DOCSLIB.ORG

Transformed by the Light Joanne Clapp Fullagar by Photo

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Transformed by the Light Joanne Clapp Fullagar by Photo SHARING EXCERCISE | The Light, Seed, Christ Working in Us Photo by Mike Goren Mike by Photo Transformed by the Light Joanne Clapp Fullagar by Photo Overview Friends will read and reflect upon stories of people who have opened their lives to transformation by Divine Guidance, Christ Within, the Inward Light, and will consider their own willingness or resistance to obedience to the Inner Guide. 60 min. Middle School & up Newcomer Friendly Aims & Objectives When you have completed this topic, you will have experience in looking deeply at the lives of Friends, historical and modern, and reflecting on their willingness to be transformed by obedience to the Inner Guide. You will have experience in reflecting upon your own life, including your inner acceptance of and resistance to following Divine Guidance. Materials & Set-up Before your first session, gather any books available about early and modern Friends. Participants may own books they can share with the group. If the group will be watching the QuakerSpeak videos, you will need internet access or WiFi. Set up the space so that everyone can hear and see. On one of the videos, the words to Paulette Meier’s “Art Thou in the Darkness” are quoted. You can hear Paulette speak of her calling to do this work on another YouTube video, linked below. Her CD, Timeless Quaker Wisdom in Plainsong, is available for purchase or download. SPIRITUAL DEEPENING version 1 Instructions Preparation Before meeting together for your first session, listen to the QuakerSpeak videos, together or individually, if possible. Ask participants to look for stories of early Friends or Friends today who were transformed by their willingness to submit to Divine Guidance, Christ Within, the Inward Light. Bring these stories to the meeting and share them with the group. You may decide to meet several times to consider this topic so that more stories can be shared and reflected upon. Some possibilities Follow this link to a Friends Journal article featuring stories of four Friends who followed the Light: Edward Coxere (1600’s), Joseph Ritter (1700’s), Anthony Benezet, (1700’s), and Bayard Rustin, late 20th century: http://www.friendsjournal.org/quakers-culture-and-the-transforming-power- of-love/ Here is another link, to the “Quakers in the World” website, on which you will find stories of dozens of Friends: http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers- in-action/who.html Suggestions from the “Quakers in the World” website: • Margaret Fell - 1614 – April 23, 1702 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/14 • Elizabeth Fry - 1780 – 1845 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/13 • Mary Dyer - 1611 – 1660 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/15 • George Fox - 1624 – 1691 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/12 • Rufus Jones - 1863-1948 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/230 • James Nayler - 1618 – 1660 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/109 • John Woolman - 1720 – 1772 http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in- action/62 SPIRITUAL DEEPENING Here is a link to the timeline on the “Quakers in Action” website: http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/when.html By scrolling across the timeline, left to right or vice versa, you will find the names of Friends from the 1600’s to the present. Clicking on any name will open that person’s story. Here are some videos that may help to illumine the experience of being open to and transformed by the Light, Seed, Christ working in us. Quakers and the Inner Light - QuakerSpeak Video - 7 minutes “What is ’the Light,’ and why are Quakers so excited about it? Several Friends speak from their own experience. http://quakerspeak.com/ quakers-the-light/ How Quakerism Began - QuakerSpeak Video - 4 ½ minutes Max Carter shares the story of George Fox, a Quaker who went seeking for spiritual answers and found them not in a church, but within. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmL_GhnXSJQ Paulette Meier: Quaker Faith in Song - QuakerSpeak Video - 6 ½ minutes Paulette Meier sings songs from early Quaker Quotes. The act of creating music from Quaker spiritual writings helped Paulette through a difficult time in her life. These songs are unlike anything you’ve ever heard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHcT1HKCDo Paulette Meier’s CD Timeless Quaker Wisdom in Plainsong - You can listen to parts of each of her 22 songs here, and purchase the CD or download any part of it. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paulettemeier SPIRITUAL DEEPENING Sharing the Stories: Plan which stories to share during each session. It may be well to choose only two or three to share at any one meeting. Begin by settling into worship for about 10 minutes, followed by sharing of the first story. After hearing the story, consider these queries or others as seem appropriate. • If you were this person, living in their time and place, what inner struggles would you have with being faithful to Divine Guidance? • What inner and outer obstacles did this person face? • Did they pay a price for their faithfulness? • What did they have to give up? • How did the world respond to them? • What strengthened them to be faithful? • What part do you think worship played? • What are your own resistances to submitting to the Light Within? • When have you been more open to obedience? Credits: Connie McPeak Green and Elise Hansard, Exercise Authors SPIRITUAL DEEPENING.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Light Within the Light Within Is the Fundamental and Immediate Experience for Friends
