Hypnotized by the modern state’s destructive powers, we often ignore our own empowerment and choose instead to be moralizing bystanders. If life on earth is now jeopardized by the absence of an international rule of law, active responsibility for the essential primary task at hand must assumed by the church rather than the state. The local community agency is now of unprecedented importance as the church builds the social order that is a pre-requisite for developing the rule law among nations. Sanctuary is demonstrating how international morality can take root in local community practice. Meeting and knowing Central Americans personally, we also come to care deeply about what is happening in Central America. At this point in the development of law among nations, the church is the institution that can incorporate into community practice international law that mandates civil initiative to maintain human rights in the face of governmental violations. The church is building a foundation that brings individual actions into a sustained community task through its congregational practice of sanctuary.
[Defending Human Rights]—The defense of human rights by the sanctuary church is faith-based & worship-initiated. Our country was founded on the premise that a society’s constituent individuals & communities retain primary responsibility for protecting human rights. “Civil disobedience,” or more accurately civil initiative is individuals’ or communities’ exercise of their legally established duty to protect the victims of government officials violations of fundamental rights. Justice Robert H. Jackson stated at the beginning of the Nuremberg Tribunal that: “[The] principle of personal liability is a necessary as well as a logical one if International Law is to render real help to the maintenance of peace.” Implementing the Nuremberg mandate is the task of civil initiative. The sanctuary movement is building the institutional foundations to fulfill this task. Civil initiative that incorporates recognized rights into community norms & legal practice is peacemaking in its quintessential form, & is the most practicable way for us to cultivate the growth of a peacemaking international order.
Many of the strategies of civil disobedience that have been devised to topple unjust laws are counter- productive in civil initiatives to protect good laws; they undercut the very statutes and treaties we wish to protect. Any resistance to state-enforced injustice must complement rather than cancel the community’s constructive task.
[Defending Good Laws/Accountability]—Sanctuary for Central American refugees defends good laws that US government officials are violating. A 9th Circuit Court Judge found that the INS “engages in widespread illegality, so wide-spread that it is not a matter of individual misconduct but a broad systematic process.” Among the good laws are the UN refugee Protocol and the 1980 Refugee Act that implemented the Protocol. [Key to the Protocol] is the prohibition against expulsion or return of refugees to any country in which they would face persecution.” [A key difference is that between] refugees and illegal immigrants. [The legal system’s treatment of sanctuary cases is such that] the government is unlikely to hold itself accountable for human rights violations. Jurors rarely realize that they have the power and responsibility to shield the community whenever the judicial system is subverted to serve injustice, nor are they likely to learn this in court.
Few Salvadorans and Guatemalans make it through Mexico without suffering some form of violence or extortion, usually by authorities. Most countries that signed the protocol recognize most Central American seeking asylum are refugees, and have outreach programs, sometimes even to rescue them from INS prisons in the US. Nothing in the law permits the US government to return refugees to persecution if they have resided in or crossed other countries and their economic needs do not alter their status as refugees.
The sanctuary network’s screening, placement and protection of Central American refugees is an emergency alternative to the INS. Our responsibility for protecting the persecuted must be balanced by our accountability to the legal order. [There are 7 characteristics of civil initiative: nonviolent (neither seizing police power or resisting arrest); truthfulness (open and subject to public examination); catholic (victim’s ideology and political usefulness is irrelevant); dialogical (joint seeking of solution that does not compromise human rights); germane (actions are not primarily symbolic or expressive); volunteer-based (community responsibility without creating non-government bureaucracy); community-based (outreaching and outlasting individual acts of conscience).
[From “Just War” to “Just Revolution”]—The “just war” doctrines designed to convert the Christian church to service of empire are equally relevant to justification of revolutionary warfare. Whether war is waged by the state or revolutionaries, the idea is to assault your adversary’s life & liberties until he is either destroyed or else submits to your will. Political parties struggling to gain & maintain power are unreliable advocates of human rights. How radically unassimilated from the rule of violence must the church become to go free from its [“service to empire”]? It cannot serve as a sanctuary for human rights while supporting any warfare.
Prophetic faith has long elicited complaints from government officials who think religion should observe an otherworldly lack of concern for justice; the prophetic faith rejects any separation of “political” from “religious” concerns. Is the practice of sanctuary by Covenant communities “political?” Protective community with the violated limits the state’s exercise of coercive political power. It counters state’s power of domination with community cohesion, not by seizing control of state powers. The church is neither pseudo-state nor political party.
The communities’ practice of Covenant faith shakes the very foundation of politics. Its vitality depends on sanctuary’s being genuine communion, not on its being a serious contender for political power. The [emerging] church’s faith in communion contrasts with the faith in violence shown by state and revolutionaries. It seeks to establish new liberties rather than new states. The network of sanctuary communities rejects the politicized treatment of refugees by bureaucrats and revolutionaries alike. How are we to work with those whose dedication to winning the good war entails using us as medics in their crusade?
Each sanctuary’s response, whether restricted by government or revolution, is woven into the full spectrum of responses required to assure that all refugees’ rights will be protected. The sanctuary network’s refusal to politicize its response to refugees seems as counter-revolutionary to one side as it seems insurrectionary to the other. Sanctuaries have their own decision-making procedures; most are part of an established denominational network, & the networks are intertwined. The sanctuary church is thus highly resistant to centralization & takeover.
In responding to refugees according to their needs rather than political alignments or usefulness, sanctuary network’s response will vary according to refugees’ national origin. The Nicaraguan refugee situation called for a letter to the INS Office of Refugee Asylum & Parole insisting that the government abide by its obligation under international law not to return deserters, draft resisters, or war victims to a “gross violator of human rights.” Providers of sanctuary services in Arizona were already helping Nicaraguan draft evaders reach an INS office where they could apply asylum. If they were captured first & could not make bail, they were sometimes imprisoned, pressured, and “disappeared.” [Since] the US government supports any Nicaraguan who wishes to speak out about Sandinista violations of human rights, Nicaraguans have no current need for public sanctuary protection to allow them to speak truth to power. The forms of sanctuary services for Salvadorans & Guatemalans are changing rapidly as conditions & needs change that prevailed when sanctuary for Central Americans began.
[Educating State and Local Governments]—Even individuals who belong to no sanctuary-providing community can help build a sanctuary society by educating city, county, & state officials to refuse to collaborate with INS violations of refugee rights. Whenever state & local governments collaborate in the capture & deportation of Salvadoran & Guatemalan refugees, their law enforcement agencies hold the gun for them to raped, robbed, & violated. Governor Toney Anaya proclaimed New Mexico to be a “State of Sanctuary” & emphasized that “the sanctuary movement is not fighting against unjust laws; it is fighting for the observance of just laws.” Our country is now at a crossroads in its history at which it must choose between Anaya’s way [or a more brutal way].
Few local & state government officials are aware that they are fully responsible for complying with international human rights & humanitarian laws regarding persons within their jurisdiction. Sanctuary-providing communities should also clarify with local officials the policies their agencies will follow concerning refugees who are receiving sanctuary services. Communities not having hidden refugees now are likely to host them soon, so all local governments should be prepared.
[Congregational Pre-conceptions/Government Pacification/Conclusion]—Many congregations initiate their sanctuary deliberations with limiting preconceptions about the form sanctuary should take the facilities resources it requires. Questions about the kinds of sanctuary services to provide & when to provide them should be determined. No faith community is so small & poor that it could not stand by to help relay refugees who are passing through. No faith community is so remote that it could not participate with others in sponsoring sanctuary volunteer services on the border or in refugee settlement areas. Above all, there is a need for the sanctuary network to prepare now for the long-term refugee producing crises being instituted in Latin America.
The US government has developed pacification as the master link for its 3rd World counterinsurgency strategies [i.e. driving out noncombatants, which are the guerillas’ grassroots support]. [It is a strategy that] creates an enormous number of refugees. “Low intensity warfare” (private funding and mercenaries) is meant to reduce reliance on Congressional budgeting and oversight, forced recruitment of refugees, and development of torture technology. If refugee rights are respected in the US, military pacification won’t work in Latin America.
Pacification is becoming America’s moral analogue to the Nazi death camps. Revolutionary comandantes oppose refuge options that undermine strategies & deplete troops. If armed struggle is the solution, most refugees are deserters. All causes to which life must be sacrificed are among Moloch’s many names. He delights most in sacrifices that give him the name of a good cause. Partisans who say that sanctuary must be political rather than apolitically humanitarian mean that sanctuary services should be extended only to those among the oppressed who serve the cause of the oppressed, according to correct political analysis. Moloch’s correct political analyses are also legion. We cannot serve justice if we become hypnotized by the state’s use of violence, as though its force were the ultimate power. Gathering in attentive stillness, we hear ourselves being called to become a people that covenants to do justice & love kindness, the Kingdom may come on earth, in our lives, & during our days.
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272. Going Back: A poet who was once a Marine returns to Vietnam (by W.D. Ehrhart; 1987)
About the Author—W.D. Ehrhart enlisted in the US Marine Corps at age 17 (June 1966). After serving in Vietnam & receiving an honorable Discharge, he earned a BA from Swarthmore College & an MA from the Univ. of Illinois, Chicago. [He has written many poems that were published &] has taught at Sandy Springs Friends School, George School, & Germantown Friends School. In December 1985 Ehrhart returned to Vietnam to see the country against which he had once waged war. This pamphlet is an account of that journey.
[Excerpt from FOR MRS. NA]: I’d never say I’m sorry…Here I am at last—/and here you are./ And you lost 5 sons in the war./ and you haven’t any left./ And I’m staring at my hands /and eating tears,/ trying to think of something else to say/ besides “I’m sorry.” W.D. Ehrhart
[Excerpt from TWICE BETRAYED, about an Amer-Asian child left behind]: Some American soldier/ came to your mother for love, or lust…or respite from loneliness/ and you happened… I have no way to tell you that I cannot stay here/ and I cannot take you with me… I will dream you are my own daughter./ But none of that will matter when you come here tomorrow and I’m gone. W.D. Ehrhart
[Introduction]—Nguyen Thi Na is 67 years old. She lives in a small hamlet in Cu Chi District 35 km west of the city once called Saigon. There, ½ a dozen small children giggle nervously and scurried out of sight. [Inside her house], I bow uneasily to Mrs. Na and take a seat. [During the introduction], Mrs. Na’s eyes are brimming with tears. “I gave all 5 of my sons to the Revolution… I have suffered so much misery—and you did this to me.” I can only sit in stunned silence dizzy from heat and shock. Why have I put myself deeply into debt and traveled halfway around the world just to confront a reality more terrible than imagination? This is not what I wanted, I think as another wave of nausea washes over me.
[Traveling to Vietnam/Arriving in Hanoi]—What I wanted was a great catharsis, a personal healing that would finally allow me to put demons to bed and get on with my life. I had served 13 months in an infantry battalion in central Vietnam. I had been a model Marine, [wounded, decorated, and promoted]. [In the process] I wreaked havoc upon the people of Vietnam. The memories of Vietnam at war, and my complicity in that war, have never left me. If I could only see the Vietnamese getting on with their lives, I too would be able to let go.
It is no easy task to travel to Vietnam. After 4 long years of false starts and dead ends, in December 1985, I finally found myself aboard a Russian-built Air Laos turboprop. Scattered among the fields and houses were the pockmarks of craters left behind by American bombers a full 13 years earlier.
In the city of Hanoi, [bikes were everywhere, thousands of them]; they were the workhorses of everyday life. The north Vietnamese army used bicycles [on the Ho Chi Minh trail] to haul ammunition and medical supplies 1,000 miles through American bombs to the battlefields of the south. Now, cars, trucks, and bicycles seem remarkably considerate of each other.
I had hardly arrived when I was told that I would not be able to visit a single place that I had served in. I had need to see those places again, to see children playing and old men tending water buffalo on the once-bloody soil upon which I had nearly died. I had come a long way physically and emotionally to see them. It is hard for a man of 37 to have come to terms with his own foolish romanticism.
Hanoi Tour—My hosts had planned a full schedule for me, and there was no use trying to explain that I was not interested. [We visited several committee headquarters having to do with Vietnamese culture, and war history]. And a funny thing happened; in spite of my bitter personal disappointment, I began to get interested. I visited Van Mieu Pagoda—the Temple of Literature. Founded in 1077, it operated continuously for 8 centuries; now it is preserved as a museum and cultural shrine. [I heard the war experiences of several people in Hanoi. I found myself feeling a bond and sometimes liking those once my enemies].
Then there was Jade Hill Pagoda, on an island in Restoration Sword Lake. It was built to honor a 13th century Vietnamese general who defeated Chinese invaders. China has invaded Vietnam repeatedly over the course of the past 4 millenia, at one time occupying Vietnam for nearly 1,000 years. The recent intrusions by Japan, France, and the US are mere aberrations in the great sweep of Vietnamese history.
“China is our natural enemy,” General Kinh Chi said, “If only American policymakers had taken the time to learn what every Vietnamese school child knows, how very different might have been the course of the past 40 years.” Many Vietnamese revered Ho Chi Minh, and thought of him in much the same way that we think of George Washington. How many Viet Cong did our blundering ignorance produce?
Hanoi is a poor city in a poor country. There are a few new buildings. Most were built by the French before WWII. I walked alone through the streets of Hanoi for many hours and many miles during my week there. I found a Buddhist pagoda and a Catholic cathedral. Most people assumed I was Russian. In the older section of the city, Old Hanoi, the streets were clogged with small shops. Young soldiers are everywhere, but armed soldiers are rare. There was a kind of pride and strength that was real and undeniable.
Ho Chi Minh City—[As I flew over the places where I’d actually been stationed, I was feeling a bit ashamed of myself about] pouting because I couldn’t play out my private little fantasy [in visiting those places]. Once one of the busiest airports in the world, Tan Son Nhut is now hardly a shadow of its former self. Much of the older French architecture has been supplanted by new American-style buildings. Ho Chi Minh City is a madhouse of buses 3-wheeled Lambrettas, motorbikes, and motor scooters compared to Hanoi.
The war crimes exhibit in Ho Chi Minh City contains as much material about post-liberation Chinese crimes and the crimes of Pol Pot as it does about the long American war. I am reminded again that we were hardly more than a brief interlude in Vietnam’s struggle against their giant northern neighbor. My guide spent 6 years in prison under the Saigon regime (1968-1974). She said, “If we do not have successful national reunification, history has taught us that we will end up as a province of China.”
Ho Chi Minh City (cont.)—[I met 2 men in restaurants; one was educated under the defeated regime, the other fought in the Viet Minh army for 20 or 30 years. I asked the veteran, “Doesn’t it seem dull sometimes to lead such a quiet life?” “Oh, no,” he quickly replied. “I did what was necessary, but I never liked it. Give me 100 years of peace. A thousand. I don’t want any more war. He held my hand like I was his grandson, [which is a long standing], curious and beautiful custom. [As a young man, I saw it and thought they must be “queer.”]
[A former secretary for the Americans, now running a coffee shop asked for my help. She had an official document from US immigration saying she had been accepted for the Orderly Departure Program]. “I can’t get an exit visa,” she says. “I don’t know what I can do,” I reply. I leave the coffeeshop with a [helpless], hollow feeling inside. The rich and powerful got out. The junior lieutenants and faithful servants we left behind.
General Nguyen Huu Hanh spent 29 years in the Saigon army fighting the communists. He said, “I am not a communist, but this is my country and the important thing now is to get on with rebuilding it. [US advisors interfered with his command, forced him to sack a senior lieutenant, and he was relieved of command when he refused to call an air strike on an area with heavy civilian population. The entire area, including the local army garrison went over to the Viet Cong after the air strike.
[Mr. Duc of the district People’s Committee showed me around the Cu Chi District: a state farm that used to be an American base (no sign of the base remains); a “field” of craters from B-52 bombings. Mr. Duc says “We’re filling them in as fast as we can. But we have to haul earth from a long distance, and we have very little heavy equipment; it has to be done by manual labor. He took me to the district hospital].
[I see water buffalo plowing, rice being threshed, graceful fishing nets above small waterways. This is the Vietnam I remember: rural, simple, almost eternal. What’s different is the absence of war, the absence of Americans, barbed wire, artillery, choppers, and jet fighters. Half my life I have longed to witness peace in this land I have never been able to see in my mind’s eye except in the midst of war. Remember this. The world continues. There are winners and there are losers, but the war is over. [Mr. Duc also introduced me to Mrs. Na, the woman I visited at the beginning of this pamphlet]. [Excerpt from “Guerilla War”: It’s practically impossible/ to tell civilians/ from the Viet Cong./After awhile/ you quit trying.]
[I met] Tran Thi Bich at the open pavilion commemorating the tunnels of Cu Chi. Beginning in 1965, the VC constructed over 320 km of interconnecting [tunnels]. Americans never found more than a small portion of them. Some even ran under US military installations [and were use to blow up US choppers]. Miss Bich grew up in the tunnels, from age 8 to 18. [I took a trip down 50 yards of pitch black and horribly confining tunnels]. [They endured life in the tunnels and fought an effective war]. No wonder they beat us.
It isn’t just the American architecture or the awful smog that makes Ho Chi Minh City different from Hanoi, or the fact that things are only 10 years rundown instead of 40. Most of the street punks, draft evaders, prostitutes, & drug dealers that pandered to off-duty American GIs are gone. Ho Chi Minh City is a much safer & saner place than Saigon ever was during the war. I am much more at ease out in the country amid the rice fields & irrigation ditches & twisting waterways. I had forgotten the dust of Vietnam; powdery fine & six inches thick on the road to Tay Ninh. [A soldier with a loaded AK-47 prevents me from getting pictures of the river there].
The Pagoda of the [30 ft. pink] Sleeping Buddha perches on a hillside high above the South China Sea on the outskirts of Vung Tau, 125 km east of Ho Chi Minh City. [Years ago I took “souvenirs” from another Buddhist temple before the roof collapsed; we had spent a ½ hour battering in the walls]. [This time] I take incense sticks & hold them while the old man lights them. I bow three times, then place the incense in a large painted vase.
[Excerpt from TWICE BETRAYED, by Ehrhart, about Nguyen Thi My Huong, an Amer-Asian child left behind]: Some American soldier/ came to your mother for love, or lust…or respite from loneliness/ and you happened… I have no way to tell you that I cannot stay here/ and I cannot take you with me… I will dream you are my own daughter./ But none of that will matter when you come here tomorrow and I’m gone.
Nguyen Thi My Huong is 14 years old, a beautiful white Amerasian. Perhaps it is true, as General Kinh has told me, that most Amerasians really have been successfully integrated into Vietnamese society. I don’t know. I met Huong and her friend Nguyen Ngoc Tuan in the park across from the old National Assembly on my 1st night in Ho Chi Minh City. Huong says she has papers and will be going to America in 4 months, [but I don’t think so. Our last night I tell her I’ll miss her, and she shyly asks for a kiss goodbye].
General Kinh Chi joined the Viet Minh in 1945; all 7 of his children served in the army; he is no longer an active general. He is waiting for me in the hotel lobby on the morning I am to leave. I have grown very fond of this man who has been a kind host and solicitous companion, full of humor and grace. It is hard to believe that in another time he might have killed me. Most of my fellow passengers are Vietnamese, Orderly Departure Program emigrants bound for new lives in France and the United States.
[Conclusion]—[8 American veterans were allowed to go to central Vietnam at the same time I was told I could not]. But now when I think of Vietnam, I will not see in my mind’s eye the barbed wire, the grim patrols, and the [sudden], violent death. Now I will see those graceful fishing boats gliding out of the late afternoon sun across the South China Sea toward safe harbor at Vung Tau, and buffalo boys riding the backs of those great gray beasts in the fields. I do not think for a moment that all is well in Vietnam. The effects of 80 years of colonial exploitation, 30 years of war, and 10 years of economic and diplomatic isolation were every where painfully evident, as was the austere presence of a government I can hardly feel too comfortable with. [Along with the memory of some faithful lieutenants and servants left behind, I will carry forever the kiss I received from Nguyen Thi My Huong.
I am more concerned these days about the war my children may one day be asked or ordered to fight. Now we are being told that if we don’t stop communist in Nicaragua, we will have to fight in the streets of Brownsville, TX. How long will it be before my government sends my children to wage war against the children of another Nguyen Thi Na? Old Mrs. Na wanted little else than for us to stop killing her children and go home.
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274. Nonviolence on Trial (by Robert W. Hillegass; 1987)
about the author—Robert Hillegrass writes: “The earliest seeds for my exploration of nonviolence were sown at Swarthmore college… Each of us is responsible for life” [Aside from family life-experience] the chief preparation for this account was participation in the nonviolent direct actions of the peace group Ailanthus. Friends who read the jail log encouraged him to give a more complete account of his experience with non-violence.
Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” William Tomlinson
We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God.
One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is a reality grounded in Being itself; it is only a latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by the faith of individuals expressed in action. Robert Hillegrass
preface—Here I will give an account of personal experiences with nonviolent thinking & acting that took place over a 9-year period. Then I want to describe the process by which I learned that truth can be mediated through action, in the absence of a fully formed faith position. Acting out nonviolent witness for peace provided for rediscovery of Quaker Peace Testimony. Some kinds of truth can only be known through direct experience.
The actions I describe in this paper are small-scale & low-risk by most standards; I believe that faithfully undertaken, any nonviolent action can evoke the same inner dynamics & yield the same insights & conclusions as any other. Because the nuclear genie has taken command of so many areas of our lives & deadened sensibilities, I have come to regard nonviolent resistance to militarism as something very close to a self-evident responsibility for Friends & other Christians. Simple living, reconciliation, efforts at self-empowering economics, improving race relations, legislative initiatives, protest & resistance all become integral aspects of a complete peace witness.
stirrings of change—[I read an article by James Douglass, the Catholic theologian/activist], which described his 5-year witness against the Trident submarine by prayer, fasting, & nonviolent civil disobedience. What struck me [most] was his unwavering faith in the invincible power of nonviolent, suffering love to prevail over the nuclear threat & the world’s alienation. Confronted with the integrity of Douglass’ witness, I was stopped in my spiritual tracks. It was some time before I was ready to try to change my life by taking my first nonviolent action.
What is the problem or evil we are addressing? Is it the trident submarine, nuclear weapons, or some-thing even deeper and more pervasive? The age-old human lusts to possess and control, now [elevated and magnified] in demonic, unmanageable technologies, threaten apocalyptic consequences of all kinds. The nuclear arms race is both sustained and necessitated by the inflated living styles of vast numbers of Americans. Because the root problem was spiritual, the disorder reached into every area of our lives, making it a crisis of civilization.
Change would have to begin with me—starting with my personal relations & habits of consumption. Neither reason nor prudence could avail to stop the arms race which was premised on absurd contradictions rooted in fear. It was becoming clearer that in our militarized society traditional channels of dissent could no longer be used to change nuclear policy. Not to resist was to acquiesce, & to acquiesce was to be complicit. [The spiritual shift needed] was the understanding that I was inextricably joined in the web of creation itself.
Ernest Becker writes that we human have 2 opposite drives: to assert ourselves as individuals who matter & can make a difference in the world, & to feel that we are giving ourselves to the eternal purposes & processes of a Higher Reality within the universe. For me, nonviolent direct action eventually came to satisfy Becker’s conditions better than anything else. I have found a number of ways of bridging [my separation from the rest of creation that involve seeking personal connection with people in need, & attentiveness to what is going on around me in creation]. All of this was preparation for personal witness but preparation of a kind that is never finished.
ailanthus: the first action—Paul, a Quaker friend, & several others had called together some friends to form a nonviolent peace community. The focus of the witness would be Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, where the work was to design 1st-strike guidance systems for the Trident, cruise and MX missiles. This group of Friends and Catholics and others agreed to meet every Sunday evening for prayer, meditation, and study of non-violent texts (Gospels, Gandhi, and Tolstoy. Every Monday morning, we would go to Draper to conduct a silent vigil with signs and banners, sometimes accompanied by leaflets. By our willingness to risk arrest in carrying out our witness, we hoped to testify that there was a higher power than the weapons in which we could all place our trust.
I joined Ailanthus, full of anxiety & incredulity. I was embarking on a course with unforeseeable consequences. Risking arrest & jail frightened me partly because of what I knew about the eventuality, but even more for what I didn’t. After watching & being deeply affected by a film about Hiroshima, taken the day the bomb was dropped, we felt compelled to re-enact in some way the Hiroshima experience for Draper people, [who may have detached themselves from the consequences of developing a guidance system for a nuclear weapon]. With the names of Hiroshima victims pinned to our torn & soot-streaked clothes, we lay as people dead or dying, crying out for help or water. The witness, in plain view of Draper workers, ended with the living carrying out “the dead.” I felt joyous liberation, the freedom that flows from acting out of conscience in spite of risks. Nor was I prepared for the euphoria of breaking free from isolation of being connected in a powerful way with all of humanity. I knew the immense potential of nonviolence. I knew it experimentally.
a new order in the court—During the following Advent season, along with a dozen other Ailanthus mem-bers, I was arrested for trespass in the draper Courtyard; we all received suspended sentences. Two years later, I was in Cambridge district court again, along with 3 other Ailanthus friends. The state filed a motion to prevent us from testifying to our motives, our religious convictions, or our knowledge of the work done at the lab.
[From our preparation] for trial, we emerged with essentially two goals: to witness to the loving presence of God in ourselves and all others in court; and to defend what seemed to us to be the self-evident human right to act nonviolently to try to preserve life. We had determined to go pro se, i.e. represent our selves to make clear that our reason for being in court was to witness to the truth, rather than to “win” the case.
The state 1st called the arresting officers & the Draper security people to testify; we were on a 1st-name basis with some. They clear had no heart for arresting us, but [they] “had their job to do.” As we testified overstepped the constraints of the in limine motion, the District Attorney had objected immediately. The judge on his part became afflicted with a odd sort of “blindness.” He would allow the D.A. to stand for a long time with her objection before he “saw” her. It was not long before the jury and everyone else in the courtroom knew exactly what the real issue was: the right of citizens to call attention to the government’s genocidal nuclear policy.
Within an hour the jury was back with a “guilty” verdict. To our astonishment the foreman then asked to read a statement. They found us guilty “only under narrowest interpretation of the law,” & the case “raised deep moral & philosophical questions that urgently need the widest possible public discussion.” The judge offered the alternative sentence of community service. We each responded individually. I acknowledged the judge’s partner-ship in our witness, but said I could not accept any penalty, because I was innocent. [My co-defendants joined in my response]; we stood crying in each other’s arms. The judge told us he was refusing to execute sentence until we had taken 6 weeks to consider appealing the case. We appealed in order to carry our witness to a higher level of judiciary. The ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of MA affirmed the verdict of the lower court & established the necessity defense as legally available to defendants in MA under a number of stringent conditions.
some problems of witness—A decision to witness brings up difficult questions: Why [call me to witness] rather than someone more gifted? Since I enjoy American privileges & advantages, am I not personally responsible for what my nation does? The US has claimed legal right to a 1st-strike nuclear policy. In so doing, it stands self-convicted of “crimes against humanity” under Nuremberg definitions. Have I not a civil & a religious duty to resist the policy by all nonviolent means possible? How can I presume to speak for God to my fellows? To the extent that we are unexceptional & complicit, God gives us a charter, to witness.
[There is a conflict, for] on the one hand we want to “name the evil” On the other, we labor to separate the deed from the doer, who is sister or brother & least as open to divine influence as I am. We feel impelled to dialogue with our adversaries, to try to win them over by love & reason to be reconciled. This strain of witness leads to what might be called “peace evangelism,” an effort to move together toward a world without weapons.
The resolution of this conflict is to be found in the prophets’ compassionate identification with and anguished outcry on behalf of the suffering of innocents. Unlike some of the group’s members whose lives are devoted to direct service to the sick, the hungry and the homeless in the inner city, I remain very much a suburbanite with the usual attachments and obligations of that way of living. My wife became a silent but effective partner in my peace witness [by becoming the sole breadwinner]. [In my Wellesley Friends Meeting] I have laid upon Friends the call to nonviolent action, [sometimes cheerfully], sometimes a bit obstinately. Individuals and the Meeting offered support for some of the court costs. [I have been led] to a better understanding of the connections between nonviolent resistance and the Quaker Peace Testimony.
siftings and sightings—I have discovered what I believe by acting. The early Quaker William Tomlinson wrote: “Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God. I discovered that it was only in the process of giving myself to an action I felt impelled to take that I began to appropriate truths that until then had been little more than Sunday morning commonplaces for me.
[Then], there is the need to overcome one’s own inner violence, which may take the subtler forms of competition, personal domination, or manipulation. In prison, the emotional needs of other prisoners and the overriding need to maintain a calm and humane atmosphere provide constant opportunities for self-forgetful, creative actions. I found that in an anesthetized society, the witness helped to keep me in touch with reality; witnessing has kept me whole and alive. Ernest Becker said: “The only secure truth men have is that which they themselves create and dramatize; to live is to play at the meaning of life.” Such an approach to expanding our minds and spirits is what is required of us humans if we are to evolve spiritually.
Nonviolence as a political act cannot be said to “work”; as practiced by religious persons it is not a tactic for change, but a spiritual response grounded in a transcendent faith. Gandhi said: “We must renounce the fruits of our actions in advance.” Nonviolence rejects the secular, pragmatic approach that begins with a goal & then searches for the most “effective,” way of reaching it. Nonviolent faith holds that means & ends are inseparable; the latter grows out of the former as “fruit out of a seed.” It is to be used “as an instrument of peace.”
I have formed a working belief that nonviolence is most likely to flourish over the long term when it issues from a small community of faith [made up of autonomous, self-directed individuals]. Such faith communities, combining resistance with experiments in simple living, might well provide nuclei for a new society, if the present one meets catastrophe. What is need now is a growing network of such communities. One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is a reality grounded in Being itself; it is only a latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by the faith of individuals expressed in action. It is clear that it is we who are on trial; it is only by our active witness that we can hope to keep this Court alive and in session.
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275. The Needle’s Eye: (by Carol Reilley Urner ; 1987)
Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side.
Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow. Carol Reilley Urner
About the Author—During the last 21 years Carol Reilley Urner has moved with her family around the world while her husband, Jack has served as a consultant to governments in Libya, the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. She has work as a grassroots volunteer with [the dispossessed]. Her activities in 4 countries have led to FWCC Right Sharing of World Resources projects there. This pamphlet contains the undelivered portions of her experiences given after her 1986 talk on “The Spirit, The Light, and The Way.”
