolors and quietly intense col­ to malce the important points that God loves Nehemiah, Jesus, Jesus' Friends and Enemies, lages of artist Bryan Collier, is the story of how the child being read to, God made that child and Paul. Each biblical figure is described one person can make all the difference in a to be loved, and God made that child to be through something resembling an "up close world where, too often, no one even tries. uniquely wonderful. and personal" magazine feature. The results -Ellen Michaud Little one, little one, do you know? Do you know God loves you so? Ellen Michaud, a member of South Starksboro (Vt.) Meeting, is the Journal's book review Little one, little one, can you see? editm: God made you for his family. Little One, God Loves You Ages 0 to 4 No one has your tiny nose Or your wiggly, squiggly toes. Hey, Diddle Diddle! and No one has your silly laugh Other Rhymes When you splash in bubble baths Selected and illustrated by Anne E. G. Nydam Little One, God Made You (with a ftw comments ofher own). Dog Ear Publishing, 2005. 28 pages. $9.95/hardcovel: These gentle verses malce powerful points, Quaker artist Anne Nydam's engaging and ones that will resonate well with Quakers. block prints imbue these old rhymes with a We can all use a reminder of God's deep love

july 2006 FRIENDS JoURNAL are funny and intriguing. For example, under Jesus we find the following subheadings: Friends Academy Name, Place of Birth, Education, Events at the time of his birth, Childhood, What he Founded 1876 Located on scenic Long Island, said, What he did, Greatest Struggles, Saddest less than 30 miles from New York City. time, and (my personal favorite) Unrepeatable achievements: Was resurrected or brought back to Celebrating our 125th Anniversary life by God after being executed on a cross and buried in a tomb. Returned to heaven, but sent the Holy Spirit to be active in the world through­ out all time. This bullet-style reporting is simply terrif­ ic-especially for kids whose eyes tend to scan the page and hop around, and for whom a page of a regular Bible dense with text may be daunting and uninviting, to say the least. Each page also contains sidebars that offer Founded in 1876 by Gideon Frost for "the children of Friends and those further historical details about the events at hand, show where to find the story in the similarly sentimented," Friends Academy is a Quaker, coeducational, inde­ Bible, and a "Connections" section that refers pendent, college preparatory day school serving 750 students from age three readers to other pages to find those who share through the twelfth grade. The school awards significant financial assistance. things in common with the current figure. The lively Biblical facts and snippets are supported by energetic illustrations on evety Friends Academy 0 Duck Pond Road 0 Locust Valley, NY 11560 page that draw the reader in even further. Phone: 516-676-0393 o Fax: 516-671-2025 o [email protected] And although the book is marketed for 4- to 8-year-olds, older children will enjoy it as well. Quaker parents and grandparents will also appreciate the lack of a theological agenda, although since the book includes stories from "Sometimes feel as if we the Hebrew Scriptures, there will be mention I of wars. have our own life-time -Abby McNear Iearning estab Iishment:' Freedom on the Menu: The -A Foxdale Resident Greensboro Sit-Ins Opportunities for growth abound at Foxdale Village, a community where each resident is encouraged to live By Carole Boston Weat!JeJford. Paintings by fully and compassionately, with respect and care for jerome LagmTigue. Dial Books for Young each other. Three levels of care contribute to a graceful Readers, 2005. 32 pages. $16.95/hardcovel: life at Foxdale: residential living in ground-floor garden Eight-year-old Connie lives in Greens­ apartments, assisted living, and skilled nursing. boro, N.C., during the winter of 1960, and .. Front-door public transportation to theatres, witnesses the first sit-in held in the South. It happens in February, when four Mrican museums, sporting events, and shopping American freshmen from the local college sit "' Cultural and educational down at the Woolworth's lunch counter and opportunities at nearby Foxdale wait to be served. Six months later, Wool­ Penn State's campus worth's finally seats and serves four of their Village Mrican American counter workers, and segre­ "' Reasonable fees include gation continues its slow and painful retreat lifetime medical care A Quaker-Directed Continuing from the South. and pharmacy Care Retirement Community Freedom on the Menu does a skillful and It is the policy of Foxdale Village to be fully inclusive engaging job of telling the story through Con­ and not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, familial status, ancestry, gender, nie's eyes. The excitement, pride, courage, and sexual orientation, religion, handicap, or disability. fear of those events are captured neatly through a child's perceptions. When Connie's brother and sister join the protests, she is anx­ ious to help. When Sister winds up jailed, she

FRIENDS ]OURNALjury 2006 39 ..,. ..,.= a 6a k_er j· lozen ...... -.o GodS pace o; by Christine Sine, $14.00 play before finally deciding upon = Compassion-the Painful Privilege the game of war. 00 by Dan Nolta, $12.00 Organized by Luke, a little boy ...... The Secret Colors of God dressed in camouflage with his by Nancy Thomas, $10.00 r-- own set of dog tags, the game ""== Understand My Muslim People appears to have the potential to = by Abraham Sarker, $18.00 end the children's boredom. How­ ~ Prayers at Twilight ever, a new boy has joined the -"' by Arthur 0. Roberts, $9.95 ~ neighborhood crowd this sum­ = Messengers of God mer, Sameer; and Sameer does not by Arthur 0. Roberts, $14.95 -= want to play the game. This is 'Ito At Home with the Poor confusing to the children, until ...... by Jean Thomas with Lon Fendall, $15.00 Sameer opens up about why he -c:: Unlocking Horns by David has moved to the United States to '"Ci"' Niyonzima &Lon Fendall, $12.95 live with his aunt and uncle. The ·~ ::;:: Waging Peace children are shocked to discover by Ralph Beebe &John Lamoreau, $5.00 Sameer won't play war because he """ A Catechism and Confession of has lived war, and it took the lives ;::::; Faith by Robert Barclay, $6.95 of his parents and baby brother. Barclay's Apology in Modern English ...... '-"" Overcome with compassion, Luke U-1 by Robert Barclay, $18.00 ...: is scared because Sister is confined with all the turns the crowd to other games that eve1yone "'- The Sense of the Meeting >- "bad" people. When segregation finally leaves can play and enjoy. <:C by Jack L. Willcuts, $16.95 -' the lunch counte1~ Connie goes with her fam­ Kathy Beckwith has selected a tricky story '-' Why Friends Are Friends ""'<:C by Jack L. Willcuts, $9.95 ily and at last orders the banana split she'd seen to tell, but she has done it welL The book = another child order at the beginning of the mal(es its point about the horrors of war, but book; a simple luxury finally available. avoids a preachy tone, thanks to its emphasis BLACK Freedom on the Menu is well-crafted and no on the friendship between the children. Luke's SWAN one is villainous. For a picture book, Carole empathy for his new friend Sa1neer rings true, IMAGE {) Weatherford has done an amazing job of cre­ which mal(es this book pat·ticularly compell­ WORKS-/ ating believable characters. The waitress who ing to children. first nervously refused to serve the college stu­ Playing ~r would be an excellent book wWW.~ dents is the same one who later nervously adds with which to stat't a discussion in First-day school about the Peace Testimony, and it mal(es ~d .art an extra cherry and a smile to Connie's banana estgn& split. The story is well-paced, and the book for good reading at home too. Lea Lyon's illus­ p otograpny includes a page at the end with historical trations are lovely and support the story beau­ h information on the actual Greensboro sit-ins. tifully. This book is pat·ticularly captivating for Thanks to the well-told stoty that precedes it, boys, to whom war is so often glamorized. this is a page that will undoubtedly be regu­ Photographing people larly referenced. -Abby McNear places, objects, and events Jerome Lagarrigue's paintings also provide illustration to the text. They are beautiful and keep attention on the story line--enhancing Arthur Fink it without being overpowering. Freedom on the af®arthurfinkphoto.com Menu is a wonderful example of how good historical fiction for young children can be. Qual(er parents will especially appreciate the introduction it provides to any discussion of the Civil Rights movement.

-Abby McNear

Ages 7to 12

(609) 714~01 00 Playing War [email protected] By Kathy Beckwith. Illustrated by Lea Lyon. II MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES II Tilbmy House Publishers, 2005. 32 pages. II INSCRIPTIONS II SCROLLS II $16.')')/hardcoveJ: ~r tells the story of a group of 22 New Freedom Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 Playing friends who gather during the heat of summer to play. The children debate what game to

40 july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL Retirement Living in the Heart of Ages 12 and up Historic West Chester Can We All Be Friends? A Boundary-Crossing ~man

Conversation Residential and Assisted Living A film by Coleman \Yatts and Betsy Blake. Since 1891 Offering: 2006. Running time 30 minutes. $15/DVD. (Available Ji'om Betsy Blake, 519 N Mendenhall St., Greensboro, NC 27401) • Value and Convenience Quaker youth leaders Betsy Blake and Coleman Watts have produced an extraordi­ • Gracious Accomodations narily tender film centered around the ques­ tion: "Can we all be Friends?" It's a provocative question-and one that • Desirable Ammenities each of us needs to ask ourselves. As Max Carter, director of Friends Center at Guild­ e Help When You Need It ford College in Greensboro, N.C., points out in the film, Quakerism "is like getting a jigsaw puzzle with 100 pieces .... The more we come together, and the more we share the little Call or stop by for a tour today! pieces of the puzzle we have, the fuller view of The Hickman the full Truth we have." 400 N. Walnut Street The film focuses on four meetings in the West Chester PA 19380 Greensboro area, each representing a different EQUAL HOUSING (484) 760-6400 OPPORTUNITY face of the Religious Society of Friends: Friends General Conference, Friends United [email protected] Meeting, Conservative Friends, and Evangeli­ cal Friends International. A short history of Friends is included. This film is narrated by bushy-bearded Max Carter, who connects often-poignant on­ camera interviews with young and old Friends from all four major branches of Quakerism in the United States. The simplicity of the film is riveting, as its central question is asked, and the answers found by its young filmmakers are offered. July 23-27 Young people describe their perception of The Joy of Dyeing: Natural Japanese Papers various branches of Friends and express the with June-Etta Chenard longing-as they have both at Friends Gener­ July 30-August 3 al Conference and the World Gathering of Young Friends-for, if not unity, then accept­ Paint Cheerfully: Introduction to Chinese ance among Friends of each other's beliefs. Calligraphy and Landscape Painting Older Friends confirm the youngsters' wis­ with Bob Schmitt dom and express their own faith and longings. August 6-10 With intelligent carnerawork and quiet spaces around each spealcer, Can We All Be Telling Our Stories Friends? is a testament to the grace of God and with Allan Brick the faithfulness of our children. It is highly recommended as a tool for all young PLUS: July 28-30 Friends-and their elders-to explore our Inquirers' Weekend: Basic Quakerism unfriendly divisiveness and, perhaps, form the with Mary Ellen Chijioke and Trayce N. Peterson basis for a new dialogue toward togetherness.