    Readings for “Quaker Basics”, Week 2 John 1:9 (NRSV)1 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. [a] John 1:9 Or He was the true light that enlightens everyone coming into the world Matthew 28:20 (NRSV) 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [a] Matthew 28:20 Other ancient authorities add Amen Isaiah 7:14 (NRSV) 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman[a] is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. [b] Isaiah 7:14 Gk the virgin Isaiah 7:14 That is God is with us Matthew 1:23 (NRSV) 23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” http://www.pym.org/faith-and-practice/friends-beliefs-and- practices/the-light-within/ The Light Within The Light Within is the fundamental and immediate experience for Friends. It is that which guides each of us in our everyday lives and brings us together as a community of faith. It is, most importantly, our direct and unmediated experience of the Divine. Friends have used many different terms or 262.09607 phrases to designate the source and inner certainty B655Q of our faith—a faith which we have gained by direct Week2 1 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
    [Show full text]
  • Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5 Column6 Column7 Column8 Column9 Column10 Column11 AUTHOR TITLE CALL PUBLISHER City PUB
    Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5 Column6 Column7 Column8 Column9 Column10 Column11 AUTHOR TITLE CALL PUBLISHER City PUB. COPY# SUBJECT 1 SUBJECT 2 SUBJECT 3 NOTES NUMBER DATE Aarek, William From Loneliness to Fellowship: a Swarthmore George Allen London 1954 1 Quakerism, Psychology study in psychology and Lecture & Unwin Ltd. Introduction Quakerism Pamphlets Aarek, William From Loneliness to Fellowship: a Swarthmore George Allen London 1954 2 Quakerism, Psychology study in psychology and Lecture & Unwin Ltd. Introduction Quakerism Pamphlets Abbott, Margery Post Christianity and the Inner Life: PH #402 Pendle Hill Wallingford, PA 2009 1 Christianity - Twenty-First Century Reflections Spiritual Life on the Words of Early Friends Abbott, Margery Post To Be Broken and Tender: A 289.6 Western 2010 1 Quaker Quaker theology for today Ab2010to Friend Theology Abbott, Margery Post, Walk Worthy of Your Calling, 289.6 Friends Richmond, IN 2004 1 Pastoral Travel - Parsons, Peggy Quakers and the Traveling Ministry Ab2004wa United Press Theology - Religious Senger eds. Society of Aspects Friends Abbott, Margery Post; Historical Dictionary of Friends 289.6 Scarecrow Lanham, MD 2003 1 Society of Chijoke, Marry Ellen; (Quakers) Ab2003hi Press Friends - Dandelion, Pink; History - Oliver, John William Dictionary Abrams, Irwin To the Seeker Brochure Friends Philadelphia ND 1 Quakerism, General Introduction Conference Alexander, Horace Everyman's Struggle For Peace PH #74 Pendle Hill Wallingford, PA 1953 2 Pendle Hill Pamphlet Alexander, Horace G. Gandhi Remembered PH#165 Pendle Hill Wallingford, PA 1969 1 Pendle Hill Gandhi, Pamphlet Mohandas - Non- violence Alexander, Horace G. Quakerism in India PH #31 Pendle Hill Wallingford, PA ND 1 Pendle Hill Pamphlet Alexander, Horace G.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Friends
    Children of the Light-Roots and Transitions, 1647-1677 Robert Griswold Talk given at the Colorado Regional Spring Gathering April 18, 2021 Though reality is all around us, people have always preferred to live in a virtual reality of their own making. There was, however, a strange group of people who arose in England in the mid-17th century. They didn’t fit in socially. And they scorned all of the available religions known to them. This included all the branches of Christianity. They considered the steeple houses, the creeds, the hireling priests, the sacraments and rituals all to be an abomination and corruption. They were certain that these religions were deceptions that shut people into a virtual reality and away from any real spiritual life. They had a new vision that arose from within them, not from what they might have been told. They gathered in homes and in open places, sitting or standing in silence. Sometimes these odd folks came into the local churches and castigated the people there for being all wrong in their religious practice. They often got beat up or thrown out. They claimed to have a new authority called an inward light. They said what mattered was being true to the Inward Light found in silence. They had a life changing vision. What worried people around them was that this group of “light” folks kept growing until there were hundreds of them. And this group challenged the virtual reality constructed by the society around them. I think it is hard for us today to realize just how radical this vision was and how much it worried the people around them.