1-2—I found myself thrust in the midst of controversy between church & state & between martial law dictatorship & rebels inspired by Chinese Maoists. What I learned inwardly & spiritually moved me closer to the gospel root of my Quaker faith. Each of us must be honed & purified [by God] if we are to be of use. We had lived 4 years in the Philippines, our 1st experience as “isolated friends.” My husband was a UN planning consultant.
We were forced to realize that what we called Quaker simplicity” was not simplicity at all: we were very wealthy in a poor world. We were part of the 1st world shielded from [the poor] within an armed fortress. I recognized the evil, but did not have the moral strength to radically change my family’s life style. I volunteered as a teacher in a slum community, & became part of an advocacy and self-help organization working with Manila’s squatter communities. In the absence of supportive Friends, I turned to John Woolman. I also met Filipino Catholic sisters, & Protestant lay workers who accepted poverty in order to stand beside the poorest in their struggle.
3-4—My husband took me to visit a Catholic mission to the isolated T’boli people. I found myself responding to the emphasis on the “raw Gospel” shorn of doctrine, & its sensitivity to tribal culture. [The culture had been respected, taught, & even introduced into the Mass]. [Land was retrieved from exploiters & malnutrition was reversed]. That night we heard the guns. PANAMIN had armed non-Christian tribal people. 4 years of martial law convinced me that Penn was right in saying good government discourages violence in settling disputes.
At an US embassy dinner I learned that the Philippine government planned a severe crackdown on church outreach to tribal peoples; 160 nuns, priests, & lay workers were to be imprisoned or deported. [I went home & meditated]. Suddenly it was as though a powerful hand gripped my neck, & shoved me to the floor, forcing me down into the depths of despair. [I experienced more than just my own grief in a timeless fashion]. Only the spirit & way of Jesus & Gandhi, Woolman & Fox could make sense in all this violence, intrigue & exploitation.
My own weakness and errors, the presence of roots of war and oppression could not shield me from the demands I suddenly felt placed upon me. I had to try to follow in that way, and draw others with me into it. And so I rushed in where I had no business going, no outside authorization. Whatever moved inwardly in me was moving in others as well. I found unexpected new friends every step along the way.
5-7—My 1st leading was to take steps to protect the T’boli mission from attack. A few phone calls & personal visits pulled into place a network of “friends” from the international community, offering real & moral support. Moves to deport, imprison, or introduce guns became embarrassments for the government. Powers of government were being used by the ruling class to gain control of natural resources to develop for their own profit.
I sensed clearly the need to organize. I insisted that whatever we did must be in the spirit of nonviolence; this was accepted, even though my husband and I were probably the only ones involved with a thorough pacifist commitment. How could we insure that the voices of tribal people would be heard above those of others like ourselves who too often sought to speak for them? A friend pointed that our best alternative to violence lay in the creation of sound legal structures; we should begin as a legal body ourselves. The Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID) still existed as a registered non-profit organization. All we had to do was summon the old board. I served as the 1st chairperson because no Filipino cared to risk the post. As PAFID grew in strength Filipinos assumed more and more of the visible leadership positions.
During those early weeks I was inwardly striving for balance, seeking to live with unfamiliar power & energy surging through me that seemed from a source other than myself. The Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines, including conservatives who previously urged cooperation, joined in unanimous disapproval of government harassment of tribal peoples. The Jesuit Bishop Claver, a son of proud mountain tribesmen, called for truth-speaking & nonviolent non-cooperation with the government, boycotting referendums & praying in the streets.
Though I was undoubtedly one of the least apt and experienced members of PAFID, I continued to hold a disproportionate authority within it; partly because I had drawn it together, but also because my husband was its chief funder the 1st 2 years. I insisted on 2 policies: truthfulness and openness; [speaking to that of God in everyone, including the opposition]. Even in the unbalanced director of PANAMIN and in the dictator Marcos the seed of God lay hidden under evil and corruption. It was a martial law colonel who helped us find our way through the jungle of government power and who became one of our most effective advocates. Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side.
8-9—Soon tribal people, sometimes barefoot, came into our tiny unfurnished office. We went through their problems & looked for 1st steps to take. A group of negritos were forced from a plantation after complaining of being cheated at the plantation store. The sisters secured church land & PAFID found a grant for self-help housing. Other problems [had to do] with the lack of protection against predators high in the power pyramid.
The tribals’ claims to “ancestral lands” were ignored, and such lands were decreed under government control. One tribal group had stumbled on a formula that seemed to protect their lands even under martial law. The Kalahan formed into a legal corporation and signed a lease. For the government to break the lease, would have called into question the legality of similar contracts held [by those exploiting resources for profit]. Even such a government must operate within its own legal framework, or risk chaos; the experiment continued and flourished. Their success pointed a way to other tribal groups. The search for land contracts combined with simple development assistance and self-help projects [became a consistent PAFID policy]. Each group chose its own approaches. It interested me to find that the groups themselves almost universally preferred nonviolence.
[One tribe resisted replacement of a duly elected mayor with a Marcos crony]. [A dam that would flood ancestral lands was resisted by a petition]. [Since they could not] publicize their petition in the censored press, it was printed on hand bills & circulated widely throughout the Philippines; the flood never came. A PAFID engineer visited the area & determined that the soil couldn’t support the proposed dam. Other PAFID members won a moratorium on surveying & construction, & a series of dialogues between would-be dam builders & the tribal peoples on their own ground. PAFID & tribal peoples faced many other threatening challenges for 2 years.
10-12—The Marcos government had developed a scheme for a vast timber farm in northern Luzon. [It involved virgin forest being cut] and a Caribbean pine, as yet untested in the Philippines. The plan seemed ecologically unsound, and ignored the existence of 60,000 tribal people in the province. Both the corporation officers and the tribal people were approached. A repugnance toward the whole operation grew rapidly. Marxists were among the insurgents that moved into the area to exploit the situation. [Both a priest and university student argued for revolution and said that nonviolence would not work]. [I felt that we may be asked to die for the salvation of an “enemy,” but we ourselves cannot kill. Nor can we condone killing. But I knew that these were only words and words are not enough. We are required to show the way with our own lives.
My own arguments for nonviolence still made sense to some, but there was not the moral force to hold us together, or give clear direction. I saw with terrible clarity that I had been of use to this point, but could be used no further. Why should [violent young Maoists] heed my cries to “love also the oppressor” when I myself seemed too much a beneficiary of oppression? What moral challenge did corporate official see in my life, when I risked little and already possessed the affluence for which they strove? [The time drew near for me to leave, and I hated to go]. I found only one—Bishop Claver—with an equally deep commitment to gospel teachings on nonviolence. Could PAFID possibly survive as a witness, however feeble, to another way?
One day I called on an aide to the US ambassador who 1st said there was no way to hold an American multi-national accountable for forcing tribal people off their land. He then spent 15 minutes earnestly outlining a plan for nonviolent action which he thought I might initiate among Filipinos I knew in order to bring pressure on such firms & Congress to develop an enforceable ethical code. A brave young magazine editor turned over a whole issue to PAFID & we told the story of the nonviolent struggles of tribal peoples for justice in a dozen articles.
During our next few months in the US I looked for Friends who might help Filipinos find an alternative to civil war. I found in the Fellowship Of Reconciliation the understanding & response I sought. PAFID [slipped into dormancy 2 months after I left, a victim of internal factional disputes]. 2 years later, on a short visit, a group of us once more revived the organization; the Maoists agreed to remain outside it. In the ensuing years, PAFID, led by Filipino tribal people & courageous friends, played an increasingly effective role in the struggle for a just society.
In spite of [Marcos having Claver’s priests murdered, parishioners imprisoned, and his radio station shut down], the little Bishop would not be silenced. Ninoy Aquino, Marcos’ chief political opponent, had encountered Gandhi. His dramatic martyrdom launched a rapidly building revolution, with his widow as its chosen leader. In February of 1986 the remarkable and bloodless revolution of the Filipino occurred.
As hard as it was for me to leave the Philippines in early 1979, the time had come for me to go. There were others far better equipped inwardly than I to take the next steps required for nonviolent social change. For me, more plowing & harrowing was need. The needle’s eye [through which to enter God’s Kingdom] is closed to those of us who hold wealth to ourselves, to the self-interested, or the self-indulgent. Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow.
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276. Meditations on a D Major scale (by Bertha May Nicholson; 1987)
About the Author—Both a birthright & a convinced Friend, Bertha May Nicholson 1st came to Pendle Hill in 1948-49. Newly married, she was Anna Brinton’s secretary; her husband was a Haverford-Pendle Hill scholar. In 1984, she rejoined the staff as a part-time receptionist. Besides serving on different Worship & Ministry committees, she has traveled in ministry to England and Ramallah, and to Yearly Meetings (NW, IA, IN, OH).
And I was to bring (people) off/ from all the world’s fellowships/ and prayings and singings/which stood in forms without power … that they might pray in the Holy Ghost,/ and sing in the spirit/ and with the grace that comes by Jesus,/ making melody in their hearts to the Lord.” George Fox
Introduction—Specific ideas for these meditations have emerged in the last few years, but I have been asking questions about Friends and the arts for a long time. Is there a relationship between music and the spiritual life? The writing, having taken form during a week-day Meeting for Worship, has had a life of its own. My theme is a D scale, a moment of truth explored from several perspectives.
Scales—For a number of years I have given private [violin] lessons. I enjoy working with young musicians and developing a style that will help them learn well. 20th century western music has been built on the major and minor scales. For learning classical music, the scale is a given to be explored. I find it helpful to show my string students visually on the piano the pattern of whole and half steps making up a scale of 8 notes.
Young violinists usually find D a comfortable key, since it begins with an open string. The memory of his D scale remained with me. How do you acknowledge a golden moment, & then move beyond it? At each new stage you are vulnerable, running the risk of mistakes & tempted to stay with easy things. If you really want to become a performer there is always more to be learned, as you apply your growing technique to your repertoire. What is the truth that is like a scale, that could help us learn more about God? Both individual experience and tradition can be seen in the development of music, biblical tradition, and Quakerism.
Musicians in our culture discovered that major & minor scales support the most potential for musical expression; the groundwork was laid for classical music. In Judeo-Christian history there has often been tension between prophet & priest. Quakers are understandably concerned about the use of form without inspiration. If individual inspirations are true they should not be unrelated to the corporate experience in the end. Mendelssohn wrote in a tenor air: “If with all your hearts ye truly seek Me,/Ye shall surely find Me/Thus saith our God.”
Songs—I enjoy searching out a good piece for a given key, one that has both technical challenge and intellectual interest for a specific student. [Later], in a group you learn to keep together, to sustain your part while others are playing theirs, and to contribute to something larger than yourself. I was born into a Quaker family that enjoyed music. My parents welcomed my interest in the violin.
Moving into Philadelphia YM gave me a new perspective on the Quaker testimony against music. There were understandable reasons supporting early Quaker attitudes towards the arts. In Puritan England many serious-minded people were sharply critical of both church & secular music. It was a creaturely invention, distracting people from the life that was eternal. As years went by Friends put more emphasis on controlling behavior. Because time was better spent on spiritual pursuits, you were discouraged from trying the arts for yourself.
From the middle of the last century interest in the arts began to surface among members of the Society. We see the creative side of our nature as positive, and we are free to sing. As musicians are supported by playing or singing with others so are seekers of any age uplifted by gathering together to worship God. My early church recollections include hymn-singing, my father’s sermons and the primarily silent midweek Meeting.
Etudes—An etude is a musical study piece. Teachers write collections of them in different ranges of difficulty, with each etude having one or more techniques, which are important to acquire. Mazas’ Etude #20 teaches the distances between notes and how to move up and down the fingerboard from one note to another smoothly & in tune. Your teacher listens & makes further suggestions for practice. [There is a balance between expecting too much before students are ready, & introducing all that the student is capable of at each level of development].
Each teacher I had brought something new to my understanding of etude #20, something I would not have thought of myself. It was valuable to learn to concentrate on just one thing. Growth is always intangible while it is happening, but sometimes I could look back & see improvement. God can come to you in any discipline, for secular paths, important & valuable in themselves, can also bring you glimpses into spiritual life in special ways.
I also was beginning identify what I now recognize as spiritual etudes. Their discovery comes out of your experience. When you grope and finally stumble upon a prayer, God answers, very individually within your space and understanding, at the time and in the way that is right for you, [perhaps] coming from a source you would not have found alone. This is your etude to practice. Progress may not be easy, but when you accept the Light that is given and make use of it in your heart and life over a period of time, then more can be revealed. If I try to quiet my fears and work with words that have been given to me, sometimes I have a sense of being above the concern, or find that one struggle helps in the next, as one etude builds into another in difficulty.
Orchestra—Since it was 1st performed in the music hall in Dublin in 1742, Messiah has been performed hundreds of times with differing numbers of singers and instruments. I 1st sang choruses from Messiah at Earlham and recently joined a Chorale which presented almost the entire work. I like to harmonize or help support with 1st or 2nd violin the singers in a large choral work. Your line is just one small segment of the work, but important in its turn as it fits into the whole.
George Fox said of Pendle Hill: “the Lord let me see a-top of the hill in what places he had a great people to be gathered.” That undertaking was a large work of another kind. After an inspired religious leader appears, it often happens that individuals interpret the vision partially and defend the partial vision as the whole. [Splits have occurred in Quakerism over 300 years]. There are 4 major groups in American Quakerism: Friends General Conference (FGC); Conservative; Friends United Meeting; and Evangelical Friends Alliance. The Meetings range from small, 300 year-old meetings held primarily in silence to large, modern churches with team ministry, choirs and organ. When we find our places, when we listen to other Quaker voices, when we attend YM, when we visit other Meetings and YM, when we are led to various kinds of Quaker service, we become part of a larger family. When we are open to the Spirit, when we are aware of the presence of the living God, diversity can bring us a fuller experience of corporate faith and practice.
The Minor Mode/Composing—After a student has studied the easiest major scales and reviewed them in depth, it is a good time to introduce the relative minor scales. Johann S. Bach wrote B Minor Mass between 1731-1737; it was 1st performed as a whole in Berlin 1835, and in Bethlehem, PA in 1900. I heard it at the Bach Festival for several years. [One part of the Mass was the Kyrie]. This prayer—“Lord have mercy upon us”—has been used in many languages for hundreds of years and appears in various forms in the Psalms, the gospels, the liturgy and the Jesus Prayer. When you do not know the reasons, or the way out, when you are hurting, when the sun is hidden behind clouds for days—if you reach out to God in prayer, strength is given. I now find that I am sometimes changing the “Kyrie eleison” to “Lord having mercy,” [because] God is doing just that. Understanding can come through sorrow as we reach out for God’s hand in the dark. We receive not just the energy to survive, but the growing awareness that God is here with us in a way that [only a search will reveal].
In 1921 Arthur Honegger wrote a Symphonic Psalm, King David, which was 1st performed in 1923. [It has] added sharps and flats and unexpected intervals and rhythms. George Fox’s experience with music was such that he understood something which all musicians experience at one time or another—the negative aspects of the craft of music—superficiality, self-consciousness, pride. George Fox himself knew and valued the psalms and would have known that they had been set to various musical accompaniments. In his view a 2nd-hand musical rendition of a psalm was inadequate to describe either David’s faith or the glory of God. George Fox wrote: And I was to bring (people) off/ from all the world’s fellowships/ & prayings & singings/which stood in forms without power … that they might pray in the Holy Ghost, and sing in the spirit/ and with the grace that comes by Jesus,/ making melody in their hearts to the Lord.” Assuming a wide knowledge of scripture, he interweaves and develops biblical references together with his own insight and gives us verbal song. While inspired men and women still may speak profoundly across the years, the reality of God’s continuing presence needs to be re-expressed in fresh ways for each new generation, that the love of our Creator may be further and forever revealed.
Teachers/A Still Small Voice—Studying with a teacher is an important part of becoming a musician, [learning the finer points of bringing out good sound, good music selection, encouragement, etc]. Even concert artists need to think about refreshing their technique; sometimes a master teacher will listen as concert preparations are being made. “Every person is a crowd—a combination of people who have really influenced you.” I sensed that others besides myself were aware of the connection between learning a musical instrument & developing your potential as a person.
Where do we look for direction in the spiritual life? Where are our guides, our teachers? They are all around us, if only we can see & hear. God has spoken to me through: parents; children; friends; relatives; nature; men & women, living & passed; the Hebrew people. Sorrow has also been one of my teachers, although it takes time to comprehend that this can be so. I am recognizing the Inward Christ, the combination of all my teachers.
[God spoke to the Hebrew people & their leaders in unexpected ways, both dramatic & unassuming]. God speaks in unexpected fashion still. As father & mother, God is with each one of us for every step. For an interval our lives are illumined, & the memory remains. We need then to take up the measure of light that is given, making it a part of our lives, as we are called. Julian of Norwich uses a word—courtesy, the courtesy of God. God reaches out to us all in the best way for each of us, where we are. Love appears to be the name of the next scale.
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278. Education
and the Inward Teacher (by Paul A. Lacey; 1988)
About
the Author—Paul A. Lacey was born
in Philadelphia in 1934; he joined Philadelphia YM in 1953, having
met Quakers through weekend workcamps. He has been in civil liberties, civil
rights, peace & East-West concerns. He has published a articles on
teaching, literary criticism & faculty development. This pamphlet more fully develops themes
examined in the pamphlets Quakers &
the Use of Power (#241) & Leading
& Being Led (#264). The author believes that the Inward Teacher is a
powerful metaphor for understanding the experience of leading & being led
& thus the order of power Quakers should use in shaping their institutional
lives.
How good a society does human nature permit? How good a human nature does society permit? Abraham Maslow
“Every healthy effort is directed from the inward to the outward world.” Johann W. von Goethe
“A man possesses of learning only so much as comes out of him in action.” Francis of Assissi
[Introduction]—Very
little comes to us solely by instinct, and even where we have innate
capacities, we must be taught how to use them.
Teaching and learning make up a single intricate process of interchange
in relationship, interplay between people and with content. Because we must
learn virtually everything we know, the image of the teacher is a powerful
one. If the truth makes us free, our
liberators are teachers.
Perhaps
in no tradition is [seeing] God as Teacher more central than in Quakerism.
George Fox describes his ministry as turning people toward the Teacher within.
This is the Inward Christ, imprisoned until we set Him free. What can we know about the nature of the
Teacher? The Teaching? What is the
content & method of the Teaching? How can we take the reality of the Inward
Teacher seriously, in how we teach & learn?
What relevance does the Inward Teacher metaphor have for all forms of
education, the disciplines and basic skills which are needed to live
effectively in the world?
The
Teacher and the Lesson/Minding and Answering—The image of the Inward Teacher is common in the
earliest Quaker writings. The teacher
teaches only everlasting Truth. He will
show them who their false teachers have been and will give ways by which they
can have assurance that they are no longer misled. The emphasis is on knowing from within, because that is where
Christ does His work. The image of the
Inward Teacher stresses the primary saving work of the spirit as teaching rather than priestly.
The
Inward Teacher is the only Teacher;
preaching, silence, scripture are all valuable, but each can only prepare &
point the way to the true Teacher. The Teacher & teaching are known directly,
experimentally or experientially. To know experientially is to find
correspondence between the law written on our hearts & put in our minds
& what is happening in our daily lives. Though arriving at the power to act
is painful & long-delayed, when one has capacity to follow the Teacher, the
teaching itself is simple. Rather than looking down on the sin, which will only
swallow us up, we are to look to the Light, which will let us see over the sins
& transgressions. 2
strenuous actions are associated with worship or waiting on the Lord: minding and answering. To mind
the spirit is to yield up to it, to be corrected and guided by it, to test
actions and impulses against its leading.
To answer “that of God” or
“the witness” in others is to behave in such a way that they are turned toward
their Inward Teacher; it is not the conscience. The conscience must be taught
by the Inward Teacher. Answering that of
God in another comes through minding
it in oneself. Minding and answering are
reciprocal, dialogic actions. They
reflect the social or communal nature of the Inward Teacher’s work.
The
Inward Teacher and the Community of Faith—The community gathered together for the purpose of
being led could and must practice discernment
to test when an individual or the group was rightly led. [In
communal power] there is: the power of knowledge, confirmed by a common
witness; the power of unity, mutual support and encouragement; and the capacity
[and confidence] to act, because the worshiping community affirms it. [Community] decision-making is, 1st
of all, a search for clearness, a full understanding of what the Teacher calls
us to do. Individuals may be making a
stock response to a situation they believe they know all about, but where
further information would point to new responses.
The
Quaker business method is looking for the gathered wisdom of the worshiping
community, both the practical experience & good sense of the meeting, &
the insights of those seasoned in placing matters in the Light or before the
Teacher. [Is the individual/group ready
to put self-will aside? Is the leading consistent with other past leadings of
the spirit, which “is not changeable”? Will the proposed action deepen the
fruits of the spirit? We are enabled to turn our own attention to the
Teacher when we are among people who are already minding Him. The Teacher
teaches us individually & collectively. The teaching differs from person to
person, because people are in different stages of understanding, or are called
to respond differently to what is being taught; [people receive different
“measures” of the Light]. By being channels through which the Teacher may reach
others, by minding & answering the witness within, we participate in the
teachings of the Inward Christ.
Natural
and Spiritual Learning—Higher and lower knowledge (sacred and secular knowledge) are not contradictory but complementary goals
for education. Fox objects that the
foundations of the [medicine], divinity, and law professions are false, so that
what can be built on them cannot be true. They are in need of re-formation,
turning to the wisdom, equity & perfect law of God. [Fox says] that being bred at Oxford is not enough to
make one a minister. Ministry is a gift from Christ, the result of turning to the
Teacher & the true teaching. The educated Penington distinguishes what he
calls the “knowledge & comprehension of things” from the feeling life,
which he believes we can only come to by letting go of reasoning and
disputing. Robert Barclay, [likewise educated]
says that “when the self has been silenced, God may speak, and the good seed
may arise.”
The
features of schools organized in accord with Quaker principles were community
based on the model of family, sharing practical work, simplicity & a spirit
of reverence & sincerity, peaceable living, some degree of equality among
student & faculty, & on education as a means to the end of growth in
the religious life. The most common
feature of Friends schools was that children were regarded as having the potential
to be nurtured. The Inward Teacher lives
in them as a birthright. Quaker schools
will have an ethos in which respect
and cooperation are valued, in which formal learning will be embedded in deep
spiritual milieu. Nothing in Quaker
expectations led them to expect what we would call creativity from their students.
They had no philosophical or theological foundation for connecting the
“natural” sources of inspiration with the inspiration of the Inward Teacher.
Witnesses
to the Voice—Are there other kinds of learning where it is
necessary to assert the work of an Inward Teacher to explain how the learning happened?
Donald Hall says that in every human
there is what he calls the vatic [oracular] voice. For most people this voice
speaks only in dreams, & mostly unremembered dreams. The vatic voice takes
us by surprise; what it gives us is incomplete but original. It is within us;
we do not own it or determine it. Its
speaking activates processes within which have 2 results—concrete products &
changed lives. It also leads to health, feeling good, self-understanding and
the capacity to love other people.
Denise Levertov writes that there is an
inner voice, a reader within who must be spoken to, in order for a poem to be
well done. [This] reader is that aspect of the self which can be detached about
what one has produced. The poet is enabled to meet the needs of the reader out
there by facing her own deepest needs. A triple communion takes place between:
maker & needer within; maker & needer without; human & divine in
both poet & reader. The divine is called forth, “summoned by needing &
making.” Hall’s vatic voice is an inward teacher. Levertov focuses on the labor
to achieve communion between needer & maker as the means by which the
divine is called.
[Hall
and Levertov use non-Judeo-Christian language to avoid obscuring the wonder of
the creative process]. With both poets,
something must occur akin to the minding and answering which Friends describe as the
appropriate response to Christ the Inward Teacher. Socrates says that the dialogue in pursuit of
wisdom, can only be pursued among friends, so [it is natural that] he should
frequently discuss the nature of friendship and love. He is the champion of the examined life, the
life of dialogue, and the life of love. Many
other philosophers, scientists, and artists speak in similar ways about how the
germinal insight or the finished work come into being. [Through the work of psychologists] we have
come to anticipate that messages, leadings, creation can come from the depths
of our being and from the wells of knowledge which the common human
heritage. The voice calls us to
knowledge of [and connection with] both world out there and the world in
here.
One
Voice or Many?—How can we best prepare ourselves to hear and respond
to the inner voice which may be available to each of us? Is
every voice the same voice? The content of teaching which Fox, Barclay,
or Penington identify with Inward Teacher gives us little warrant for imagining
a poem, a scientific discovery or a philosophical insight as the product of
such an encounter with Him. I am aware
that identification of the divine exclusively with the Christian revelation is
both difficult and offensive for many people.
For example, I can practice conceiving
of God as feminine, but perhaps this will always feel like translation for
me. I may not correct my companion’s experience by substituting my favorite
pronouns for hers. Nor may she correct my pronouns. Neither may we evade the challenge of these
contrasting ways by claiming that they do not matter.
Metaphors,
especially those for the divine seem to choose us, for they come as our
discovery about ultimate reality, and how we understand our purposes in
life. Metaphors have the force of truth
but not the whole truth, for by giving emphasis they also omit. Perhaps we can be content with saying that
wherever people experience an inner voice which unites Truth and Love, Guidance
and Comfort, which makes those who hear it know joy, peace, kindness, care for
others and a sense of their own value, this Spirit is what Christians
understand by Christ, though it is authentic under [whatever] name people have
used to enter into dialogue with it.
These
[approaches] have in common: a powerful encounter which has the character of a
conversation; that humans are capable to hear and respond to the inner voice,
to participate in a dialogue with what is frequently perceived to be the
divine; a similarity with other important experiences having to do with relationships;
producing a work, a calling, a changed relationship with others. When we are open to the Inward Teacher, we
know joy, wholeness and renewed capacity to love other people.
Leading
in and Drawing Out—We hope our
students can find personal fulfillment and satisfaction, can discover creative
powers in themselves, can come to love learning for its own sake, and be prepared for doing well
eventually in the world of work. Approaches
to educational goals and pedagogical methods tend to divide according to 2
emphases; one approach stresses the integrity of the discipline and the
truth-content of the material; the other holds before us the issues of
accommodating a subject to the condition of the learner. [From different researchers we learn different
aspects of educational development].
Developmental education continually asks what the student is ready for
now, how content and discipline can be best accommodated to her or his needs
and abilities. As teachers we try to be
both student- and discipline-centered, and both our satisfactions and our
frustration grow from attempting to meet these 2 sets of complex demands
simultaneously. When it is faithful to
its foundations, Quaker education is neither student-centered nor disciplined
centered; it is inward centered. The
child will learn by having the knowledge led into its consciousness, and then
through having it drawn out.
Welcoming
the Inward Teacher—The most
significant question for teaching in Quaker education is: What can we do to open our
classrooms, our schools, ourselves, to the possibility of such an encounter?
1st, hold out the expectation that human beings can hear and follow
the inner voice, that it is an expression of our deepest hopes, the response to
our truest needs. [It is possible] to
discern the true from the false voice, which does not bring us into more loving
relations with others. 2nd,
provide occasions [i.e. meetings for worship, where we can invite the Inward
Teacher]. Those times will require
planning and perhaps even the introduction of music, singing or reading as aids
to center down. Being still is a way we
can better attend to what someone else has to say or to let our minds give us
images and ideas worth attending to.
3rd,
we can fill the curriculum with works & activities which reveal the Inward
Teacher’s presence in their fabric. John Yungblut says that a critical aspect
of religious education is teaching a child its inter-relatedness with all of
nature. And to learn how a world-wide community of scientists works with
integrity & cooperation is to be richly prepared for discovering the
ethical imperatives of one’s own life. Social science has similar
benefits. Abraham Maslow asks: How
good a society does human nature permit?
How good a human nature does society permit? Without neglecting the
content & methods of any discipline taught, the Quaker school curriculum
must also allow connections to be made with ethical question & in relation
to the spiritual dimensions of life.
4th,
the faculty, staff, and administration should be people who live their lives in
opening to the Inward Teacher and obedience to His or Her leadings. We encourage our students to listen for the
Inward Teacher by showing them living examples of people who do. And faculty and staff should be supported in
finding the practices and disciplines which enrich their inner lives and the [means to practice] what enriches
them. The good [outward] teacher tries
hard to be available to students’ needs without making them dependent.
5th,
we can search for the methods & disciplines which best open us to the inner
voice. [It could be] writing letters to
spiritual companions, poems essays, personal journals. The journal must be one which does not demand
to be written in every day, nor pursue set themes; it is important not to
over-solemnize writing. Learning to look at art & listening to music can
aid in writing. Thomas Merton knew the
importance of warming the intellect through the senses. The individual’s appropriate rhythm of
leading in and drawing out needs to be found.
6th,
we can look for ways which balance inwardness with productive outward
activity. Meister Eckhart says that we
can only spend in good works what we earn in contemplation. [One problem that arises] is that we have
become the self-made man who worships his creator. Goethe reminds us that “every healthy effort
is direct from the inward to the outward world.” Schools which require community participation
in food preparation, dish-washing and school maintenance, and those which
require a service project outside of school are addressing the balance between
inward and outward. Francis of Assissi
says “A man possesses of learning only so much as comes out of him in action.”
Self knowledge must bear fruit, and it is not enough to face honestly that one
is selfish and cruel to others; one must resolve not to be so in the future.
[These teaching practices will help students] touch the deepest
well-springs of education.
Returning
to the Source—It is all so
simple. For every complex problem there
is a simple solution, it has been said, usually wrong. [But] learning goes from the simple to the
complex, and we are suspicious of anyone who would tell us that all we need to
know is simple. How then can we deal
with the embarrassingly simple truths on which Quakerism rests? All we need know about the living the
centered spiritual life we can learn by turning within ourselves, where Christ
the Inward Teacher waits to instruct us.
[But]
we must begin at the beginning, with an unfamiliar alphabet, the rudiments of a
vocabulary and gram-mar for which we have nothing to compare it to. We must work hard to translate the other
pages in the book, and as we do we learn the context for our single page. How
is the Inward Teacher known? In joy
and health, in loneliness and alienation, but also in community. Wherever we are is the starting place for
encountering the voice that can speak to our condition. Fortunately it is our nature as human beings,
and it is God’s nature, that we can reach what Levertov calls the triple
communion, the communion within ourselves, with other people, and with that of
God within each of us. Taking those
promises seriously is the work of Quaker education. It is the bright page which leads us into all
books.