-Ellen Michaud To find out more, contact: 800.742.3150 (US only) ext. 3 A QUAI

FRIENDS ]OURNALjury 2006 NEWS

Friends individually and in unity in their monthly meetings have been holding in the Light the life of Tom Fox, a Quaker who was killed in Iraq while serving as a member of a Christian Peacemaker Team. A member of Langley Hill (Va.) Meeting, Tom Fox and the three other team members were abducted last November by a group of insurgents calling for the release of all Iraqi prisoners held by the - inclusiw healthcare, maintenance-free garden apartn1ents, United States. Tom Fox's body was found in a ditch in Baghdad on March 10. He had been and interesting friends are a way of life at Broadmead. Enjoy an shot in the head. The three other team mem­ abundance of resident-driwn programs & actiYities or the serenity bers were later released unharmed. Among the responses of Friends and monthly meetings of the natural surroundings on this 84-acre campus. It's all up to since the news ofTom's death, Judith Dancy, you. We inYite you to Yisit us and catch the Broadmead spirit. minister ofWmston-Salem (N.C.) Meeting, Call (410) 584-3388 to schedule your personal tour. recalled the words of William Penn, who wrote in 1693, ''A good end cannot sanctifY evil means, nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.... Let us then tty what Love will do .... Force may subdue, but Love gains: Broadmead is an inclusiw, accredited, not-rc>r-nrortt and he that forgives first wins the laurel." Continuing Care Retirement Community 'v'''u""'+~ Judith Dancy continues, "How do we feel and operated in the caring Quaker tradition. toward the people who committed this heinous murder of Friend Tom Fox? They TTY/Voice- Maryland Relay Service seem so filled with hate; do we hate them 1-800-201-7165 back? Is hate ever an answer in either our www.broadmead.org Christian or our Quaker heritage? We know it's not, but sometimes there is an empty space within us where that hate might have been. We don't !mow what to fill it with. Maybe the best we can do is to follow Tom's own pattern, and see what Love will do. Maybe we can love them: the murderers and all the terrorists who strike such fear in many of the rest of us. Don't ask me how, and don't ask me what such love would look like. But try with me to do it any­ way." In its monthly meeting for worship for business on March 21, Winston-Salem Meet­ ing approved a minute of support to be sent to Langley Hill Meeting "regarding the loss of Friend Tom." Rochester (N.Y.) Meeting, in its meeting for worship with a concern for MMA, an established, church-related organiza­ business on March 12, approved this letter to tion, is seeking sales professionals to provide be sent to Langley Hill Meeting: "Dearest Friends, Our prayers and our hearts are with insurance and financial solutions to one of the you in mourning the death of Tom Fox. We industty's most loyal markets. grieve for the ending of his physical presence Stewardsbip Solutions MMA is a highly trusted organization and know that his Spirit continues to live serving individuals and businesses primarily among us. We rejoice that he lived and that he had the courage to witness to his beliefs and associated with Mennonite and other to work toward a more peaceful world. Anabaptist-related denominations. Excellent Blessed are the peacemakers and blessed also income potential and generous benefits. To are those who support the peacemal<:ers. Tom's learn more, visit www.mma-online.org/careers. witness was grounded in your loving and faithful community and touched our lives. Fax or e-mail resume to (574) 537-6635 or We are grateful for Tom's witness to the [email protected]. restorative power oflove and nonviolence. We will continue to hold all of you in the Light ... and to pray for all who have suffered in this conflict." Rochester Friends also approved that their letter be sent to local newspapers.

july 2oo6FRIENDS jOURNAL Des Moines Valley (Iowa) Meeting, during its meeting for worship for business on March 12, approved sending similar letters to Chris­ tian Peacemaker Teams, Langley Hill Meet­ ing, and to Hopewell Centre (Va.) Meeting, where Tom Fox was a frequent attender. The letter states, "We write in sorrow at the news of the death of Tom Fox in Iraq. . . . The courage of the CPT witness has challenged and inspired us to search out where the Peace Testimony is calling us as individuals and as a meeting, and it is with great sadness that we have learned of Tom Fox's sacrifice. Our prayers are with you ... in this time of loss Dynamic community, enriching lifestyle! and uncertainty. We pray with you for peace Beautiful arboretum setting · Superior health & wellness services for the suffering people of Iraq and that the work of healing and rebuilding may soon begin." In its meeting for worship for business on March 12, Haverford (Pa.) Meeting approved a minute of condolence to Langley Hill Meeting for Tom Fox: "We share in their deep sense of!oss ofTom Fox and we celebrate his life and what he was trying to do in Iraq. MEDFORD LEAS Peacemaking is costly; and it is the tradition of A nationally accredited, Qual"er-related, not-for-profit community Friends to bear the price of nonviolent advo­ for older adults, with campuses in Medford and Lumberton, New Jersey. cacy. We thank Tom for bringing the light of peace to troubled places, and we hold you in the light." At Madison (Wis.) Meeting, clerk Susan Greenler remembered attending a weeklong Beyond Diversity 101 workshop with Tom Fox. She recalled his gentle presence and asked that his wife and children be held in the Light and that there should be prayers for peace and an end to hostilities that have

0 claimed far too many lives. Fred LaMotte, a 0 member of Olympia (Wash.) Meeting, post­ ~ ed on his weblog, "In Memory of Tom Fox," in which he stated, in part, "I give thanks for the life of Tom Fox, a brave Qual(er activist who was murdered for peace. His body was found in Baghdad yesterday; after years of jus­ tice and peace work for Iraqi people. He did not resist the Evil One, but looked for God in his enemy's heart." -newsletters ofWinston­ Salem, Rocheste1; Des Moines, Havoford, Madison, and Orympia Meetings For Students with Learning Differences Multisensory teaching strategies for diverse leaming styles New York Yearly Meeting, in its spring ses­ Prospective Parents Open House dates for 2006-2007: sion on April I, approved a minute of con­ October 25 November 15 • December 13 science that Friends "share a concern about ° meeting the minimum needs of all people." January 31 0 February 14 ° March 14 " April18 " May 16

Under consideration since 2001, the minute Professional Open House dates: October 4 0 January 10 was brought before NYYM by Radh College Prepamtory • Gmdes 7-12 • Summer Program Achuthan, a member of Peconic Bay Meeting 8-day Orton-Gillingham Associate Level Training Course: June 13-21, 2007 of Long Island Quarter. 'This became my concern after 9/11," RadhAchuthan said. "In eve1y counny people have the same basic needs. We could meet the needs of all people if we remove much of the violence and com­ petition we have with one another." The full text of the Minute of Conscience reads: "Friends share a concern about meeting the

FRIENDS }OURNAL july 2006 43 mmtmum needs of all people, which we define to be: providing adequate drinking water, nutrition, clothing, housing, primaty healthcare, and five years of primary educa­ Year 2007 tion, to be achieved by the year 2030. Friends Quaker Motto Calendar are advised to raise the issue on all occasions where it is possible to influence individuals, groups, and organizations. We charge our Inspirational messages clerk and general secretary to make a special for each month effort to speak about this issue with regional, The critical balance between national, and international groups. We Since 1884 encourage Radh Achuthan to continue his academic rigor andjoy in learning ministry on this issue under his existing trav­ 25 calendars $21.00 el minute." Christopher Sarnmond, general secretary of NYYM, said the minute had the 25 calendars & envelopes $23.00 approval of Peconic Bay Meeting and the rec­ ommendation of the Witness Coordinating Send orders with check to: ABINGTON FRIENDS ScHooL Committee of NYYM for approval by yearly meeting. The year 2030 represents a compro­ The Motto Calendar A coeducational f

44 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL los Amigos has served as a remarkable cross­ according to American Friend Service Com­ roads for travelers engaged in peace and jus­ mittee's Iowa program coordinator Kathleen tice work in Mexico and Latin America. McQuillen. "She's always right there on all The ART Of Inspiring encounters, unexpected connec­ social justice issues, inspiring others to keep tions, and surprising new friendships are all moving. When you show up at some event or part of the daily bread ofla Casa. Mexico City meeting, Sherry is already there, handing out RememheRzng Meeting meets each Sunday in the upstairs informational fliers or literature about the library; a room filled with light thanks to the next event. She's really on the ball," KARIN SPRAGUE famous Mexican artist, Jose Clemente Oroz­ McQuillen said. Catholic Peace Ministry; an co, who originally built the house as a studio. independent organization that uses prayer, Stone Carvers Friends from across the United States and the dialogue, and action to work for justice and to world have passed through the Casa's doors, pursue peace, seeks to help people answer along with thousands of fellow seekers. Some God's call to be instruments of peace. When have found refuge, some renewal, some new considering candidates for the Dingman opportunities for action. Through the award, the committee looks for people who decades, the Casa's civic association has been cany the late bishop's characteristics, Bob host to a wide range of peace and justice pro­ Brammer said. Rev. Maurice Dingman was grams. Youth exchanges and workcamps have bishop of the Des Moines Catholic Diocese been a central part of the Casa's history; and from 1968 to 1986 and was revered for his student groups continue to use the house as a commitment to justice, peace, and equality. base for projects in Mexico. In the 1980s, "Dingman used to exhort his colleagues to We manage Investment Portfolios when wars in Central America sent refugees 'Use me!' Sherry shares the bishop's talent for from a socially responsible perspective flooding into Mexico, the Casa opened its collaboration and reaching out to others. She Financial Advisory doors to hundreds of people in need. Over the is a gift to us,"Brammer said. -The Des Socially Responsible Investment years, organizations working for peace, pro­ Moines Register Portfolios that perform moting human rights and social justice, and Charles Schwab custodian serving the needs of the poor have found a On May 4, American Civil Liberties Union base for action, a quiet space for retreat, and a and ACLU of Georgia released new evidence Securities offired through partner for collaborative programs in Casa de that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is Capital Portfolio Management, los Amigos. Today the Casa continues to host conducting counterterrorism investigations Member ofNASD/SIPC, cleared through travelers from all over the world, offers a into School of the Americas Watch (SOA Bear Steams Sec. luc. resource center for people interested in peace Watch). SOA Watch is a faith- and con­ [email protected] and justice work in Latin America, and helps science-based human rights group that organ­ link volunteers with peace and justice organi­ izes yearly nonviolent demonstrations calling zations in Mexico. After 50 years, Casa de los for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Amigos is also going through several Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly lHE-~- changes--developing a new vision for a peace lmown as School of the Americas), a contro­ QUAKER SCHOOL program, transitioning to a new board of gov­ versial training school for Latin American sol­ at HORSHAM ernors (half from the United States and half diers located at Fort Benning, Ga. The from Mexico), and hosting a Quaker-in-resi­ released documents show that after 2001, FBI dence. Friends are invited to join the Casa de surveillance of SOA Watch's annual demon­ A FRIENDS ELEMENTARY los Amigos community in celebrating its past strations became "priority" and subject to AND MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR and future during the upcoming 50th "counterterrorism'' monitoring while repeat­ BRIGHT CHILDREN WHO anniversary celebration, October 27-29, in edly emphasizing that the protests were peace­ LEARN DIFFERENTLY Mexico City. For more information visit ful. Reverend Roy Bourgeois, a Matyknoll , write <50aniv priest and founder of SOA Watch said, "We 318lvlceting House Road, Horsham, PA 19044 @casadelosamigos.org>, or call +52 (555) gather yearly to remember those killed by 215-674-2875 • www.quakerschool.org 705-0521 or +52 (555) 705-0646. graduates of this school, and to nonviolently call for a change in U.S. policy towards Latin Sherry Hutchison was honored on April 8 America .... It's clear that this surveillance is Support for decades of working for peace and social politically motivated, and it's a disgrace that QUAKER HOUSE justice. A member of Des Moines Valley instead of investigating any of the heinous (Iowa) Meeting, Hutchison, 87, was awarded crimes of graduates of the School of the Amer­ Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg, N.C. the 2006 Bishop Maurice ]. Dingman Peace icas, our government is using its resources and A front-line Friends Peace witness Award by the Catholic Peace Ministty at the time to monitor peaceful demonstrators, peo­ Gl Counselling, Draft/CO Information organization's annual dinner in Des Moines. ple who are working for true democracy in Peace Research, Education 8.. Action "She was chosen for her complete dedication this country." The documents come to ACLU to justice and peace. She comes to the effort as a result of a national campaign to expose 223 Hillside Ave., Fayetteville, NC 28301 from deep spiritual and personal conviction," domestic spying by the FBI and other gov­ 910-323-3912. www.quakerhouse.org said Bob Brammer, a member of the group's ernment agencies. ACLU has filed Freedom of [email protected] board of directors. Hutchinson is a role Information Act requests in 20 states on model for many in the peace movement, behalf of more than 150 organizations and Chuck Fager, Director

