May 2002 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today
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() 0 3 -o .. 0 lJ VI IJJ ;o.m (.1) (/) 5' ~E-St: VAR!_Ety the- n~snc · s Friends in the Arts An Among Friends independent magazine serving the Reconciling the Irreconcilable Religious Society of am deeply grateful to the staff of FRIENDS JoURNAL for doing another arts issue Friends the first since 1979-and for involving me as a consulting editor. Since Chuck I Fager (p.9) has covered most of what I could say about the Fellowship of Quakers Editorial Susan Corson-Finnerty (Publisher and Executi~e in the Arts, I feel liberated to speak of how I experience being an artist and a Friend. Editor), Roben Dock.horn (Senior Editor), Lisa The person most responsible for my becoming a Friend was my Quaker aunt, Rand (Acting.AJsistant Editor), Judith Brown Mary Loomis Wilson, a painter. After she became convinced in the 1950s, I saw her (Poetry Editor), Ellen Michaud (Book Revino Editor), J. Brent Bill (.AJsistant Book Revino Editor), art become steadily lighter, more joyous, freer, more abstract, more Spirit-led. Yet she Joan Overman (Book Revino .AJsistant}, Christine told me, a few years before her death at Foxdale in 1999, that she had kept her Rusch (Milestones Editor), Julie Gochenour, Roben Marks, Cameron McWhiner (Nnos Editors), Kara Quakerism and her art in separate boxes until she was past 80. Newell (Columnist), Marjorie Schier (Copyeditor) Only when I began attending Friends meetings in Philadelphia 20 years ago did I Production Barbara Benton (Art Director), Alia Podolsky become aware of the historic Quaker antipathy to the arts. I have been laboring to (Assistant Art Director), Manin Kelley (Web understand it ever since. I find the scruples and insights of early Friends worth taking Manager) seriously. My sense is that their premises were valid, but that the bounds of historical Advertising, Circulation, Development Nagendtan Gulendran (Advertising Manager), circumstance and their 17th-century worldview led them to draw the wrong Nicole Hackel (Circulation .AJsistant), Pamela conclusions. Nelson (Development .AJsistant), Kay Bacon, Ruth Peterson, Roben Sutton (Volunturs) Modern liberal Quaker attitudes toward the arts are full of paradox. Friends Administration integrate art with the fabric of their common life in forms that are spontaneous, Marianne De Lange (Office Manager), Tom McPeak Spirit-led, ephemeral, and cooperative. All are artists; aesthetic excellence doesn't (Accounting Services), Tom Hartmann (Volunteer) Board of Trustees matter any more than it matters to vocal ministry. The testimonies loom large; art Barbara Andrews, Lucinda Antrim, TylaAnn serves the prophetic functions of truthtelling, healing, and celebration. Burger (Treasurer), Katharine Clark, Linda Coffin, John Darnell, William Deutsch, Mary Ann All this is healthy and good, as far as it goes. But it isn't much help to the Downey, Walter Evans, Marsha Green (Recording individual Friend who feels called to be a serious artist, who has worked hard to Clerk), Dan Hewitt, Linda Lyman, Larry Miller, master a craft. There appears to be a strong disvaluing of artistic excellence among Julian O'Reilley, Ruth Peterson, David Runkel, Jonathan Tamez, Wilmer Tjossem, Elizabeth Friends; the idea that one would put one's energy into mastering a craft rather than Yeats (Clerk), Anne-Marie Zilliacus into something socially useful (such as committee service) is seen as an un-Quakerly FRJENDSJouRNAL (ISSN 00 16-1322) was established in 1955asthesuccessorto TheFriend(I827-1955) obsession with trivia. and Friends lntelligencer (1844-1955). Yet for many Quaker artists, the Spirit means the Muse. I wait on the Muse at the • FRJENDS joURNAL is published monthly by keyboard. The process ofartistic creation is one of Holy Obedience, of ongoing Friends Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone dialogue with the Spirit. To be cut off from my art is to be cut off from that dialogue. (215) 563-8629. E-mail [email protected]. As Friends we are called to live in the tensions, to keep connected to both poles of Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, Pa., and additional mailing offices. a seemingly irreconcilable conflict; to resist the temptation to seek ease by opting out • Subscriptions: one year $29, two years $54. Add of one or the other. Living in the tensions is an internal manifestation of the Peace $6 per year for postage to countries outside the U.S., Testimony. It is the way of the Cross. Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $3 each. • Advertising information and assistance is available Reconciling the irreconcilable is what my art is about. I am continually trying to on request. Appearance of any advertisement does say at least two mutually exclusive things at once. The struggle to find ways in which not imply endorsement by FRIENDSj OURNAL. the medium will allow me to do so is one way I -to use a venerable Quaker • Postmaster: send address changes to FRJENDS JouRNAL, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA phrase-"keep in the daily cross." Being a Quaker and an artist is another. 19107-2835. • Copyright © 2002 by Friends Publishing Corporation. Permission should be received before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. Available on microfilm from Bell and Howell Information and Learning. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER Min. 20% post-consumer Esther GreenleafMurer, guest editor for this issue, is a writer, composer, and literary translator. She is the editor ofTypes & Shadows, the quarterly journal ofthe Fellowship ofQuakers in the Arts, and Moving? Let us update your the FQA publication Beyond Uneasy Tolerance (see excerpts on p. 11-15). Her most recent FJ subscription and address. article on the arts was "Quakerism and the Arts: And Now, the Good News . .. A Dialogue with the FRIENDS JouRNAL, m6 Arch St., 2A. Past, "FJ October 1994. Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 • (215) 563-8629 Fax: (215) 568-1377 • [email protected] Web: www.friendsjournal.org
2 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 FRI ENDS Volume 48, No.5 JOURNAL Features Additional Visual Artists
6 Art as Soul's Sanctuaty: The Making of a Leading 15 Trudy Myrrh Reagan Jennifer Elam 16 RonNuse Her quest to understand the power ofart almost ended in second grade. 24 Cathy Weber 30 Danid Coston 9 An Interview with Chuck Fager Robert Dockhorn 32 James Turrell The clerk ofFellcwship ofQuakers in the Arts comments on his experiences. Poetry 10 Quakers'-and Everyone's--Need for the Arts Janet Mustin 17 Care Committee Art is vital to spiritual health. Liz Oppenheimer 11 Quakers on the Arts, 1658-1995 Departments Esther Greenleaf Miirer These excerpts from Beyond Uneasy Tolerance reveal an evolution 2 Among Friends from antipathy to acceptance. 4 Forum 18 Reflections on the Life and Art ofAsa Watkins Viewpoint Manuel Macarrulla 5 Vigilance is necessary Asa Watkins sart was influenced by his CO service in a mental hospitaL 34 Witness A promise to Aiyat 22 Music and the Spirit of Creativity Jim Dragoni 36 Reports Creating music is similar to being in a meeting for worship. Convergence: poems for peace Sharing the Peace Testimony with our 24 A Celebration of Life and Death community Robert C. Murphy Overcoming griefmeans opening up to the depth ofour spirits. 38 Books 26 Jack's Last Day 45 News pansy bradshaw 48 Bulletin Board Present reality mixes with recollected moments 50 Milestones ofa friendship. 56 Classified 28 Reflections on My Creative Journey Caroline Balderston Parry Her artistic awareness has been heightened by julia Cameron s Cover art: "Quest, "by Trudy Myrrh writings. Reagan, is an exploration ofthe search 31 Light Made Tangible for meaning throughout history by Phyllis Hoge scientists, artists, and spiritual seekers. What is it like to worship in a work ofart? The eclipse in the center shows that no one person or group ofpeople will ever know the whole pattern. It is a watercolor with incised white lines. f----- FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2002 3 Forum
Scott Simon, war is the way? In the camp I met Walter Alexander, a them have no doubt been well-aired in the fellow university graduate, who was U.S., so I almost hesitate to reopen this When individuals go public in the media receiving literature of the Wider Quaker issue. advocating a position relative to a high Fellowship. Through this we learned of the I read Scott Simon's comments and was profile public issue and make a claim that Quaker initiative to recruit a number of CO very disappointed. I was disappointed they are a Quaker, such as Scott Simon did volunteers to do relief work in China. because here was a fellow Quaker wimessing in his article "Reflections on the Events of Walter and I volunteered and in due course, against two of the most important truths in September 11" (Fj Dec. 200 1), that the government approved our release from the Quaker faith: unity and Christian individual has the responsibility to explain alternate service to join the Friends nonviolence. How important it is that we the relationships of his or her position to Ambulance Unit in China. Along with eight can share the unifying experience of hearing fundamental Quaker beliefS and principles. other volunteers, we had brief, intensive God's leadings together as a fellowship. If their position is supported by their training in Chinese language and culture, Scott Simon's comments reveal something Quaker faith and beliefs, well and good. If, plus some Quaker indoctrination at Pendle about how we have allowed "diversity" to however, Quaker testimonies are to be Hill. On December 19, 1943, the first three get in the way of that experience. Doesn't ignored, then why state one is a Quaker? of the group, Walter Alexander, Jack Dodds, the stand he has taken illustrate the end The strength of the Religious Society of and I, left from Philadelphia bound for result of diversity: a watered-down witness Friends comes from those who put their China by a route veiled in rnilitaty secrecy. and moral relativism? beliefS into action, regardless of the potential We traveled by ship to Calcutta and flew Secondly, he refers to pacifism as "fatally personal hazard of so doing. Public "over the hump" in a transport plane to flawed." As I understand it, Quakers have statements by those who disclaim and China. never believed in "pacifism." I tend to avoid qualify the validity of fundamental Quaker Then began the most memorable and the term ~'pacifism" and prefer the term beliefS compromise the strength of the cherished experiences of my 85 years. I was "Christian nonviolence." There is an Religious Society of Friends. Scott Simon allocated to medical teams on the Indo important difference. Pacifism is an "ism," should have stated his opinion as a personal China and Burma borders where I had as an intellectual position taken on the basis of position and FRIENDS JouRNAL should not coworkers and mentors the finest of persons, human thought and argument. Positions have published such an opinion. With 90 some of whom became lifelong friends. like this can be argued against and people percent approving the "War on Terrorism," Needless to say, I found among Friends my dissuaded from them. It is then possible to who will speak out for another way if not spiritual home. agree with Scott Simon, when he said that Quakers? On August 25, 1946, I disembarked in Quakers and Mennonites joined up in Toni and Ted Brinton San Francisco where a letter awaited me World War II because they could offer no West Chester, Pa. from Dr. Vivien Duggan, one of my former intellectual response to Hitler, ifl read him classmates in medicine to whom I became properly. An open letter to Scott Simon engaged before leaving for China, which Christian nonviolence arises from inward announced, "We get married on September obedience to the Living Christ. Such acts of The many thought-provoking responses 6, and you go back to medical school obedience do not rely on intellectual called forth by your article, "Reflections on September 10." We did and I did. The rest argument, but from a sense of deep, inward the Events of September 11" (Fj Dec. of the less traveled road we have taken conviction. Although these convictions can 2001), is evidence of its value. You have together has been joyful, exciting, and and do often make sense intellectually, done Quakers a service in calling upon us to satisfying. The One who booked the journey sometimes they don't. The Quaker Peace examine afresh our Peace Testimony and its has also looked afrer the baggage, and as I Testimony is a testimony or witness. By implications. look back, all I can say is I have so much to being obedient to it, we testify or witness As the son of a dedicated Anglican be thankful for and I'd do it again. that we are living in the Power of Christ, country pastor, I became a pacifist in my late and the refusing to take up arms is a teens when I was convinced that if one took Edwin V Abbott testimony that Christ is alive and can lead us the teachings ofJesus seriously there is no Oro Station, Ontario into righteousness, if we are willing to obey. other way. When the war erupted in 1939, I It is a sign of our personal, inward had graduated in Philosophy and completed transformation and the fact that we are some Theology studies. In December of The. Quaker. Peace Testimony . under God's leading. This is the basis of all 1942, I was completing the third year of 1s a tesumony or Witness Quaker testimonies; it is also part of what medicine when it was required that all able we understand as "Gospel Order." bodied male medical students join the Many Friends in the U.S. must be taking The original 1660 declaration, which militaty and complete their medical training stock of the events since Ninth Month, many Quakers ofseveral traditions use, in uniform. Having spent my vacations 2001, and the subsequent events in clearly states that it is "the spirit of Christ by delivering ice, working in a smelter, and Afghanistan, and must be asking how which we are led." Early Friends took up underground in a nickel mine to earn my Friends can wimess to their truth in light of this position because they believed that tuition fees, having the fees and living costs these events. I had a chance to reflect on this Christ was leading them into it, not because paid by the government was some when I read Scott Simon's contribution they thought it was a good idea. I've always inducement to join up. I am thankful that posted on the Internet on the United lived in the hope that Friends hold to our my leadings were such that I took the Church News (
4 May 2002 FRIENDSJouRNAL Viewpoint Vigilance is necessary or one of us, it was difficult to accept sponding to the leadership of the president It is our contention that there needs the Peace Testimony when first a with unquestioning loyalty while civil liber to be organized opposition to the sugges Fmember of the Religious Society of ties are being threatened: the overwhelming tion that an exceedingly expensive missile Friends. It was not until her son was in the passage of the USA Patriot Act by the House system be developed. The New York Times Mekong Delta that she became aware of and Senate represents wide-ranging limita and the Nation have printed news stories the futility of war. She came to the tions on civil liberties; innocent Afghan and commentaries that persuasively state realization that· the mothers, wives, and women, children, and men are being killed; the futility of this particular method in sisters of all those fighting on either side not to mention the destruction and desola this wac and opposition to further bomb were praying the same prayers, "Lord, keep tion that the defense of what we deem our ings in which innocent civilians inevi my husband/son/brother safe." Now once libetty is producing. Our nation is agreeing to tably are drastically affected, even if again we are at war and expect the God to atrocities perpetrated upon the guilty as well they survive. whom we pray to keep our men and women as upon the innocent. Is wanton cruelty ever We are disheartened and frightened safe. justified? by what appears to be unprecedented ap After the tragedy of September 11, it There can be no argument about the fact proval of decisions made by the president was heartening to see our country come that our nation's security system failed us and those he has placed "in charge" of together in unity, to pray together, to make miserably when it became possible for 19 this war. We urge members and attendees sacrifices to honor the victims of fhis trag terrorists trained by our flight schools to hi at Friends meetings to insure that their edy. But now flags are flying everywhere, jack four planes and cause immeasurable death individual voices and- at least as impor and crowds chant "USA, USA." Suddenly and destruction. Our intelligence and secu tant-the voices of their meetings are we are fearful. Although we love our coun rity systems obviously need to be vastly im heard when as a nation we are engaged try and its ideals, all the flag-waving and proved, but let us not permit that to happen in unconscionable practices. We are patriotic rhetoric remind us ofGermany in at the expense of our civil libetties and the reminded of the words of Wendell the 1930s. There, too, the flags waved, targeting of innocent foreigners living in our Phillips, abolitionist and orator, "Eternal while the swastikas waved and were proudly midst. Surely we can detain (without totture!) vigilance is the price oflibetty." worn, and the people shouted "Heil Hider." for as long as seems necessary, with appropri And where did this flag-waving and adula ate counsel, proven al-Qaida members, and Doris A. Ashley, tion lead? To an unimaginable horror! we can monitor known terrorist nerworks New Bedford (Mass.) Meeting There is an analogy to be made here: without negating the values that defme the Margrit Meyer, many in this country are waving flags, re- democratic system in the U.S. Detroit (Mich.) Meeting
Are peaceful means reacting badly. Irresponsibility can be the anybody be surprised, when our government only result of not responding. has militarily intervened in foreign countries acceptable in all cases? So thanks for printing what seems to me 67 times since I became 21 in 1949? to be an "opposing" view. I am convinced Afghanistan makes it 68. (Information Thank you for printing Scott Simon's that peace is our goal; but in this world our available at
F RIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 5 ART AS SOUL'S SANCTUARY The Making ofa Leading by Jennifer Elam he stuffof the world is there to be made into images that T become for us tabernacles of spirituality and containers ofmystery. Ifwe don't allow soul its place in our lives, we are forced to encounter these mysteries in fetishes and symptoms, which in a sense are pathological art forms. The point ofart is not simply to express ourselves, but to create an external, concrete form in which the soul ofour lives can be evoked and contained Art is not about the expression oftalent or the making of pretty thing.r. It is about the preserva tion and containment ofsoul It is about arresting life and making it available for contemplation. Art cap tures the eternal in the everyday, and it is the eternal that feeds the soul -Thomas Moore, Care ofthe Soul Openings through Art Last week John flew from California to and I was one of the latter. I tried to draw anything related to art and had no idea Philadelphia to do art with me. He heard the flower just like the teacher told us to what I was doing there. At a deep level, I about doing simple art as prayer for heal but I could not do it right. So I focused also knew I was right where I belonged. ing. We painted and prayed. At the end of on the academic world. Now I paint flow During one of the first classes, my teacher, the day, he said he had done deep spiritu ers that do not look anything like the one Sally Palmer, told us to make our judges, al work through this process. I am grate I failed at drawing in second grade. then put the judge on the shel£ We could consult the judge if we needed to but if ful to God for the possibility of using me A BIR&k Brick in My Chest as a vessel to help others find their prayers possible we were to let them sit on the for healing that come from a deep place Before I came to Pendle Hill in 1996, shelf while we did our work. I felt like I had a black brick in my chest. below the words. Since January of 1999, SalJy's Method I have felt led and am now living into the I could not breathe at times. I knew the form that leading may take. feeling was about not living up to my . Sally never gave us anything but posi potential, but I had no idea what was tive feedback about our work. She seemed Second Gmde Art needed. After I enrolled in a class called to value any expression of what came I never did art until over 40. I learned "Explorations in Clay," I remember from our soul's work. Our work was not in second grade that there were those who telling someone about that black brick compared to anyone else's nor to any had talent in art and those who did not, and referring to it as a clay brick. Each other external standard of perfection. The time I made a pot that term, I felt as task was to find what was inside of us and Jennifer Elam, ~ mer;zber of Berea (Ky.) know that what is there is a unique and Meettng and a so;ourmng member ofMedia though a piece of day had been pinched (Pa.) Meeting, is a licensed psychologist who has off from it. The sensation of the brick beautiful creation of God. If it seemed studied Quaker spirituality as well as the lives disappeared by the end of my seventh art ugly, it was probably not finished; some of Christian contemplatives and mystics. Her class. times she encouraged us to work more on ~alling to listen to the stories ofothers resulted those pieces. Isn't that a wonderful meta m a book, ~~cing with God through the Judge tm the Shelf phor for our lives? When we have ugliness Storm: Mysuctsm and Mental Illness, which When I began the first clay class, I was in our lives, it may just mean that we are can be ordered from
6 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL Warercolon by ]ennifor Flam Page 6; "Dancing with God through the Stonn" Left, "Singing Praises ofGratitude" Below, "Deep Cabn under a SUirmy Set/' Page 8, 'The Universe Aches to Paint a New Canvas"
started paying attention to dragons and cooked paste with acrylic paint to color it) found beautiful Chinese ones that were suited me. In clay class I had needed to not evil but creative creatures. make not just a couple of pots but a cou So I made dragons. Actually, I made a ple hundred pots. Likewise, I had to make herd of fire-breathing dragons. My drag hundreds of paste paper paintings, and I ons came to symbolize courage to go forth am still making them. Once the creation powerfully in my leadings. energy was freed, the paintings poured forth. I was named "Paste Paper Queen." Eneryy of Spirit Flows Through St:lwks ofMystical &perience with Paintings One of the most powerful exercises in During my second year at Pendle Hill, that first "Explorations I collected the stories of other people's in Clay" class involved mystical experiences of God. As I collect ed the stories, the paste papers came forth Sally asking us to write even more. Words from the stories came for seven minutes to be associated with the an. The color about God, Love, or and depth suited the subject matter; the any concept of a high inexpensive cost suited my budget. er Power in our lives. A poem came from the FestitJRl Week writing. We were then At the end ofeach term at Pendle Hill, to hold the clay and let we had an shows in the studio. One at a occur whatever was to time, the students showed their creations happen. My hands and had a chance to talk about their work. formed an image. I For me, this was a place where a pan of didn't know what it This an work was also "play." Having me that had never seen the light of day was, but I knew that I was not finished at permission to play in this way was so lib could shine forth, safely. There was no the end of the assignment. I had to keep erating! Play opened and lightened our criticism of each other's work, only appre going with another ball of clay as she ciation. A creative flower blossomed hearts, allowing deeper exploration. talked. · Play connects us to the divine child--our inside of me in that safe environment. When class was over, I looked at the sense ofawe and wonder. -Angeles Arrien figure and it was very clear to me that it Uno/ to AcceptRble to Beautifid DmtJtms was a pair ofangel wings enfolding a head At the beginning of the first class at On one occasion, Sally asked us to in despair. It was a very closed figure. The Pendle Hill, I had been unable to tolerate make a dragon. This assignment sent me second figure was very open, as if Spirit looking at my own creations. They just back to second grade when a teacher had energy were being invited in. This assign looked too ugly to me. After only one asked me to make something and I had ment was the greatest experience I had term of constant validation, having it no idea how. I didn't know how to create ever had of feeling spiritual energy flow explained that this creation energy is a dragon. I realized I had never paid any ing through me and creating. The cre God's work, and that I am just the vessel, attention to dragons and had no idea ation was not planned or directed by me; I came to view it as very insulting to God what the concept even meant to me. Fire I did not have the skill to plan and execute not to accept my work that I was given to breathing dragons seemed like an evil and the form as it came. do. In accepting myself as a vessel for threatening concept. I not only didn't This experience left me with a prayer God's work, I can now see the work as know how to make one but I didn't want that God would work through me in that beautiful co-creations with my Creator. to think about dragons. I left class, went way all of my life. to my room, and sobbed with feelings of Boo~ P~ and Color inadequacy. PRSte Paper Qpeen I took a wonderful class in bookmak During the second year, we had the In the spring of 1997, I was first intro ing with Paulus Behrenson. From the same assignment. After the first year, I duced to "paste papers." The medium (a paste papers as raw materials coming from
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 7 the depths of us, we made beautiful jour -dance, movement of color on the paper, the gallery of my mind. nal books. In that class, other people's and movement of the Spirit in our stories; Another woman, Katrina, never paint poetry came to be associated with the they go together. ed a picture before and looked in awe and paintings. In making books, we took the obvious longing at the samples I provid soul's raw material and massaged it into Art Shows: Moving Out into the ed. With minimal encouragement and products that were acceptable to send out World direction to set aside her fears and judges to the world. An important metaphor for The Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts and just do it, a gorgeous picture soon my life emerged. gave me a small grant to get six of my emerged. The look of awe and obvious paintings framed. The stipulation was pleasure at her creation is another beauti that I must show them. My first show was ful image on display in my personal inner at the FGC Gathering in 1999. As I sat gallery. waiting for my presentation about the art Mary, Susan, Kate, Carmen, Kim, and to begin, I was in awe of God's work in at least a hundred more had children they my life. Ifsomeone had suggested even six missed. They made books, cards, picture months earlier that I would be doing an frames, and other special creations to send art show at the Gathering, I would have to their children to connect in sweet poet been quite sure that they were mistaken. ry and other lovely ways. I also showed some of the pieces at Glitter was the highlight for them. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Then I was Paper, glue, glitter, and they were so very invited to do an interest group at happy. Looking around at the gray walls Baltimore Yearly Meeting. I asked the par with no sunlight or earth available to ticipants to write about a painting that ~em, the colors and reflections of the spoke to them, and several beautiful glitter pleased them. To touch it, look at poems resulted. Others were relating to it, pour it generously, spill it, sweep it my paintings; I was awed, again! actually any contact with the color I wonder: How can we teach our chil brought smiles from souls being fed. dren the lessons I learned through art as taught by Sally Palmer? How can we teach The Listening Center our children and encourage other adults Since that initial class at the women's to express their deepest spirituality and prison, I have been blessed to facilitate provide them with safe places to do so? many others doing paste papers and sim ple art projects as prayer and healing. Glitter in the ~:Art with Most recently, I felt a leading to open a Painting RS Meditation Women in Prison place where people can come to listen to I took a class called "Painting as Since those beginnings, I have had the God, self, and others through art, move Meditation" from Sister Helen David opportunity of facilitating openings in ment, and telling our stories. Springfield Brancato, three times. Like Sally, Sister others using art. My first program was (Pa.) Meeting provided me the space, Helen never judged my work according to during the spring of 1998. Janeal Ravndal Media (Pa.) Meeting gave a minute of external standards. She said that as we and I taught art to women at the Dela support, and Chester Quarter appointed work with the paint, the material of our ware County Prison, with the help of an oversight committee. I offer classes and unconscious comes forth. And it did; she many people at Pendle Hill to cut and open the space to others who have pas helped us to fmd the images and bring sew (since we were not allowed to bring sions and leadings that fit with mine. We them forward. scissors or needles). have had classes in dance, art with fami During this program, an inmate lies, art and healing, drum circle, and B~P~n- named Maria took paint and poured it more. In recent months, as a prayer of 0 humans, learn to dance! Otherwise the onto the paper, lots of colors all at once. transformation for our world, we have angels in Heaven wiU not know what to do With her hands she moved the paint been making beautiful handmade papers with you. - St. Augustine round and round and back and forth, from newspaper articles related to war. I became aware of the relationship obviously totally absorbed and delighted Can you join us in that prayer? between movement, worship, and art in with the freedom she was feeling. In his Journal, John Woolman the "Creativity and Spirit" class at Pendle Predictably, she soon had a paper covered described his prayers with Native Amer Hill. In the summer of 1997, I took a class with brown that got disparaging remarks icans. Chief Papunchang said, "I love to on mysticism at the Friends General from the others about what it looked like, feel where words come from." Art and Conference Gathering with Marcelle and holes began to appear in the paper. movement take me to a place of connec Martin. This was my first introduction to They even whispered that Maria was tion with God in that place from where movement as "body prayer." I learned a "slightly retarded." Her product will the words come; a place of sanctuary for beautiful one with the words: "Thank probably not be seen in an art gallery but the soul. you, praise you, and bless me to go out to the incredibly beautiful image of Maria When are we gonna paint, drum, and the world in your service." being delighted and feeling freedom while dance? 0 Movement of the body in worshipful incarcerated is permanently on display in