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280. An
Attender at the Altar: A Sacramental Christian Responds to Silence (by Jay C. Rochelle;
1988)
About
the Author—Jay Cooper Rochelle
serves as an associate professor of worship and dean of the chapel at the
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Jay’s life
has had Quaker people, experiences, and literature in it: American Friends
Service Committee; Community of the Spirit at Bloomburg Univ.; 57th St. Meeting, Chicago; Pendle Hill’s
Merton Conference. [This pamphlet on
sacrament and silences stems from these experiences].
[In ancient Greece] “liturgy”
meant public service done by free people.
In liturgy we publicly remember one whose entire life was [service],
gratuitous art, the dance of the holy in human form. This one offered himself freely and
voluntarily for the life of the world.
How shall we live when we know in our hearts that the place where we stand is holy ground because God meets us here? How shall we live when we know in our hearts that the time in which we live is eternal because God meets us in it? How shall we live when we know in our hearts that Christ meets us in the faces and hands of our community? Jay C. Rochelle
[Liturgical Background]—I grew up in a
liturgical church. God came among us in
ways both prescribed and proscribed. A
preacher who sought a sermon text in common experience [was not welcome]. Between me and God a great gulf was fixed;
God overcame that gulf in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. From early on I saw contradictions. I didn’t see what the church was for since it
seemed that if I found communion with God through Christ that was a movable
feast and all I needed was faith. My
church did not consider emotion a good thing in religion; I thought emotion
might mean you were interested. At 17 I
would have said a person didn’t need outward sacraments at all, because faith was important.
For
someone with my background at 17, the Quakers were both an immediate attraction
& a deep puzzle. What I have come to learn is that among Friends, waiting
upon the Spirit attunes people to the Presence in all of life, in order that
life itself might be seen a sacrament. I grew up hearing the emphasis put on
the external action, & so I find stress on inner meaning of the sacrament
intriguing. I am always ready to focus on the inner meaning; I am not yet ready
to dismiss the outward form. Caroline Stephens wrote that Quakers were
“rational mystics.”
The
word “symbol” is used in Quaker writing [about sacraments] to mean that which is the substitute for the reality;
“sign” would be more appropriate. [Symbol
for sacramental Christians] is that which
participates in and evokes the reality. The
stress on the inner meaning of the sacraments is both winsome and captivating,
but I am a sensual person. A sacramental
community transcends barriers of class, race, age, sex and so forth.
Memory
and Making—We are remembered into
one another as community in Christ. This
is a confession which grants insight; it is clinging to that which grants you
insight. In the sacrament of bread and
wine something is made and not merely done.
When we make eucharist, we remember a world permeated by the majesty,
love and creative power of the One we call Abba, who sent Jesus as the crossing
between time and eternity, space and infinity, past and future, silence and
speech, divine and human.
[In
ancient Greece] “liturgy” meant public service done by free
people. In liturgy we publicly remember
one whose entire life was [service], gratuitous art, the dance of the holy in
human form. This one offered himself
freely and voluntarily for the life of the world. In the skillful performance of a craft I know
my spiritual center. The same knowledge
arises when I participate in the sacrament.
I sing my Alleluia because I
believe the Holy Spirit touches me in a kindly way in this blessed play.
Time
& Sacrament (Part One)—Time
is what keeps everything from happening all at once. At dawn I sense holiness,
filled with wonder & awe, a moment pregnant with Presence beyond my ability
to create. There is an assault on my
senses which carries the force of conviction. When I am silent enough to look,
hear, taste, see, I sense a completeness in the Now, even while I know that I
am on a never-ending path. My mind can trick my ego into thinking the pictures
are more important than what I see now, or it can wander into the not yet of
the future. When I am incarnate, the moment fills with Presence, and I see and
hear and taste and touch that Presence.
In
sacramental churches, the moment is spread over a yearly cycle. We sanctify time and space as we recall the
Holy and Eternal in ordinary time.
Because a ritual understanding teaches us that we need times to keep
everything from happening at once, we rehearse parts of the Christ story
throughout the calendar year, [while knowing] that the whole mystery is
contained in the Risen Christ. The chief
pointer for this becoming one is called by various names including “the
eucharist.”
Among
Protestants, Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox the supper is celebrated
at regular intervals to commemorate the work of Jesus as messiah of God. The ritual enables a concentrated and
sustained focus on the Presence of the risen Christ in the congregation, where
Christ is embodied in the members. Over
time understandings of suffering and hope grow in my heart and my mind.
My
words attempt to explain the sacramental life, but my words can never express
the vision, the image, the reality which is disclosed to the eye of faith. This
is the vision of many Christians in history. It is the vision that fuels the
contemporary community of faith. The oneness of humanity which the table of the
Lord proclaims & celebrates comes into being as we try to hold to the
promise of Christ who stands as host at the table. Peaceful unity is created by
the one who offers us the meal, the one who beckons us with open hands &
breaks the bread of hospitality in our midst. Christ serves as mediator for
persons above & beyond blood relation, & these people would not enter
this particular communion apart from Christ’s hosting of this family meal where
there was none before. Through his words & actions we are healed, made
whole, made holy, brought into wholeness & health.
Time
& Sacrament (Part Two)—What
makes this sacrament for me? There is
always something more than what appears to be; I think the meaning cannot be
exhausted. Some people seem to have
natural understanding of God. I consider
them blessed, because so many believe in God but have little experience of the
reality beyond the word; we live in an age which seeks to prohibit that
vision. We retain the sacraments [as a]
means that proclaim truth and mystery, and perhaps even miracle. Time is fulfilled and everything does happen
all at once in a Quaker meeting for worship; [the “church” year is collapsed
into a moment, and it is Easter or Pentecost Now].
Early
Christians celebrated the resurrection weekly; everything did happen all at
once. With the passage of time & influenced by the Jerusalem church, the one paschal mystery unraveled into a
linear series of events, each with its own emphasis. In Quaker worship, the resurrection &
Pentecost are one at the core of the tradition; one does not make sense without
the other. The coming of the Spirit
among sacramental Christians, is anticipated in the eucharist which celebrates
both Easter and Pentecost. Quakers seek
in silence, the immediacy of that primal and ultimate experience of being at
one with God, which the sacramental churches proclaim by means of bread and
wine and word. At Quaker meeting my
years of immersion and participation in the sacraments shape my expectation of
the silent waiting. We become community
in Christ as we are remembered into one another.
Community
as Body—Fox believed that the New
Testament church came into being as Christ was present among his people in all
his offices. The visible community only
became a true Christian community as the people who gathered manifested these
offices among themselves. People are thus the sacrament of
Christ’s presence. As Lewis Benson puts
it, “the central, operative principle of gospel order is the presence of Christ
in the midst of his church, manifesting himself in his many offices.”
The
process of becoming a Quaker member and the welcoming which is subsequent to
the process might be called a sacrament, [or sacramentum, if we understand it as] an oath to live in obedience
to a way of life and standard of behavior under a certain commander. Early Quakers strove for such an understanding
of baptism as a sign of living, a “pure and spiritual thing,” on the edge
between culture and Christian faith. The
real point [of baptism] is to proclaim the news that Christ reconciles us to
God, and in so doing has offered us a new place to stand wherein we are on holy
ground. The sacrament calls me to live
its truth in the daily struggles I am given.
In each moment of existence I am offered not only the Presence of God
but the challenge of the Presence to live ethically in accordance with Jesus’ nonviolent
revolution of love. To stress the
meaning of sacrament as vow or pledge of allegiance would benefit us all.
The
fellowship comes together around a renewal of vision & heart & mind
which we might call a sacrament. This
fellowship becomes the place to discover sacramental reality as the meeting
place between sacred & secular, eternal & temporal, spirit &
matter. For Quakers, each person is
potentially a sacrament of the presence of God, not by immersion in the outer
waters of baptism but by being filled with the Spirit who leads us into all the
truth.
Christ
as Body—Sacraments keep Christ
from happening all at once, and Christ keeps God from happening all at once,
which we could not stand since we are not given to handling too much reality at
once. It is wrong to begin with a biased
definition of sacrament and then to name actions of the church which are to be
considered sacraments [“authorized” by the church hierarchy]. I know but one sacrament, the Word who is
Christ; this Word addresses my condition of alienation and calls me forth to
wholeness. A sacrament is a dynamic
event through which we discover grace at work in personal, common, and
corporate ways.
In
my silent awareness of the gift of standing once more in the Presence, I am
aware of [unworthiness and alienation from God, and then] forgiveness and
reconciliation with God. As meeting goes
on, there is a moment of tangible coherence, of communion. On one hand I have been touched by sacramental
worship where bread & wine & words & gestures are present, on the
other hand I have been touched by the silence of the meeting for worship with
quiet choreography of the human spirit in accordance with the Holy Spirit. I
bring my experience & understanding of one environment into another.
[John
Woolman] had a conviction of the sacramental character of outward things, the
mysterious unity of all of life in God. Sacramental
Christians and Friends each seek a unity and consistency which is worthy of
Woolman in our respective forms of faith.
The search is still one at heart.
The goal of both styles of worship is strangely the same. Both are drawn to see the world so that the
Presence of God is unmistakably clear at every turn and in each nook and
cranny; one is drawn by words and rituals, the other by silence and waiting;
one experiences the story all at once; one receives it drawn out across the
span of a year. As a Christian immersed in the outward symbols, I appreciate
most about the Quaker tradition the attempt to show forth and proclaim the Presence
of the Holy in the everyday. Often,
sacraments of the church have been ritualized and made into religious acts so
that they are removed from the everyday, and detached from social community
& consciousness.
Questions
to Begin with—[Have Friends lost their roots in deep faith, so that
our ethics have become short-lived & trendy? Have sacramental Christians lost sight of the
vision of God as the goal of our liturgy?
Have we split off spirituality from secular life and compartmentalize
our selves into neat categories? Have we
given up the struggle to find a Christian way in tension with the cultures in
which we live]?
A
peaceful and godly life comes among us when we are truly brought into the
healing Presence of God. [We can find
this Presence] in both the models for renewal and community we call sacraments
and in the silence of meetings for worship and business. How
shall we live when we know in our hearts that the place where we stand is holy
ground because God meets us here? How
shall we live when we know in our hearts that the time in which we live is
eternal because God meets us in it? How
shall we live when we know in our hearts that Christ meets us in the faces and
hands of our community?
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282. Batter My
Heart (by Gracia Fay Ellwood; 1988)
About the Author—Gracia Bouwman Ellwood was born into a devout Dutch
Calvinist family in Washington. Having
experienced from an early age the confusing effects of a conception of God both
life-giving and life-destructive, she has long desired understanding, the
healing of hurts, and union with God.
She and her family joined Friends in the early 1980s. The present essay has its origin in
pain. [It will cause pain] as it seeks
to do surgery [on an old Biblical view]. Ultimately it is good news, of
recovery and liberation. Gracia has
written many books and articles and teaches Religious Studies at California State University at Long Beach.
[Excerpt
from “Batter my Heart” by John Donne] Batter my heart, 3-person’d God/ . . . and
bend your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new./ Except you enthrall mee, never shall [I] be
free,/ nor ever chast, except you ravish me.
The image of the outraged divine patriarch is unacceptable because it encourages tendencies to violence in human husbands/fathers. [There is a] complex pattern of mutual creation between human mind that projects God in its own image and the figure of God which takes on a life of his own and becomes a model that shapes its own shapers. Gracia Fay Ellwood
[Introduction]—All who read the Bible as Holy Scriptures are
selective in their use of it, but Friends are more self-consciously so than
most. [Since the final authority is the Light
within], Friends find it comparatively easy to learn from the Bible’s wealth
without struggling with “difficult” passages that affirm violence. An important source of the evils of
hierarchy, oppression and violence is the Bible, the very source that has often
inspired its readers to oppose them.
The Bible has done much to shape Western culture as a whole. Its effect has been ambivalent, tending to
put out the fires of violence and oppression by day while relighting them by
night.
[“Jealous God”]—The divine name Yahweh (YHWH) [has sometimes been
interpreted as “jealous,” and] has usually been rendered “the LORD” in our
familiar Bibles. The term is appropriate
to the overall picture of Yahweh presented in the Hebrew scriptures. [While] there are divine traits traditionally
associated with femaleness, and gender-neutral images, in most instances Yahweh
is a patriarchal being, and the revelation of his will to Israel is man-centered
with women being auxiliary to his purposes.
In
form the 10 Commandments are modeled upon the suzerainty treaty, a treaty
imposed on subject people. The erotic
image or dimension may reasonably be seen as implicit; it becomes explicit in
the symbolism of the prophet Hosea. It
is very likely in reaction to a sexual relationship between Canaanite deities
that Hosea and the prophets after him developed instead a Sacred Marriage
between Yahweh and Israel. The relationship
is turbulent, with times of happy union and times of alienation. The extended image of Yahweh as husband—[first
sending an oppressor after being enraged at betrayal, then sending a
judge/champion to rescue them]—fits disquietingly well into the syndrome of
battering husband and battering wife.
[Yahweh/ Battering Husbands and Battered
Wives]—Yahweh, as a masculine Deity
who shows possessiveness, domination and violence, was necessarily made in the
image of his patriarchal worshipers. Israel, as wife, is the personified recipient of ambivalent
feelings of desire for and revulsion against that seem to characterize
patriarchal males everywhere. Here I am
referring to one-sided battering with most of the physical and psychological
power being in the husband’s hands.
The
key trait of the battering relationship is inequality, a shared presumption of
the husband’s dominance. The wife finds
her raison d’étre in the marriage and
is responsible for its success; any unhappiness means that she failed. [Yahweh would be comparable to the] husbands
that never give a flickering indication that they ever do wrong. The 2 sides of charmer and beater alternate in
a 3-stage cycle: tensions builds with minor violence; lose of control and
violent physical assault; fury is exhausted, reparations are made. Some batterers do not have a 3rd
stage. [In the Bible,] there is restored
intimacy after she [Israel] rather than he acknowledges wrongdoing, while Yahweh
feels upwellings of warmth, tenderness, [and longing to be reunited].
[Divine Jealousy]—After Israel is accused by the prophets of disobedience to her
lord, violent retaliation is threatened, including sadistic tortures. The period of reconciliation follows,
including extravagant promises.
Overwhelming jealousy and possessiveness characterize most
batterers. It starts as “loving
attention and devotion”; only later does it begin to suffocate. Batterers will be jealous of male friends,
acquaintances, even female friends. The
batterer accuses his wife of being ready to have an affair with every man she
encounters.
Not
all instances of Yahweh’s jealousy fit the batterer image. There is evidence that in the content of the
erotic metaphor, Yahweh’s jealousy is of this irrational sort. Usually battered wives describe themselves as
in fact innocent. In the Bible there are
confessions of guilt (Lamentations 1:18-19),
and protestations of innocence (Psalm 44: 11, 17, 20). The [punishing,] violent attacks of Assyria and Babylon fell upon Baal-worshiper alike. The situation is too complex for the metaphor
to fit satisfactorily, for we have not a single woman, but a people, some
“guilty,” some “innocent.”
[Forms of Abuse and Sexual Assault]—The abuse which the battering husband inflicts takes
several forms in addition to physical attack: economic deprivation; social
isolation; sexual assault. The husband
is usually the chief breadwinner; even if she has her own income, he will
control it so that she is in the position of supplicant. The economic relationship between Yahweh as
husband and Israel as wife falls into this extreme category. The husband insists on the right to pass on
his wife’s friends. Knowing he is
capable of violence toward her friends, the wife will loosen her ties with them
in order to protect them. When these maneuvers have their full effect, she is
overcome by feelings of helplessness, having become his captive. Captivity is a very prominent factor in
Yahweh’s relationship to Israel; Yahweh incites others to imprison her.
Battered
women are often told that they being sexually provocative to other men. Unusual, “kinky” practices are often forced
upon her; she often does not know from one time to the next whether sexual
relations will be pleasurable or a dreadful ordeal. Yahweh punishes Israel by means of rape in a series of grim passages. [Threats of stripping her naked and of gang
rape appear in several passages].
[Child Abuse/Sexual Attitude]—Some men who batter their wives also abuse their
children, [anywhere from ⅓ to slightly over ½].
The extended image of adultery and wife-battering in Hosea very early
includes the children, who are initially rejected because the husband (Hosea,
symbolizing Yahweh) believes they are not his.
[The children of Samaria
mentioned in Hosea 13:16]
are not symbols only but real human beings, victims of Yahweh’s violence
against Samaria as their mother.
This horror is presented as justice.
What of Gomer, Hosea’s wife? Did
she actually commit adultery? Was she
happy to be pursued and reclaimed by a man who was tenderly loving one day and
talking gang-rape and evisceration another?
Ezekiel also includes child battering in his imagery of wife-abuse, as
Yahweh incites the rapists to kill their children. Clearly the issue is that the children are
his property, and he kills them to increase the torture to their mother.
The
battering husband is deeply ambivalent about female sexuality. He desires intimacy with her, [but not the
vulnerability that goes with it.] He
reacts to her like a toddler to his enormously powerful mother. It is difficult for him to see how dangerous
his tantrums have become. There are
texts that show that Yahweh as husband is not only enraged with Israel because of her actions but harbors this hostility toward
her very femaleness. Defilement was
mortally dangerous, a quasi-physical contagion.
For many ancients this was equally true of the shed blood of murder and
the blood of the menstrual or postpartum woman.
[In many biblical passages, it is clear that something essential to
female sexuality is part of what needs to be “cleansed” and done away with in
order to assuage the fury of the divine batterer.
[Interpreting the Prophetic Metaphor]—Some may hesitate to accept the language of battering
to describe Yahweh’s violent judgment, implying as it does that the divine
“husband” is a destructive, pathologically disturbed individual and the human
“wife” an innocent victim, because it seems to do away with the reality of
human guilt. [We are actually] applying
the prophetic critique to the prophets themselves. Feminists will see marital possessiveness as
a dehumanizing outgrowth of patriarchy, while mystics in many traditions will
call any form of possessiveness a deluded attempt to put the finite for the
Infinite.
Few
would deny that abusing the poor [calls for outrage]. What is unacceptable &
abhorrent is imaging these social evils as the acts of the rebellious child or
insubordinate wife, justly incurring the husband’s and father’s violence. The
prophets have turned the natural image upside down when they metaphorically
blame 2 oppressed classes. Because they supplied images of wrathful God &
sinful Israel before the event, because they gave a meaningful
explanation, they made endurable the unendurable; the images kept Israel & its concept of God alive.
But
the poor fit of these and similar images was suspected early. This awareness was reflected in the book of
Job and verses like Genesis 18:25.
Finally and most crucially, the image of the outraged divine patriarch
is unacceptable because it encourages tendencies to violence in human
husbands/fathers. Peter Berger and
Sallie McFague have shown the complex pattern of mutual creation between human
mind that projects God in its own image and the figure of God which takes on a
life of his own and becomes a model that shapes its own shapers.
[Wisdom as Female]—We should note that in the book Proverbs and the
apocryphal wisdom literature there is a reversal of the unbalanced erotic
image: a dominant female figure, Wisdom [with her] shadow side, the Loose
Woman, an evil seductress who draws unwary males down to Sheol. Since Proverbs and Sirach recommend rods and
whips for children and slaves, God as Lady is no more trustworthy a liberator than
God as Lord. The sacred Marriage appears
explicitly as the union of Christ and Christian (i.e. Church) and as the Lamb
and the Holy City in Revelation.
Paul [hearkens back to the images of “divine jealousy,” patriarchal
marriage, and lustful wives. [In Paul’s
world of Greek culture, there is still the powerful patriarch, ruling with
absolute authority over wife, children, and slaves]. The basic model in the epistles is that of
the celestial husband who [takes his] polluted bride, redeems and cleanses her
and accepts her in marriage.
Revelation
has nothing good to say about any flesh-and-blood woman. One notable thing about the 144,000 men who
were redeemed from the earth, is that they “were not defiled with women; for
they are virgins.” [On the other hand]
we have a glorious archetypal Woman adorned with sun and stars who gives birth
to a male child destined to rule the nations.
There is another, the Whore, who is the victim of violence from
God. From Wisdom Literature, we have the
Madonna/Whore figure split between 2 figures, the Bride and the Harlot.
The
Harlot, representing Rome, is a highly sexualized figure. [She is brutally
slain] in a gruesome scene of gang-rape, torture & murder; her companions
in fornication are not punished. The Bride is not only without perceptible
sexuality but is barely imaged at all. It is likewise hard to visualize the
bridegroom, who presented as a lamb. [As the Bride & Harlot were split into
separate figures], the Lamb & the Conqueror become separate. Even though we have the mildest of
bridegrooms marrying the purest of brides, the impact of the images once more
gives divine sanction to the patriarch’s benevolent/violent ambivalence toward
the female. The choice of imagery for evil and for the righting of wrongs
encourages fear of and violence toward women, especially the prostitute.
[Quaker Approach to Biblical Themes]—[The
violent, abusive imagery so far surveyed] stands condemned by Friends’
testimonies, which arise from the Light Within & the conviction that it is
borne by all. The teaching of George Fox is that the Spirit which inspired the
writers of Scripture must be realized & active within us. Themes of
compassion for & empowerment of the oppressed were taken up & developed
by the historians, the prophets, & the psalmists, [not without oppressive
imagery of women & children, but it is there, nonetheless].
Besides Exodus is the Song of Songs, the
“Paradise Regained” of the Hebrew Scriptures. The equality of the lovers
provides a critique of the male dominant & violent Sacred Marriage. [Freedom
& not possessiveness is the hallmark of the lovers’ relationship]. He shows
no revulsion or ambivalence in regards to her sexuality. [They suffer under a
repressive patriarchal society], but these evils are rejected. There is little,
if any, suggestion of violence. As long as the relationship remains mutual respect
rather than dominant submission, the one-sided battering of the patriarchal
Sacred Marriage can’t develop, & their chances for happiness are much
better.
[It
stands in contrast to the oppressive Sacred Marriage imagery, & yet] it also
has been sacred Scripture for Jews & Christians for millennia; the
spiritual meanings of divine/human union found in it are part of its history
& total significance. It shows up the disease at the roots of the other
Scriptural erotic imagery, & remains a life-giving alternative model; [it
is a much healthier model than the patriarchal model, as sociological studies
show].
Historically,
Friends have wisely focused on gender-neutral images of the Divine (e.g. Light,
Seed, Spirit). Can we continue to use male images for God in the old manner without
implicitly supporting patriarchy? Can we use any hierarchal images for God or
any images of submission for humanity, without in some way fostering oppression? I see no way we can do so and remain
loyal to our testimonies. [Any] images, [male or female,] of
inflexible hierarchy are equally unacceptable.
To use non-hierarchical male and female imagery can be a different
matter, one which has its own problems. The
primary one is the deep resistance people have to using explicit female imagery
for God at all; it seems ridiculous, or unreal.
[Giving God female “powers” is worse than a purely macho God. And a
balanced, fluid switching back and forth will seem awkward, and] make many
uneasy, but it is bound to stretch our consciousness and break the power of the
model. We can speak to God all day long as Friend, Love, Beloved, or simply
Thou—without being troubled by questions of gender.
What becomes of those persons who have
derived their identity as Christians or Jews from a commitment to the Bible as
sacred Scripture, yet are courageous enough to acknowledge this death-dealing
theme that pervades it? The Bible need not be summarily discarded: indeed it
is very unwise to try to cut ourselves off from our roots in this manner, to
lose the history of our forebears who proclaimed liberty.
A
breakdown of total worldview into meaninglessness is likely to happen to many
if we proceed firmly toward the dethroning of that long-term idol, the
Lord. Taken as a whole, Friends have
been much less stunted spiritually by the idolatry of maleness than most groups
and individuals in our culture. But we
have not come through whole and sound, nor have we brought in the Kingdom, or
rather the Peace of God into our own midst.
[Quaker Approach to
Battered Women & Hierarchies]—Battered
women may be among meeting attenders or members. We need to be aware of the
signs, & to emphatically not
dismiss or disbelieve on the grounds that her spouse/lover is mild-mannered,
sensitive, or involved in humanitarian causes. Woman & children should be
in a safe place before negotiations begin. Therapy should come from a
professional knowledgeable about battering. The need for volunteer workers,
shelters & safe houses exceeds the supply virtually everywhere.
Doing
away with every vestige of mastery-submission patterns among ourselves, &
opposing them in the world at large seems to be not possible [E.g.] In
adult-child relations control appears necessary for a lengthy period of time.
We can oppose all permanent human hierarchies of profession, class, race, &
sex by refusing them submission or even recognition. We must “call no man
master” on earth, & emphatically not in heaven. “No long do I call you servants ... I have
called you Friends.” (John 15:15).
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283. Sink Down
to The Seed (by Charlotte Fardelmann; 1989)
About
the Author—Charlotte Lyman
Fardelmann, a professional journalist and photographer, was a major contributor
to Living Simply, 1981, and wrote Islands Down East: A Visitor’s Guide, 1984. She is a member of Dover Friends Meeting in Dover,
NH. While working
on Islands Down East, Charlotte experienced a leading to explore her own inward
landscape. This pamphlet shares a 4-year
journey, including her year at Pendle Hill, a Quaker center for study and
contemplation, and how it affected her afterwards.
Give over
thine own willing, give over thine own running, give over thine own desiring to
know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in thy heart and
let that be in thee, and grow in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee,
and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that and loves that
and owns that, and will bring to the inheritance of life, which is his
portion. Isaac Penington
The surprise is that after I face my monster, I find myself riding my monster; the energy that worked against me is the energy that works for me; my monster has become my ally, and my vehicle of joy… The risk [of following a leading] no longer held me back because I have learned my only real safety lies in following my Inward Guide… What helps me go through the hard times is the knowledge that deep in my soul, I rest in God. Charlotte Fardelmann
Desperation—This journey begins in trouble. Perhaps all journeys emerge out of the pain
and chaos of troubled times when one is thrown off balance enough to be open to
something new. [I had Islands Down East to write] when
writer’s block hit me. Canceling family
plans and [skipping committee meetings] only freed up more time to accomplish
nothing. I put myself [under pressure
and could not find God]. My feeling is
that this is precisely the point God likes to see. We are ready to let something die. Only then can something else be born.
I
stood up in my Meeting for Worship and told God and the assembled group about
my condition. My answer came in the
silence. I was to slog along on my book
until it was finished, and then “do something else.” My writer’s block was broken and words flowed
from my finger tips. I took a 4-month
sabbatical to figure out what the “something else” was. [The time in between one lifestyle and the
next is] an uncomfortable time. [During
this time I found metaphors in the events of my life that seem to indicate a
new vehicle for my way forward, training for a new lifestyle, and other changes
to bring out a new me.
At
first I signed up for a week at Pendle Hill.
I wrote in my journal: “I am
feeling nervous about my week at Pendle Hill, sort of like I made an
appointment with God.” Sometimes the
anxiety grows so large that people may believe they are going to die. What is dying is a part of themselves, a way
of life that they do not need any longer.
There were humbling experiences where I had strong ego involvement. There was a teacher who heard my inward
journey and reflected it back to me in a way I knew was authentic. She said:
“Trust you are being led. You
don’t have to choose everything. In fact
you may find it’s hard to get away from being led.”
[After
getting home from my week’s sojourn], I found two levels of inner
knowledge. [One level said]: “one term
(3 months) is my limit.” But one journal
entry (my deeper wisdom) says, “I am going to Pendle Hill for 9 months.” I had a vision of a corridor with many
windows and a large round room. Outside
the windows and in-side the room was filled with white light. The message came: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”
(John 14:27)
God
Grabs me by the Gut—The big
beautiful trees at Pendle Hill were golden, orange, & raspberry as we arrived
for Fall Term. It was a show, a final display of brilliance before the season
of “letting go.” [The whole atmosphere was very welcoming]. People of all ages
from many countries gather [at mealtimes], all seekers on the path joking &
laughing one minute & switching to intense conversation with ease. [At the
same time that I felt warmed & welcomed] I also felt disoriented. It was
unsettling not to have one’s usual underpinnings available. [Disinterest in my
photographs & articles led me to muse]: “Íf I’m not a journalist/
Photographer, who am I?”
Into
that void, bits of myself began to be uncovered and emerge. Pendle Hill offered students a place of
safety, a place of acceptance, a place where one could become vulnerable. At Pendle Hill one was held in prayer. Difficult times [e.g. accepting love,
discarding old, inner tapes, job transition, divorce, abuse] were seen as
lessons from which we grow. The
Meetingroom was simplicity itself, with benches facing in on four sides. The quality of the Spirit there could be very
nourishing; most attended meeting, although only half were Quaker. For me meeting for worship was a time of
being melted, of sitting in the Spirit and being worked on deep down. [A central message at this time was]: “Rest
in the Lord; you are my Child.”
Work
is an integral part of life at Pendle Hill; [physical labor] helped keep people
grounded in reality. There is also pain,
anger, hurt, guilt, and every other feeling.
It’s all grist for the mill, the grindstone of community, where peoples’
rough places are made smooth. [Of the
many classes offered], I did not intend to take “Traveling in Ministry,” yet
something moved deep inside me during the introductory class; little did I know
I would be traveling in the ministry a year later. My superficial mind didn’t know that but my deeper
wisdom guided me. In the classes, which
opened with silent worship, the highest authority is not the teacher, but
corporate revelation.
Students
met with a [spiritual] consultant once a week for an hour; I also kept, &
still keep, a journal. [It wasn’t all seriousness; there was also lighthearted
fun]. I kept getting intuitive glimpses that something was coming. [I had a
spiritual, mystical initiation that took place over a 2-week period, &
included a 2-day retreat at a little campus hermitage]. I wrote down the
important experiences of my life & the lessons they had taught me. “I feel
my gut is like a magnet & God is a big magnet … the force is so strong I
will never be able to pull away.”
I
began to get “assignments in the night.” 7 times I got up and went to the
pottery shed to make a sculpture. There
were 7: “God Grabbing Me by the Gut”;
“Dark Night of the Soul”; “The Pillory”; “Facing My Monster”; “Rebirth”;
“Stripping”; [“Baby in God’s Arms]. I
put them in a circle with the Baby in the middle. Another
thing I noticed as “baby kicks.” One
teacher explained this could be symbolic of giving birth to a new part of
myself. “Mystical experiences are a sign
of reality; it is the reality that is important, not the mystical
experience.” It was the safety net of
being companioned by people with spiritual wisdom that allowed me to risk the
perilous journey into the dark and uncharted waters of my inward
landscape.
Transformation—Things began to build during the 2-week period between
the new moon & the full moon. During this period my heart had a lot of
generalized fear, a vague anxiety. From my room I could hear the train whistle
every hour as the train started over the trestle that bridged the Crum Creek.
