March 2004 • $5 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today
Sit Down, Thee's RocRin' the Boat Letter to My Grandchildren An Iconoclastic View of QuaRer Outreach An Among Friends independent magazine serving the Religious Being "Of the World" Society of is month FruENDS JouRNAL brings you a selection of articles that deal with Friends ngagement in the world. Some authors may be familiar to you, and others are new to these pages. Margaret Hope Bacon, who has written for us often, shares Editorial a message of hope to her grandchildren (p. 6). Signe Wilkinson, whose poignant, Susan Corson-Finnerty (Publisher and Executive Editor), Robert Dockhorn {Senior Editor), Lisa Rand humorous commentary and illustrations have appeared before, applies her pen like a {Assistant Editor), Danielle DeCosmo {Interim scalpel to Quaker outreach (p. 9). Rob Callard, a new author for us, looks at what Assistant Editor), Judith Brown {Poetry Editcr), Ellen Michaud (Book Review Editcr), J. Brent Bill Friends can do when someone, perhaps unfamiliar with Friends, disrupts meeting for (Assistant Book Review Editor), Joan Overman (Book worship (p. 12). Patricia Williams, who recently appeared in our December issue with Review Assistant), Christine Rusch (Milestones Editor) Robert Marks, George Rubin (News Editcrs), her theological study, "Jesus as a Friend," is back with a look at how our era affects Kara Newell (Columnist), Marjorie Schier our theological perceptions (p. 14). {Copyeditor), Jacqueline Bruzio (Volunteer) There are two more feature articles in this issue, both by authors new to us, and Production together they deal with how people engage with, confront, and offer advice to other Barbara Benton (J!rt Director), Alia Podolsky {Assistant Art Directcr}, Herb Ettel (Web Manager) people. Shari Dinkins looks at these questions from a contemporary and very personal Advertising, Circulation, Development perspective (p. 17), while Gretchen Haynes examines collective action in a historical Nagendran Gulendran (Advertising Manager}, setting (p. 19). These articles complement each other and offer much to ponder about Nicole Hackel (Circulation Assistant}, Melissa Martin (Project and Database Manager}, Lawrence as individuals and groups consider how to respond to small and large injustices. Moore (Circulation and Marketing Manager}, Gretta In this issue, we welcome the second installment of a new department that is Stone (Development Coordinator), Kay Bacon, Ruthanna Hadley, Ruth Peterson {Voluntem) closely associated with the "Books" department: "Quaker Writings" (p. 31). This Administration column looks at the writings of some inspirational Friends, one at a time. In Marianne De Lange (Office Manager}, Tom McPeak December the first one in this series featured the writings of]ames Nayler. This (Accounting Services} month, the focus is on Douglas Steere. Brian Drayton, who wrote both columns, is Board of Trustees Barbara Andrews, Seth Barch, Paul Buckley, the author of several recent penetrating book reviews and a recorded minister in New TylaAnn Burger (Treasurer}, Katharine Clark, Linda England Yearly Meeting. Coffin, Karen Cromley, John Darnell, William This year brings another round of engagement and decision making about the Deutsch (i!ssistant Clerk), Mary Ann Downey, Walter Evans, Marsha Green (Recording Clerk), future, especially in the United States where citizens will participate in presidential Linda Houser, Paul Landskroener, Linda Lyman, and Congressional elections. As always, we invite you, our readers, to take time to Ellen Massey, Janet Ross Melnyk, Larry Miller, Julian O'Reilley, Ann Trueblood Raper, Jonathan record your experiences and reflections, and to share your inspiration with others by Tamez, Lynn Waddingron, Pamela Wuliams, sending them to us. Our guidelines for submissions are posted on our website, Elizabeth Yeats (Clerk)
2 March 2004 FruENDSJ ouRNAL March 2004 FRIENDS Volume SO, No. 3 JOURNAL Features Poetry 6 Letter to My Grandchildren 15 Inner Light Margaret Hope Bacon Mary Susan Miller She writes that despite appearances, she has reason to be Weary Peace Warrior hopefol about the condition ofour society. 16 Molly Lynn Watt 9 An Iconoclastic View of Quaker Outreach Departments Signe Wilkinson The Peace Testimony is not all there is to Quakerism. 2 Among Friends 12 Sit Down, Thee's Rockin' the Boat 4 Forum Rob Callard Eldering those who violate the unspoken rules of 5 Viewpoint Questions surrounding abortion meeting for worship is tricky, but necessary. Life in the Meeting Interpreting Religious Experience 28 14 Selecting a committee clerk Patricia A. Williams As jesus and George Fox did, we articulate our religious 31 Quaker Writings experience through the prism ofour own time. Douglas Steere 17 How I Learned to Mind My Own 35 Books Business and Get Out of God's Way 40 News Shari Dinkins The difference between witnessing and interfering is a 43 Bulletin Board fine one, and perhaps counterintuitive. 44 Milestones 19 The Conflict over Abolition 49 Classified Activism: What Can We Learn from It? Gretchen Haynes Disagreements emerged among 19th-century New York Friends over the rightness ofactivism.
Photos on font cover and at right © Danna Cornick
FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 3 Forum Not ready to lay it down story is primarily due to welcoming an that it is high time to lay down the telling of anachronistic association of 17th-century this story for the purpose--intended or I find Friend Paul Buckley's interpreta Quaker principles with our own perception unintended--of justifying our modern tion ("Time to Lay Down William Penn's and to welcoming an image of George Fox identiry by casting early Friends in a light Sword" F] Dec. 2003) of the story of as a "kindly and understanding elder." that makes them resemble us. I think we do William Penn's sword interesting, but quite I would prefer to think of George Fox as early Friends a disservice whenever we try co different from how I have always understood a kindly and understanding elder. But the make them more like us, whether or not the the story. I will not anempt to enter a debate essence of the meaning for me has been of stories we choose to tell about them are as to whether the story is true or not (which George Fox as a model for a particular sort fictional or our-of-context selections from seems quite beside the point). Many stories of beneficent human interaction, possible in historical fact. in the Bible were also recounted hundreds of the present or in any age, a person trusted as But at the same time, I don't want to "lay years after they were supposed to have wiser responding to an important question down William Penn's sword." While it is a occurred. There is scholastic debate about of how to live. misappljcation of this fable co use it to whether they are true also. H owever, as Perhaps my particular anraction to the explain the early Friends, the face that we parables, millions have found them Fox-Penn interaction derives from my love to tell it today reveals something about instructive about faith and practice. Even if I experience as a psychotherapist, and also as a modern Friends-about who we are now. In simply take the story as a parable, not recipient of psychotherapy. But I believe the that sense, the story is not a lie--it is historically true, I understand it differently principle is more universal, and I suspect Midrash (commentary) in the fine Jewish than Paul Buckley. that this has been for many the attraction to tradition of finding meaning through He hears it as a story about tolerance. I the story. elaboration of our history and Scriptures. have always heard it as a story about the The principle I see is the belief on the The story may nor be literally true, but it is a Quaker conviction that the Truth finds us. part of the trusted elder person that a desired conrainer for Truth as we know it today. To say "as long as thou canst," one must ask change may best occur and become most what would make one find one could not real by the acceptance of the other person as ChelAvery carry a sword? It seems the answer is that a he/she is; that the change is already implicit Huntingron Valley, Pa. tool of violence would be found to be in the heart of the other, that the change will incompatible with a spiritual belief in occur without being forced, in the warm nonviolence. So the answer to me implies light of an understanding and caring Potatoes? 'The truth will fmd you." To me that is not presence. It might be a personal presence. Thanks for the many examples of a statement of "I have the truth and I will Or it mjght be the beneficent influence successful nonviolent solutions to conflict tolerate you not having it." of being accepted by a commined group of situations in the article by John Darnell ("A It is a statement that the Truth is people, a meeting. Participation in a recent Report from a Parallel Universe," F]Dec. penetrating, searching, inescapable, and clearness comminee for membership 2003). transformational. Certainly every other story brought to mind the question of the degree However, if my memory serves me I have heard ofGeorg e Fox suggests he to which we expect of a new member-as correctly, there were several grains of either found the Truth to be this way. Paul Buckley points out Fox certainly rice or wheat in the linle bag anached to the What is comforting to me about this would-a threshold acceptance of mailing tag. Potatoes would have been quite story is not how I see other Quakers or conformiry; or whether we allow a gentler bulky and prone to spoilage. Thanks for all myself, but rather, that even when I struggle amrude of expecting spiritual development of the thoughtful information in FRIENDS to know the Truth or to live consistently and irs fruits over time. JoURNAL. with the Truth, the Truth will persist in Paul Buckley implies that modern Olive wtlson presenting itself in my life. Because that is Friends largely accept what he offers as the Pringhar, Iowa what I get from the story, I'm nor ready to Hicksire acceptance of"free thinking." The lay it down. maner continues to be a challenge. Are we weakened or strengthened by the broader Spread the word Lynn Fitz-Hugh acceptance of nonconformiry, which goes Seanle, Wash. with the hjstorically incorrect-bur to me I enjoyed John H . Darnell's article "A appealing-interpretation of the story of Report from a Parallel Universe ( F] Dec. William Penn's sword? 2003)." I think copies of his article should Incorrect, but nonetheless Lindley wtnston be sent to all members of Congress, both Malvern, Pa. House and Senate, to President Bush and all appealing White House staffers, his cabinet, all people Since I first heard the presumed account employed at the Pentagon, and every of George Fox, William Penn, and the Not history, but commentary insurance company and commission in the sword, I have been attracted to it, not I was very interested in Paul Buckley's country. Bravo for a great idea! questioning the historical issues that Paul article, "Time to Lay Down William Penn's Buckley raises. His article ("Time to Lay Sword" (F]Dec. 2003). I have told the story Madeleine Littman Down William Penn's Sword," F]Dec. about William Penn and his sword many Boston , Mass. 2003) offers valuable corrective to a rimes in classes and discussion groups, comfortable misconception that early always with the prelude, "This story is A show-stopper Friends were just like us. But I question probably apocryphal, bur it is one we love to whether Paul Buckley is correct in tell." Your January 2004 issue is a show suggesting that the enduring appeal of the I am grateful for Paul Buckley's point stopper. Congratulations to the contributors 4 March 2004 FRIENDSJo uRNAL Viewpoint
and the editorial staff. Each one of a dozen contributions caused Questions Surrounding Abortion me to stand still, reconsider, and recommit. The authors all convey, from experience and quiet reflection, what it means to be a faithful onion is a tragic and divisive issue Religious and moral issues include: Quaker in today's world. "See No Evil," by m our country and in our Reli- When does inspirited human life begin? Donna Glee Williams, and the poem, gious Society. Much of our lack Who decides this? What, if any, interven "Compassion: A Missed Opportunity," by of community and consensus may come tion is ethical in normal or abnormal Wayne Swanger, form the center of the issue &om the desire to simplify an entangle pregnancy? Is it ethical to use means of for me. The other contributions are the rays ment ofcomplex legal, medical, and moral birth control that interfere in early stages and the circumference. All in all, a work of concerns into a single political position. ofpr egnancy, even if the primary action is powerful art. Should any of us take a position without to prevent conception? What responsi Thank you. considering questions such as these and bilities does a moral society have in pro Paul Niebanck the consequences of their answers? tecting the unborn and the unwanted? Is Seattle, Wash. Legal questions include: When does it ever ethical to use fetal tissue to treat legally protected human life begin? Does illness in others? Does terminating preg the interest of the state in a prospective nancy in cases of rape take lives of inno Finding a better way citizen ever supersede the pregnant cent victims? Should pregnant women woman's right to privacy and control of alone bear the risks and results of un In my "backyard" is buried America's her bodily functions? If one allows that wanted pregnancy? Is it just to use one's greatest concentration of nuclear missiles. I the state has interest in pregnancy, what is medical, legal, or political influence to have often driven past missile silos on my that interest and how should that interest impose one's moral beliefs on another? excursions through God's blessed prairies be monitored and enforced? If the What responsibility does society have for surrounding Cheyenne. Most of us living in mother's life is in danger, is it permissible creating a favorable climate in which to be the midst of the "missile field" give it not a to interfere in the pregnancy? If so, at pregnant and raise children? If one be second thought, even with the head what point in her dying is it permissible to lieves all abortion to be murder, is evange knowledge that we live as a prime target intervene without legal reprisal? Is the lizing for one's belief sufficient, or does ready to be vaporized in the flash and fire of state willing to force victims of rape and this belief require other activities, lawful a "nuclear event" (an antiseptic term less incest and bearers of deformed infants to and unlawful? Is compromise permissible ghastly than saying "Hiroshima"). Billions of continue unwanted pregnancy? If not, when it will result in death, either of dollars were spent to build this national what proof is required, who is to provide pregnant women or unborn children? defense/offense system. It may have worked. it, and in what setting? Ifprotected human As we struggle with these issues, we It may have led to the demise of the Soviet life begins at conception, what is the status may recognize that we are a part of a U nion (that "Evil Empire" Ronald Reagan of products of conception that turn can continuum oflife with potentials realized spoke of). cerous? How would the state regulate birth and unrealized. Unfertilized ova, rejected Today' s national administration is bene control drugs and devices that interfere sperm, products ofco nception that failed on a policy of invasion to destroy the with implantation as well as conception? implantation, all had potential for sepa Taliban and Baath regimes. Billions of Medically related questions include: rate human life. We do not mourn for dollars and thousands of lives have been How is human life defined? H ow do con them or insist on their right of survival. spent and lost to seek deliverance from evil. traceptives work and what is available? Bur for all of us, there occurs a point Will it work? Maybe. How will pregnancy be diagnosed and following implantation, when the poten But was there a better way? If billions of monitored? If conception is chosen as the tial for human life is no longer potential, military dollars spent during the cold war beginning of protected human life, will but a human life with legal rights and and post-cold war era had been spent in procedures such as D & C and hysterec human needs. We may try to define this making peace instead of preparing for war, I tomy be available to women whose need scientifically, bur it is in essence an issue expect we would be living in a safer world. for them is not related to pregnancy? Ifso, of personal belief, an emotional and moral But that is speculation about the past. What about today? will there be physicians trained and will issue. How do we legislate such a begin ing to perform them? Would infertility ning? Any statute that protects our pri The world has got to find a better way treatment continue, given the high risk of vacy as sexual beings and allows for unim than war. I believe you, my friends, have the multiple pregnancy, the unavailability of peded emergency procedures will also al answer to the problem of war. That answer selective abortion, and difficulties regard low for activities that we may find person must be given to the nations now. The ing the legal status of unimplanted fertil ally and morally abhorrent. As Friends, question is, "How do we get the answer out ized ova? W ill caring people choose ca we can try to discourage such activities by to the nations? W ill they listen?" I don't reers in Obstetrics and Gynecology in a example and by providing a part of the know. I am turning to you, and God's educational, medical, and societal sup Light, for answers. The time has come to setting that restricts or requires certain treatments and/or places the physician at port that results in abortion becoming an turn swords into plowshares, for my children and grandchildren's sake. legal, professional, an d personal risk? uncommon and unwanted procedure. We Charlie Ostrander Should fetal and genetic research be pur can encourage discussion and com passion. sued or abandoned? What counseling is Cheyenne, Wyo. to be provided before, during, and after Mary Beth Keiter pregnancy? Johnson City, Tenn.
FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 5 L
mately a better way than meeting violence applied to work in the relocation camps. Dear grandchildren, with violence. The whole nation, it But when Allen was finally drafted as a seemed, was united on seeking vengeance, conscientious objector, he was assigned just as it seemed right after the events of first to a forestry camp, and then to a state September 11, 2001, and the few of us mental hospital in Maryland. You have all ver since the bombing of the who held a different position felt impo read Grandmother's memoir about this World Trade Center in New York tent and lonely. experience, Love is the Hardest Lesson [pub Eover rwo years ago, .------, Just as after September lished by Pendle Hill in 1999-Eds.], and I have been wanting to 1. -·-- 1.,;,_._. 11 , when many in the you know that we ultimately learned a write to you to share some I na.~ uun United States vented their great deal about using nonviolence in of the reasons I remain Wa.Hffttfo wrffe frustration and anger on dealing with disrurbed and violent per hopeful about our world l _ U.S. citizens of Arab sons and practicing it in our daily lives. despite the discouraging to you sna.re descent (a situation that We struggled through the war years, current conditions. I know SOmt of the seems to have improved convinced that force was not the ultimate all of you share the feeling , somewhat), in 1941-42 answer, but continually questioning how that our government has reasons I rema.zn public prejudice against to make nonviolence a practical reality. taken a wrong turn. In its htl _1. t Japanese Americans was so The sickening revelations of the concen so-called war on the terror- Of t.wOU OUY extreme that the govern tration camps that came at the end of the ists, our government went wo~ deruite the ment established isolated war in Europe, VE Day, were matched by against world opinion and 1~ _ 7. invaded Iraq, and it has 11.&COUragifl1 had little concept of how current our policies have provoked, co··Jz'tio«c. rather than reduced, terror- nu rLJ ism in the Middle East. With new government reg- ulations eroding civil liberties within the United States, and an economic policy that is making the rich richer and the poor poorer, it is hard to see much on which to base hope for immediate improvement on any front. It is hard to be young, and to feel that the vast majority of your fellow citizens are arrayed against your beliefs. I remem ber vividly what it was like after the Japanese attack on the ships at Pearl H arbor. Grandfather Allen Bacon and I were at Antioch College at the rime, aged 20 and 22, and we remember vividly the sense of vulnerability and despair we felt as pacifists. Sickened by the slaughter in Hawaii and thoughts of the coming casu relocation camps to hold them, in com the equally sickening news of the bomb alties, we believed, as disciples of plete violation of their civil liberties. The ing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where Mohandas Gandhi, that there was ulri- first positive course of action pacifists berween 100,000 and 120,000 civil found was trying ro aid Japanese American ians-men, women, and children-were Margaret Hope Bacon, a member of Central students in relocating to colleges away pulverized by U.S. atomic bombs. Philadelphia (Pa.) Meeting, is an author from the West Coast. One student, Mari Grandfather and I came out of the war and lecturer. Her most recent book is a novel Year Sabusawa, came to Antioch and later determined to make our lives count for of Grace. She has four grandchildren, four step became the wife of James Michener. Later, something in changing the conditions grandchildren, and eight stepgreat-grandchildren. when Grandfather was facing the draft, we that made war possible, whether in the
6 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL Page 6: Marpret and Allen. Bacon with their children around 1960 Left: Margaret with a new great-grandchild, 1994 slums of Philadelphia shacks along the train or in Quaker projects tracks uptown. There was around the world. It no Social Security, no took a while to find the Medicaid, no low-income right niches, but we felt housing. My own father, a that we had found them freelance artist, could not in our work for American fmd work and we were Friends Service Commit lucky at tim es to have oat tee and the Philadelphia meal to eat for dinner. setdement house move The changes I have ment. When the tragic seen in my lifetime in the Vietnam War came position of women, in along we were relieved to civil rights for minorities, discover that there were in respect for the rights of ten times as many per Native Americans, in civil sons who shared our liberties fo r all, in the care pacifism as in the days ofWorld War II. It way now. But I remember many times of the mentally ill, in the proliferation of was gratifying that our three children, that were even more discouraging. I helping services, and in teaching alterna your parents, also opposed that war. Some remember the McCarthy era in the tives to violence in the schools have been of my happiest family memories are of 1950s, when your parents were toddlers. widespread and breathtaking. Of course, standing in a vigil line together. Senator Joseph McCarthy's attack on real not all problems have been resolved, and In recent years we have seen a prolifer and alleged Communists in the federal in some areas perhaps things have gotten ation of people devoted to fmding peace government created a climate of fear in worse. We advance erratically, two steps ful solutions to conflicts. UN troops are this country that infiltrated even liberal forward and one step back. But I do not trained to use nonviolent ways to solve organizations and caused men and know how anyone of my age could avoid problems, and the United States now has women ofgo od will to suspect one anoth acknowledging that some progress has a Peace Institute. Methods of conflict res er. I remember the long agony of the been made. olution are being taught not only in the Vietnam War, which created such disrup T he world, too, has seen vast changes schools and the prisons, but also to sol tion and hatred in this country, with the since 1921. Old-style colonialism has all diers and police, and they are even used to extremes of the Weathermen on one hand but disappeared. We have seen the nations some extent by armies of occupation. and the excesses of President Richard of Africa become independent one by Ever since the catastrophe of Septem Nixon's White House on the other. I one, and although all is not well, it is cer ber 11, we have received floods of e-mails remember the Watergate scandals and tainly better than when France, Great from friends and acquaintances urging us wondering if we would ever have an hon Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, to make our opinions known to the U.S. est and responsive government again. and Italy all ruled parcels carved out arbi president, senators, and congresspersons. Each of these eras seemed as though it trarily with no regard to tribal ties. We are no longer alone, as we felt at the would never end, but they all did, and we In 1964, Grandfather and I went to time of Pearl Harbor, and there are oppor came out stronger and better as a result. South Africa, sponsored by a program tunities at every turn to speak out against I have lived over 82 years-a very long called the U.S.-South Africa Leader our government's misguided policies, and time. The year before I was born, U.S. Exchange, designed to break up the cul to urge joint action through the United women got the vote after more than 70 tural isolation ofso many Afrikaners. It is Nations. We must help our representa years of agitating. When I was a child, not clear that it achieved its objective, but tives understand that the seeds of terror African Americans were being lynched in it did introduce us to a troubled land that ism grow from ever-increasing economic the South, and children worked in facto held our attention for many years. In the inequality and from forcing the interests ries without the protection of child labor fall of 1992 I returned with an AFSC del of developed countries on the poorer laws. There was no safety net for people egation to examine the roots of the vio nations of the world. I am so proud to who fell into poverty. I remember the lence that was convulsing the nation and have grandchildren who are working Great Depression, with bread lines threatening to interfere with the upcom actively for fair trade and authentic eco Stretching around the block from Sr. ing national elections. Despite that vio nomic development. Vincent's Hospital on 11th Street in New lence, the South Africa I saw almost 30 Yes, things seem to be going the wrong York City, and people living in cardboard years later was a different nation than I
FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 7 Students at Goshell (Pa.) Frieocls Sdaoo1 complete a peace~ made from 537 gallon milk jugs, a project taken on during a ymrlong pea« theme at the school, 1997.