8 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL by Robert Dockhorn
Why is it important for Quaker artists to and new, who have put their creativity and niably esthetic qualities of Quaker faith know that the Fellowship of Quakers in spirituality together. There are some very and practice? the Arts exists? talented musicians, photographers, poets, Some Friends know how to do this. FQA can be useful because for most of and sculptors among us. And we've been FQA member James Turrell is a strong ex its history, the Religious Society ofFriends able to assist some Quaker artists in ex ample. [See Phyllis Hoge's article about has been openly hostile to most forms of ploring their gifts and getting them noticed. the meetinghouse he designed, pp. 31- artistic expression. One ofour board mem We've also had the sense, more than 32--eds.] And here's another example o.f bers, Esther Miirer, has documented this once, of helping make Quaker history. what I mean: in last summer's Lemonade in FQA's booklet, Beyond Uneasy Tolerance, For instance, in 1998, when we created Gallery, there were photographs by Mary which includes 100 quotes on the subject the Lemonade An Gallery at the Friends Waddington of her old meetinghouse in from weighty Friends, arranged historically General Conference (FGC) Gathering in New Jersey. In composition they were [see excerpts, pp. 11-15--eds.]. More than River Falls, Wisconsin, it was the first real simplicity itself, unadorned windows and half of these quotes are very negative and art gallery in FGC's 98-year history. We stairways and the like. And yet they practi make sobering reading. could feel ourselves pushing the envelope. cally radiated the kind of austere mysti While most Friends bodies have over (By the way, there's a whole saga that goes cism and beauty that we associate with come their formal opposition to the arts as with the creation of that gallery, which Quaker saints like John Wt~olman. Those a legitimate form of religious expression, can be found, with photos, on our website photographs quietly put Quakerism and the atmosphere in very many places is still, at
FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2002 9 Prints and drawing by Janet Mustin Left, a coUagraph print, "Reassembled Angel"; above, a monoprint, "Leaving the Garden"
by Janet Mustin Quakers' and Everyone's- Need for the Arts t is quite clear that Quakers need a sparse diet ofspirituality for the hungry. gry colors and wild compositions the fine arts. Efforts to make up The hunger for religion and the spiritual would become harmonious. I for the slights that the arts have life finds needed nourishment in the arts. Quakers, too, have had to con received from us Quakers are pop I discovered how important art was to tend with materialism. Poetry and ping up all around, and for good health when I suffered a deep depression. music offer no obstacles there, but reason. For too long Quakers viewed Emotion needs outward expression to be the visual arts are a hurdle. Monetary the arts as a frivolous pursuit, ignor adequately felt. When I felt like drawing value aside, a wonderful teacher once ing the need for artistic selfexpression the branches of a tree, it seemed to signal told me that the real value of a work except in journals and "good works." real improvement. The tree symbolized a of art was simply in the spiritual re But the climate was different then. In reaching out and up, with tentative growth. sponse that one felt in looking at it. the 18th and 19th centuries religion Later, as an art therapist, it was thrilling to That seems a very Quakerly thought. was in the very air one breathed, and see that as patients explored The hope and release the spirituality was expressed in lengthy the materials ofart, their feel artist feels in creating it is sermons and discourses. Today's ma ings and drawings could also a great part of its terialistic, rational, secular times offer change in a positive way. spiritual value. 0 janet Mustin, a member of Lansdowne One who drew only fences (Pa.) Meeting, is a painter andprintmaker began to draw the strings of who has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. a harp; a picture ofan ugly, She has taught sketching and printmaking menacing face would be re Left, a pencil sketch of and has volunteered as an art therapist. done as a benign face. An- john Brumbaugh
10 May 2002 FRIENDSJoURNAL FROM ANTIPATHY TO ACCEPTANCE, 1658 -1995
Qpakers on the Arts____ l
All ye poets, jesters, rhymers, makers of What poets, romances, comedies, and to suppon men who, in that capacity, verses and ballads, who bend your wits the like did the Apostles and saints were of no use to the world, was to please novelties, light minds, who make, or use to pass away their time contrary to the nature of the Christian delight in jests and toys, more than in withal? I know, they did redeem their religion. One of the company the simple naked truth which you time, to avoid foolish talking, vain endeavored to show by arguments the should be united to, you are for the jesti?g, profane babblings, and fabulous reasonableness of their proceedings undoing of many poor souls, it is your stones. herein; but afrer considering some texts work to tickle up the ears of people with -William Penn, 1682 of Scripture and calmly debating the your jests and toys; this proceeds from a matter he gave up the point. Afrer wrong heart where dwells the Christ Jesus bids us spending about an hour among them, lust, and feeds the wrong heart consider the lilies how they and feeling my mind easy, I departed. and mind and wits, which grow, in more royalty than brings them to the grave and Solomon. But contrary to -john Woolman, 1763 dust, and there buries the this, we must look at no minds and clogs the nature, colors, nor make anything Frequent and earnest have been the which is a shame to all that be that is changeable ·colors as advices of former yearly meetings, that in the modesty and pure the hills are, nor sell them, all under our name may avoid the sincerity and truth and cleaness nor wear them; but we attendance of vain sports, and places of of mind. . . . must be all in one dress and amusement, which diven the mind from one color; this is a silly poor serious reflection, and incline it to -George Fox, 1658 Gospel. It is more fit for us, wantonness and vanity. Understanding to be covered with God's that diversions of this kind are And therefore, all friends and Eternal Spirit, and clothed spreading, and playhouses increasing in people, pluck down your with his Eternal Light, various places, we are concerned to images; I say, pluck them out which leads us and guides renew a caution on this subject: being of your houses, walls, and us into righteousness. clearly convinced of the pernicious signs, or other places, that effects of these evil practices, the none of you be found imitators -Margaret Fell, 1700 inventions of degenerate man. of his Creator, whom you should serve and worship; and not There came a man to Mount Holly who · - London Year(y Meeting, 1785 observe the idle lazy mind, that would had previously published a printed go invent and make things like a Creator advertisement that at a certain public Soon afrer I appeared in the ministry, I and Maker.. . . house he would show many wonderful dropped my pen in regard to verses. I do -George Fox, ca. 1670 operations, which were therein not say it was a sacrifice required; but enumerated. At the appointed time he the continuing of the practice might It is not lawful for Christians to use did, by sleight of hand, perform sundry have proved a snare some way: it might games, sports, plays, comedies, or other things which appeared strange to the have engaged my attention too much, or recreations which are inconsistent with spectators. Understanding that the show tended to make me popular, which I Christian silence, gravity, or sobriety. was to be repeated the next night, and have ever guarded against, perhaps too Laughter, sports, games, mockery, or that the people were to meet about much so in some points. jests, useless conversation, and similar sunset, I felt an exercise on that account. matters are neither Christian liberty nor So I went to the public-house in the -Catherine Phillips, 1798 harmless mirth. evening, and told the man of the house -Robert Barclay, 1676 that I had an inclination to spend a part As our time passeth swiftly away, and of the evening there; with which he our delight ought to be in the law of the How many plays did Jesus Christ and signified that he was content. Then, Lord; it is advised that a watchful care be His Apostles recreate themselves at? sitting down by the door, I spoke to the exercised over our youth, to prevent their going to stage-plays, horse-races, Excerpted ftom Beyond Uneasy Tolerance: The people in the fear of the Lord, as they Saga of Quakers and the Arts in 100 Quo came together, concerning this show, music, dancing, or any such vain sports tations, compiled and chronoklgically arranged and labored to convince them that their and pastimes.. . . by Esther Greenleaf Murer (Felklwship of thus assembling to see these sleight-of Quakers in the Art>, 2000). hand tricks, and bestowing their money -Philadelphia Year(y Meeting, 1806
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 11 Ungrateful man! to error prone; the limner. Shallow indeed must be the The attitude assumed by the Friends Why thus thy Maker's goodness wrong? religion of him who knows not that in towards the fine arts, furnishes another And deem a luxury alone, himself, as a man, dwelleth no good evidence {as it appears to the writer) of His great and noble gift of song. thing. . . . We cannot suppose that our their imperfect apprehension of the primitive Friends would for a dignity of all the feelings Hast thou not known, or felt, or heard, moment have sanctioned so and emotions, originally How oft the poet's heav' n-born art, vain and weak an indulgence. implanted by the Creator Feeling and thought afresh have stirr'd, in the constitution of To touch, and purifY the heart? -The Friend (Phikulelphia), man... . 1848? Whilst the primitive - Bernard Barton, 1832 Quakers did not purpose If the Christian world was in absolutely to banish these My observation of human nature and the real spirit of Christ, I do pursuits from the homes the different things that affect it not believe there would be of themselves and their frequently leads me to regret that we as a such a thing as a fine painter successors, they so far Society so wholly give up delighting the in Christendom. It appears restrained the ear by sound. Surely He who formed the clearly to m e to be one of development of the ear and the heart would not have given those trifling, insignificant aesthetic element, that these tastes and arts, which has never been of acting in conjunction powers without any substantial advantage to with the general some purpose for mankind. But as the subjective character of the them. inseparable companion of system, Quakerism volupfUousness and pride, it became {what the French -Elizabeth Fry, has presaged the downfall of denominate) a specialite, 1833 empires and kingdoms; and in without the elastic, m y view stands now enrolled adaptive qualities, which Banish poetry and among the premonitory fit Christianity for every allow no scope for symptoms of the rapid decline tribe of men.... Here, the imagination of the American Republic. we imagine, lies the secret and men would . why Quakerism has be, what it is - Edward Hicks, 1851 made no progress amongst the indeed needless aboriginal tribes it has befriended that they should But there is something of importance in amongst the Negroes whose liberties it be, much more the example of the primitive Christians has struggled for-or (with trivial essentially selfish and primitive Quakers, to mind their ~ceptions) anywhere beyond the limits than they are at callings or business, and work with their of the Anglo-Saxon family; and also why present. own hands at such business as they are it has not proved a congenial home to capable of, avoiding idleness and that large class of persons whose -Richard Batt, fanaticism. Had I my time to go over characters are rather emotional, than 1836 again I think I would take the advice intellectual or reflective. given me by my old friend Abraham We believe [music] to be both in its Chapman, a shrewd, sensible lawyer that -john Stephenson Rowntree, 1859 acquisition and its practice, unfavorable lived with me about the time I was to the health of the soul. . . . Serious is quitting painting: "Edward, thee has We would renewedly caution all our the waste of time of those who give now the source of independence within members against indulging in music, or themselves up to it. ... It not thyself in thy peculiar talent for painting. having instruments of music in their unfrequently leads into unprofitable, and Keep to it, within the bounds of houses, believing that the practice tends even pernicious associations, and in innocence and usefulness, and thee can to promote a light and vain mind.... It some instances to a general indulgence always be comfortable." becomes us to be living as strangers and in the vain amusements of the world. . .. And from my own observation and pilgrims on Earth, seeking a better experience, I am rather disposed to country, and to be diligently using [our -London Year()' Meeting, 1846 believe that too many of those time] for the great end for which it is conscientious difficulties about our lent to us ... , and not in vain Sorrowful it is, that even some in outward calling or business that we have amusements or corrupting pleasures, but conspicuous and influential stations, learned as a trade . . . which are in striving that "whether we eat or drink, or have actually "sat" for their portraits; and themselves honest and innocent, have whatsoever we do, we may do all to the this, not for the hasty moment of the originated more in fanaticism than the glory of God... . " daguerreotypist (questionable as even law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. this prevalent indulgence is), but -Phikulelphia Year()' Meeting patiently awaiting the slow business of - Edward Hicks, 1851 (OrthotbJx), 1873
12 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL It needs to be recognized that our The arts of peace must be guarded Friends regarded the first duty of a Society has not escaped the tendency to meantime by each of us. For to all those Quaker writer to be the conveying of a narrow down spiritual action to certain in the full stream of social and religious "message," whereas obviously the first prescribed ways as a substitute for the . work there may come the temptation to duty of a writer, Quaker or otherwise, is reality of the spiritual life. For example, undervalue the cultural activities which to maintain the artistic integrity which is while Friends have been among the they have given up. The tone in which part of the integrity of the human soul. pioneers of modern science they have, the often-heard words, "Oh, we haven't until recent years, repressed all taste for time for that," are said sometimes -Elfrida Vipont Foulds, 1955 the fine arts. These, at their greatest, betrays an underground censor, a always contain some revelation of the suggestion that such interests, if not Spirit of God, which is in the fullest actually frivolous, are somehow inferior. Generally speaking, the arts are now harmony with our spiritual faith. In the The up-and-doing Christian has often accepted as good leisure-time pursuits fields of music, art, and literature, as in been impatient of the apparent and entertainments and suitable subjects others, Friends may witness to the glory supineness of the artist, his need ... to for the school curriculum. But the of God and advance that glory by their be receptive before he is active. Yet the willing leap to accept them as a genuine service. The "fulness of the whole earth zealous worker in a social campaign has spiritual experience for the artist and a is His glory," and we mar the beauty of peculiar need of the recreation and means of spiritual strengthening for the this message by every limitation we set refreshment which cultural interests may "onlooker" has not been taken by upon it. bring. Fanaticism, as well as indifference, Quakers as a whole. And it probably will may defeat its own end. not be taken until we refuse to tolerate -William Charles Braithwaite, 1895 in our religion ... the divorce between -Caroline Graveson, 1937 "man's spiritual integrity and his There are many voices today which call inspiration to creative art." An us to enjoyment, to self-expreSsion, or to Where [the London Yearly acceptance of art as being contemplate and share in the beauty of Meeting quotation, 1925, of spiritual· significance is creative art. These things need to be above] might well be but one aspect of the subordinated to the service of the amended is in the implied Quaker faith that all life is Highest, and sometimes in that service suggestion that some men sacramental. they must be given up. There are some may be called to abandon too who, listening to the still small voice, art in the interest of some -David Griffiths, 1956 which makes clear to them a duty that other service to God and may not rest upon all, will forgo man, but never the Do Friends have a pleasures and activities in themselves reverse. It may be that concern to seek out and good, for the sake of other claims. We some Friend will be called nurture the flame of would not narrow unduly for any of our to abandon his painting in creativity that burns in all members the opportunities for sharing order to identify himself men? Do we provide an in the joys and activities of life, but in with the people of Africa. atmosphere in our the midst of all we must hold fast the But it may be that another meetings for worship, and thought of God's Kingdom, of which we is doing right when he in our schools, which are called to be part, and which we have resigns from cenain helps us to discover our to make real to others by our lives. imponant committees in creative abilities, and order to devote himself discipline them, and - London Year(y Meeting, 1925 more completely to his exercise them to the fullest art .... The "good" is power God has given us? We look back with mild pity on the often the enemy of the Do we set aside a time generations of Haverford students who "best"; but we must not every day for the reading were deprived of the joy of music and conclude that the "best" is of poetry, for listening to art. The strong anti-aesthetic bias in the necessarily to be identified music, for looking at minds of the Quaker founders and the with moral reform, while painting? By our own early managers was, I think, an creative art is merely "the work is a vision of the unmitigated disaster. good." Truth advanced among us, and let to -Horace Alexander, 1954 shine before all men so that they may be -Rufos jones, 1933 led to a clearer knowledge of their The same subtle tendency by which a Father? To identifY religious practice with social testimony for simplicity narrows into a -Queries proposed by Barbara reform may easily prove disastrous, for rigidity of outlook affected for many Hinchcliffe, 1959 we may drive out the devils of inequality years the attitude of Quakerism toward and unemployment and war, and yet the arts.. . .When I first began to There are many, including a goodly suffer the fate of the tenant of the practice as a writer, I still encountered a number within the Society of Friends, "empty, swept, and garnished house." certain amount of prejudice in that some who find that the insights and experi-
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 13 ences of the arts are perhaps the clearest At first there was almost no Quaker art the imagination. They built finer manifestations of spirituality in everyday because of the Society's anti-esthetic bias; meetinghouses .... existence. Nevertheless Friends have not now there is hardly any Quaker art identified their attitudes toward the arts because there is so little identification of -john Ormerod Greenwood, 1978 with much precision. And this doubtless the Society as the community about reflects a fair amount of indecision as to whom or for whom one writes. Indeed, Can't we see that the essence of art is a the validity of the attitudes of earlier for very few contemporary Friends is source of life renewing itself in every act Friends in these matters, for the arts there much appreciation of the of creation? The same should hold true appear to have been definitely relegated communal aspect of faith, much for a spiritual movement such as the to the pastimes called frivol response to Fox's call to Society of Friends, which needs constant ities, and treated with us to become the people renewal. Without the arts we lose our uneasy tolerance if not the of God. The absence of youth-without our youth we lose our more usual outright Quaker art has the Society. condemnation. paradoxical consequence -Fritz Eichenberg, 1979 that though today - Ben Norris, 1965 individual Friends may Both writing poetry and being a Friend be sensitively imply an act of trust in the nature of The history of the protest of appreciative of the Reality. If there is a dimension of our early Friends against excess esthetic dimension, our individual beings which is psychical and and ostentatious superfluity group life is still ascetic, spiritual, and which in some mysterious is fascinating. It is easy to indeed an-esthetic: way is open-ended and linked to a reser ridicule their apparent unresponsive to the voir of creative energy beyond ourselves, denial of the Arts; yet it sensuous, to the then perhaps the Quaker "Inward Light" must be admitted that, emotions (the latter and what some poets have termed certainly visually, out of it reflected in our fear of "inspiration'' are two manifestations of there was born an austere, conflict and tension) and the same Source. spare, refreshingly simple to the humorous. beauty.... Wh at is hopeful -Winifred Rawlins, 1979 is that in the Society there is -Christine Downing, no finality; we can laugh at 1972 What might be called "classical Quaker ourselves and go on ism'' up to the 20th century represented learning. As long as we are Quite simply {but so a kind of Franciscan voluntary poverty given to constant revision mysteriously!) a work of in the arts, inspired by a vision of a there is hope for us. Special art redeems the divine community of love and simplicity. pleading for the Arts is no longer commonplace. By lifting, if only for a In the 20th century comes liberation needed. They are not viewed, as they fleeting moment, the "veil from the from these older taboos and an embrac once were, as a distraction from God. hidden beauty of the world" a work of ing of a vast, expanded complexity and Rather they are seen aS--a manifestation art compels us to see. And how rarely do richness of human experience . ... How ofGod. ""' most of us really see! Even the surface do we preserve that simplicity and at the loveliness of things: same time enjoy our new-found riches? -Robin Tanner, 1966 The beauty and the wonder and the How do we break out from what was power perhaps a cultural prison without falling For an artist to grow productively in his The shapes of things, their colors, into the hands of the world, the flesh, work he needs a market and/or an light and shade, and the devil, the hell on earth that audience for his output, a way of sup Changes, surprises. . .. seems to follow so many porting himsel£ Most important of all, liberations-political, economic, sexual, he needs to be confirmed in his talent by And rarer, but more precious still, the cultural? others. The Society of Friends has moment of recognition, when we see - Kenneth Boulding, 1983 provided none of these in the past, for "into the life of things" and glimpse "a "plain'' or doctrinal reasons, and is not world in a grain of sand." And the word Quakers should enter the world of the providing them today for her creative which the artist says to his object is the arts with humility and courage: courage artists. We who write, paint, sing, same word that the religious man says to because it is a risk of our certainties. A compose, act are obliged to take our Creation: Thou. religion unwilling to take risks shuts out wares elsewhere, receiving possibly -FredJ Nicholson, 197 4 what is creative. Preoccupation with marginal recognition from our meetings moral integrity is likely to assume that if we are lucky, while there is rarely a On the evidence we have, it seems to me life can be tidied up: that is its goal. In shortage of flak. A queasy "tolerance" has that in some ways, in spite of their fact, it is because life is essentially untidy become the hallmark today. asceticism, our ancestors were closer to that it can be creative. the artistic experience than we are: that -Candida Palmer, 1972 is, to the beauty and mystery revealed by - Kenneth Barnes, 1983
14 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL I have never wanted to be a "Quaker artist." Heaven preserve me from rudy Myrrh Reagan, or that! There is no place now for "The T Myrrh, is a member of Presence in the Midst." Nor is there Palo Alto (Cali£) Meeting. any place for "poetry" that puts She is founder of YLEM: Quaker sentiment into versified Artists Using Science and form, however modern the metre or Technology, an international lack of it-no place except the association. She comes from dustbin. Our art must make a scientific family; much of sectarian boundaries irrelevant, must her life's work has been dis concern itself with experiences covering links between sci common to all people everywhere. ence and art, philosophy and All religious associations-if they are spirit. Another aspect of her not keenly aware of the danger work deals with human become incestuous, and their rights and El Salvador, along members tend to feed each other with other issues of war and with familiar and appropriate peace. emotions. The only way to health in a religious community is by sending ((Number Governs Formyy out roots into earth far beyond its 45" diameter, acrylic paint with engraved lines on Plexiglas, lit from behind. own little patch. This work is the first in the "Essential Mystery'' series, which treats puzzles that science tackles but never completely answers, like "life" and "thinking." It -Kenneth Barnes, 1984 shows the numerical order in crystals and plants, hinting at an underlying mathematical order in the cosmos. The Holy Spirit can indeed restore us to health (or stimulate us to work well) through the medium of music as well as prayer or antibiotics! And why, indeed, should I be surprised that this is so? Creativity is the gift that we were given on the eighth day of creation. In naming and re making the world we are coworkers with God, and whether we are making a garden or a meal, a painting or a piece of furniture or a computer program, we are sharing in an ongoing act of creation through which the world is constantly remade.