The train’s rumbling scared me to the core of my being. The night of the full
moon, one of my classes scheduled a sleep-out under the moon. This full moon
was called “Moon of the Deer’s Sorrow”; it was a time of letting go. [After
listening to the train whistle nearly all night long] I’d had enough. I decided
to face my monster. I headed toward the train trestle.
(Looking
back at this night, I realize my judgment was not sound because I was in a
deeply-inward state of mind. I walked
down to the trestle and out onto a little platform halfway across where I could
stand; it was the twilight hour before dawn. I recited “The Lord is my Shepherd” and
“Amazing Grace” while I waited. Finally
I spotted the train light at Wallingford Station. The noise was deafening and the Light became
brighter and brighter as the train approached.
I knew my job was to keep my eyes on the Light and not flinch or turn
away; this took enormous determination, but I managed to “stare down the Light
until the train passed. The light
penetrated my being through my eyes and connected with a light deep within
myself. In that holy instant I was
transformed.
Looking
back after several years, I have come to the realization that train was a
symbol for me of the power of God while the train light symbolized the Light of
Christ, the eternal living Christ. All that change was my recognition &
acceptance of this love & life & truth & power that is God & an
acknowledgement that I would forever after live my life out of that
recognition. I had crossed over to a new
country; a new Charlotte was born.
Time
Management & Inner Peace—I
asked God, “What’s different now?” The answer came: “You’re mine.” I [now] was
part of a larger whole in which my role was asking God where I might best fit
into [God’s] overall design. The work was fundamental, as in changing my use of
time. Winter Term I received the inward message that I should not take too many
courses because I was to have an “Inner Course,” called “Time Management &
Inner Peace”; it would involve obedience. The idea that I might be led to inner
peace was appealing, as it was inner anxiety and chaos that led me to Pendle
Hill. [Even now I had inner pressure
from my “inner driver.”]
I
became sick with a long-term flu. It was
evident that God and I could use this time for prayer. When we refuse to listen to the still small
voice and to our friends, we have to listen to our bodies. [My] inward message was: “Slow down. I’ll help you slow down. Just ask me before you make any appointments
or take on any new task.” I objected, but friends thought it was a good
idea. [“Centering breaks” became an
important part of my day.] Isaac
Penington wrote: “Be not hasty, be not forward in judgment, keep back to the
life. A few steps fetched in the life
and power of God are much safer and sweeter than a hasty progress in the hasty
forward spirit.” [I took “Quiet Days”
with God]. I do my most important chores
the day before and let the rest go until the day after. I continued this
discipline back in New
Hampshire; it
is always rewarding. Almost all my
creative ideas come on my quiet day; the efficiency afterwards makes up for the
“lost time.” There is a sense of right
priorities and clear focus, something to which I am being led.
Coming
Home—When it came time to leave
Pendle Hill I did not want to go home.
My fear was that as soon as I went home, I would spring back to my old
ways like a rubber band that had been stretched. While my inner “seedling” felt fragile, I
don’t think it really was. The question
is how to stay open to God’s Spirit, how to connect once more with that life
and power that one has experienced.
I listen
with more trust to the inward guide. The
nudges and pulls are a little clearer.
My attempts to follow the leadings are more frequent and often more
daring. [I direct my skills of
journalist and photographer inward rather than outward. One cannot research spiritual realms and stay
in the observer role. Recognizing,
understanding, and responding to other people doing a process like mine eventually led me into become a teacher.
I’m
less competitive and more cooperative since my time at Pendle Hill. I’ve discovered that who I am does not depend
on what I produce; that is not how I am valued.
The projects on which I now work tend to be cooperative ventures shared
with other people. I met a woman and
asked her if she would like to be my “spiritual friend”; we meet and share our
spiritual journeys and our lives as a whole.
My journal is my companion, a place to cry, to heal, to pray, to record
inspiring bits of reading or ideas. Most
important is prayer, meeting for worship, my Quiet Day, and occasional longer
personal retreats.
I
developed a slide show: “Stand Still in the Light: A Spiritual Journey at
Pendle Hill.” With my “traveling
ministry,” I became part of a broad interconnecting network among Friends. My leading was putting me out where I felt
most uncomfortable. When God leads us
along perilous roads, God also provides us with support, often in the form of
love and help from real live people.
On
hindsight I have figured out that God leads us into our weakness in order to
bring us to wholeness. The surprise is
that after I face my monster, I find myself riding my monster; the energy that
worked against me is the energy that works for me; my monster has become my
ally, and my vehicle of joy. The
surprise gift was that my fear was taken away.
I suspect that it was by the grace of God because it was not a gradual
process. The risk [of following a
leading] no longer held me back because I have learned my only real safety lies
in following my Inward Guide. What helps me go through the hard times is the
knowledge that deep in my soul, I rest in God.
At the core of my being, where I used to have anxiety, there is inner
peace.
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284. Thomas
Kelly as I Remember Him (by T. Canby Jones; 1988)
About
the Author—T. Canby Jones was
born in Japan to Quaker missionary parents. He graduated from Westtown School, PA in 1938, & Haverford College, PA in 1942, where he found love for God through his
friendship with philosophy teacher Thomas R. Kelly. He worked with American
Friends Service Committee in Norway & the US. He received
B.D. & Ph. D. degrees from Yale. He wrote George Fox’s Attitude Toward War, 1972 & 1984, & The Power of the Lord is Over All, 1989.
He has traveled widely in national & international ministry among Friends
of all persuasions.
Are we people whose lives can only be explained by saying, the Eternal Life and Love are breaking through into time, at these points? Do we hunger for the same sort of miracle in our lives which transformed that of Thomas Kelly?
[Introduction]—Thomas Kelly died at 48, on what he called “the
greatest day of my life.” [His writing
project about a life of total commitment to God was about to take off, and he
was looking forward to the Friends World Committee for Consultation in Washington, D.C]. Tom
Kelly’s death came with unbelievable shock to me. I knew Tom
Kelly had become a fully radiant Child of Light he was always calling us to
be. If Thomas Kelly could be this much
alive on the [other side of] death, how much more the Lord Jesus! At Haverford Meetinghouse, Haverford, PA, the memorial worship for Thomas Kelly turned into a
triumph of praise. It was life out of
death. Kelly once said to Rufus
Jones: “I’m just going to make my life a
miracle!” It was only in the last 3
years of Tom Kelly’s life that the miracle came to full expression, [as he
lived] a “God intoxicated life.”
His
Message—“Deep within us all there
is an inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking
Voice … a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It
is a Light Within which illumines the face of God & casts new shadows &
glories upon the face of men.” Kelly reminds us that we are not initiators in
this process, for “the Hound of Heaven” is baying on our tracks. Thomas Kelly
affirms that we can learn to live our lives on 2 levels at once. The surface
has earthly responsibilities, but way down deep in the center we can live in
“continuously renewed immediacy of divine Presence.” The 1st
attempts at “stayed-ness upon God” are awkward & painful. But it is worth it
because we have begun to live. [Eventually
there will be] periods of “dawning simultaneity” [of living inward &
outward]. We will then look out upon the events in the world “through the sheen
of the Inward Light, & react toward men spontaneously & joyously from
this Inward Center.”
A
Life of Prayer Without Ceasing—A
major call in Tom Kelly’s message is the call to a life of constant prayer, what
Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross called “the Prayer of the Quiet” or the
“Prayer of Simple Regard.” With the
inward eye we constantly look at the Lord; nothing is said, or even
thought. Thomas Kelly also speaks of the prayer of inward offering up [i.e.]
of everything and everyone around you, the
prayer of inward song—“Inner exultation, inner glorification of the wonders
of God fill the deeper levels of mind … as a background of deep-running joy and
peace; as a dancing, singing torrent of happiness, which you must hide lest men
think you … filled with new wine.”—and the prayer
of inward listening. It not only
requires regular times of private personal prayer in the silence of all flesh
but develops into constant inner communion in which we can hear and obey God’s
faintest whisper. “Creative, Spirit-filled
lives do not arise until God is attended to, till his internal teaching …
becomes a warm experience. Thomas Kelly
also simplifies intercessory prayer, which he calls the prayer of inward carrying.
“These are not a chance group of people; they are your special burden
and privilege]: You quietly hold them
high before God in inward prayer, giving them to Him, vicariously offering your
life and strength to become their life and strength.” Finally, there is infused prayer. “There come times when
one’s prayer is given to one, as it were from beyond oneself, laid upon us, as
if initiated by God. It is as if we were being prayed through by a living
Spirit…”
Call/Gateway
to Holy Obedience—The heart of
Thomas Kelly’s message is found in holy
obedience, which stems from life lived at the center, and constant
awareness of God’s presence. “There are
plenty to follow our Lord halfway, but not the other half; it touches them too
closely to disown themselves. It is just this astonishing life which is
willing to follow Him the other half that I would propose to you… Only now &
then comes [someone] who is willing to go the other half, to follow God’s
faintest whisper. [Then] God breaks through, miracles are wrought, [The world
very much needs] such committed lives … The life that intends to be wholly
obedient, wholly submissive, wholly listening, is astonishing in its
completeness; its simplicity that of a trusting child.”
“It
is an overwhelming experience to fall into the hands of the living God, to be
invaded to the depths of one’s being by God’s presence, to be invaded without
warning, wholly uprooted… In awful solemnity the Holy One is over all & in
all… Blessed death [comes], death of one’s alienating will.” Active holy obedience involves: “flaming
vision”; be in the world and in prayer at the same time; no self-recrimination
for slips; “relax and learn to live in a passive voice.”
Fruits
of Holy Obedience—5 fruits of
holy obedience are: humility, holiness, entrance into suffering, simplicity, &
joy. Humility is “holy blindedness,” by which a soul sees naught of self,
personal degradation, or personal eminence, but only the Holy Will working.
Such single-minded humility makes us bold, fills us with courage, enables us to
take absurd risks because of the faith which now burns within us. In Thomas
Kelly’s holiness, “God inflames the soul with a burning craving for absolute
purity. One burns for complete innocency & holiness of personal life… The
blinding purity of God in Christ, how captivating, how alluring how compelling
it is!”
Entrance
into suffering is accepting the discipline in which pain becomes a sacrament,
carrying “the [anguish and glory of] the Cross as lived suffering. God has planted the Cross along the road of
holy obedience… God loves the miracle of willingness to welcome suffering and
to know it for what it is—the final seal of God’s gracious love.” The [4th] fruit of holy obedience
is simplicity of the “trusting child”; [it bring the last fruit], radiant joy.
“Each of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of
integration and confidence, on one condition—that is if we really want to …We have not counted this Holy Thing within us
to be the most precious thing in the world.
We have not surrendered all else.”
Thomas
Kelly has also discovered that: “Lives immersed drowned in God are drowned in
love, & know one another in God, & know one another in love … 2, 3, 10
people may be in living touch with one another through God who underlies their
separate lives. Their strength becomes
our strength and our joy becomes theirs.
Daily and hourly the cosmic Sacrament is enacted, the Bread and wine are
divided amongst us by a heavenly Ministrant; the substance of His body becomes
our life; the substance of His blood flows in our veins.”
[Thomas
Kelly Queries]
Do you really want to live every moment
of your lives in God’s Presence?
Does every breath you draw breathe a
prayer, a praise to God?
Do you sing and dance within yourself to
be God’s and only God’s, walking every moment in holy obedience?
Is love steadfastly directed toward God,
in our minds, all day long?
Do we intersperse our work with gentle
prayers and praises to God?
Do we live in the steady peace of God, a
peace down at the very depths of our souls, already a victor of the world and
our weaknesses?
Are you a miracle of radiant eternity
lived in the midst of time? Am I such a miracle?
Are we people whose lives can only be
explained by saying, the Eternal Life and Love are breaking through into time,
at these points?
The
Story of His Life—Thomas Raymond
Kelly was borne 4 June 1893 near Londonderry, Ohio, the 2nd child of Carlton Weden Kelly and
Madora Elizabeth Kersey. [Tom was at
different moments], a “jolly, happy, unaffected youth,” and quite serious when
situations called for it. Since the
Kelly parents were so active in Londonderry Meeting, little Tom, sister Mary
and playmates often played “church.”
His
father died in September 1897. His
mother moved to Wilmington, hoping to find employment where her children could
be well-educated. With his mother gone
to work or committee meetings, he felt bereft of home life. Two of Thomas Kelly’s elderly counselors were
Friends named Denson Barrett and Jacob Hunt.
At Wilmington College, Tom Kelly majored in Chemistry; Thomas was an active
evangelical Christian. He helped establish a Young Friends Movement at
Wilmington YM. He received a scholarship for a graduate year at Haverford College, PA. At Haverford he came under the spell of Rufus Jones, Philosophy
Professor. Thomas found him to be a lifelong friend & spiritual guide. Rufus
Jones helped find him a job teaching English & science at Pickering College, New Market, OH. He committed himself to be a
Missionary to the Friends Mission work in Japan.
Hartford Seminary (1916)/YMCA Britain (1917)/ PH. D.—[In order to train for the Quaker ministry], he
entered Hartford Theological Seminary in September 1916. [He “goofed off” his first years at
seminary]. At Hartford, Thomas Kelly was introduced to the home of Herbert
Macy, Congregational minister in nearby Newington; the Macy household soon
became Tom Kelly’s home-away-from-home; he became engaged to Laci Macy, who
with her “keen practical mind … provided an admirable balance for Thomas Kelly
… who needed the kind of stabilization that only a wife could give.”
When
the US entered WW I, Thomas entered civilian service through
the YMCA, doing canteen and counseling work in Blackpool. [Thomas Kelly’s Quaker
practices and pacifist stance made him very unpopular with camp administrators]. The YMCA sacked Thomas Kelly and all those
who held similar beliefs. Back at Hartford, College teaching now became his primary vocational
goal. He took a job teaching philosophy at Wilmington College. Tom found his
students weak and the atmosphere of small-town Wilmington oppressive.
Back
in New England, Thomas Kelly pursued the PH. D. and served as pastor
of a nondenominational church in Wilson CT. He diligently
studied Hermann Lotze, a 19th-century German realist
philosopher. On the first attempt of
oral defense of his thesis, he mind blanked.
On his second chance he passed with the expected brilliance. He had a choice between teaching philosophy
at Earlham, or going to Germany for 15 months to help close out the Quaker Child
Feeding program and establish a Berlin Friends Center in its place.
He went to Germany and also helped with the decision to establish an
independent German Yearly Meeting of Friends.
The
first years at Earlham were happy ones.
Tom loved his Teaching. But the strictures
of evangelical Quakerism in Indiana began to weigh upon Thomas Kelly’s spirit. The cosmic and mystical vision of limitless
faith he had gained especially in Germany now chafed for broader fields of expression. He wrote: “The meaning of the universal
presence of the Inner Light, the Logos, in every man, the essential Christ in
all people, glowed out suddenly, I saw that something of the God-life,
God-character …was planted in everyone at the core of one’s being. [There is] a
kinship with all who are led by the Light toward the Light.”
Additional
Study at Harvard/Return to Earlham—Thomas
Kelly grew disillusioned with the lack of response to this vision among
Earlham colleagues & Friends in the mid-west. He studied at Harvard in
1930. A small fellowship, borrowed
money, supply preaching, & filling in for a Wellesly professor allowed him
to spend 2 years studying. Kelly found each day of study with Clarence I. Lewis
& Alfred North Whitehead exploded
new horizons, brought freshness to his writing style, & made him determined
to seek a 2nd Ph. D. degree, this one from Harvard. Eventually he was forced to return to
Earlham.
Back
at Earlham he became even more ferociously committed to the life of a
scholar. He spent that summer studying
Émile Meyerson. He had to plead with
Harvard to let him stand for a Ph. D.
Thomas resented his days back at Earlham. [His zealous efforts to finish] his Harvard
thesis [took a severe toll on his health].
In the summer of 1934 he accepted an invitation to give a series of
lectures at Pendle Hill. Spiritually he
was approaching the low point of his life.
In early 1934 he was invited to teach at the Univ. of HI.
In
December 1934 Thomas Kelly suffered a nervous breakdown. His strength returned in mid-March & he was able to complete his Ph. D.
thesis by May and send it off to Harvard. Whitehead thought that Kelly’s true
interest lay in religion. In Hawaii Thomas Kelly was disillusioned with the
lackadaisical attitude of many of the University faculty toward scholarship.
While there he developed to massive files & syllabi on Chinese & Indian
thought; he helped revive Honolulu Friends Meeting. There were health problems for both Lael and
Thomas. President Comfort of Haverford College offered him a teaching post in Philosophy; Thomas
Kelly’s spirit soared.
Haverford
1936-1938/New Man/1st Meeting—Back in Philadelphia he was soon appointed to Yearly Meeting Committees. He
delighted in his students’ abilities, & added Chinese & Indian thought
to the curriculum. He published his Harvard thesis with his own money &
went to Harvard in the autumn of 1937 to make oral defense of it. His mind
blanked again & the examining committee informed him that he would never be
permitted to come up for the degree again.”
Thomas Kelly was on the point of suicide, and friends to persuade him that
with all his other accomplishments the Harvard failure made no difference to them or to Haverford.
In
late 1937 “the cliffs caved in and filled up a chasm.” The inward warfare
ended, the scholarly & spiritually minded person inside Thomas Kelly became
“of twain one new man.” This cataclysmic event of late 1937 was a life-changing
one. He knew 1st- hand what
it meant “to be drowned in the overwhelming seas of the love of God.” Friends
could see the “fire” of the Holy Spirit in his eyes, hear it in his laughter.
[He was deeply affected by the incredible suffering and sin of a world poised
on the verge of world war and by “Galilean glories”. He preached 3 lectures at Coulter Street
Meeting in Germantown, PA. He said in part: “God can be found. There is a last
rock for your soul, a resting place of absolute peace and joy & power &
radiance & security. There is a Di-vine Center into which your life can slip … a Center where you
live with God & out of which your life can slip.”
I 1st
came to know Thomas Kelly 4 or 5 months after his experience of inner
healing. He was the leader of a weekend
retreat at Albert Bailey’s family farm.
What I remember most is what I did not like. To insist that we had to disown ourselves,
endure pain, carry a cross, and lose our lives to them; that made no
sense. It was also one of the most
important lessons I learned through my beloved teacher, Thomas Kelly.
Plowed
Down to the Depths—During his
experience in Nazi Germany, he goes on record on how he was “opened up” into a
new “childlike dedication to God.” “Last
winter … I was much shaken by the experiences of the Presence—something I did
not seek, but that sought me. Even in the midst of a people torn with fear
of being overheard and sudden arrest, Thomas Kelly came to a sense of inward
joy and peace. “I seem at last to have been given peace. “One thing I have learned or feel, so
overwhelmingly keenly, is the real pain of suffering with people … Some here have found all the power of Apostolic days
in the early Church. Something of the
wonder of the Apostolic power and serenity and peace in suffering is taking
place here, and I have found life’s dimension opened up amazingly. I have been plowed to depths I’ve never known
before.”
Kelly
and Heschel—[Thomas Kelly met
Abraham J. Heschel, “a mystic who would be profoundly at home in a Quaker
meeting”] on a limousine ride to a railway station. They wrote to each other after the encounter. From Thomas Kelly I learned the fervent love
of God. From Abraham Heschel I learned
the meaning of the compassionate anger of God; this Jew and this Quaker were
spiritual friends.
Back
at Haverford 1938-41/His Life a Miracle—My first Sunday as a Haverford freshman I attended Haverford Friends
Meeting. Rufus Jones commented on Psalm
90. Thomas Kelly spoke on the latter
part of Psalm 73 with power and fervor.
I asked Thomas Kelly whether it might be possible to have a religious
discussion group; Tom was overjoyed at the prospect. Our sessions consisted of Tom reading aloud
his favorite passages while we sat silently and contemplatively drinking it all
in.
He
brought out Letters by a Modern Mystic,
by Frank Laubach, a contemporary and an American. [Hearing his story of] loneliness and then an
overwhelming revelation of the love and presence of God, [we heard] a direct
challenge to us to hunger after God with all the energy of our souls. Thomas Kelly told us of his vision that we
should become a band of itinerant preacher, like George Fox. We became active in service projects, like
helping with a Sunday School, Young Friends Movement, and Friends World
Committee Meetings. Messages from our
group began to be heard in mid-week and Sunday meetings at Haverford.
The
new depth & power in Thomas Kelly’s life meant both greater blessing &
greater difficulties for him as he faithfully called all persons to the Light
within them. [His new simplicity] was very disturbing to the sophisticated,
critical & sometimes cynical Haverford student of that day. He was fully
accepted by his fellow faculty, even though his depth of fervor did not speak
to the condition of some of them. He poured himself with new energy into his
committee work with the American Friends Service Committee. In his religious
ministry at this period he struggled to rid himself of the “learned phrase,”
“the scholarly allusion,” to speak the simple language of the heart. [Except
for “Tom Kelly’s” boys, most students required to attend] the Thursday morning
meeting for worship intensely disliked or were deeply disturbed by Thomas
Kelly’s calls to live radiant lives for God.
He
also learned that one has to endure times of spiritual aridity and apparent
abandonment by the Holy Spirit. We must
“learn not to clamor perpetually for height but walk in shadows and valleys and
dry places, for months and years together; so must group worshipers learn that
worship is fully valid when there are no thrills, no special sense of covering
… I’m persuaded that a deep sifting of religion leads us down to the will, steadfastly
oriented toward the will of God. In that
steadfastness of the will one walks serene and unperturbed praying only, ‘Thy
will be done.” Opposition, ridicule or
periods of spiritual dryness were all suffered during Thomas Kelly’s last 3
years by an optimism born of joy. Thomas
Kelly preached at the lobsterman’s Nazarene church. The love of God that shone forth from Thomas
Kelly was what those dear people called, “the love of Christ.”
In
October 1940 there was interest in publishing his lectures or manuscripts, and
the beginnings of a book called The Light
Within. He wrote a brief message
called Children of Light which says
in part: “We must humbly bear the
message of the Light. Many see it from afar & long for it with all their
being. Amidst the darkness of this time the day star can arise in astounding
power & overcome the darkness within & without … It is given to us to
be message bearers of the day that can dawn in apostolic power if we be wholly
committed to the Light … Radiant in that radiance we may confidently expect the
kindling of the Light in all men, until all Men’s footsteps are lighted by that
Light, which is within them … It is a great message which is given to us, that
the Light overcomes the darkness. But to
give the message we must also be the message.”
After
Thomas Kelly’s death, Douglas Steere with some help from “the gang”
accomplished a vicarious service of love by bringing into print the book which
we agreed to call A Testament of
Devotion. The book is a testimony to
the miracle Thomas Kelly knew in his life.
It continues to speak to the spiritual need of thousands, more than 40
years after his death. Are we people whose lives can only be
explained by saying, the Eternal Life and Love are breaking through into time,
at these points? Do we hunger for the
same sort of miracle in our lives which transformed that of Thomas Kelly? If we do so with all the energy of our souls,
it will also happen in us.
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285. Letter to a Universalist (by John Punshon; 1989)
About
the Author—John Punshon was born
in the east end of London in 1935. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford,
where he became a convinced Friend. Besides journalist, teacher & lawyer,
he has been Quaker Studies Tutor at Woodbrooke, the Quaker center in Birmingham. He has been Preparative Meeting Clerk & Elder.
This pamphlet arises out of John Punshon’s conviction that to establish mutual
respect & tolerance among faiths based on what the faith is rather than an
outside interpretation of it is to establish world peace. He also wrote Alternative Christianity (Pamphlet 245).
Dear Friend/My Own Bias—I cannot
minister as I feel called, because I know the words that come naturally to me
are often unacceptable to you. You feel
that true Quaker thought and experience leads to your position and not
mine. I want to engage in an exploration
of faith with you, because I have come to feel that our difference go beyond
personal preferences and reflect a deep collective crisis of identity for
unprogrammed Quakerism.
My early
experiences of Christianity were all positive, [from a little country church
and a strict evangelical Anglican church; I went to a universalist church in my
adolescence]. The Anglican vicar’s faith
was on the surface, and he showed little sense of mystery, or awareness that
religion operated at many different levels.
The universalist minister, on the other hand, used Christian terms that
said one thing but meant another. He
sidestepped the surface meanings of Bible passages by explaining what its
“deeper meaning” was. I was both dying
of thirst on the surface of religion & drowning beneath it. Social gospel
is more appealing that personal salvation.
Objections
to Christianity—My Christianity
involves the Trinity, incarnation, resurrection and atonement of Christ, church
membership, Sermon on the Mount, and parables of the Kingdom; covenant,
salvation and redemption are metaphysical realities. We are the 1st people to have
access to a greatly expanded understanding of the universe. Christian anthropomorphism as an explanation
of the forces, powers and processes of the universe is naïve; it is too crude
to be true. Christianity says we are all
sinners; it offers a cure for a pathological condition which most people seem
not to suffering from. The main reason
against the credibility of my own faith is that we are changing the way and the
substance of what we think about. If
Universalism is true, Christ is not the Savior of the world. My faith is then
false and the sooner I recognize that fact the better.
An
Approach to Universalism—The most
noticeable thing about you universalists is that you use words that imply you
have something new which at the same time has roots deep in the past. You have
a deep sense of solidarity, or “unity with the creation.” Some look forward to
a combination of the best & richest features of the great world faiths,
others see mystical experience of religious consciousness as the great common
ground among the faiths. Those things are not unique to you; many of us who follow
Christ or Islam have the same sentiments.
Universalists
say that it is possible to have a wider range of experiences and relationship
with ultimate reality than the Christian tradition could ever permit. They see that no religion has a monopoly of truth
and there is truth to be found in all religions. For Christians, religion is the working out
in life the belief that in Jesus Christ there is the definitive self-disclosure
or revelation of God. For you, religious
commitment is based on the unfettered search for religious truth; the substance
of religion is in the spiritual process rather than the content. Traditional believers are irritated with your
answers to faith questions because they do not realize that your faith is not a
defective variant of theirs; it is a different kind of religion.
A
Different Issue—The conception of
religion as personal process is at variance with the way the world seems to me
to be. Fundamentalism flourishes where [religious minorities try to maintain
their integrity amidst] a different dominant faith. [My route to] mutual toleration and harmony,
is by taking other faiths at their own estimation of themselves, not by our
interpretation of them]. It is the
differences and the challenges they present that we stand the best chance of
widening our own understanding and also where we find the opportunity of
over-coming destructive narrow-mindedness.
[Dialogues and solutions about how a minority’s beliefs can be
implemented in the culture of the majority faith have little to do with
universalism.] The battle of tolerance
takes place within orthodoxy, which stands between liberalism and
fundamentalism. That is where the action
is.
A
Critique of Universalism—As part
of its working definition Universalism denies exclusive claims to truth in
every religion, because while all religions can be partially true, none can be
wholly true; [that includes Universalism]. One cannot simply assert that there
is truth in all religions as if that were all. Without a working definition of
what truth is, one can hardly know what aspect of a religion is true. Many
Quakers opt for a common mystical experience which is seen to lie beneath the
surface diversity of the great world religious systems.
[Many
contemporary Friends, following the “Quakerism is Universalism” line of
reasoning say] “Christian faith is really too restrictive a basis for
membership of the Society of Friends, so we must accept all who share our
values regardless of our beliefs and traditions.” A unilateral universalist reconstruction of Quakerism
can only take place by ignoring the position of the non-universalist majority
in the Society of Friends. I am not
ready to make this kind of break. [More
and more], the substance of Quaker belief is summarized in a series of saws and
maxims. They work like trump cards,
[ending all chance of further arguments].
Some
Saws and Maxims—The seeker is the ace of trumps. “Quakerism
began among the 17th century Seekers” who rejected doctrines in
favor of experience. That is not how
Quakerism began. The notions card says that since Quakers
refused to discuss things like sin, salvation and atonement, i.e. notions, we
have no need of theology or Bible. The
early Quakers had a precise theology and knew the Bible backwards. The new
Light card is from 1931 London Yearly Meeting (“Be open to new light from
whatever quarter it may come).” The personal testimony is all card, [from
George Fox’s] “But what canst thou say?” is used to minimize corporate
commitment and elevate sincerity of a conviction over its truth.
The
utterances of the Quakers of old had a context, they were part of a
terminology, they were derived from a coherent and consistent theological
framework. Compared with this rich
dialogue growing out of experience, I find one-line summaries of a profound
faith trivial and depressing. Anyone
seeking to say that Christianity is a part of our testimony may now be told
that they might be happier elsewhere.
[In my own meeting] I am highly inhibited in saying anything specifically
religious at all in case I tread on somebody’s toes. The one thing out of the question [in 1st-Day
School] is explicit Christian teaching.
The
following points would likely be raised in any discussion of this issue. 1st, there is “that of God in every
one.” Unless you know what is meant by
“that” and “God” it is not much help. 2nd,
there are values; Friends share many
common values. I don’t know about you,
but I go to meeting to worship God, not to have values. [It is too broad of a characteristic and
includes too many to define Quakerism].
Then,
there is the individualist move. It is customary to say in some quarters that
the Society of Friends has never made any unalterable statements of
belief. Many deduce from this that no
gathering or body may make any authoritative statement about what Quakerism
is. Universalists sometimes argue from
these principles that the Society cannot deny membership to
non-Christians. This is a set of
assumption about the nature of the Society of Friends which is open to
question. It is highly arguable whether
doctrine will support those who reckon that it is continuing revelation that is
leading Quakerism toward Universalism.
[The
conditions for continuing revelation] rested on conversion to a faith in the triune
God of the Christian revelation.
Continuous revelation is cumulative, not selective. It teaches us to believe more deeply, not
more narrowly. You ought to either
accept the tradition or face the fact that it may be human preference and not
divine guidance that causes Quakers to change their collective minds.
The
Problem Stated—The majority
Programmed Quakers ask: Why is it so
hard to talk about Christ? The
absence of an institutional requirement for novelty to prove itself over time
has led the unprogrammed tradition to open itself to outside influences
without being clear about what effect they would have on it. I have seen the rapid growth of the opinion
that it is this syncretism above all other things which is the defining
characteristic of Quakerism. If you worship the Spirit that was in Jesus, but
not Jesus, & that you follow him only as a great moral teacher, I don’t see
how your position can be the foundation for a community. Your position seems in-compatible
with the Quaker tradition & what it says about Christ. The argument against
Universalism being an essential feature of Quakerism, is that it ignores the
fact that most Quakers are Evangelicals, not Universalists.