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FRIENDS }OURNAL}u{y 2006 47 Fighting over Money continued fivm page 13 Stapeley could see a way for couples to stop fight­ IN GERMANTOWN mg over money. It was simple-so simple I almost feel foolish putting it into words. Couples can It's not like home, it is home ... embrace a difficult, tight budget. The way out of fighting over money is the hard way. There is no easy way. You just have to not buy as much, try to earn a little more, and be patient. The patience part is the key. Patience is paradox's best friend. Paradoxically, if you patiently live by an austere budget, you'll get to spend freely later. Money, though, is a great tempter. It seduces us into thinking that there is an easy way-a conflict-free way-to happi­ ness. No, happiness is difficult to achieve. There is no resurrection without bearing the cross. To stop fighting over money, we have to bear the burden of a disciplined ... at the most affordable rates financial life. It's the hard way to go, but A Quaher Sponsored Retirement Community it's a way out of the fight. 6300 Greene Street • Philadelphia, PA 19144-2596 There's another paradox to embrace. It is this: If we treat money as not all ours, it 215-844-0700 will become ours. This means that it is

EQUAL HOUSING important that we begin our austere www.stapeley.org OPPORTUNITY budget with a donation. Some recom­ mend tithing. The amount matters, but not as much as what a donation symbol­ izes. By beginning our focus on money management with a donation, we are Are some symbolically admitting that money does­ n't really belong to us. All that really belongs to us is love and meaning-our on ewron primary concerns. Money, which is a sec­ ondary concern, is ultimately irrelevant. It's not really ours anyway. It's the com­ munity's. Money is actually owned by Do you want to know what sincere Quakers think, who society, not you or me. Collectively we own money, not individually. truly advocate peace, justice, and helping the poorest of the When a couple decides that this is our poor, but who think many Quaker perspectives are on the money, when they begin their budgeting with a donation, when they embrace wrong track? patient austerity, they brealc out of the ongoing fight over money. They don't, Try reading The Quaker Economist, a free weekly online news however, end conflict, but they find peace in a different kind of conflict-they commentary on peace, justice, and world affairs, somewhat squarely face money's seductive lure and different from the usual Quaker line. live with self-discipline. Furthermore, if we as citizens embrace Over eighty letters have now been published and appear on the communal nature of money-that it's ours together and needs to be shared­ the e-mails of over 900 subscribers, mostly Quakers. To see and seek to spend conservatively, mak­ them all online, visit http://tqe.quaker.org. To subscribe (free), ing up the needed difference with deter­ mination to share the workload (rather send an e-mail to [email protected]. than blame and fight), we pull out of financial jams. Common sense tells us this, and yet

july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL Living with Beggars continued fimn page 17 treet common sense also tells us that this for each other." approach, by itself, is utopian and unreal­ After a few weeks of deliberation I istic. Religion can make it realistic. reached a decision as to what constitutes "the small school that Religion is the naming of and making a moral relationship to panhandlers-for makes big people" sense of spiritual experiences. If we would myself I decided that if people ask, and I acknowledge the in-breaking of transcen­ have money with me, I will give to them. dence in our daily lives-those many sim­ I also decided I will look them in the eye, ple, mystical moments when we inwardly and I will stretch myself to have a conver­ exclaim, "Wow!"-we breal{ out of the sation with them. realm of power struggles, triangulation, A few days after I reached my decision, and political blaming into the realm or I had two opportunities to put my new reign of God. Religion is about our urge ethics into practice. An elderly man with to transcend, to resist being swallowed up a cane, well dressed and looking very dig­ in the struggles inherent in life. Religion nified, offered the first one. I passed him, Greene Street Friends School is the invitation to look upward without nodded and smiled. I heard my daughter, 5511 Greene Street Philadelphia, PA 19144 denying what we're standing on. It is the who was a little behind me, greet him. realization that money matters, but only When I heard his reply, I could tell he was Pre-K through Grade 8 as a diving board into the ocean of God's asking her for money. Determinedly I Founded in 1855 care. Religion changes our perspective, walked on, willing my ears to be deaf making us cry over excellence and the Immediately I felt disappointed in myself; sublime and compassion rather than con­ already I had succumbed to the letter, flicts about what we don't have. If all we've rather than the spirit of my decision. I had got is money, or if all we focus on is mon­ thought I could ignore him, since he had­ ey, we don't have much. With God we n't asked me; he'd asked Cheyenne. A 1'1iniffiy ofPrayer anc!Leaming devoted to have enough. I saw how deep-rooted my attitudes Money is worth fighting over, but the really are, and I hoped I would be given a the School of the fight needs to be between you and mon­ chance to redeem myself We continued ey, not between you and your partner and walking homeward, filled shopping bags Spirit money. The fight needs to be about mak­ in hand, and a portly woman met us. We ON BEINGA ing sure that money is treated with said hello, and she asked me, "Do you respect, spent with great self-discipline, have a dollar?" SPIRITUAL NURTURER earned with great care, given away with Looking into her dark brown eyes, I a progrcnn ofprayer and study great detachment, and transcended with said enthusiastically, "I do." awe for the gifts inherent in life itself "Do you have two dollars? So I can get 1\IIAR. 2007- Nov. 2008 From this perspective, money can something to eat?" Program includes eight residencies teach us that peace can include conflict if "I do!" I said joyfully. As I went for the at the Avila Retreat Center, we fight in twos, not threes. Peace is two dollars, I asked, "What are you going near Durham, NC achieved, I believe, by developing the abil­ to get? Do you have a taste for anything ity to confront problems without triangu­ in particular?" I smiled and looked into A prospectus detailing· the purpose, structure and tlwmes of the lation. We can stop fighting over money her eyes again. program is JIOlV available. when we embrace money's basic simplici­ "I think I'm going to get me a hot dog ty and creative power while simultane­ at that place up the street." Applications by Dec. 1.. 2006 ously facing its destructive lure with We exchanged names, and she com­ Contact: courage and self-discipline. Thus, rather mented, as so many people do, about how sa5mini [email protected] than ttying so hard to get more money or pretty Cheyenne's name is. When I (919) 929-2339 o quaketinfo.cotn/sos.shtml to live with less and less money, we learn looked back a minute later, she had dis­ Alvlini>trymd£dle e

FRIENDS ]OURNALju(y 2006 49 The Costs of the Quaker faith Ministry and Money continued ftom page 20 continued from page 22 when all of its parts are happy. But when in journals and letters to make it clear that It appears that our current theological local congregations lose their integrity, or individual Friends regularly and unobtru­ difficulty with paying for ministry in any their wholeness, by any combination of sively gave cash to assist other Friends who form stems from the 19th century, not the occurrences over time, Friends sometimes were traveling in the ministry-both 17th. After the separations, Friends in come to rely on the wider bodies, like those going forth from their own meeting each branch tended to define themselves quarterly and yearly meetings, to nourish and visitors to their meeting. in terms that differentiated them from their spiritual lives. These wider bodies However, as William Taber observed, it those "others." So when some Friends take on the responsibilities in paid posi­ also was assumed that Friends who were began active and enthusiastic evangelizing, tions that were once taken on, face-to­ ministers would have "a competence," or others decided that "real" Friends (mean­ face, by volunteers at monthly meetings. as we might say, a "day job." Like Paul of ing "us") don't proselytize: never had, and Some yearly meetings have reaffirmed Tarsus with his tent-making, Friends never will. When some Friends paid pas­ the decentralized, grass-roots nature of expected all to support themselves, tors, others rediscovered the testimony faith. These organizations have created a including ministers. They also under­ against hireling ministers, deciding that process for finance from the grass roots stood that when a Friend traveled in the Friends never paid anything for any form up, where "covenant" contributions to ministry he or she might need additional of ministry: never had, and never will. It wider bodies are considered and approved support, as might a family left at home­ is ironic that we remain trapped in the by monthly meetings instead of discerned and this help was provided. divisive language of our historical sep­ at the top and sent down. The larger In addition to voluntary contributions arations of the 19th century, and forget Friends bodies like AFSC, FCNL, and to traveling ministers, Friends were active­ the example of earlier Friends who ac­ Friends schools and colleges have encour­ ly solicited for financial assistance to car­ tively provided assistance where necessary. aged professional participation by non­ ry on projects, such as Anthony Benezet's The defining characteristic of the Reli­ Friends in both financial and nonfinancial school for African Americans in the 18th gious Society of Friends is not whether we ways. These larger budgets generally rely century, and schools for freed slaves in the pay or do not pay ministers. Earlier Friends heavily on a small number of very wealthy south after the Civil War. Monthly meet­ were drawn together to testifY to what donors instead of broader smaller-donor ings collected money to help "necessitous Christ was teaching them, inwardly. One support. It's important that the wider reli­ Friends," or those who suffered from a fire of the things they were being taught was gious Friends organizations-the quarter­ or other calamity. In the 18th century, that a state-mandated church paid for ly and yearly meetings-continue to insist subscriptions were raised, for example, to through compulsory tithes was inimical on bottom-up financing. In this way, our help those suffering from the Boston to God's Realm. A defining characteristic faith will be a truly remarkable gift to the blockade in 1774: a piece of paper was of Friends was their experience that God world within our self-imposed restric­ passed around in the men's meeting for raised up ministers among them who tions. It is important for Friends to under­ business and individuals were invited to would help them all live lives that wit­ stand that costs of a monthly meeting are write down how much money they would nessed to God's Truth. Can we rediscover not the "overhead" to the our spiritual contribute. Towards the end of the 19th that we have been gathered together for the life-they are integral to that life. century monthly meetings increasingly divine purpose of demonstrating through I hope these thoughts will provide a budgeted for social action and religious our daily lives together the kingdom that simple motif for each meeting to develop. education projects and programs rather Jesus described as being among us? At the same time, I hope the contribu­ than passing a subscription paper for indi­ It is time for us to lay aside our idols, tions to our Religious Society are spread vidual projects. and come with openness into God's pres­ as evenly as possible across all members. Before the separations of 1827-28, ence, together. Friends today need to open With the hard work done in preparing the Sunderland P. Gardner wrote in his Mem­ our hearts to see what God is teaching in right budget, each Friend can more easily oirs, "When ministers from England, regard to making it economically possible give according to the measure of Light London Yearly Meeting, visited America, for a minister who is led to spiritual work reflected back by the monthly meeting. American Friends paid their expenses that is recognized by his or her meeting to Each Friend will then grow spiritually while here and vice versa, bur this arrange­ accomplish it. This is a critical piece of from the gifts that are made, no matter the ment ceased at the time of the division." unfinished business for unprogrammed total amount given-one Friend relative His opinion then (1890) was that "if a Friends. It is an opportunity for us to test to another. There are books written on the monthly meeting thinks it is advisable to again the experience of faithful Friends transforming power of prayerful giving. assist a member in his or her work by con­ through the centuries that God will We might agree that Benjamin tributing of its substance, or if individuals teach us and bring us into unity ifwe ask Franklin was nying to tell us that living feel this duty upon them, there is liberty; and listen. 0 beyond our means tal<:es its toll on the life but being a spiritual affair, it should be felt of an individual. Inversely, we might con­ after spiritually." This seems to represent a sider that spending within our means, in subtle shift of emphasis from earlier lan­ the right proportions, gives Life to our guage around the issue. The cause of the religious community. 0 shift is embedded in the schisms of the 19th century.