l:! Mildred Scott Olmsted, and Robert ~ Purvis, I have sought to understand the ~ motivation of men and women who have ~ been instruments ofsocial change in their <:> lifetimes. And although there are dues in f their personalities that account for their § commitment, I also have come to feel that ~ there is a deeper source, a force for good, ~ that works through individual women and men. It is not om nipotent; it needs the cooperation of commit ted people to express the power of love and to had first visited, when change seemed from the first transatlantic bring about change. As impossible. I had the great privilege of flight by a ticker tape parade Mother Theresa said, meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and up Fifrh Avenue. There were "God has no hands but I subsequently followed his work with the no antibiotics or penicillin, these." But there is in Truth and Reconciliation Commission polio was a dreaded disease, each one of us a poten with joy. No, things are not altogether and my grandmother died tial source of strength right in South Africa today, but when I of a heart condition that is and of guidance. compare conditions now to conditions 40 treatable today. The inven And I draw my faith years ago, I cannot help but believe that tions ofso many of the con women and men. from you, my grand progress is possible. veniences you have grown children. I am so proud In Southeast Asia also, old-style colo up with-television, com It needs the of you all, and your nialism has been defeated. Keep in mind puters, cell phones-were cooyeratton of commitment to social that when I was growing up, India and all in the future. change: in the organiza Burma were Crown Colonies of Great Astute observers have committed J!eoyle tion and study of fair Britain, there was no Pakistan, Vietnam noted that the advances in to eiyress fhe traded coffee coopera was still part of French Indochina, and the government, economics, and tives, building houses Dutch ruled Indonesia. Today we have social welfare have not kept J!OWer of love and and other structures neocolonialism, with our great transna pace with technological to based on environmental tional corporations exploiting workers change. Nevertheless, there bring about ly friendly architecture, and markets all over the world, but one have been advances. When change. organizing workcamps cannot say that it would have been better I was young we had an inept in Central America to to keep the old style of colonialism in League of Nations. Today, provide schools for poor place. In my lifetime, the USSR rose to the United Nations is a much stronger rural children, and volunteering at these dominate states surrounding Russia, as and more respected organization, with the workcamps. I am proud of my stepgrand well as many countries in Eastern Europe; potential to become a true world govern children who are making our family a little that power has ebbed, thanks in large part ment, if the United States and others United Nations of our own, with two to nonviolent struggles of peoples in the would give it a chance. Korean American great-grandsons and with Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, I draw my faith not only from the an African American great-granddaughter. Romania, and elsewhere. changes I have seen- 1 have even played Following a Muslim-Methodist wedding I have also seen great changes in the a small role in some of them-but also in we may look for Indian American great material circumstances of our world. the advances of the past. As you know I grandchildren, while one of you shows us When I was small, only the very rich had have written a number of biographies of how to raise five children under the age of cars; few had radios; we had iceboxes rather men and women, most of them Quakers, ten with grace and humor. I see a force for than refrigerators; we traveled by train who have made a difference in their life good working through all of your lives. It rather than plane. I remember sitting on my times. In exploring the lives of Isaac is my hope that each of you will keep in father's shoulders to watch Charles Lind Hopper, Abby Kelley, Lucretia Mott, touch with this inner resource in the days, bergh, "Lucky Lindy," welcomed home Henry Cadbury, Abby Hopper Gibbons, weeks, and years ahead. 0
8 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL An Iconoclast'sView of Quaker 0 ch
Rufus Jones Lecture and illustrations by Signe Wilkinson
W.,I run honored to be giving has been continually the Rufus Jones lecture this evening, by revealed that there is a choosing to invite me, Haverford College new source of our woes. has shown how far it has f.illen from its I refer, ofcourse, to George W spiritual roots. Standing before you is one Bush, the one man Quakers feel free to pathetic Quaker. hate. OK, I know that's a bit of Not only do I drive a car that is not a we don't Volvo, but I make so much money I can afford to send my children to a Friends school. Even worse, the money I earn comes from an institution many Friends hold to be the source of all evil-the mainstream media. Not infrequently, someone will rise in meeting for worship to share God's view that the world would be at peace if it weren't for the warmon gering mainstream media, the world would have justice ifit weren't for the run ning dog capitalist mainstream media, But as a figure and the world would have equality of all head, let's face it, people if it weren't for the racist, sexist, "W' is the man we love to denounce. homophobic mainstream media. While, technically, he might not be the As a member of that institution, I the notoriouSly person who incinerated 3,000 people on would like to take this opportunity to say hard-to-galvanize 9/11, started the nuclear program in that it is, indeed, all my fault. As anyone North Korea, or hid weapons from with any sense of history knows, before Religious Society of inspectors in Iraq for a decade, if you've sat in Friends meetings over the past two there was American corporate journalism Friends into a single there was no war, no injustice, and noth years, you would think that terrorism, ing that separated one group from anoth minded body you North Korea, and repression in Iraq were er. No, everyone read the FRIENDS pretty much all his fault. So, for galvaniz JoURNAL and smiled at each other. have to agree that ing the notoriously hard-to-galvanize Unfortunately for me, Quakers believe George W. deserves Religious Society of Friends into a single in continuing revelation. I came here minded body you have to agree that tonight fully prepared to take the rap for Quakerism's Most George W deserves Quakerism's Most all of Western civilization's flaws, but Valuable Player Valuable Player award. Quakers have moved on. While the main Thanks to George, Quakers are finally stream media was pretty much the agreed award. seen outside our meetinghouses. Quakers upon problem during the Clinton years, are suddenly writing to newspapers as now that the Republicans are in charge, it Friends, standing on corners vigiling as hate. We just severely disapprove of him. Friends, and joining rallies as Friends. Signe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning politi And, OK, he's not the only one--we also We are suddenly exercising muscles cal cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News, severely disapprove of Donald Rumsfeld, that we haven't used in a long while. We is a member of Chestnut Hill Meeting in John Ashcrofr, and, when we're feeling all know exercise is good. Except, of Philadelphia, Pa. This is an edited version ofthe daringly multicultural, Condoleezza Rice. course, when you don't have a full body Rufus jones lecture that she delivered at Friends are disappointed in, but still hold workout. Unfortunately, Friends, I'm Haveiford College in February 2003. out hope for, Colin Powell. afraid our recent exertions, while healthy FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 9 as rar as mey go, aon t go tar enougn. Kutus Jones had no such qualms. He l.{_uakensm IS catchmg on not because ot By only using this one part of our reli wrote, "If God ever spoke, He is still Quakers but because of our Most gious body, our other muscles have speaking. If He has ever been in mutual Valuable Player, George W Bush, and his atrophied. A recent letter in FRIENDS and reciprocal communication with the Republican friends JOURNAL states, "Our Peace Testimony persons He has made, He is still a com Without even asking, our president stands out as central to our faith." He's municating God, as eager as ever to have has been busy promoting Quakerism right, but this is not the positive statement listening and receptive souls. If there is throughout the United States and we give he thinks. The Peace Testimony stands something of His image and superscrip- him virtually no credit. Since September out because it is the only tion in our innermost structure and 11, 2001, George W Bush has led mil thing standing in Qua being, we ought to expect a continuous lions of people in profound and moving kerism today. Many ' revelation of His will and purpose moments of silence in remembrance and Friends would rather through the ages.... He is the Great I in prayer for the dead, for our nation, and be human shields in Am, not a Great He Was." for the world. Baghdad than to How many Friends proclaim aloud George Bush may be a Methodist on say aloud wheth in a public place that God at this very Sunday morning, but he understands that er they believe moment is communicating with our silent worship without outward symbols in God. And let'sc.---~..,...___ listening and receptive souls? allows his prayers to be joined with those Rufus Jones wrote about early of Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Friends, "the first 'Publishers of the Muslims, Buddhists, and possibly even Truth', as they called their early preachers, Unitarians. In those moments, he is believed that they were in the true including everyone in our national com apostolic succession and had a glorious munion, no matter what their faith or torch of light to transmit." Other than lack thereo£ selling new, energy-efficient light bulbs, But this isn't the only time the nation where have Friends been raising a has turned to Quakers for their religious glorious torch? expression recently. Perhaps the thing I Rufus Jones also wrote, "The social love best about the conservative mission is, and must always be, a great Christians who have been pushing for feature of real Christianity, only it must prayer in schools is that the religion they not take the place of the primary function chose to institute, by way of mandatory which is revealing God." Is anyone here moments of silence, is Quakerism. ready to stand and let us know in a sim Children in Georgia, Louisiana, and ple declarative sentence how the Relig Virginia now start their days as Quakers, ious Society of Friends is fulfilling that because of the Republican Party. Do primary function? Friends ever stop to thank them? Well, Friends, Shockingly, no! here's the good Yet, because of our fundamentalist co news. Quakerism religionists, millions of kids sit in silent Testimony stands has what it takes communion every morning. Perhaps it out because it is the to bind the wounds might dawn on a few of these young peo that divide this ple that they don't actually need a Rolex only thing standing world. Our beliefs wristed preacher to get in touch with the in Quakerism today. that in worship we Divine. It might dawn on others that they stand--or, in our are able to offer prayers just the same way By only using this case, sit-equally as the gay kid next to them or the black one part of our before the Divine, kid two rows over or even the girl in front. that anyone might Once again I say George W Bush is religious body, our at some time be a our MVP for spreading the liberating minister of the Quaker worship to so many of our fellow other muscles truth without cler citizens and to our young. He has exposed have atrophied. ical intermediaries, more kids to Quaker worship than and that any one Haverford College has. He has helped seal of us might be Quakerism as the most American of called to do God's America's religions. work form an em Haverford College history and religion powering libera professors may not have noticed this, but tion theology. we have totally routed the Puritans. As These are the sources of our religious Rufus Jones wrote, Quakerism met the power and we're afraid to use them. Puritan "pessimism of depravity with a Fortunately, help is on the way. rival optimism about human potentiali-
10 March 2004 FRIENDS JoURNAL ty." Let's face it Friends, the Puritans are Americans. It keeps us from smoking lent topics for political science class, they history. Quakers rule. because the price of cigarettes is just too do not make for a very healthy religion. I'd suggest Haverford historians and high. It keeps us from obesity because we Again, Rufus Jones reminds us that, professors of religion could do the world won't waste money on fast food. And it "George Fox laid down no rules for his a favor by pointing this out. Their coun keeps us sane because a clearness commit followers. He formulated no prohibitions. terparts at that backwater, overstuffed tee is cheaper than a psychiatrist. I suspect He was easy and lenient toward those who university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it's also the basis for Friends testimonies were in the army or the navy and who have had the field to themselves. They on gambling, drugs, and extra-marital nevertheless wanted to become 'Children have painted the American spirit as pri affairs. Let's face it: vice gets expensive. of the Light.' He always left them free to marily descended from its Puritan ances Compared to the wild and wacky lives 'follow their own light.'" tors when it's obvious that the moderate, we see on TV; a Quaker life of modesty Forgetting that openness and trust and libertarian, tolerant Quakers are the ones and moderation seems, well, downright narrowing our political entrance exam has who are most responsible for America's dull. Shows about Quakers would be led to meetings filled with social workers good nature. Benjamin Franklin realized called, "Sexless in the City" or "My Little, and teachers who have come already con this and voted with his feet. David Skinny Quaker Wedding." Certainly our vinced. We have very few people who Hackett Fischer provides plenty of ammo version of "Friends" would have quite don't have college educations but who for this view in his fascinating history of different story lines. But this is where our know how to pur on a roof or fix the colonial America,Albions Seed. But, being vision is more helpful and more radical plumbing. Not that there's anything pacifists, no Quakers ever use the ammo. than a peace rally. You can get a peace wrong with social workers and teachers; One of the many things Friends don't placard and skewed statistics on foreign it's just that when there's a hurricane, we share about our faith is that meeting policy from any one of a number of don't always want to be running over to teaches kids how to deal with boredom. excellent, well-meaning organizations. the Catholics to get our leaks fixed. Quaker kids are among the only ones in It's much harder to find a supportive So, Friends, my argument here tonight the United States who know how to sit group that helps reinforce what is good in is not that we abandon the Peace through an entire unplugged, unpro daily life, that helps keep us from tempta Testimony, though I do believe it should grammed, unscored hour. The benefits tion and leads us away from evil, that be subject to the same continuing exami are profound. They can then sit through helps create, in Rufus Jones's words, "a nation as we bring to everything else. It is entire lectures by droning professors with spirit that has learned to choose and that we recognize it for what it is, an out out falling asleep, thus assuring them suc discriminate and that prefers the pure and growth of our more profound spiritual cess in higher education. It will help them the good." insights. We need to open our doors to get and retain good jobs as they will be Q uaker meeting and our Friends seekers who are looking for spiritual com able to sit through endless meetings with school have been places ofcommun ity for munion even in between wars. And to do rambling bosses. And, while this may not me and my family, places we ought to be that, we need to be able to say out loud sound like a good selling point, it's still sharing with more than the determined that we are still seekers of the Truth and useful to know that being able to deal person who tracks us down past our tiny, give outsiders some due that they are with boredom certainly accounts for the indecipherable signs and reclusive habits. seekers, too. We know what George Fox longevity of many Quaker marriages. And we ought to be open to people who said. We know what Rufus Jones said. Naturally, Haverfordians should also haven't already declared themselves to be Now it is time to hear what each of us be exposed to the other central tenets of Green Party members. says. Ifwe don't speak up, Friends, George Quakerism like sensible shoes, the appre I think ofa fallen-away Catholic friend W Bush will do it for us. 0 ciation of inherited antiques, and the of mine who was looking for religious fel sanctity of 100 percent natural fibers. If lowship. He was engaged with his _com they think Quakers are never allowed to munity and the world and even with lim fight, they should know that while it's not ited formal education would have easily OK to bomb Iraq, it is OK to spend years figured out what to do during meeting for bitterly arguing over which way to place worship. He was also a Rush Limbaugh the meeting benches, whether singing or fan who regularly stopped by my office to any other joyful activity is permissible help me see the Light. He was looking for within 500 feet of the meeting room, and a spiritual home, not a lecture on the evils whether the Christmas breakfast should of our current foreign policy. We need to be called the "holiday" breakfast or the ask ourselves whether he would be wel "solstice" breakfast. Nothing makes a come in our world. Quaker happier than ruining Christmas While Quakers allegedly have no for another Quaker. formal creed on matters theological, But the real bedrock Quaker belief let's face it: we do have a holy trini the one that will get them through life, ty. We believe in the sanctity of global that will keep them from temptation and warming, recycling, and the United deliver them from evil- is, of course, Nations-provided the United Nations being cheap. Being careful with money, as doesn't ever enforce any of its resolutions we prefer to say, would help many by military means. While these are excel-
FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 11 Sit Down, Thee's Rocl An attend« has been speaking in fied rules, that person will be "eldered," What if a member's message makes others meeting for ten minutes. He reaches in his spoken to either in meeting or after meet uncomfortable? In one meeting a member pocket, pulls out a newspaper article, and ing by another Friend or perhaps some went on in excruciating detail about par begins reading it aloud. The Friend clerk one from Ministry and Counsel. But ticular human rights abuses, and every ing the meeting rises and says, "Our time these "rules" vary widely from meeting to one squirmed. Finally someone said, here is short, Friend. Others may also meeting and are applied unevenly. Friends "That's enough now. It's time to sit down." have a leading to speak. Perhaps you have become a highly individualistic The speaker did, but after meeting there might be willing to meet with interested Religious Society, with very different tol was a spirited discussion as to whether the Friends after meeting." Chagrined, the erance levels for rule breaking. eldering was proper or not. And that is one attender sits down. Take the first case, for example. An key to the question ofeldering in meeting. In another meeting, a person rises to attender comes to meeting week after If it is held in silence, the wrong kind of speak. She is dressed in near rags and has week and hears a great deal of speaking, silence, and not talked about, it festers and plastic bags piled on the bench next to her. some of which seems more political than hurts the community. She begins to denounce the U.S. presi spiritual, and some of which begins, "I Then there is the practice of standing dent in loud, angry, four-letter words. A was reading so-and-so's book on such up while another is speaking, apparently Friend or two rise, walk up to her and and-such, and it came to me. . . ." What intended to pass a silent message that the whisper, "This is not the place, Friend. could seem more natural than actually to speaker is not speaking "in the manner of Let's go outside to talk about it," and lead have the quote in hand rather than a loose Friends." Sometimes it seems only to her out of meeting. paraphrase? So, out comes the clipping. mean that the one standing doesn't A long-time Friend comes to meeting No rules are posted to inform this person approve of what the speaker is saying. I dressed in an outlandish costume. He of the inappropriateness of this action. have seen Friends actually walk up to the talks at length about a subject that makes How should the rest of the meeting react person and stand directly in front of him the other Friends uncomfortable. They to such a breach? Some Friends throw a or her. To my mind, this practice is not ask him to sit down. He does this time, flag on the play as soon as the offense is eldering, but intimidation. Somehow the but he is back the next week dressed and committed. Others, depending on the speaker is to be shamed into silence. This speaking as before. His friends worry length of the article, might speak to the is a practice unworthy of Friends. If the about him. His name is John Woolman. attender after meeting, letting him know message is actually so intolerable (and not Friends come to meeting to listen and, in a kindly way what the invisible rule is. just intolerably dull), it might be better to if so moved, to speak. There are no inter The homeless or the mentally ill who speak out and say so-but not out of mediaries, no priests, no walls between wander into meeting may make others anger. Of course, both the standing and participants and God. They speak as the cringe with guilt out of shame that the the speaking out break an invisible rule, Spirit stirs them. But of course there are larger society allows such things. But but meeting is usually resilient enough to rules, guidelines that have been handed many times such people become active survive. And if members are shaken by down and developed over the past 350 attenders and teach others through their what occurred, then the clerk can ask those years: one doesn't read from a book or lives in a way that most have