- ]o FarTow, 1994
Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. ~wurse in Clinic fo! ~Por Siempre Esperanza!' Spiritual learning continues Underweight Children/' (Hope Springr Eternal) throughout life, and often in In 1988, Myrrh visited the Myrrh made this woodcut for a unexpected ways. There is Colomoncagua Refugee camp in T-shirt being sold to benefit El inspiration to be found all around Honduras, just across the border Salvador earthquake relie£ us, in the natural world, in the from El Salvador. The camp of sciences and arts, in our work and 10,000 was remarkable in its work friendships, in our sorrows as well as shops, its self-governance, and its in our joys. fervant Christian base community Are you open to new light, from faith. Food was short, so the best whatever source it may come? Do was given to the underweight and you approach new ideas with sick children. discernment?
-Britain Yearly Meeting, 1995
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 15 am currently creating a series of railway als-silver halides plus chemistry in l photographs. Trains have been a passion the case of traditional photography, of mine since boyhood, a passion that or light-sensitive elements plus inks periodically surfaces and prompts me to in the case of digital photography. some action, such as building model rail Another way I increase the accuracy of roads or, as now, pointing my camera at my predictions is by learning how the trains. I am not interested in creating pho light on a scene will translate into the tographic illustrations of trains (that is, mood and character of the photo making the definitive picture of a boxcar graph of that scene. or crossing gate). Rather, I am interested In fact, one of the pleasures of pho in capturing those abstractions that are tography for me is its mandate that I revealed when light-natural or artifi pay attention to light. Looking, in cial-plays across the artifacts of railways. order to predict how a scene might As a photographer I want to predict appear as a photograph, shifts my per if not control-the outcomes of all areas spective from seeing simply the subject of my images. One way I increase the matter of the scene to also observing accuracy of my predictions is the light that illuminates it. I hope that by learning how light acts this pleasure in paying attention to upon photographic materi- light is something that finds its way
Photographs byRonNuse
into my photographs, and therefore, becomes something I share. While my using the light of physics as a photographer and my seeking the Divine Light as a Friend are certainly related, I am wary about making a too easy or superficial connection between the two. There are certainly parallels in these activities. Both require sustained discipline. Both involve uncertainty at times. Both benefit from the support of a community. Both can be reward ing in ways that were never anticipat ed. There are, however, moments when my process of creating photo graphs and my process of seeking the Light seem to merge and become one and the same. -RonNuse
Ron Nuse, a graphic designer and photographer, is a member ofAtlanta (Ga.) Meeting.
16 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL re Committee
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Liz Oppenhrimer, a mcnber ofTwin Cities (Minn.) Meeting, leads workshops at Friends General Conference's annual Gatherin!J and organizes local events 'w help demystify what FGC is and does. "She wrote this poem on the occasion oflaying down a care committee.
FRIENDS J oURNAL May 2002 17 REFLECTIONS ON ~------The Life and Art ofAsa Watkins
Watkins died in From another portfolio, ne 2001 at age 84. labeled "Williamsburg er reflecting for Life," As a pulled out some time on the news of straightforward studies ofthe his passing, I doubted patients. They were more whether someone so enthu spontaneous, less cerebral siastic and alive could have pictures. Often executed died. I also caught myself with the broad side of a wondering whether I had crayon, they evidenced a vig dreamed him up. But when orous and efficient economy. I saw the vast love for Asa He had come to prefer these expressed by the numerous to the former, which he may mourners at his memorial have considered the product service at Summit Meeting of his own youthful hubris in Chatham, New Jersey, I (some "big idea" ofhis own) got confirmation that the though many of us persist in qualities I found in him were finding them engaging. there for others, too. That Asa' s impressive, though his goodness was real; that it brief, account of his experi was a fact. Person after per ences at the hospital further son shared sorrow at his pass intrigued me. He described ing, and great joy at having to me the shocking state of known him, not incidentally degradation in which he and combined with a good deal the other COs working there of the warmest laughter. had found the patients. The That told me, "Praise for Asa COs had then "smuggled" is quite appropriate." notes to a nearby church, I met Asa Watkins in from which they were passed about 1981, when he was in on to the office of the state his mid-60s. Though at first Governor. That succeeded I knew him only as the in starting an investigation Quaker friend of a Quaker that had far-reaching impli family I knew, I began to cations; not only were the think that he was more than conditions at that hospital just a "nice guy." As I knew him longer, As a fellow artist, I was curious and greatly improved as a result, but many his generally enthusiastic outlook, the excited. From this portfolio, labeled other mental hospitals around the nation breadth and sincerity of his social con "Williamsburg-Surreal," he pulled out were also investigated when COs working cerns, and his passion for and curiosity the striking exercises he had composed in in them ftled similar reports. I left him about various forms of contemporary art his youth, while working as an attendant that night wondering how we could put emerged as having more than casual im at Eastern State Mental Hospital in those drawings, and the story they told, portance. I saw that this was someone Williamsburg, Virginia. The drawings before a wider audience. with a great deal ofsocial energy and with struck me at once for their intuition, char My first thought was to p~t together a an intense love for all people. acter, and compassion. In the most surre manuscript about this chapter in Asa' s In the mid-1980s, Asa began to extend alistic of them he had attempted to create life. To this end, Asa generously shared toward me periodic invitations to visit images of the mental patients' worldview. the letters he'd written to his family and him at his home, in Morristown, New friends from the CPS workcamp, and later Manuel Macarrulla, a painter, worked for II Jersey. I was slow to accept them, which I from the hospital. I discussed with him years with mental!J ill homeless in Manhattan, have regretted ever since. But I did finally diJing art therapy and other activities. A native his employment at the hospital, his inter go in June 1988. After I'd spent the day of the Dominican Republic, he lives in Park est and background in art, and the roots of with him, Asa pulled out an old portfolio Slope, Brook!Jn, with his wife and two young his pacifism. T hese edified me. I am not a of drawings, almost as an afterthought, children. Quaker, and Asa was the first dedicated and put it before me. ©2002 Manuel Macarrulkl pacifist with whom I had sustained philo-
18 May 2002 F RIENDS JoURNAL Charcoal drawings by Asa Watkins sophical discussions. But att at the Morris County even experienced paci£sts Atrium Gallery. After would be interested in how 1988, he also exhibited his the war years tested Asa' s mobiles at the Quietude nonviolent convictions. Garden Gallery in East And, it seems to me, the Brunswick, New Jersey. story should also prove in During the Gulf War he teresting to a wider audi offered draft counseling. ence, considering people's He was also an active sup morbid fascination with, porter of McCutchen and legitimate fears about, Friends Home. those dark old mental in In 1951 Asa met and stitutions of yesteryear. thereafter married Luella This is also the story ofhow Hauck. They had two sons. Asa, the young mental hos William, who is involved pital attendant, became the in performance art and Asa we knew. film, provided the major The story of how the impetus and encourage old "snake pits" became the ment for his father to "do current mental health sys something" with his old tem is a moment of history World War II drawings. that must not be forgotten. Richard, who is a Product Once, when I asked a co Development Engineer, director of a mental health constructed his own plane program in New York City from a kit at the family to read an earlier draft of property on Lake George this manuscript, she told and once gave me a thrill me she had not known ing ride on it. I remember about the pacifist influence the landing on the water as on the mental health field. the most magical patt of I was glad that this work that little adventure. Luella could illuminate a point continues to practice pedi like that for someone who atric dentistry at her office knows the contemporary in Morristown. mental health field well. physically handicapped y()ungsters. In or In 1988, Asa played a big patt in a little Asa' s letters and the selected notes, or der to improve the situation for these play. He played God in The Council of "testimony," presented to the State ofVir youngsters, Asa participated in a Newark Love, by Oskar Panizza, at The Home for ginia by Asa and his coworkers are little teachers' strike that led ro his temporary Contemporary Theater and Art in New works of att in themselves. They not only imprisonment. His friends the Havilands York City. The plot, concerns a senile offer detailed accounts of his experiences held a "jail party" at which Asa celebrated Supreme Being's punishment of human at the hospital, but they contain poetic his upcoming time in jail, an event that ity for its indulgence in sexual pleasure passages about simple pleasures and his must have been mentioned five times dur through the introduction of syphilis, a enduring sense ofjoy. ing Asa' s memorial service in mirthful theme that has continued to be topical Subsequent to his work at the hospital, recognition of his cheeriness about it. given the attitudes prevalent in certain and to an attempt to deliver cows to Po Asa began exhibiting his att in group circles of our society attributing the AIDS land by ship as patt of a United Nations shows in Newark, and eventually he settled epidemic to God's punishment for sexual war relief effort, Asa moved to New York in Morristown, New Jersey. During the self indulgence. City in the fall of 1946. He taught att at Vietnam War, he counseled conscientious I'll never forget Asa's first appearance Rutgers University in the early 1950s, and objectors. After his retirement, he became on the stage as "God": he tottered out then, from 1956 to his retirement in 1983, active in the retiree chapter of the Newark wearing a hospital gown, aided by a walker, he offered att therapy in the Newark School Teachers' Union. He also participated in and hacking and coughing copiously. I system with emotionally disturbed and the Drew Art Association, exhibiting his feared his throat would not survive the
FRIENDS jOURNAL May 2002 19 harshness to which he submitted it. He can be about four feet across. Many are nese garden sculpture (the rocks eroded by managed to be consistently lively and spray-painted in bright red, blue, and yel water to many crags and openings, some amusing, holding his own alongside pro low. Asa did not title or date them. He times resembling the holes in Swiss cheese). fessional actors. made them of stainless steel, aluminum, A mobile of Asa's that I like is one I In att, Asa concentrated on mobiles and rusty, found metal from scrap heaps think of as magically insubstantial. In it, and stabiles (similar to mobiles, but sta and highways; sometimes he incorporated Asa used window screen material formed tionary and freestanding, with bases) from logs and driftwood into them. into uncomplicated, cloud-like forms. The 1988 on. He fussed over them a good In these works, the juxtaposition ofthe material's soft surface texture and the low deal, making pass afrer pass at them to test materials ofvery different character is ex density of its mass combine to create a the basic requirements of balance, and to citing. The unadorned, weathered quality sofrness ofedge that is highly evocative of solve the more elemental problem of his of the woods and rusted metals affirms a a discreet sensuality. forms' resistance to the wind. They range state ofharmonywith nature. The tactility Pete Haviland recently commented, in height from three to twelve feet, and they evoke sometimes brings to mind Chi- "It's amazing how much Asa cared about
From Buck Creek Civilian Public Service cious apple pies! I am having fun being a bone, probably a compound fracture. X (CPS) Camp 19 cook. It is awfully tiring but it's worth it. rays have been taken and there is nothing Marion, North Carolina to do but let it knit itsel£ I will always have August 6, 1942 From Eastern State Hospital a dent in my face, but that is better than a There are times when things seem rather WiUiamsburg, Virginia · scar. I am taking sulfathiasol to keep infec futile, and I get a bit down, but I don't October 7, 1942 tion out of my sinus. The pain is bad, but have any sense of being generally blue. My! How thankful I should be! These not too bad. I am 0 K and will go back on Being in a place like this is good, in a way, poor folk! Why is it that they are so sick the same ward unless the authorities pre because it makes you continually pray for instead of me?! vent me. The accident was entirely un strength to live as joyously as you can! You I cut hair today and intercepted a fight. avoidable. This is a life! can't afford to let down for one moment! I I am on one of the most violent wards. It is have learned more about people in the last one continual surprise! I was scared once October 12, 1942 ten weeks than in all my quatter century today when a fellow got mad and picked Just to give you an idea of what we ofexistence! up some scissors [I was using] to cut hair. ... have to contend with I'll describe an . . . I got them away from him, and then afternoon on my ward.... October I, 1942 he took up a chair and began wielding it in I look into the "blind room" where a ... Well, your son has in one day built marvelous fashion, but I managed to get it patient .. . is kept. His food has been set in the reputation of a pastry cook simply away and finally all was well. My! To what the cell, beside him, and he has tried to eat because he used his mother's [recipe,] levels the human body can fall. The things it, but, not being able to feed himself, has which he has remembered for a long time! I have seen today! spilled most ofit on his own person. He is Yes sir, he rolled out 13 pies yesterday, lying on a mattress on the floor with a tops and bottoms, and you should have October 8, 1942 little blanket over him. H e is too far gone seen the results. Gorgeous, crisp, brown, Have gotten to know lots ofmy patients to have a bed so long as he is on our ward. tender crust that just melted in your mouth! now. Yesterday I felt as though I'd never He is lying in two or three days' excre I was really very proud. They [had] been make out who they all were, but I am tions, and his syphilitic sores are oozing. I having trouble with the pastry for some learning fast. I wouldn't be on a less vio decide to feed him. I finally get the food time, so I said, "Now, my mother[. . ..] " lent ward! It is wonderful just where I am. down by coaxing and feeding him myself So they said, "Well, let's I ... [hold] him in a sitting position by try it." So, "1/2 as much October 10, 1942 jacking the mattress up on my knee. The lard as flour and 112 as Well, the first ca urine has soaked through the mattress, much water as lard," sualty among the CO and is soaking into my trousers. He is fed, went into operation, and Army at Williams though, and is given water, which he wants the outcome was perfec burg occurred today continually. Then we decide that he should tion! Tony, the head when a patient ma be given a bath. Another attendant and I cook, said he had never nipulated his fist so as manage to support him so that he can seen such pies at Buck to contact the cheek totter to the shower room. We get him Creek! They were deli- bone of an attendant, there and find that the drains are stopped oneAsa Watkins, thus up so that the -room is in two inches of causing the cheek water! The other patients, who are help Right and on page 21: bone to separate into ing us, bail the water up and throw it out drawing and sculpture two portions!!! I have of the window! All the solid filth sticks to by Asa Watkins got a broken cheek the screen. We get into a broken tub that
20 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL making his pieces, yet how little had grown more radical in his old age, he thought ofhis efforts. He was that he would no longer volunteer for sure he could do things better, CPS, that because he now saw the draft as but he never found enough "a violent and coercive act in its own time." He probably gave him right," he would rather go to jail. self too many projects in the My hope is that through the sharing of little garage where he made them. Asa's art with others, the viewer may re He probably also had too much ceive a little of the great spirit we, who time and energy and love for the knew him, experienced regularly. 0 rest of us· to make time enough to achieve some of the goals he envisioned. Asa told me recently that he
has only three legs. We pull it May nights when every window and door under one of the showers to fill in the building is a spillway for volumes of it, and one of the patient assis honeysuckle and moonlight! The air is full tants starts to wash [the man]. of all sorts of nameless delights. It is like The patient pulls him around old wine, sparkling champagne, strange like a rubber doll! We remon liquors and all kinds ofbitters. It is invigo strate, and try to show the assis rating, soothing, and intoxicating all at tant how to treat him, but it the same time. makes no impression. The sores The moon is full tonight and there are are all over his body, and on his back, at It is sort oflike a perpetual bad dream. frothy white clouds pouring over it. At the end of his spine, there is one as large as The smells, the sounds ofthe insane voices, times it gets slightly dimmed by the clouds, a silver dollar! Huge ones at his hipbone, the bad equipment, the long, dark corri which at the same time absorb some ofits too. His body is just breaking down all dors! I tell you, it is all very much like a light, becoming luminescent and glowing over, but particularly in the spots that medieval fairy tale of the nether regions. with faint hints of color. The sky is sym have dose contact with the mattress. We . . . If we just had about 25 more phonic, and the ground with all its growths get him washed, and put mercurochrome attendants we could begin to do some is looking up, poised, still, listening.... on the sores. Then we have a time getting thing, but as it is we have to use a great There is a wild and mysterious enchant the slip gown on him. We get him back to deal of patient help, and you can't teach ment without, wild yet utterly still. his cell by carrying him and lay him down insane people [easily] how to treat other on a mattress that is just as filthy as the one insane people .... May 27, 1943 we left except that it is dry. I then cut his It occurs to me that you may be won I have just celebrated the anniversary of fingernails, which are like claws! One of dering whether the fellow who hit me has my first year in CPS. Just one year ago the patient[s] ... shaves him and he is ever hit any of the other attendants. He tonight I was on the train headed for the locked up for an indefinite period! I find has. He hit [one] and made [him] see highlands ofNorth Carolina and wonder the next day that orders have been given stars, but didn't manage to break any ing how in God's Earth and under God's to feed him by hand, but no one seemed thing! He just goes completely wild at heaven I could ever get through a month to think that it was important. I feed him times. My! But this is a place to test your of it. A year was . . . an impossibility, by hand . . . and finally in the afternoon, convictions on nonviolence! I feel more completely and utterly unthinkable! That he is taken down to ward four to die. I call than ever that violence is wrong. You have was a year ago. I had your letter in hand, up the machine shop to get the shower to restrain a patient but never strike him with the Roman quotation (Romans 8:28) room unstopped, but the phone won't or yell at him. ["And we know that all things work to work. I go over to the plumber's house gether for good to them that love God, to after hours and see him myself He comes May20, 1943 them who are called according to his pur the next day, but only fools with the drain. These May nights are utterly, intoler pose." ] and I read it and read it on the He doesn't fix it at all. We find that one of ably beautiful! I have never before known Pullman. . . . As sure as the Earth has the patients has driven a wooden stake far what the night is. It takes some time to traveled its orbit around the Sun, this into the pipe!!! The attendants have no discover the night. Finally it comes to you truth has proved itself It is true and with toilet because the patients are using it. and you realize how tender, how humble, out my trying to believe it I have had to The patients have no toilet because theirs how powerful, how quiet, and how rich believe it because it has happened. A year , is out of commission entirely. It is sup the night is. I wouldn't [take] anything for has gone by, a year to show me that no posed to be in order some time in the these nights I'm having on night duty! year, ever, in the future can be an impos future. And these spring nights, these glorious sible year. . . . 0
FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 21 Music and the by Jim Dragoni y musical saga began at the age experience. Everything influences every I must admit, I didn't come to yoga or of ten. I had heard and was thing else, and there is conceptual drift in meditation for spiritual reasons. I wanted M moved by music all my life, most areas. So why the boundaries? Why to be healthy, smarter, clearer, and more that which I heard outside and inside my the definitions? They are all just words, creative in productive ways. However, as I head. While taking piano lessons I found but words are all we have, as the song began to practice meditation on a regular that when it came time to practice, what goes, to say "I love you" and to describe basis, the spiritual benefits came to me I heard inside of my own mind demand things like music. Debussy, the French uninvited. I realized for example that to ed an outlet more than learning "Mary impressionist composer, had his influence be clear and productive, one has to be Had A Little Lamb." The teacher quickly on jazz. The blues form is the backbone honest and free of anger, hatred, resent tired of my rebellious approach and, afi:er of most jazz, rock, and country music. It's ment, and intolerance. One has to be for making a sad phone call to my parents, a wonderful reflection ofour cultural her giving, free of grudges, and in love with dismissed me for the sin of having no tal itage, a sharing of ideas from different life and the world. ent. I thought of that piano teacher as I races, ethnic backgrounds, and time peri A natural sense of wonder seemed to performed one of my original composi ods. Classical music in its early forms has be freed in me during that period. I tions at New York's Lincoln Center in the had a strong influence on rock music. I noticed things in a way I never had before. summer of 1993. I can't remember her can't begin to tell you how many folk and The beauty of my surroundings, the trees, name, but I do remember the angry red pop songs I have heard that are based on the sky, the way sunlight changed the col marks all over my piano book from the the harmonic movement in Johann ors of buildings and walls in my room. All day she exploded in anger and frustration Pachelbel's Canon in D. these things were stimuli that found an at my unwillingness to play other than In my early years of playing music, an expression through my music. My cre what I heard internally. original composition seemed to come out ative skills seemed to increase geometri Original music has always been the of the blue, purely by accident. Afrer cally. Now the creative ideas were flowing focal point of my experience, and I have months of playing the music of others, so fast that I could scarcely get them thought long and hard on where it comes rehearsing it, performing it, and later ana down. T his continued for months afi:er from, since the early '60s when I first lyzing it, I would pick up my instrument my introduction to and practice of yoga began experimenting with it. It's an eter and suddenly something new would be and meditation. And then suddenly and nal mystery. born. It was a pure joy when it occurred. without warning, it all stopped. I felt Fortunately, a few years afi:er the piano The only problem was it didn't occur blocked and frustrated again. debacle, I found a teacher who was will enough for my liking. It was as if the What went wrong? I thought with cer ing to show me the rudiments of playing goose had laid a golden egg and I would tainty that I had tapped into a bottomless the guitar, and my parents were willing to then ask, "Now where are the other well of new and free musical and poetic give me a second chance. That was in eleven?" I needed more, but they would ideas. Where did that vanish to? I was still 1962, and I have played ever since. For n't appear on demand. meditating, Rracticing physical forms of lack of a berer description, I am consid Sometime around 1971 I went to a yoga, and wo~king with my instrument, ered a jazz ~tarist. Why jazz? Afrer hav talk by a regionally known yogi, whose but I could barely do anything more than ing studied and played classical guitar, name I don't remember. He talked about repeat myself My career path seemed rock, folk music, north Indian classical the spiritual and physical discipline of uncertain, I had been sure that creative !flUSic, and jazz forms such ~ swing, yoga, and at the end he briefly led us and musical pursuits were how I would bebop, fusion, Latin, and free jak, there through a meditation. During the talk he make my living, but now I became con- is only one form that allows the i~clusion reiterated that meditation is a state that fused. · of all those elements and that is "Jazz"-1 cannot be adequately described with Looking back on that first experience suppose we had better give it a capital "]"if words. He used the analogy that there is of a huge creative surge and then the sub it has to encompass all of that. no way to experience the taste of a peach siding of that surge, I now realize it was I strongly dislike having to apply without actually tasting it. And the same perfectly natural. It was nothing more names to these things because they all is true of meditation. T here is no way to than yin- yang, day-night, one breathes come from a vast universe of musical describe it. I was profoundly moved by his in, one breathes out. Those first medita jim Dragoni, a member of Green Street gentle guidance through the meditation tion sessions opened the floodgates for Meeting in Philadelphia, Pa., is a guitarist, process and by the process itself I went me. I was able to release my version of the composer, and multimedia producer. He has home and picked up my instrument, and things I had been practicing, studying, written film music, electronic music, guitar about three new compositional ideas and listening to up to that point. When music, and poetry. His work can be found at made themselves apparent that night. they were all outside of me, down on
22 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL tt .;, • ~ =. :· - -=-==±-=E:.===:=±I=- ======::::~ Without knowing how spiritual, and sometimes per the cycle was unfolding, I o• n ~ sonal, but it struck me that moved to new musical stud 3 they emanated from the still ies. I found Indian music ~ ·~J;rJP ;•-~ fJ itfllti: l!r ness and peace that comes through the luck of having a from a meditative state. I won scholarship to the University CMIII'! 0 11. dered if this was any different ofPennsylvania. Dr. Lalmani from my creative process that Misra, dean of the Hindu involved speaking in a musical University in Varanasi, India, language inspired by a certain was my instructor. For sever stillness of mind. I read about al years, I studied and took George Fox and realized that in new scales, concepts, and what I was doing with compositions. Simultaneous my creative musical expres ly I was studying jazz and sions was very similar to what learning new chords, theory, •• Quakers do in meeting. and scale patterns. Before · r!r :, r!~~L3 Is there a difference be long, the original ideas were tween communicating with flowing again, and then I musical notes and rising in understood how the creative meeting and communicating cycle works. You breathe in, then. you the bottom of School House Lane, one of a thought that comes from the spirit with breathe out. First you learn, then you the prettiest streets in the city. There in? I think probably not. Unless one is teach. Your teaching could be actual seemed to be a sweet presence in the air playing music that was written in a calcu teaching in a classroom, which I have that night. I remember stopping at one lated way to satisfY the demands of the done. Or your teaching takes an art form, point to look up at the stars, and I heard marketplace. writing, or painting. First you receive by the most beautiful melody, better than We all share a connection as humans in studying, then you give by producing anything I could ever have thought up that we are wired as spiritual beings. If we something or teaching. Breathing in, consciously. I hurried home before I could practice self-discipline, keep our minds breathing out. forget it, and wrote it down. I called it and bodies pure, adhere to higher princi "Celeste." Where did it come from? Can ples, and quiet our minds in contempla we really know? Was it a composite of all tive thought, I believe we can all come to The Best Ideas that I had heard before? Or was it some the same truth. many colleges and universities higher-level thought or language manifest And I believe that the best music, art, around the world, musical com in music that made itself apparent? It poetry, and inclusive political thought A osition is taught. Formulaic seemed magical, nothing that I could with the goal of universal harmony, all writing is used to illustrate how to com have forced out by following a formula. come from the common spiritual princi pose using counterpoint, three part writ Sometime in the early 1980s I wan ples that we share. The beauty of an idea ing, as well as imitating various forms dered into Green Street Meeting in the expressed in meeting, such as a vision of such as fugue, classical form (the theme is historic Germantown section of Philadel world peace, is just as elegant, shimmer revealed, developed, and then revisited), phia. I had attended one or two other ing, and dramatic as a complex and etc. It's important to have the discipline to meetings before, but the warmth of this inspired piece of music. It all comes from be able to reproduce a form, to capture an one was particularly appealing to me. I the spirit within, the God within us. idea and force it into a mold. This process returned once or twice and felt that some I am thankful for the gifr that allows is a way to become adept at a craft. thing special was happening there, so me to create music spontaneously, and I have experienced myself and have attending became more of a habit as the that I don't get those creative blocks any read about composers who say that the years went on. I had a chance to meditate, more. I don't feel that what I create is any best ideas come from somewhere other to quiet my mind, and at the same time more or less important than the inspired than the intellectual part of the mind. be surrounded by people who were doing expressions that come from any human "The song writes itself," I have heard it very much the same thing. When people being, or, for that matter, a singing bird. said. The song just appears as if it already occasionally would rise and speak, it It's all part of our living, humming uni existed, and I am simply the one who seemed that the silence and simplicity of verse with its higher intelligence manifest transcribes it or plays it spontaneously. the room and the loving support that in our best thoughts, words, music, and I once went out on a summer folks felt had inspired them to stand up art as well as the trees, sky, water, and ani Philadelphia night and walked nearly to and speak their minds. Messages were mals with which we share this planet. 0
FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 23 othing heals grief but grieving, a truth that is illustrated A CELEBRATION in Cathy Weber's Grief Series, 20 paintings that she N began a little before her partner, Jack Crichfield, the father of their infant son, died in 1996. Through them Cathy has bared her heart, leaving nothing of her suffering, and its dawning resolution, out. By "heart" I mean the depth of our being. It is what Quakers know as the "seed of God" in all of us, and its roots are deeply unconscious. The healing ofgrief requires us to be open to our unconscious-to the depth ofour spirits with their inextricably linked poles ofdespair, and ofjoy as new life. As despair is accepted and lived in (and we don't always have much choice about it) it matures-ripens into new life and joy. Cathy's grief, in her words, "had a life of its own. It was my constant companion. The pain was physical and spiritual and extremely intense." But it taught her to pray. "From the time Jack was diagnosed, I succumbed to an impulse to indulge in constant, desperate, blatant, not-very-cosmic intercessory prayer. I had hoped most of my life to develop a habit of constant prayer. Without much forethought I was establishing that habit ... mostly as a result of what felt like desperate need. On the first anniversary of Jack's death ... I was struck by the realization that this firmly established by Robert C. Murphy habit was a priceless gift ofJack 's illness and death." I did not myself know Jack, but have learned from others that he was a big man ofwonderful grace and energy. They met Robert C Murphy, a retiredpsychiatrist living in Sheridan, WJoming; is a in 1981 at a job in which Cathy was doing the carpentry and Jack member ofWJoming Friends Meeting. the electrical work. Cathy says, "He had a love for his work that © 2002 Robert C Murphy made installing a light switch an act of devotion." Within a few
When Blood and Water Brought Hope, May 1996 Blood, Tears, Lilies, June 1997
24 May 2002 FRIENDS jOURNAL months they became a couple, and then had 15 years of a certainly the exercise ofa divine gift." marvelous outdoor/indoor life. Their son, Rio, was born just 17 What emerges from Cathy's quiet waiting is her all-consuming months before his father died. I have found a special joy in loss. But these picrures arrive in consciousness straight from watching Cathy and Rio together; they quietly adore each other. unconscious insights--for that is where creativity, honesty, and Diagnosis of a rare malignancy in spirit arise. Jack's arm was followed by rwo years To consciousness alone they are Dillon, of desperate srudy and traveling in athy Weber is a visual artist in strange, and bewilderingly symbolic. search of a cure that was not found. Montana. She first went to meeting We see blood and water issuing from Cathy was ill-prepared for his death Cin Mexico City in the late 1970s stigmata in the griever's palms and and froze into near immobility. But (Heberto Sein ~memorial was her first meet making elaborate patterns beneath her she turned "to the comfort of my stu ing), and now attends the Dillon Worship floating, nude body, and, in another, dio" with no "conscious intention to Group under the care ofHeartland Meeting hearts and eyes bleeding, and watering document my grie£" There, she sat in southwestern Montana. More ofher work beautiful pansies down to what appears "quietly, waiting for a clearly articu can be seen at
Griefs Weight, March 1999 Occasional Calm, Apri/1999
FRIENDS Jo uRNAL May 2002 25 appreciated if we open ourselves to our own unconscious and to that of the artist. Approaching them reverentially, as the unknown, I was first struck by their passion. Nothing is denied; all pain, all suffering, is accepted and rendered visible. There is no end to the richness of detail in these pictures; except for recurring themes of blood and tears, they are all different, and each a gift to the artist &om the promptings of her own depths. We know that the unconscious, which has no eyes or words except for those borrowed &om consciousness, is the divine source of wisdom and longing. Linking it to consciousness is the artist's task, and she herself undergoes that process as she works. Cathy hardly knows she is exploring her grief until her paintings show her that she is echoing in visual form the abandonment to the unconscious in by pansy bradshaw verbal form of her mentor, Gertrude Stein. Quakers understand that process as divine inspiration. The morning before Jack died I drew the death These pieces are endlessly imaginative. If one did nothing but admire their card and knew without question its symbolic as sheer imagination, the reward in viewing them would still be great. But their well as literal meaning. On the way to the trailer imaginativeness is not just mental acrobatics; it has purpose and meaning. where Jack lies dying I meet the doctor. Maybe a comparison will help to clarifY this. Some of the surrealists--I am "It's a beautiful day," I say. thinking particularly of Salvador Dali-are also wonderfully imaginative. "It's a good day to die," she says. But my experience of Dali is that he was a man showing off. That's Inside the trailer is the normal chaos ofCathy legitimate, and certainly enjoyable. But enough is enough. In a recent review and Jack's home, added to by the presence of I made ofDali's work, I was surprised-and a little disappointed-to find their 17- month-old child Rio. Rio is my job my interest beginning to flag a&er the first half-dozen paintings. I can't keeping him busy and out of the way without imagine that happening in response to Cathy's work; I have gone back again A former member of Miami (Fla.) Meeting, pansy and again to these pictures and discovered in them, each time, a new and bradshaw is an author, nanny, queer activist, hospice passionate celebration oflife and of death. chaplain, and preacher and director ofecumenical reli Nothing heals grief like grieving, and the ultimate impact of these 20 gious education at St. james Episcopal Church in Dillon, pieces is sheer astonishment, and joy. 0 Montana.
Reassembled Heart, November 1999 L--- - Heavy Heart, December 1999 ---
26 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL denying him access to mom and dad, especially during these final I walk Rio downtown. Two less people in the house is moments of an over-two-year ordeal. I begin by making coffee. I two less people in the house. Downtown, Rio becomes the bathe and dress Rio. The doctor is tending Jack. He is coughing vortex of the coffee shop universe. He is, in spite of every frightful, laborious coughs, and through it all Cathy is enduring thing, a very bright and happy child loved by many, and I am her own private hell. glad for his company. While he entertains I speak with Rio begins each day with me by crying, and who can blame others about things on the home front. Everyone is grim. him, these are crying times. The doctor spends some time with Back at the trailer, Jack has chosen for comfort the floor Cathy. It's suggested that I phone family and friends to let them next to the bed he and Cathy share. He is reclining; his eyes know how things are going. On some level I wish I were are closed. Sometimes he frowns; sometimes he smiles. His somewhere else, anywhere but here. nieces Jennifer and Jessica sit near the east window, singing. They have between them a beautiful harmony. Cathy calls them her songsters. Sometimes others in the room sing or I first met Jack about ten years previously, after a phone call from Cathy. hum along, but we can't match the twins for pure grace and "Hi, we just got married." simplicity of style. "We who?" I ask. Sara has arrived and is being very Alice [B. Toklas] to "Jack and me," she says. Cathy, who is being very Gertrude [Stein]. Doctor Weed sits "Is he a cowboy?" I ask. by the south window. She is watching how we do this. She's "No," she said. quiet and very observant of all that is happening. We are all "Is he gay?" I ask. just being with Jack. I massage his feet. "I don't know; you can ask him when we arrive. We're coming to visit so you can meet him." Only three months earlier in Mexico (where Jack, Cathy, "Can I wear a dress?" I ask. and Rio went to make use of alternative therapies not "I don't know; can you?" she replies. available in the States), Jack gives me a ten-dollar bill. "I want you to go to the bakery and buy whatever you like I was wearing a black wool midcalfskin when Cathy and Jack arrived. I curtsied and asked how he liked the dress. "You look most," he says. very lovely," he said, smiling broadly. I liked him instantly. I "What for?" I ask. think to myself that Cathy has chosen well. "I want you to describe what it's like to ~fit, " he says. I laugh. Later I sit in a chair across from him, slowly eating forbidden foods, describing in ways only a poet can just how much I am enjoying a custard pie. "Man oh man," he says, "keep on talking; this is wonderful!" He really is enjoying the experience. Cathy is doing needlework. She deftly sews the form ofa woman floating in her own tears. Cathy has already begun to grieve; still she jokes with us that the game Jack and I are playing seems very Roman and penitential. But it makes him glad, so I do it.
Once when Rio was crying the eternal cry of a grieving child, Jack came to my room to hold the baby. He looks just like Mary holding baby Jesus.