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FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 51 The Right Use of Money Continued fivm page 24

oversight of some authorities who think they lmow what and how you should get the necessities of life. We all know Qual<:ers who live a sim­ ple life through voluntary poverty. But we also know what real, involuntary poverty is like. That kind of poverty forces one to live with criminality, with lack of medical care, with substandard housing, and with low-quality food. Simplicity, the ability to lead an intentional and directed life, is very different from that. It requires that these components of real poverty are mostly absent. Money turns out to be the lubricant for simplicity, just as it is for equality, because it allows its possessor to make good, spiritual choices. Money-based societies have destroyed old-fashioned, self-sustaining communi­ ties; that's true. Quakers cherish the Testi­ mony of Community, but where is that community if the worth of people is measured by their incomes, and if the worth of goods and services is measured by their prices? How alienating a money­ based society seems to be at times! We feel that people who are successful in business, sports, or entertainment must be wiser than the rest of us. Why? They make FRIENDS JouRNAL keep up with rising costs, will be raising its subscription rate more money. And money is seen to meas­ to $39 per year on July 1. That makes now the perfect time to get on board! ure merit. We both mourn and take evil Subscribe by June 30, 2006, and you'll lock in our current rate of $35-that's delight when the mighty, like Kenneth 42% off the cover price. And best of all, you'll get 12 issues of FRIENDS JouRNAL, packed full Lay of Enron or Bernard Ebbers of of award-winning articles, opinions, poetry, news, and art. Call us at 1-800-471-6863, MCI!WorldCom, fall from grace. They weren't so great after all, we think to our­ visit our website at , or simply dip and mail this offer today selves. But deep down inside, we still feel to subscribe. that they were great, because they had 0 I'll take 12 monthly issues for $35, please. 0 Lock in my rate for 2 years- more money than the rest of us. Clearly, that represents the dark side of money­ 24 issues-for just $65. Overseas subscribers please add $8 per year for postage. based society. 0 Check enclosed 0 Please bill me 0 Please charge my MasterCard or Visa So it is clear that love of money can eas­ Card Number ______Expiration date _____ ily turn to idolatry. If your worth is tied up in the amounts ofmoney you can accu­ Name: mulate and spend, you tend to forget that money, like the land, is something that we Address: should care for, or nurture, not something City/State/Zip that we own. If you use money to exercise power over others, to demean others, or Forjastest service, log on to or call (Boo) 4p-6863 during to force them to follow your will, you are regular business hours. Offer expires 6/3o/o6. BR06A using a valuable resource to break the spir­ it of another being. And in today's world, 1216 Arch Street, 2A these activities are all too frequently the Philadelphia, PA 19ro7-2835 stories of business and government in our Fax: (215) 568-1377 daily press. What we really need is a temperance E-mail- [email protected] movement for money. How do we use it responsibly? After all, unlike liquor, you

52 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL cannot ban the use of money. And for A boarding and day high school where ... Quakers in this instant, as in so many ... personal transformations take place others, wisdom tends to come from lis­ ... each person seeks to live with full integrity tening to that still, quiet voice. A leading ... distinct ways of learning are honored for the use of money is what it takes to not use it foolishly. The rules are neither new nor onerous: " Earn a money income responsibly. Find a work activity that is distant from war or environmental destruction. Try to make the work environment fair and democratic for all who work with you. o Spend money on the basics. The idea is not to deny the manufacturer and the retailer a generous living, but to shape their delive1y of goods or services to the market with goods that enhance life. • Invest money not only for your future but for the planet's future. Most of us plan to live in old age on accumulated wealth. The productivity of that invest­ ment needs to bring a peaceful and eco­ logically improved world. Money in biblical times was something unusual. Camels, sheep, and the tools used in vineyards and fields were produc­ Joint Commission 0.1 Atxrfd•t.JMn M HC3'1h<:JTO OriJamZJ!mr~ tive. Ownership of these things meant 0 Assisted Living survival. Today, that role is represented by • Skilled Nursing Care money. Today it is the hording of things 0 Rehabilitative Therapies FSA that money buys that causes us problems, • Short Stays especially spiritually. Using money, • Respite Care income, or wealth to make the economy o Pet Therapy work is not the problem. People used to horde money (gold or silver) to show their • Medicare certified EEO/ADA richness; today we horde our posses­ • Medicaid certified LEP sions-the clothes, electronic gimmicks, houses. They are meant to make us feel Faith Woodward, Director of Admissions and Marketing secure. But they place us in a noisy world, 700 N. Franklin St., West Chester, PA 610-696-5211 • www.bf.kendal.org EQUAL HOUSING cluttered with goods and closed off from OPPORTUNITY nature. How do we get away from such A NOT-FOR-PROFIT AFFILIATE OF THE KENDAL CORPORATION spiritually negative aspects of the material world? It takes the right use of money­ like eve1ything else in the modern world, you have to buy your way out. Vaudeville singer Sophie Tucker was September issue: Reserve space by July 10. right when she said: "''ve been rich and Display Ad Deadlines Ads must be received by July 13. I've been poor; rich is better." It doesn't sound very Quakerly, but it is probably Reservations are October issue: Reserve space by August 7. closer to the way we have acted over the required for display ads Ads must be received by August 10. past 300 years. Money is the invention of in FRIENDS JOURNAL. the modern world that makes the dreams of the past possible. It is a powerful moti­ Ad rate is $40 per column inch. vator. Of course it is not the point of life; it is a mere lubricant. But without that lu­ Call (215) 563-8629 now bricant, the testimonies of Quakers-like with your reservation or questions. our industrial machinery-would grind E-mail: [email protected] to a halt. 0

FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 53 Quakers and Capitalism Young Friends continued ftom page 27 continued fivm page 32 First, of course, you pray and seek to the poor, and come follow me." And the impacting our environment. God's guidance. We believe that any one man went away; vety sad, because he was a We do all of these things because we of us may be called into ministry-to do man of great wealth. Will we walk away; think they are good business practices. We something good for the world. Some sad, but unable to take the last radical step? also believe our Quaker beliefs tie into among us, I pray, will be called into eco­ Right now, few of us lmow the one­ those practices in a very clear way. Young nomic ministry, as Kenneth Boulding third ofU.S. children now living in pover­ Friends who share these beliefs have, was. Beyond this, I have three more ideas ty. But that may be about to change. when coupled with imagination and that meetings might take up. Friends have gone through three stages of schooling, a leg up on their competition To begin with, we could start with our social status. We started out as yeoman in the world of business. comfort zone, the Peace Testimony. Let's farmers and small family tradespeople in Honesty and personal integrity are at develop a testimony on economic sanc­ the 1650s. By the mid-1700s, most the core of our success and that of most tions as a tool of foreign policy. We know British Quakers were in the upper and businesses we know. Enron and Tyco may how devastating they have been to the upper middle classes. U.S. Friends were get the headlines, but people want to do people of nations we are punishing, and more generally distributed on the social business and associate with people who we know they often fail to meet their landscape and have remained so ever treat them fairly and whom they can trust. political goals. Economic sanctions have since, but they were not usually poor. There is a picture of a Quaker on the cov­ been around for quite a while and there is Then, in Great Britain during the 20th er of the Quaker Oats box because Quak­ a lot of research to inform our work. Sanc­ century; the great Quaker fortunes dis­ ers symbolized trust and good value when tions may be useful in some circum­ solved as privately owned companies went the company began in the 1800s. (Imag­ stances, but they desperately require public and their Quaker owners became ine, Quakerism as a consumer brand!) informed and conscience-led reform. managers. Demographically; we Quakers Other Quaker values are also useful in Second, again inside our comfort have converged on the middle-middle business. A person practiced in achieving zone-but not for long-is the problem class from both ends throughout the past consensus has had to learn to really listen of secure retirement. Friends already have 100 years. This trend accelerated in the to others and understand what is impor­ a track record of successful innovation period following World War II, as new, tant to them. That is a vital skill to have with retirement communities, assisted liv­ more suburban meetings have sprung up on a sales call. A belief that there is that of ing, hospices, and long-term care. But our in and near university towns. God in everyone is a good start in under­ institutions on the model of Medford Now I believe we may be on the cusp standing the rationale for employee Leas are beyond the means of most peo­ of a fourth stage, one of descent into empowerment. It is also useful in doing ple, including most Qualms. And a lot of poverty through the cracks in the floor of business with people from the over 30 people of means will soon be outliving the the middle class. The lmowledge econo­ countries that use our products. means that make these places affordable my will increasingly leave behind those of Lee's favorite story in that regard was to them now. In the next 20 years, many us who are "stuck'' in the service, educa­ when our Indian distributor came to vis­ of us are going to fall into poverty in our tion, and social service sectors-the so­ it our company and opened up his note­ old age. Let's start thinking, planning, called secular church. Our real incomes book to take notes. It had a picture of experimenting with ways to meet this have been stagnant for two decades Gandhi on its cover. Lee interrupted the looming need. already. And many of us are about to meeting in our conference room to invite Third, a simple way to restructure the retire. Baby boomers (I am one) are very the distributor down to his office to show problem, especially for religious commu­ likely to outlive our savings and our safe­ him the pictures of Gandhi and Martin nities, is to start by redefining "the good ty net is fraying. Luther King Jr. on his wall. In our lunch­ life." The ''American Dream" turns into a This will bring a new challenge to our room we have four tables with quotes nightmare when extrapolated into the meetings-a potential for intergeneration­ from King, Gandhi, Edward Deming, future, especially if it's adopted by China, al conflict. Retiring boomers will leave and Lee. We call them company value India, and the rest of the developing behind in our meetings younger families tables because the quotes represent core world. The planet just cannot support bil­ struggling to keep afloat with both parents parts of what we believe and what our lions of people living as we do. That working. As the ranks of the long-lived company is based on. means we have to live with less. It means elderly swell, these younger people may Friends have always lmown that if we radical change and sacrifice. come to resent our incredible wastefulness, want to change the world we live in, we The question then becomes: are we imprudence, selfishness, and our political must be a part of that world. When young Quakers like the rich young man in the power as a voting bloc, not to mention the Friends choose to engage in business they Gospels who asks Jesus, "What must I do economic burden of supporting both us are involved in a fast-changing environ­ to enter the kingdom of heaven?" Jesus and the debt we have amassed. ment, but they can bring timeless values answers with the essentials of the law, What are we going to do about that? to it. And they have the opportunity to have stressing the Ten Commandments. The And about all the people who are poor or an impact far beyond their evetyday job. young man says he already does these over-extended already? 0 0 things. "One thing remains," says Jesus. "You must sell all that you own and give it

54 july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL PO Box4029 Mount NJ 08060 Tel: 609.2612399

Sunday,June 25, 2006

10:00 Meeting for Worship at Mount Holly Monthly Meeting (First Day School is available for children) 12:00 Complementary Lunch at Brainerd Street Commons 1:00 Tour continues. Visit the old School House where the 18th century Quaker John Woolman taught using his First Book for Children, and The john Woolman Memorial House, all while walking along the streets and by the places where John Woolman spoke his truth and worked to end slavery in the 18th century. For lunch reservations call609-261-2399. The John Woolman Walk is sponsored by Woolman Community Development Corporation, a group of QJtakers concerned about home, neighborhood and the opportunity for quality living. Brainerd Street Commons is its co-op apartment community for adults 55+. Designed to be affordable, attractive and maintenance free.