been too who wish to remain and discuss the issue magazine, because the Spirit moves spon blinkered to see. Sometimes, however, to do so. That is the manner of Friends. taneously (although sometimes a passage their presence is simply incompatible Part of the problem stems from our from the Bible may be read aloud); one with silent worship, although there is mixed and varied reasons for coming to speaks only once during meeting, not seldom unanimity in the meeting on the meeting in the first place. Some come to repeatedly; one doesn't answer or chal matter. People have different levels of seek spiritual deepening in their own lives lenge what someone else has said; one acceptance and tolerance. One person and particularly enjoy a meeting that is respects the sensibilities of others if possi who suffered great trauma in her youth mostly silent--or "dead," as critics say. In ble. If someone doesn't follow these may speak in great anger, and the victims others the spirit takes a social shape, and almost invisible and probably never codi- of her wrath may see her, rightly or they often feel moved to speak on partic wrongly, as schizophrenic and a danger to ular political problems of our time-a Robert A. Calklrd is a member of Charleston herself and others. Should she be barred "popcorn meeting," the silent group com (Wl-0.) Meeting. A Foreign Service officer for plains. Others come to meeting for com 20years, during his posting; he has attended the from the meeting? Who makes that deci worship group in Lima, Peru; Wellington (New sion? Ministry and Counsel? What ifoth fort and solace, a place to speak their sor Zeaklnd!Aoteoroa) and Toronto (Ont., Canada) ers disagree? Does it fall to monthly meet rows-"This isn't a psychotherapy ses Meetings; Friends Meeting at Cambridge (Mass.); ing as a whole to make this very difficult sion," some others vent. Is this diversity and, currently, Friends Meeting in Washington and private decision? incompatible? In an area with many (D. C). And what of the John Woolman case? meetings, an individual can seek out a 12 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL be;s and attenders cari be there, oat may work to thresh out ideas that the committee puts forward. There will and should be many different points of view on this issue. Perhaps it would be well to add the sociability of a potluck dinner to ease the communication. Many meetings hold a Quaker ism 101 series yearly or more often. Many of these classes discuss the "invisible rules" as well as the history of Friends. But if not, it would be an appropriate place to talk about them and the practical ~ reasons for them. Not, as the eld- ~ ers of Balby said, to lay a rule on :i When it is clear that what anyone, but rather, to communi- ~ is beinSJ said in meetinSJ, cate the spirit of meeting. Clearly much tolerance is needed. We Some meetings use clearness commit or the manner in which it all have our particular quirks that we carry tees, others do not. Used properly, they is beinSJ said, is with us. I don't like singing in meeting, for provide a body of loving Friends (and example. As much as I like music (and I attenders) who can discuss possible solu destructive to Friends was raised singing in a Methodist choir), tions to a perceived problem. Used manner of worship, it gets in the way of my conversation with improperly, they can be self-righteous and somethinSJ must be done. God. And the message is prepackaged, censorious. I once heard a Friend say, since the lyrics were inevitably written by "You ought to have a clearness commit someone else at another time. But occa tee," in the same tone of voice one might community that best suits one's needs. sionally someone in meeting does feel have used in saying, "You need to have But where there is only one meeting, moved to sing someone else's song, and your head examined." But I have partici Friends who feel that meeting for worship sometimes many others join in. Should I pated in clearness committees that did doesn't speak to their expectations may stand in protest, or speak to the miscreant help to bring much light to the particular wander off singer afterwards? Of course not; God persons for whom the meeting was called, Maybe the primary rule should be: All knows the rest of meeting has to put up as well as to the committee itsel£ concerns are to be taken seriously until with my peculiarities as well. When it is clear that what is being said proven otherwise. Yes, the attender None of this is new to anyone who's in meeting, or the manner in which it is shouldn't have read from a clipping. And been a Friend for very long. Meetings being said, is destructive to Friends man yes, some concerns are expressed in an have had difficulties with dissenting ner of worship, something must be done. outrageously offensive manner. But that Ranters from the very origins of the Sometimes (hopefully rarely) it must be doesn't mean that the message delivered is Religious Society of Friends. The James done immediately, and that is usually the not of God. Nayler controversy was only one ofmany. role of the clerk. But most of the time it Friends speak of threshing meetings, John Woolman finally found loving is better to do it with some deliberation. but winnowing is also a useful concept. At acceptance from the monthly and yearly And always with love. A significant num a threshing meeting we toss things on the meetings he addressed. Many meetings ber of attenders have been driven out of floor and beat them until we can find the have found within their own structure meetings by overzealous eldering that is seed. In winnowing, we listen to others' ways to deal with such disruptions or unthinking and defensive rather than messages carefully, toss them into the breaking of the invisible rules. nurturing of the Spirit; and sometimes wind as it were, and see what's left after One difficulty is that discussions on those attenders never return. What a loss the chaff blows away in the Divine Spirit. eldering tend to be held within the con to meeting! By the nature of our imperfections there fines of committees on ministry and What do meetings do in these cases? is much chaff produced in meeting. But counsel, since it is one of their jobs. Also, What "rules" have been developed? Are the grain, the Seed itself, may dwell there because the issue normally arises when they in writing? If so, they, along with in. Can you imagine the irreparable harm there is a specific case, there are matters of examples of how situations were dealt done to Friends had John Woolman been privacy and sensitivities to be considered. with, may be sent to FRIENDS JOURNAL to forced into silence or driven out of meet The committee, usually composed of be forwarded to me. I am interested in ing? Prophets often arrive strangely weighty elders, is the right place for deal gathering our collective wisdom on this garbed, and they can give unwelcome ing with individual cases. This commit difficult issue and publishing it, or, at messages. Should we drive the angel tee, however, also has an educative role. A least, sharing it with those who respond to (Greek for messenger) from our door? general meeting on eldering, held prefer- this query. 0 FRIENDS JOURNAL March 2004 13 by Patricia A. Williams otren with ~uakers, an individual in a group, say in a dearness committee or a lnterpretinSJ meeting for worship. In addition, the uakers do not get religion sec individual and the local group are always ondhand, bur aim always to embedded in a larger culture, and the ReliSJious Q be experiential, to wait upon culture supplies much of the scaffolding the Light, and then to walk in the for interpreting religious experience. This Light. Yet religious experience is not was also true for George Fox. It is clear raw data. It is interpreted data. The from his journal that he interpreted his Experience interpreter may be an individual or, own religious experience according to tenets derived from 16th-century Protestantism. George Fox believed the Light he knew was Christ-the risen Jesus. He believed Jesus had been cruci fied at the crossroads of God's salva tion history, which unfolded as fol lows: God created the universe and Earth, all the animals, and the first people, Adam and Eve, and created them perfect. Soon afrer their cre ation, the primordial couple sinned, thereby degrading their perfect nature and the nature of humanity. Jesus' cruciftx.ion was a sacrifice that paid the penalty for Eve and Adam's sin. Because of Jesus' sacrificial deed, people are able to return to the uncorrupted, perfect state of the pre-fallen Adam and Eve by walk ing according to the Spirit ofChrist. Through that same Spirit, we are able to interpret Scripture correctly and, therefore, to know the Truth that comes from God. These are George Fox's beliefs as he expresses them throughout his journal, and except for his perfectionism, they are orthodox Protestant beliefs from the 16th century. We now know that George Fox's Protestant predecessors misinter preted Scripture. Instead of careful ly reading Genesis 3 for himself, George Fox repeated what he had heard about it, which came from Martin Luther and John Calvin and, ultimately, from Augustine of Hippo. He heard that God created Eve and Adam perfect. The idea of their perfection comes from Genesis 1 where God pronounces all creation good, and where the Patricia A. Williams, a member of Charlottesville (Va.) Meeting, is a philosopher ofscience and philosophical theologian. This article is based on her book, Doing without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and O riginal Sin (2001). See March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL first couple do not sin-they have no scriptural narrative. Our creation story genetics. Because we are social animals, occasion to sin because they may eat ofall begins some 13.7 billion years ago with sociobiology studies us, too. the fruit of all the trees (Gen. 1:29). The the Big Bang that marks the creation of Like Genesis 2 and 3 and the theolo idea that Adam and Eve were perfect our material universe. From that begin gians who misread the narrative, sociobi upon creation also comes from philo ning, hydrogen and helium eventually ology provides us with a model of human sophical theology, which declares God form. Gravity pulls globs of these gasses so nature. Like all scientific models, this omniscient, omnipotent, and omniben tighdy together the nucleons fuse, gener model of human nature is simplified, but evolent, so that logically God's creation ating stars and galaxies. The fusion and it captures the basics by giving us scientif had to have been perfect originally. Only explosion of the stars creates the heavier ic evidence for what we already know from an older, separate narrative related in Gen elements-the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, common observation. Sociobiology says esis 2 and 3 says God forbids eating the and trace elements of which our bodies human life revolves around gaining re fruit of the tree of knowledge (Gen. 2: 17). are composed. We now know that we are sources, reproducing, caring for kin, and George Fox assumed that eating the stardust and that our blood is salt water engaging in reciprocity-money, sex, forbidden fruit corrupted our once-per descended from and resembling Earth's nepotism, and exchange. (In some indus fect nature. However, scholars of the seas of more than 3 billion years ago. trialized countries nepotism is partially hid Hebrew Scriptures now agree that the We are not alienated exiles, as liberal den because monogamous, capitalist socie narrative of Genesis 3 never indicates that interpreters of Genesis claim. Instead we ty discourages it as unfair and unproduc Eve and Adam's deed corrupts human are intimately integrated with the uni tive, but it is vividly evident elsewhere, espe nature. In fact, the narrative says that verse. We are slivers of the stars. We are cially in polygamous and tribal societies.) Adam and Eve improve upon eating the salt of the Earth. Having evolved here, we Our evolution from other animals tells fruit (Gen. 3:7), which many theologians are also kin to other organisms, sharing a us that Eve and Adam never existed and seem to have missed. Later in the narra common history and common chemistry therefore cannot be the cause of our sin tive God explicidy declares that they have with all that lives. We are also closely relat fulness. Looking at our animal heritage, gained knowledge by eating the fruit ed to many other animals in our anatomy many people claim that our sinfulness (Gen. 3:22). So according to Scripture the and physiology. springs from our animal ancestors-we first sin, the original sin, does not have the Periodically scientists add chapters to are "brutes," just as they are. However the consequences that later theologians the scientific saga. One of the most recent other "brutes"-cats, dogs, monkeys, thought and that George Fox believed. In chapters is sociobiology, the scientific bears, deer, and squirrels--do not cause this ancient narrative, Eve and Adam can study of animal social behavior based on much harm. Indeed most "brutes" are not have been created perfect, innocent vegetarians. We human for they gain perfection as they beings are the brutal ones. go. Indeed their imperfection INNER UGHT Why? We are capable of so much at their creation is implied ear evil because our capacities are so lier, when God uses mud to much greater than those of other create Adam. T heir vulnerabil The sky is filled with stars, animals. Our ability to manipulate ity to the serpent's seduction symbols enables us to communicate proves them to be imperfect, no room for God. as no other animal can. Thus we too. T heir original imperfec Beyond spinning planets cooperate as few other animals do- tion and their improvement cooperate to create and to destroy, to from eating the fruit of knowl and comets trailing tails construct communities and to gath edge means that Jesus' crucifix more blackness yawns er armies. We are moved by symbols ion cannot logically have been like the flag for which we are willing recompense for Adam and more teeming pits to sacrifice ourselves-or others. Eve's sin because there were no where milky ways do not spill Our remarkable creativity enables us consequences of their sin that nor galaxies dismantle to design exquisite artwork and degraded human nature. ~or architecture as well as increasingly could Jesus have enabled the to make more space. lethal weapons and excruciating tor re-perfection of human nature, Too crowded there, tures. Those very characteristics we as George Fox believed, admire, our proud virtues, the attrib because it was not perfect in God seeks a private place utes that make us human, enable us the first place. to work to do evil. We cannot separate our Furthermore, today we selves from our potencial for evil have access to another creation without astronomy without ceasing to be human. story than the one available in or rising prayers. Thus George Fox's dream of a George Fox's culture, which return to the perfection of pre-fallen was based on ancient texts. Mary Susan Miller is a Adam and Eve is an illusion. Our Our creation narrative is the - Mary Susan Miller member ofHousatonic nature now is as perfect as it can be. scientific saga, a story far more Meeting in New Milford, We ourselves choose to use our congruent with evidence and Conn. mathematical logic than the Continued on page 26 FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 15 ,) ~ W- E1\RY PEAC ,I am sick of pe~ing snow my stuffy nose I'm tired from marches wagi •M ,...... "'"' though I'm well using chants ana shoutS for large ideals I care about like justice and democracy. I'm worn down from life as one long vigil cracking at hypocrtsie~ and hoping this will keep us I'm ready for. a shift of gaze- 1'11 watch for suns_hine breaking to --.-.... ,.,..L.,.... 16 March 2004 FRIENDS JoURNAL I Learned to My Own Business and tofGodsW by Shari Dinkins S he walks into the classroom. Her Sonoma State University." hair hangs carelessly like a curtain around I am unable to speak. her face. She is wearing blue jeans rolled "I've been sober for two years now," up below her knees. I exhale. We are in the she answers, before I can ask. We chat for lecture hall of a state university in north 15 minutes. Two girlfriends beckon for ern California. As she stumbles through her to get going. I hug her, grateful to see an introduction and sits on the edge of the her, still shocked by the difference in her stage, swinging her legs, I wonder- how demeanor. As she makes her way across did she get this way? I had met her Howard Street, I think of the change. Her through a professional organization appearance is neat and stylish, but it is her online. She was to speak to my class about smooth, reassuring voice that affects me designing websites for a well-known firm most. I e-mail her the next day. She is sur in San Francisco. Yet somehow I have this prised to find that I am still teaching-she incoherent, confused woman in front of tells me that she too has caught the bug. 40 undergraduates. I am aware that my Thanking me for the inspiration, she asks class is restless, squirming in their old if she can speak to another class I teach. fashioned wooden seats. After another I hesitate before responding. I think rambling 15 minutes, my guest asks for about it, pray that night and e-mail her questions. The students sit, mute. Finally the next day. "Yes," I type, though I am an overachiever in the front row asks not confident. Four weeks before the en about software. As my speaker responds gagement, she has e-mailed me three times in a voice too low to hear, I think to and called me twice. She wants to be sure myself, "I wish I could disappear." I smile that she will deliver information that will weakly as the room finally falls silent, and really help the students. She wants to pres I vow inwardly never to use a guest who I ent well. I send her a packet of informa have not personally interviewed. tion about the class, a map to the campus, Six years later I am climbing the stairs a parking permit. We talk once more the to a detoxification center in San Fran evening before her presentation. cisco. I am part of a team of volunteers The next night, she sweeps into class, a who try to help--mostly we sit and listen. laptop in hand. A young woman follows A young woman makes eye contact dur her. I smile and nod. My class is ready. She ing the meeting. She is sitting next to a hooks up her computer to my projector. I couple who is coming off of heroin. Her notice her tasteful outfit and appearance. face is familiar, but I cannot place her. As Stepping down to the "pit" in the front of What would have happened if I had we file out, leaving the clients on musty the room, she turns to the class. approached her six years ago? What would secondhand leather couches, the young She is terrific. Twenty undergraduates I have said? "Is there something going on?" woman catches up with me. lean forward, shooting questions when I might have mumbled, "I mean, are you "Shari Dinkins." The sun falls through she pauses. She moves from lecture to all right?" Could she have told me about buildings to light up her eyes. "From onscreen samples of work. Finally she her life, about her hopeless adventures? I runs through a smooth Flash animated had been without drink or drugs then for Shari Dinkins teaches at a community coUege, Web demo. My students are transfixed by over six years. But could she have heard writes, and volunteers at a local humane shelter, her presentation and scribble notes as me? I don't know if I was confused or women's jai~ and homeless shelter. She attends quickly as they can. She is smooth, yet afraid at the time, but I said nothing. She Glide Memorial Methodist Church in San approachable--more than I had expect must have driven back to San Francisco Francisco, Calif ed. I think of her for days. unaware of her effect on my class and not FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 17 knowing that I'd been embarrassed. me another scotch, saying that I'd had reaction. I believe this would be a heavy I chose to keep my mouth shut. And enough. Did I stop then? No. I continued burden, and that is why Lisa has confided she had found her way years later, without for years, unable to admit that I was in me instead. my input. killing mysel£ I could not stop-and I am grateful. It's a valuable lesson for me: Shari the those kind people who tried to hide my It's funny-1 know that Lisa does not fixer, the advice-giver. I have learned to liquor, steer me away from the local tav believe in God. She has sworn against any keep my mouth shut. And the reward is ern, put me in a taxi-I hated them. With religion or spiritual avenue. But I am cer that my family and friends are able to the help of those who had sobered up be tain that God lovingly watches over her, make their own way. I have learned that fore me, I was able to stop. One morning, whether she believes or not. That is why I God's direction does not often come from after I had spent yet another night in and pray for friends and family every morning my mouth. My sarcastic remarks, my out of blackout on my couch, I stumbled and every night. It helps me shift the bur commentary and advice, my frustrated into my shower crying. A phone call den to where it belongs-to God. I am exhales do not help. As someone once brought me the support I needed. too human, too invested to know what to said, "Take my advice; after all, I'm not A year earlier, my aunt had stopped do with these too-human problems. using it." And so, after numerous mis drinking, too. She claims that she drove I have asked my aunt about the year steps, I have decided to become a witness, by my apartment dozens of times and that she had embarked on a path of recov rather than a critic. offered to take me somewhere to get help. ery from drink-before I caught on. She I'm sure there are times for me to step I refused. Later I blocked out the memo says that she had prayed for me every day. in-when people are too young, too ry. Yes, my father's sister, the funny, In effect, those around me had asked for infirm, too old to fend for themselves- approachable woman who'd known me guidance. They knew I would not take since I was a squirming baby, could not direction, even if my life depended on it. help me. I would not let her. I wasn't ready. They did not nag, plead or threaten. Three weeks ago, a good friend, Lisa, They prayed me into a spiritual life. came to me with tears in her eyes. Her Prayer is a powerful tool. I can witness husband has asked if they could seek sex I often meet a woman who is thinking ual partners outside of their monogamous about trying something different, about I! without bassin~; ten-year relationship. Confused, shaking, putting down the bottle. I give her my she repeats the conversations they had. I phone number, then ask her about her listen. I am torn. Part of me wants to life. But I do not chase her down. I let her I'· I can listen