It's late and we are all exhausted. The death watch continues. I put Rio to bed singing Gregorian chants, and I wonder if it's genuinely restful for him-or does he fall asleep from boredom. Jack sleeps on the floor. Cathy and Sara are on the bed. Jack's niece is by the bedroom door like a guard. Everything is quiet. I fall asleep in Jack's ultra-large lazy boy recliner. Sometime in the night I awaken, restless; I need to walk outside and stretch. While I admire the glorious night sky, a shooting star graces my view. It's brilliant. "Goodbye, Jack," I whisper. The porch door opens quietly. I turn to face Jack's niece. "He's gone," she says. I go inside to see what remains. 0
Heart Enshrined, March2000 ------' FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 27 Reflections on My Creative Journey by Caroline Balderston Parry
ontemplating "Friends in the Arts" as a viable route to earning a living. I began the works of art who are my two has drawn me into thinking about By my high school years at Westtown, children-Evalyn was born in 1973. I CQuakers and creativity, and how 1958-62, I, like my mother and grand typed away at various freelance writing this vital force has been manifest in my mother, reveled in language, loving my projects but had stopped writing poetry. life. Although I have been a Friend since English teachers. I even had a crush on Throughout all these travels, I attended birth, and have worked in the arts for Master Chuck Kruger, a young teacher meeting for worship. By 1978, when I many years, I often debate the nature of who gave me the gift of really compre transferred my membership to Toronto my artistic roots and life and ask where hending King Lear (still my favorite Meeting, I was welcomed with a copy of Spirit is leading my creative self. Shakespeare play) and was my advisor for Frederick J. Nicholson's Quakers and the My mother's father was a watercolor a special11 th-grade poetry project. How Arts, published by Friends Home Service artist and a doctor. My grandmother, who ever, I neither thought of myself as a Committee in London. The cover of this was also my poetry-reading kindergarten writer or an artist, nor considered how slim volume shows a beautiful sculpture teacher, reveled in language and books. those roles meshed with being a Quaker. I of a circle of "worshiping Quakers"; I They both carne from Ohio Conservative don't think I ever thought my creativity confess I never got any further inside than Quaker families. might be an aspect ofmy spirituality. Still, to admire that image. My meeting under Books, stories, poetry, music, dance, I longed to see my poems published, and I stood that I was struggling with issues of drama, and visual arts were all important recall feeling spiritually inspired as I read creativity and generativity, both in terms in my early schooling at The Alexander the speech I had carefully composed for of work and family life (my son and sec School in Media, Pennsylvania, from 1949 graduation. I quoted Archibald MacLeish, ond child Richard had been born six to 1956. It was a small, private school "Oh when you're young and the words to months earlier). However, there was pre with some connection to Quakers-and your tongue, like the birds to Saint Francis, cious little time for any reading beyond where Grandma Kirk taught. I have many with darting, with dances-Wait you say, breastfeeding manuals and children's vivid memories of our activities there, wait! There's still time, it's notlate!" Read books. from minuets to maypoles, from floor ing those lines many years later, I think I Had I taken the time to read Nichol loom weaving to storefront Halloween was conscious then of at least a potential son's useful survey, I might have become window painting. life as a writer. more conscious of the undergirdings of My siblings and I had more arts oppor In my college years I studied history my creativity. Regardless, weekly meeting tunities than my parents seemed to have and literature, hung out with various drama for worship did punctuate my work and had. I remember my mother talking about groups, sang church and folk music, and play. By the late 1980s, I had shaped a how dance music had come on the hori continued to write poetry. Subsequently, part-time performance career for myself zon during her years at Westtown School I set out to travel to India, working in and had been heavily involved in a folk (she graduated in 1933) enough for girls Kerala as a volunteer teacher and writer arts organization in Toronto for over a to be allowed to dance together in the of-sorts from 1967 to 1969. I absorbed a decade. Not only was I dancing and sing Girls' Parlor, reflecting the big cultural marvelous variety of folk arts and even ing, I had also begun crafting poems again, shift among Quakers that Friends history tried my hand at providing- more than plus had written a large reference book for documents. My mother went on to be "teaching"-vis ual arts classes. The young children, teachers, and families called Let's come a trained teacher and a parent, and school children there had very formal les Celebrate Canada's Special Days. in both roles she used many arts. sons prior to my arrival, but I believed Now, 15 years later, I have created two My father was a truck driver/salesman they should express themselves more freely. more books and held various writing, per whose artistic spirit was expressed in part My passion for this work included beg forming, and teaching jobs. I continue to time florist work. Our daily encounters ging friends in the States to send us art dance, sing-and write poetry! In the with the arts were all rather home-grown, paper, and making homemade crayons artist-in-education world where I earn country activities or influences, often wo from recycled candle wax and pot soot, much of my bread and butter, I have ven into woodworking, quilt-making, turmeric, and the colored powders used taken on the label "celebrator" as the best bread-baking, or community folk danc for forehead decoration. shortcut to artistic self-description. ing. We didn't go to many museums or I married an Englishman midway I am more certain now about how my theaters, concerts or festivals, and I sus through that South Indian sojourn, and Quaker being interfaces with my artist! pect I had no concept of an artistic career we returned to the West to live, first in celebrator identity, and leading retreats on England, and by 1973, in Canada. I be the theme of "celebrating our spiritual Caroline Balderston Parry grew up in Goshen carne absorbed in my early career develop journeys" in the past few months has (Pa.) Meeting and is currently a member of ment as a primary teacher, studied drama helped me think about my roots and the Ottawa (Ont.} Meeting. Her website is
28 May 2002 FRIENDS jOURNAL QluJ/ters have come
Julia Cameron's book, The to see that the art of creative living" has Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path art may had enormous impact on how TEN THOUSAND to Higher Creativity. A we think about ourselves and VILLAGES® Toronto Friend first showed focilitate our spiritual lives. me this handsome, enticingly our direct For any not familiar with laid out book. Right away I Cameron's work, let me set was struck by the introduc out some of her fundamen tion, in which the author tals. Her conviction is that writes, "Creativity is, to my "creativity is our true nature" eye, a spiritual experience. It and that "art is born in ex does not matter which way pansion," helping us sense you think ofit, creativity leading to spiri abundance. She describes two main tools, tuality, or spirituality leading to creativity. the fustofwhich she calls "morning pages." In fact, I do not make a distinction be This requires daily writing for about a half tween the two." I liked the 12-week for hour, first thing, about anything on our mat and was taken by the delicious sidebar minds or hiding in our hearts. "The morn quotes-for example (just one of doz ing pages are a spiritual practice, a spiritual ens-this one from Norma Jean Harris): chiropractic . . . they realign our values. "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, . .. symbolize a willingness to speak to and it makes it visible." Overall, I was enor hear God. The morning pages point the mously excited-it's true, I thought, as I way to reality: this is how you're feeling, read Cameron's words, "Creativity is God's what do you make of that? And what we gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift make of that is often art." back to God!" Her second tool is to treat oneself to a Cameron's single page of basic prin regular "artist's date": a "solitary play-date ciples confirmed and enlarged my under for oneself, for our senses and our dreams"; standing ofliving as an artist. Immediately, "a block oftime , perhaps two hours weekly, I bought my own copy and read and reread especially set aside and committed to nur it, underlining passages, filling the margins turing your creative consciousness, your with comments. To me, the principles she inner artist." "More than anything else, expounds parallel Quaker concepts ofthat experiment with solitude," she advises. of God in each of us, yet push me to use This reference to solitude points to one and develop that Spirit in a sense I had not of many connections between Julia previously grasped. Gradually I am learn Cameron's thinking and Quaker thought. ing, in her words, "to think of receiving She repeatedly mentions her inner sense God's good as being an act of worship." of direction or guidance; she just doesn't Sights and sounds from With her encouragement, I am more fully call it her "Inner Light." She says morning international villages blend in able to consider myself an artist. pages help us listen, and she insists we beautiful harmony at In the intervening years, I have met need to listen quietly-for what she calls Ten Thousand Villages. Host an many people, including numbers of her "marching orders." International Gift Festival Friends, who have also found Cameron's Eight years after beginning that prac at your church, featuring hand book to be very powerful. I learned that tice, my daily writing continues to help crafted musical instruments, more than a million copies-in 12 lan me hear Spirit. I might not write much on home decor and gifts from guages-have been sold, and that study Sundays when I have a chance to center in artisans in 30 Third World groups based on the book have sprung up worship with Friends, but on many soli countries. We supply publicity around the world. I know ofseveral writ tary mornings my writing centers me in and other resources, you supply ing circles that formed around The Artist's ways my prayers may not. I rejoice in the the volunteers and fun. Way, one at Cambridge Meeting. A visual myriad ways in which The Artist's Way For more information, call artist from Toronto Meeting had his helps me reclaim my creative self and re "artist's prayer," composed as suggested in recognize "the abundant life." Sometimes (717) 859-8100. The Artist's Way, read at his funeral. Surely I wonder what fuller artistic lives my par www. tenthousandvillages. org these examples are only the tip of a ents might have experienced, had Julia Cameron iceberg-in just a decade, this Cameron shared her view of spirituality YOUR PURCHASE book "for anyone interested in practicing with them! 0 MAKES A DIFFERENCE
FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2002 29 are from the northwest part of Arkansas, which is where we currently live. Except for ten years in Delaware, I've lived the rest of my 56 years in Arkansas. "Jewels in Chaos" is a tiny piece of the Delaware coast near Rehoboth Beach. We still have friends to visit there, and we try to go back to southern Delaware each
Acrylic paintings by Daniel Coston Left: "Sycamore Clipper''; right, 'Jewels in Chaos" (detail); below, "Mt. Zion"
y family and I are members of Fayetteville year. Eventually I hope to get a gallery to M (Ark) Meeting, and I am a member of the handle what I call my "beach work." I Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts. My preferred currently am homeschooling my son and medium is acrylic paint, but I work in pen and ink as will be able to produce more work when well. This is our second or third year ofbeing Friends he becomes more independent. (attenders, then members). This past year on our trip to Delaware Being a Quaker in Arkansas is somewhat different we were able to stop by Third Haven than it is in Philly; Quakers here are few and far Meeting in Easton, Maryland. It was a between, and Quaker artists even fewer. Most of my treat for us to see a meetinghouse from the art is Arkansas-inspired. The piece called "Mt. Zion" 17th century. We have some Indian is of a Presbyterian Church in southern Arkansas, Mounds around here that aren't that old! near my hometown of Monticello. The church is on the National Register ofHistoric Places but, ofcourse , -Daniel Coston is not as old as things are back East. The other pieces
30 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL Light Made Tangible D ELAWARE VALLEY fRIENDS ScHooL by Phyllis Hoge Thompson 19 E. Central Avenue, Paoli, PA 19301
College Preparatory • Grades 7·12 • & Summer School riends often seem to me not only windows ofs tained glass, towers and spires Call (610) 640-4150 for infonnation puritanically suspicious of beaury, erected toward what we imagined to be Admission Tour date: Eunless it occurs in nature--trees, heaven. We loved their beaury, and when_ May15 landscapes, sunrises-but actually disap we became Quakers, our love of music, proving of it, as if encountering an ar poetry, architecture did not change. But, rangement offlowers , for example, were a though still Christian, we no longer wor For 250 years, distraction, not a gift. Especially we Quak shiped where such forms of beaury were A Quaker artist was an oxymoron. ers eschew art ofany kind in our meeting accessible to us every First Day. Their Now that's changing. houses, though we tend to welcome what place was taken by the other forms we had We're helping. Join us. ever light comes through clear windows, chosen-simpliciry, silence, and inward light integral to the architecture, particu light, the unmediated experience of God. Fellowship of Quakers larly if it allows us to see leaves, blossoms, As for me, I grasped that I had to get in the Arts sky. Our recognition of natural beaury my habitual beaury fix elsewhere, in a Membership $22 per year. seen because ofdaylight mollifies us, since sense go outside ofworship, though I have FQA, P.O. Box 58565 we can understand light as metaphor for always felt the experience of art to be an Philadelphia, PA 19102 what is inward. And many of us in medi experience of worship. I attended con tation close our eyes to it anyhow, without certs, I read poetry, I visited the Baptistry E-mail: [email protected] a qualm. in Florence, St. Paul's in London, and And how if a meetinghouse is made of Kawaiaha' o in Honolulu. And the Live light? The new meetinghouse in H;ous Oak Meetinghouse in Houston. ,~.ung~~ ton, Texas, is such a structure. Initially The building is open to the public on some members of Live Oak Meeting re Fridays for an hour around sunset. A little ported themselves "uncomfortable" about while ago I went to see what it was like to worshiping inside of a work of art. The worship as a Friend not in the usual 1"\ building was designed by James Turrell, adapted house but inside ofa work ofart . 1750 "When we're gone, our hetuts wiH stiU belong'' an architect, a genius, and a Quaker, whose My friend and I, arriving early, caught Age K through 6th Grade chief building material has been called sight of two Friends. I asked one of them, light itself, prompting in some Friends the "Is watching the sunset here like a meet Support our Campaign for a new Multi-purpose Building and Art Studio natural and ironic query, "Well, if that's ing for worship?" true, why did this meetinghouse cost so "Well, no," he answered, and then, 2150 ljutler Pike, P~rnouth ftfeeting Pll19t,62 • (610) 828-2288 much?" Given what can be thought of as "Well, yes. Kind of." He didn't offer any our sometimes gray-minded attitude to thing further. As we had 30 minutes to ward beaury, what does it mean to go to wait we spent the interim strolling around meeting where there is so much attention outside the simple, balanced rectangle of to light? the building. Two years earlier I had seen It's true that before a good number of the empry wooded lot where it now stood. us became Quakers we were accustomed As every human structure changes the to worship in beautiful structures without place where it is located, the meeting a single pang of guilt about their beaury. house also had modified its surroundings. The Friends Camp in Bucks County We could readily grasp these Christian They are now less "natural," of course, churches and cathedrals as metaphors for and more human. But I could not say they • TWO WEEK SESSIONS • june through August our faith, since they reflected in their de are more beautiful. Or less so. sign the cross on which Jesus died-nave As opening time drew closer, more and Sleepover campfor boys & girls 8-13. and transept, clerestory, chancel and apse, more people arrived to crowd around the Campers choose their own activities and live and play in a closed entry to the meetinghouse proper. friendly, diverse community. Phyllis Hoge is a member ofAlbuquerque (N And it was a crowd, not a line, though Mex.) Meeting and a former member ofHono there was a semblance of a line approach FOR INFORMATION cal!610-847-5858 lulu Meeting, where she taught for 20 years at ing a box set out for donations--and there 609 Geigel Hill Rd., Ottsville, PA 18942 University ofH awaii. Her most recent book is seemed a goodly number of people offer ing those. The noise level increased the [email protected] I www.camponas.org Letters from Jian Hui and Other Poems. ACA Accredited Camp © 2002 Phyllis Hoge Thompson nearer we got to opening time--5:45 the
FRJENDS J OURNAL May 2002 31 Open your child's mind to the world ABINGTON FRIENDS SCHOOL
A Quaker coeducational "Skyspaee, by james Turrell, Live Oak Meetinghouse, Houston, T~ day school grades Preschool through 12 day we went; it changes as the time of doors on both sides ofthe building also let For more information, call sunset changes, and the meeting handily in the daylight. 215-886-4350 provides Houston's sunset schedule. And the skyspace-the Light enters 575 Washington Lane • Jenkintown, PA 19046 The doors were opened. We entered. the waiting spirit, almost tangible as it falls Several rows ofcomfortable, facing wooden on uplifred eyes. Many of us assembled benches flank all four sides of the build there kept looking up. Even a very young Types & Shadows ing. We chose to sit directly opposite the baby, crying in his father's arms as he entry. Very soon every seat on every bench came into the room, turned to the Light The exciting, stimulating, was ftlled, and the later arrivals found and stopped crying. Yet others dosed their creative newsletter of places to stand around the windowed walls eyes in meditation, as I did for a while, the Fellowship of Quakers or near the doors. For the whole hour or and when I opened them again, there was in the Arts more, people kept arriving, taking the the Light still shining, as metaphorical as To get it, join. spaces vacated by those who chose not to any more canonically sanctified cruciform Membership $22 per year. stay for-I want to say-the entire meet structure I had ever experienced. FQA, P.O. Box 58565 ing for worship. The Light is quite unlike various news Philadelphia, PA 19102 That's what it was. At first everyone paper photographs I have seen of it. It's was looking up into the "skyspace"-the not pinkish, as reported in the New York E-mail: [email protected] 12-foot-square opening in the roof, a frame Times, nor purple, as in the Houston for the sky and the air, the light outside Chronicle. The gray of a black-and-white that becomes transformed into the light photo comes closer to the reality, but the The Bible Association of Friends within. Then the silence came down. That experience is one of changing light, un in America was what I found so extraordinary about likely to be captured on film. Now it since 1829 has offered Bibles, NewTestamems, the gathering. The chatter had, within darkened slowly to deepest blue, and at and Portions free or at cost to Friends three minutes, entirely ceased. And it re length the very darkness felt like a cover, a institutions, individuals, and others worldwide. mained silent until the last. seal drawn over us, between us and the W rite to: P.O. Box 3, Riverton, NJ 08077 As for the light: recessed lights where night. I had at last. found myself in a the ceiling meets the walls make a frame building that was the living image of my for the skyspace and a base for arched own faith. CREMATION curves at either end. Thus there is not only The Live Oak Meetinghouse is a place Friends are reminded that the Anna T. Jeanes Fund the light of the skyspace to watch as it of extraordinary beauty-a work of art, will reimburse cremation costs. darkens in a clear, gentle, and infinitely yes, but no distraction from worship, a (Applicable to members of subtle change of atmosphere, but also an bringer of calm, rather, a celebration of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting only.) image as ofa setting or a rising sun, such as the Light within and the Light outside of For information, write DORIS CLINKSCALE I have seen in Hawaii quietly emerging us, shaped by us, which surrounds us and 15 East McPherson Street, from or falling below the dean line of is at the same time and everywhere one Philadelphia, PA 19119-1617 ocean horiwn. The dear panes of the long with us. 0
32 May 2002 FRIENDS j OURNAL Chuck Fager, continued from p. 9
a hospice in his home area. These state ments were both sad and funny, because the guy was in fact a tremendous anist, but one also laboring to be a Quaker at the same time, and acknowledging that this wasn't necessarily an easy integration to bring off. . . . where each resident I don't say this to criticize anyone or enjoys a comfortable, any group; this ambiguity is pan of our secure and caring Quaker heritage, and we just have to work it through. The best artists among us will environment take this tension and and make things of ... where newcomers beauty and depth and social concern out ofit . Indeed, they already are. I'm grateful quickly feel at home and for the chance, through FQA, to see this long-time residents find process close up. new delights every day What new perspective about the arts is your new role at QJ,uzker House givingyou? This is a good question. I'm under the A Quaker Sponsored Continuing Care Retirement Community weight ofit, but don't yet have an answer. • Independent Living • Assisted Living • Skilled Nursing Care Quaker House in Fayetteville, N.C., is right next to Fort Bragg, one of the largest 6300 Greene Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144 U.S. military bases, and home to the Spe 215-844-0700 cial Forces, which are the key troops fight I!QUAI.HOUSIIQ Vtsit our Internet site at: www.stapeley.org OPPORTUNITY ing our current war. At Quaker House I'm trying to take the measure ofU.S. milita rism in the 21st century, and work at figuring out some useful Quaker responses. In this task, which I've only just begun, Quaker artists should have a place, and I hope to be able to facilitate some visits, retreats, and workshops there along these lines. It's a very intriguing and formidable challenge: what would a Quaker artist make ofall the military stuff around here? I expect to find out. For my pan, as a writer I hope to get material for some more Quaker mystery novels, to add to the two I've already written. The material is here: plenty of crime, drugs, the culture of killing, do mestic violence, and so forth. But it's not all awful; there are surprising, positive as pects too. Of course, Fayetteville is just an exag gerated and concentrated example of our militarized culture. I understand this bet ter all the time. But it also reminds me every day that the Quaker Peace T esti mony is a priority for us now, and for who knows how long to come. In that work, Quaker artists will have their roles to play. FQA is well aware of this, and whether at Quaker House in Fayetteville, or our local meetings, or in our studios, we hope to keep doing our bit to cultivate these gifts and celebrate them as they bear fruit. 0
FRIENDS J OURNAL May 2002 33 Witness Arts & Spirituality A Promise to July 14-18 July 31-August 4 KAI>o: TuB WAY OF FLOWERs TRANSFORMATION IN STONE Aiyat Marcia Shibata Barbara Tam fuNDWEAVING (through July 19) THE SACRED ORDINARY by Tom Jackson Mary Barnes & Robyn Josephs Carrie Newcomer spent a good part of the summer of2000 July 21-25 August 14-18 living in Iraq. After a fust visit in early PAINTING FOR}OY DRUMMING INTO UNITY I June, I joined a delegation that lived with Helen David Brancato Bob jones families struggling to survive on the UN Oil PHoTOGRAPHY AS A HEALING ART FossiL MuD AND DREAMs for Food Program rations, in a part of Basra jan Phillips SHAPING CLAY called Al Jumhuriya (pronounced )00-moh Robert Turner REE-yuh). July26-30 After seeing conditions in Iraq that first LIVING YouR CREATIVE JouRNEY time in June, I decided that I had to leave my Richard Watson job as a technical writer and do anti-sanctions CREATING ExTRAoRDINARY BooKS AND PRINTS work full-time. My way of bringing back judy Derickson what I saw in Iraq to the people in the United States was to film what I saw. I was deter mined that this would turn into my first documentary, and I have been rumazed at the way in which doors have opened, allowing its Q~KERCENmFOR~~~Nm~ ~ completion. "Greetings From Missile Street" ext.142 · (800) 742-3150 (US) - has screened at several festivals, conferences, or (610) 5664507 (worldwide) colleges, universities, and Quaker meetings. 338 Plush Mill Road ·Wallingford, PA 19086 Recently it aired on Free Speech 1V. It is my · [email protected] witness now, and as my friends in Iraq re quested, I share their realities wherever and whenever I can. Our standards of Quaker simplicity do not prepare one for the destitute conditions in FRIENDS JoURNAL announces the publication of Iraq. I visited many homes that had nothing but a mat on the floor. Many families sold or bartered off belongings over the past 11 years, in an effort to buy clothes for meir chilruen or BENJAMIN put a little more food on the table. While the Iraqi economy has been crushed, the price of The Meetznghouse Mouse : something as essential as a pair of shoes for a child has remained at a rate equal to a month's by Benjamin, as told to Clifford Pfeil, salary for most of those who are fortunate with illustrations by John D. Gwnmere enough to have a job. I Aiyat (pronounced EYE-yaht) is one per son from Al J umhuriya who I will always If you remember the Benjamin stories remember. She was eight when I was there, in past issues, you will be happy to share and she is adorable. Like most Iraqi children, them-now in book form-with your she is very thin, and tiny for her age. I would have guessed that she was four or five. It was children, grandchildren, and Friends! common for me to think that preteen kids in Look for Benjamin in Friends bookstores or order directly from FRIENDSj OURNAL: Iraq were a few years younger than their actual age. In pre-sanctions Iraq, obesity was the top Please send me __ copies of Benjamin@ $6.00 each, plus $2.00 shipping and handling childhood medical issue. Not anymore. Since ($3.50 for shipping and handling outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico). My check is enclosed. the bombing of infrastrUcture during the Gulf Nrume ______War (or the "Bush War" as Iraqis call it), and the sanctions that followed, death from dehy Adruess ______dration and other complications that arise out City ______State __ ZIP ______Tom jackson, a member ofDover (NH) Meet Country, if other than U.S.------ inJY is the chair ofNew Hampshire Peace Ac Please mail to FRIENDS JouRNAL, m6 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835· tion, cofounder of War Resisters League ofS.E. If any questions please call (215) 563-8629. New Hampshire, and works with Peace Re sponseNH
34 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL of gastroenteritis is the number one child subject. The Arabic word for picture is surra "To-mas ... surra." In her hand was a small hood health issue. It is the leading killer of (pronounced SOO-rah). At times I had as cross pendant. She held it out to me, obvi children in Iraq. UNICEF has stared that many as 50 Iraqi ·children at once, vying for ously wanting me to take it. I smiled and 5,000 children under the age of five die every position in from of me and shouting, "To indicated that I couldn't take it from her, but month as a direct result of the sanctions. The mas, To-mas! Surra, surra!!" I stepped out of she took a step closer to me and then put the war, by whatever name one chooses for it, my host's home at about 6:30A.M. The sun cross into my hand. I looked at it, knowing never ended for the Iraqi people. was already beating down, but the tempera that she would not take it back, even ifI tried. At this writing in mid-February, the United ture at that hour was still tolerable. I panned I thought, "What a beautiful gift," and at the States is holding back over $5 billion in con up and down the road-not a soul in sight. same time I felt the irony of being given tracts for humanitarian aid to Iraq through its And then Aiyat came skipping out of her something by someone who has literally noth vote on the UN Security Council. Yet our home. "To-mas, To-mas! Surra!" I thought ing. I fumedAiyat for a few minutes, and then politicians keep telling us that ifany people are that her greeting would surely bring more she ran off, smiling. I wear the cross on a chain dying in Iraq, it is all Saddam Hussein's fault. ·children our, bur as I tried to continue with every day. Eleven years ago, the elder Bush said, "Our my camera work, I noted that she remained A delegation that visited AI J urnhuriya in quarrel is not with the Iraqi people." Six years the only child in the street. She stuck very June of 2001 came back with a picture of ago, Madeleine Albright said that the price of close to my side, and from time to time re Aiyat. I keep it on my desk. She is sitting in over a half million Iraqi children dying under peated her request to be on camera. I tried to the living room of her home. Her family is sanctions is "worth it." This year the younger ignore her, but she was very persistent. Fi slightly better off than others in Basra, so she Bush named Iraq as pan of the "axis of evil." I nally, she stepped out in from ofme, and with actually has a chair to sit on. She is holding a see no end in sight for the suffering of the her hands up to her face, she again said, "To phone to her ear-it doesn't work, but she Iraqi people. mas, surra!" I noticed that she was holding likes to pretend. Her beautiful smile radiates One morning while in Basra, I got up very something in her left hand. At the same time, the joy that is almost shocking to find in early, hoping to shoot some footage in the I stood there trying to think of a way to conditions that are so dismal. She is beaming streets without a group oflittle children trying communicate that I had gotten her on camera at the camera, as much out of pure sweetness to get in front of the camera. Kids everywhere many times, and that I really just wanted to as for her love ofhaving her picture taken. On like to be on camera; Iraqi kids are no differ get some shots of the street conditions. Then the back of the picture, her brother wrote for ent. When a camera appears, they will swarm she held out her hand and opened it, and her in English, "Promise me that you will in front of you, hoping that they will be your again, in a much more pleading tone she said, never give up." I promise, Aiyat. 0
For additional information contact Julie at (908) 595-6500 100 Monroe Street • Bridgewater, NJ 08807
FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 35 Reports Convergence: image of a dying child from Hiroshima fold ing paper cranes, by Patricia Young, and then Poems for Peace the gentle, hopeful "What I love here (in a "the small school that peaceful land)" by Liz Zetlin-a poem that makes big people" This is a report 6n a countrywide Cana made it possible to leave the room afrerwards. dian project to deliver poems enclosed in art Sometimes it was very tough; there were ofren on the theme ofpeace to all MPs and Senators tears among readers and audience. Sometimes throughout 2001. Revenues from the project, it was humorous, sometimes thoughtful, an which is published by the League of Canadian gry, nostalgic, or political. The language was Poets and supported by the donations of par sometimes allusive, sometimes painfully di ticipants, go to the peace education work of rect. A song by Laura Langstaff near the middle such groups as Peacefund Canada. For previ (by alphabetic accident!) gave a moment of ous reports or more information, see: relief, a turn that allowed us to go on.