    [Show full text]
  • Quakers Living Adventurously: the Library and Archives of the Society of Friends Transcript
    Quakers Living Adventurously: The Library and Archives of the Society of Friends Transcript Date: Wednesday, 23 January 2013 - 1:00PM Location: Barnard's Inn Hall 23 January 2013 Quakers Living Adventurously: The Library and Archives of the Society of Friends David Blake In this lecture I aim to do two main things: To tell you something about the history of the Library of the Society of Friends over almost 340 years and to talk about some of the things Quakers have done, illustrating them with materials held by the Library. But first I will talk briefly about the Society – say something about its name, tell you about its foundation and add just a little about what Quakerism is. However, I don’t consider myself to be an expert on this and the focus of this lecture will be very much on the library. The Formation of the Society and its Early History First, then, the name of the Society. The official name is the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, but to many people it is known simply as the Society of Friends. The word ‘Quaker’, which comes from the tendency of early Friends to shake as they worshipped, springs more easily off the tongue and indeed, if you look at our website you will see the banner ‘Quakers in Britain’. But Quakers - despite being very modern in many ways, witness their views on same sex marriage – seem to like tradition and you will hear the terms Quaker and Friend used all the time and interchangeably. Many names have been retained: the Chief Executive is still known as the Recording Clerk and one of the main bodies remains the Meeting for Sufferings.
    [Show full text]
  • Quaker Manual of Style and Glossary
    make these apparent and assure an appropriate group has reached a particular place of decision or outcome. shared understanding, and to test whether this sense Quaker: Originally, a derogatory term applied to Friends of the meeting is in accord with the group’s faithful Quakers because their excitement of spirit when led to speak in obedience to the leading of the Spirit. a meeting for worship was sometimes expressed in a Silence/Silent Worship: Expectant, living silence, not shaking or quaking motion. Now this term is simply merely the absence of noise. The quietude of Friends an alternative designation for a member of the meeting for worship—and other periods of observant Religious Society of Friends. worship—embodies the special quiet of listeners, the Quaker Process: A catch-all expression often used to special perception of seekers, the special alertness of describe the various and collective techniques by those who wait. The silence invites the sharing of which Quakers make decisions and go about their messages which arise from a stirring of the Spirit. Quaker other business. Quaker process can include discern- Standing Aside: An action taken by an individual who has ment, threshing, worship-sharing, sense of the genuine reservations about a particular decision, but Meeting, and other methodological terms described who also recognizes that the decision is clearly sup- Manual of in this glossary. These constituent aspects have in ported by the weight of the Meeting. The action of common a commitment to obedience to the leading standing aside allows the Meeting to reach unity. of the Spirit.
    [Show full text]
  • WIDER QUAKER FELLOWSHIP ISSUE Light and Power Snapshots
    Quaker Thought and Life Today VOLUME 6 NOVEMBER 15, 1960 NUMBER 35 WIDER QUAKER FELLOWSHIP ISSUE rJ.;. has been said that St. ~Francis ran away to God as other boys run away to sea. It was his rediscovery of the Light and Power Life of God working afresh in . by Howard H. Brinton the lives of men which re­ stored a saving quality to the civilization of his century. I have hoped that once more in Snapshots of Elizabeth Fry these critical times we might . • . by Barbara Hinchcliffe run away to God, might re­ store our souls with His life and power, fortify ourselves in His strength, and then take In Search of East-West Understanding our full part in rebuilding our broken world. • • • • fl by Paul A. Lacey - RuFus M . JoNEs Some Ancient Florentine Welfare Institutions • . by Maria Comberti TWENTY CENTS $5.00 A YEAR What Is the Wider Quaker Fellowship? 582 FRIENDS JOURNAL November 15, 1960 FRIENDS JOURNAL Book Survey The Secret Sayings of Jesus. By Robert M. Grant. Double­ day and Company, Garden City, New York, 1960. 206 pages. $3.50 The exciting discovery of the so-called Gospel of Thomas, of which a first translation was published last year, is care­ fully analyzed and interpreted in this book by Robert M. Grant, who writes in collaboration with David Noel Freed­ man. They relate the most significant Sayings of Jesus from Published semimonthly, on the first and fifteenth of each the Thomas gospel to parallel passages of the four canonical month, at 1615 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pennsylvania (LO 3-7669) by Friends Publishing Corporation gospels and introduce the reader in a scholarly manner to WILLIAM HUBBEN the philosophy of the Gnostics.