without march to their house and rip him to do the thinking. If she comes, she will pieces. Another part of me wants to tell come in her own time-not mine. I have interruptin~; I can her what to do--not because I want to be learned to live with the discomfort. Yet in charge, but because I want her pain to my faith in a higher power relieves me of hear a story stop. In the end, I don't say much. A few that, too. Every time I pray, the worries innocuous comments asking how the are shifted and I move into God's world without tryin~ to change is for her; whether they are prac again. I can witness without bossing; I can ticing safe sex now. We walk on the beach listen without interrupting; I can hear a feed lines; I can sit in the dark. I can see Orion's belt, the story without trying to feed lines; I can sit Little Dipper. Later that night I pray for and just be-with a friend nearby. And and just be-with a Lisa. I grudgingly pray for her husband, the beautiful news is that my friends do with anger in my heart. Every day I pray that for me, too. Listen to my tales of my friend nearby. And for them both. I hope to find some clari teaching job, my confusion about dating, ty. I finally talk to a trusted girlfriend my complaints about my family. Yet they the beautiful news who does not know them. My heart do not reach in with a monkey wrench to hurts, but I do not unload my anger on adjust, to fix, to bang around where they is that my friends Lisa. She is in her own painful process. cannot see. I ask sometimes, "What would And I remain open to her. I call her often, you do?" Then they measure before they do that for me too. sometimes every night. Just to be sure speak. They don't boss. They attempt to that she is still around, that she is coming try on my confusion, to imagine. They to grips, that she is moving in her own answer honestly, "Well, I can't imagine decision-making. being where you are, but I might . .." but more often than not, the call is for me Her process does not resemble my That is as close to advice as I will see. It is to shut up while others process. decision making. That is why I hold back. a relief not to try and position myself to I had been in the same position as my I realize she had not told Jean, a friend we please them; to twist and shape my life so guest speaker. How many times did I sit both have in common, about her prob that they are not uncomfortable. The on a barstool, stumbling into a stinking lem, because Jean would judge her. Jean beauty of this connection is that they bathroom to retch my dinner? And the would tell her to dump him. She would know I have a God in my life; I know that times that a drinking comrade might have vent and drop her anger like an anchor in theirs is active, too. So there is no call to said, "Have you had enough?" Or an ill the conversation. Lisa would have to deal fix. No call to judge. Just to witness. And advised waitress who might have refused with her own marriage and Jean's . that is the kindest act. 0 18 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL n 2002, Westbury (N.Y.) Meeting the fundamental opening of George Fox celebrated 300 years of meetinghouses that there is "that of God in every one." I on its site. As coordinator of the cele The God in each leads to the concept of bration, part of my task was collecting his the direct, unmediated relationship to toric documents to post on our website. I God through the Inner Light or Holy became particularly intrigued by the abo Spirit. On the other hand, there is the litionist activity in Westbury Quarterly need to test one's leading with others Meeting. T hen I began to discover paral before proceeding to action. The possibil lels to the turmoil in the meeting follow ity of contradictory revelation of God's ing the attacks of September 2001. will has posed a problem to Friends going I wish I could report defming lessons right back to George Fox and James from my study of history. What I discov Nayler. It played out again in the ered, and share now, is that Friends are Hicksite-Orthodox separation and often on both sides of a controversy, with Friends response to antislavery activity. strongly held but diametrically opposed And it arises today when we try to apply leadings. Furthermore, our ways of resolv the Peace Testimony to contemporary ing such conflicts do not seem to have world conflicts. improved much in 150 years. Are individual Friends ultimately Almost from the inception, there has responsible for discerning the will ofGod, been conflict within the Religious Society and their own conduct? What happens of Friends over claims ofauthority for per when two people hear the will of God in sonal action. On the one hand, there is opposite messages? How shall such issues be tested and resolved? Gretchen Haynes is a member and clerk of Westbury (NY.) Meeting and the co-author of It may be instructive to study Friends Mediation: Positive Conflict Management, responses to the issues of slavery, to better forthcoming from SUNY Press. Documents understand the contradictions inherent in used in this article are posted at Westbury (N.Y.) Meeting, 1869 FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 19 Below: A Westbury Quaker f.unily's manumission What it means to be document, freeing their slave in 1776 SELECT Right: Rachd Seaman Hides, from the memoir Curious she published in 1880 Intellectual Articulate Accomplished Athletic Diverse FRIENDS SELECT Pre-K Through Twelfth Grade 17th and The Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-561-5900 ext. 104 • www.friends-select.org FRIENDS CAl\IP South China. \Iaine http://"\\ 11 .fril·n Ages 7-17 Coed - Residential A unique camp program which includes in ternational campers, Quaker community liv ing, decision making, crafts, drama, sports, water activities, and other creative programs. Director 729 Lakeview Drive ~ South China, ME 04358 -~ (207) 445-2361 1 director@ friendscamp.org ~ ~ -~ ~ ~ For Students with Learning Differences s:;- Multisensory teaching strategies ~ for diverse learning styles S' ~ DEI.A\\'ARE VALLEY @ human beings as property. John Wool FRIENDS SCHOOL and Long Island within Westbury man's way was to visit meetings and indi Quarterly Meeting in the period from vidual Friends to preach and pray with 1830 to 1860. Christopher Densmore them towards releasing their slaves. He explores the same questions in western acted from his own leading to persuade New York State in "The Dilemma of others to test their witness to the Quaker Anti-Slavery: The Case of Farm Testimony of Equality. He refused to use Prospective Parent Open House ington Quarterly Meeting, 1836-1860," any product of slave labor, and this dates for 2003-04: in Quaker History (fall1993). became an article of faith for many October 22 • November 12 December 10 • February 11 Abolitionist history may help us to bet Friends. Elias Hicks (1748-1830), the March 10 • Apri114 • May 19 ter understand the tensions now arising in fiery preacher from Jericho, New York, Prqfessional Open House dates: many meetings over the present dilemma took up the concern of Friends' freeing October 15 • January 14 of Friends' inner leadings regarding the their slaves. In his pamphlet, "Obser Peace Testimony as they labor over the vations on the Slavery of the Africans and College Preparatory • Grades 7-12 war and occupation of Iraq, peace in the • Summer Program their Descendents" (1811), he con Middle East, and peace in the world. demned the practice on moral grounds I<) l· ..!~l Ct'lll!,tl \\l'. • Paoli. 1'. \ I 20 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL laws on slavery. largely agricultural area in Brooklyn) 10 Elias Hicks's view of slavery grew owners had 35 slaves (3.5 average; 17 men directly from his views on where authori and 18 women). T he first two are exam ty lay, which eventually led to the separa ples of a society with slaves, while tion that took place in New York Yearly Flatlands is a slave society. § AT H~M~ WITH Meeting in 1828 and in other yearly It may surprise us today that as pros • meetings within the Religious Society of perous farmers, Friends on Long Island in Friends in the United States. He believed in holy obedience to the "manifestation of the will of God by his own spirit in the soul," rather than the authority of moral laws, scripture, or elders. The Hicksite Friends separated themselves from the turmoil of the world and called them selves quietists. By linking slaves to war -u booty, Elias Hicks tied freeing slaves to the !... Peace Testimony. He preached to Friends to manumit their slaves as a matter of ~ ..g faith. Like John Woolman, he acted alone .0 CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN HAITI tf to challenge individuals and our Religious • by Jean Thomas with Lon Fendall -v Society to live up to Friends testimonies. $15.00 l In doing so, his persuasive voice reached ...... into U.S. society to have a wider impact BA RCLAY PRESS . ~ than he expected. 211 N. l'lerml St. # 10I , Newberg. OR 97132 E To put the pre-Civil War period in per 800.962.4014 ~ spective for Long Island, Shane White, ~ who researched slavery in New York City, ~ points our that there are two classes of slavery: small-scale, personal or household slavery and large-scale, mostly agricultur the 1700s owned from one to eight slaves. al slavery. It has been said that there is the Many well-to-do Quaker families owned society with slaves on one hand, and slave one or two personal slaves. However, as NEWTOWN FRIENDS societies on the other. In the former, a early as 1759, New York Yearly Meeting SCHOOL small number of wealthy persons owned decided that Friends could not import personal slaves, to some extent for show. slaves. In 1771 the yearly meeting ordered members not to sell their slaves if they wished to remain in good standing with their meeting. In 1776 the yearly meeting The possiblilty of mandated the freeing of members' slaves, contradictory revelation threatening possible disownment of those who did not do so. By 1776, Long Island of God's will has posed Friends from Manhasset to Jericho had "The accomplishments of adults a problem to Friends freed a total of 154 slaves. Westbury begin as the dreams of children. Meeting recorded 90 manumissions in Newtown Friends is a place going right back to 1776-77. Most of the rest were freed by where dreams begin." 1783. With forceful leadership from Elias - NFS Mission Statement George Fox and Hicks, most Quakers in Westbury Quar terly Meeting had freed their slaves by James Nayler. 1789. The last New York Quaker manu missions were recorded in 1798. Thus Pre-K to Grade 8 Friends acted well ahead ofsociety in gen In the latter, slaves were used for larger eral and New York state in particular. For further information, scale economic purposes, particularly on During the 18th century, individual call 215-968-2225, or visit farms. In Angels ofDeliverance , historian actions to oppose slavery seem to be the us at newtownfiiends.org James Driscoll points out that according norm. Many Friends followed the leading to the 1755 census, in Hempstead town of John Woolman and instituted a boy 36 owners had 69 slaves (1.9 average; 43 cott of slave-made goods, known as the men, 26 women); in Oyster Bay town, 91 Free Produce movement. After the sepa II~ IN; tluP~II~ <>/ P~'II~Sci-U owners had 186 slaves (2 average; 107 ration, both Hicksite and Orthodox men, 79 women); while in Flatlands (a Friends frowned on participation with FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 21 those "not in unity with the Society," pre (Hicksite), some, including Amy and A Ministry of Prayer and Learning devoted to ferring to work with other Quakers. In Isaac Post, asked to be released from addition to Free Produce, activities membership while about 200 others included the petition campaign to the withdrew to form their own yearly meet U.S. Congress to end slavery in the ing in 1848. District of Columbia, first begun in New Nevertheless, individual Quakers con England Yearly Meeting and supported tinued their involvement in various by John Greenleaf Whittier. Samuel organizations that included non-Friends. Parsons, an Orthodox Friend from In 1785 the New York Society for Flushing, carried the petition campaign to Promoting the Manumission of Slaves New York Friends. He was also active in was founded by twelve Friends and six financing a movement to help North others; eventually, 251 of the 454 mem Carolina Quakers turn over their slaves to bers were Friends. This tolerance by the their own yearly meeting so that they Religious Society did not continue as the would no longer be slaveholders. Samuel slavery issue became central in U.S. con Parsons raised funds to help resettle North sciousness. However, those who opposed Carolina Friends who wanted to leave the mixing with non-Friends did work for South for Ohio and Indiana to avoid the change in their own ways. To illustrate the purpose, growing violence against those who paradox created when Friends have dia ifthe program opposed slavery. According to James metrically opposed understandings of the is now available. Driscoll, there is evidence that Thomas will of God, we can see how slavery affect- Contact: Willis ofJericho participated by bringing [email protected] • (919) 929-2339 freed North Carolina slaves to his town. quakerinfo.com/sos.shtml As opposition to slavery grew, some While most Hicksite A Ministry of the Standing Corrunittee on Worship and Care of Friends were wary ofinvolvement in what Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends they saw as social action rather than reli Friends worked to gious concerns. They saw the gathering storm and sought to remove Friends from change the hearts and aggravating the tendencies toward war. minds of Quaker slave Further, while most Hicksite Friends worked to change the hearts and minds of owners, they did not Quaker slave owners, they did not want to mix in the turbulence of abolitionist want to mix in the activities. From about 1840, New turbulence of England and then New York yearly meet ings prohibited any meeting from using abolitionist activities. its facilities for abolitionist speeches and later for temperance and suffrage meet ings. Amy Post, originally a Westbury ed two Quakers connected to Westbury Friend who in this period worked with Quarterly Meeting: Isaac T. Hopper and Frederick Douglass in Rochester, invited Rachel Seaman Hicks. him to speak at Westbury Meeting. Organized in 1839 by Hicksite However, some in the meeting objected Friends, the New York Association of to Frederick Douglass's radical message, so Friends for the Relief of Those Held in he eventually met with local activists but Slavery worked to publish pamphlets on did not speak at the meetinghouse. slavery, endorse the Free Produce move Similarity in western New York, ment, and help educate free African Christopher Densmore found that a Americans in New York City. Many of its group of radical reformers began to chal members were also active in non-Quaker lenge the quietist assumptions of the abolitionist groups, such as the American Religious Society. The Hicksite quarterly Anti-Slavery Society-among them Isaac meeting denied the use of meetinghouses T. Hopper, his daughter Abigail, her hus for anti-slavery lecturers on the grounds band, James S. Gibbons, and Charles that the speakers, even though Quaker, Marriott, who were members of New were paid by abolition societies, thus York Monthly Meeting. Isaac T. Hopper invoking the rule against "hireling min was a noted and outspoken supporter of istry." As in other instances in Friends his Elias Hicks and the Liberal position in the tory, the tensions grew over how to resolve Quaker separation, but he did not advo conflicts that arose within the Religious cate separating from the broader society. Society. In Genesee Yearly Meeting Tension grew between these activists 22 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL . and those Friends who, while abhorring slavery, did not believe in direct interven "An Adventure for the Summer . . . tion to end it. George F. White, for exam ple, a recorded minister of New York Memories for a Ufetime" Monthly Meeting (Hicksite), warned Unique multicultural communities where every child feels important against involvement in societies for popu lar reform, including abolitionist organi CAMP REGIS APPLEJACK TEEN CAMP zations. An article highly critical of ' George F. White was published on March Co-ed 6-12 Co-ed 13-16 25,1841, in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the newspaper of the American Family owned and operated, specializing in first time campers. Friendly Quaker Anti-Slavery Sociery. Overseers of the leadership since 1946. Mature, nurturing staff, dose supervision, ratio 1 to 3. monthly meeting acted to discipline Isaac Rustic cabins with fireplaces overlooking a majestic Adirondack lake. T. Hopper, James S. Gibbons, and Warm, supportive, relaxed environment where the fun never stops. Over 50 Charles Marriott for helping to publish "a activities to choose from including sailing, water skiing (superb 3/4 mile paper calculated to excite discord and dis private waterfront), all land sports, tennis (7 new courts), music, dance, drama unity among Friends." The three coun (large theater), art, gymnastics, wilderness canoe and mountain trips, narure/ tered that while they were not responsible ecology (farm with animals), mountain biking, and much more! for the particular article, they felt no need Teen Adventure Programs include tours to Canada, Cape Cod, and Maine. to apologize for it since it was "factually 4- and 8-week sessions available with introductory 2-week program for accurate." According to the monthly younger, first-time campers. ACA accredited. For video and brochure: meeting (paraphrased, except where directly quoted): Michael F. Humes 1. The will of man, not the will of 60 Lafayette Road West God, prompted the activity; therefore it Princeton, NJ 08540 was wrong and sinful because it was not (609) 688-0368 under divine guidance. • www.campregis-applejack.com 2. Such activity was a mixing in the world, with the "low and the vile, the just and the unjust"; therefore it could not have a good outcome. 3. Friends in such activities came into contact with ministers of other faiths, in violation of the testimony against being Are some Q!Jaker perspectives "corrupted by the hireling ministry" and constituted a "slippery slope" leading to leaving the Religious Society of Friends. on the wrong track? 4. If there were anything wrong with slavery, or any other situation, God would correct it. Such activity implied that aboli tionists thought they were wiser than God. 5. Such activity implied that some Do you want to know what sincere Quakers think, who thing was wrong with Friends testi truly advocate peace, justice, and helping the poorest of the monies. Faith should be sufficient to poor, but who think many Quaker perspectives are on the cause change; therefore, it was not neces sary to form or participate in man-made wrong track? organizations. 6. Such activity ignored the slavehold Try reading The Q!taker Economist, a free weekly online news ers, many of whom were performing a moral good by making slaves morally good commentary on peace, justice, and world affairs, somewhat and happy; it also ignored the problems different from the usual Quaker line. that abolition would bring to slaveholders. 7. Such activity employed strong Over eighty letters have now been published and appear on language and harsh activities unbefitting to Friends. thee-mails of over 600 subscribers, mostly Quakers. To see 8. Quakers belong to a religious socie them all online, visit http:/ /tqe.quaker.org. To subscribe (fee), ty, not a benevolent society; therefore, slavery was not a proper issue for the care send an e-mail to [email protected]. of the Religious Society of Friends. In three separate actions the three men FRIENDS JOURNAL March 2004 23 were disowned in 1842: first by New York continued his abolitionist activities and TEACH OVERSEAS Monthly Meeting, then by Westbury continued to attend meeting. Following Quarterly Meeting to which the monthly the Civil War, his daughter, Abigail H. meeting belonged, and finally confirmed Gibbons, became active in another by the New York Yearly Meeting. The reform movement, the Women's Prison 1842 minutes of the yearly meeting read: Association. She presented her letter of withdrawal from the Religious Society of The Committee appointed in the case oflsaac Friends personally to Rose Street Meet Europe • Asia • Africa T. Hopper on his appeal against the judge ing, at which Sally Hicks of Westbury South and Central America ment of Westbury Quarterly meeting made spoke against her actions. In 1870, mem the following report: bers of New York Yearly Meeting American/International Schools To the Yearly Meeting approached her to return to Friends. She world-wide are looking for outstanding The Committee on Isaac T. Hopper's agreed, if the yearly meeting would teachers with a minimum of appeal report, that, after patient deliberation, approve a minute retracting her father's 2 years recent, we find that eighteen of our members are in disownment. This did not occur, and even full-ti me experience. favor of confirming the judgement of the as late as 1900 the sides were still adamant. K-12 positions in all disciplines for quarterly meeting, fifteen for reversing it, and September 2004. three decline giving judgement in the case. On behalf of the Committee www.search-associates.com Jacob Willetts Friends could sallyjogordon@ sjg-search.com 1-484-356-0971 When I read this I was amazed. Voting, participate in or taking a poll, is not a part of Friends right order. But even by non-Quaker individual actions that standards, there was not a majority in Guidelines for Writers favor of the judgement, but an even tie grew out of personal when the abstentions are counted. Right witness to Friends The articles that appear in FRIENDS order insists on continued testing an issue in the Light for as long as it takes to find jOURNAL are freely given; authors testimonies. But receive copies of the issue in which the sense of the meeting. Clearly, emo their article appears. Manuscriprs tions were high in this case and overruled advocacy, agitation, submitted by non-Friends are Friends traditional discernment process. welcome. We prefer articles written in Lucretia Mort wrote to the yearly and overt action, a fresh, nonacademic style, using meeting in support of Isaac T. Hopper particularly in language that clearly includes both and angry at the actions of George T. sexes. We appreciate receiving White, whom she accused of provocative cooperation with Quaker-related humor. activity. In addition to her passionate commitment to abolition, her daughter, non-Friends, were •!