36 May 2002 FRIENDS jOURNAL FRIENDS WILDERNESS nonviolent direct action by large and small MEDITATION CENTER communities around the globe as they & NILES CABIN RETREAT struggled with inflammatory social problems. Once the films and books are delivered to The peace and stillness of 1400 acres of West Virginia wilderness the library and become available for public between the Appalachian Trail and the Shenandoah River await you for circulation, we shall write a letter to churches, a retreat, either alone or a small group. Two guest rooms, shared bath, schools, and social agencies in Evanston, de scribing the materials in some detail; while breakfast included. Dinner and lunch available. little publicized previously, they are intensely Contact: Sheila N. Bach, Route 4 Box 314J, Harper's Ferry WV 25425 interesting subjects for group meetings and discussion. We plan to introduce the films at a 304-728-4820 Fax 304-728-8743 [email protected] three-hour Sunday afternoon public meeting to be held in the library's community room. The books will be on display at that time. Other Quaker Meetings might prefer to Colman McCarthy donate copies of these materials to local col lege or university libraries, or to schools that l,d Rather Teach Peace members have attended. Lessons about the challenge of peacemaking from an award-win First is a documentary fum, A Force More ning writer-turned-teacher. "Will help all of us understand how Powerfol, written and produced by Steve we might live in a better world by trying to understand it, and by York, released in 1999 and shown on PBS. trying to make it more peaceful." -RoBERT COLES The film's six parts feature: India, "DefYing 1-57075-430-6 he $18.00 the Crown"; South Africa, "Freedom in our Lifetime"; Nashville, Tenn., "We Were War Kerry Walters, editor riors"; Denmark, "Living with the Enemy"; Rufus Jones Poland, "We've Caught God by the Arm"; Essential Writings and Chile, "Defeat of a Dictator." This film Rufus Jones (1863-1948) received a Nobel Prize as co-founder of is available from Films for the Humanities, (800) 257-5126. the American Friends Service Committee. His "affirmative mysti Second is the companion book, A Force cism" infuses all contemporary spirituality. More PowerfUL A Century ofNonviolent Con 1-57075-380-6 pb $16.00 flict, by Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall. Henri Nouwen, John Dear, editor This book includes the six narratives in the PBS film in expanded form. It also documents The Road to Peace Now in Paperback! six additional international examples of suc Writings on Peace and Justice • Pax Christi Book Award Winner cessful citizen use of nonviolent direct action. "The world knew Henri as a contemplative writer but it was his The book concludes with chapters on "The passion for peace and justice that gave his spiritual search such MythologyofViolence," "The New World of authenticity." -JIM WALLIS 1-57075-1 92-7 pb $15.00 Peace," and "Victory without Violence." Third is a large book of eloquent black and-white photographs and narratives, Speak At your bookseller or direct: ORBIS BOOKS Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Wbo Visa/MC Order Online! www.maryknollmall.org Maryknoll. NY 10545 Are Changing the World, by Kerry Kennedy 1-800-258-5838 Cuomo with photographs by Edie Adams, A W orld of Books that Matter edited by Nan Richardson (Crown Publish ers, 2000). This is a profoundly inspiring volume, focusing on the astonishing power of individuals to lead their brothers and sisters out of desperation into hope. As Quakers we believe peace is an active Excelling way oflife, a challenge to live in God's creative presence under the most trying circumstances. IN A CHANGING WORLD When battles rage, we seek to witness directly by offering another voice, a creative alterna tive way. We find sustaining nourishment in FRIENDS SELECT the example of peacemakers in other places, other times. (609) 714-0100 We feel impelled to share some of these [email protected] Pre- K to 12th grade peacemakers' stories with others. • MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES • 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway • INSCRIPTIONS • SCROLLS • -Dorothy B. Trippel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I9103-1284 22 New Freedom Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 attender at Evanston (Ill.) Meeting 215-561-5900
F RIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 37 Books PENDLE HILL RESIDENT STUDY British Quakerism 1860-- PROGRAM 1920: The Transformation of a Religious Community How might a term By Thomas C Kennedy. Oxford University at Pendle Hill Press, 2001. 477pages. $90/hardcover. This imponant book describes how Brit enrich your life? ish Friends shifted, in 60 years, from a fairly rigidly defined onhodox Protestant, evangeli cal · theology to the modern, liberal Society People of all faiths come to Pendle Hill to worship, work and learn together in with a focus on peace and social action that community, inspired by the Quaker testimonies of peace, equality, they largely remain today. integrity and simplicity. Whether you come to study, engage This shift did not happen in a vacuum, or behind a Quaker "hedge." The main currents in social witness, deepen your faith, or achieve clarity of British thought had a large impact on during a personal transition, a term at Pendle Hill can Friends. For the first 60 years of the 19th century evangelical Protestantism held the foster transformative insight and a renewed dominant position in the yearly meeting. In commitment to your life and work. 1860 London Yearly Meeting's institutional structure was firmly controlled by evangelical PENDLE HILL Friends such as Joseph Bevan Braithwaite. A QUAKER CENTER FOR STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION They had absorbed doctrines ofsalvation based (800) 742-3150 (US) or (610) 566-4507 ext. 137 on a belief in Christ's redeeming sacrifice on 338 Plush Mill Road • Wallingford, PA 19086-6099 the cross, and they were guided by a literal www.pendlehill.org · [email protected] interpretation of Scripture. Friends who si I lently held to older Quaker understandings often sat in meetings where there was no vocal ministry to disturb the peace or to explicate Friends faith and practice. In the last 40 years of the century new ideas, loosely grouped under the title of mod ernism, captured the interest of younger Residential and Friends. These included Darwinism, higher Assisted Living Biblical criticism, and eventually what in the since 1891 U.S. is known as the Social Gospel. British involvement in war, first against the Boers in South Mrica and then in the First World In addition to The Hickman's War, provided critical impetus for reexamin ing the Peace Testimony. Thanks to Friends "not too big, not too small" such as Rufus Jones, by the end of the 19th size, Bill and Becky Mcilvain century London Yearly Meeting had discov ered that it had a great deal in common with liked the retirement the heretofore despised and ignored Hicksite community's in-town location. yearly meetings in North America. The first hint of change came in 18 59 with an essay contest on the "Causes of the Decline "There are so many things in the Society ofFriends." In the winning essay you can do within walking young John Stephenson Rowntree called for distance. We're still driving Friends to break out of their narrow, rigid mold, and embrace a deeper comprehension of now, but the day will come. ... " the wider world in order to become once again a dynamic spiritual force. But wholesale change did not become visible until the Manchester Quaker-Sponsored • Homelike • Affordable • Close to Town • Welcoming Diversity Conference nearly half a century later. At the Manchester Conference in 1895, 400 N. Walnut St., West Chester, PA 19380 for the first time modern religious and secular 610-696-1536 ideas were openly embraced within London e-mail: [email protected] Yearly Meeting. The Conference also saw the emergence of a leading group of younger www. thehickman.org Friends who wanted to open the windows of the meetinghouse to new, scientific thinking.
38 May 2002 FRIENDS JOURNAL Front cover illustration: AO Friends Conference, 1920 (Devonshire House). Courtesy of the Library ofthe Religious ~c;;J Society ofFriends in Briuzin. Thailand Photo: Picture Colkction (Pict Interdisciplinary semesters of BoxF51) learning and adventure for high school seniors and interim year students. responses to the war from enlisting, Tim Ellis, 195 Montsweag Road, being drafred, serving in ambulance Woolwich, Maine 04579 units or other noncombatant roles, re 207-443-5451 ·Email: tellisa>gquest.org fusing to cooperate and being jailed. Visit: www.gquest.org Nevertheless, largely because of the ex ample of the radical young men endur ing quite unpleasant prison conditions, Friends Committee on London Yearly Meeting officially up F RIENDS COMMITTEE ON' National Legislation held the ideal of the Peace Testimony. The experience of discord within nFC www.fcnl.org the yearly meeting, the realization that 1-800-630-1330 UNL 245 Second St., NE good Friends held strong and differing N ATIOI'fA.L LEotsLAnON They inaugurated what author T homas opinions about peace and war, led to toler Washington, DC 20002 Kennedy sees as a Quaker Renaissance. The ance becoming an increasingly important post We seek a world free of war & the threat of war Summer School Movement, Woodbrooke, war goal. The war drew converts who had no We seek a society with equity & justice for all and the Young Friends Movement were mani interest in Quaker history or in Christianity, festations of this renewal. but were passionate about peace and social We seek a community where every person's The younger Friends who came to the justice. Since nobody could force anyone else potential may be fulfilled fore, such as John Wilhelm Rowntree, Will to change their beliefs, Friends began to value We seek an earth restored... . iam Charles Braithwaite, Seebohm Rowntree, internal amity over unity in either faith or Rende! Harris, Edward Grubb, and Neave practice. Tolerance became the highest value, Brayshaw, sought to anchor the new Quaker and in time virtually all the pieces of faith and ism in a knowledge of early Friends and an practice became matters of personal opinion. 2002 eager acceptance of modern thought. The The book concludes with the first all Admission Office Congratulations multivolume Rowntree Series ofQuaker His Friends conference, held in 1920 with 936 5800 West Friendly Avenue tory was one result. The renaissance included delegates. Friends from North America and Greensboro, NC 274 10 to our a renewed passion for improving the social Great Britain achieved considerable unity 336-316-2100 10 graduating order that resonates with U.S. Progressivism around the Peace Testimony. The conference 1-800-992-7759 in this period. A Socialist Quaker Society affirmed for British Quakerism that the Peace FAX 336-316-2954 Quaker developed. Although young women were in Testimony was the fundamental basis of www.guilford.edu Leadership volved, London Yearly Meeting did little for Quaker Christian truth. It affirmed the tri Scholars! women's suffrage. The renaissance was, by umph ofliberal theology. From then on social Quaker Education and large, a movement run by younger men. and political activism would be the hallmark Since 1837 When London Yearly Meeting failed to of British Friends. Although the yearly meet offer unified opposition to the Boer War, ing gave official pronouncement to the Peace many younger Friends sought to revive the Testimony as its highest value, in practice all DISCOVER QUAKER PHILADELPHIA Peace Testimony as a cornerstone of Quaker shades ofopinion and behavior were accepted, Two-hour walking tours of William Penn's faith. At the first national conference for young from going to jail for refusing to cooperate original city of brotherly love. For sale: Friends, held in August 1911 at Swanwick, with conscription to voluntary enlistment. paperweight created to honor Penn's work eager participants heard a ringing challenge to This book is important because of the and crafted in Olde City. be preR¥ed to live out the Quaker message insights it offers into the process by which Send a SASE for information to: QUAKER in a w?ay that might be personally costly. British Friends changed, and by extension, of TOURS, Box 1632, Media, PA 19063. The inner work many of the"ffi did helped the similar trajectory they and FGC Friends British Friends face World War I, their great have taken through the 20th century. The est challenge since the end of persecution experience in North America was compli Friendly painting, poetry, sculpture, centuries earlier. cated by separations into increasingly diverse photography, music, art shows, The author offers a detailed look at the branches during this period. North American creative spirituality and witness .... struggles within London Yearly Meeting Friends were not starting at a uniform place What's not to like? around Friends' responses to war and the in 1860. The politics of the U.S. and causes of war. For a while the loudest voices Canada differed somewhat from the issues Join the Fellowship of Quakers within the yearly meeting came from the small and arguments in Britain. But the same forces in the Arts group of radical Friends who supported un ofmodernism were at work within the Hicksite compromising resistance to militarism, over and the Gumeyite branches in North America; Membership $22 per year. lappingwith other radical Friends who sought the same impetus to revive the Religious FQA, P.O. Box 58565 through socialism to dismantle the capitalist Society of Friends around the Peace Testi Philadelphia, PA 19102 imperialist system. But Friends were not mony was at work in Philadelphia and other E-mail: [email protected] united. There was a spectrum of individual yearly meetings.
FRIENDS J OURNAL May 2002 39 At the time, caught up in the enthusiasm of renewal, Friends thought they were reviv WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL Est. 1689 ing the Religious Society. They imbibed the Over 300 Years of Quaker Education certainty-and hubris--ofthe Progressive Era that ifwe just passed the right laws and insti The William Penn Charter School is a Quaker college-preparatory school tuted the right foreign policy, the kingdom of stressing high standards in academics, the arts, and athletics. Penn Charter heaven would prevail. is committed to nurturing girls and boys of diverse backgrounds in an But the 20th century did not work out atmosphere designed to stimulate each student to work to his or her that way. Having lived, now, with the results fullest potential. Kindergarten through twelfth grade. of their efforts, perhaps we can see what is missing in their concept of Quakerism. Jesus Earl J. Ball Ill, Head of School declared that the kingdom ofheaven is among 3000 W. School House Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19144 you. It is already come, and it is coming. (215) 844-3460 • www.penncharter.com Friends are called to live as if they are already members of God's family. How does one become a brother or sister of Christ? One is born again, one is trans formed, and one "puts on the mind ofChrist." There are many images and metaphors to describe the truth William Penn spoke when he described early Friends as "changed men [sic] themselves before they wen.t about to change others." The quotation goes on: "Their hearts were rent as well as their garments; and they k,?ew the power and work of God upon them. Some of the World War I COs found this truth in prison. A few "concluded that paci A c ducational, fism could never be based on a political ideol college preparatory, ogy or social theory but was rather an act of personal faith resting, in the end, upon one's boarding high school willingness to take up the Cross of C hrist as a with' deep Quaker roots sacrificial victim and witness to a better way." This minority voice calls dearly to us in the wake ofSe ptember 11, 200 1.
-Marty Grundy Marty Grundy is a member ofCleveland (Ohio) Meeting.