    [Show full text]
  • Quaker Thought and Life Today
    September 15, 1973 Quaker Thought and Life Today . .. We find ourselves today confronted with what "civiliu·tion" is to mean in this post-war world. Have we perhaps left behind forever the comfortable world in which the free individual can be captain of his own soul. .. ? Or is man -and woman too - to be ... ruled as the wheel rules the spoke ... for the ends of a completely seculari:ted state? A secularized world ... is not enough. It will not do. We cannot live that way.- From "Rufus Jones Speaks to Our Time" Perspectives on the Movement FRIENDS ("Moving Toward a New Society," the second of two JOURNAL articles offering different viewpoints on the nonviolent social change movement, is written by Berit Lakey, a September 15, 1973 member of the Movement for a New Society's Move­ Volume 19, Number 15 ment Building Collective. Further information can be requested from the Collective at 4722 Baltimore Ave., Friends J ournal is published the first and fifteenth of each month (except in June, J uly, and August, when it is published monthly) Philadelphia, PA 19143.) by. Friends Publishing Corporation at 152-A North FifteeRth Street, Phtladelphta 19102. Telephone: (215 ) 564-4779. (Temporary office address: 112 South Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia 19102. ) IT FELT LIKE CHEATING. Friends Journal was established in 1955 as the successor to The But with only an afternoon to Friend (1827-1955) and Friends lntelligencer (1844-1955 ) . spare, we had no choice but to drive if we wanted to get lAMES D. LENHART, Editor to the top of Mt. Evans. It is exhilarating to stand on a JOYCE RoLL E ENNIS, Managing Editor NINA I.
    [Show full text]
  • The Experience of Early Friends
    The Experience of Early Friends By Andrew Wright 2005 Historical Context The world of the early Friends was in the midst of radical change. The Renaissance in Europe had strengthened the role of science and reason in the Western world. The individual’s power to understand and make sense of reality on their own was challenging the authority of the Catholic Church. Until recently there had been only one church in Western Europe. Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” that critiqued the Catholic Church is generally seen as the beginning of the Reformation when western Christianity splintered into a plethora of various “protestant” churches. In order to fully understand the significance of the Reformation we must realize that political authority and religious authority were very closely aligned at this time in history. Political authority was used to enforce religious orthodoxy as well as to punish those who expressed unconventional views. Meditating on the intensity of feeling that many have today about issues like abortion or gay/ lesbian rights or end of life issues might begin to help us to understand the intensity of feeling that people experienced around religious issues during the Reformation. Many people felt like only the triumph of their religious group could secure their right to religious expression or save them from persecution. The notion of separation of church and state only began to become a possibility much later. The English Reformation and Civil War In England, the reformation developed a little later than in Germany and in a slightly different way. In 1534, King Henry VIII declared the Church of England independent of the Roman Catholic papacy and hierarchy.
    [Show full text]
  • From Plainness to Simplicity: Changing Quaker Ideals for Material Culture J
    Chapter 2 From Plainness to Simplicity: Changing Quaker Ideals for Material Culture J. William Frost Quakers or the Religious Society of Friends began in the 1650s as a response to a particular kind of direct or unmediated religious experience they described metaphorically as the discovery of the Inward Christ, Seed, or Light of God. This event over time would shape not only how Friends wor­ shipped and lived but also their responses to the peoples and culture around them. God had, they asserted, again intervened in history to bring salvation to those willing to surrender to divine guidance. The early history of Quak­ ers was an attempt by those who shared in this encounter with God to spread the news that this experience was available to everyone. In their enthusiasm for this transforming experience that liberated one from sin and brought sal­ vation, the first Friends assumed that they had rediscovered true Christianity and that their kind of religious awakening was the only way to God. With the certainty that comes from firsthand knowledge, they judged those who op­ posed them as denying the power of God within and surrendering to sin. Be­ fore 1660 their successes in converting a significant minority of other English men and women challenged them to design institutions to facilitate the ap­ proved kind of direct religious experience while protecting against moral laxity. The earliest writings of Friends were not concerned with outward ap­ pearance, except insofar as all conduct manifested whether or not the person had hearkened to the Inward Light of Christ. The effect of the Light de­ pended on the previous life of the person, but in general converts saw the Light as a purging as in a refiner’s fire (the metaphor was biblical) previous sinful attitudes and actions.