• maximum 8-10 double-spaced, Anna, married the Gibbonses' son, typewritten pages (2,500 words) Edward. Following disownment, Isaac T. frowned upon. •:• include references for all quotations Hopper continued to sit on the facing •:• author's name and address should bench at his meeting, Rose Street, in New appear on the manuscript York City. He commented "Thee have Thus we see that Friends could partic disowned me. I have not disowned thee." ipate in individual actions such as support •:• for the guidelines, see full Disownment meant that he could no of the Free Produce movement. Similarly, Name: ______0 Payment enclosed 0 Please bill me City: ______For faster services, subscribe online: www.friendsjournal.org State: ______Zip: ______Call ToO Free: (Boo) 471-6863 NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO 35933 PHILADELPHIA PA POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE FRIENDS JOURNAL 1216 ARCH ST STE 2A PHILADELPHIA PA 19107-9370 1••• 111.1 ••••• 1111 ... 1... 11.1 .... 11.1 ... 111 ••••• 11.1 alleviate possible meeting dissent around Rachel Hicks's reasons are summed up in their actions, such as civil disobedience. the charges against Isaac Hopper-with The dilemma of holy obedience in a the added charge that Lucretia Mott world of war and social injustice can be thrust herself upon meetings uninvited further examined in the life and work of and would refuse to keep silent. a Westbury woman, Rachel Seaman The parallel with today becomes evi Hicks (1789-1878), who became a noted dent. Many Friends follow their Inner Quaker minister. She was the daughter of Light individually or act in concert with Gideon Seaman, a longtime clerk of like-minded Quakers, often outside the Westbury Meeting. At the time of the sep official jurisdiction of a meeting in the aration, he remained clerk of Westbury matter of witnessing to the Peace Orthodox Friends while his daughter Testimony. When it comes to the war in PENN CHARTER went with the followers ofElias Hicks, her Iraq or conflict in the Middle East, there uncle by marriage. seem to be too many potential conflicts The oldest Quaker school in the nation, Rachel Seaman Hicks was a shy, deeply within meetings. We can hear the same William Penn Charter School embraces spiritual woman who felt called by God. arguments today about witnessing to tradition and welcomes innovation. In 1808, at the age of 18, she writes in her peace as those used in the Isaac Hopper Memoir of an unwelcome message from indictment and Rachel Hicks's ministry: Essential Quaker principles and practice God requiring her to travel in the min Such activist Friends are mixing with guide Penn Charter, a Friends school by istry to call Friends back into faithfulness. those who do not share Quaker spiritual She resisted this and future messages until grounding, who use strong language, who birthright and conviction. Within a diverse 1836, after the death of her father, hus may cause trouble for its own sake. One community, we engage students in a band, and two sons. Although plagued by hears the clash of the will of humans ver stimulating and rigorous educational self-doubt and homesickness, she traveled sus the will of God, and that opposition program. We foster academic discipline widely in New York Yearly Meeting, along to the war ignores the good intentions of and intellectual curiosity to prepare the East Coast from Maryland to Canada government leaders who are trying to pro graduates for higher education and for life. and as far away as Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, tect the people. and Indiana. She saw her mission as call Discernment of the will of God and Call to visit our 44-acre campus in East Falls: ing Hicksite meetings back into faithful testing personal leadings continue to 215-844-3460 ness to the quietist path in the face of an cause pain and suffering in meetings. 3000 West School House Lane, Philadelphia upsurge of spiritualism sweeping the Friends leave meetings because they do www .pen ncharter .com country. She labored with meetings and not find support for activism--or because individuals in an "earnest appeal for obe they are uncomfortable with the activism dience to the voice within." ofothers. Quakers are still torn between a Rachel Hicks, like so many Friends, commitment to spiritual reality and the lamented the institution ofs lavery and its call to witness against social injustice, war, bitter fruits. As her journal indicates, she and suffering. BENJAMIN foresaw the day of reckoning "not only to Friends still struggle with how to The Meetinghouse Mouse the slaveholder, but also to those who sus resolve such issues. When faced with two by Benjamin, as told to Clifford Pfeil, tain the system by using and trafficking in strongly held but opposite views of God's with illustrations by John D. Gumrnere the articles produced by the labor of will, one is tempted to band with those slaves .... I fear that, ere long, the soil that who agree with one's interpretation and If you remember the Benjamin stories has received the tears and sweat of the limit one's conversation with "the others." in past issues, you will be happy oppressed in our land will be moistened Friends sometimes avoid conflict within to share them-now in book form by the blood of the white man-the the meeting and the Religious Society by with your children, grandchildren, inevitable consequence and just retribu acting outside of both. and Friends! tion for his unrighteous doings." Now Friends face the challenge: What Available for $6plus $2 shipping and No one can doubt the sincerity of her can be learned from the conflicts of 150 handling ($3.50 for shipping and feelings against slavery, her steadfast belief years ago? I ask other Friends: How can handling outside US., Canada, and in the hand of God working in history, we live up to our reputation? How can we Mexico) from the FRIENDS JOURNAL office. and that the individual's salvation carne entertain differences, and love those who by faithful obedience to the Inner Light. disagree, even among our own members? Nevertheless, she could not condone the We can begin by recognizing that both efforts of the Quaker abolitionists, who sides of an issue have part of the Truth, also believed they were being faithful to but not all of it; that both have some of it their own Inner Light to overrurn slavery. wrong. We must set aside our emotions We learn, not from Rachel Hicks but and our personal agendas to labor with from letters of Lucretia Mott, that the each other in love and in the Light for as former strongly criticized the latter's abo long as it takes to fmd the common litionist and women's rights activities. ground. 0 FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 25 Religious Experience Continued from page 15 Make friends, make music remarkable attributes for good or evil. In to do the same. our choice for good, the same Light that George Fox's journal reveals that he Friends illuminated George Fox's life aids us. lived by the same Light. Indeed Jesus and George Fox equated that Light with George Fox are remarkably alike, for all Music the risen Christ. However, if we are look their difference in century and culture. Camp ing for a pattern for our lives, we might George Fox is an itinerant, also, caring so turn instead to the historical Jesus, Jesus little for the goods of this world that he at Olney Friends School the man who lived and died here on tells Margaret Fell-soon to become Barnesville, Ohio Earth. Most New Testament scholars Margaret Fox-he does not want a part in think uncovering the historical Jesus her considerable estate. He, too, sleeps ages 10-18 means setting aside the Quakers' beloved outdoors in all weather, reliving Jesus' July 11 -August 8, 2004 Gospel of John, which mostly portrays comment that he Qesus) has nowhere to the risen Christ the early church knew, lay his head. George Fox, too, tells all and For brochure and camp video: and focusing on the Synoptics: on sundry that Christ's (God's) reign is here FMC, P.O. Box 427 Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Their Jesus and now, that one need not await an Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 shows us what living a life of atonement external Second Coming. George Fox, Ph: 937-767-1311 or 937-767-1818 is like. Atonement-at-one-ment too, gives freely, most notably of his musicfmc@ yahoo.com means unity with God, walking in the body to his enemies to beat and imprison Light here and now. so they might see his love for them and Interestingly Jesus shows us how to turn to Love. deal with those desires sociobiology George Fox's intellectual interpretation uncovers as basic, as deeply a result ofour of his religious experience was not similar evolution-- 26 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL We're sticking to our guns: No guns. Since 197 1, our policy has dictated that we do not invest in companies that produce weapons. We see no reason to change. We also seek to avoid firms that harm the environment; employ child labor, prison labor, or sweatshops; or treat minorities or women inequitably. All of our socially responsible funds have a low ($250) mini mum initial investment. So request our prospectuses via phone or web site. They contain more information, including charges and expenses. Please read them carefully before investing. PAXW \~RL D Average Annual Total Returns* (12131/03) Pax World Funds 1.:nir .5:Y.W 1lbUr .IMuliQ.n MUTUAL FUND S Balanced Fund 17.27% 3.78% 10.63% 9.46% Principles + Performance. Growth Fund 34.99% -2.51% n/a -0.31% 1·800·767·1729 www.paxworld.com High Yield Fund 16.90% n/a n/a 4.27% *Figures represent past pertormance which does not guarantee future results. Current pertormance may be lower or higher than the pertormance data quoted. For more current pertormance information, please visit www.paxworld.com or call1 -800-767-1729. Investment return and principal value may rise or fall so that shares, wh en redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. A portion of the Funds may be invested in foreign securities which comes with risks not found when investing in U.S. Securities and that could have a significant effect on an investor's return. Inception for the Balanced, Growth, and High Yield Funds are August 10, 1971 , June 11, 1997, and October 8, 1999 respectively. January 2004. Distributor: H.G. Wellington & Co., Inc., Member NASD!SIPC A comforting fireplace. Panoramic gardens. Elegant waterfront dining. A spectacular indoor heated pool. Theater trips to Center City. All of the benefits, none of the worry. You'll enjoy carefree living at Cadbury. We offer all the services and support you'll need to li ve life to its fullest. Cadbury has been a popular choice for seniors who want a total package of lifetime healthcare services in a worry-free environment. 0 Send me information on Cadbury Continuing Care Call us at 800-422-3287 and experience 0 Please contact me to schedule an appointment continuing care the Name------ way it should be. Address------. -- . -- ~~-· City ______State ____ Zip _____ Phone ------CADBUiiY FJ 3/04 @ -=-= Please mail coupon to: Cadbury at Cherry Hill, 2150 Route 38, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 or visit us at www.cadbury.org F RIENDS }OURNAL March 2004 27 Life in the Meeting It's Time For Selecting a A Quaker Committee Declaration of War. Clerk by Margery Mears Larrabee ver the years in the life of monthly ANew Book by meetings in which I have partici O pated, it has been a usual practice for Chuck Fager nominating committees to take responsibility to seek out a person to be named a clerk for a particular committee. It has been expected that the nominating committee, having gone Including: through a process of discernment in naming prospective persons or a committee, would know them well and have an informed view with which to explore with them how they • When the War Begins, might be led to accept clerking responsibili Peace Witness Does NOT End ties. This is definitely one way to consider. Currently, I am in a meeting that generally chooses another way for committee clerks to • The Quaker Peace Testimony be named. Each committee is asked to name Reconsidered its own clerk. It is felt that the committee knows its members best and is in a favored position to name a clerk. This plan has often • Speaking Peace, Living Peace: worked well, depending on the composition Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the committee. Also, in a small meeting with few persons Faces the U.S. Civil War seemingly available to the clerking role, a com mittee may often be greatly relieved when a • A Quaker Declaration of War person enthusiastically volunteers to be clerk, regardless ofth e discernment process. In some such cases, the Spirit may, indeed, accomplish • How & Why the Draft Will Return beneficial results. In other cases, an eager vol unteer may override a sense of the committee when there is no guided process. Sometimes a committee is stymied in its Quality Paperback $6.95 search for a clerk and may decide to rotate the clerkship. T hat may work well. In this case, however, I have wondered if there might be a Available from: QuakerBooks: 1-800-966-4556 way to divide the responsibilities of the com Online: http://www.quakerbooks.org mittee, freeing one person to provide servant leadership consistently. In a recent situation, as a member of a The Pendle Hill Bookstore: 1-800-742-3150 nominating committee, I was asked to con vene a worship and ministry committee (it had lost one member and gained two new Or by mail from: members) in order to facilitate the process of choosing a clerk. In this small monthly meet Kimo Press, P .0. Box 1344 ing, I was also a member of the worship and ministry committee. As I reflected on finding Fayetteville NC 28302 a process for accomplishing this selection of a (Include $2.50 per copy for shipping) Margery Mears Larrabee, a member ofMt. Holly (N.J) Meeting, participates in the traveling Min istries Program ofFriends General Conference. 28 March 2004 FRIENDSJ ouRNAL Consider the advantages ofinvesting in the foture of With a planned gift, you can hdp ensure that the jOURNAL continues to be a vital resource for Friends far into the future, and realize capital gains and income tax savings while providing lifetime income for yourself and a loved one. For more information, check the items you would like to see and mail this card, or call Gretta Stone, Development Coordinator, toll free at (800) 471-6863. 0 our booklet on charitable gift planning 0 a gift annuity illustration for the 0 sample bequest language for your will birthdates below Name:______Birthdate: ______Birthdate: _____ NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST.CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO 35933 PHILADELPHIA PA POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE FRIENDS JOURNAL 1216 ARCH ST STE 2A PHILADELPHIA PA 19107-9370 Ill ,IIJ,I 111111111.,,1,,,11.1 II II 11.1,,,111, II ,,11.1 Reservations are required for display ads in F RIENDS JoURNAL. clerk, a particular way ofdoing so came to me. Display I shared it with the nominating committee Ad May issue: Reserve space by March 8. and the clerk of our monthly meeting before Decullines Ads must be received by March 11. going ahead. June issue: Reserve space by AprilS. The worship and ministry committee gath FRIENDS ered in the meetinghouse, and after a brief Ads must be received by April 8. JOURNAL and partial explanation ofthe proposed agenda Ad rate is $38 per column inch. and the greeting of new members, we settled into worship. Then it came time for me to Call (215) 563-8629 now with your reservation or questions. share the following: E-mail: [email protected] • I was simply the convener to guide the committee in the process of selecting a clerk. • We would take the opportunity to re view what the responsibilities of our commit tee were. • We would invite persons during a time FARM &WILDERNESS i::=:::::: i::::::::::::::: of journaling and/or reflection to consider what they would bring to the committee life, Summer Camps that Specialize in Kids what they wished to contribute, what they saw as their gifts. After that period, we would Five Quaker-based overnight camps and the Barn Day camp for girls and/ or boys ages 3-17 share what had come to us, worship-sharing "Splendid, wonderful, excellent, miracuLously human and rich!" -Parent style. • Then we would enter inro a time of worship and group discernment. Farm & Wilderness. Unplugged and Unforgettable. A summer of rugged excitement. • After that, we would check and see what Fun. Cooperation. Skill-building. Individualized attention. Self-awareness and self urgent items of business we needed to attend expression. Nurturing and supportive. Adventure and Community. to at this meeting. The committee agreed to go forward in this manner. When we considered our responsibilities as a worship and ministry committee, we read, in turn, from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice, and found it a useful springboard for further discussion. We also were helped by material from a manual by Arthur Larrabee, Clerking: Serving the Com munity with Joy and Confidence. After reaching some clarity as to who we were as a committee and the role and func tioning of the clerk, we were ready to take time for reflection and/or journaling as to what we might bring to the life of the com mittee as well as any limitations. During the time ofworship sharing, each spoke candidly. One person was ready to continue as record ing clerk, another as liaison to quarterly meet ing and attending to concerns for young people. Anotl1er felt attention to First-day school and finding ways to help the children oJhe connect with worship was her priority. Two "Suaker We manage Investment Portfolios others spoke of facilitation as a primary gift. 1 There was a shott silence, and then I turned .from a sociaUy responsible perspective to the other person who had expressed facili ~TH~~~~~ Investment Advisory tation as a gift and inquired, 'Would you Where non-traditional learning Socially Responsible Investment consider serving as clerk?" There was a pause, styles are embraced and individual Portfolios that perform after which she responded, "I would be glad Charles Schwab custodian to be assistant clerk, but I think you should be gifts and affinities flourish. clerk." I had not prepared myself for this Securitia offmd through possibility of serving as clerk. However, after 318 Meetinghouse Road Capital Portfolio Management, another pause, a new possibility began to Horsham, PA 19044 Member ofNASD/SIPC, cl~ared through come together for me. I found myself saying I 215.674.2875 B~ar Suamr s~c. Inc. would consider being clerk, if it was clearly www.quakerschool.org [email protected] understood that I would need to rely on the FRIENDS jOURNAL March 2004 29 "After 11 years working with the American Friends committee, particularly the assistant clerk, to Service Committee in Tucson, Arizona, I came to assist in major ways, especially during the next two months when I would be raking retreat Pendle Hill for spiritual replenishment. Pendle Hill days for a writing project. There was a chorus has given me thought-provoking classes, deep of support, and with such an able and gifted spiritual communion and loving support to follow assistant clerk, such a plan seemed workable. I turned to the committee for final approval, my leadings. This has enabled me to strengthen my which was forthcoming. We also planned to life-long Quaker faith and the spiritual practice of review the decision after three months. being present in the here and now. I hope to retu rn to We started to look at the rest ofour agenda, when someone spoke up and said, "I need to Guatemala where I started an Alternatives to Violence interrupt to say that I am hurt." After appreci Project, and to serve on a Christian Peacemaker Team, ating the person's courage in speaking up, we asked the person to share what the hun was. probably in Colombia." The person responded by saying that they -Kitty Ufford-Chase, Pendle Hill Resident Program student, 2003 were also an able facilitator but no one had asked them to consider serving as clerk. As convener/clerk, I expressed regret if there had been an oversight, and then gently asked if the person concerned had shared in any way that facilitation was a gift that they had wanted to bring to the committee. The answer was no, that they had chosen another focus. When the last comment was barely finished, the assis PENDLE HILL Contact Bobbi Kelly at tant clerk queried, "Could you tell us if this is a new hun or an old hurt?" The person who A QUAKER CENTER FOR STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION 800.742.3150 (U.S. only) ext. 137 felt the hurt was courageous again and re 338 Plush Mill Road · Wallingford, PA 19086 610.566.4507 ext. 137 sponded, "Oh, this is an old hurt. It goes way www.pendlehill.org [email protected] back and I've felt it often." The assistant clerk explored further, asking "Perhaps you should be assistant clerk?" There was an energetic response that things were fine the way they were; it was also a good arrangement, and it was simply good to express how they felt. The decision was fine and they were OK with it. After a moment, I asked if it was right to go on, and the committee approved. After consideration of two pressing mat ters, we created an agenda for our next meet Scattergood Friends School, founded ing. This made it possible for each person to in 1890, is committed to fostering lifelong and self-directed learning, contribute fully. We distributed responsibili developing a sense of personal ties and closed with worship, blessing our responsibility and cultivating global time together and our time apart. citizenship. It can be important to attend a committee meeting as a person who is prepared, inwardly • All recent graduates have gained college acceptance and outwardly. In such a way, we are ready for • Student-to-teacher ratio: 4 to I the unexpected. Although it often may not be • Innovative block scheduling appropriate or timely for inner work during a • Community service graduation committee meeting, there are times when it is requirement • Shared work program helpful to the committee process, as in this • Organic garden, farm situation. • Comprehensive, exciting Also, I had gone to the committee meeting Arts Department expecting to convene it and then continue • Daily Collection, weekly Meeting for Worship simply as a participant of the committee. The experience reminded me to approach a meet For information, call toll-free at ing without planning in advance to be used or 1-888-737-4636, or e-mail not to be used in a particular way, but by [email protected] letting the Spirit guide. Structure and process 1951 Delta Avenue are important tools for committee work, but West Branch, Iowa 52358 they do not constrict the Spirit. God is in the vvvvvv.sc;., t process, ifwe are open. 0 30 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL Quaker Writings Douglas Steere: Coming Soon Poetry to Refresh Us for the Long Haul The Mystical in Peggy Rosenthal Allril 23 • 25 the Everyday Jesue' Way of Heallnc Walter Wink and June Keener Wink M•,1 · 6 by Brian Drayton Dtsd,r. of Pe«ce, Prtpltets