[Your
interpretation of] George Fox’s assertion about Christ [is that] Fox was
describing an experience of God, but it was not an experience of the
pre-existent, incarnate, risen Lord.
Fox’s letter to the Governor of Barbados is doctrine and very similar
to the Apostles’ Creed; it cannot be denied, [so it is ignored in the
Disciplines]. [From your standpoint] Fox
was either using theological notions [to describe his experience] or he meant
something quite different that he lacked the means to express.
The
Influence of Cultural Relavitism—Cultural
relativism asserts that truth is defined not by reference to facts but to what
a given culture understands; truth is culture-specific. We can judge the past by the present; we
cannot use the past to judge the present.
Not only is Fox’s claim not authoritative, but it cannot be now. Any assertion that we share a common faith
with Fox and Penn is a philosophical impossibility. Cultural relativism raises as many questions
as it solves. Universalism and pantheism
were real options for Fox in the 17th century, and he turned them
down. He was not as culture-bound as you
might think.
Scientific
Method and Quaker Faith/Conclusion—Some
Friends use the thought of Teilhard de Chardin to show ways in which the
symbolic system of Christianity might be utilized to take faith (and Quakerism)
beyond Christian exclusivism. Teilhard’s
ideas can be combined with Jungian explanations of human personality. Science provides us with models of reality
and not immutable truths. Some Friends
find it difficult to sustain traditional understanding of God in the face of
these things. I find a willingness among
Friends to adopt contemporary philosophy of science as a basis for
religion. Christianity must be abandoned
because it relies on revelation, for which this world view has no place. [Is current
secular orthodoxy preferable to traditional religious orthodoxy?] I do not think [this method] can support
a theology in the way Universalists
variously claim.
1st,
I do not think that philosophical and scientific knowledge dovetail into one
another the way Teilhard thought they did.
2nd, there is a tendency among Friends to adopt interesting
ideas in the field of scientific enquiry and then use them as if they were
authoritative and immutable. I do not
think the philosophy of science will provide an adequate foundation for
religion if Christianity is to be abandoned because it is considered to be
outdated. 3rd, I don’t see
the logical connection between adopting such ideas and a preference for
Universalism against Christianity. These
arguments give no reason for preferring one against the other; they challenge
both. Unless we believe in other sources
of truth than the human understanding, we shall find ourselves treading what
history shows to be a very dangerous path.
There is no reason why we should be apprehensive [about discussing our
differences openly], provided we don’t let our emotions stand in the way of our
judgment, or put our own de-sires in the place of our quest for truth.
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286. War
Taxes: Experiences of Philadelphia YM Quakers
through the American Revolution (by Elaine J. Crauderueff; 1989)
About
the Author—Elaine J. Crauderueff
has worked for Friends in several capacities involving teaching and
curriculum. She is also an active member
of the war Tax Concerns Support Committee.
This pamphlet is a result of work done for a master’s thesis in
religious studies at Villanova University in 1986 titled “War Taxes: The experiences of
Philadelphia YM Quakers 1681-1800.”
[Introduction]—In the winter of 1979, I began an unplanned spiritual
journey. I was working on a flyer about
governmental budget priorities. I read
“The Moral Equivalent of Disarmament,” which said in part: “How much longer can
the church continue quoting to the government its carefully researched figures
on military expenditures and social needs [while] serving up the dollars fund
the berserk priorities? Our bluff has been called.”
During
my spiritual journey I came to a quiet and very firm clarity that I could not
pay war taxes. I explained to the IRS
what I was doing with the money I wasn’t sending to them. Every year since
then, my husband Mike and I have resisted war taxes in a variety of ways that
have seemed right for us to make our witness.
The results have not been dramatic, at least in terms of affecting the
federal budget. We don’t spend a lot of
time worrying about it. We have come to
know that it is the least we can do to witness to God’s love and power.
The “Holy Experiment”—During the years 1681-1800, the Philadelphia YM
members considered war taxes many times as a religious concern based on the
Friends Peace Testimony of 1660. The struggles, occasional unity, love &
courage of Friends who preceded us are offered as witness to challenge &
encourage Friends today.
War
taxes were an issue for Philadelphia YM Friends right from the start. Quakers controlled the PA Assembly and were
influential in New
Jersey until
the French and Indian War. Compromise
became a tool for political survival.
The Crown asked for military requisitions. In 1693, the legislators vote for a small tax
for military defense in order to get “approval for their laws.” Objections were made before the funds were
allocated; rarely were religious objections mentioned. Money “for the King or Queen’s use” was the
norm from 1693-1756. The 2nd
type of response was to raise a war tax.
A
few refused to pay for war in any form.
[Others were offered or sought ways of side-stepping the issue by paying
for war indirectly]. English Friends
were not concerned about how the government used their taxes, believing that to
be Caesar’s responsibility. Several
attempts were made to convince Philadelphia Friends to conform to the
tax-paying ways of English Friends. Elizabeth
Redford was the notable exception and was eldered by her meeting. In the 1st half of the 1700s,
Philadelphia YM advocated obedience.
Philadelphia
YM in an epistle wrote: “When at any
time it hath pleased God to suffer the rulers that hath been over us to Impose
any thing against out Allegience to God, we have Patiently suffered under them
until the Lord [opened] their Understandings and mollify their Hearts towards
us.” A few Friends felt that their
allegiance to God was violated by the war tax of 1711; some refused and were
jailed. Friends generally paid the war
tax during this period. [How willing they were] is not clear from the surviving
sources.
In
1722 Philadelphia YM included the war tax issue at its sessions; the lack of
unity, yet growing concern was clear. [1736 Meetings called for obedience in]
“the payment of Duties to the Crown.” In 1739, the YM asked Friends to be
“vigilant in keeping the peaceable Principles professed … & in no manner to
joyn with [those] making warlike preparations offensive or defensive.”
Assemblyman James Logan said: “All Civil Government … is founded on Force.” If Quakers could not be pacifists &
participate in politics, they should get out of politics.
The End of the “Holy Experiment”—When the legislators continued to approve war sums,
with the normal equivocations, they were moving headlong into a confrontation
with an emerging & growing spiritual revitalization in the Philadelphia
YM. John Woolman, John Churchman & others addressed the Assembly as
follows: “we shall at all times heartily & freely contribute … for
benevolent purposes … [but] we apprehend that many among us will be under the
necessity of suffering, rather than consenting to the payment of a tax for
[war] purposes.”
The
Assembly responded with great indignation.
They compared their 1755 bill with the 1711 war tax bill, even though in
their bill they were spending money on war directly (The Crown spent the money
in the 1711 bill). A Philadelphia YM
committee wrote a radical interpretation of the Peace Testimony. Friends were increasingly alarmed at the
legislators’ behavior, and as a body and as individuals labored with its
members in the Legislature to get their resignations; 6 resigned from these
efforts. “The Epistle of Tender Love and
Caution,” at the end of 1755, was the 1st YM statement by a
committee, endorsing individual and corporate war tax resistance.
Friends
Reaction to the War Tax—The
actions that Philadelphia YM & individuals took on war taxes during the French & Indian War reveal an
evolving understanding of the Peace Testimony to be more dynamic. John Woolman
wrote: “I could not see that [the example of upright-hearted men who paid such
taxes] was sufficient reason for me to do so. [Danger to the society would
result if “by small degrees there might be an ap-proach toward that of
fighting, till we came so near that the distinction would be little else but
the name of a peaceable people.” Joshua Evans wrote: “it Opened very clear to
me … that to hire men to do what I could not for conscience sake do myself was
very Inconsistent. I refused to defray war expences (tho my part might appear
as a drop in the Ocean yet it is made up of drops.”
Assemblyman
James Pemberton resigned from the Assembly that had become a war Assembly. His brother Israel advocated war tax resistance; this embarrassed London
Quakers. James Pemberton noted: “A
number of us refuse taxes; most not only comply with it but censure those who
do not.” There was a fear that the other
religious liberties Friends had enjoyed would be sacrificed if the tax issue
were pursued. There were indications
that there was support throughout the YM for war tax resisters but not
endorsement. The resisters asked: What are the consequences to other Friends,
to non-Friends, and to oneself when taxes are paid for war? They each made clear decisions against
paying war taxes, and yet asked individuals not to accept their answers but to
ask the Spirit of Christ for personal guidance.
The Revolutionary War Period/Taking a Stand: Amending the Discipline—During the Revolutionary War period Friends in America
faced the war tax issue directly, and the meeting’s control over individual
behavior was vastly expanded to include clothing, furniture, marriage,
fighting, and military assistance.
Members could be eldered and disowned for violating Society discipline. How
would individual Friends respond to war taxes and formal Advice? What would
result in taking a radical position on the war tax issue?
The
war tax issue [was especially difficult, because] it was “difficult to separate
in a time of war the support due to the usual demands & needs of the State
from those directly & obviously for war purposes.” The use of Continental
Currency was an issue that highlights the daily dilemmas that confronted
Friends who were conscientiously opposed to supporting war. It “was considered
a covert means of taxation to finance the prosecution of war.” The YM decided
to allow for each person to determine individually what was right action, &
to “abide in true love and Charity” [with those of opposing view]. [John
Cowgill of Duck Creek & Thomas Watson of Buckingham suffered ostracizing,
boycott, public ridicule, jail, & court martial for faithfulness to their
religious duty].
By
1776 the war tax issue was a yearly meeting concern. Friends in New Jersey felt it their duty to refuse to pay. Meeting for Sufferings note that this may
result in an increase in refusers. At
the 1776 Fall YM Friends concluded that:
“Such who make Religious Profession with us … and [they or their family
or servants] pay any Fine, Penalty, or Tax, in lieu of their personal services
for carrying on the War do thereby violate our Christian Testimony, and by so
doing manifest that they are not in Religious Fellowship with us.”
The
Meeting for Sufferings again considered the tax issue just prior to the 1778
YM. Chester Quarter asked: At what point should a Friend refuse to
support what in peacetime would clearly be acceptable, but in war might
actually or implicitly support the war effort? The YM wrote the [tax
resister’s intent to] maintain the Peace Testimony “hath remarkably tended to
unite us in deep sympathy with the seed of Life in their hearts, … [all members
should] avoid complying with the injunctions & requisitions made for the
purpose of carrying on War, which may produce uneasiness to themselves or tend
to increase the sufferings of their Brethren.” In 1780, the YM recommended:
“according to the Advices given forth by this Meeting at sundry Times, … the
Members of our religious Society be again exhorted to attend the Monitions of
divine Grace, and carefully guard against suppressing them in either themselves
or others.”
After
the war, the government carried a huge war debt. Most Friends paid the taxes for defraying the
war debt. Gloucester and Salem Meetings queried: What
should this Meeting do about those Friends who have a “religious scruple” that
forbids paying taxes to defray the war debt, [and who have] suffered Distraint
of their Goods, when “the greater part of the Society pay the same Taxes?
Should these accounts be forwarded as Suffering to the Meeting for Sufferings? The YM affirmed that those Friends should
keep careful accounts of their losses and forward them to the Meeting for
Sufferings. The strong Minute from 1776
was not changed for well over 100 years.
Compliance, though, was low and the practice of disownment over the tax
issue did not lead to large numbers of disownments. It can be accurately said that Philadelphia
YM endorsed and supported war tax resistance as a matter of enforceable
discipline during the American Revolution.
Friends
Witnessing—The stated Discipline
of the Religious Society of Friends reflects the actual practice of the Society
only to the extent that individuals choose to follow it. Some Friends followed it, but not nearly all. Since some Friends had political agendas,
their neighbors assumed that all Friends motives were partisan. The total of recorded sufferings in Pennsylvania from property being seized was over £38,000. Some Friends were elected tax collectors
against their will in order to inflict a fine for noncompliance.
Anthony
Benezet and B. Mason wrote a tract entitled, in part, Reasons why we ought not to pay Taxes to support War. They refuted the usual Scriptural
arguments and concluded with: “how then can we do that by proxy under the
Character of a tax, which we cannot do in Person or with a Fine? … let us not
through fear of suffering give out Money for the worst of purposes.” Samuel Allinson wrote Reasons against War, and paying Taxes for its Support, and
discerned criteria for determining rightly led action: “Whenever an act strikes the mind with a
religious fear that the performance of it will not be holding the light of the
Gospel of Peace, or be a stumbling block
to others it ought carefully to be avoided … that may be a cross today which
was not before.”
Enforcing
the Discipline—The possibility of
being read out of meeting for paying war taxes irked Friends who had patriotic
leanings. Isaac Sharpless wrote: The integrity of Quaker testimony against war
was at stake, & gathering up all their reserve of strength & shutting
their hearts against the pleadings for mercy … they cleared the Society of open
complicity with war. There was a lot of variation in the severity of dealings with
deviators.
Isaac
Grey published Serious Address to Such of
the People Called Quakers … as profess Scruples … concerning Obedience to
Civil Authority in 1778. Grey
accurately explained that “no precedent for censure or condemnation can be
found in the history or proceedings of Friends.
Why should there be pain and
separation when “love and union might be preserved?” His Meeting labored with and eventually
testified against him. Almost all who
participated in the military were disowned; less than half who paid war taxes
were disowned. A total of 239 Friends in
Philadelphia were disowned for paying war taxes or fines.
The
War Ends and the Witness Continues—Some
Friends who participated in the war effort and had been disowned or left on
their own began to reconsider. They
began asking to be reunited with their meetings. Friends continued to suffer persecutions for
nearly a decade after the war ended. A
Quarterly and Yearly Meeting “Taxpaying was titely tried by a Large Commite and
to pay refused.” After decades, Joshua
Evans was still not defeated by the apparent ineffectiveness of his
witness. Once he determined that paying
for war was wrong, he could not do regardless of changing circumstances,
including not paying a Duty on imported articles because: “I could see no material differences between
paying by Tax or Duty [for war].”
Thoughts for the Present—Philadelphia YM continues to deal with the religious
concern of war tax refusal; they have evolved detailed administrative policies
to support employees who refuse war taxes.
The historical witness of Philadelphia YM Friends is inspiring,
inconsistent, and at times, embarrassing.
However their struggle encourages us today to be both more patient and
challenging with one another. What does Peace Testimony mean to
individuals and the Society of Friends as a body today? [An especially meaningful part is: “That
the spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to
command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it.” Is
there nothing that we now believe to always be true?
While
I confess still to desire the strength of a unified Quaker witness, I know that
the Spirit of Christ makes the future results of all spiritual journeys, others
and my own, unknowable. Just when I am
comfortable accepting our diversity, John Woolman’s words call out: “To conform a little to a wrong way
strengthens the hands of such who carry wrong customs to their utmost extent;
the more a person appears virtuous and heavenly-minded, the more powerfully
does his conformity operate in favour of evildoers.” History can be used to strengthen either side
of the war tax argument. Friends [need
to be] mindful that war tax resistance is not a matter of doctrine, but the
result of an individually changed heart, a matter between each Friend and
God.
Queries
What
obligation do Friends have “to beware lest by our example we lead others
wrong?”
Do you
respect the feelings of others on issues, even when you differ with them?
What are the
ways you Meeting responds to the war tax issue?
Is your
Meeting open to war tax resisters and war tax payers?
How are you
challenged by the diversity of opinion and action of Friends through the
American Revolution?
Are there
Quaker beliefs or practices for which you would be willing to lose property or
be jailed?
How does the
Spirit of Christ help you to discern what is right for you on this and other
issues of conscience?
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288. Improvisation & Spiritual Disciplines:
Continuing the Divine-Human Duet (by Carol Conti-Etin; 1989)
About
the Author—Carol Conti-Entin
found and joined Friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has music
degrees from Univ. of MI,
Univ. of Madison and has taught at Lawrence
University and the Symphony School of America, as well as performing; she earned a degree in
computer science in Maryland.
Introduction—When I attended my 1st meeting for worship,
just before my college studies got under way, I was relieved to find a form of
worship which seemed more natural to me than the Protestant church services of
my childhood. What unfolds seems to this
former musician to be an improvisation on a God-given theme. One’s spiritual journey could be described as
an improvisatory duet with the Inner Guide.
The Inner Guide will gladly propose the variation appropriate to the
life’s theme. [One description of an
improvised duet is that one hears and one answers throughout the piece]. [It can be like listening to music one is not
prepared to understand]. [Perhaps] something similar happened to the disciples
as they watched Jesus perform. Faith the
size of a mustard seed is enough to hear and answer the Inner Guide’s next
gesture and allow the duet to continue.
Sabbath Observance—What is there in the
concept of sabbath which might be worth preserving? The word 1st occurs in connection Yahweh’s
provision of food to the Israelites during the Exodus. From the very 1st, observing a
sabbath has required trusting in Yahweh to provide what one most needs, in the
right quantity & when one needs it. [That includes one day a week for]
abstinence from work. Yahweh also insisted on sabbath-benefit coverage not only
for people & animals, but also for the environment, especially the fields,
which were to lie fallow. Each 50th year, the fields lay fallow,
liberty was proclaimed & property restored to its original owner.
How
did sabbath observance come to be mired in petty regulations? [It may be that others control time [and do
not allow for sabbath rest]. For most of
us the lack of time is our own doing.
George Fox warned against:
“Drawing your minds into your business, and clogging them with it; so
that ye can hardly do anything to the service of God but there will be crying
‘my business, my business.” [I have come
up with creative solutions to work] just half time. There still remains the temptation to take on
more than my duet partner asks of me. Sabbath
keeping came to be over-regulated because it is so easy to assign an extremely
low priority to its observance and so difficult to trust that turning over
one’s anxieties to God is not only safe but more productive.
The
author of the last section of Isaiah promised that those who brought glory to
the sabbath by not doing as they pleased would delight themselves in Yahweh
& ride on the heights of the earth. To delight ourselves in Yahweh must be
the essence of sabbath keeping, whenever & for however long it is observed.
Jesus, in rejecting the inflexibility of certain regulations, did not abandon
the underlying concept. Sabbath &
holy days typically found him in a synagogue of the temple, and he withdrew from
everyone after intensive periods of teaching and healing. [To really] enter into sabbath observance, we
must believe that it is possible to enjoy God’s company and must long to do
exactly that. Why not offer your duet partner [the Spirit] a daily time together and
a much long, minimally distracted “jam session” once a week? Then, listen
to the new music that comes of it.
Bible Reading—The “Word of God is not the words contained within the
pages of the Bible but rather the logos
as described at the beginning of the 4th gospel. George Fox corrected a Nottingham priest who declared Scriptural authority. It was not that, George said, “but the Holy
Spirit, by which the holy men of God gave forth the Scriptures. I had no slight esteem of the Holy
Scriptures, but they were very precious to me, for I was in that spirit by
which they were given forth, and what the Lord opened in me I afterward found
was agreeable to them.”
How can one read the Scriptures, if one
finds them irrelevant or hurtful? [The hurt I suffered was] solely of having lived my days
on this earth as a female. From the slight wounding I have received has sprung
an awareness of others’ more severe pain.
Should anyone who finds the Bible
uninviting begin or resume a program of Bible reading? Not unless the
Inner Guide proposes such study.
After
a decade of dormancy, I once again longed for an immediacy of relationship with
the immanent God. The contents of the
Bible have become very precious to me because
I have been in the company of that spirit by which they were given forth. There will come a moment when what someone
else has experienced and recorded resonates with what you have
experienced. Eventually it helps to read
the entire Bible so that the passages which have come alive will have a
context. [By the third reading of the
Bible] I had seen similarities between my own rocky spiritual journey and those
of so many forthright people in the Bible; far fewer passages seemed foreign.
I
also found that all the English translations whetted my appetite for studying
the original languages, [the many] meanings for key words, & how grammar,
syntax, & vocabulary affected the perception of an event. [When I read a
passage, & before I apply it to today & myself, I need to as best I can
wear the sandals of the person or persons in the story, feel what they feel.
This will avoid reading in things that are not there, & overlooking crucial
things that are. Paint the scene; study it in a group; when a passage invites
you to linger, meditate on it.
Journal
Keeping—William Penn wrote: “Thou didst omit to take up Christ’s holy
yoke, to bear thy daily cross; thou wast careless of thy affections & kept
no journal or check upon thy actions; but declinedst to audit accounts in thy
conscience with Christ thy light.” My early attempts at journal keeping had
been immensely frustrating ones. [I could not tolerate inconsistencies of
feeling from one week to the next, nor could I record anything unpolished].
Months passed between entries. To learn how the individual bits of guidance I
had received fit together, I would have to ponder them in writing. My Inner Guide let me know that I had to write
down [just] a short phrase of thanks; this led to longer written ponderings].
[In comparing reflection to music, the writing process is similar to composing
music, & oral reflection is similar to improvising it. My suspicion is that
the more one both improvises & composes, the thinner becomes the wall which
separates them. Also, recording a
perception is like performing a piece, rather than merely reflecting on a
perception or “listening to a piece].”
When I was avoiding journal keeping, I wrote on slips
of paper any passage I wanted to spend time with; I also jotted certain
insights in note form. Among the things
daily notes of thanks taught me were how reluctant I was to give God credit for
human invention and how often I belittled or overlooked the talents I had been
given and the small pleasures I had experienced. [I also briefly listed traits that were
blocking my spiritual journey]. These 2
miniature journal entries together occupying just one line of narrow-ruled
notebook paper per day, have helped me so much, that they continue to occupy a
key section of my journal. If journal
contents have as their deepest hope the development of a compassionate nature,
they will in time leave narcissism behind.
Another portion of the journal may record dreams,
those in which God offers immediate guidance & those which are requests for
attention from one’s subconscious. Dream aspects you are reluctant to record may
portray your duet partner’s latest efforts to lead you to a fuller integration
of your total personality. Unanswered questions may well become regular
features in your journal, as well as heartfelt emotions. The form is less
important than the spirit which gives it life; as long as a journal reflects a
desire for transformation, it will serve well.
Tithing—[There is a difference between tithing & the
tithes George Fox railed against]: “The Independents, Baptists, and
Presbyterians [once] cried tithes were anti-christian … Then they all got into
steeplehouses & tithes, [saying they were the law of God]. They imprisoned &
persecuted Friends because we would not give them tithes, [seizing many goods, &
making many widows & orphans of the ones who died in prison].
The earliest responses of tithing from Abraham and
Jacob were done out of gratitude for the blessings they received; tithing was
intended to be a joyful activity. 14
years ago I was startled to hear my duet partner asking me to do precisely
that. Did I in fact own any or all of my income? Tithing seemed to occupy a natural place
within the Quaker testimony of simplicity.
I discovered that learning what to give away, what to keep, what to
acquire and what to do without was a vital part of the process of hearing and
answering.
Physical objects turned out to be the least of my
possessions. What the Inner Guide said next was, “Tithe your time.” The next possession was my self-will. But
what would surrendering my self-will entail? I was told to put my instrument on the shelf
and leave it there for an entire year. I
discovered that I was no less a musician just because I had ceased practicing
and performing. Perhaps tithing is
analogous to the warm-up exercise a musician performs in order to place the
body more fully at the service of the music.
[Tithing places me] more fully at God’s disposal; [God’s love then
flows] through me unselfishly to others.
Praying—There is quite a difference between reciting a prayer
written by someone else and praying spontaneously. What
expressed thoughts hinder our spiritual growth, and how may we cultivate only
those forms of prayer which help us mature?
Prayer is an attempt to get ourselves into that active cooperation
with God where we may discern what is authentic and be ready to carry it
out. Whenever we have earnestly desired
to feel connected to the creator and creation we have been praying.
It is important to pray to God in the 2nd
person. When praying in the 3rd
person, there is no longer an intimate connection. And when duty has become burdensome, when
Boss’s yoke is no longer easy, then I know that I am the one producing the
source of friction. [When the Spirit
asks]: “Do you love me more than these?” only when I can again answer “Yes” can
I again lovingly feed God’s lamb.
Any attempt on our parts, no matter how feeble to
reverse a spiritual downtrend is more than matched by God’s joyous welcome
back. Non-verbal forms of prayer span an
entire spectrum from subtle feelings of gratitude to concrete actions. If we
count all the [subtle] prayers that are converted into action, praying without
ceasing comes to seem less exotic and far more attainable. Persistence in prayer is an automatic
by-product of deep desire, not the result of strenuous, self-propelled
efforts. May our prayer become as
natural and indispensable as breathing.
And may we experience the all-sufficiency of the one with whom we are
communing as we pray.
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291. Prayer in the Contemporary World (by Douglas V.
Steere; 1990)
About
the Author—Professor emeritus of
philosophy at Haverford College where he taught from 1928-64, Douglas Steere is a
noted author of: Prayer and Worship, On
Beginning from Within, and Work and
Contemplation. He has carried out
many missions in Europe, Africa, the Middle
East, India, Japan for the American Friends Service Committee. He writes:
“I have always believed that interior prayer is to religion what
original research is to science.” These
30 personal prayers were written at the end of Vatican Council II (1966).
[Prayer: Qualities, Functions, Method]
O God, we thank thee for the honest
doubts and criticism of those who blister our clumsy efforts at prayer with
their fiercely honest attacks. May that
which is phony and specious and egocentric in our prayers be seared away by
these helpful blasts. Cleanse,
cauterize, and cut away that which separates us from Thee and from our fellows,
and give us Thyself and the open way into the hearts of those with whom we
live.
What is being attacked in the charges
against prayer [as being superstitious, autosuggestion, & pietistic]? Are
they being leveled against high prayer or on low forms of prayer that masquerade
[as prayer]? [Prayers warding off
danger or compelling success are superstitious. Autosuggestion &
self-centering is a logical place to start in prayer; true prayer does not end
there & seldom does]. The case against prayer [will] cleanse true prayer of
its shadows & compel it to show its truest face.
O God, rouse my dispersed spirit from
its stupefied torpor. Wake the sleeper
in me and kindle such a fire in my heart that I shall never be content with
anything short of Thee. Re-light in me
the flame of a steady life of prayer. O
God, keep open, keep open, my mind, my heart, my soul.
Simeone
Weil became an apostle of the spiritual life of France after World War II.
At the heart of her insights is her definition of prayer as
attention. Prayer is awakeness,
attention, intense inward openness. Sin
is anything that destroys this attention.
Prayer is naturally attention to the highest thing I know. God can only disclose the Divine whispers to
those who are attending.
O God from whom I came, how prone I am
to think that I am self-initiated and self-propelled and self-sufficient. As I gather myself in prayer, may I ever
begin by recalling what is going on, what it is costing, and why I have
forgotten. My flesh and my heart
faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.
When
I pray, the most important thing of all is that I shall come into a deep inward
realization of what is really taking place in the cosmos. God is the lover besieging the soul of every
man and woman that comes into this world.
This redemptive love can reconcile any separation, any dissonance, any
malformation. “I came from God. I belong
to God. I return to God.”
O God, I come to you not alone but in
the midst of this tattered company [of distractions]. This is the kind of being I am, Lord, and the
kind of companions I flock with, and the kind of world I inhabit. Give us your blessing, O friend of my soul,
and draw us into the tendering warmth of your presence.
When
I settle down to pray, I am always aware of distractions, [outer noises and inner,
spiritual distractions]. If one resents
these distractions, fights them, resists them, and tries to drive them out of
one’s mind, one is lost. I acknowledge
them as part of my world and my life, and then gently move on in to greet and
be greeted by the Giver of Love. It is
the hallowing of the husk of my life that the Lord desires.
O God who hast carried us when we knew
it not, and who faithfully seeks us when we are yet afar off, lay on us a
ministry of intercession for others, [and thus bring] us down into the very
matrix of Thy yearning for souls and
make us members of the great chain of redemptive love that girdles our world
for its healing.
When
I touch the heart of prayer, I touch the lives of others, for in some
mysterious way, we are all interconnected in the life of God. When I pray for another, my intention of
bringing the soul of my friend, or of some situation in the world, or of
warding off some threatening disaster is [purified], lifted out of its frame
and used. Brothering, [sistering] the
souls of [all] is the most social act there is.
There is no richer area for exploration.
O God, help me to want what I really
want to do and strip from me the reservations and hesitations which [block my service
to you]. Kindle in me such a flame that
I shall be swept into thy service. Snip
the leash that I am always retying and draw me into the self-spending life of
thy human servants.
The
tragedy of postponed obedience is a tragedy in the life of each of us. Prayer is a great quickener of the heart;
nothing can draw me more readily toward swiftness, fervor, and agility than a
season of prayer. There is such a
strange disequilibrium in the human heart between what it really wants to do
and what its surface wants may twist it into performing; in prayer the deep
want is restored, [and we become available].
O God my inward teacher, my kindler and
sustainer, my hidden companion and the love of my life, forbid me from settling
for a life of uncollected dispersion.
Quicken my inward ears that I may hear the pulses of the divine whisper
and live as one who walks through the dream of life as one awake.
Planned, [self-conscious] prayer is only a means to an
end, which is a more continual state of prayerfullness or openness that goes on
through the day and through the night.
This is what is meant by those like Frank Laubach and Thomas Kelly who
talk of praying continually. [When “God’s whisper”] is in eclipse, the
knowledge that it has been buoys me up and gives me faith that it will be
again. Isaac Penington said: “There is
that near you which will guide you. O wait for it and mind that you keep to
it.”
[God Speaks …]
O My [Creator, I do not ask for wounds
for I have many already. But I have not
listened to find what, on such occasions, you have had to tell. Open my inward ears and bring me up out of
the basement of over-activity and preoccupation into the chamber where I may
hear thy word and respond to it.
The
basement [where we cannot hear “Jesus knocking”] is so expressive of the human
condition as we know it today, that it seems for many to take shattering
experiences to rouse them to what is going on.
W.H. Auden writes: “It is where we are wounded that God speaks to
us.” For some of us it is only in the
depths of suffering that we seem open enough to listen to what God has to say
to us.
O God, whose hand is upon me in times of
strength & prosperity & in times of weakness & brokenness, may my
senses’ threshold be lowered until I may bid thee cross & enter & give me guidance. Lay
upon me the burden of the world’s need & the world’s suffering that I may
be ready to see & minister to it with all [my strength].
In Bernard of Clairvaux’s (12th century) On Consideration, he guides a fellow
Cistercian brother on how to bear the prosperity & power that became his as
Pope Eugenius III. Bernard points out that his friend would be tempted to let
the busyness of duties blot out his time for consideration (listening for deep
wisdom). Those who have power & authority
are not removed from God’s communication if they do not cut themselves off.
Oh God, if I resist Thee or draw beyond
the sweep of today’s wave of thy compassion, O keep sweeping ever higher, O
Lord, until I am no longer reluctant to accept thy invitation to move into the
deeps of thy ocean and into the new to which thou has bidden me.