Amenities include fitness room, common room with wide screen TV, areas for entertainment, spreading out, socializing, relaxing, computer cubicles, greenhouse, outdoor lawns, resident gardens. Small and friendly atmosphere with on-site community manager. In town living offers the best of both worlds!

One bedroom apartments are spacious and have private storage room. All have decks or porches with scenic views. Visit us at www.woolmancdc.org or call609-261-2399 for more information. Tours and information will be available at the luncheon on June 25 or by appointment.

FRIENDS JOURNAL}u{y 2000 55 MilESTONES

Deaths Kleiss-Lieselotte (Lee) Maria Kleiss, 79, on Society, an organization for families who have most significant and enduring relationships of his December 15, 2005, in Celo, N.C., from colon adopted children considered "hard to place." The life: a professional engagement with Latin Ameri­ cancer. Lee was born on October 21, 1926, in children accompanied Lee on trips to Europe dur­ ca, a spiritual commitment to Quakerism, and a Frankfurt, Germany, to Charlotte Kleiss, a social ing her sabbatical year in 1971-1972. Lee's con­ loving and profound union with Eleanor Bent, worker, and Felix Kleiss, an engineer. Although nection with fellow ex-Bruderhofers continued who joined his development project in the summer Lee's family had been professing Christians for sev­ through her adult life. She traveled to Europe for of 1951. John and Eleanor were married in 1952, eral generations, both of her parents had Jewish Bruderhof ex-member gatherings. She was active in and spent the following year at Haverford College, ancestors, so when the Nazis came into powet; Lee, Qual~er organizations and with Fayetteville (N.C.) where John completed a master's degree in Social then seven years old, was not allowed to join the Meeting, serving as clerk and on the board of and Technical Assistance. In 1953, John and Hitler Youth program with her friends. Her "taint­ Qualcer House. She worked with the Cumberland Eleanor moved to El Salvador to direct another ed heritage" also prevented her from playing the County Community Foundation to establish a AFSC project. They worked with the government role ofMaq in a Christmas play. When Lee point­ scholarship for chemistq students, and was active to build a new community attached to a sugar cane ed out that Maq was a Jew from the line of David, in Servas International, a hospitality network that estancia, and they worked in its primary school, she was sent home for being arrogant. fu the Nazi promotes peace through personal contacts. She providing health services, sharing lmowledge of government took control of the churches, Lee and supported ProLiteracy Worldwide, Mountain Area cooperatives, and teaching voting skills. John and her mother joined the Confessing Church, an Information Network, and the Union of Con­ Eleanor returned to the United States in 1954 alliance of churches that refused to submit to Nazi cerned Scientists. In 200 1 she was a consultant for when the first of their three children was born, and rule, and met secretly in the basement of the min­ the Jordan Lake Interbasin Tiansfer. She also knit­ John commenced work on a PhD in Latin Ameri­ ister's homes. In 1939, Lee and her mother fled to ted countless sweaters to be distributed to needy can politics at Harvard University. After receiving the United States, first to a Quaker community in children overseas. Lee is survived by her two daugh­ his degree in 1959, John became an assistant pro­ Pennsylvania, then, in the summer of 1940, to ters, Christina and Suzannah Kleiss; and two fessor at Harvard, as well as a research associate at Minneapolis, Minn., where Lee eventually became grandchildren, Jacinta and Stephan Kleiss. the Center for International Affairs. In 1962 he the valedictorian of her West High School gradu­ became professor of Latin American Affuirs at Moulton-Priscilla Moulton, 89, on March 24, ating class. In 1944, both women became U.S. cit­ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts 2005, in Santa Barbara, Cali£ Priscilla was born on izens. Lee graduated from Grinnell College, earn­ University. In 1963, he was appointed director of February 22, 1916, in Boston, Mass., the first child ing a BA in Chemisny with a minor in Mathe­ the Office of Research and Analysis for American of Nelson and Gertrude Moulton. She completed matics; then from Columbia University, with an Republics in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of her education at Columbia University, and her MAin Physical Chemistq and, in 1953, a doctor­ Intelligence and Research. From 1964 through nursing career started at Peter Bent Brigham School ate in Chemistty. Lee co-wrote an article published 1970 he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Insti­ of Nursing. She then became a public health nurse in the ]oumal of Clinical Investigation in 1950. tution, then joined the faculty in the Department in New York City. She became a Friend and joined From 1952 to 1954, she was part of an AFSC proj­ of Political Science at University of Connecticut, Chesterfield (N.J.) Meeting. Later, she served in ect in India and Pakistan; and in 1954 she instigat­ from which he retired in 1985. Shortly after his California elementary schools in the Santa Maria ed the science department at Egbado College, Ilaro, retirement, John developed life-threatening health District and in Santa Barbara. With her partner, Nigeria. In 1953, Lee and her mother visited the problems that culminated in heart surgery in 1986. Dorothy (Dot) Bonner, Priscilla looked after what Bruderhof (Society of Brothers), a Christian paci­ His confrontation with mortality inaugurated a was most dear, including beloved cats, a kewpie fist community in Primavera, Paraguay, founded in period of deep personal and spiritual exploration, doll collection, friends, relatives, and FCNL. When Germany in 1920 then relocated to England when which enriched his relationships with his family, his the couple moved from their home into Vista del persecuted by Nazis, and, finally, facing anti-Ger­ neighbors, and his religious community. He was a Monte Retirement Home, they continued to wel­ man sentiment, settled in Paraguay, the only coun­ devoted member of Storrs (Conn.) Meeting. come family and meeting visits. For other residents, tty willing to accept a peace church whose mem­ Always a source for stimulating vocal ministry Priscilla provided favorite treats and poetty recita­ bers did not serve in the armed forces. When Lee based on a life of rich academic endeavor, active tions, enriched by her own brand of quiet and dq left Nigeria in 1956, she joined the Bruderho£ engagement, and reflection, in his later years John humor. After Dot's death, a meeting member who Others who lmew her there say she was happy in explored the depths of silent meditation. In the last worked with Priscilla noticed a new interest of the community. But she chafed against the group's decade of his life, John regularly arrived for meet­ Priscilla's-gorillas. So when Priscilla moved into rigid subordination of women, and managed to ing for worship an hour early to settle into silence assisted living, she was welcomed by gifts of Goril­ wheedle her way into a daily gathering of men and prepare the meeting room. John retained a life­ la Glue, a gorilla storage rack, and a key-holding where the group's "real business" was done. This long conviction that his military service in World gorilla on a bicycle, which friends placed on the assertiveness got Lee into trouble and eventually, in War II had been in furtherance of a just and neces­ table in front of her apartment door. Priscilla's was 1959, she was expelled. For years she begged to be sary cause, and had even stood aside when Storrs a life of unassuming, sweet, and generous ministty. readmitted. In1962, she visited ex-Bruderhofers in Meeting drafted a statement embracing the Peace She is survived by her sister, Thirza Smith. Europe and helped to start a round-robin newslet­ Testimony. He began his final Christmas letter, however, with the statement on behalf of himself ter for ex-Bruderhofers. Lee was opposed to what Plank-]olm Nathan Plank, 81, on April30, 2005, and Eleanor, "We are Qual~ers and we are pacifists." she called dual citizenship and dual loyalties. Dur­ in Storrs, Conn. John was born in Dayton, Ohio, John is survived by his wife, Eleanor Plank; sons, ing a visit to Mrica she almost got arrested while on July 22, 1923, the son of a peripatetic Unitari­ David and Geoffrey Plank; daughter, Margaret; six crossing into the Congo on her way to Nigeria an minister and a social worker. John's parents sep­ grandchildren; and brother, Stephen Plank. because she stubbornly refused to write down arated when he was six, and he spent his childhood "Caucasian," as she was told to do. Instead she moving between their homes in Rochestet; N.Y.; Zimmerman-Mmy Elizabeth Zimmemzan, 79, wrote "Human." After a 48-hour detention, she Nortlmeld, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo.; Santa Fe, N.Mex.; on January 3, 2005, in Rising Sun, Ind. Mary was and the authorities compromised: she would be and Omaha, Nebr. He enrolled at Harvard College born on February 22, 1925, to Stella Weekley Jack­ permitted to leave the line blank, and they would in 1941, interrupting his studies to enlist in the son and Melvin W Jackson of Muncie, Ind., and fill in "Caucasian," but only after they had allowed Army when the United States entered the Second had three brothers and one sister. Her family her to proceed. After returning to the United World War. He served as a ctyptographer in the attended the Methodist church. She graduated States, Lee taught at Wayne State University and North Mrican and European campaigns, then from Muncie Central High School in 1942. After Simpson College, where she was granted tenure in returned to Harvard, earning his degree in 1949. high school, she worked as a waitress at a meat mar­ 1969, and Fayetteville State University from 1975 After a brief and unhappy foray into legal studies at ket and in the defense industry. She was introduced until her retirement in 1998. She adopted two Berkeley, he traveled to Mexico as an American to Robert E. Zimmerman by friends, and they were young Mrican American children, Christina and Friends Service Committee development project married on May 5, 1943, at the Friends parsonage Suzannah, and helped to found the Open Door volunteer. Out of that experience grew the three in Portland, Ind., while Bob was on boot leave

july 2006FRIENDS JOURNAL from the U.S. Navy. After Bob's return from mili­ tary service, they became members of Friends Memorial Church in Muncie, Ind., and participat­ ed in many meeting activities. She represented Indiana Yearly Meeting at Friends World Commit­ tee for Consultation Section of the Americas for several years and was secretaq to the superintend­ ent oflndiana Yearly Meeting. fu a young mother, Ma1y was a Girl Scout leader and a Cub Scout den mother, as well as a volunteer driver for the Red Cross, taking people to medical appointments. In 1976, she and Bob moved to Marietta, Ga., and became members of Atlanta Meeting. There she h Foulkeways at Gwynedd, community served as membership recorder for many years, and members look forward to exploring new worked with other members of the meeting to pub­ horizons and re-establishing past interests and lish News/Views until 200 l. In Georgia, she took classes in transcribing printed words into Braille, hobbies. There's always something close at and after being certified by the Libraq of Congress hand to inspire both mind AND body! spent countless hours over the next 20 years tran­ scribing textbooks, libraq books, and special So, what are you doing with the assignments for schools and individuals. She was a second half of YOUR life? Guided by Quaker Values member of the Atlanta Braille Volunteers, serving 1120 Meetinghouse Road as president for two years, and taught Braille class­ For more information about life at Foulkeways es for several years. She was also a member of the Continuing Care Retirement CommunitYt call Gwynedd, PA 19436 National Braille Association, and regularly volun­ Lori Schmidt at 215-283-7010 in the 215-643-2200 teered for blood drives conducted by the Red Cross Residency Information Office today. in the Atlanta area. She and Bob were members of www.foulkeways.org the National Railway Historical Society, and Mary Foulkeways at Gwynedd does not discriminate volunteered as a docent at the Southeastern Rail­ ~ FRIENDS c IIH\ on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, L:.f SERVICES~Cl panpha ~ way Museum. In June 2002, Bob and Mary moved ~~~',",",":.tt";~ AGING "~~e.-->~..,~~~ AAHSA gender, age, handicap or sexual orientation. to Lawrenceburg, Ind., to be near their daughter, Suzanne. Maq was predeceased by her son, Mark, age 10, in 1959, and by her two brothers, Alan 0. and Charles R. Jackson. She is survived by her hus­ band, Robert E. Zimmerman; daughter, Suzanne K. Zimmerman; brother, Rex Jackson; sistel~ Janet Valencia; and several nieces and nephews.