ef Jacstlce onviction has slowly grown upon me John l)ear ver the years that Douglas Steere is Open your chi Id's MQ28 - 0 Me most sustaining of 20th century Over 50 retre• aaauaUy Quaker devotional writers. When a new mind to the world Friend, I was directed to Rufus Jones and Space for prlYate lfOUP Thomas Kelly for the Quaker view of mysti ABINGTON and Individual~ cism. Douglas Steere was recommended when FRIENDS A 60 year tradition of working for I wanted to think about "speaking out of the peace and celebratlatl diversity silence," dimensions of prayer, or ecumenism, SCHOOL CAU for a catalog, or villi oar wbsite. and I am embarrassed to say that it took me A Quaker coeducational decades to discover his true range and depth. day school grades Over his long lifetime of ministry, Dou Preschool through 12 www.kirkridge.org glas Steere's writing was relentlessly grounded in daily life, but his view of the inward jour HIJ5 hn c;ap l{nad ney was deeply informed by his habit of visit For more information, call Bangor, I'\ I XII 13 ing persons of authentic experience. Glenn 215-886-4350 ((llll) 5SS-179J Hinson's fascinating biography (see below) 575 Washington Lane • Jenkintown, PA 19046 describes how Douglas Steere early formed a habit of alertness to news of men and women who were well traveled in the life of the Spirit, Guilford WAR IS NOT r-aFC whatever their creed or tradition. When he • C OLLEGE learned of people who seemed to have a ten THE ANSWER U~L FCNL.ORG der soul and some fresh grasp of ultimate "The Etbicnl Dimension ofLife" realities, he would figure out some way to visit Peaceful Prevention Is them. It didn't matter if the person was living James Childress quietly and unheralded in the Scandinavian Free Peaceful Prevention Booklet or countryside, or pursuing the life of a well March 15-16 Bumper Sticker known scholar or spiritual director. Douglas Steere seems to have felt that his honest spiri Admission Office See www.fcnl.org or call 800-630-1330 tual hunger and their experience of God was 5800 West Friendly Ave • Greensboro, NC 27410 336-316-2100 • 1-800-992·7759 • FAX 336·316-2954 Friends Committee kinship enough to build a conversation upon. www.guilford.edu on National Legislation This direct approach can also be seen in his Quaker Education Since 1837 encounter with the mystics of the past, throughout all branches ofC hristendom. He does not just quote these individuals in his writing, but seeks resonances, and he has striven The Meeting School to find out something of the personality be 56 Thomas Road, Rindge, NH 03461 hind the documents and histories. As a result, Organic Farm his writing is filled with stories and references ~ rare. breeds, active student involvement about spiritual masters rarely heard of, as well as anecdotes and remarks from casual life, the / Caring Quaker Community mystics' friends, and other salty details that putting fa ith into practice in our daily lives are shared with the reader as in a racy and Progressive Secondary Education intimate conversation with a friend. The ef day/boarding, small classes, hands-on learning fect is refreshing and exciting, and the result ----- ing sense of spiritual unity across cultures and centuries breathes quite a different air Brian Drayton, an ecologist working in science education, is a member and a recorded minister email:[email protected] (603) 899-3366 www.meetingschool.org ofWeare (NH.) Meeting. FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 31 from that ofa tolerant window-shopper in the Spirit Mart. That will be your first thought when you Douglas Steere tries to set his thinking in see Broadmead. From the lovely pond everyday settings, to make them concrete as and springhouse to the expansive trees well as spiritual. For example, in setting the stage for his discussion in Work and Contem and gardens, the beauty of the natural plation, he analyzes his experience ofclearing a surroundings can only be surpassed by grove of trees, noting how, as the time passed the warmth and vitality of the people and the work continued beyond his first fresh who reside here. Located in the rolling energy, the physical task made greater and hills of Hunt Valley, Broadmead is one of greater emotional and spiritual demands on the most experienced Continuing Care Retirement him as it tried his resolve and patience. He Communities in Maryland. Our residents enjoy suggests that the very real demands of work garden apartments, all inclusive healthcare, can be destructive if they are not framed in wellness programs, sumptuous meals, interesting some meaning for the worker, and he roots friends, and close proximity to the many cultural the call for contemplation just in this natural attractions of Baltimore. 15} desire for meaning: "It is because man is a contemplative being that he cannot bear a ~ condition of meaninglessness, of irresponsi biliry, without its rotting him out. Because he Broadmead is an inclusive accredited, not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community founded and operated in the caring Quaker tradition. cannot shake off this contemplative bent that queries, that integrates, that searches for the underlying significance of what he is involved in, work, as such, no matter how secure the (i) Broadmead post, how handsome the pay rate, how con 13801 YORK ROAD • COCKEYSVILLE, MD 21030 tracted the hours, is never enough." 410-527-1900 • www.broadmead.org Douglas Steere's greatest theme, I believe, lTYNoice- Maryland Relay Service: 1-800-735-2258 and one that modern Friends must revisit with fierce energy, is the existential one: the irreducible value and lonely experience of the individual, even the individual who belongs to a community. This theme is pursued in his writings about prayer, work, worship, listen ing, inward transformation, and even ecu ~:j Wood brooke menical dialogue. Q uaker Study Centre He saw the ultimate source of right action, social justice, and peace of mind in the drama 100 enacted in the heart, where the pain, joy, years Ferguson Quaker Fellowship creation, drudgery, fear, and hope ofy our life and mine can be transformed by the listening, We invite applications to become the second Ferguson Quaker Fellow. healing, shaping, endlessly loving, and ener getic life of God. He is clear that many lives This new fellowship enables a Friend with substantial experience in their field to are not so transformed; many people, includ reflect on their work, undertake further thinking or research as appropriate, draw ing many religious people, fail in the end. The lessons from it and share them with a wider audience. It is intended to enrich the inward journey, he wrote, is the hardest one; Society's spiritual understanding of global, social, moral or political issues and to the Spirit's birth pangs are pangs indeed. Yet spread Quaker insights more widely. Douglas Steere testified from his own experi ence that victory was possible, and he de You will be highly motivated, able to organize your own work and a good lighted to bring evidence from many quarters communicator. You need not come from an academic background- we are to bolster his own conviction. As he writes in interested in practical outworkings of Quaker fuith. Your particular interests will On Beginningftom Within, the key is to dare determine the shape and outcome of the Fellowship-subject to negotiation, you to long for, reach for, a great goal that is may give seminars, run workshops, or maybe write for publication. within anyone's reach who longs for it: Woodbrooke offers an ideal environment, with support from knowledgeable Quaker staff and access to a wide range of resources. The saint is ... a man or woman who has become clear as to exactly what he Appointments will be made for September 2004 or January 2005 onwards, and wants of all there is in the world, and will normally last 9- 12 months. [for] whom a love at the heart of things has so satisfied that he gaily reduces his Want to know more?Contact us: Administration (FQF), Woodbrooke Quaker cargo to make for that port. . . . He is Study Centre, 1046 Bristol Road, Birmingham B29 6LJ, United Kingdom. one who is doing what he wants to do, Phone +44 (0) 121 472 5171 • E-mail: [email protected] not . . . this minute, and the next minute, and the next minute, but what 32 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL Troubled About Paying for War? beneath the minutes and the days and the years he would want to do if all of Want alternative service for your drafted dollars? them should vanish and leave him for ever at it.... He is radical in the true Learn about the Campaign to pass a federal sense of the word, for he has gone to the law that would allow the taxes from those root ofthing s, and found the root good. conscientiously opposed to war to be used for non-military purposes only: the Religious Douglas Steere moves beyond such pro Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill. Excellent grammatic, sweeping, and possibly abstracted resources are available, including a video, statements, because he was concerned to talk about ways to proceed-techniques for per Compelled by Conscience, and a booklet, sonal discipline and devotion. He ransacked Congress Shall Make No Law: Stories of the range of Christian practice, including Religious Freedom and Conscience in Quaker experience, to help equip his readers the United States. to make progress. While writing for a general The booldet puts a human face on the legis audience, he placed Quakerism's testimonies lative issue. The video gives a method for alongside the other great traditions; when writ THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ing for Friends, he showed how the riches of FOR A PEACE TAX FUND acting on behalf of one's conscience against Quakerism's methods can be strengthened by participation in war. dialogue with other traditions, without losing its essential character-a lesson that modern Friends, who are so accustomed to reach out Cost for video, booklet, study guide and other materials is $20 to other faiths for nourishment, can always (or purchase separately, video $15, booklet $2, study guide $1). revisit with profit. He saw that faithfulness was risky, and he NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR A PEACE TAX FUND had learned the mystics' lesson that God in 2121 Decatur Place NW, Washington, DC 20008 the end asks for all, that it is hardly enough to Toll free: 1-888-PEACETAX ( 1-888-732-2382) give one's all to God. Yet the more generous http://www.peacetaxfund.org, [email protected] one's yielding, the more bountiful God's re sponse will be-in time; God is to be relied upon, but not predicted. He also was deeply convinced that inward transformation will result in outward change, including being drawn ever more strongly to service and self giving. With divine love at the heart of things, our drawing close to God deepens compas sionate, fearless action: The wholesome alternative: an intellectually challenging college It is the Christian core that supplies the form of relationship with others as sons preparatory program within a of a common father .... From this core supportive Quaker community. comes to man the deep personal com mitment to serve others as the revela tion of God's own nature served him, and to suffer and long for the redemp tion of others as they are suffered for and longed for in the very heart of God. Douglas Steere rooted all his exploration of openness, daring, and experimentation in the ministry ofJ esus-the teaching, the cruci fiXion, and the resurrection, as outward, his torical acts and revelation, as well as inwardly experienced events over and over in the life of each seeker. He understood that since God is always and everywhere, so too are the histori cal dramas oflife- and law-giving ever-present, ever-renewed, and each of us can take our place near the central events of the story. Olney Friends School Over the past year, I have read pretty much www.olneyfriends.org everything by Douglas Steere I could lay my hands on. There is not very much, really- the 1-800-303-4291 almost complete collection on my bookshelf FruENDSJouRNAL March 2004 33 is exactly six inches long, and it includes more than 20 items. He mostly wrote shorr bur flavorful pieces. My favorites include On Listening to An other, his Swarthmore Lecture on vocal minis try. This is a devotional and theological essay that has repaid a dozen readings over as many years with refreshment and insight. It has helped me as I have sought to learn how deeper and deeper listening can feed a meet ing and its ministry in word and deed-and how listening in prayer, study, and action feeds the minister as well. Currently, it is in print as parr of the collection of pieces called Gleanings. My second favorite is Work and Contemplation, which somebody needs to re print soon. In this Little book, he develops a theology of work as creative action fed by contemplation broadly defined. He draws on the mystics, of course, but what grabs one's attention is the fruits of his own experience of work and drudgery, and his close attention to the voices and experience of workers in many walks of life. In this little book, he made me feel in a way beyond mere opinion how prayer and contemplation can permeate action, even the action of the daily grind, and that for many of us, and for many of our days, here is where our greatest battles are to be fought and our greatest light to be found and shared. For further reading: M any pamphlets by Douglas Steere remain in print at Pendle Hill. Seek beyond these, though, and try out: Glean ings: Selected Writings (1986), published by Exciting New Apartments, The Upper Room- this includes "On Lis An Exceptional Retirement Lifestyle. tening to Another"; Dimensions of Prayer (1962, reprinted 1997 by The Upper Room); Pennswood Village, A Quaker-directed and Work and Contemplation (1 957), pub retirement community with a rock solid lished by Harper & Brothers. An engaging reputation for quality, invites you to enjoy our biography is E.G. Hinson's Love at the Heart exceptional lifestyle. Our lovely apartments ofThings, published by Pendle Hill. offer modern amenities plus the added value of our all-inclusive life care contract. A splendid [Friends} openness to {the Divine Listener's} new aquatics and fitness center enhances our continual correction has {revealed} to many who already lively campus, providing even more followed a concern how brittle and fragile was opportunities for your physical, intellectual, the thread oftheir commitment when they un dertook it, and how for the Divine Listener had social and spiritual growth. used this concern to draw them on into the Pennswood Village is guided by the divine redemptive action and to cleanse and principles of the Religious Society of Friends clarifj them . ... For our action like our words is (Quakers). Our values lead us to a practice of being listened to not only by our fellows but by inclusion - welcoming women and men of all the Eternal One, and it is only as we feel that races, colors, religions, national origins and One's scrutiny and respond to that One's illumi nation in what we do that we become a part of sexual preferences. W e believe our lives the redemptive circle that longs to draw not only together are enriched through diversity. humanity but all creation into its healing power. Call 215-504-II22 or toll free 1-888-454-II22 -Douglas Steere 1382 Newtown-Langhorne Rd., Newtown, PA 18940-2401 0 www. pennswood.org 34 M arch 2004 FRIENDS j OURNAL Books April Programs Dancing with God through April2-4 the Storm: Mysticism and "Opening the Scriptures" Mental Illness A Quaker Approach to the Bible By jennifer Elam. Way Opens Press, 2002. with Tom Gates 189 pages. $20/paperback. April 4-9 There are moments and sometimes years on the spiritual journey that can be unusual, Dig It! Earth-Friendly Landscaping inspiring, frightening, and confusing. Experi with Lloyd Guindon and Marty Kromer encing the hearing of inner voices, unity with God or nature, the transcendence of opposites Apri118-23 and the dissolution of ego boundaries-all of Mysticism and the Way of Perfection which may be part of a spiritual journey Glimpses of Whole Lives have also traditionally been associated with with Marge Abbott and Carole Spencer mental illness by both lay people and mental health professionals. April25-30 As both psychologist and mystic, Friend Jennifer Elam has a deep concern for the The Lives and Times of misunderstanding and mislabeling of mysti Isaac and Mary Penington cal experiences, particularly among those with with Rosemary Moore mental illness. As a result, she devoted several years to an investigation of mysticism that combined academic study with an extensive A QllAKER CENTER FORPENDLE STUDY AND CO!IITEMPLATION IIILL interview project involving about 100 people I 338 Plush Mill Rd ·Wallingford, PA 19086 • who agreed to discuss their mystical and psy ext 142 · (800) 742-3150 (US) or (610) 5664507 (worldwide) chological experiences. She began by attempt registrar®pendlehill.org · www.pendlehill.org ing to construct a questionnaire that would investigate the boundaries between mysticism and mental illness, but grew into a deeper perspective of studying the rich areas of con vergence between the two. Dancing with God Through the Storm shares Jennifer Elam's work with the larger commu nity. The book itself is a tapestry of voices, with the research respondents' voices in the foreground and Jennifer Elam's voice weav ing them together. The courage and depth of sharing from this diverse group is impressive, Kendal-Crosslands residents nurture an especially given the level of fear that many felt array of life-affirming opportunities: about being judged "crazy." (All names were •140 resident-directed interest groups changed to protect privacy.) Here, for ex ample, is what "Dick" had to say: •lifelong learning at the University of Delaware and West Chester University Deeply troubled while trying to deter • two 11,000-volume, resident-run libraries mine ifl should break with my mother's • 300 acres with trails, woods, ponds family's tradition of military service, I • on-site concerts and lectures had the first of my rare but, for me, •local community volunteer opportunities important experiences ofpea ce and con Named as one of the nation's top 25 nectedness. Gazing at a wooded scene, continuing care retirement communities, the plants seemed to become lighter and Kendal-Crosslands is not-for-profit and perhaps even to shimmer in the light a little, as if an energy behind them was Quaker-related. Full services, lifetime throbbing. I felt connected to the uni restraint-free health care. verse. My feelings were profound but probably only lasted a few seconds or even possibly a few split seconds. T hen a J FRIENDS j OURNAL March 2004 35 Woolman Hill New England Quaker Center had been moving toward while feeling anymore." Jennifer Elam acknowledges that conflicted .... I have had only a few such suspicion and mistrust can go either way as experiences in my life. But those brief spiritual directors sometimes hesitate to refer to experiences have provided the essential mental health professionals when it's necessary. direction and inspiration for my lifelong In many of the stories, Friends meetings, journey and for my becoming a social clearness committees, and individual Friends worker. played important roles as parrners and "con tainers"- relationships that serve as safe spaces And here is parr ofwhat "Trish" had to say: for both disintegration and growth. It has been said that Quakerism is an exercise in I had been clinically depressed for some group mysticism. Nowhere is it clearer than Minding the Light: Guidance months. During meeting, I said silently, in these accounts. from Early Quakers "Are you there, God?" and God said, Who will benefit from Jennifer Elam's "Yes." After a while, I said, "What about book? First, the book is clearly for those who Brian Drayton & Maggie these troubles I'm having?" and the an are "dancing with God through the storm" or Edmondson swer was, 'These are the sorts of problems trying to learn how. It is for people who are March 5-7, 2004 that can be overcome." This experience struggling spiritually, having unusual experi affected me profoundly, and I spoke ences and feeling alone or "crazy." The book Pastoral Care-A Circle of about it in the meeting, telling what had is tremendously reassuring and offers a bibli Love happened. The fact that I had spoken in ography as well as practical suggestions about Cornelia Parkes & Nancyrose meeting seemed to fix it in realiry. finding both spiritual and psychological help. It will also be helpful to friends, family mem Logan These stories and others throughout the bers, meeting members, clearness or overseers March 26--28, 2004 book serve multiple purposes. They take us committees dealing with Friends who are go into mystical experiences in contemporary lan ing through profound changes. All that is Aligning Your Money With guage, covering a fairly wide range of phe written here would certainly apply to mem Your Values nomena, some ofwhich may be familiar (such bers of other denominations as well. Mental Penny Yunuba, Carolyn Hilles, as inner leadings) and others that may not health professionals who have some openness Jeffrey Kerekes (hallucinations, ESP). They illustrate the aca to the spiritual life will enjoy it, although demic points about the various forms or paths those who follow the "just the facts, ma'am, Apri/16--18, 2004 that the mystical life may take. no such thing as the unconscious" model will Jennifer Elam identifies three paths: pas probably be frustrated by the lack of clear In Solitude Alone, In Silence sionate, ethical, and nature mysticism-all of differentiation berween mental illness and di Together which may exist in various combinations. Pas vine guidance, or simply blown away. Sirkka Barbour sionate mysticism involves a strong emotional The book does rip a bit in the direction of April18-23, 2004 response to God and sometimes includes pro accepting the respondents' spiritual framing found emotional healing. Ethical mysticism, ofsome experiences that are clearly psychotic, exemplifted by Dick's story, involves a call to and Elam acknowledges that her perspective I'm Gonna Sit at the take a stand in the world. Nature mysticism is one ofaccompaniment rather than judgment. Welcome Table: A Spiritual involves those such as Emily Dickinson, Annie On first reading, I thought, where are the Journey in Song Dillard, and St. Francis of Assisi who are criteria for differentiating mystical experience Annie & Peter Blood-Patterson drawn closer to God by their appreciation of from mental illness? When I read it more April 3~May 2, 2004 the beaury of the Earth. deeply I found something quite different: not Elam also identifies three stages. The first external signs for the outside observer (as in Artists in Residence Week is hearing the call-knowing that your life has the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the a spiritual purpose. T he second she calls "en American Psychiatric Association), but guide Arthur Fink tering the clearing." This is a time of respite posts and discernment tools for the person on May 9-14, 2004 from spiritual struggle, when your spiritual the journey to use .from the inside to determine purpose becomes more apparent. The final whether they are on the right path, getting A Deeper Service: Ministers stage she calls "following the path." Having good help, etc. and Elders Working understood (however dimly) your purpose Jennifer Elam is seeking to restore an im Together and the spiritual practices that will sustain balance in a system that has been out ofwhack Jan Hoffman & Kenneth Sutton you, you go forward with your life, continu for decades (in the direction of pathologizing ing to discern along the way. spiritual experience.) Her respondents' words June 4-6, 2004 As T rish 's story shows, communiry plays allow us to hear firsthand how they experi an important parr in the lives of people who enced God in the midst oftheir despair, trauma are going through times of disintegration and memories, visions, grief, and disorientation. 