There
are times when we come to the plateaus and when we do not seem to be able to
get beyond. Certain things need to die
before others can be born. [Sometimes we
have to step back from our chosen path, “rest on a bench,” and wait for a new
wave of release to come and restore our creativity]. Plateaus need not be permanent or final if we
are open for a disclosure of God’s further landscape.
O God who has spoken to us through the
Bible and other great books, help us to have the appetite and the capacity for
discernment that will lead us to expose ourselves to books and find in them the
word that is meant for us at that moment.
Speak thy word to us as we read, and give us grace as a listener who
listens and hears.
Meeting
with a book which has a message in for us may be decisive in speaking to our
condition. [A book may inspire someone
to lead a life that may in turn inspire others]. Often the decisive book has been the Bible as
was the case with Augustine and Francis of Assisi. Books and the written word are often God’s
vehicles for speaking to us if we are prepared inwardly and are ready to listen
to and ask for their message to us.
O God whose burning life flows in our
veins, may we in the blaze of thy grace be open for all that thou givest us by
night as well as by day and be attentive to find in them the message of thy
surging life for our instruction. May we be made more open for their
instruction.
There
are times when God speaks to us in a dream; the Bible has many such stories;
[they speak to us of where to go and where not to go]. [Carl speaks along with the Gospels and the
Pauline teaching, saying] that unless the unconscious has embraced the new way
of life, it can never be more than a veneer.
A dream ignored is like an unopened letter that has been neglected.
O God, we thank thee for the gift of
friendship and for the mutual kindling that such a gift may bring. Lift the level of our friendships and make us
willing to be the kind of a friend in which this tie may be a thin point in the
membrane through which thy word may touch us both.
God
often speaks to us through a friend.
Friends can shield us against God’s true invitations because they have
made the same compromises, or they can be emissaries of God in that they
confirm in us the deepest longings we have already had and give us courage to
respond to them. Rufus Jones was
inspired by and along with John Wilhelm Rowntree to rekindle the Society of Friends
life for the service of the world.
O God, how little we realize that the
poor in my generation may be able to open my own poverty and encourage me to
rejoin the human race. O living God,
pour through the newly opened arteries of our common life and wipe out all
distinctions as we speak to one another’s need.
Is it conceivable that Jesus saw that
the way to touch any society was at its Achilles heel, by serving the group
whom it wanted to hide from its sight? It reaches to the quick of that society, touches it,
and opens it to its own condition. Can we discover a mutual ministry to one
another when this bloodstream of our common humanity is restored? Yes God does speak to us in the
poor.
[Unlimited Liability …]
O God, I accept myself, the unacceptable,
because thou hast accepted the acceptable, and without further fuss or feathers
I mean to get on with this unattractive roommate and with thy help spend him in
thy service.
The
responsibility to accept all has a difficult catch in; [it includes self-acceptance].
It is a perfect act of love to God to accept ourselves & to put this
scarred & wearisome fellow into God’s hands & get on with the work to
be done. Unlimited liability may have to begin by laying aside self-hate or the
wish to be someone else as a disobedient act & a taking back of myself,
which I acknowledge, accept & seek to put at the Lord’s disposal.
O God, we thank thee for using the
family to reveal the way in which Thy love is poured out upon us even when we
do not respond. Lay on each of us the needs of the others in our families, &
grant the constancy of affection so that when we fail, the other family member
will know that we cared & that we cherish them [always].
In
the family the unlimited liability is never relinquished. How swiftly the
family discloses the gaps between what we mean & what we say & what we
say & what we do; how often is forgiveness & a fresh start
necessary? The notion of each being
liable without limits to help the others come through to what they are meant to
be is an assignment beyond any we may have reckoned with [in considering the
duties called for in a Christian family].
O God who gives and gives and never
counts the cost, sweep away our webs of calculation and give us that abandon
which thy son Jesus Christ has disclosed to us.
Frame what we do with a sense of meaning that in all our work we may
know that we a living part of thy continuing creation.
All
work must have some frame of meaning or it destroys its human instruments. When in addition there is a sense of real
calling, there is scarcely a limit to what can be carried and to the effort
which men and women will put forth. John
Ruysbroek writes: “The love of Jesus is
both avid and generous. All that he is
and all that he has he gives; and all that I am and all that I have, he takes.”
O God who wakens the sleepers and who
opens the eyes of the heart in frail and highly conventional people like
myself, give courage and wisdom that I, too may become one of those who when I
am needed am “There.”
When
it comes to the application of the gospel ethic to my own immediate community,
it is so much easier to wring our hands & demand a boycott & a blockade
over social injustice in South Africa. In my community as the Gospel ethic begins to dawn
on me, all kinds of new, alarming, and highly unpopular insights begin to lift
above the parapet. [Will we be like disciples and be] “absurdly happy, entirely fearless,
and always in trouble?”
O God whose Holy Scriptures teach us
that “for him that is joined to all living things there is hope,” so join us to
all the living that we may be children of hope and ever rekindle this hope in
the hearts of our own nation.
It
is not easy to see how to reconcile the state’s claims upon my loyalty, &
the unlimited liability I as a Christian bear for all. Christian duty does not stop at this nation’s
frontier; boundaries are always moving outward.
The moral capital of every state is continually running down. It can
only be restored by the tender consciences of its vigilant citizens. Carl Schurz declared: My country: when right
to be kept right; when wrong to be set right.”
O God, give me a hearing heart that I
may dare to hear the needs of my world and be shown ways in which even I, in
all my weakness and frailty, may minister to them.
The world is suffering today from too few
people who “hear with their hearts”; it is suffering from a drying up of
compassion. The human spirit tends to
withdraw and to feel hopeless about the sufferings and needs of human beings in
distant places. Individual faithfulness
to my world has not been discarded in God’s plan.
O God of all creation, enlarge my heart
& the hearts of my fellows with such tenderness for all creation that we
shall dare to speak up for all our fellow creatures & for the precious
natural world that sustains them.
John
Woolman writes: My heart was often
tender and contrite, and universal love for my fellow creatures increased in
me.” The loving Creator of all of us
lays on you and on me unlimited liability for all creation and for our fellow
creatures everywhere.
[Ecumenism …]
O God in whose eyes our separations from
each other and our competitive depreciations of each other are clouds of
darkness that help to hide from us thy true face, help us to know what these
blockages are, and to see them for the clouds that shut us out not only from
our brother but from thee.
[The
invisible, limiting lines which ecumenism is supposed to overcome and] dissolve
can be of very different sorts and dissolving them can be along very different
lines. Each of us has our list of reservation to coming closer to other
denominational groups from whom we feel separated. The ability to pinpoint these barriers and to
face them in God’s presence is an important 1st step in ecumenism.
O God use thy sharpest sickle on the
weeds of denominational pride, and possessiveness that are forever springing up
anew in my heart and in the heart of our society. Give us a vision of thy passionate love for
us all and of the task still [before us].
[Help us] set out together to answer thy beckoning invitation.
[When
the Asian and African subjects of missions] meet the witness to Christ in 50
different versions, [complete with exclusive truth & jealous regard for the
progress of others], it is not only confusing; it also belittles the whole
witness. Denominational imperialism
continues to flourish in less obvious but equally powerful ways. The
uncommitted world will not be touched until there appears a whole new level of
charity towards each other on the part of the Christian Church’s branches.
O God, we thank thee to be alive in a
day when the walls are crumbling and the gates are being opened and the charity
and affection of men who serve thee are increasing. Kindle a flame in me, O Lord, that I may not obstruct
but may help to inflame the heart of the world with this new ecumenical
spirit.
Roman
Catholic & Protestant approaches to each other are new phenomena in the US. [In the Hitler period in Europe
the walls became paper thin as the screws of totalitarian government tightened.
The Catholics found strength in the Bible & the Protestants found strength
in the Catholic liturgy]. The ecumenical miracle of Vatican Council II was
prepared for by common suffering, common charity, and common admiration and
affection.
O God, thrust out my boundaries of human
compassion and caring. Take away my hesitations and reservations. Quicken me until I may “walk gladly over the
world, answering to that of God in every one.”
What was the church really meant for? The Church is
not a shelter for the saved; it is not a Noah’s ark to bring specially selected
pairs through the wreck of the world to salvation. It is more the sprig of olive, symbolizing
that there is a future for humankind.
The love of God knows no bounds.
It reaches out to Roman Catholics, non-Roman Catholic Christians, the
world religions and the latent church.
O God, my love is provincial and thy
love so limitless; sweep away my frontiers. Let me move with great openness to
understand my brother and sister, and to be open to the witness that thy Holy
Spirit may have for me through their witness, as I share with them what is most
holy to me.
[Some
limit ecumenism to] those who acknowledge Christ as the true window to the
redemptive love of God. Great Roman
Catholic scholars suggest that God has never left himself without a witness [in
the world religions]. Some even suggest
that the Holy Spirit may be speaking to present day Christianity through the
Hindu, Buddhist, Judaic, and Islamic religions. The passionate love of God is truly
all-embracing.
O God, we who think we are thy appointed
emissaries and spokesperson for thy ways with men, forgive us our brashness and
[lead us] to humility and to a great openness to thy secret working everywhere.
A generation
ago, secularism was regarded as the sworn enemy-rival of the Christian
religion. [But secularism often
embodied] ethical principles that implemented our concern for the worth and
dignity of all on a scale beyond anything people of religion had ever dreamed
possible. [The exportable traits of
western legal, political, and labor practices] are deeply impregnated with
spiritual principles of the infinite worth of all, and of the liability we each
bear for the well-being of the other.
O God, who knowest the true heart of
each of us, help us to withhold judgment & to listen with the inward ear to
our atheist brother’s [& sister’s] words & what they are really trying
to say. [Grant us] the conviction that no one is beyond thy reach or caring, that is it only when we
bring them with us that we can see thy face.
In
Robert Ingersoll’s “44 Lectures on Atheism,” he is attacking not so much God as
the social infidelities that Christians have practiced in God’s name. [There is an atheism] which simply ignores
God rooted deeply in us all. What is the hidden God saying to me through
the witness of those who deny him?
[Worshiper …]
O God, for the freedom to worship and
the appointed occasions to join with my fellows to celebrate thy infinite
goodness and care, with all my heart, I give thee thanks.
When
I join others in the worship of God, I come in my best, to bring my gift to God
in thanks, for God, Jesus Christ, the company of saints, the church, & for
all that God has done for me. Celebration with others springs from deep roots
in us, for those things that are most precious to us we want to share with
others. The common discovery that there is a God who cares, that Christ is
alive in the hearts of all today, draws us to corporate worship.
O God, how
can I ever thank you for the rhythm of the spiritual life in which private &
corporate prayer truly support each other. Nurture both in me & help me
always to be faithful to the one without neglecting the other.
There
is a time to be alone and a time to be with others. There is a dimension in corporate worship, in
praying together, which is not present in the solitariness of private
prayer. In corporate prayer, Christ
seems to gather the worshiping community and to draw each person from one’s
separate solitariness into the household of faith. The corporate worshiper belongs not to self
alone but to the whole company of the servants of God.
293. The Ministry of Presence: Without Agenda in South
Africa (by Avis Crowe; Dyckman Vermilye; 1990)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS—Avis Crowe is Methodist by birth and Quaker by
convincement. [After beginning a career
in theater, television, and the arts], Avis shifted gears in her late 30s and
began her spiritual journey in earnest at Koinonia Partners in Georgia. Avis and Dyck
met and married at Pendle Hill in 1984.
Spiritual guidance, through group work and writing, has increasingly
become the focus of Avis’s work.
Dyckman Vermilye is a Quaker by convincement and joined the Society
when his interest group moved to Monthly Meeting status in the early
1950s. His Quaker life remained dormant
for 30 years until he went to Pendle Hill as a student. He spent a year learning New Testament Greek
as Friend-in-Residence at Woodbrooke.
I am done with great things, & big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny invisible molecular forces … creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water which, if you give them time, will rend the hardest monument to man’s pride. William James.
I. DECISION—Live in South Africa? A peculiar, even foolish choice. It was a natural outgrowth of our experience
of recent years. The Spirit was busy
planting seeds in each of us for such a journey.
Dyck—As a student
at Pendle Hill I was grappling with the “what next” question. Africa became a
theme from which I could not escape as a student. A Zimbabwe couple came
as Friends-in-Residence. There was a force working in me that I was unable to
ignore. Harare, Zimbabwe became a ground
of healing and growth.
Avis—During Dyck’s
student year, I was winding up nearly 2 years as a volunteer at Koinonia
Partners in Americus, Georgia, where they
primarily built houses and sold them at no interest to the rural poor, mostly
black. They run a farm, an international
mail order business and a resident volunteer program. [They were so busy, they seemed to no longer
have time for their neighbors]. I fantasized about just living among the
neighbors.
In my “class” was a young family from Soweto, South
Africa. I learn about “disposable people,”
married couples forced to live separately.
South Africa began to have names that belonged to real people with
families, and dreams for the future. [The woman half of a couple from Cape Western Monthly
Meeting, Capetown, urged people to come and help]. Mary
said quite distinctly, “people like Avis and Dick.”[I]had no serious thought of
going, but Dyck suggested we travel to Zimbabwe on our
honeymoon. A poster in an Anglican
Cathedral read: “Be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you
might become.”
[We
went] from Zimbabwe to Durban and then to Johannesburg where we stayed in the meetinghouse. We went to Capetown and stayed with Richard
and Hilary Rosenthal who had sojourned at Pendle Hill.
Hilary told me about her work in a
family service agency, the pain and frustration of trying to live authentic
lives as white South Africans, beneficiaries of a system they were trying to
change. [We returned to Pendle Hill for 2 more years, then
retired]. Rather than join those who turned their backs on South Africans. I wanted to go and stand beside them, to say
“Yes” with my presence.
We
had to allow for the possibility that we might not be useful or wanted, that we
could create problems for people who might feel responsible for us, that we
might even put people in jeopardy. We
did not engage in a formal clearness process; to do so never occurred to us; we
just trusted that clearness would come naturally. One by one, the anticipated obstacles were
removed, and the pieces fell into place.
Dyck—Richard made
a rough budget of basic expenses [which made it clear] that my retirement
income would probably be adequate to cover all costs. The risks to personal
safety & health were matters to which I had given considerable attention
before going to Zimbabwe. [In spite
of violent incidents], I felt more secure there than I had on several occasions
in US inner city neighborhoods; I also received excellent medical care there.
Avis—I realized
that our probable safety & the quality of lifestyle & medical care we
could expect were the privilege of being white. I found that truth
uncomfortable, but was willing to live with the reality. The decision had made itself. We were going to South Africa. We had felt a leading, spent time discerning the
rightness of it & had acted on it. We didn’t know how long we would stay,
nor did we know or care about what we would do.
II. THE WRONG QUESTION—Henri Nouwen asks: What greater ministry can be practiced than one which reflects that
presence? [And answers: “A ‘pastoral presence’ is more important than any
plan or project. More than anything,
people want you to share their lives.” This ministry was an affirmation of what
we wanted to be about in South Africa. “But what will you do?” was the 1st question people asked us; for us it was
the wrong question. Our experiences had led us to believing to be with people is more important than to
do for them.
We
had no particular timetable, and were content to slip into the meeting and community
as unobtrusively as possible, and simply let happen what would. We wrote:
“We will be eager to learn from you and to contribute in any ways that
seem appropriate or possible out of the resources that we bring with us.” We didn’t carry any answers with us. We want
to save people from ignorance and poverty, [when] too often, it is we who are
drowning in a poverty of spirit. We have
much to learn from people all over the world.
Avis—I visited
several sites where the Early Learning Resources Unit was helping mothers learn
to play creatively with their children, using whatever limited resources &
discards they could find & their imaginations.
Now
and then we did find ourselves tripping over the impulse to show people how to
do things, and to suggest a “better way.” Henri Nouwen wrote: “The 1st
thing is to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their
stories and tell your own, and show them by words, gestures and actions that
you love them.” The irony is that we
found plenty to do. What we did arose out of who we were, of knowing &
becoming known, of sharing stories and journeys with one another. The doing was never primary for us; the relationships
were.
III. TRAVELING IN THE SPIRIT—Once the word was out that we would soon be on our way
to South
Africa,
most people were supportive and wished us well.
Avis--When a Pendle
Hill Board member expressed gratitude that we could make such
a journey & that we would carry
the love & concern of many Friends, I realized the possible communal
dimension of our decision. We departed knowing we were being held in the
Light by many Friends and were carrying their love and concern to the people of
South Africa.
[For
lettering writing] we made arrangements with Avis’ mother to copy & distribute
a periodic newsletter for us. We tried to capture some of the flavor &
texture of life in South Africa & introduced the people we en-countered. We wrote
separate accounts: the 2-in-1 letters provided a wider canvas than a joint
report would have; we avoided political/social analysis. We did not think [of
it as “writing epistles,” but] we may have stepped into the stream of Quaker
tradition in this way. We don’t know how many people heard our informal reports
[beyond those we distributed them to]. We felt we were traveling in the Spirit,
that our decision was right & Spirit-led.
IV. CAPETOWN MEETING: Spiritual Home and
Opportunity for
Ministry—Cape Western MM was our
gateway to the country and its people. [We were supported, nurtured, and
nurturers for the 1½ years we were there].
Their reception of us was reserved.
By becoming sojourning members, we hoped to declare our commitment to
the meeting. We attended the Peace Work
Committee, and Ministry and Oversight meetings.
We started our Pendle Hill practice of inviting people from the meeting
to simply drop in during the afternoon of the 1st Sunday of every
month; there was no business to conduct, no issue to resolve.
Avis—During one of
these afternoons, Scotty Morton shared her terror at [having a rifle pointed at
her] at a squatters’ camp outside Cape Town; I shared
one woman’s pain and anxiety for a fleeting moment. We
sensed a hunger in the meeting for sharing and deepening the spiritual
foundations of the work they were doing.
We convened a weekly discussion group to explore the origins of Quaker
thought and testimonies.
Dyck—There was
interest in bible study in the meeting, and I was delighted to start up a
weekly group. I also began to write a
newsletter for local and distant members and attenders.
Avis—I got the
Woodbrooke’s study program Gifts and
Discoveries started at the meeting;
almost the entire meeting participated; the bonds between the people of the
meeting deepened. I also led retreats
and weekly prayer meetings. [During one
of the latter, Rommel invited the leaders of 2 sometimes violent factions to
meet on the neutral ground of the meeting to work out their difference]. One of the groups never showed and the hour
passed without incident; the Wednesday group is still meeting.
Dyck—None of what
we did was arduous. Relating to people in various ways outside the meeting
& facilitating activities that people wanted but hadn’t time to organize,
we could contribute to the meeting’s spiritual life.
Neither
of us had thought ourselves “ministers” before.
Time is not perhaps, a direct contribution to the struggle for justice
and peace in South
Africa,
but its relationship to that goal made the effort worthwhile.
V. ENGAGEMENT—Early in our sojourn we also moved around in the
larger community. We made contact with
the Black Sash & the South African Institute for Race Relations. We wanted
to move slowly to wait for the things that seemed right to emerge naturally
without [succumbing to] the “ought/should’ syndrome—either our own or somebody
else’s. We became involved with Siseko, a small brick-making cooperative; we
felt the grief when its project manager was shot to death as a suspected
African National Congress guerilla. Dyck—I tried to
become an “enabler,” working several mornings a week; I helped them open a bank
account. I tried not to do things for
them, but to stand side by side with them as they learned. I tried to slip into their rhythm, to respect
their needs and capabilities, and to step back and allow them to be who they
were, even if it meant less efficiency and slower progress.
Avis—[I became
involved with the Philani Nutrition Clinics; the Government provided minimal
infrastructure]. From the beginning
Philani was special to me. My own wish
was simply to come and be there, “[babysitting].” I was asked to help with the typing backlog
of staff-meeting minutes and project reports.
I didn’t go to the clinics very often, [because of] my reticence as an
“outsider,” but each time I went was deeply satisfying. The clinic embraced life, demonstrated life,
and taught by example that life in all its noise and distress can be a
celebration, even in the face of want, cruelty, disinterest.
The South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR)
is respected internationally for its biannual report of Apartheid statistics
[and its craft shops]. It was a natural
place for me to share my interests in crafts and put in some of my time. I also processed applications to their
scholarship fund. There was a branch of
Koinonia in Cape
Town, started by
a radical Dutch Reformed domineer, to bring mixed-race groups together in a
comfortable, non-threatening setting.
Dyck—I had been
invited to be guest speaker and to lead the group in a discussion of conflict
resolution. I assumed too much
willingness on the part of blacks and coloreds to explore institutional
violence in their lives. The people were
clearly glad we were with them, and far more forgiving of our discomfort than
we were. [Dyck was able to meet a high official within
the Dutch Reformed Church, and to set up a series of what turned out to be very
challenging meetings]. My own roots are in Holland. The Reformed Church was part of my history
until my great-grandfather became an Episcopalian priest. I eagerly accepted an invitation to meet the
Director. His responses made me feel
that I was being kept at arms’ length and that an open exchange was not
possible. I could see what pain must be
his if he felt his belief system was being challenged. I wrote a 10-page critique of a Synod report,
and he responded angrily. In our last
meeting, he said he found it difficult to remain angry with me sitting across
the desk from him. He expressed surprise
at how few Quakers there were in Southern Africa. We parted cordially, in spite of not reaching
any satisfactory conclusions.
I may have played the role of prophetic
witness in my relationship with this churchman as defined by Abraham Heschel: “A prophet is one who holds God & the human person
together at one time & at all times through profound love, powerful
dissent, painful rebuke, and unwavering love.
I do not know if my words or my
behavior have remained with him. I am
comfortable not knowing. Herbert
Louckes: “An act of love that fails
is as much a part of the divine life as an act that succeeds, for love is
measured by its own fullness, not by its reception.” Our own belief in the value of presence was
affirmed over and over again in the very basic and simple tasks we preformed
and in our encounters.
VI. THE BIG ISSUE—[The weighty, difficult questions about South Africa are the wrong questions]. William James wrote: I am done with great things, and big things,
great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny invisible molecular
forces … creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or
like the capillary oozing of water which, if you give them time, will rend the
hardest monument to man’s pride. Rommel
Roberts, [a full-time, colored peace-worker] said: “What most people lose sight
of is the need for grass-roots work.
Teaching mothers how to play with children is linked to the liberation
of an entire country.” Our own bent [led
us to make “small” contributions].
VII. INVITATION—We were granted a 6-month extension, [and could have
gotten more 6-month extensions], but we chose not to live with that chronic
uncertainty. We sense that our time in South Africa was drawing to a close and that it was right to
leave. Also, we were brought face to
face with the paradox that one of the ways we could “help” South Africa was to become involved in our own country. Part of the work of Koinonia, Ben encourages
[and facilitates] South Africans, particularly white South Africans, to travel
abroad.
But
the traffic must be 2-way. It is
important that we not engage in
shunning—either as nations or as individuals.
[What is needed is to] simply go with open heart and mind and the
knowledge that the Spirit is working in you and in those you will meet. We need to set aside our American compulsion
for speed, for instant diagnoses and quick fixes, for whirlwind entrances and
exits. Those opting for early
retirement, or younger people on sabbatical or before graduate school might
consider South
Africa.
There
is no guarantee that just because the desire is there, permission will follow;
the government is careful about those to whom they grant visas. [Ours were granted because we had friends in
the country], and because Quakers have a long history in the country. Friends also enjoy an unusual freedom from
government harassment as a direct result of their compassionate work with
Afrikaner women and children during the Anglo-Boer War. The important thing is to go without
preconceived expectations of what you might do there, or how helpful you might
be. Go as a loving concerned person,
“walking cheerfully over the earth.” A
Friendly presence can be a blessing in places like South Africa, for both the host country and the sojourner.
297. Gospel Order: A Quaker Understanding of Faithful Church Community
(by Sandra Lee Cronk; 1991)
About the Author—Sandra Cronk is a spiritual nurturer, teacher, and
historian of religions. For 10 years,
she taught Quaker faith and thought, spiritual life studies, and religious
community at Pendle Hill. This paper was
written to address an issue relating to the religious life and thought of the
Society of Friends, and to explore what it means to belong to a community of
commitment.
Therefore keep your meetings, and dwell
in the power of truth, and know it in one another, and be one in the light,
that you may be kept in peace and love in the power of God, that you may know
the mystery of the gospel. All that ever
you do, do in love; do nothing in strife, but in love…” George Fox
[Queries to Consider before and during Admonition:]
Is the thing, or things which thou hast against him, fully so, as thou apprehendest?
Hast thou seen evil in him, or to break forth from him?
Hast thou pitied him, mourned over him, cried to the Lord for him, and in tender love and meekness of spirit, laid the thing before him?
Hast thou any hardness of spirit or hard reasonings against him? Isaac Penington
Introduction—Participation in the faith community may be a witness
to God’s new order of love, peace, & justice coming to birth in the world;
it provides avenues through which God’s presence may touch our lives. “Gospel
order” is the term which has been used [collectively for] the elements of
Friends’ understanding of church-community, [beginning with George Fox];
Shakers also used the term. [Great national revivals asked]: How can we manifest faithfully our new
commitment to God? Coming out of [a 17th-century] revival,
Friends sought an on-going life of faithfulness. In our own era, the renewal
which has touched many people personally has led them to ask what it means to
be part of a faith community which lives as witness to God’s new order.
Definition—Early Friends expected & experienced the
in-breaking of God’s new order in their lives. The Light revealed the ways they
had previously turned from God. It led them to Christ, their Inward Teacher &
Guide. They felt that ultimately this order would affect all of creation. Early
Friends used “gospel order” most often used to describe the communal/church &
societal dimensions of this new order. “Gospel” does not refer primarily to the
intellectual content of faith or a religious message. [Put together with
“order,” the phrase means] the characteristics of daily living which flow from
the actual life, power, & reality of a relationship with God.
George
Fox wrote of this relationship as a covenantal relationship. In Scripture covenant means an agreement
between 2 parties, and signifies a relationship of abiding trust and fidelity
with God. God’s covenant with Noah, and
with all life on earth forms a significant element in the development of some
contemporary theologies concerning the environment. The recognition that Jewish, Christian, and
Muslim traditions acknowledge a mutual covenantal relationship with God has
inspired interfaith dialog. The covenant
from Mt. Sinai is law and the framework through which the living
bond with God may be expressed in everyday life.
It
is in this covenantal tradition that Christians have understood their relationship
with Christ as a new covenant. For
early Friends the new covenant was Christ Jesus and their living relationship
with Christ, not merely a code of behavior.
At the heart of Quaker faith is the understanding that one cannot live
God’s new order alone. A community is
necessary to embody a new pattern of living.
Early Friends stressed that God’s new gospel order was present when people
lived out of the fullness of the living relationship with Christ. To live in the gospel is the way to
experience the empowerment that allows one to embody peace, holiness, and righteousness. Gospel order entailed an ordered way of life
that had concrete expressions in virtually all areas of living.
The Patterns and Structure of Gospel
Order—The content of gospel order is
in: the inward life of worship and discernment; the interior functioning of the
church-community; the social testimony of Friends. 1st, without basic patterns of
listening and responding to God, the rest of gospel order would not be
possible. 2nd, George Fox
said of the meeting-community: “Therefore keep your meetings, and dwell in the
power of truth, and know it in one another, and be one in the light, that you
may be kept in peace and love in the power of God, that you may know the
mystery of the gospel. All that ever you
do, do in love; do nothing in strife, but in love…” George Fox urged the community to care for
all those with special needs. Gospel
order affected marriage, family, and home as well as the meeting. The wedding itself consisted in the exchange
of promises between the man and woman.
The community witnessed the promises, a sign of its support and an
indication that the wedding was a corporate act as well as a personal one. Friends experienced Christ’s ordering work in
the patterns of home life.
3rd
was prophetic witness to the larger society.
The witness was through testimonies like: plain speech; simple or plain
dress; refusal to go to war, take an oath, or pay tithes. For the 1st generation of Friends
the testimonies were a prophetic challenge to what they perceived as a vain,
unrighteous order around them. Friends
refused to participate in the existing social structure when it was faithful
[or seemed to usurp the power of] God.
The larger spiritual, socio-economic and political witness to that new
order coming into the world faded over the centuries. It will be impossible to reclaim the depth of
faithful community life without special attention to the holistic challenge to
all areas of life, including the social, political and economic dimensions of
society. The call to be gathered into
gospel order is a witness to importance of the church-community, the people of
God.
Reclaiming the Importance of the Church—Friends might rightly be called a high church group in
terms of the importance it places on church-community. Church, in this sense,
has become very weak in today’s American society. “Americhristianity” refers to religious
communities so acculturated to the society that they end up blessing American
society’s general goals & norms. Church as gospel order has disappeared
from our theological understandings. Our individualistic framework means that we
tend to see religious life in a bipolar way. The bipolar model of religious
life sees both the inward life & the work of social concerns in
individualistic ways.
In
the Early Friends’ model of being gathered into gospel order, the inward life,
the work of social concerns, and the life of the meeting-community are fused
together into an integrated whole. Both
the meeting for worship and the witness to peace and social justice for Early
Friends grew out of living gospel order.
That new [gospel] order was already present, at least in the form of a
seed ready to grow to maturity.
The
frustration and sense of incompleteness which many feel in trying to deepen
their prayer and worship lives or to make a more serious commitment to the work
of social justice may find a solution through answering God’s call to be
gathered into gospel order as a church-community. The process of mutual accountability was not
a way of checking to see whether Friends lived up to certain petty points of
lifestyle, but a way to give each other the strength to be a people who
listened to God and lived God’s new order.
The Prophetic & Priestly Dimensions
of Gospel Order—characteristic ways
Christ enters into relationship with people are called the “offices” of Christ;
George Fox speaks mostly about prophet & priest-king. Christ as prophet reveals our unfaithfulness
& sin; leads us to righteousness, reconciliation, & unity; &
empowers us to act faithfully when led by God. Mediated modes of worship were
rejected as unfaithful to trust in God’s direct work in our midst. Ministers
were not pastoral overseers, but rather prophetic voices of God’s Word.
Testimonies
of plain speech, non-payments of tithes, & rejection of oaths were all
prophetic challenges to the fallen social order. Contemporary Friends have
overemphasized reclaiming the prophetic element to the exclusion of a faithful
response to Christ as priest-king as well.