*All graduate:; aecoplPd to eollege

~-3: 1 student-to-teacher ratio 1'Shm:ed work program nnrl fal'm

FRIENDS JOURNAL welcomes Milestones from families and meet­ '~'Laptop oomJ.llllvl' pt•ogram ings. Please include dates, locations, *Daily Colloetion, weokly and meeting affiliations of all parties. Moot.ing for Wm·ship For death notices, include date/place of birth/ death, meeting affiliation, highlights of the person's life as a Friend, and full names of survivors. Please include your contact informa­ tion. Milestones may be edited for length; and we cannot guarantee publication date. For full guidelines visit . See p.2 of this magazine for our contact information.

FRIENDS ]OURNAL}uly 2006 57 Forum continued from page 4 a little piece of a great big soul." The importance of the We have also learned from the life sciences that there are at least two critical physical body in worship elements of life: consciousness and physical I have followed with interest the being. Every living creature we have !mown correspondence regarding the sweat lodge so far has both a mind and a body. Does God controversy, particularly in your excellent have both of these critical elements, too? If April 2006 issue. I would suggest that what so, I would tend to believe this being is The oldest Quaker school in the world, is being provided by the sweat lodge something I haven't seen and can only imagine. William Penn Charter School embraces experience, otherwise missing in Qualcer The famous "process theologian'' Charles tradition and welcomes innovation. practice, is the full use of the physical Hartshorne envisioned God's physical body in worship and the pursuit of existence as "the physical outcome of all spiritual enlightenment. choices" made in creation. Thus, he Of course, Quakers are aware of the Essential Quaker principles and practice reasoned, the total of all living experiences is importance of the physical body. We have a guide Penn Charter, a Friends school "unified in a cosmic experience that is God." long, well-established, and honorable by birthright and conviction. Within a By analogy, we already !mow that the tradition of recognizing the importance of diverse community, we engage students experiences of the countless living cells physical welfare and its relationship to in a stimulating and rigorous educational within the human body are taken into the spiritual practice. Our record in prison program. We foster academic discipline and human person. Human experience is not reform, the decent treatment of hospitalized intellectual curiosity to prepare graduates just made up of cellular experiences added patients, and especially relief work, all speak for higher education and for life. together. It combines these experiences into a loudly. And many Friends have employed coherent whole with memories and 3000 West School House Lane, Philadelphia their full physical selves in the pursuit of expectations. We've all heard Aristotle's their beliefs. Traveling ministers, many kinds 215.844.3460 famous saying, "the whole is more than the of outreach workers, and even those of us www.penncharter.com sum of its parts." It appears that new who spend many hours in what often seems characteristics emerge out of nothing with like endless meetings all do this. Tom Fox the increasing complexity of existence. ~ recently paid the ultimate price for doing so, Author and physicist David Bohn seemed WilliamPenn and we honor and grieve for him. to sum all this up in just a few words: What I am suggesting is that in the routine Cliarter "Everything material is also mental and School expression of our beliefs, the resources that everything mental is also material. But, there employ the body are not fully used. The most may be more infinitely subtle levels of matter obvious are singing and dancing, so much than we are aware o£" The Quaker Tom Louderback and so valued a part of the spiritual seeking SWEAT LODGE-- louisville, Ky. and expression of so many religions. "RAees'1j'fl'? Or Not:?? We are aware of these things in the Background, Inaccuracies in a Forum fringes, so to spealc, of religious practice. Docun1ents & Perspectives: There is plenty of singing and dancing at the www.quakersweat.org letter FGC Gathering, and at other Qualcer I must talce great exception to some events. I have been interested also in the comments by Bob Michener ("'s this a case importance many Quakers give to eating The Bible Association of Friends together. They will spealc of this practice in a in America of exclusivity?" Fj April). He writes of"the exposure of Kenyan girl babies in the forest way that makes it evident that they value the since 1829 has offered Bibles, NewTestaments, communion thereby established. But these and Portions free or at cost to Friends to die because the parents want a higher­ things are carefully separated from the institutions, individuals, and others worldwide. status boy." I have never heard of this Write to: P.O. Box 3, Riverton, NJ 08077 happening in Kenya. I asked my Kenyan central experience of worship. wife, Gladys Kamonya, if she has ever I remember speaking informally to a heard of this custom in Kenya and her group of Friends about the Islamic practice decisive answer was "No." Then with of daily prayer, which includes prostration A Vibrant City. added amazement, I read of "the Islamic and other attitudes of humility. I said that A Close Community. tradition of clitoridectomy." This is not an humbling oneself with the whole body before Islamic tradition. God several times a day was a powerful A Culture of Learning. My wife quickly listed off the tribes in expression, and wondered if we should not Kenya who perform this and some are be finding similar ways to express our predominantly Muslim, but others are feelings. This did not open a discussion or predominantly Christian, and others follow even polite disagreement. It was greeted with traditional beliefs. I wonder why these two total horror. In fact, one person told me that false examples were given. Africa and Islam God did not want us to do that. Please understand that I am a convinced Pre-K through 12 these days have a bad reputation in the Quaker. I have accepted eagerly the 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway United States, so these inaccurate comments Philadelphia, PA 19103 disturb me greatly. teachings and practices of Quakerism. 215-561-5900 ext. I 04 • www.friends-select.org David Zarembka Sitting in silence waiting upon the Lord in St. louis, Mo. worship malces sense to me and spealcs to my

july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL Friends World Committee Connecting Friends for Consultation Vincula a los Amigos Crossing Cultures SECTION OF THE AMERICAS Sobrepasa Barreras Comite Mundial de Consulta Culturales de los Amigos Changing Lives Cambia Vidas SECCION DE LAS AMERICAS

"It was great to be able to worship, sing, pray together, no matter the language."

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FRIENDS JOURNAL july 2006 59 ICSEF condition. I understand the historical reasons why rituals and artifacts and structured The simple and easy way to support practices were abandoned. I am certainly not advocating prostration in prayer during Quaker Inner-City School Endowment Fund meeting, if only because at my age ifi get down on the floor I'm never sure I will be able to get back up again. Yet, often it feels One check builds ENDOWMENT at as though something is missing. For a young person this feeling may well be even stronger. Atlanta Friends School, Ga • Detroit Friends school, Mi Is there a way we can honor the role of the physical being in our worship without violating Frankford Friends School, Pa "' Greene St. Friends School, Pa our history and beliefs? Minnesota Friends School, Mn Han·iet J Schley Norfolk, Va. All expenditures are privately funded. There is a spirit .... 100% of your contribution goes to the schools Thank you, thank you for publishing in the May issue the cover photo ofTom Fox, and is tax deductible. portions of his online journal, and a splendid editorial. Given that his body was left on a Baghdad street on March 10, I am guessing Phil Gilbert, Clerk that FRIENDS JOURNAL staff had to take some quick steps to include the story in the QICSEF May issue. While Tom Fox's journal entries tell us a 152 Crosslands Dr., Kennett Square, Pa 19348 great deal about his thoughts and Christlike spirit, we do not know just what he may have said to his captors at the very end of his life. I am reminded that we do know what Friend James Nayler said in October 1660 just two hours before his death from having been robbed, bound, and left to die in a field. Nayler said in part: "There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor An Exceptional Retirement Lifestyle. to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure Pennswood Village, a Quaker-directed all things, in hope to enjoy its own end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, retirement community with a rock solid and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty; reputation for quality, has an opportunity or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself" for you to enjoy our exceptional lifestyle. LanyMiller Our apartments are sun-filled and spacious, New Britain, Pa. and offer modern amenities plus the added value of our all-inclusive life care contract. Living experimentally A splendid new aquatics and fitness center When George Fox said "this I lmow enhances our already lively campus, providing experimentally;" he meant "experientially," even more opportunities for your physical, according to scholars. Yet, the May issue of FRIENDS JOURNAL supported my inclination intellectual, social and spiritual growth. to live life experimentally in the modern Our Quaker values show us our lives together sense, the way scientists test a hypothesis. are enriched through diversity - we welcome women Tom Fox went to Iraq "to see what Love and men of all races, colors, religions, national origins might do." Thoughts started coming together after reading the "Reflections" by and sexual orientation. Paul Landskroener and Bruce Kellogg. The Cal12I5-504-II22 or toll free r-888-454-n22 blind men are "stuck in their predicament" EQUAL HOUSING because they lack the courage to trust each OPPORTUNITY other enough to see what cooperation can do. All they need to do in order to "see" a 1382 Newtown-Langhorne Rd., Newtown, PA r8940-2401 complete elephant is to find a way to www.pennswood.org integrate all their individual experiences. They need to try the assumption that the object of their attention is a unity. "Hear, 0