Twillinger's Voyage By Daniel Turner. Ebor Press, 2000. 404 pages. $19/paperback. In Daniel Turner's imaginative novel, the "Zini" society is an ancient group that seems to function in ways that Friends will recog nize: they make decisions by consensus, they hold what seem to be meetings for worship, GuideOne Insurance is America's leading insur they have a system analogous to the elders in a meeting, and they eschew violence. And when er of religious institutions, and has been pro Jerry Twillinger, a 24th-century Gulliver from tecting Friends houses of worship and schools Earth finds himself on the "counterplanet for more than 20 years. In fact, since 1979, Z4," in the asteroid belt outside of Mars, he GuideOne has been the Friends Insurance endeavors to understand them- and why they consider humans in general and Jerry in par Group property and casualty insurer of choice. ticular to be barbarians. To arrange for a FREE premium quotation, and It's a long, slow process, requiring that he to learn more about GuideOne Insurance, call r. 4 learn to· speak Zini, read the language (by starting in nursery school), study their culture 1-877-448-4331 ext. 5429. GuadeOne· Insurance and their science (by completing elementary and high schools), and become a productive
40 May 2002 FRIENDS j OURNAL '· Give six free gifts Get six free months
~- '"2;~ r-- I' ' ' ' ...._._ ,.,...- .. --"~ \ • • I ,,J ...... __ - 'F" "Was this real or was I dreaming?" 1he strength of F RIENDS JoURNAL is in its r~aders, so we want to add some new ones! member of Z4 society. As Jerry recounts his experiences, he learns (and we learn) the phi Send us the names ofup to six individuals who are not currently subscribers,* losophy, the structure, and the economy of but who you know would enjoy the JoURNAL. the Zini. We also learn that, in common with We'll send each of them three free issues (along with a gift card from Friends, there is a concern for the community you)-and we'll extend your own subscription by one month for each as a whole, for its social and physical well being, and a sincere tolerance and respect for friend, meeting member, or attender whose name you send to us (up to six months). others. * (and who have not been for two years) Daniel Turner has written a captivating account of Jerry's journey of discovery and education, which can be read on several levels, l. Name: ______5. Name: ______each nicely interwoven. But underlying the Address: ______Address: ______entire story is the philosophy and the behavior of the Zini and the appropriate response to ______Zip ______Zip ___ _ war, terrorism, and the abuse of human (and not-human) rights. There are no easy answers 2. Name: ______6. Name: ______here, but simply raising these issues and think Address: ______Address: ______ing about them seriously in an imaginative and intriguing tale is of considerable value. Perhaps you will agree with the Zini solu ______Zip ______Zip ___ _ tions. Or perhaps you will, as I did, wish the 3. Name: ______Zini could have found solutions that relied much less on force or the threat of force. In Address:------any event, you will be enriched by your en Please extend my current counter with them and with pondering their ______Zip subscription: society's solutions to some of the same prob 4. Name: Name: ______lems with which we grapple. Address: Address: ______What will our society evolve to after mil lions ofyears ofexistence, many ofwhich have been spent traveling the universe? What will ______Zip Zip~--- the Religious Society of Friends look like in ...... our evolved society? Will Friends still need to be a strong voice for pacifism, reconciliation, FRIENDS 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 and unity or will we have convinced enough Fax: (215) 568-1377 others so that Quaker principles will be deeply JOURNAL E-mail: [email protected] F]oso2 integrated into all of our institutions? And
FRIENDS J OURNAL May 2002 41
.~ Friends Home at Woodstown what will our world be like if Q uaker prin ciples prevail? Will there still be terrorism? If A Century ofQuaker Care for Older Adults so, how will we deal with it? -RobertS. Tannenbaum Simply put, Friends Home at Woodstown provides friendly and affordable care to older adults. Nestled in the heart of rural southern New Jersey, Robert S. Tannenbaum, an attender ofLexing Friends Home has maintained a stable presence in the community for over ton (Ky.) Meeting, is also associate director of undergraduate studies at the University of 100 years. Some ofour primary services include: Kentucky. • Private, homelike residential living • Independent apartment living Faith and Practice: A Guide • Health care facility with 24-hour services to Quaker Discipline in the • Patient and supportive staff • Attention to the individual's spiritual, social, and physical needs Experience ofPacific Yearly • Closeness to the community Meeting of the Religious • Medicare and Medicaid Certificate Society of Friends Rated one ofthe best care homes in the U.S. Pacific Yearly Meeting, 2001. 270 pages, plus For a tour or more information, contact our Admissions Office at an inserted revised index. $10/paperback. 856-769-1500 First published in 1952, this is a fifth revision of the Pacific Yearly Meeting (PYM) Faith and Practice. Over the years it has grown Friends Home at Woodstown in number ofp ages, type size, and in its reflec P.O. Box 457 • Friends Drive • Woodstown, NJ 08098 tion of the experience ofyear ly meeting mem bers. It gives the sense that this is a yearly meeting that has matured in its life in the Spirit and is becoming more clear about its own identity. T he volume is organized into six broad categories: 1) Pacific Yearly Meeting in Con text; 2) Q uaker Faith and Spiritual Practice; 3) Testimony and Experience of Friends; 4) Organization of the Society; 5) Procedures; and 6) Activities and Organization of the Yearly Meeting. The layout is hard to follow, but the eight-page glossary, a balanced bibli ography of suggested readings, and a helpful collection of appendices (including sample queries for membership, letters of transfer, and marriage certificates} help make up for that lack. T he index at the back of the book contains errors, so a revised index is insetted . Notable changes from the 1985 edition are a statement that there is no longer a cat egory of junior membership for children and that birthright membership is not recognized. Also, guidance on legal marriage and a 1996 minute with regard to equality of marriage rights address same-gender issues. Gone are special sections on equality of the sexes and equality as a racial concern. And a new section titled "Laboring with Concerns" includes the work in progress of the yearly meeting around a concern for living in harmony with nature. Also noteworthy is the section on proce dures-lapsed membership, dual membership, minute taking, and support ofthe dying. These and other topics are plainly spelled out. The chapter on advices and queries offers guidance for both personal and corporate use of these
42 May 2002 F RIENDS JOURNAL tools. A substantial section of quotes reflects the experience of Friends from the earliest days ofour history as a Society to the present. Well placed in this section are statements made by PYM throughout its history. There is inconsistency throughout the book when referring to the times that Friends gather FOR ADULTS for business-monthly meeting, meeting for worship for business, meeting for business, or Grounded in God: simply business meeting. PYM is not alone in Care and Nurture in Friends Meetings mixing these terms, but it can be confusing edited by Patricia McBee when moving between sections. The book QP of FGC, 2002, 288 pp., paperback $17.50 employs an unfortunate approach to state A Stone Bridge North: Re~ections in a New Ufe ments on creeds, sacraments, and Christianity by Kate Maloy that other yearly meetings have used, describ Counterpoint, 2002,327 pp., hardcover $26.00 ing Friends by what theyarenotordo not do. In contrast, earlier editions focused more on The Human Being: what Friends do believe. Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of Man PYM includes monthly meetings and wor by Walter Wink ship groups in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Fortress Press, 200 I, 356 pp., paperback $26.00 Guatemala, and Mexico and has an estimated membership of 1,500. It is not affiliated with Is There No Other Way? Friends General Conference, Friends United The Search for a Nonviolent Future Meeting, or Evangelical Friends International, by Michael N. Nagler Berkeley Hills, 200 I, 336 pp., paperback $15.00 but does recognize the value of interaction with other Friends and sends representatives Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: to these and other Friends organizations. In Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Uterally the past decade, its outreach has extended to by Marcus J. Borg Russia and Latin America. HarperSanFrancisco, 2002, 321 pp., paperback $14.95 With such a geographically unique and independent organization as PYM, who out Jihad: the Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia side of the yearly meeting should read this by Ahmed Rashid book? Other yearly meetings considering re Yale, 2002,272 pp., paperback $24.00 vision of their own books of discipline will The Invention of Clouds: want to review this edition. There are many How an Amateur solid practices outlined that meetings strug Meteorologist Forged the Language ofthe Skies gling for clarity could adopt. Likewise, sru by Richard Hamblyn Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 200 I, 256 pp., hardcover $2 7.00 dents ofQuaker history, Friends in the Wider Quaker Fellowship, and Friends outside of In the Presence of Fear: Three PYM who are not new to Friends will all find Essays for a Changed World gems of inspiration and practical suggestions by Wendell Berry to consider. Orion Society, 2002,42 pp., paperback -Petf!Y Spohr $8.00 Peggy Spohr attends Clear Creek Meeting in Richmond, Indiana. She is also treasurer of ~SPI NNING FOR CHILDREN Whitewater Quarterly Meeting ofOhio Valley TALES, Yearly Meeting. WEAVING Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope: ~ '=~..r:: Stories, Storytelling and Activities for Music ~ -~ ~ Peace,Justice and the Environment ~::::::- edited by Ed Brody,Jay Goldspinner, Come, Spirit: Hymns for the Katie Green, Rona Leventhal and Mountain Dulcimer John Porcino; foreword by Holly Near By Mathilda Navias. 2001. $15. New Society, 2002, 296 pp, paperback $24.95 Glory on the Mountain The Araboolies of By Cathy Harris and Stan Banker. Harris & Liberty Street Banker, 2001. $10. by Sam Swope, illustrated by Barry Root Pulling the Sbings Sunburst, 200 I, 32 pp., By Mike McKillip. Orchard Music, 2000. paperback $5.95 $14.99. Country, pop, gospel, and dulcimer are four forms of music most of us would not associate FRIENDSJouRNAL May 2002 43 "Ill)!) \L'.lr\, thL· l l L'\l ~L'llL'i.llJ(lJ J \1 JIJ.hk: 'What were you doing when the children of Iraq were dying?'" with Friends. Yet four Friends &om the Mid \luntutl< Ollt,t.:_d/1 \ltitfllllt, flJ h \oh,/l'ttltt /'Jr:::t · ltllllt'ttlt west are turning that notion on its head. Come, Spirit: Hymns for the Mountain Dul Friends, we are now in the 12th year ofo ur war against Iraq. It's a new kind of cimer is a soothing, enjoyable CD of tunes war, waged mainly by economic sanctions that were imposed August 6, 1990. &om Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal. The UNICEF and many other reliable sources report that those sanctions are killing playlist includes "Let All Things Now Liv thousands of children every month. ing," "Vine and Fig Tree," "Simple Gi&s," What does our historic Peace Testimony call us to do now~ and 27 more. Navias's playing is graceful and moving. It would make a wonderful addition -Mary Arnett, Philadelphia, Pa.; Kay Camp, Haverford, Pa.; Frances Crowe, Northampton, Mass.; to any Friend's music collection and could Ingeborg Jack, Swarthmore, Pa.; Ruth Matson, Upper Darby, Pa.; Marjorie Schier, Levittown, Pa. also be well used for Quaker gatherings and retreats. It is a good introduction to some of the lesser-known hymns in Worship and Song. It also includes words to the hymns on the CD insert. Come, Spirit can be ordered di Friends Hospital rectly &om Mathilda Navias, 147 Hall Street, Tiffin, OH 44883. For more information, Annual Garden Days contact her at
email:[email protected] (603) 899-3366 www.meetingschool.org
44 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL News Personalized Care in the Friends Committee on National Legislation has been following the bill to reinstate the Quaker Tradition military draft that was introduced in the House in December 2001. This bill (HR Since 1896 3598, The Universal Military Training and Service Act of2001), currently has only two sponsors. FCNL does not currently see suffi A Quiet, cient political support to move this bill out of Home-Like Setting in a committee. There is no companion bill in the Senate. FCNL is not advising any grassroots Beautifully Landscaped action on this issue at this time. A bill to repeal the Military Selective Service Act (HR 1597) Atmosphere was introduced in the House last April. This bill currently has 17 sponsors and also is not expected to receive action during the coming • Private Rooms, Suites and • Recreational Activities session of Congress. FCNL maintains its Apartments longstanding opposition to military conscrip • 24 Hour Security tion and compulsory national service. For • Assistance With Activities Of Daily • Some Financial additional information on HR 3598 and HR Living Assistance Available 1597, see FCNL's website
FRIENDS J ouRNAL May 2002 45 alty, and will suppon reforming the state's tax system and preserving civil liberties and legal rights in face of threats to public security. - "I grew to appreciate learning as a University Friends Meeting (Seattle, Wash.) part ofeveryday life at Friends' Plymouth Meeting (Pa.), in a letter to the Central. Because the teachers care chair of the State Senate Education Com about the students as individuals, mittee, expressed concern about legislation they teach us lessons oflife in addition that requires teachers and students in all to the academics." public, private, and parochial schools in Penn sylvania to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag each school day. At the time of the letter from the meeting, the legislation already had been approved by the House in the Gen eral Assembly. In its letter, Plymouth Meeting COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY affirmed, "Our Religious Society holds a fun Friends' Central Service Award damental belief in an individual's ability to Friends School Student Leadership Conference know God directly. Our knowing of God is Model U.N. • Admission Tour Guide done without clergy, oaths, or other symbols Student Newspaper Writer • Black Student Forum that may interfere or become hollow and Amnesty International • Debate Team empty. Our allegiance is to God, not to sym Varsity Baseball Captain • Varsity Basketball bols. . . . We cannot suppon the proposed Varsity Soccer legislation. We ask that you consider our posi tion in your own discernment on this mat Lower School, Grades Pre-K- 4 Middle/Upper School, Grades S-12 228 Old Gulph Road 1101 City Avenue ter." -Plymouth Meeting Newsletter Wynnewood, PA 19096-1098 Wynnewood, PA 19096-3490 "A Vision for the American Friends Service Call: (610) 649-7440 for more information Committee," outlining goals for AFSC to accomplish in the next five years, was ap proved by the AFSC Board of Directors last November, and bytheAFSC Executive Com mittee in January, after a process oflistening, conversations, and worship together. The goals are, in summary: rethinking borders; explor FRIENDS HOUSE RETIREMENT ing healing justice; creating economic oppor tunity and dismantling structural inequality; empowering youth leadership; building com COMMUNITY mitment to nonviolent resolution of conflict; and providing humanitarian assistance and A friendly community of active residents education. · in a lovely country atmosphere. A Quaker International Affairs Representa Section 202 subsidized housing for seniors offering tive (QIAR) retreat, conducted by American studio and one bedroom apts. Friends Service Committee, was held at Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C., Janu (Maximum annual income limits: Single $38,100; Couple $43,500) ary 27 to February 3. The retreat focused on Cottage program (no income limits) offering responses to the war on terrorism and ongoing concerns about ethnic and religious conflicts, individual cottages, duplexes and apartments. poveny, human rights, globalization, and the Caring staff dedicated to the environment. Participants in the weeklong program included representatives of Friends comfort and well-being of residents World Committee for Consultation, the Skilled nursing facility on grounds Quaker United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva, staff members and representa APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED. tives from AFSC, and QIARs from around Write or call the world. Underlying almost all of the re ports and discussions at the retreat was con Resident Director, Friends House cern about the impact of the war on terrorism 17340 Quaker Lane, on arms control in general, on peace initia tives specifically in the Middle East, and on Sandy Spring MD 20860 relationships with Muslims worldwide. Par 301-924-5100 ticipants expressed a sense of unity and pur Sponsored by Members of The Religious Society of Friends pose about the Quaker presence throughAFSC programs. "We need to interpret the condi-
46 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL tions and local problems in order to make long-term commitments, and go ahead on faith," one representative said. -RobertMarks The Peace and Concerns Standing Commit tee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting hosted a conference on February 2, attended by 150 people, on "Quaker Action: How to Be Ef fective as We Advance Our Testimonies." In the keynote address, Joe Volk, executive sec retary ofFriends Committee on National Leg islation, urged Friends to go into the public arena-not with the idea ofconvi ncing others to stop the war, but to "show our way." Attor neys and other experienced professionals of fered eight workshops, divided in morning and afternoon sessions, on the use of law for social change, how to get results in legislation, and how to organize in a community. Ac cording to Elizabeth Marsh, of the organizing committee, "It was great to see so many new faces. The only negative I heard was that Friends were disappointed that they missed other concurrent workshops they'd wanted to hear." The conference concluded with a walk ing tour of historic sites of Quaker activism around old Philadelphia. - Nara Alves More than 100 people attended the national organizing conference of Every Church A Peace Church (ECAPC) in Washington, D.C., on March 1 and 2. They heard C. T. Vivian of Atlanta, Georgia, and Rev. Justus Reeves of "You don't stop playing because Canadian Rockies. Hal trains Washington, D.C., challenge every church in you're growing old. You grow regularly in Foulkeways fitness and the U.S. to pick up the torch of nonviolent old because you stop playing." aquatic center with his wife Fran struggle raised 40 years ago by Dr. Martin Satchel Paige and other residents. Luther King Jr. ECAPC was conceived when a small group of people were informally dis Live a little or live a lot-that what Our residents head for the cussing the church's role in peacemaking. They life s all about at Foulkeways at mountains one season, grab a asked themselves rwo questions: First, is the Gwynedd s Retirement racquet or croquet mallet the next. church a peace church? Second, if the church Community. Our residents enjoy Then they plunge into our year is not a peace church, what is it? T he confer round indoor aquatics program, ence theme urged Christians during this Lent the many activities offered in our followed by many stimulating to follow Jesus on his "Journey toward Jerusa community but also enjoy lem," into danger, but also hope. ECAPC is achieving new heights and cultural and intellectual programs. an interdenominational movement of people exploring new horizons. Like Each activity is designed to keep who proclaim confidently that the church could Foulkeways resident, Hal Kellogg, the mind as active as the body. turn the world toward peace if every church 85, climbing to the top of the lived and taught as Jesus lived and taught. For more information about ECAPC communicates with grassroots people Foulkeways affordable residential nationally and worldwide. Additional ECAPC .Y. apartments, assisted living and conferences will be organized across the coun skilled nursing care, you re invited try by local advocates. For information con F(ndkeways to call Nancy B. Gold, Director of tact John Stoner, Every Church A Peace .. - Admissions at 215-643-2200. Church, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501, (717) 859-1958,
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 47 Hinshaw Tours in 12th and Final Year Bulletin Board Finland in 200lled the world in political transparency and economic vitality; Upcoming Events Guatemala was near the bottom on both indices. In conjunction with a study of causes/effects of these extremes in political •May 3-5-Building Peace in the 21st Cen tury: New Rciponses to New Forms ofWar, culture, Quaker anthropologistfeduclrtor Robert Hinshaw will lead final tours to at Arch Street Meetinghouse, Philadelphia, Finland/Sweden 6/•B-7/7/ZOOJ and to Guatemala u days over Easter 4/rr:&I, 2003. Pa. Sponsored by the Pendle Hill Religion He bas led 20 Guatemala and 4 Sweden/Finland tours the past decade, and Social Issues Forum. For details call Pendle accompanied primarily by Quakers. Lodging in Finland at Viittakivi International Hill at (610) 566-4507 or (800) 742-3150 Center (founded by Quakers) and in Sweden at the Quaker retreat center ext. 142, or e-mail
•June 13-1~Lake Erie Yearly Meeting, Bluffton, Ohio •June 15-19-"The Power of Nonviolence: Exploring Alternatives," an International Fel NEW:fOWN FRIENDS lowship of Reconciliation conference in New SCHOOL York City. Speakers include Mairead McGuire of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and Rev. James Lawson, coworker with Martin Luther King Jr. Register online at
48 May 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL :.
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FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 49 Milestones l(g,NDAL,..; CROSSLANDS Deaths COMMUNITIES Barbour-Ruth B. Barbour, 90, at home peace fully, of congestive heart fitilure, on November 17, Named among America's 20 Best 2001. She was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on Octo ber 10, 191 1, to Louis and Naomi Nickelson Continuing Care Retirement Barlow. Ruth earned bachelor's and master's de Communities. You will be pleasantly grees in An from University of Pennsylvania in surprised to learn how modestly 1936. She taught in Upper Merion School District priced our smaller cottages and until her marriage to Russell Barbour in 1940, and apartments are. Not-for-profit and later in Easton and Boyenown area schools. After Quaker-related. retirement Ruth taught preschool children and adults in the aquatic program at Upper Bucks YMCA in Quakenown, earning two outstanding volunteer service awards. She was active in the l(gndal at Longwood churches where her husband was minister (First Crosslands Baptist Church in Morristown, N.J., and Grace Care United Church of Christ in Easton, Pa.) and at Continuing FeUowship House Farm in Fagleysville, Pa. She Retirement Communities was co-author with her husband of the book Reli gious Itkas in Arts and Crafo. After retirement Ruth Coniston became an active member of Unami Meeting in Cartmel Green Lane, Pa.; she also worked with Unity Coa Retirement Communities lition of Boyenown, Perkiomen Interfaith Coun cil for Peace, and Fellowship of Reconciliation. with Residential Services Throughout her life Ruth worked for peace and equality for aU people, using her talents as an artist 610-388-7001 to create posters and artwork to bring anention to P.O. Box 100 • Kgnnett Square, PA 19348 Eoual Houalng various causes. She is dearly missed by her daugh www.kcc.kendal.org Opportunity ters and their families: Jean Peterson; Nancy and Gene Miller; SaUy Barbour and Bill Vint; Robin Barbour and Steven March; five grandchildren: Jennifer Magruder, Kenneth Peterson, Amy Miller, and Cass and Keanan Barbour-March; six great grandchildren; and many loving friends. Esmond-Martha Newlin Esmond, 88, on Janu ary 5, 2002, at the home of her daughter in Lincolnville, Maine, after a long illness. Martha was born in Plainfield, Ind., on July 17, 1913, the It's About Them. youngest of five daughters born to Eli J. and Mary Ena Picken Newlin. Born a Friend, she anended Friends Primary School until fifth grade, then Join our close-knit community of 160 students. Olney Friends Boarding School in Barnesville, Ohio, from which she graduated in 1931. When • Grades 6-12 she was eight years old her mother died, and when her father died ten years later, she went to live with • Boarding Options Available a married sister in Ohio. A few years later, while • 8-to-1 Student/Faculty Ratio visiting her oldest sister in New York City, Martha • Just 75 Miles North of NYC anended New York Yearly Meeting and met Wil liam F. Esmond. The couple married on August 7, 1937, in Saugenies, N.Y., living first in Quaker Springs and later in Malta, where they worked at the local hospital and, later, as assistant managers on Nashawena, a private island off the coast of Massachusens. Before retiring to their farm in Malta, the &mily enjoyed camping and traveling. Martha was an active member ofSaratoga Meeting in Quaker Springs, N.Y. She was predeceased by a daughter, Charity Esmond. She is survived by her Oalzwood husband, Bill Esmond; three children, Wllliam F. FRIENDS , SCHOO L (Fred) Esmond, Donald R. Esmond, and Alice Devine; six grandchildren; one great-grandson; and Poughkeepsie, New York a sister, Edith N. Chase. Hole-Francir Doan Hok, 88, on January 15, 2002, at the Oakwood Village West Retirement 1-800-843-3341 Community in Madison, Wis. Francis was born www.oakwoodfriends.org on August 25, 1913, in Muncie, Ind., to AUen David and Mary (Doan) Hole. He had one older brother, AUen David Hole Jr. Francis grew up in Richmond, Ind., in a house on the edge of the