    [Show full text]
  • Rufus Jones and Quaker Unity Hugh Barbour
    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Truth's Bright Embrace: Essays and Poems in Honor College of Christian Studies of Arthur O. Roberts 1996 Rufus Jones and Quaker Unity Hugh Barbour Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/truths_bright Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Barbour, Hugh, "Rufus Jones and Quaker Unity" (1996). Truth's Bright Embrace: Essays and Poems in Honor of Arthur O. Roberts. Paper 11. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/truths_bright/11 This Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Christian Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Truth's Bright Embrace: Essays and Poems in Honor of Arthur O. Roberts by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. RufusJones and Quaker Unity HUGH BARBOUR he Society of Friends, for Rufus Jones1 as for Arthur Roberts,2 remains a single movement, called by God to a special role in T American Christianity and world history. Both men have also been realistically aware of human limitations and diversity. Yet they have seen God's power, shared in meetings for worship as well as in the religious expe­ rience of individuals, able to change human society and transcend human ideas and institutions. 1887, when Christ-centered Friends were brought together in Rich­ mond by their disagreements over ministry and sacramental Ordinances, was a time of great hope among American churches. Revivals and Holiness camp meetings aroused evangelical Protestants, while New Englanders were shown the creativityof the individual human spirit by Emerson, Low­ ell and Thoreau.
    [Show full text]
  • A Quaker Weekly
    • A Quaker Weekly VOLUME 3 DECEMBER 7, 1957 NUMBER 49 IN THIS ISSUE ~TAND ruham'd and Collecting Whittieriana almost despairing before holy and pure ideals. As I read the by C. Marshall Taylor New Testament I feel how weak, irresolute, and frail I am, and how little I can rely Whittier~ Quaker Liberal and Reformer on any thing save our God's by Howard W. Hintz mercy and infinite compas­ sion, which I reverently and thankfully own have followed me through life, and the as­ Most Winning Spokesman of the surance of which is my sole Moral Life ground of hope for myself, and for those I love and pray by Anna Brinton for. -JoHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER William Edmondson and Ireland's -First Quaker Meeting by Caroline N. Jacob PRICE OF THIS SPECIAL ISSUE TWENTY CENTS Internationally Speaking $4.50 A YEAR 786 FRIENDS JOURNAL Decennber 7, 1957 Internationally Speaking FRIENDS JOURNAL RESIDENT EISENHOWER, speaking to the nation Pabout science and security, referred to "a great step toward peace" as being as necessary as a great leap into • outer space in connpetition with the developnnents of the Russian satellites. The probability that space satellites are a step toward the developnnent of intercontinental nnissiles ennphasizes the innportance of the great step toward peace, as does the suggestion that local NATO connnnanders are to have authority to decide whether a' Published weekly at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, situation requires response with atonnic weapons. This Pennsylvania (Rittenhouse 6-7669) By Friends Publishing Corporation latter suggestion innplies the end of national sovereignty.
    [Show full text]
  • Quakers in America
    “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” - William Penn Quaker Affirmations Quaker History, Part 2: W M Penn, Courtesy Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-00455 Quakers in America Quaker Affirmation, Lesson 2 Quaker history in 3 segments: 1. 1647 – 1691: George Fox • Begins with the ministry of George Fox until the time of his death, and encompasses the rise and swift expansion of the Friends movement 2. 1691 – 1827: The Age of Quietism 3. 1827 – present: Fragmentation, Division & Reaffirmation 2 Review: • Fox sought to revive “Primitive Christianity” after a revelation of Christ in 1647 and a vision of “a great people to be gathered” in 1652. • Many people in England were resentful of the government-led church and longed for a more meaningful spiritual path. • A group of Friends dubbed “The Valiant Sixty” traveled the country and the world to preach Fox’s message. • Around 60,000 people had joined the Society of Friends by 1680. • Friends in mid-1600s were often persecuted for their George Fox beliefs, and George Fox was often in prison. • George Fox and many other Friends came to America 1647 - 1691 to preach. 3 George Fox, Courtesy Library of Congress, LC=USZ62-5790 Review: What was the essence of Fox’s message? • There is that of God in everyone. • The Inner Light lives within; it discerns between good and evil and unites us.
    [Show full text]