6o july 2006 FRIENDS JOURNAL Traveling West? Visit the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. CLASSIFIED Personal retreats and our annual schedule of Quaker Pro­ grams. Among the redwoods, near Santa Cruz, Calif. (B31) Israel: Reality our God is one reality" (Deut. 336-8333. . For information call (215) 563-8629 Visiting Costa Rica? Our hostel Casa Ridgway, in central 6:4). Bob Burnett's "Three Gems" describes Fax (215) 568·1377 San Jose, awaits you in the tradition of Quaker simplicity. how this works in practice with seeking the E-mail: [email protected] $1 0-20/night. Using our hostel supports Peace Center pro­ grams. Sunday unprogrammed meeting. All are welcome. ''sense of the meeting" and "taking refuge in Classified rates 75¢ per word. Minimum charge Contact , or 011 506 233 616B. is $20. Logo is additional $1 8. Add 10% if boxed. democracy." Continuing the analogy with 10% discount for three consecutive insertions, scientific method, which requires a peer 25% for six. Appearance of any advertisement Bool something from a well-planned "experiment." September issue: July 17 Of course, social experiments are more October issue: August 14 Friends Bulletin, magazine of Western U.S. Quakers, sub­ scription $18. A Western Quaker Reader, $19. Compas­ Submit your ad to: difficult to interpret and evaluate than typical sionate Listening, $16. Friends Bulletin, 3223 Danaha St., scientific experiments. Science itself, as well as Advertising Manager, FriendsJollmal Torrance, CA 90505. , . the various political systems of the world, can Philadelphia, PA 191 07 ·2B35 Quaker Artist-Cards and calendars, inspired by the be evaluated as social experiments. The 20th Southwest and Japan, to benefit AFSC and other non· (215) 563-8629 centmy strongly suggests that science as a profit organizations. See and purchase at . in a context ofliberal democracy and declines Voices from the Silence, by Stanford J. Searl Jr.: into pseudosciences where authoritarian This is a book about Quaker silent worship in the Accommodations United States and England. One reader said, "Lyrical, regimes are in control. In Quakerism, the deeply moving"; another, "a powerful read"; and a rejection of clergy, especially those appointed Seattle-Two affordable, private travelers' rooms at Quaker third, "a must read." Buy directly at (B88) 280-7715 or House, near University Friends Meeting, centrally located in , click on "Bookstore," put in "Searl," :md paid by the government, serves to remove Seattle's University District. For reservations: (206) 632· and there's the book. the corrupting influence of hierarchy and 9B39 or . arbitrary personal power. Marni's House, Martha's Vineyard, MA. Contemplative PENDLE HILL BOOKSTORE Dalel. Bmy summer/fall B&B. Informal, contemporary, crafts, natural More than 2000 books on Quakerism, religion, spiritual­ light, sybaritic baths, tranquil setting. 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(202) 543-5560. 515 East Capitol St., SE, Washing· ality, readable at one sitting. Subscribe to re­ One answer is for members of the Religious ton, D.C. 20003. ceive six pamphlets/year for $20 (US). Also available: every pamphlet published previously Society of Friends to relight the fire oflove in Looking for a creative living alternative in New York by Pendle Hill. (BOO) 742-3150 ext. 2 or . we did before. We are looking for people of all ages who want to make a serious commitment to a community lifestyle based on You're in good company with Friends United Press au­ Jessamyn West said in Indiana, "We must Quaker principles. For information call (212) 673-1730. We thors, including Douglas Steere, Howard Thurman, Daisy have the love of the Christ child in our hearts." also have overnight accommodations. Newman, John Punshon, Tom Mullen, Doug Gwyn, Louise Wilson, Wil Cooper, T. Canby Jones, D. Elton Trueblood, Our apathy is based on error. We are Santa Fe-Simply charming adobe guest apartment at our historic meetinghouse. Fireplace, bath, kitchenette, very and, of course, George Fox, John Woolman, and William depressed because we think the forces of convenient to downtown and galleries, as well as our tran­ Penn. Inspiration, humor, fiction, and history that take you to quil garden. One night-one month stays, affordable. Call the roots of Quaker beginnings, belief, and beyond. Write: hate and oppression will go on forever. 101-A Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374 for a free (505) 9B3·7241. History shows that empires and oppressive catalog or call (BOO) 537-8839. . structures collapse. Pittsburgh-Well located, affordable, third-floor (walkup) guest rooms with shared bath. Single or double occupancy. Quaker Books: Rare and out-of-print journals, history, The news media have had thousands of Kitchen available. Contact: House Manager, Friends Meet­ religion, inspirational. Contact us for specific books or interviews with military officials about inghouse, 4B36 Ellsworth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. topics. Vintage Books, 1B1 Hayden Rowe Street, Telephone: (412) 6B3-2669. Hopkinton, MA 01748. (50B) 435·3499. E-mail us at strategy in Iraq but almost no interviews . with pacifists. We must call news Beacon Hill Friends House: Quaker-sponsored residence of 19 interested in community living, spiritual growth, peace, Free Quaker Pamphlets organizations and demand equal time. and social concerns. All faiths welcome. For information, Older Pendle Hill Pamphlets, Quaker Universalists, Will· Let us then return to the faith of our application: BHFH, 6 Chestnut Street, Boston, MA 0210B· iam Penn Lectures, for study groups, workshops, educa- 3624. (617) 227-9118. 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The Penn Club, 21 Bedford Place, London WC1 B issue, the caption for the photograph on page 5JJ. Telephone: +44 (207) 636·471B. Fax: +44 (207) 636- 5516. . Bookplates, personalized or not, make great 12 contains an error. Those pictured are (from gifts. Antioch Bookplates plus our own line of Ashland, Oreg.-Friendly place in Southern Oregon for bookplates printed by Antioch. Visit . P.O. Box 471, Yellow Hathaway's 8&8 and Garden Suites. ; (BOO) 643-4434.

fRIENDS }OURNALju(y 2006 61 Pilgrim's Oasis: Sanctuary for women seeking solitude, Opportunities silence, simplicity. Spacious 1890s farmhouse, 5 bedrooms, 9 beds, meditation/prayer room, art room, and more. Or­ Summer at Pendle Hill Concerned Utneks_ ganic vegetarian meals served. Ideal for sabbaticals, small July 9-13: Practicing Prayer Today, with Nancy Bieber workshops and short retreats. Walk across covered bridge July 9-13: Digging to the Roots, Riding the Wind: A to beautiful gentle trails along ponds, meadows, woods, and Concerned Singles links socially conscious singles Clay and Writing Workshop, with Alan Steinberg and pristine river. $60 per night. Montgomery Center, Vermont. Fred Taylor who care about peace, social justice, race, gender (802) 326-2192. July 14-16: Qi Gong: Powerful, Simple Self-Care, with equity, environment. Nationwide/international. All ages, Chincoteague Island, Va. Two charming, adjacent, fully Kevin Greene straight/gay. Since 1984. Free sample: Box 444-FJ, Lenox Dale, MA 01242; (413) 243-4350; . tected Assateague Island (wild ponies, ocean beaches, ers, with Niyonu Spann birds ... ). September to mid-June, approx. $250/weekend, July 23-27: The Joy of Dyeing: Natural Japanese $500/wk. each. Polite pets permitted. (703) 448-8678, Papers, with June-Etta Chenard . July 28-30: Inquirers' Weekend: Basic Quakerism, Positions Vacant with Mary Ellen Chijioke and Trayce Peterson Tranquil Topsail Island, N.C. New, 2-story house. Three Job Openings at Friends General Conference: July 30-August 3: Paint Cheerfully: Introduction to bedrooms, 2.5 baths, sleeps 6. Overlooks marshlands Major Gifts and Planned Giving Manager beginning Janu­ Chinese Calligraphy and Landscape, with Bob Schmitt and Intracoastal Waterway. 2 blocks from the beach. ary 2007. Duties include developing and implementing August 8-10: Telling Our Stories, with Allan Brick 2006 Rental Rates are: 5/6-5/20 $675; 5/20-8/25 $925; planned giving program, cultivating and soliciting major gifts 8/25-10/7 $810; 10/7-10/28$675. Off-season long-term For more information, contact: Pendle Hill, and planned gifts, assisting with major development cam­ 338 Plush Mill Road, Wallingford, PA 19086- paigns. Travel approximately 50% time. Will consider expe­ rentals available. For information, visit website: . Call (610) 796-1089, or e-mail 6099. (800) 742-3150, extension 3. . in Philadelphia office. Professional development experience, . writing, and relationship skills essential. Major gift, cam­ paign, and planned giving experience preferable. This is an Cape May, N.J. Beach House-weekly rentals; weekend Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves: The Center for rentals in off-season. Sleeps 12+. Great for family re­ Bioregional Living, W.Va. Permaculture Design Course July exciting opportunity to become part of FGC's vital and dynamic development program. Work with Associate Secre­ unions! Block from beach. Close to mall. Ocean views 23-August 8, Andrew Faust, instructor (Guilford alumnus, from wraparound porch. Call: (718) 398-3561. 1990). Flexible-length internships, natural building and or­ tary for Development and Interpretation and other staff. ganic vegetable production. (304) 653-8582, <1reefaust Application deadline 10/01/06. @juno.com>. Conference Associate beginning October 2006. Works Bald Head Island, N.C. Panoramic view of ocean, dunes, with Conference Coordinator to support FGC Gathering and lagoon, and golf course from four-bedroom, two-bath­ other conferences. Strong organizational and interpersonal room, beautifully furnished house with wraparound deck, Do you care about the future skills essential. Application deadline 9/01/06. of the Religious Society of Friends? two electric golf carts. 14 miles of beach, championship Both positions full-time, full benefits. Send resume & letter golf, tennis, croquet, swimming, and fishing. 13,000 acres Support growing meetings and a spiritually vital Quak­ to General Secretary, FGC, 1216 Arch Street, 2B, Philadel­ of maritime wilderness. Many birds and wildflowers. No erism for all ages with a deferred gift to Friends phia, PA 19107, or cars on island. Peaceful, friendly. Rental by day or week. General Conference (bequest, charitable gift annu­ Kitchen Manager, to start September 1, 2006. Responsi­ (215) 699-9186. ity, trust). bilities: prepare community dinners five nights per week, For information, please contact Michael order provisions and stock the kitchen, maintain routine Pocono Manor. Beautiful, rustic mountain house suitable Wajda at FGC, 1216 Arch Street, 2-B, kitchen cleaning and care of equipment, participate in the for gatherings, retreats, and reunions. Seven bedrooms. Philadelphia, PA 191 07; (215) 561-1700; life of the residential community. 25 hours a week. Compen­ Three full baths. Beds for 15. Fully equipped. Deck with . sation: room and board, salary and health care. Inquire by mountain view. Hiking trails from back door. Weekends or July 31 to: (617) 227-9118 or [email protected]. See also by the week, April through October. Contact Melanie Douty: Quaker House Ann Arbor has periodic openings in a six­ . (215) 736-0948. person intentional community based on Friends principles. (734) 761-7435. ; . (3): Facilitate and help plan 10-day-long Quaker Retirement Living high school program. Service projects, field Friends House, a Quaker-sponsored retirement commu­ Connecting Friends trips, art projects, discussions, games, Quaker values, and history. July 13-22, 2006, check nity in Santa Rosa, California, offers one- and two-bedroom Crossing Cultures out our gallery from last year-. Contact: bath homes for independent living. Immediate occupancy Nancy Diaz (610) 566-4507/(800) 742-3150 ext. 161. may be available. An assisted-living home, and a skilled Vincula a los Amigos . nursing facility, are also available on campus. Friends House Sobrepasa Barreras Culturales is situated one hour north of San Francisco with convenient access to the Pacific coast, redwood forests, cultural events, Cambia Vldas Real Estate medical services, and shopping. Friends House, 684 Benicia Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95409. (707) 538-0152. Cohousing in Vermont! Come build community with us on .friendshouse.org>. Section of the Americas for information about planned 125 acres near Burlington, Vt. Lots, homes, available now. gift opportunities ranging from life income gifts (such Visit . as charitable gift\ annuities) to language for including For sale or possibly creative time share. Charming par­ FWCC 1n your estate plans. Louise Salinas, Associate tially renovated very small home. 40 minutes from State Secretary, (215) 241-7251 , . nearby trails. Nice view. Huntingdon, Pa. Walking distance to train line to Phil./ Pittsburgh . Costa Rica Study Tours: Visit the Quaker community in Call M. Gresham (610) 933-1967. Monteverde. For information and a brochure contact Sarah Quaker Commercial Realtor specializing in income prop­ Kendal communities and services reflect sound Stuckey: +011 (506) 645-5436; write: Apdo. 46-5655, erty sales and 1031 replacements nationally. Call Allen management, adherence to Quaker values, and respect Monteverde, Costa Rica; [email protected]>; Stockbridge, JD, CCIM at (877) 658-3666. ; or call in the USA (937) 728- for each individual. 9887. Quaker in the Real Estate world offering professional help Continuing care retirement communities: with selling and buying your home. Minutes from Pendle Hill, Kendal at Longwood; Grasslands • Kennett Square, Pa. Quaker Writers and Artists! Delaware County, Pa. Referrals accepted. Questions wel­ Kendal at Hanover· Hanover, N.H. comed! Gloria Todor, (610) 328-4300. Century 21. Join the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts ($25/year), and Kendal at Oberlin • Oberlin, Ohio share your work with Friends in our exciting Quaker REALTOR specializing in Bucks County, Pa., Kendal at Ithaca· Ithaca, N.Y. quarterly,"Types and Shadows." Seeking short fiction and Mercer County, N.J. I welcome the opportunity to Kendal at Lexington • Lexington, Va. and non-fiction, poetry, drawings, B&W photos, and exceed your expectations. Mark Fulton, Prudential Fox Kendal on Hudson· Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. NEWS of Quaker art/artists. Help create a new chapter and Roach Realtors, 83 South Main Street, Yardley, PA Kendal at Granville • Granville, Ohio in Quaker history! Info: FQA, c/o PYM, 1515 Cherry 19067. (215) 493-0400 ext. 131. Independent living with residential services: St., Philadelphia, PA 19102. E-mail submissions OK. Coniston and Cartmel • Kennett Square, Pa. . . The Lathrop Communities • Northampton and Rentals &Retreats Easthampton, Mass. To consider mountain view retirement property, near Nursing care, residential and assisted living: a Friends center, visit or write Roy Italy. Peaceful location in the woods on an Umbrian hillside Joe and Ruth Stuckey, 1182 Hornbeam Road, Sabina, for writers, artists, musicians, or families. Modern cottage in Barclay Friends • West Chester, Pa. OH 45169. traditional stone: large living room, kitchen/dining room, one Advocacy/education programs: bathroom, two bedrooms (sleeps maximum 6). Non-smok­ Untie the Elderly • Pa. Restraint Reduction Initiative ing. Contact: Allison Jablonko, Via della Ginestra, 12, Tuoro Kendal Outreach, LLC sui Trasimeno (PG), Italy. E-mail: . Personals Collage, Assessment Tool for Well Elderly Blueberry Cottage on organic lavender, blueberry, and For information, contact: Doris Lambert, The Kendal Single Booklovers, a national group, has been getting dairy goat farm in the mountains of N. Carolina. Pond, Corporation, 1170 E. Baltimore Pike, Kennett Square, unattached booklovers together since 1970. Please mountain views, protected river. Sleeps 8+. Family farm visit PA 19348. (610) 388-5581. write P.O. Box 1658, Andalusia, PA 19020 or call (800) or romantic getaway. Near Celo Friends Meeting. By week E-mail . 717-5011. or day. or (866) 212-2100.