50 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL Earlham College campus. Francis, the student li brarian for the Morton High School Symphony Orchestra, played piano and violin. Francis gradu ated from Earlham College in 1933 with majors in Geology and Biology, and earned an MA in Scattergood Friends School, founded French Literature at Haverford College in 1934. in 1890, is committed to fostering From 1935 to38 he taught at Westtown School in lifelong and self-directed learning, Pennsylvania, at the same time funhering his vio developing a sense of personal lin studies. In June 1941 hemarriedAgnesCalvert, responsibility and cultivating global a former Earlham classmate, and in 1944 he com citizenship. pleted a Ph.D. in Geology and Soil Science at University ofWisconsin. As a conscientious objec • All recent graduates have gained tor during World War II, he served two years in college acceptance Civilian Public Service at U.S. Department of • Student-to-teacher ratio: 4 to 1 Agriculture facilities at Coshocton, Ohio; Big Flats, • Innovative block scheduling N.Y.; and Gatlinburg, Tenn. In 1946 he joined • Community service graduation the University of Wisconsin faculty as an assistant requirement professor. He was perhaps best known for using • Shared work program • Organic garden, farm the violin in his lectures, and for the numerous • Comprehensive, exciting songs he composed extolling the importance ofso il Arts Department as the critical foundation for life. In 1974 he • Daily Collection, weekly received the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Meeting for Worship Teaching. A prolific writer, Francis produced po etty, journals, family histoty, and works on Quak For information, call toll-free at erism and soil science. Francis also created Soil 1-888-737-4636, or e-mail Survey Horizons in 1960, a periodical that has been [email protected] continued by the Soil Science Society of America, and designed the Soils of Wisconsin Map. His 1951 Delta Avenue proudest accomplishment was the enactment of West Branch, Iowa 52358 legislation in 1983 designating Antigo Silt Loam as the Wisconsin state soil, a culmination of his long 'IV 'IV 'IV. S C a t . campaign for a state soil symbol. Following his retirement from the university in 1983, he contin ued his active involvement as a professor emeritus. He traveled widely, most recently to England on an Earlham College-sponsored tour ofs ites related to Quaker histoty. He was moved by the condi tions at Lancaster Prison, where many prominent Quakers were incarcerated. Throughout his life, Francis was involved in organizations promoting world peace, nonviolence, civil rights, social jus tice, and preservation of the environment. A life ~ 01~ OfpJ< oMde o/~ · long Friend, he was actively involved in Madison Meeting, Friends General Conference, and Pendle Hill Study Center. Toward the end of his life Francis suffered the slow but inexorable effects of \ aarclay ~riends multi-infarct dementia. Throughout his ordeal, he Quaker Quality Care in a Loving Atmosphere maintained his cheerful demeanor. "Just roll with the punches," he said. "It's all a gifr, anyway." He is Assisted Living survived by his wife, Agnes Hole; a daughter, Sarah Hole; and a son, Benjamin Hole. ·Skilled Nursing Care Kerman-Ralph Owen Kerman, 78, on December Alzheimer's Care 13, 2001, in Baltimore, Md. Ralph was born in Hospice Care Fort Wayne, Ind., on December 19, 1922. He grew up in Fort Wayne and in Evanston, Ill., Respite Care graduating with honors from Evanston High School Physical Therapy in 1940. In 1944, he married Cynthia Earl, a Speech Therapy fellow classmate at Kalamazoo College. Ralph graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1947 and Pet Therapy received his Ph.D. in Physics from University of Medicaid and Medicare Certified Illinois in 1953. He taught physics at Kalamazoo College from 1951 to 1962, taking a leave to teach physics at American University of Beirut in Leba 610-696-5211 non from 1957 to 1959. While there, he partici Toni Riggins, Admissions Director pated in the International Geophysical Year and in 700 N. Franklin St. 1958 assisted AFSC in distributing relief during West Chester, PA 19380 the war in Lebanon. He continually sought both Equal Housing www.bf.kendal.org An a.ffiliate of spiritual and intellectual development and found Opportunity The KENDAL Corporation that science led him to religion. H e was a Friend from 1955 until his death. A charter member of FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 51 Kalamazoo (Mich.) Meeting, he transferred his was bornonJune2, 1910, in Roslyn, N.Y., the son showing his prize calf at the New York State Farm membership to Ann Arbor (Mich.) Meeting, and of Leon and Mary Rushmore. At an early age, he Fair, he contracted poliomyelitis. The remainder then to Stony Run Meeting in Baltimore, Md. became interested in the field of healthcare and ofhis high school years was spent at home while he Ralph cared deeply about creating peace in the was a well-recognized figure at numerous Long was still a student of Oakwood. He graduated world. Because he found that most of his students Island medical associations and facilities. He was a &om Earlham College in 1937 and undertook majoring in physics went into the defense indus graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, graduate work in Biochemistry for a year at Uni try, he left teaching and, in 1962, began working N.Y., and ofSwarthmore Colle17e. On February 6, versity of Indiana. He soon returned home to for AFSC, serving as program secretary of the 1932, in Green Street Meetinghouse in German Vancrest Farm, where he began working in live Michigan area office until 1971. From 197 1 to town, Pa., he married fellow tennis enthusiast stock genetics relating to the improvement ofpoul 1978, he was regional executive secretary of the Caroline Jackson ofPhiladelphia. The young couple try and egg production. In 1952 Alson met Irene Middle Atlantic regional office in Baltimore. Ralph moved to the family farm in Roslyn Heights where, Hoskins, and they were married within a year. taught mathematics and physics in the Baltimore in addition to their professional careers, they oper Their work centered on the farm, which Alson public schools from 1978 to 1987. Upon retiring, ated vegetable stands during the 1930s and '40s. had taken over from his father. Alson was active in he received awards for excellence in teaching ftom Leon worked for the Long Island Lighting Com Bulls Head (N.Y.) Meeting and in New York Baltimore Ciry College. Ralph created a commu pany, where he retired as vice president of em Yearly Meeting, serving on committees at both nity garden in his yard in the Lauraville area of ployee relations in 1975. Active in fundraising for the monthly and yearly meeting level. He served Baltimore. Nationally, he worked with Friends several charitable organizations, he was also a board on the Oakwood School Board and was keertly Committee on Unity with Nature to promote member of Planned Parenthood and a founding interested in the history of New York Quakers spiritually based ecological concerns. During re board member ofFriends ofLong Island Heritage. and its preservation. He is one of the editors of the tirement, he began commuting to Washington, A lifelong member of Westbury (N.Y.) Meeting, book, Quaker Crosscurrents: 300 Yean ofFriends D.C., to volunteer with FCNL. Several times in he served on the board of trustees of Westbury in the New York Yearly Meeting. After moving the last few years, he traveled to the South and Friends School. He served on the New York State to Woolman Commons in 1993, both Alson spent two or three weeks working with other vol Board of Medical Ethics and was trustee emeritus and Irene were active sojourning members in unteers to rebuild burned African American for Wmthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., Mount Holly (N.J.) Meeting; they became mem churches. In 1999, Ralph and Cynthia moved to with which he had been associated for more than bers in November, 2001. Alson was a member Glen Meadows retirement community. There 50 years. In addition to his beloved wife, he is of the board of trustees of the John Woolman Ralph served a year as vice president, and he started survived by his two daughters, Mary Lee Rushmore Memorial Association, and its most recent Trea a new community garden with other residents. and Carly Hellen; his son, Stephen Rushmore; five surer. At the time of his death, Alson was survived Ralph is survived by his wife, Cynthia E. Kerman; grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. by his wife, Irene Van Wagner; his two sons, John children Caroline K Wildflower and partner Clint and George Van Wagner; a daughter, Marcia Taylor-Harold (Hal) Evans Taylor, 62, on De Weirneister, Edwin Owen Kerman and wife Kate, Van Wagner; rwo grandsons, Graham and James cember 27, 2001, in Cinnaminson, N.J. Born in Jody Richmond and husband Ben, and Nancy K. Van Korff; and rwo nephews and one niece. Philadelphia's Germantown section, his family Parker and husband Doug; grandchildren Rachel Irene Van Wagner died three weeks after her moved to a farm in Cinnaminson when he was Wildflower-Williams, Sarah Wildflower; Ada, husband's death. nine. Hal earned a bachelor's degree in Physics Hannah, and Jesse Kerman; Jessica, Peter, and &om Haverford College, where he was an all Christopher Richmond; great-grandchild Anya; Van Wagner-/rene H. Van Wagner, 87, on Janu American soccer player. He received a master's and six nieces and nephews. ary 4, 2002, at home in Medford, N.J. Irene was degree in Meteorology ftom Massachusetts Insti born in 1914 in Richland, Iowa, to Quaker par Potts-Edward (Eddie) Rhoads Potts, 90, on Janu tute of Technology, and a doctorate in Physics ents, Alvin and Maggie Mills Hoskins. Her father, ary 5, 2002, at Pennswood Village in Newtown, from University of Iowa. Starting in the mid- whose ancestors came to America with William Pa. Eddie was born in Germantown, Pa., on May 1960s, Hal worked as a researcher at instirutions Penn, was a Quaker pastor, a calling that led the 21, 191 1, to Thomas and Ethel Rhoads Potts. that included the National Academy of Sciences family to move ftequencly within Iowa. After her With his sisters Helen Yoder and Sarah Benson and Princeton University. In 1971 he became a graduation from William Penn College, Irene and brothers Asa and Tom Potts, he grew up in professor at Stockton College in New Jersey. He worked with various Quaker and Episcopalian Germantown Meeting, attending Germantown chaired the college's chapter of Amnesty Interna missions in Oklahoma and South Dakota, and Friends School and Westtown School. In 1937 he tional, developed the Stockton College Observa obtained a master's degree ftom Hartford Theo married Jane Elisabeth McCord ftom Valley Meet tory, and helped the school convert its heating, logical Seminary, where she studied linguistic tech ing. As a widower he married Grace (Mirnsey) ventilating, and air conditioning system &om gas niques to be used by missionaries learning and Olmsted Peterson on March 23, 1967. A member to geothermal energy. In 1991 , when his father teaching other languages. Upon completing her of Southampton Meeting, he was an early member died, he began to commute between Stockton and degree, she joined a program in Oklahoma train of Bryn Gweled Homesteads, an intentional com the41-acre Taylors' Pick-Your-Own Organic Veg ing missionaries and then founded a linguistic munity in Southampton, Pa., where he lived &om etable Farm in Burlington County. He was active techniques program to teach written Navajo to 1948 to 1992, when he moved to Pennswood. in social action groups, including Westfield adults on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. On a With a special interest in Quaker public service, Meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee. visit to her brother Lewis Hoskins in Clinton during World War II he served in Civilian Public H e joined efforts to preserve open space, including Corners, N.Y., she met her husband Alson. T hey Service camps at Powellville, Md., and Gatlinburg, the 1976 conversion of part of his family's prop settled on the Van Wagner family farm. Irene Tenn. His love of the outdoors derived in part erty into a wildlife preserve. A lifelong Friend, Hal worked for many years as a reading specialist in the from his childhood summers at Riverbrink, the served as clerk of Representative Meeting (now Millbrook Cenual School district. She raised three family house at Pocono Lake Preserve. In addition called Interim Meeting) of Philadelphia Yearly children, became an expert in the repair of antique to a lifelong commitment to the family business, Meeting, and served on the governing board of the clocks, and was a poet. Obtaining certification in Horace T. Potts Company, he restored and still National Council of the Churches of Christ. He is camera repair, Irene and Alson opened a clock and drove his father's first car, a 1925 Lincoln seven survived by his wife, Suzanne Rie Day Taylor; sons camera repair shop that they ran for many years passenger touring car, and was a member of the Peter Taylor, Jeremy Taylor, and Bernard Day; after her retirement &om teaching. In 1995, she Lincoln Owners' Club and Classic Car Club of daughters Laura Kinne!, Amy Brooks, and Doren self-published a book of her poetry, We Are tht America. He is survived by his wife, Grace (Mirnsey) Tenerowicz; nine grandchildren; his mother, Sylvia Dance. Irene was predeceased by her husband, Olmsted Peterson Potts; his daughters, Elisabeth Taylor; rwo brothers; and three sisters. three weeks prior to her own death. She is survived Brown and Lydia Quill; a son, Edward Potts Jr.; by rwo sons, John and George Van Wagner; a stepdaughters Susan Maxfield and Anne Ogan; Van Wagner-A/son Van Wagner, 86, on Decem daughter, Marcia Van Wagner; and rwo grand nine grandchildren; and three great-grandsons. ber 15,2001,atJohn WoolmanHouseatMedford sons, Graham and James Van Korff. Leas, N.J. Alson was born on October 11, 1915, in Rushmore-Leon Rushmore, 91, on December 5, Pleasant Valley, N.Y., and spent his high school 2001, in Stony Brook, N.Y., of heart failure. Leon years at Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie. While 52 May 2002 FRIENDS j OURNAL Wood brooke Quaker Study Centre
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FRIENDS j OURNAL May 2002 53 Forum Continued from page 5 Individuals in Community published book, The Forbidden Truth, by French authors Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasqule, also raises questions regarding improper actions by present government officials. This book is now available in English. As Quakers, I believe it is our duty to work to eliminate the conditions that lead us to war. We need to encourage our leaders to think a new way, so that this present war does not expand to other countries. The killing will not make us safer.
Eddie Richardson La Madera, N.Mex. Pacifism is logical ASOIJCI 117Hf I'IIGGIISSMJIAMJCW, T•~ Sam. 01 Wmrr~MBS llfiftLY,.,.,.,._1IItlllfiHIRII. I read with interest the continuing COillfE MEPAIA11011 RllllllUICIUAU.Y crJIIOUS ftlfllti I'BJIIU; All E1IICAL SOIJCI aJIMIImMSS1 IIIIJEEP responses to Friend Scott Simon's article (F] Mf1JUAL TRUST AIID llES1fC1; APlACE IHIIfIII1EfllrY AIID IJMilSI1Y AilE MfiiKIAlfD; AIID All AJIIIIfJADI MilCH Dec. 200 1). One response, "Peace NrllSAS MUCH SffHASI5 Ill AS11Wi 7HE III6HT QUESJDIS AS Ill fiMWi 7HE llliiiTAIISWf/IS. Testimony isn't logical" (F]Mar. Forum) caught my attention. While I agree that the Peace Testimony is grounded upon spirituality and not logic, I disagree with the implication that pacifism is illogical. The following discussion represents my basic The Cambridge School of Weston • 1886 logical counterarguments for pacifism, which I think Friends might find interesting: 1. Pacifism is useless because a pacifist cannot defend him/herself A pacifist can defend him/hersel£ What a pacifiSt cannot do is become the aggressor. These are the main theories when dealing with violence: passivity, pacifism, aggression. When faced with violence (or the threat of violence), a "passivist" will nonviolently do nothing and potentially allow the violence to occur. A pacifist will attempt to prevent the violence, perhaps even going so far as to subdue the violent person while taking pains to preserve the well-being of all involved. An "aggressivist" might harm or kill the violent person in order to subdue him/her. In my • One-story, garden apartments. opinion, only pacifism stands a chance of being wholly beneficial. A "passivist" does • Wellness program indirect harm by allowing violence. The "aggressivist" allows him/herself to become • All the ne(:essities ofretirement living, the aggressor by harming or killing someone suckas healthcare and daily meals, who may have been only potentially violent. The pacifist attempts to follow the middle included in the fHlsic monthlyfee. path, preventing violence or subduing the potential assailant and keeping everyone Broachm!ad is an inclusive accredited, no1t-tor-o:rotil:' involved healthy. In this way, a person who Continuing Care Retirement Community foundE~ is violent can be prevented from doing and operated in the caring Quaker tradition. harm, and helped or placed in detention for 13801 York Road, Cockeysville, Maryland 21030 everyone's benefit. 2. What does pacifism truly mean? Surely 410-527-1900 pacifism must be passive. Pacifism means searching for peaceful resolutions to violent actions. There are no rules saying that pacifists must be passive. Refusal to resist violence, although passive, is 54 May 2002 FRIENDSJ oURNAL not pacifist. In fact, nonresistance of violence often ends up merely aiding violence. But, ifi stand between an aggressor Don't miss out. and his intended victim, am I being violent? If I refuse to let him beat someone to death by placing myself in the way to ward off blows, am I being violent? Of course not. These are inherently nonviolent actions on We're my part. To assume that an active response to aggression is violent is to misunderstand the meaning of the word violence. Violence filling up fast. is generally defined as the "unlawful use of physical force; physical force intended to injure." None of the actions mentioned in The first phase of Chandler the examples above is by definition violent. They would be using lawful force not Hall's community living intended to injure. units filled up in record 3. What i/20 anned aggressors want to massacre 3, 000 innocent victims? time. Our newest phase A pacifist must work to disarm them. opens soon, so there's still The point is not whether the pacifist is successful, but that he/she tries to stop time to become part of violence. In the end, pacifism will prevail the .family. Come tour because it represents the most persuasive global argument. If a pacifist tries to stop a the light,filled common murder, he/she may not be successful, but areas, country kitchens, the effort is a strong psychological weapon, which works positively on the victim, on community theatre and those who hear of it, and even on the intimate dining rooms. aggressor. A good example of pacifism at work is shown by the movie Schindler's List. Talk with our chef, activities director and all the compassionate Schindler saved the lives of over 1,300 people whose personalized approach to aging makes every resident persecuted people in the heart of the Third Reich. Oskar Schindler found a way that feel at home. Let our residents tell you about the activities-from preserved life rather than taking it-he art classes and fitness programs to day trips-that make their days succeeded. The Allied nations chose to take life in an attempt to preserve it, and they so interesting. Learn how affordable it is to live here. And discover only succeeded in making the death toll higher. for yourself the difference we can make in your loved one's life. 4. Everyone knows that Hitler could never have been stopped by a pacifist response. It was readily apparent as early as 1923 that the Nazis were a brutal, extremist Adult Day Program Home Health Care Nursing Care group. During the 1920s the industrialized Aquatics Programs Hospice Care Wellness C linic world should have refused to aid the nascent Assisted Living Memory Care National Socialist Party. During the 1930s, restrictions should have been imposed by industry on all trade with Hitler's Germany, Every Life Has Meaning ... while ensuring that humanitarian needs were not ignored. Resumption of trade should have been predicated on human rights CHANDLER improvements. These measures represent an active pacifist response. Instead, corporations continued to trade with Nazi Germany up LL to the beginning of hostilities and sometimes Living The Quaker Tradition well beyond. If these corporations had refused to aid the Nazis, World War II may never have happened, and Hitler and the A nonprofit, nondiscriminatory QUAKER faciliry Nazis may have remained the small time 99 Barclay Street, Newtown, PA • (215) 860-4000 beer hall bullies that they had been in the early 1920s. Nazi Germany could have been turned from aggression by pacifist political 1-888-603-1973 • www.chandlerhall.org and financial pressures. The great tragedy of FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2002 55 Quaker Booke: Rare and out-of-print journals, history, Classified religion, inspirational. Contact us for specific books or topics. Vintage Books, 181 Hayden Rowe Street, For Information call (215) 563-8629. Hopkinton, MA 01748. (508) 435-3499. E-mail us at Classified rates sse per word. Minimum charge is $15.
56 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL Quaker Wrttera and Artists! Business Manager for Connecticut Interns, ~1 2 month commitment beginning January, June, Quakers used to shun the arts-but no morel Join the Friends School, a growing, Quaker, co or September. Assist with seminars and hospitality at Will Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts; get our exciting, infor- ed, K-8 school in Wilton, Conn. Full-time, iam Penn House, five blocks from U.S. Capitol. Room, mative newsletter, "Types & Shadows"; keep up with Bclulol 12-month position reports to Head of board, and small stipend. WPH, 515 East Capitol Street, SE, other artistic Friends around the country; and help create School. Business Manager is responsible Washington, DC 20003. a new chapter in Quaker history. Membership: $22/yr. eporting, budgeting, payroll, financial aid, ac FQA, P.O. Box 58565, Philadelphia, PA 19102. e-mail: counts receivable, HR, administering benefit plans, office Real Estate
FRIENDS JouRNAL May 2002 57 Foxdale VIllage, for Quaker-directed life care. A vibrant The Quaker School at Horsham, a value-centered el Moving to North Carolina? Maybe David Brown, a Quaker and caring community that encourages and supports men ementary and middle school for students with learning dif real estate broker, can help. Contact him at 1208 Pinewood and women as they seek to live life fully and gracefully ferences. Small, remedial classes, qualified staff, serving Dr., Greensboro, NC 27410. (336) 294-2095. in harmony with the principles of simplicity, diversity, equal Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties. 318 Meet We are a fellowship, Friends mostly, seeking to enrich and ity, mutual respect, compassion, and personal involvement. ing House Road, Horsham, PA 19044. (215) 674-2875. expand our spiritual experience. We seek to obey the prompt Spacious ground-floor apartments and community ameni Sandy Spring Friends School. FIVe- or seven-day boarding ings of the Spirit, however named. We meet, pubhsh, corre ties such as library, auditorium, wood shop, computer lab. option for grades ~12 . Day school pre-K through 12. Col spond. Inquiries welcome! Write Quaker Universalist Fel CCAC Accredited. Reasonable fees inciude medical care. lege preparatory, upper school AP courses. Strong arts a~d lowship, 121 Watson Mill Road, landenberg, PA 19350- 500 East Marylyn Avenue, Department F, State College, PA academics, visual and performing arts, and team athleUc 9344. 16801-6269. For more information, call l enna Gill at (800) programs. Coed. Approximately 480 students. 140-acre cam 253-495t
58 May 2002 FRIENDS }OURNAL We're being told that Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and Somalia are our enemies. The American Friends Service Committee still believes that no one is our enemy.
* • AFSC is on the ground in North Korea combating hunger by working with collective farms to improve their yield.
• The AFSC-sponsored Campaign of Conscience for the People of Iraq works to end UN sanctions that lead to thousands of deaths each month from malnutrition and Iraq preventable disease.
North Korea • AFSC is working with the Iranian Red Crescent to provide relief to refugees in western Afghanistan.
• In Somalia's Lower Shabelle Region, AFSC's Rural Development Training Program works to improve farming in nine villages through improved irrigation and tool banks. Afghanistan i ~ ~ A charitable gift annuity with AFSC underwrites Somalia our ongoing work for peace and reconciliation.
Gift Annuity Rates You will receive a trustworthy source of lifetime income backed by the (Single Life) assets of the American Friends Service Committee. For your gift of cash or appreciated securities, consider these benefits: Age Rate 60 6.4 • Higher returns than CD rates 65 6.7 70 7.2 • Avoid stock market volatility 72 7.4 74 7.7 • Fixed incomes for the lives of one or two beneficiaries 76 8.0 78 8.4 • A current income tax deduction 80 8.9 82 9.4 • Capital gain tax savings 84 10.1 86 10.8 • Partial tax-free income 88 11.4 90+ 12.0
For mformatlon about how an AFSC g1ft annwty rrught benefit you, Income beneficiaries must be l age 60 for immediate annuity contact us any of three ways: payments. Income beneficiaries under age 60 can fund deferred • Call the Office of Planned Giving, toll-free, at 1-888-588-2372, ext. 3. payment annuities. • Inquire by e-mail, addressed to [email protected]. • Write to AFSC, Office of Planned Giving, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA 19102-1479 • www.afsc.org. Fj02
FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 59 LL A QUAKER CENTER FOR A Campaign for a New Century STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION
Creativity is With her vision and dedication, Minnie Jane, a Quaker artist from Trenton, New Jersey God's gift to us. was the founder and organizer of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts in 1993. Using our creativity The purpose of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts is to nurture and showcase the literary. visual, musical and performing arts is our gift back to God within the Religious Society of Friends, for Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way purposes of Quaker expression, ministry. witness. and outreach.
Pendle Hill's Commitment .PENDLE HILL ANNOUNCES to Spirituality and the Arts
NEW ARTS SCHOLARSHIP With the creation of the beautifully expanded Firbank Arts and Crafts Studio, Pendle Hill provides another venue in which Minnie ] ane Quaker Artist sojourners. resident students, and staff can get in touch with in Residence Scholarship the Light Within, their Inward Teacher. In an atmosphere of mutual affirmation and appreciation, participants, who don't necessarily consider themselves artists or artisans, can be In recognition of the work of The Fellowship of Quakers in the creative, playful. and imaginative. Arts, a generous gift to Pendle Hill's Campaign for a New The creation in 1997 of the endowed Janet Mustin Spirituality Century will establish an endowment to fund the Minnie Jane and the Arts Teaching Fellowship to fund an ongoing program Quaker Artist in Residence Scholarship at Pendle Hill. devoted to nurturing spirituality and the arts will assure that the arts and crafts will be a vital and permanent part of the The scholarship will cover tuition, room and board for Quakers Pendle Hill mission. in the Arts to reside and study at Pendle Hill in the Resident Program. Scholarship recipients will be expected to pursue a 2002 Arts & Spirituality Summer Program creative project in the fine arts, crafts, performing arts, creative The establishment of the Arts and Spirituality Summer writing, music composition, or other artistic pursuit that is Program has been an exciting development at Pendle Hill in compatible with Pendle Hill's physical facilities and impact on recent years. In the summer of 2002, Pendle Hill will offer a the resident community. The artist will also be expected to wide variety of workshops including Kado: The Way of Flowers, participate in the worship, work program, and community life Handweaving: A Joyous Meditation, Painting for Joy, Photography as a Healing Art, Living Your Creative Journey, of Pendle Hill. Creating Extraordinary Books and Prints, Writing for Publication, Transformation in Stone, The Sacred Ordinary, Applicants must have an endorsement from a Quaker Living an Unbalanced Life, Drumming into Unity, Furniture monthly meeting and will be expected to present a set of Restoration, and Fossil Mud and Dreams. learning goals or projects to be accomplished during the residency at Pendle Hill. For a complete catalog of 2002 summer offerings. contact Pendle Hill at (800) 742-3150 or (610) 566-4507.
To receive a copy of the Pendle Hill 2002-2003 catalog. scholarship information, and application forms, please contact: For information on how you can honor a special person by making an investment in Pendle Hill, please contact: Bobbi Kelly. Admissions Associate (800) 742-3150, Ext. 137 Barbara Parsons Director of Development [email protected] Pendle Hill 338 Plush Mill Road Wallingford. PA 19086 1-800-742-3150, ext. 132 or E-mail: [email protected]