107 Keets Road integration. Many waited for years to find a What helped each of them was a combination Deerfield, MA 01342 safe place to share their stories, and some shared of inner work (prayer, reliance on an Inner 413-774-3431 them for the first time in this research project. Guide, dream work, arr work, writing) and [email protected] Sadly, some spoke of being judged or misun connection with reliable others, whether they derstood by mental health professionals who were friends, therapists, or family. said things like, "God doesn't talk to people This book will be another resource for those 36 March 2004 FRIENDS JoURNAL FRIENDS WORLD PROGRAM NEW FOR FALL 2004 American Environmental Studies: Life in Balance The unique and exciting new Friends World Program: Environmental Studies bachelor's degree program will focus on themes that are derived from critical issues in the envi, ronment including: + The impact of humans on the natural environment + Conservation and management of the natural resource base including water, oceans and fisheries, atmosphere, bio-diversity and forests + Health and the environment + Public policy and implementation of environmental programs + Corporate responsibility and environmental management + Civil society, civic engagement and the environment Study at locations throughout the United States and the wor1d: + Southampton College, Long Island, New York + New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and the Sea of Cortez + Costa Rica and India Field trips normally Included in the Foundation Year: + Appalachia + United Nations + Central Park Conservancy + Penn Center, St Helena, South Carolina + Boston and Cambridge, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at Harvard Environmental Organizations with which students work Include: + Group for the South Fork + Earth Pledge + The Nature Conservancy + Quail Hill Community Farm + The Peconic Bay Keeper + Peconic Trust for Land + Urban Park Rangers + The Institute for Sustainable Development FRIENDS WORLD PROGRAM loNGIslAND ~Wr For information contact: Friends World Program • Long Island University The Friends World Program is part of Long Island University, the seventh largest private university in the country. 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton, NY 11968 www.liu.edu/friendsworld • (631) 287-8474 • [email protected] fRIENDS J OURNAL March 2004 37 who, like George Fox, ask ifth ere is anyone who It's About Them. can "speak to my condition." -Anne Malone Join our close-knit community of 160 students. Anne Malone, MSS, LCSW is a clinical social worker with a private psychotherapy practice in • Grades 6-12 Media, Pa. She is a candidate in training at the • Boarding Options Available Psychoanalytic Center of Phikuielphia and a • 8-to-1 Student/Faculty Ratio member of Trinity Episcopal Church in • Just 75 Miles North of NYC Swarthmore, Pa. In Brief Making Peace: Healing a Violent World Edited by Carolyn McConnell and Sarah Ruth van Gelder. Positive Futures Network, 2003. Oalzwood 92 pages. $7.50/paperback. "Making peace is FRIENDS . SCHOO L far coo important tO be left to political lead ers," writes Yes! Magazine edicor Sarah Ruth Poughkeepsie, New York van Gelder in the introduction. And in this slender volume, she and Carolyn McConnell 1-800-843-3341 present brief but passionate essays and ex cerpts from 20 authors who offer rich alterna www.oakwoodfriends.org tives to the myriad levels of violence in our world. From Quaker David Morse to Bud dhist Joanna Macy and on to Sufi minister Jamal Rahman and poet Wendell Berry, Mak ing Peace offers a sampling of the clear think ing, compassionate hearts, and pure intention that characterizes effective peacebuilders. ~~DSifo Jl Century of Quaker Care -Ellen Michaud ~~~ Ellen Michaud is book review editor ojFRIENDS ~v§ j OURNAL and a member of Starksboro {Vt.} ...~Oons'to Featuring: Skilled Nursing Care Meeting. • Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy • A Quaker Declaration of War • Activities and Special Events • Patient, supportive staff • By Chuck Fager. Kimo Press, 2003. 73 pages. Medicaid/Medicare Certified $6.95/paperback. Quaker author Chuck Fager has tossed together an unfocused and some what random volume that includes excerpted Friends Home will soon become a minutes of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, an es say on the evolution of Friends' Peace Testi Continuing Care Retirement Community mony, an adaptation from a presentation at Illinois Yearly Meeting (by C huck Fager, the Coming soon: Assisted Living with Alzheimers Floor reader assumes, although that is not stated), an essay on "How and Why the Draft Will 38 March 2004 FRIENDS J oURNAL The ourbreak of [the second Middle East) war surely marks a setback for our months of marching, vigiling, writing, and faxing to head it off. ... But it does not spell defeat, much less a reason for withdrawal into depression, indifference, or escape. There is still much To Do. And even more, there is still much To Be.... Upcoming Intensive Courses at ESR At bottom it is scraightforward and May 17-28, 2004: "" August 2-13, 2004: simple, so much so that it can be easily overlooked: It is, in George Fox's phrase, • Prayer (STEPHANI E FoRD) • Group Pastoral Care (TBA) to "keep to our meetings," that is, to • Christian Reconcilliation: Conflict • Theology and Worship (DAVID .,. maintain and deepen our life as a wor Resolution in Church and World JoHNs) (LoNNIE VALENTINE) • Writing As Ministry (BRENT Bq,L) shiping communiry. • Word, Words and Transformation • Israel's Wisdom Teaching This cultivation of a deep center will (PETER ANDERSON) (NANCY BoWEN) not only help sustain us as individuals in • Quaker Spirituality (STEPHEN ANcELL) • Introduction to Spiritual a dark time (which it will). It also, and • Emergency Pastoral Care (MICHAEL BRENNEJs) Formation (STEPHANIE FoRD) perhaps more importantly, has a public aspect: it can maintain our meetinghouses • Work of the Pastor II (PHIL BAJSLEY) n as places of refuge from the spirit ofwar. • Discernment of Calling and Gifts •0::0• (STEPHANIE CRUMlEY-EFFINGER) U -Ellen Michaud • Earn graduate cftldit or simply audit courses to meet your need. EA~LHAM Courses are open to student!> seckiqg degrees or continuing education. SCHOOL of RELIG ION Notes from Ramallah, 1939 ~nt to letzrll more about your theologiul education options? By Nancy Parker McDoweLl. Friends United For learning. For leading. Press, 2002. 118 pages. $18/paperback. Nancy Coma<:t: Sue Axlldl, Dirmor of Admissions • Richmond, IN 47374-4095 1-800-432-1377 • esr.earlham.edu • axt~lsu@eadham .ed u Among Friends. Parker McDowell's memoir of a year spent teaching at the Friends Girls School in Rarnallah some 64 years ago is an absolute delight. Based upon a detailed journal and letters home, her memoir captures the open hearted adventures of a young U.S. Quaker as she seeks to "walk cheerfully over the Earth answering that of God in every one"-eve n though the sociery in which she lives is tum bling headlong into war as it divides itselfimo those who wear hats and those who wear headdresses. Nancy's openness to new experi ences: ':"e depth of ~ er spiritual grounding, her w1llmgness to try JUSt about anything, and the fresh and easy flow of her narrative make this memoir a must-read adventure story for Quaker girls in middle school and beyond. They will find not only a picture ofRarnallah that echoes in today's headlines, but a true Quaker role model who is as vibrant today as she was at the age of 22. - Ellen Michaud Prophets without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism. By WiL!iamM StrabalaandMichaelJ Palecek. Algora Publishing, 2002. 363 pages. $23.951 paperback. This book looks at protests against militarism, emphasizing the lives of several priests and former priests who have been jailed multiple times for their witness for peace (in cluding Phil and Dan Berrigan). Through the Plowshares lens, it looks at militarism as against God and Creation. -Lisa Rand FRIENDS] OURNAL M arch 2004 39 News The No Child Left Behind Act requires high North Korea, and an international Interfaith friend schools to give military recruiters the name Peace Conference to discuss the role of reli Subscribing to The Friend is like having a lit and contact information for all students. A gious leaders for peace on the Korean penin tle bit of Meeting delivered to your door student or his/her parent or guardian may sula. -Church World Service/National Coun every Thursday, and it is there for you all remove the child's name from the list, and cil ofChurches USA week long! school districts are required to explain how to do this. For more details, request a brochure Friends General Conference has supported The Friend is the favourite and most widely &om AFSC, Upper New York State Area read Quaker magazine in Britain, and the the World Conncil of Churches' Decade to only Quaker weekly in the world. Each week Office, 420 1/2 Gifford St., Syracuse, NY Overcome Violence through its Christian we bring readers a wide variety of news, 13204; or call (315) 475-4822. -MAR STAR, Interfaith Relations Committee (CIRC). information and spiritual nurture. The Friend American Friends Service Committee/Middle When the program began in 1999, wee is a magazine for all Friends and attenders. Atlantic Region newsletter stated, "God's promise of life and peace for Inclusive not exclusive, definitely Quaker. all humankind and creation calls us to make And now, everything that's in The Friend is Friends Committee on National Legislation our lives consistent with our faith, as indi online. For an annual subscription of £30 constituents have made a difference, accord viduals and as communities of faith." The (about $49") you can access the full contents ing to the FCNL Newsletter. Thanks to DOV recently agreed to focus its efforts in of The Friend each week on our website: grassroots lobbying, recent accomplishments 2004 on the United States, with a major event include: the House Energy and Water D evel planned for O ctober 2004 in Atlanta, Ga. www.thefriend.org opment Appropriations Subcommittee voted Tom Paxson, co-clerk ofCIRC and a mem to delete most of the funding for research for ber of St. Louis (Mo.) Meeting, serves as co Visit the site to learn more or to subscribe, the bunker buster bomb, a nuclear weapon chair of the D ecade to Overcome Violence or e-mail [email protected] for more (HR 2754). The House recently expressed Coordinating Committee of the U.S. Section information. support for the use of nonviolent diplomatic of the WCC. -Barbara Hirshkowitz, Friends options rather than military force for diffus General Conference :Exchange rate correct as at 6 June 2003 ing the volatile situation between the U.S. and North Korea. A "sense of Congress" amend Friends in Madison, Wisconsin, are provid ment to HR V2800, while not legally bind ing support for the My Lai Primary School ing, is significant in that the majority of the Project. Funds are currently being raised to House went on record for diplomacy to re build a new 20-room primary school at an solve this conflict. In a surprise action the estimated cost of $100,000. The population House voted (309 to 118) that no funds will ofViemam has more than doubled since 1975, be allocated in the Commerce, Justice, State, and in My Lai the result has been a severe and Judiciary appropriations bill to fund the need for new schools. Right now, the high so-called "sneak and peek" searches and sei school students take over all but three rooms zures allowed by section 213 of the USA of the primary school. The children from the Patriot Act. It would have allowed law en primary school are taken to old rice storage (609) 714-0100 forcement agents to enter a home or business warehouses that have been converted into [email protected] without notice to seize property and down dirt-fl oored classrooms with crude wooden load computer files. FCNL encourages people benches and tables, and packed with 40-50 • MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES • to continue to be in touch with elected repre children each. The Madison Quakers, Inc. • INSCRIPTIONS • SCROLLS • sentatives about these issues. - FCNL Wash have funded a three-room addition to the 22 New Freedom Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 ington Newsletter, September 2003 existing primary school as temporary relief from some of the overcrowding. For derails, Delivery of humanitarian aid to North Ko visit 40 March 2004 FRIENDS JOURNAL "Mike Johnson is the most skilled and articulate planned gift profes sional I have encountered in my 20 years in the planned giving field." -jay Ribble, Gift Planning OJ[zcer, National American Red Cross Charitable Gift Planning: A Valuable Investment H. Freeman Associates is one of relatively few fu nd raising consulting firms that offer their clients both a breadth of development services and also expertise in the marketing and implementation of charitable gift (or "deferred gift") programs. In addition to assisting organizations in the building of an effective planned giving program, we provide the technical expertise required to facilitate gift annuity contracts, charitable remainder trusts, pooled income programs, gifts of property, and various forms of estate gifts. These services are particularly helpful to the non- profit organization, retirement community or school that is not yet I ready to hire a full-time planned gift professional and assume the cost of having a professionally staffed planned gift office in house. We invite you to contact us. Henry B. Freeman 765.939.6910 H. Freeman Associates [email protected] 501 E. Main Street • Centerville, IN 47330 m still emphasizes Quak ~--· in its devotion to academi -lonatRoad Wesl Richmond. IN 47374 www.earlham.edu FRIENDS J OURNAL March 2004 41 tomatic registration for Selective Service when applying for a driver's license. - Westero/ (Rl) Meeting newsletter Smithfield (RI.) Meeting wants Congress to take steps to prevent postwar profiting in Iraq. Such steps include calling for public disclosure of "noncompetitive contracting" for the reconstruction of Iraq, ensuring that all postwar dealings with Iraq be legal and "fully accountable," and reinstating an excess ------t Peace profits tax on corporate profits made in Iraq "above peacetime industry averages." In a minute approved during meeting for wor Experience Our montes: ship with attention to business on October 5, 2003, Smithfield Friends "call on our elected leaders to assure that business dealings that Subscribe to JOURNAL develop as a result of the Iraq War be con \ ducted in an open, ethical, and accountable now and guarantee an ongoing encounter with some of the manner, as justice and our democratic Act principles demand." -Smithfield (R.l) Meet most stimulating Quaker thought and life today. As an independent ing newsletter Quaker magazine that celebrates and explores a broad spectrum of Kendal Meeting in Kennett Square, Pa., on Friends beliefs and experience, FRIENDS jOURNAL also provides access November 12, 2003, adopted a minute on to a community that keeps our faith strong. It offers the chance to reproductive rights, reaffuming "Friends his benefit from the personal testimonies and insights of fellow seekers torical conviction that every person has within them a Divine Seed that illuminates our deci and offers companionship on our spiritual paths. sions and instructs our courses of action. We, therefore, affirm that every woman is divinely FRIENDS j OURNAL can be a lifeline. It challenges complacency; empowered to arrive at her own decisions stimulates reflection, and stirs us to action. It keeps our Friends regarding her reproductive choices and we hold those personal decisions in the Light." testimonies clearly before us. - KendaL(Pa.) Meeting Join us. Subscribe today, read us every day. Mountain View Meeting in Denver, Colo., on December 14, 2003 approved a minute Get a full year of FRIENDS j OURNAL delivered to your door for just $35. expressing the belief that "marriage is a That's about $2.92 per copy, a 42% savings off the $5.00 cover price. spiritual relationship, and we have seen 0 Yes, send me one year of FRIENDS j OURNAL for $35 ( 12 issues). that the Spirit does not limit this relation (Outside North America, please add $8.) ship to heterosexual couples." The minute 0 I want to save even more; start my two-year subscription now for $65 (24 issues). encourages gender-neutrallanguage in legisla (Outside North America, please add $16.) tion regarding marriage, and asks legislators 0 Payment enclosed to vote against the Federal Marriage Amend 0 Please bill me Charge my: 0 Master Card 0 Visa ment (H.J. Res. 56andS.J. Res. 26).-Moun tain View Meeting Card number______Expiration Date.______Name:______As the Freedom Rides of 1961 exposed the Address:______injustices of segregation, the Immigrants 2003 Freedom Ride mobilized national sup City: ------State: ______.Zip: ------port for changing immigration policy and to For fastest service, log on to 42 March 2004 FRIENDS jOURNAL Bulletin Board Upcoming Events • March 19-21-"Living the Vision: Build ing Bridges from Ideas to Action," at Pendle Hill for young adults, ages 18-25. This is an opportuniry to join other young leaders to learn new skills and empower each other to . . . where each resident create a more just sociery, and to engage in enjoys a comfortable, dialogue with present-day activists and work ers in the Spirit. For more information con secure and caring tact Opportunity • Eight internships are available at Pendle Hill for committed social justice volunteers 18 and older to work 20 hours per week on- or off campus on a service/action project, live at Pendle Hill, and participate in the Resident Program. The internships provide tuition, room, board, health insurance, and local transportation costs. Internships are avail able for people of all backgrounds and levels of experience. In addition, the Richard I. McKinney Social Witness Scholarship is spe cifically for an African American activist or young adult. Applications will be reviewed through March 2004. Contact Bobbi Kelly at FRIENDS JouRNAL March 2004 43 Milestones Ranked among Philadelphia's Deaths Berquist-Robert F. (Bob) Berquist, 89, on No "Top Hospitals" vember 8, 2003, in West Branch, Iowa. Bob was born onJuly25, 1914, in Mankato, Minn., the son in Mental Health of J. Alben and Jennie Fletcher Berquisr. He at tended Macalester College, Chicago Theological Seminary, and University oflowa. After college, he • Child and Adolescent worked as a claims manager for Ministers' Life and 190 Casualty Union in Minneapolis for four years. Programs Ways we care During this time he became active in the Pacifist Action Fellowship, leading ro his eventual decision • Adult Services in 1945 ro begin a commitment to pacifism, and ro become a Friend. He was a staff member at • Older Adult Program Scattergood Hostel for European refugees near Wesr Branch in 1940-41, and performed alterna • Eating Disorders Program tive civilian service during World War II, serving ar Merom, Ind.; Coleville, Calif.; West Compton, • Long~te rm residential care for chronic mental illness N.H.; Luray, Va.; and Laurel, Md. On August 24, 1946, Bob and Sara Jeanette Way were married in • Women's Program Media, Pa. They were members of West Branch (Iowa) Meeting (Conservative), for which Bob served • 24~ho ur evaluation, assessment and referral service as clerk. He also served as clerk for Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). From 1946 until retire • 190 year commitment to our Quaker mission ment in 1979, Bob and Sara were staff members at Scattergood Friends School in West Branch. In addition ro reaching social and religious studies, Bob was responsible for the school gardens, or Call 215 .. 831 .. 6300 or 800.. 889.. 