62 july 2006FRIENDS jOURNAL Stratford Friends School provides a strong academic All Things Calligraphic program in a warm, supportive, ungraded setting for chil­ dren ages 5 to 13 who learn differently. Small classes and Carol Gray, Calligrapher(Quaker). Specializing in wed­ an enriched curriculum answer the needs of the whole ding certificates. Reasonable rates, timely turnarounds. child. An at-risk program for five-year-olds is available. . The school also offers an extended day program, tutor­ ing, and summer school. Information: Stratford Friends School, 5 Llandillo Road, Havertown, PA 19083. (610) 446-3144. Summer Camps MEDFORD LEAS CAMP CELO: A small farm home camp in the North Junior high boarding school for grades 7, 8, 9. Small Medford Leas Continuing Care Retirement Carolina mountains. Under Quaker leadership for over academic classes, challenging outdoor experiences, com­ 50 years. Boys and girls ages 7-12. 3:1 camper/staff Community munity service, consensus decision making, daily work ratio. , (828) 675-4323. Medford Leas welcomes you to visit our CCAC­ projects in a small, caring, community environment Arthur accredited, Quaker-related continuing care retirement Morgan School, 60 AMS Circle, Burnsville, NC 28714. community! Blending the convenience and accessibil­ (828) 675-4262. , . an arboretum and nature preserve, Medford Leas offers sessions of two or three weeks for 32 boys and continues the long tradition of Quaker interest in Lansdowne Friends School-a small Friends school for girls, ages 7-12. One-week Family Camp in August. plants and nature and their restorative qualities. A boys and girls three years of age through sixth grade, rooted Farm animals, gardening, nature, ceramics, shop. wide range of residential styles (from garden-style in Quaker values. We provide children with a quality academic Nonviolence, simplicity, reverence for nature are apartments to clustered townhouses) are arranged and a developmentally appropriate program in a nurturing emphasized in our program centered in the life of amidst the unique beauty of over 200 acres of land­ environment Whole language, thematic education, conflict a Quaker farm family. Welcome all races. Apply early. scaped gardens, natural woodlands, and meadows. resolution, Spanish, after-school care, summer program. Kristin Curtis, 364 Sterling Road, Newfoundland, PA With campuses in both Medford and Lumberton, New 110 N. Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, PA 19050. (610) 18445. Jersey, the cultural, intellectual, and recreational offer­ 623-2548. ings of Philadelphia, Princeton, and New York City are Telephone: (570) 689-3911. Financial aid available. just 30 to 90 minutes away. In addition, many popular Frankford Friends School: coed, Pre-K to grade 8; New Jersey shore points are also within similar driv­ serving center city, Northeast, and most areas of Phila­ ing distances. Medford Monthly Meeting is thriving, delphia. We provide children with an affordable yet chal­ Summer Rentals active,and caring. Amenity and program highlights lenging academic program in a small, nurturing environ­ include: walking/biking trails, tennis courts, indoor ment Frankford Friends School, 1500 Orthodox Street, Cottage on Bailey Island, Maine. 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and outdoor swimming pools, fitness centers and pro­ Philadelphia, PA 19124. (215) 533-5368. sleeps 6, crib, porch with Mackerel Cove view, Maine ayah! grams, computer center, greenhouses, very active Brunswick Meeting nearby. $950/week plus deposit. (215) self-governed residents' association with over 80 United Friends School: coed; preschool-S; emphasiz­ 361-9548. committees, on-site "university" program, and much ing integrated, developmentally appropriate curricu­ more. Extensive lifetime Residence and Care Agree­ lum, after- school arts, sports, and music programs. Bus­ Uzes, France-known as '1he gateway to Provence"- ment covers medical care, and future long-term nurs­ ing available. 1018 West Broad Street, Quakertown, PA traditional 3-bedroom town house in the historic center of ing and/or assisted living care without caps or limits. 18951. (215) 538-1733. . 1555, but totally modernized. 100 meters to the Place .medfordleas.org>. aux Herbes, with lovely cafes and a famous twice-weekly market. Festivals throughout the summer. Wireless Beautiful Pleasant Hill, Tenn. Affordable and diverse ac­ Services Offered Internet Two terraces. Quaker meeting an hour by car. tivist community. Full-range, independent homes to nursing 600-1,000 euros per week. See at: , e-mail: or (312) care. Local Quaker Meeting. (931) 277-3518 for brochure or Ahimsa Graphics visit . 996-4828. Wedding Certificates, Celebrations of Commitment calligraphy, illustration, custom design Friends Homes, Inc., founded by North Contact: Penny Jackim: Provence, France. Beautiful secluded stone house, vii- Carolina Yearly Meeting of the Society of (401) 783-1972 lage near Avignon, 3 BR (sleeps 5-6), kitchen/dining Friends, has been providing retirement op­ Samples: room, spacious living room, modern bathroom. Terrace, tions since 1968. Both Friends Homes at courtyard, view of medieval castle. Separate second Guilford and Friends Homes West are fee­ house sleeps 4. Both available year-round $1,200- for-service, continuing care retirement com­ HANDYMAN/LIGHT REMODELING. Serving hour ra­ $2,900/mo. . Marc Simon, munities offering independent living, assisted living, dius around Pendle Hill. Over 25 years experience. In­ rue Oume, 30290 Saint Victor, France, ; or J. Simon, 124 Bondcroft, Buffalo, NY Carolina, both communities are close to Guilford Col­ tenance worker. Free estimates. Doug Durren (61 0) 909- 14226; (716) 836-8698. lege and several Friends meetings. Enjoy the beauty 0687. of four seasons, as well as outstanding cultural, intel­ lectual, and spiritual opportunities in an area where Calligrapher (NEYM) creates individually designed mar­ Quaker roots run deep. For information please call: riage certificates, birth/naming documents for newborn (336) 292-9952, or write: Friends Homes West, 6100 or adopted children, and other one-of-a-kind documents. W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27410. Friends Homes, Inc. owns and operates communities dedi­ See samples of my work at . Con­ cated to the letter and spirit of Equal Housing Opportu­ tact me to discuss your needs at (413) 634-5576, . @wynnellewellyn.com>.

The Hickman, a nonprofit, Quaker­ H FREEMAN 12204 Salisbury Road South sponsored retirement community in • Richmond, IN 47374 ~ma1z historic West Chester, has been 610-909-8385 quietly providing excellent care to ASSOCIATES, LLC [email protected] older persons for over a century. Call today for a tour: (484) 760-6300, or visit our brand-new website . Consulting services for educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. Fundraising. Capital cam- paigns. Planned giving. Recent clients include liberal arts colleges, seminaries, independent schools, social Schools service agencies, Pendle Hill, FGC, and many other Friends organizations. .

Purchase Quarterly Meeting (NYYM) maintains a peace tax escrow fund. Those interested in tax witness may EARLHAM wish to contact us through NYYM, 15 Rutheliord Place, SCHOOL 'f RELIGION New York, NY 10003. Biblical Studies-"ln the Scripture God has deemed it properto give us a looking glass in which we can see the Custom Marriage Certificates and other traditional or conditions and experiences of ancient believers. There decorated documents. Various calligraphic styles and we find that our experiences are analogous to theirs."­ watercolor designs available. Over ten years' experience. Robert Barclay. The Biblical Studies graduate emphasis Pam Bennett, P. 0. Box 136, Uwchlan, PA 19480. (610) is one of four in ESR's MA Religion program. The MA in 458-4255. . Religion is for those interested in research, continuation toward a PhD, or another form of educational ministry. Moving? Maybe David Brown, a Quaker real estate bro­ For Biblical Studies with a Quaker influence, contact ker, can help. Contact him at or (800) 432-1377. .com>.

FRIENDS JOURNAL jury 2006 63 Make a Planned Gift to FGC

Why is planned giving important to FGC and the future of Quakerism? Friends General Conference is working to nurture a vibrant future for Quakerism. FGC nurtures individuals, meetings, and the Religious Society of Friends as a whole by providing a wide range of practical and spiritual resources that help to make the presence of God real to seekers and Friends. By remembering FGC in your estate plan, you will help to nurture Quakerism beyond your own lifetime. How can I include FGC in my estate plan? " Include FGC as a beneficiary in your will. " Make one bequest that supports both FGC and your monthly, quarterly, or yearly meeting. " Name FGC as a beneficiary of your IRA, retirement plan, or life insurance policy. "Friends General Conference fulfills " Establish an FGC charitable gift annuity ~ my need for diversity of spiritual that offers you both income for life and j enrichment. I want to insure that the generous tax benefits. work and outreach of Friends General " Include FGC in your charitable trust. Conference goes on into the future, How can I find out more? so I have included FGC in my will." Please contact Michael Wajda in the FGC - Louise E. Harris, Friendship Friends Meeting, Winston-Salem Worship Group, Development Office at 215-561-1700 or North Carolina [email protected].