The priestly function of Christ is manifested among Friends in the
everyday life of the community living in gospel order. Early Friends’ apocalyptic struggle with the
forces of evil and unrighteousness, [suffering imprisonment and/or death], was
named the Lamb’s War. The church, as the
body of Christ in the world, lived Christ’s prophetic and suffering servant
work as a single witness.
The Process of Mutual Accountability—Historically, mutual accountability provided an
internal dynamic to keep gospel order strong within the Quaker community.
Abuses in handling church discipline in the past & the influence of our
individualistic society have caused a negative reaction to this phrase. The
core of the accountability procedure used by Friends came from Jesus’
[admonition] instructions in Matthew 18. The procedure is 1st,
talking to the person in private, then with witnesses present, before the
church, & finally if no repentance is forthcoming, disownment. Accountability
is not just concerned with members meeting the group’s outward behavior expectations,
but about nurturing the deeper relationship of trust, caring &
responsiveness.
In
the gospel order, those gathered into the church-community have a covenant with
God. Matthew 18 embodies accountability
[without resorting to] an impersonal, legalistic framework. On the prophetic side, accountability is a
method of mutual admonition. While
contemporary Friends have trouble with this quality, early Friends recognized
that admonition is an essential ingredient in the way God works with us. Those who have followed Matthew 18 know that
to speak to another who has committed a wrong is to make oneself open and
vulnerable to one’s own part in the situation, perhaps even revealing a
misinterpretation of the situation.
[Isaac
Penington’s Queries to Consider before and during Admonition:]
Is the thing, or things which thou hast
against him, fully so, as thou apprehendest?
Hast thou seen evil in him, or to break
forth from him?
Hast thou pitied him, mourned over him,
cried to the Lord for him, and in tender love and meekness of spirit, laid the
thing before him?
Hast thou any hardness of spirit or hard
reasonings against him?
Friends
saw mutual admonition as part of a larger process of spiritual guidance and
nurture that went beyond the specific advice in Matthew 18, [beyond telling
others when they were wrong. It is
admonishing a person to be courageous in adversity or to undertake a much
needed ministry or service. A prophetic
word at the right moment may be just what is needed to introduce us to God’s
call, or to help us close the “life-gap” between our awareness of God’s call
and our day-to-day behavior. The
prophetic aspect of the process of mutual accountability is the commitment to
help each other listen and respond to God’s call both as individuals and as a
community of committed Friends so that we may live faithfully in God’s new
order.
[The
whole of Matthew chapter 18] is about more than prophetic admonition. It assumes people will fall. The heart of faithful living is to learn how
to love on the other side of hurt and betrayal.
This the way of God’s forgiving love which restores relationships after
there is a break or fall. The Footwashing at Marlborough is about
forgiveness and reconciliation, servanthood and spiritual cleansing. It is about Richard Barnard and Isaac
Baily. Barnard was a conscientious elder
of the Meeting who refused to pay war taxes.
Baily was a contentious member of the meeting who was a strong supporter
of the Revolutionary War.
They
had a dispute over a waterway, which Baily dammed. Barnard carefully followed
Matthew 18 in seeking a solution with his neighbor. [Richard Barnard felt
burdened by the lack of water to his property], & by the broken relationship
with Isaac. Richard asked God for direction & guidance; the answer came.
Richard felt that God was calling him to wash the Isaac’s feet. After resisting
the call for a time, he was willing to surrender his notions & be obedient.
He carried out the call to wash Isaac’s feet after some resistance on Isaac’s
part. Isaac dug away the dam & went to visit Richard. The friendship
between the 2 men remained deep & vibrant for the remainder of their lives.
These neighboring Friends experienced Christ’s power of forgiveness &
reconciliation as a living reality in their lives. Richard’s gift of
sacrificial love made reconciliation possible with his neighbor.
Disownment,
once widely practiced by Friends, is now used infrequently. Some contemporary people find this aspect of
the accountability process discomforting.
Forgiveness cannot be forced; a forced change of behavior is no change
at all. If after working through all the
avenues of caring outlined in Matthew 18, the meeting felt it had no choice but
to recognize that the relationship of love and trust with the recalcitrant
person was non-existent, [i.e. disownment].
Disownment was understood not as the intention to cut one off from relationship
with the community. It was the recognition
that a fundamental covenantal commitment was already severed.
The
possibility of disownment among Friends prevented the accountability process
from being a matter of cheap grace. When there is repentance & change of
behavior, the meeting welcomes the person back into the community. For the
process of mutual accountability to work with integrity, it is necessary for
all community members to live in a relationship of love, trust, & caring. We
cannot admonish each other unless we listen together for the way God is truly
leading each of us as individuals & together as a community. Both the
prophetic & priestly dimensions of mutual accountability require a
covenantal relationship with God and each other.
Elders: Overseers of Gospel Order—Living faithfully in gospel order was such a
significant part of Quaker faith that a separate ministry of elders developed
to oversee this aspect of Friends life.
Vocal ministers stressed direct, unmediated communication with Christ
who was the inward teacher and guide.
The elders, while participating in the unmediated work of Christ, also
understood Christ to work in priestly and mediated ways.
Elders
had oversight over worship and the spiritual life of the meeting, daily life of
the meeting-community, and the practice of accountability. One of the elders’ primary responsibilities
was care of the listening process. The
elders rarely spoke in meeting for worship.
They helped create an inward space for Christ to enter. Their attitude
of deep listening helped the meeting as a whole to center down in worship.
In
joint meetings of vocal ministers and elders, inexperienced ministers could
grow in the ability to discern the movement of the Spirit under the tutelage of
experienced ministers and elders. The
elders functioned as spiritual nurturers. In Quakerism, the spiritual guidance
process is more communal than other Christian traditions. As the Friends movement matured, a whole
culture of listening developed. Elders
were responsible for keeping these avenues of listening spiritually alive and
thus exercised a prophetic function. As
overseers of these community relationships, elders exercised a priestly
function of ministry.
While
God was the author of this healing work, the meeting was the locus receiving
God’s love and practicing the art of loving others. The incarnated love helped them understand
God’s love. The elders were expected to
see that the inward life of Friends was translated in faithful daily
living. As Friends communities developed
in the mid- and late 18th century, the task of caring for those with
special needs began to be separated from the work of the elders and given to
that of the overseers. Together the
elders and overseers were responsible for seeing that love and caring took
practical form in the daily life of the meeting.
The
final part of the elders’ work was overseeing the area of accountability.
Elders could arbitrate or mediate in disputes, at the request of the parties
involved. Elders watched to see if individual Friends & the whole meeting
walked faithfully in gospel order. For 1st generation Friends,
faithfulness to testimonies was one way to call society-at-large to
accountability before God for its unjust social, political, economic, &
religious structures. [Over the centuries] the wider prophetic aspect of gospel
order tended to fade & has not been reclaimed. The prophetic oversight of
the meeting’s accountability work had & has far-reaching potential. The eldering ministry was the church’s way of
nurturing the meeting-community as an expression of God’s presence in the
world.
Knowing God’s Will—Through the eldering ministry, we are challenged to
understand Quaker modes of knowing God’s guiding presence in the midst of daily
life. [For vocal ministry], decisions about where to travel, what meetings to
attend, which house to visit, what message to give, were all determined by
inward listening to God. They spoke to meetings & individuals as God led
them, not as they humanly analyzed the situation. Elders used this mode of
knowing too, with mediated modes of knowing used to find out about Friends in
their care.
[The
use of mediated & unmediated modes of knowing in worship is the source of
the debate between programmed and unprogrammed meetings about] whether to it
is right to use the human mind to analyze the needs of the congregation &
plan a response or more appropriate to wait upon the Lord in silence &
speak spontaneously. [The programmed meeting’s pastor has duties of both vocal
ministry and eldering]. Unprogrammed meetings often struggle with these issues
independently of any discussion of the pastoral tradition. Understanding the
way in which elders held as important both mediated & unmediated ways of
knowing can help us do the same.
Tradition—While recognizing the danger of too much reliance on
tradition, friends still saw it as a reflection of the living history of the
church-community. The [minutes or] or
record of the meeting’s discernment over the years became part of the church’s
living tradition. To insist that the
community re-evaluate every principle it had come to know through its
relationship with God, on every occasion that demanded a decision seemed to
make no sense. [On the other hand], in-breaking of the Spirit was necessary to
prevent tradition from becoming an idol.
[The
later] traditional patterns of gospel order were stultifying to some
people. There was little room for the
development of new patterns. Many
meetings discontinued the use of elders and many aspects of church discipline
the elders had come to represent. Today
most meetings must wrestle with the problems that come from lack of corporate
discipline. If we forget that God’s new
order must take some shape and form in daily life, we risk upholding an airy
faith unrelated to flesh-and-blood lives.
CONCLUSION—The elder was the caretaker of the living tradition
which gave shape to gospel order. Gospel
order is a rich, multi-valent concept and experience in Quaker faith. It unites the inward life of prayer and
worship, the daily life of caring and accountability in the meeting, and
prophetic witness in the world. Reclaiming
the fullness of early Friends’ understanding of gospel order enables us to hear
God’s call to deeper faithfulness today.
[Deeper faithfulness calls for deeper listening]. Without this deep listening to the Inward
Teacher, any “order” runs the risk of becoming form without power.
The
historical expressions of gospel order help us to come to grips with the areas
of our lives where we slide easily and unthinkingly into the uncaring, unjust,
exploitative structures around us.
Looking at the historical expressions of gospel order raises provocative
questions for the community of faith in regard to the nature of corporate commitment
and the role of structure in faithful living.
Communities of commitment need to see what forms the patterns of
faithfulness and the ministry of caring oversight will take today.
Queries:
What does it
mean today to be a committed people in covenantal relationship with Christ?
What does it
mean to practice mutual accountability that keeps this relationship alive?
Do our lives
with each other in our meetings and homes reflect fidelity, love, and trust?
Can we
participate corporately in God’s new order so that our love speaks to a world
dying from environmental destruction, violence, hatred, & systems of
economic exploitation & injustice?
299. Vistas from Inner Stillness (by Richard L.
Walker; 1991)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR—Dick Walker is a convinced Friend & presently a member of Wider
Quaker Fellowship. He lives in Northern AZ & is a research astronomer & article publisher
about binary stars & satellites. This
pamphlet is an attempt of self-expression, to describe & share common
denominators in human experiences.
[Introduction]—[I have come to believe that the restlessness that
causes us to feel there is more to the universe than we sense with our own
senses or with instruments is caused by a collective consciousness in the
universe; we are part and one with all elements in creation. At a point in inner stillness, from an
awareness until then obscure, a power flows through me that frees my eyes and
mind for what may truly be a glimpse into reality. “Be still and know I am God. (Psalm 46: 10). Chuang Tzu wrote: “To a mind that is still
the whole universe surrenders.” I am
moved to write this monograph in an effort to relate a few personal experiences
in my life that have created an awareness in me, which I sense is “A Knowing of
God.”
THE SOUNDS OF LIVING—When I was a boy we lived on the edge of [an Iowa] town; our home was bordered on 2 sides by lush green
fields of corn. Stifling heat made sleep impossible; we would sleep outside,
hoping for a breeze of salvation. The stillness of the night held the marvel of
the stars for me. Late one night as I lay very still, I heard the corn [&
the grass] grow.
[Years later my friend] Mary
Campbell said: “The signal is always there, but you have to block out external
sensations to hear it… That’s what the Light is like too, a far distant signal
that only seems weak; yet it is clear & distinct when we listen with all we
have.” Common denominators in our experiences permitted Mary & me to bridge
the inexpressible & find understanding of events that were important to us.
[Here I am reaching out with
my experience and feelings] to others who are kind, receptive and seeking
answers]. I have been blessed with
glimpses of the multiple facets of this world.
My experiences all arrived from deep inside me, [from a stillness that
grew inside me], at a time when I was transfixed in a state of silent awe of
the power and beauty of nature. To seek God we must create a god with us in an
image we can accept. The greatest truth
of my life was an awareness that we are all one and one of the same.
CRYSTALS AND THE
BREATH OF GOD—I studied a small
depression on a sample of cassiterite, filled with tiny sparkly crystals. Studying the fairyland of light and
reflections transported me back in time to my first experience with crystals. When I was 13 in school, the principal sent us
out onto the playground in winter. About
the sun and in the sky were great circles of light and from the sun grew shafts
of light that formed a large cross whose arms arced across the heavens to meet
at the cardinal points of the great circle; the cross and circle displayed the
colors of a faded rainbow. At the
cardinal points were 4 more circles; at their open, [outside] cardinal points
were arched cusps of yellow, orange, and red light; the sky began to move.
As the circles became more
distinct, mock suns formed with focusing brightness within the smaller circles
and then crosses emanated from the “suns”.
It was a symphony of light. Principal
Meeker said: “There are clouds of
6-sided ice crystals higher than we normally see clouds. They are aligned in different patterns high
up in the stratosphere. It’s called a
perihelion, a great solar complex. [A short time later it began to snow]. I looked at the first snowflakes; they were
6-sided crystals.
How can one view such majesty,
such beauty and not feel that everything about us is governed by laws, greater
than physical laws? Laws that we can only hope to feel. Feelings consume me now as I write, and in
the meditation and in our Quaker silence I can sense them radiating from the
very atoms inside me, atoms which are ordering themselves inside me. They are the same ordered atoms, the same
vibrating oscillators that stopped a mid-western city in the 1950s. The sensations, ideas and motivating forces
within us that we call consciousness are the same as those which order the universal
spheres in their orbits. Celestial
consciousness is a source we all touch; we are all tapping it. It is the Good, the Light, the Spirit, an
essence that I add to nature of God.
There is no self, no individual, no separation of ego in blissful
stillness.
THE EYE OF GOD—Herbert
Young quotes his father’s answer to an atheist:
“How can any man of reason & ordinary intelligence not have seen a
power beyond chance in the wonders of nature, in delicate & gorgeous
flowers, in beautiful trees, in the variety of animals, & in man’s own
abilities? I climbed a 12,000 ft.
mountain near my home. At 10,000 ft I turned north and began a steeper climb to
the peak. I stood knee-deep in flowers:
Indian paint brush, orange, red, and yellow, and creations of lacy blues and
violets, mountain daisies, groundsels.
In between the flowers were baby pine trees, green with tips of light
yellow-green.
[Higher up on the mountain]
fired had raged and all about me were burnt stalks of trees all white and
dry. I looked back toward the flowers
and faced miles of volcanic cinder cones struggling for recognition toward the
sky god, and above them, cumuli cast shadows on the quilt work of the
earth. I could see across the southern
tip of Nevada into California, and in the north I could see the notch in the
horizon we call the Grand
Canyon.
At this altitude the sky was
an inky blue, & scattered throughout it were cloudbursts. The air also has
the half the oxygen content found at sea level; the mind struggles to exist. In
that struggle vistas occurred at an accelerated pace. I climbed further into
the sky & when I crested a saddle of the mountain I met the most beautiful
cloud in the universe. It towered & grew, & billowed all white &
grey, pink against the Turrellian blue sky above the mountain. The cloud towered
grander than the mountain. It was the grandest in the universe. It lived &
grew before me & its radiance & strength infused me with energy. It
became a living entity that changed before me in a mocking display of
greatness. I was truly in a state of being present, & I became flush with a
crushing humility.
A fly landed on my hand. His eyes were hexagonal lenses, red and brown
and black and shiny and dull and clear and opaque. In that eye was a vista that rivaled the
panorama before me, above me and about me.
Reality exists somewhere
between the shadows & reflections of one’s thoughts. It takes a lifetime to
realize that thoughts can never be distinguished in the shadows of reality.
Molecules of still air on my cheek lifted a pale from my eyes. Are sensations of the soul, feelings, &
sensed paradoxes the way in which reality is revealed to us? The mountain & the cloud grew ever
larger, grander, & more beautiful with each quantum lift of the veil.
Between the voids the
structure of galactic clustering appears like a shaped, 3-D lace work, and at
each node of that intrinsic beauty a galaxy containing billions of stars glows
with a singular beauty. When we become
still and journey within ourselves, letting other dimensions emerge, limited
and limiting thoughts may also cease.
THE KITE—Something inside me was in preparation
for a spiritual lesson that was to manifest itself. I drove to a cinder cone
west of my home, high in the Arizona mountains. There, 1½ miles closer to
the stars, I flew a kite. To fly that kite at night was a drive within to meet
something I sensed was on the edge of consciousness. I ran backwards, held the
kite to the sky, & let go. It pulled & tugged before me like a child
being born. It had a life then & in an instant it was gone from sight,
racing toward the stars. Without a visible image, the principal senses &
resulting logic were cut off & feelings were substituted. I centered on the
kite, became one with it.
Suddenly the tugging stopped & was replaced with a steady, firm pull
& the nature of that pull told me I was doing more than flying a kite. The
pull was gentle, one of kindness, a sweet, peaceful reassurance being transmitted
from above; [we reached toward one another]. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with
the presence of God. All the power of the universe is before us at all times
and in all situations. That power has consciousness and is aware of us. My
faith in the presence of God was transformed into awareness of that spirit. It
is an essence that blends us all. I asked: Will I be conscious of this presence
if I let go? As I released the string my answer came.
THE PARIAH—Life just is. We are neither right nor
wrong, & the purpose of life is to fulfill an obligation to live. [Walking
in the Grand
Canyon], I
looked up a side canyon to an opposite cliff. High on the cliff [a tree grew,
without benefit of ledge or crevice]. It was not a young tree, & that tree
was baked each day of its life in one of nature’s most merciless ovens. Worst
of all, it was alone. It was isolated. It was an outcast. It was a pariah.
At the base of the cliff, hundreds of
feet below its gaol of stone, was a miniature forest of trees. The trees in
this microcosm were straight, upright, blessed with sufficient water, sun, and
shade. They were offspring of that suffering image of the Christ Spirit high
above them. Because it lived there was life more abundant elsewhere in the
universe. A lesson had been presented at a time I needed one. I had an
obligation to live, and my purpose in my life was to fulfill this obligation.
Loving life gives us the beginning glimpses of the edge of the miracle of
paradox, the genius of the absurd, the wonder of light from darkness, and light
in darkness.
THE FINGERS OF GOD—In a revelation of liberating death [by
a roaring waterfall] I came to know the physically gentle, warm, care of the
creative force of the cosmos. There is a confluence at the western end of the Grand Canyon where the turbulent, muddy Colorado River meets with the crystal, blue-green
water from Havasu Creek, which has rapids, 3 magnificent waterfalls, &
leads to one of the smallest Indian villages in the world. Entrance is usually
made by hiking from a dusty hilltop deep in the Arizona high desert, reached by 60 miles of
rustic road which ends at a cliff overlooking a panorama of canyons &
cliffs thousands of feet below. The desolation of the vista screams with such
intensity that one transcends loneliness to enter a revelation of ecstatic
beauty that bubbles in the soul. 2 Quaker friends were with me.
From the hilltop one descends into a waterless world of baked stone and
down switchbacks shared with Indian horses, [through 30-foot wide canyons and
layers of rock laid down 250 million years ago. The 3 water-falls are: Navajo Falls (50 ft. high); Havasu Falls (150 ft. high); Mooney Falls (200 ft. high). We camped by the 3rd
one]. We chose 3 separate rocks on which to sit and settled into an inner
stillness.
After a while it seemed as though first one & then another friend
had moved closer [actually they had not moved]. Then, something was pressing
against me, not my friends, from behind, the front, above, and beneath; I was
surrounded. My awareness changed from terror to love as I realized this was a
gentle force, a brush of power, and my fear changed to awe, then bliss. I was
flooded with light, granting me an awareness, that in this setting of explicit
beauty, I was surrounded by a facet of the infinite force of the universe, and
it was contacting me with an assurance that God was there.
THE GREAT CIRCLES ON MT. HAMILTON—One summer evening [at the “Great
Refractor” on Mt. Hamilton], I was distracted [by the moonlight
within the dome]. As the moon moved, its light pour down the telescope like
pale silver and paused on the great circles high above me. It then dropped to
the floor, where my eyes met a confusion of interwoven elliptical shadows
magnified by projection. In those shadows was something I had never seen
before; not a visible sight, but insight. I saw a glimpse of truth of the
universe displayed before me in a show of light and shadows. It was only a
glimpse, and I could not fathom it.
I ran from the dome, & stood in the darkness of the hot night air.
[There was a great universal meeting of my self with the stars]. The centering
was instantaneous and so deep that my body left me as I became only mind and
then that mind, that ego, faded too. The stars became parallel shafts of light
all of various hues from white to dark red; I heard the stars. My ego become an
illusion, it was a twist of existence. [The universe], the laws of nature, God,
Light are incomplete without us. The atoms of my body began to dissolve,
disassociate and mingle and then move out and upward through space. It was a
very grand osmotic transformation and I became aware I would never cease to be.
It, God is one and the parts, the fragments I thought was me, a personality, is
part of it.
There is a gap between each thought we have. That gap, that interval of
time & space, is our inner stillness. It is there that peace resides, inner
peace, the stillness of our soul. Friends in meeting can tap a tremendous
source, a vantage point for an extra view of the universe. Through the inner
stillness we become a portion of the wonderful vista. Our inner silence is like
a gate through which the good of the universe flows through us. It is a good
amplified in our lives that flows back leaving us reborn each time with greater
love. [I have seen many if not most of the wonders that the universe has to
show us]. It is of no importance to me how many voyages I complete about the
sun, for some day I will experience the ultimate experience, disembark and walk
about for a time.
300. Therefore
Choose Life: The Spiritual Challenge of the Nuclear Age (by John Tallmadge;
1991)
About
the Author—John Tallmadge is
Professor of Literature and Environmental Studies at the Union Institute. He is a scholar and practitioner of nature
writing with interests in the spiritual aspects of wilderness travel, nuclear
disarmament and peace issues.
Relationship dynamics, double binds, and the addiction model seem very
relevant to the nuclear dilemma. This
updated essay offers insights into the post-Cold War era, when we will be faced
with planetary challenges of peace and survival.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
[Introduction]—The ancient Chinese had an astonishing curse: “May you
live in interesting times.” Few times are as interesting times as [the nuclear
age]. [In the wake of the rapid corrosion of the Iron Curtain, eaten away by
millions of individual minds resolving to live for democracy & freedom], we
[felt briefly] what life could be like on an unshadowed earth. A few months
after the Berlin Wall fell, I was driving through southern Ohio [when I chanced upon a Uranium Enrichment Plant still
in operation]. I found myself thinking of missiles still poised in silos &
submarines. While all over Europe the walls came tumbling down, hidden among
the green fields in the midst of America, the poisons of the cold war [are
still being brewed] as if nothing had happened.
I
felt the curse of these interesting times, [as if I had] no credentials, no
leverage, no expertise, & yet with a sense of responsibility. It occurred to me that the Cold War had
really been fought in the minds of [individual] common people as a spiritual
war for their allegiance. The nuclear threat would never be exorcised, except
by the moral choice of ordinary people. Each of us must set out alone, in fear
& trembling, to discover what paths may lead to our planet’s survival.
The
Spiritual Nature of the Problem—In
The Fate of the Earth (1982) Jonathon
Schell offers an analysis of the nuclear threat. He concludes that nuclear
weapons confront humankind with the prospect of extinction. Schell argues that
we must look for its consequences before it occurs. “It takes the form of a
spiritual sickness that corrupts life [beginning with] thoughts, moods, and
actions.” By “spiritual” I mean that
part of our life not limited to material objects and sensory experience. “Spiritual growth” means extending the limits
of one’s personality in order to participate in relationships of equality with
a greater and greater diversity of beings.
Spiritual stagnation may be seen as a kind of mental illness. Extinction as a “present reality” [in our
imaginations] is spiritual rather than material, [but it can still] seriously
disturb us. Extinction can damage our
lives before it occurs.
Also,
we have tended to focus on this destructive power, often endowing it with a
hostile animus. [Actually], we should fear it less than our own evil will to
use them. This will to annihilation is something spiritual inside us that has
no material being; dismantling our arsenals would not really solve our
problems. The stronger our collective will to survive, the healthier &
more vigorous our life in the world becomes. Just as nuclear weapons have
frozen world politics into a state of permanent crisis, they seem to have
paralyzed our imaginations too.
Our
will to survive may be strengthened or weakened by how we choose to interpret
our situation, [and what assumptions we make].
Throughout the Cold War, both sides continued to make offers they knew
would be refused; the results confirmed their worst expectations about the
wickedness of the other side and the futility of negotiations. Our expectations have led to behaviors which
confirm our expectations and repeated experience has habituated us to this
unhealthy situation. Our best hope is to
break the feedback loop before the system gets into a runaway mode. The longer we succumb to the illusion [that
deterrence is working and keeping us safe], the easier it is to slide toward a
despair that may one day prove fatal. We
should try to understand the psychology of our current behavior and begin
appropriate therapy in this moment of apparent and temporary reprieve.
Nuclear
Dependency—In a nuclear age,
horror, anxiety, helpless rage, and “psychic numbing” have percolated into our
daily lives and produced symptomatic patterns of behavior; some deny it; others
embrace it obsessively. [Individual
denial takes the form of]: glorifying the American Way; scapegoating [a long
list of those “other people”]; living irresponsible, self-centered, and
hedonistic life styles; [and a general “live, invest, build for today” attitude].
Some people show an unhealthy obsession with nuclear holocaust; some dream
about it. The word “nuke” has become
popular. These behaviors suggest that we
generally repress our feelings about the nuclear threat; this repression yields
a low-level depression. Our condition
prevents us from becoming all that we could be.
You could say that it stunts our spiritual growth.
Collectively
our most striking symptom is our faith in the doctrine of deterrence; [i.e.
that only the fear of mutual annihilation can hold them in check]. Jonathon Schell concludes that deterrence
makes sense only if you assume that both you and you opponent are insane. Deterrence commits us to building more and
more weapons by the assumption that our opponents are so foolish as to fear us
in proportion to our accumulated firepower.
[We also build] huge standing armies which we will never be able to use
against each other.
The
most absurd symptom of all is our simple failure to abolish these weapons, or
to make their abolition the primary goal of our negotiations. [Our leaders call them effective instruments
of diplomacy, and give them names like “Peacekeeper”]. Nuclear states seem to have made their
weapons part of their national self-image, and call themselves “superpowers.” They ignore the fact that their weapons have
not deterred small countries like Viet Nam, Iran, and the OPEC nations from doing exactly what they
pleased.
We
cling to these weapons as a means of self-definition. Nuclear states behave like alcoholics who
find an identity in the habit they know is slowing destroying them, and they
deny they have a problem. These states
have shown their willingness to destroy innocent populations, generations of
the unborn, and much of living nature in order to protect their “national
interest.” Their dependency has
progressed to the point of evil, like that of an alcoholic who abuses his loved
ones.
In
the most general sense, evil is whatever is opposed to Life, & it can take
both physical and psychological forms. Scott Peck defined “psychological evil”
as “the exercise of political power in order to avoid spiritual growth.” Peck
argues that evil people seek to control others because they lack self-control
& discipline that comes with self-confidence; they seek to make others
extensions of themselves. Nuclear dependency participates in such radical evil
by threatening us with extinction & preventing our spiritual growth.
Our
addiction arose in response to real issues in life [i.e. how] to prevent a
repeat of WWII. And now that brave and
imaginative efforts are being made in the East, the western powers sit back on
their stockpiles and behave as if nothing has changed. The real purpose of deterrence is to allow us
to have peace without having to give up war.
Our missile addiction alters our mood and helps us avoid the deeper issues. We refuse to abandon deterrence and embark on
the difficult task of building a new world political order. Deterrence, like alcoholism is founded on
laziness, fear, and despair, and the longer we cling to it, spiraling toward
extinction, the more painful and arduous the recovery process will be.
Avenues
of Healing/Right Thinking—Recovery
is still possible, right up until the moment of launching the missiles. Our 1,000-mile journey begins with a single
step: right here, right now, right at home. I believe our personal choices and
actions can affect the shape of things to come.
I would suggest a healing process of “right thinking” [i.e.] for
survival and against extinction, and “right action” [i.e.] strengthening our
will to life.
Right
thinking requires an individual choice for Life [over extinction]. Right
thinking involves acceptance of responsibility as citizens of a state committed
to threatening the race with extinction. & right thinking requires a
decision to take right action, to commit to therapy. [Most people would
indignantly deny] favoring extinction or holding the human race hostage for the
sake of our national interest. The same person will likely blame the Soviets
for the arms race, & [make excuses why they are unable to do anything],
which is standard addict behavior.
[A
therapeutic intervention might work], but in the case of nuclear dependency
[who can we turn to or listen to]? The
severe narcissism of the nuclear states prevent them from taking seriously any
opinions except their own. [God will not make it easier for us; that would]
short-circuit a process of choice whose very difficulty is essential to its
effect. [Such intervention can] only come from within the nuclear states
themselves. Each personal decision to repudiate extinction, to admit addiction,
to assume responsibility, constitutes a brave & loving intervention, even
if it is known only to a handful of people. The person who makes a choice of
this kind becomes a living challenge to our narcissistic & weapon-dependent
society. [They] feel a new energy &
freedom; parlaysis dissolves. One has
repudiated and thereby overcomes the sloth and despair at the heart of the
nuclear crisis.
Right
Action—What therapy shall we undertake to strengthen our
individual and collective will to survive?
1st, since despair
and sloth are our greatest temptations, we should begin to lead lives of quiet
affirmation. We should go stubbornly
about our business of being human in full recognition of the threat’s presence. [We need to continue to live a full life of
full service to humanity and creation], all the while celebrating by these
wholehearted actions whatever is noblest in human life and repudiating those
impulses toward lethargy and despair which constitute the real threat to our
survival.
2nd,
we must cultivate images of truth & hope. Early images of tests inspired
awe, terror, & fascination we normally associate with the Sublime. It is
not surprising that we interpreted such power as giving divine or at least
natural sanction to our political decisions. Images of nuclear war victims
seduced us, because while revealing truth, they also concealed truth. [We
looked at blast effects of nuclear weapons] & ignored the more lethal
secondary & tertiary effects. [Taking these effects into account], there
would be no place for survivors to go.
Recent
images present the facts more honestly.
Fallout victims are portrayed so that we know their deaths will be
painful, senseless, and disgusting.
Perhaps the most potent image of truth to appear in recent years is the
image of nuclear winter, [with vast quantities of dust thrown into the air
obscuring the sun, killing green plants and drastically reducing the
temperature]. There are also images of
hope, [of life going on in spite of the bleakness of nuclear war’s aftermath]. Our most valuable image of hope is the image
of our earth seen from space. Gazing
upon our home world seen from afar ought to shame us out of our suicidal
narcissism and offer us a sign of the planetary consciousness we need in order
to survive.