0548 chards, and plantings on the campus. He led his senior classes on yearly trips co New York City and www.FriendsHospitalOnline.org Washington, D.C., focusing on the Quaker UN Program and William Penn House seminars. After retirement Bob was active in the West Branch community, serving on the West Branch Area Religious Council and the public library board. He was active in American Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Fel lowship of Reconciliation, and was a member of the State Historical Society oflowa and the Hoover Birthplace Foundation. Bob was a contributing Friends Academy author and editor of the Scattergood School Cen tennial history book. He became a regional expert Founded 1876 Located on scenic Long Island, on Quakers in Iowa. In 1998 he completed his • less than 30 miles from New York City. autobiography, Lift's Too Short: An Octogenarian's Memoirs. Bob was predeceased by his wife, Sara Jeanette Berquist, and a son, Paul Berquist. He is survived by a daughter, Carolyn DeHority, and Celebrating our 125th Anniversary her husband, John; grandchildren Christopher and Rebecca DeHoriry; and a brother, John A. Berquist. Christopherson-joan Christopherson, 84, in Oc tober 2002, in Missoula, Mont. Joan was born in 1917 ar the Vellore Mission in India, where her father was a minister. When she was eight, because of her father's health, the family returned ro the United States, and she spent the rest of her child hood in Staten Island, N.Y. She graduated from Vassar College, where she majored in history, and she continued her education at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she received a master's degree in International Affairs. Her disil Founded in 1876 by Gideon Frost for "the children of Friends and those lusionment with the way in which international similarly sentimented," Friends Academy is a Quaker, coeducational, inde affairs were conducted was the foundation of her pendent, college preparatory day school serving 750 students from age three pacifist beliefs and eventually led her to work for American Friends Service Committee and, from through the twelfth grade. The school awards significant financial assistance. there, to the Religious Society of Friends. Joan mer her husband Edmund (Chris) Christopherson through her affiliation with AFSC. A conscien Friends Academy • Duck Pond Road • Locust Valley, NY 11560 tious objector, Chris performed alternative service Phone: 516-676-0393 • Fax: 516-671-2025 • [email protected] as a smokejumper in Missoula, Mont., while Joan taught school in Bitterroot. Her interest in chil dren had led her to pursue a master's degree in 44 March 2004 fRIENDS } OURNAL Early Childhood Education from Columbia Uni Personalized Care in the versity, and from 1958 to 1975 she taught and directed the preschool program at University of Quaker Tradition Montana. A fierce advocate for children, she did not hesitate to challenge anyone, including parents who in her opinion were not acting in their chil Since 1896 dren's best interests. Joan was intensely involved in the lives of her four children and eight grandchil A Quiet, dren, imparting to them her strong belief in the value ofeducation. She told her girls they could be Home-Like Setting in a anything they wanted to be if they put their minds to it. She camped our with the children, serving Beautifully Landscaped hamburgers on homemade whole-wheat bread. She demonstrated her deep caring particularly Atmosphere through cooking. She allowed the children to bring home snakes as pets, bur only for a short time; they had to return them to the woods where they had found them. Joan is also remembered for her com • Private Rooms, Suites and • Recreational Activities mitment to the causes of education, human rights, Apartments and good government. She founded the Missoula • 24 Hour Security League of Women Voters, helped launch Head • Assistance with Activities of Daily • Some Financial Start programs in Monrana, and was a charter Living member of the Missoula Amnesty International Assistance Available chapter. She worked to promote nursing home • Emergency Response System reform, to end the death penalty, and served on the board of Missoula Access Television. She traveled • Three Nutritious, Home-Cooked For information please to C hina, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia until failing health curtailed her activities, and her spo Meals Served Daily in Elegant call856-235-4884 ken ministry in meeting shifted from expressions Surroundings of concern about world events to insights from the 28 Main Street, religious uaditions that had formed her. She is • Linen and Housekeeping Services Moorestown, NJ 08057 survived by her four children and their families. McCracken-Emmett Francis McCracken, 85, on August 11, 2003, in Fayetteville, Ark. He was born Ocrober4, 1917, in Rose Hill, Kans., to David Nelson and Velma Alice Hinshaw McCracken. The family moved to Granada, Colo., in 1921 and homesteaded a farm. Emmett rode the school bus FRIENDS ScHc10L HAVERFC1RD 50 miles each way to high school in Granada. He was salutatorian of his high school class and was part ofa livestock judging team that traveled around the state. After working as a furm hand on irrigated land in Colorado along the Arkansas River, Emmett attended a year at Colorado State in Fore Collins, then graduated from El Dorado Junior College. Emmett was a conscientious objector during World War II and served at CPS camps in Indiana and North Dakota. After the war he attended and worked at William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Call Iowa, then as a dairy tester with the Dairy Herd Improvement Association of Iowa, and later as a 6!0-642-0354 dairy inspector for Scott County, Iowa. When he for more retired he purchased wooded land near Purdy, Missouri, planting trees and flowers and giving information tours of the property with irs beautifully terraced flowers. Emmett was active in South Cenual Yearly Meeting, often attending two services each First Day, one in Springfield, Missouri, and one in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 50-{)0 miles apart. Depend able and reliable, he became clerk of the yearly meeting, and when his health kept him &om at Coeducational tending, Friends wondered who was going to do Academic Excellence all the things he had done. In 1998 he sold his property near Purdy and moved to Fayetteville. Quaker Values He lived his final years at City Hospital Nursing Age 3 to Grade 6 Home there. Emmett is survived by four sisters, Gladys Campbell, Lucile Cook, Alice Hobson, and Thelma Holsey, and several nieces and neph ews and great-nieces and great-nephews. His only 851 Buck Lane • Haverford, PA 19041 brother, Preston Cloyce McCracken, died four www. friendshaverford .org days after Emmert's death. FRIENDS JOURNAL March 2004 45 treet McCracken-Preston Cloyce McCracken, 87, on fornia at Berkeley in 1940 with a Bachelor of August 15, 2003. in Zephyrhills, Fla. He was born Science in Mechanical Engineering, and a year on February 27, 1916, in Rose Hill, Kans., to later received a Master of Science in Aeronautical "the small school that David Nelson and Velma Alice Hinshaw Engineering from California Institute ofTechnol McCracken. The family moved to Granada, Colo., ogy. Afrer a brief period of employment as an makes big people" in February 1921 to homestead a f.um. Preston aeronautical engineer with Pan American Airways, remembered riding their horse Flippy bareback to David filed as a conscientious objector and earned elementary school with his brother, Emmett and a Master of Divinity in 1946 from Pacific School his sister, Gladys. During the Depression Preston of Religion in Berkeley. For over 34 years he was graduated fourth in his class from Granada H igh executive director of the YM-YWCA at San Diego School, but there was no money for him to go to State University. T hrough the campus Y, he initi college. Although a severe drought created dust ated many programs that continue today. In 1961 bowl conditions, he was able to obtain work as a he joined La Jolla Meeting and served in several farm hand in the irrigated land along the Arkansas leadership capacities there, and in San Diego Meet River in Colorado. In 1937 he went to Kansas and ing David was a pioneer in civil rights prior to the worked on a farm near Rose Hill, making $3 per activism of the '60s. In the late 1940s, through day running a threshing machine. At that time this contact with a former colleague at Pacific School of Greene Street Friends School was a lot of money, and he began college at Friends Religion, he and his young family integrated an 5511 Greene Street University in Wichita, majoring in Chemistry. Sit Mrican American church in Richmond, Calif. In Philadelphia, PA 19144 ting behind him was Dorothy Harding, who would the 1950s, while living in Tempe, Arizona, direct • later become his wife. During World War II Preston ing an AFSC summer project, David coordinated Pre-K through Grade 8 was a conscientious objector, serving in the Civil the challenge of the "whites only" practices in Founded in 1855 ian Peace Services, first as a foreman at a CCC public swimming pools. During the '60s he joined camp in Merom, Ind.; next in a mental hospital in Martin Luther King Jr. in the voter registration Warren, Pa.; and finally, helping at the Iowa State campaign in Atlanta, and was active in San Diego Please call TODAY for a University experimental agricultural farm. On De with Congress of Racial Equality and other civil tour. 215-438-7545 cember 24, 1942, he married Dorothy Harding. In rights organizations. He was a founding member 1949, the couple and their growing family moved and former president of the Peace Resource Center to Archer, Iowa, where Preston became a member of San Diego, and served for many years on the of Paulina Meeting and served as president of the Board of the San Diego ACLU. H e was instru Northwest Iowa Mentally Retarded Children's As mental in developing plans for the Friend's Cen sociation. In 1960 the family moved tO Remsen, ter, a collaboration among four peace-related orga Iowa, where Preston became manager of the Oyens nizations: San Diego Friends Meeting, San Diego Coop Elevator and Dorothy and the children main Church of the Brethren, the Peace Resource Cen tained a bountiful garden. In 1966 Preston become ter, and the San Diego area programs of AFSC. manager of the Jolley Coop Elevator. Dorothy died The Center is to be a place fo r peace, social justice, unexpectedly the following year, and in 1968 and spiritual growth, and will have environmentally Preston and his children moved to New Provi sound straw bale construction. David has been The Friends Camp in Bucks County dence, Iowa, an old Quaker community. He worked honored throughout his life by many organizations at the local cooperative elevatOr, and in 1972 he for his leadership, service, and humanitarianism, • TWO WEEK SESSIONS • moved his family to Dumont, Iowa, where he met and as a peacemaker. Throughout his life he had a june through August Georgian Downs. T hey were married on July 3, deep appreciation for the beauty of diversity, both Sleepover campJor boys & girls 8-13. 1977. Barely a year later, after a bad work accident, in people and in the environment. His favorite Georgian moved Preston to the hospital in Mason quote was Mohandas Gandhi's "My life is my mes Campers choose their own activities C ity. After retirement necessitated by the accident, sage." David is survived by his wife of 62 years, Helen and live and play in a Preston and Georgian served as caregivers to three Neptune; and by his children, Nancy and husband friendly, diverse community. family members, including his oldest daughter Blaine Nelson; Susan and husband Joseph Jenkins; Evelyn Louise, who died of breast cancer in 1979. John Neptune and wife Diane; and Mark Nep FOR INFORMATION cal/610-847-5858 In 1986 Preston and Georgian moved tO Florida tune; seven grandchildren; three great-grandchil 609 Geigel Hill Rd., Ottsville, PA 18942 and traveled throughout the United States to keep dren; his brother, Robert Neptune; and by numer in touch with family and friends. Preston received ous extended family members and dose friends. [email protected] I www.camponas.org many awards for his wood carvings, including blue 82, on March 28, ACA Accredited Camp White-Benjamin Ward White, ribbons from state fairs in Florida and Iowa. H e 2003, in Davis, Calif. Born on March 22, 1921, in wrote several books on the fam ily history from the New York, he was raised in Maryland and gradu 1700s to the present; the Colorado Years, 1921- ated from Swarthmore College in 1942. After ,p,.Ungl')o'- 193 7; and his later years. During the 1990s the serving in the army during World War II, he couple volunteered at Woodland Elementary School received his PhD in Psychology from University of /~... in Zepherhills, and later, when his health permit Michigan, where he met his wife, Martha. During , ted, Preston would "meditate with the weeds in the the 1950s and early '60s Ben worked at MIT. In ~ ~ ~ yard." He donated his body for university research. 1967 he moved to Tiburon, C alif. , where he spent Preston is survived by his wife, Georgian the remainder of his career as a professor of Psy McCracken; and his children, Ray Everette chology at San Francisco State University. In Feb McCracken, Dale Eugene McCracken, Beth Etta 17 /SO ruary 2000 he moved to the University Retirement "When we're qone, our hearts will stiUbelong " McCracken; and his sisters, Gladys Campbell, Lucile Community at Davis, transferring his member Cook, Alice Hobson, and Thelma Holsey. Preston ship from Marin Meeting to Davis. He was an Age K through 6th Grade died four days after the death of his only brother, active member of the Religious Society of Friends Call the School for 2004/2005 openings Emmett Francis McCracken. who was involved with several volunteer groups. 2150 rJutler Pike, PI!Jmouth .Meeting Neptune-David William Neptune, 85, on July H e will be remembered for his intelligence, kind Pfl19462 • (610) 828-2288 15, 2003, in Chula Vista, Calif. H e was born in ness, compassion, and his dry sense of humor. He San Diego on March 3, 19 18, to A. Ray and Grace was predeceased by his wife, Martha. He is sur Neptune. He graduated from University of Cali- vived by his son, Chris White; his daughter, Stacey 46 March 2004 FRIENDS JouRNAL peace makers creative thinkers problem solvers morally rooted independent inteUectually curious ~ confident commumty• actiVists• • thoughtful leaders effective mediators articulate well-rounded humanitarians spiritual seekers Want to kriow more? Call us! Friends €ouncil on Education 21)-241-7245 www.friendscouncil.org FRIENDSJ ouRNAL March 2004 47 w ntte; hiS daugnter-m-laws, Utane rtemmger ana er of religious institutions, and has been pro Kirsten Street; and his best friend, Dorsey Tweedie. tecting Friends houses of worship and schools Whinaker-Ratharine Whittaker, 96, on October for more than 20 years. In fact, since 1979, I 0, 2002, in Berkeley, Calif. She was born Katharine Wilmet Maxwell Cooper in Edinburgh, Scotland, GuideOne has been the Friends Insurance on August 29, 1906, one of six children. She Group property and casualty insurer of choice. earned her Master ofAns in English and Philoso phy, expecting to be a teacher. In 1927 she married To arrange for a FREE premium quotation, and Edmund Whittaker, and three years later, with to learn more about GuideOne Insurance, call r. 4 two small children, they sailed aboard a freighter to South Africa, where Edmund had accepted a pro 1-877-448-4331 ext. 54 29. Gu1deOne· lnsun.nct fessorship in Economics. Katharine, who had lived in only rwo homes before her marriage, moved 22 times during her 44-year marriage to Edmund, down and up the Atlantic Ocean, to two conti nents, averaging a new home every two years. In 1937, when it was clear that World War II was Residential and imminent, the family moved to University ofllli nois. When her husband's health required that Assisted Living they move to the countryside, Katharine, now since 1891 with four children, smiled, adjusted, and plunged her hands into the hay. In one of their homes, at a time when many churches were scatting white schools to avoid integration, Katharine taught in a In addition to The Hickman's church-sponsored private school for children ofall "not too big, not too small" races. Wherever she lived, she managed to look out on the world with a clear-eyed realism combined, size, Bill and Becky Mcilvain even in the worst of times, with a certain basic opti liked the retirement mism. H er son recalls her watching, powerless, while he as a toddler came within inches of a community's in-town location. swaying African cobra. He remembers how she yanked her daughter away from an enraged sow. He tells of Sunday dinners she cooked from roost "There are so many things ers named for British kings, and of her riding rapids in the Canadian Rockies, driving a car into you can do within walking her 90s, and beating him at Scrabble at age 95. In distance. We're still driving appearance she was stalwart and tidy: a charming contrast to her spirit of adventure that sometimes now, but the day will come . ... " led her into unconventional situations. After her husband died, Katharine, then approaching 70, moved ro Berkeley, Calif., to be near two of her Quaker-Sponsored • Homelike • Affordable • Close to Town • Welcoming Diversity children. She purchased a large house with upstairs rental space for five students, while downstairs she 400 N. Walnut St., West Chester, PA 19380 thrived-free to dance, travel, and enjoy family 610-696-1536 and friends. Katharine's membership with Friends began in C hampagne, Ill.; other meetings that e-mail: [email protected] welcomed the f.unily included Providence (RI.) www.thehickman.org and Fredericton (N.B.). In Berkeley Meeting she was a quiet, steady presence who helped give the meeting for worship a sense of stability. She wrote a play, hosted visiting children, and cared for great grandchildren. She thoroughly enjoyed sharing ideas and opinions, and she never lost her interest in philosophy. She cherished her friendships. She Quantity Price per copy had a remarkable memory for both contemporary 1-5 $5.00 and past events and a great appreciation oflitera ture and history. She sent kindly notes to friends in 6--25 $4.50 hat's right, we have copies of our special issue, a beautiful, ciny script. H er large, extended family 26--50 $3.25 "Diversity among Friends" for sale with quantity treasures their memories oftheir Granny. Katharine 51+ $2.50 was predeceased by her husband, Edmund discounts. T Whittaker, and by a daughter, Margaret Baker. This is a must-have publication for Friends on Worship Price rtjkcts copies ofth e same She is survived by three of her four children, Roger issue and incltuks shipping Whittaker, Felicity Warner, and Barry Whittaker; and Ministry or Membership Care committees as well and handling. Cail for her grandchildren, Meagan Mortan, Jock Baker, as those concerned about outreach and inclusion. discounts on multiple issues. Kit Baker, Jennifer Baker, G reg Warner, Pamela Bishop, Matt Warner, Stirling Whittaker, and To see the complete table of contents, visit the FRIENDS JouRNAL Darren Whittaker; her great-grandchildren, Kendra website: 48 March 2004 FRIENDS JOURNAL •-:~ r. ~... ., lll;..j.t Assistance Sought otih~-g;~;;t a~d~.; (R;~_19:17'bi- ...... -···- ...... The Wider Fellowship of Conservative Friends Committee For Information call (215) 563-8629. Share the land? Several Quaker families looking for inex of Ohio Year1y Meeting, humbly ex1ends an invitation to you Fax (215) 568-13n. pensive rural land upon which to build ecological retreat and to gather with us for waiting worship in the name of Jesus. E-mail: ad [email protected] residential structures. Prefer mid-Atlantic states, but will We plan to gather on the weekend of Six1h Month, 25th- consider other locations. Can you help? F RIENDS j OURNAL March 2004 49 tntern t'Osmon-At-:s~.; wasnmgton vmce: ::>tarnng ;:,., .._ IOtiiU nttl:iU ltiltiiiU 1~ ,\,, r-ifiiU i d lllll,., Ylt:1W VI V\, ~ c:\11 U U11t::'::> 1 Do you care about the future 1 1 lagoon, and golf course from four-bedroom, two-bathroom, of the Religious Society of Friends? !ember 7, 2004, this full-time, paid, nine-month position is beautifully furnished house with wraparound deck, two elec A deferred gift with Friends General Conference (bequest, usually filled by a recent college graduate. The intern will assist in varied program, interpretive, advocacy, and admin tric golf carts. 14 miles of beach, championship golf, tennis, charitable gift annuity, trust) will nurture a vital Religious croquet, swimming, and fishing. 13,000 acres of maritime Society of Friends. istrative tasks arising from AFSC work on peace and justice issues, and also with Davis House, an international guest wilderness. Many birds and wildflowers. No cars on island. For information, please contact Michael Peaceful, friendly. Rental by day or week. (215) 699-9186. Wajda at FGC, 121 6 Arch Street, 2-B, house. Applications close on March 15. Full job descrip Philadelphia, PA 19107; (215) 561-1700; tion and applications from: AFSC, 1822 R Street, N.W., Nantucket, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, near beach and Hum 50 March 2004 FRIENDS j oURNAL Friends Homes, Inc., founded by North Caro Purchase Quarterly Meeting (NYYM) maintains a peace Make friends, make music. Friends Music Camp at Olney. lina Yearly Meeting of the Society of tax escrow fund. Those interested in tax witness may Summer program emphasizing music, community, Quaker Friends, has been providing retirement op wish to contact us through NYYM, 15 Rutherford Place, values; ages 10-18. For information, brochure, video: FMC, tions smce 1968. Both Friends Homes at New York, NY 10003. PO Box 427, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. (937) 767-1311 or Guilford and Friends Homes West are fee-for (937) 767-1818 FRIENDS j OURNAL March 2004 51 PENDLE HILL PEACE NETWORK Weekend Conference: Forgiveness, Reconciliation & Restorative Justice Join noted speakers and workshop leaders for a Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, psychologist, weekend conference exploring the many dimensions member of South Africa's Truth and of "Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Restorative Reconciliation Commission, and author of the Justice." How can we break the cycle of violence, haunting and provocative A Human Being Died fear, shame and revenge? How is reconciliation even That Night, about her encounters with Eugene possible for communities shattered by genocide and deKock, a man known as "Prime Evil." ethnic cleansing? For countries where governments have brutalized their citizens? How do we heal Paula Green, founder and director of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding and of ourselves and our communities when we have been Conflict Transformation Across Cultures victimized by crime? What creative alternatives can (CONTACT) and a reconciliation facilitator we bring to the criminal justice system that can heal in Bosnia, South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Cyprus, victims and perpetrators? What does justice require Sri Lanka, among other countries. to restore a right relationship with exploited peoples and an exploited earth? Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, director of Theatre ofWitness the Office on Crime and Justice of the for Social Mennonite Central Committee, consultant and trainer for restorative justice programs in a special production of a new work, involving victim-offender mediation. Raising Our Voice - emerging from the shadow of domestic abuse. Sulak Sivaraksa, engaged Buddhist peacemaker from Thailand. John Calvi, certified massage therapist and healer working for 22 joseph Sebarenzi, former speaker of the House of Parliament in years with rape victims, prisoners, political torture survivors, refugees Rwanda, genocide survivor and conflict transformation specialist. and others. Miki Jacevic, student leader, human rights activist from Sarajevo, Jerry Leaphart, attorney working for reparations for the descendants Bosnia, and facilitator with Women Waging Peace. of slaves. Linda and Ami White, mother and daughter of a woman raped Don Moon, prison reform activist and Alternatives to Violence and murdered journey to a face-to-face meeting with the murderer. Program coordinato·r. BarbaraToews, manager of the Restorative justice Program of the -and more. Pennsylvania Prison Society. Registration: $180 ($150 If paid by March 26, 2004} $90 for full-time students. The registration fee covers all keynote addresses, facilitated workshops, musical entertainment and shared meals. Matchln1 scholarships are available. For information and to register for the conference: PENDLE HILL www.pendlehiii.OI'J A QUAKER CENTER FOR registrar@ pendlehiii.OI'J STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION 800-742-3150 or 610-566-4507,ext. 142 338 Plush Mill Road I Wallingford, PA 19086-6099