January 1999 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today A Holy Experiment in the Interior: AFSC's Central Region at Age Fifty Quaker Seeking: Do We Ever Find Anything? Identity, Authority, and Community An Among Friends Independent magazine serving the Toward the Future Religious arly in 1998, Vinton Deming announced his intention to retire as editor­ Society of manager ofFRIENDSJ oURNAL. Our board of managers accepted Vim's letter Friends Ewith regret and set about the task of seeking our next editor-manager. A Search Committee worked through the summer. From a shon list of six applicants, two Editorial Vinton Deming (Editor-Manager), Kenneth Sutton excellent candidates were presented to be interviewed by the whole board in October. (Senior Editor), Claudia Wair (Assistant Editor), After deep searching the board reached unity in making an appointment, which I am Judith Brown (Poetry Editor), Maria Gargiulo pleased to announce to the readership at this time. (Intern) The new editor-manager is Susan M. Corson-Finneny. Susan is well qualified for P~oductlon Barbara Benton (Art Director), Alia Podolsky the job in many ways. She has 13 years ofdirect publishing background, four of (Production Assistant), John D. Gummere which were right here at FRIENDS JOURNAL from 1977-1981. She served the JOURNAL (Spuial Projms) during those years as associate editor, then editor and business manager, so she has Circulation and Advertising great familiarity with the magazine and the Quaker constituency it serves. Nagendran Gulendran (Marketing andAd vertising Manager), Nicole Hackel (Circulation Assistant) The years since Susan left our employment have been full and busy ones for her. Administration She and her husband, Adam Corson-Finnerty, began raising a family. Their daughter, Marianne De Lange (Office Manager), Rachel Susanna, and son, Matthew, are now teenagers. During this time as well Susan served Messenger (Accountant), Henry Freeman two and a half years as co-director (along Adam) of Powell House, New York (Development Consultant), Pamela Ndson with (Development Assistant), Ruth Peterson, Roben Yearly Meeting's retreat and conference center. There she planned and facilitated the Sutton (Vo/unum) adult program, worked on fund raising, and managed the 57-acre propeny. Susan's Board of Managers most recent position serving Friends was three years at Princeton (N.J.) Friends Irwin Abrams, Lucinda Amrim, Paul Buckley, TylaAnn Burger, Susan Carnahan (Recording Clerk), School. As the first director of development there, she worked with an outstanding Sue Carnell (Treasurer), Linda Coffin, group of volunteers, managing the school's successful capital campaign, which raised Marsha Green, Dan Hewitt, Ingrid Holcomb, $1.8 million for what she describes as "a young and thriving small Friends school." Mary Mangelsdorf, Barbara Mays, Judith Monroe, Caroline Balderston Parry, Ruth Peterson, Susan is known to many Friends within Philadelphia and New York Yearly Lisa Lewis Raymer, Ted Robinson, Meetings. She is a member of Germantown (Pa.) Monthly Meeting. She served on David Runkel (Assistant Clerk), Larry D. Spears, the PYM Outreach Committee, for which she clerked the subcommittee that Carolyn Sprogell (Clerk), Wtlmer Tjossem conceived of and produced the Outreach Ideabook, a very well-received suppon for FRIENDSJ ouRNAL (ISSN 0016-1322) was interpretation of Quakerism to non-Friends. established in 1955 as the successor to The Friend (1827-1955) and Friends lntelligmcer (I844-1955). At the time of her appointment as our new editor-manager, Susan was executive • FRIENDS jOURNAL is published monthly by Friends assistant to the deputy provost at the University of Pennsylvania. Susan's own Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, academic studies were at Temple University, where she graduated magna cum laude Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone (215) 563-8629. E-mail [email protected]. Periodicals with a BA in English literature in 1969. She did postgraduate work in art and theater postage paid ar Philadelphia, Pa., and additional at Philadelphia College of An and at Temple. mailingoffi ces. When asked what excites her about returning to the Jo URNAL as editor-manager, • Subscriptions: one year $29, rwo years $54. Add Susan Corson-Finneny responded: "The JoURNAL plays a vital role in communication $6 per year for postage to countries outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $3 among Friends and between yearly meetings. We don't travel in the ministry as each. frequently as earlier Friends appear to have done, and in this respect the JouRNAL • Advertising information and assisrance is available provides a ready vehicle for conveying concerns, sharing information and news, and on request. Appearance of any advertisement does nor imply endorsement by FRIENDS jOURNAL. lifting spirits." Susan looks forward to starting work at the magazine in mid-January • Postmaster: send address changes to FRI ENDS and working two weeks with Vinton Deming before Vint leaves February 1. jouRNAL, 12 16 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA The board and staff join me in thanking Vinton Deming for his 22 years of service, 19107-2835. from typesetter to editor-manager. It is difficult to select highlights, but surely Vim's • Copyright © 1999 by Friends Publishing Corporation. Permission should be received before sensitive editing and his leadership of the successful capital campaign stand out. We reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. will miss his personal notes in this column. We hope to hear more from Vint in the Available on microfilm from University Microftlrns years ahead. And it is with enthusiasm that we extend a warm welcome to Susan International. Corson-Finneny. She will greet you on this page next month and looks forward to PRINTEDON RECYCLED PAPER becoming personally acquainted with many of you as she visits you and your meetings in the months and years ahead. Moving? Let us update your subscription and address. FRIENDS Jou RNAL, 1216 Arch St., 2A Carolyn Sprogell Next month in Friends Journal: Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 Clerk, Board of Managers (2 15) 563-8629, F~ (2 15) 568-1377 Truth at Home for Peace Abroad E-mail [email protected] John Woolman and the Ecological Vision My Brother in Vietnam 2 january 1999 FRIENDS JOURNAL January 1999 FRIENDS Volume 45, No. 1 JOURNAL Features Departments 6 Quaker Seeking: Do We Ever Find Anything? 2 Among Friends Stanford J. Searle Jr. Interviews with 21 Friends give shape to our ideas ofhow (and 4 Forum what) Quakers seek. 22 Life in the Meeting 9 A Holy Experiment in the Interior: 24 Witness AFSC's Central Region at Age Fifty 25 Reports and Epistles Deborah Fink The work ofthe American Friends Service Committee Central 30 News Region reflects both the heartland ofthe United States and the heart 31 Bulletin Board ofQuaker service. 12 Hannah Whitall Smith: 32 Books The Inner Voice and Morbid Conscience 35 Milestones Dolores L. Noll 37 Classified One ofthe best-selling Christian writers in the English language was raised as a Friend 16 Identity, Authority, and Community Poetry Annis Bleeke and Carole Spencer Two Friends discuss the Friends World Committee for 8 Suspended Animation Consultation-sponsored gathering in july 1997 in Birmingham, Margo Waring England, exploring our identity as Friends and related topics. 21. Coltrane Greg Bamford Cover woodcut ofTwin Cities (Minn.) Meetinghouse by Bill Myers Participants In an International Student Seminar hosted by the American Friends Service Committee's Central Region In Denver, Colo., 1950 FRIENDS ]OURNAL january 1999 3 Forum How much technology? That Friend speaks my mind and he does it very ably. Having lived abroad in When it comes to consumerism, Nonh S.E. Asia, I have wimessed the present American Quakers do a pretty good job of global gulf berween rich and poor. Our staying behind the Joneses. That is, of technology and the grossly materialistic course, if we are comparing ourselves to culture that it reflects and engenders are Nonh American Joneses. On the whole, hugely divisive, I believe. The environmental we drive smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, concerns are every bit as worrisome. As we we dress more simply, our houses tend to become more enmeshed in a technological be more modestly furnished. way of life, our attitudes towards the earth Chuck Hosking panned back to a and the spiritual nature of people are surely wider view (F]Nov. 1998). Compared to changing as well. most of our siblings on earth, even "simple I, too, fear the same consequences and living" Quakers are ahead of the Joneses. feel the lack of direction in Quaker circles Way ahead. around questions ofsimplicity, lifestyle, and When we turn on the lights in our the integrity of our beliefs. The concern houses, how many of us think of those Chuck Hosking raises in his tide, "Is who heat only with sticks that they carry Technology Our New God?" is rapidly in bundles on their backs? lf you had to physical tools humans have invented during being answered with a "yes." To me the tide carry the water from the town well, would their sojourn on earth. Technology includes revolves around concerns such as: What is you use as much for your dishes or your not only cars, computers, and guns, but also central in my life? Where do I seek answers shower? I know when I go on camping needles and thread, forks and spoons, to my concerns and problems? By what trips I am much more conservative in the screwdrivers and pliers. As a species we are process do I keep my life in balance? What use of fuel and water than I am at home, destined to use tools. Our ability to do so is am I doing to enrich my own spiritual life where all I have to do is flip a switch or what permitted us to survive in the and the spiritual lives of those around me? turn a lever.