Because
we have a duty to the earth as well as to other human beings, [we need to]
rebuild our relationship to the biosphere on a model of symbiosis and
stewardship rather than parasitism and exploitation. Knowing the truth and beauty of our world
will strengthen our reverence for all life, including our own. Right action must include rededicating
ourselves to healthy relationships with each other and with God. [Our] survival requires nothing less than a
fundamental reorientation.
Prospects—With addiction, as with sin, a cure is possible right
up to the moment of death, for the problem adheres in the mind of the person
more than in his external circumstances.
The spiritual view enables us to appreciate the importance of individual
moral choice as central and decisive.
Science cannot give us moral advice or make our choice for us; all it
can do is make clear the material consequences of our choice. If we believe in a living future, it may
arise, but if we do not, we will surely perish.
We do not get to heaven; we become heaven.
I
said that the solution to our problem was unimaginable to us at the present
time and that this lack of imagination constituted our problem. We have the capacity to imagine the broad
outlines of any solution. [God posed the
challenge long ago]: “I call heaven and
earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and curse. Therefore,
choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
301 Spiritual
Linkage with Russians: The Story of a
Leading (By Anthony Manousos; 1992)
About the Author—Anthony Manousos attended Princeton Meeting as of 1985; he joined in
1986. He earned a Ph. D. in Classics
& 18th century British Literature, and has taught at 5 colleges
and university. He has led workshops on writing & Soviet-American
reconciliation at Friends General Conference, conducted retreats, &
published poems in Friends Journal. He
was the Wilmer Young International Peace and Reconciliation Scholar at Pendle
Hill. He married Kathleen Ross, a
Methodist minister; they have had a challenging joint venture together.
The chief value of the Russian
experiment for Americans is as a challenge to our thinking Henry Hodgkin
Surely there can be no question that much of
the dangerous strain between our country & other countries comes from our
rich standard, which we are not willing to share, except piecemeal. . . out of
our surplus. If Americans could . . . do with less . . . in order that the
poorer nations might have necessities, we might become the leader of a peaceful
world. When we scoff at Russia for [not meeting our standard] we are
planting the seeds of war. Mildred
B. Young (PHP #90)
The Quaker Theory of Christian responsibility
has prompted religious journeys, relief missions and messages of goodwill to
Russians [and others]. Anna
Brinton (PHP #62)
[The Beginnings
of Soviet-American Reconciliation]—My Soviet-American reconciliation
work has taught me that each of us can do our small part in peacemaking just by
learning to listen. We discover that we
have much to offer each other. I had a
strong leading to go to Philadelphia and do a
peace work project. There I met Janet
Riley; she also had a strong leading.
She spoke of compiling and publishing a book of poetry and fiction by
contemporary Soviet and American writers.
The
book’s concept began with Kent Larabee, who walked into the Soviet
Union in 1983; he was arrested. He preached so movingly about peace that they
took him to the Soviet Peace Committee. When Larrabee published “A Quaker
Meeting in Moscow?” strong
feelings, for & against, surfaced among Friends; his project would conflict
with ongoing Friends activities by both Philadelphia & London YMs; the
Quaker US/USSR Committee was formed. The Committee decided that its goal would
be to create “spiritual linkage” between East & West.
After
nearly a year of meeting, Janet Riley and Jay Worrall went to the Soviet
Embassy in Washington, D.C. Janet said: “That’s when we came up with the
idea for a joint book of poetry and fiction called The Human Experience.” It
seemed like a way had opened for me. I
felt a great deal of urgency about Soviet-American relations at this time. The
Human Experience could help “dispel the poisonous atmosphere that has kept
us from knowing each other, and lay the foundation for a peaceful future.” Some
experts on Soviet affairs were skeptical whether the book could be done,
particularly by amateurs.
Like many
citizen-diplomats of this period, we had good intentions but little knowledge
of Soviet language and culture; this was both a strength and a weakness. Many 19th century Quakers who went
to Russia were
similarly unprepared and unsophisticated in their approach; they “followed
their leadings,” sometimes with mixed results.
Thomas Shillitoe had no agenda, no clear purpose when he went to Russia in
1824. A pamphlet he wrote caught the
attention of Czar Alexander. The 2 men
met, spoke about social problems and had silent worship. Such was his “ministry of presence.” In 1892, Joseph J. Neave and John Bellows
went to Russia to help
the persecuted Doukhobors. They met Leo
Tolstoy who offered to donate the proceeds of a book; Bellows considered the
offer “immoral” and refused it. Friends’
unsophisticated reliance on leadings continues.
In the
early stages of the book project, I had a chance to meet my first Russians; one
could have passed for an American academic.
I found myself thinking, “Why he’s human, just like us.” However great our intellectual knowledge or
sophistication may be, our lack of face-to-face experiences often cause us to
imagine that they aren’t “like us.”
Thanks to the outreach of Janet and Jay, we were also fortunate to have
friends at the Soviet Embassy such as Oleg Benyukh and his chauffeur.
After
encounters such as these, I was becoming hooked on the charms of citizen
diplomacy, but I still felt some reluctance about making a commitment to this
project. [I doubted that I had enough
resources or was qualified for this kind of work]. [I joined the Princeton Quaker meeting], and
had the chance to travel around the country, meeting Zen masters, hermits,
priests, Sufis and Tibetan monks. This
hardly seemed like appropriate preparation for working with the Russians on a
joint book project. But I knew I had to
do what God was clearly leading me to do, in spite of my apparent lack of
qualifications. Janet was similarly
unprepared for this kind work, [and had to forge ahead, sometimes meeting stiff
resistance and having to spend her own money] to keep her dream [of
Soviet-American reconciliation] alive. I
learned from her that, even with a leading, one has to do quite a bit of hard
work to make miracle happen. Oleg Benyukh
said: “Any effort along these lines to foster peace and understanding cannot be
wasted.”
[Preparation,
Collaboration, Publication]—During this “gestation period” I
undertook a crash course to teach myself about the Russian language and
culture; I discovered I have deep affinities with the Russians. The Committee was broke and decided to let me
go because I was eager for the trip and had volunteered to pay my own way. The Committee and I trusted my Inner
Guide. A Quaker philanthropist read my
article in Friends Journal and called
to offer us a contribution of $14,000. I
am sure the Spirit was taking care of us.
We left
in early January and during “the coldest [winter] since General Frost defeated
the Nazis.” Russia was like
a fairyland, the world out which Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker emerged—snow mists and birches, and long mysterious
nights of oriental dreams. In -30°F
(-35°C) we walked over to Red Square. As if by magic, a Russian appeared speaking
flawless English and carrying a bag full of furry Russian hats.
[Janet
had gone to Russia &
connected with a publisher who was fascinated with New Age crystals]. At a
meeting in which we were supposed to sign a contract, we were told by his
assistant that this publishing house was not authorized to do fiction. After
this discouraging meeting, I collapsed in bed with jet lag & flu, &
could hardly move. It seemed as if we had come to Moscow for
nothing. We got a phone call the next day saying that the publisher was going to
introduce us to an another publisher. While we waited we made the rounds in Moscow to
introduce ourselves to journalists & at the American embassy; we also went
church-hopping.
[In the
Baptist church], the presence of the Spirit could be unmistakably felt in the
radiant faces of the congregation [made up of] families and young people as
well as the elderly. The people greeted
us so warmly & lovingly it was almost overwhelming. The Baptist minister
Alexei Bishkov explained the Baptist faith’s history in Russia, which began
about 100 years ago, when the Bible was translated from Slavonic into the
vernacular. Our driver was also named Alexei. He didn’t speak any English but
manage to communicate well anyway. We shared William Penn’s “Let us try then
what love will do” on a postcard in Russian with him, & became fast friends.
We met
and talked to Archmandrite Valentin in Suzdal, joined together in silent
worship, and were invited back the next day for a Blessing of the Water
ceremony. A choir chanted Russian hymns
as we walked down to the [Nerl] river.
Carved into the ice was a cross-shaped hole surrounded by candles; after
being blessed the water was collected as holy water. [An American Friend we met was bitterly
critical of Russian Orthodox priests].
Our
primary means of making spiritual links with the Russians was not through
established religion but through literature.
We were “led” either by luck or by the agency of a Higher Power to 2
Soviet literati [George Andjaparidze and Tatiana Kudryatseva] who proved
crucial for our project. Even today it
seems miraculous to me that 2 Quaker “innocents abroad” happened to encounter 2
Soviets who were so eminently qualified to make such a project happen. Our project could not have succeeded without
a healthy balance between the inspired amateurism of Friends and the hard-headed
realism of dedicated professionals.
Over the
next 1½ years, the Soviet and American editorial boards met jointly both in the
Soviet Union and in the US to
decide [what to put in the anthology]; decisions were made by consensus. Sometimes what seemed a brilliant poem to the
Russians came across to us as trite, and vice versa. Because we shared a love of literature and
felt a commitment to a common goal, we were willing to listen to one another,
make adjustments, and learn the sometimes difficult art of collaboration. [When Tanya and I saw The Human Experience for the 1st time, we exchanged the
look of parents] with a new baby. [When
the “communion” of the book’s writers were gathered together] writers on both
sides “were groping towards a new world now in the process of being born—where
major problems are global in nature and call for a global response.”
[The Human
Experience’s Aftermath]-- One of
the discoveries I made in compiling this book was how often morality and
religion surface as themes in the current Soviet writings. Yevtushenko, in his poem “On Border,
anticipates the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and alludes to Christ as the
crucial link between peoples: “Thank God,/
we have invisible threads and threadlets/ born of the threads of blood/ from
the nails in the palms of Christ./ These threads struggle through/ tearing
apart the barbed wire,/ leading love to join love/ and anguish to unite with
anguish. [I met Yevtushenko and together
we visited Pasternak’s grave].
A deep
respect for Truth & Freedom lies deep in the Russian soul. Many came to our
Quaker meetings & took part in our worship. At a conference, while no
writer was a believer, they were all firmly convinced that religion could play
an important part in the moral regeneration of Soviet society. One writer said:
“Our government tried to build a super society without the power of faith … It
is time for a spiritual revolution in our country.” The more you are exposed to
their literature, the more you realize what great spiritual gifts they have to
offer to all.
[Tatiana Pavlova]—I have had many heart to heart
talks with a Russian historian named Tatiana Pavlova who has come to epitomize
for me the spiritual legacy of Russian writers.
Tatiana found out about Quakers in books long before she encountered
them in person. She studied the Second English Republic [i.e
from Oliver Cromwell’s death to the restoration of Charles II]. She was moved by the fact that 164 Quakers
signed a petition asking to take the place of those who had been imprisoned for
their religious views. Tatiana’s
research into Quakerism and radical Protestants drew the attention of British
Friends, some of whom went to Moscow and met
her. British Friends visited her on a
fairly regular basis over the next few years.
Quaker worship provided her a sense of freedom and connectedness that
was lacking in the Orthodox practice.
Her
involvement with American Friends began in 1985 when she met Janet Riley and
Jay Worrall; she experienced a deep spiritual affinity with them. She spent 2 months in England, met
with scholars, did extensive research, and addressed London Yearly
Meeting. From January to April, 1990, she
traveled around the US,
speaking at various Friends groups on the East Coast, in California, and the
Midwest.
I was
curious to find out how Tatiana viewed America. One of the 1st observation the
Tatiana made is how the people in the US and Russia have
much in common temperamentally. Her most
vivid impressions were of people and landscapes that seemed to express the
American soul. [She met an artist with
AIDS and] was very touched by his struggles and his hopes as an artist. [She encountered] the American landscape in
the beaches of Malibu, Huntington Gardens and the San
Gabriel Mountains.
Another
spiritual high point of her
trip was the weeks she spent at Pendle Hill.
“For me this is a truly blessed community.” Tatiana’s intense concern for spiritual
values made me see the US and my
own life in a different way. I begin to realize how much my wife and I own and
take for granted; [Russian lifestyles are much more materially limited]. [I found out how much when I went] back to Russia in the
summer of 1991 to lead a Quaker work camp.
Decent food was scarce, plumbing facilities were primitive, and the
homeless and hungry were becoming more prevalent. Friends are working to translate Quaker
classics into Russian, and going to Russia and the Ukraine [to
stand beside and educate them about providing social services, social activism,
and Quakerism].
[Tatiana
wrote about] the need to maintain our links with our new found Russian
friends: “We are forging links with the
world outside; we have much to offer [in return]: 1,000 year tradition of
religious culture; writers as the conscience of the people. We want to talk to
the world & we need the assurance that the world is listening. Perhaps,
slowly and by degrees, hostility can be replaced by tolerance, indifference by
concern, & anger by love.”
Can the world’s problems be solved just by
listening? Listening
may be simple; but it isn’t easy. I am
grateful [to have been] shown another way to relate to people, one that relies
on developing sensitivity and trust.
[There is a place and a need for professionals who seek] an intellectual
understanding of other cultures. There
is also a place for inspired amateurs, for those who listen and labor in
love.
www.facebook.com/pendlehill?fref=ts
303. WORDS, WORDLESSNESS AND THE WORD: Silence
Reconsidered from a Literary Point (by Peter Bien; 1992)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR—Peter Bien is Professor of English and Comparative
Literature and co-ordinator of Peace Studies at Dartmouth College. He teaches
mainly modern British prose, and does research mainly in modern Greek
literature. This essay combines his
literary and Quakerly involvements. It
grows out of his Dart-mouth courses, his deep sympathy for the mystical power
of Quaker silence, his love of words, and his incorrigible weakness for all
things Greek.
Blessed be the man/who in this
confusion,/ this verbal muteness,/utters a truthful word or 2./Yet even more
blessed be the man/ who, wrestling his meaning from the bosom of silence,
acknowledges the perfection of Unutterableness.
S. S. Harkianakis
“I love to feel where words come from” Chief
Papunehang of the Delaware to John Woolman.
Nothing could be more unlike the natural
will and wisdom of human beings than this silent waiting … People thus gathered
together are inwardly taught to dwell with their minds on the Lord and to wait
for his appearance in their hearts … Thus the forwardness of the spirit of man
is prevented from mixing itself with the worship of God. The form of this worship is completely naked
and devoid of all outward and worldly splendor.
“All of the minds’ own labors [and the
imagination’s] things that are essentially good as well as things that are evil
must be brought to a halt.” R.
Barclay
"Whoever should hear this Word in the Father—where it is completely still—must be quite still and cut off from all images and forms.” Meister Eckhart
[Silence:
Then and Now]—Robert Barclay’s
point in the quote at the beginning of this section is that silence subtracts
from worship the intervention of the human will and all other forms of
idolatry. This is an understanding that
should be as valid for Quakers today as it was in the 17th century. While honoring the older understandings of
silence, I nevertheless want to reconsider silence from a 20th
century point of view. While early
Friends wanted to remove language as a factor in human knowledge of the divine,
I am suggesting that the divine may best be understood not by removing language
but rather by investigating its nature. [In
E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India is
an enigmatic English woman named Mrs. Moore].
She goes to a group of caves, which have a peculiar echo. “Whatever is said,” the narrator tells us,
“the same monotonous noise replies … ‘Boum [‘bou-oum, or ‘ou-boum] is the sound
as far as the human alphabet can express it...The echo began to undermine her
hold on life … And suddenly at the edge of her mind, Religion appeared, poor
little talkative Christianity, and she knew that all its divine words only
amounted to “boum.” Then she was
terrified.”
What
has terrified Mrs. Moore is that she has discovered a realm beyond language,
which, because it refuses to make distinctions, undermines her previous
religiosity, her Christian value system.
Forster’s “boum” is the Hindu mystic syllable Om, which as the Chandogya Upanishad says, holds
together all speech. Poor Mrs. Moore can
only feel undermined by Om, which seems to her to rob the world of value.
[Samuel
Beckett and the Bible]—In Samuel
Beckett’s novel Murphy, the title
character’s major desire is to halt the natural man’s roving imagination.
Murphy does not want to do, he wants simply to be. He seeks to reach Barclay’s
goals by tying himself to a rocking chair & rocking himself out of all the
self-workings & motions of his mind. Beckett’s point is that whereas our
noblest effort is to escape contingency, we are condemned to remain the
playthings of contingency, the only escape being death. Murphy is in his own
way waiting on the Lord.
We find the same distinction between
speech & silence in the tradition of the Hebrew & Christian
Testaments. In Genesis 1:1-6; 8-10, God
reached out from a distinctionless, timeless, shapeless, placeless state of
Being in order to do something,
making distinctions of time, shape, & place, & then naming [those
times, shapes & places]. [Once made,
man] imitated the divine process of naming by which distinctions are ratified.
[An infant gradually makes distinctions & separations, gives itself a name,
thus separating itself from its parents & siblings, splitting itself in 2, becoming
“I” & “me”]. God does not have a
name because God is distinctionless & bodiless.
[When
asked for God’s name, God answered, “I AM WHO I AM (I will be what I will be).
Even the Y-H-W-H is a verb (“to be”) rather than a noun. Hence the distinction between naming &
namelessness, & more generally between speech & silence, may be found
in the Hebrew Testament. John’s Gospel begins with “In the beginning was the [Logos]
Word, & the Word was with God, & the Word was God. It announces the
Trinitarian paradox of distinction-within-unity and Jesus’ divinity and
humanity. What precisely did John mean by the term logos? Is the Word to be
connected chiefly with the Doing aspect of God head or with the Being aspect?
[Ancient
Usage of Logos]—[One definition is]: Logos, the word or outward form by which the inward thought is
expressed, and the inward thought itself; logos
includes both the Latin ratio and
oratio. The internalization may
have begun as far back as 500 B.C. with Heraclitus, who “resorted to logos as the eternal principle of order.” The figure closest to John in the
evolution of logos was Philo Judæs
(40 A.D.), for whom logos was the
divine prototype of which the created universe is but a copy. The parallels between John and Philo are
striking. Logos and Sophia are
commonly paired as synonyms.
The
issues raised here were discussed in post-Biblical theology long before Fox and
others picked them up in the 17th century. Tertullian said around 200 A.D., “For before
all things God was alone—being in God’s self and for God’s self universe, and
space, and all things … Even then God had God’s own Reason with God. God had not Word from the beginning, but God
had Reason even before the beginning.” The
distinction between words and the Word and between words and silence can be
attested in discussions shortly after the New Testament was written. The implication is that Word should be
identified with silence. If we link the
Word with Being rather than Doing, it follows that the Word becomes
paradoxically silent. Meister Eckhart
wrote: “whoever should hear this Word in
the Father—where it is completely still—must be quite still and cut off from
all images and forms.” Silence is a mark
of the Deus absconditus [the hidden
God].
[George
Fox and the Word]—George Fox
wrote: “They asked me whether the Scripture was the word of God. I said, ‘God was the Word, the Scriptures
were writings; and the Word was before writings were, which Word did fulfill
them.” For Fox, even the memorable words
of poor little talkative Christianity from “Let there be Light” to “It is
finished” are inauthentic compared with the unified, enduring unfragmented
Reason or Light or Life or Word that John says “was God.” In
abandoning the inauthenticity of language, the silent worshipers in a Friends’
meeting ritualistically participate in Godhead.
Naming divides; silence unifies.
In the meeting’s silence, we flee Doing and enter Being. Words become a barrier between us and
Godhead, which can best be expressed in human terms, Nietzsche claims, by dance
and music as opposed to speech, since neither dance nor music distinguishes or
separates, the way speech does.
Henri
Bergson takes Nietzsehe’s metaphysical critique of language and applies it to
human psychology. He said that the ever-changing inner life is “inexpressible,
because language cannot get hold of it without arresting its mobility.” “There is no common measure between mind and
language.” [While the Quakers tried to
eliminate language from worship, in the end] we sometimes feel relieved despite
ourselves when the dynamic processes of the silence that are so deliciously
melting into one another to form an organic whole are interrupted by spoken
ministry. Even while waiting on the Lord
we remain the fragmented playthings of contingency, and as such are condemned
to use words, those emblems of fragmentation.
[But in the end] “the Word became flesh [and dwelt among us].” [There was a danger that flesh would] “melt
into spirit, imitation of Christ slides into identity with Christ,” as in the
case of James Nayler. Let us hope that
our own Quaker meetings may honor the paradox that the Word contains words
within itself, just as the inactive God head contains with itself the
possibility of action.
[Applying
Beckett to Quaker Silence]—Beckett’s
trilogy explores the synergy between silence and speech. The successive [trilogy] characters strive to
do less and less and to be more and more, thereby escaping contingency [into]
the unity and integrity of the silent Word.
And, of course, they fail. They
are us. They are every Quaker who sits
in meeting week after week striving to escape the language of what Barclay
calls the human being in his natural state.
The religious quest to escape language is predicated on
self-consciousness and self-consciousness is impossible without language. Silence is not speech’s elimination so much
as its seed-bed. In silent meeting for
worship we attempt to enter the code, [the system offered by the silent Word],
to “give birth to something wordless in words.”
This is what happens in Beckett’s novel.
The
extraordinary force of a successful Quaker meeting is its reenactment of the
nature of Godhead through silence and of the synergy between that Godhead and
us through the spoken messages that emerge from silence and die back into
it. The synergy between silence and
speech releases extraordinary amounts of creative energy. So, like Quakers in meeting Beckett goes on,
caught within this dilemma, yet also energized by it. In Beckett, as in meeting, the silence of the
wordless Word paradoxically gives meaning to the messages, just as the messages
paradoxically give meaning to the silence.
304. Mind What Stirs in your Heart (by Teresina R. Havens; 1992)
[About
the Author]—Teresina Rowell
Havens was born 1/13/1909 and died 2/14/1992 in [the home in Portland OR she shared with Joe Havens. She studied in several places, and received
her Ph. D. in Comparative Religion from Yale in 1933. She found her heaven on earth at Itto En, a
Buddhist-Christian community in Japan. Teresina discovered a rich mine of movement-language which
invited literal expression, especially in the pastoral letters of George
Fox. [This pamphlet grew out of]
exploring some of the “movings” with Quaker gatherings.
FOREWORD—I am a liturgical dancer, whose understanding of dance
& prayer has been altered by some of the very processes that Teresina writes of in this Guide. [At her Temenos retreat
center] she would wake me with “Morning has Broken,” & close the day
dancing with the fireflies]. She said: “Frequently we lose touch with the
River; we muddy or dam it, & break connection with those pure and steady
currents which are its heart.” Mind What Stirs in Your Hearts helps us
touch this deep-flowing source. The
[exercises and] work urges us, gently, to develop our capacity to listen
profoundly to our bodies, so that our “dance-body” becomes the focus of our
meditation. Teresina encourages us to find the inner, [unprogrammed] dance
of our being. Carla De Sola
Eaton
Let no Friends be discouraged, but Walk in the Truth & the love of it, & to it bend.
Walk as becomes the glorious Order of the Gospel, having the Water of Life in your Cisterns, & Bread of Life in your tabernacles & fruit on your trees, to the praise of God.
As to Unity, it makes all like it self, that do obey it; Universal to live out of [away from] narrowness & self.
Unity watches over all Professors of it, for their good, to keep within its bounds, & walk within its Order.
Dwell in the Truth & walk in the love of the Truth, in patience. George Fox
PART
I. MOVEMENT AS CREATIVE FORCE—In the
beginning, according to the ancient Chinese sages was Flow—the Rhythm, the Tao,
the Process. Out of this flowing “Empty Source,” emerged the primal polarity
of Yin & Yang, Inflow & Outflow, 10,000 things; movement precedes form.
In all things great & small the whole of nature is interwoven with
interpenetrating rhythms & movements, & forms are created in the
interplay between them. This view turns upside down the classic Western view
[where the form comes 1st, then movement].
This
primordial moving energy in dance cannot be split into “spiritual” vs. “physical.” Through the movement of our bodies we
experience the unity of spirit and breath.
The way you move may be your teacher; we learn through moving. Preoccupation with the amazing circuitry of
the brain has tended to blind us to the mutual
interaction between the brain and the rest of the organism. Kinaesthetic experience may lead to insight.
PART II.
BREATHE/Exercise 1: Breathing with One Another—The divine Ruakh
(breathing Spirit) brought form out of chaos in the Beginning &
continues to renew us in each moment of out-breathing & in-breathing.
Between the first opening of our tiny diaphragm at birth to the last closing of
our faithful, weary diaphragm our life unfolds. With spiritual awakening or “2nd birth,” this sensitive intersection of the
autonomic with the central nervous networks becomes pliable & yields to
mindful intent.
Join
someone near you to form pairs. Sit down
together, one behind the other with their hands gently on the middle of the
front partner’s back, over the lungs and diaphragm. Be aware of the rhythmic out and in. The listener may gently reinforce the
partner’s out-breath with very light
pressure. After both have done it, face
one another and share insights gained from listening to breathing rhythm.
Exercise 2: Breathing with Penington—After stretching, sit down on the floor; center
down. Let your hands gently support your
own out- and in-rhythm. As you listen to
Penington, let your body respond. Listen
to:
Breath is the prayer of the living child to the Father
of Life, in that spirit which quickened it, which giveth it the right sense of
its wants. The Father is the fountain of life, & giveth forth breathings of
life to God’s child at God’s pleasure. /// My dear Friends, let us retire,
& dwell in the peace which God breathes. /// In time of great trouble there
may be life stirring underneath . . . in which there may be a drawing nigh
& breathing of the heart to the Lord. /// Oh! … small breathings, small
desires after the Lord, if true & pure, are sweet beginnings of life. ///
Wait to feel the Seed, & the cry of thy soul in the Seed’s breathing life.
Each of us may have our own
intention or aspiration or “cry of our soul” to send forth on the breath. You may want to try it daily and write down
what you learned for future exploration.
Exercise 3: Breathing Life into the Dry
Bones—[In nature there is a place
that represents the Divine Breath-Wind-Spirit.
It is] the “Sacred Breathing Mountains” of the American Southwest. [The Black Mesa Aquifer has] “a number of blow
holes into which the air rushes for about 6 hours; then it rushes out again for
6 hours. There is an endless, swaying,
oscillating movement of air, water, breath and spirit [within the aquifer].”
The
Black Mesa aquifer is endangered by the demands on its water. We must broaden our prayerful breathing to
include the needs of our planet. Imagine
enacting Ezekiel 37: 1-11a and the spiritual “Dem Dry Bones”, with a narrator,
Ezekiel, Dry bones [rest of class] and scarves for wind. [Close with] “Then he said to me, “Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.”
PART III. WALK/Exercise 1: Placing Feet
on the Earth—Scout the outdoor area beforehand & establish
limits for the area to walk in. Find a partner,
sit down, gently hold and bless one another’s feet. Everyone move outdoors in a circle, standing
in pairs; the “mover” closes her eyes; the witness/supporter gently holds the
mover’s hand. Feel your connection with
the earth, the pull of gravity. The
supporter is there to provide protection, not to guide. Walk as if you were sauntering to the Holy Land, trusting the land beneath your feet to be holy. Each partner will have about 5 minutes to
walk blindfolded, with a few minutes afterward to share the experience.
B. Walking with the Psalmist—We have “listened” with the soles of our feet. We have
paid attention to the feel of the earth beneath us. We have become aware of how
much we depend on our eyes in relating to Nature & the world around us. We
now turn to a way to discover new dimensions of meaning in Biblical &
Quaker metaphors by physically walking them. There is a natural affinity
between the Hebrew & Quaker images
of the spiritual life as a walk; the very way
we move is an expression of our inner state, and in turn affects our outer
state.
Exercise 1: “Moving a Verse from the
Bible”—In this exercise each one is
invited to select a passage from the Old Testament (OT) passages listed below
and to express its spirit in movement and posture. The OT passages are: Lev. 26:13; I Kings 8:23; Pss. 18:33, 36;
35:6; 40:2; 55:22; 90:15; 119:45; 135:7; Prov. 19:2; Job:2-3; Isaiah 40:
31. Find a partner and together choose one passage. The warm-up exercises are designed to free up
inhibited participants for group movement [i.e. tossing around a “ball of
air”]. Read the passage and “listen” to
the body images it invokes; let your body lead you. Don’t be too literal. Return to center spot. Invite each group to share a movement-insight. Close with a period of silence.
Individually,
you may “move a verse”; you may also use a verse as a mantra or seed-verse in
your daily life. When used with body
movement, this practice has power to reinforce intention, to remind us of our direction. Walk very slowly. Repeat the phrase until it begins to say
itself. A mantra may help to keep wandering thoughts at bay and may open the
door to a deeper silence. Sidney
Carter’s “George Fox Ballad” may be walked and moved to. How do
we walk differently when we walk in the light?
C. Walking in Truth/Exercise: Walking
with Fox—We shall open ourselves to
the cumulative impact of Fox’s walking advices because it is difficult to enact
them singly, literally, one by one. They
are suggestive seeds to take into our imagination as we walk, letting them
germinate there at their own pace.
Choose one or more of the following phrases, [and walk with them]; find
your own pace.
Let no Friends be discouraged, but Walk in the Truth
& the love of it, & to it bend.
Walk as becomes the glorious Order of the Gospel,
having the Water of Life in your Cisterns, & Bread of Life in your
tabernacles & fruit on your trees, to the praise of God.
As to Unity, it makes all like it self, that do obey
it; Universal to live out of [away from] narrowness & self.
Unity
watches over all Professors of it, for their good, to keep within its bounds,
& walk within its Order.
Dwell in the Truth & walk in the love of the
Truth, in patience.
All you who know this Glorious Gospel of Peace; live
and walk in it.
Keep your feet upon the top of mountains and sound
deep to the Witness of God in everyone.
Then will your feet be beautiful, that publish Peace, and to the
captives proclaim Liberty.
Meet together, & in the Measure of God’s Spirit
wait, that with it all your Minds may be guided up to God, to receive Wisdom
from God; that ye may all come to know, how to Walk up to God in God’s wisdom.
WALK soberly, honestly, modestly & civilly &
lovingly & gently & tenderly to all people.
PART IV. WAIT/A. Woolman and the Ecology
of Haste—Our purpose in this part is not movement per se, but
deeper understanding of our Quaker heritage and its implications for our lives
today. John Woolman was, like Fox, an indefatigable walker,
and also pondered explicitly the symbolic meaning of walking. Woolman traveled long distances on foot,
declining a lift. He refused the ride because he could not conscientiously
contribute to the oppression of post-horses and post-boys. Woolman points out how both the world of
Nature and the human spirit pay a price for our haste. He said:
“The true Calmness of life is changed into Hurry … many by eagerly
pursuing outward Treasure, are in great Danger of withering as to the inward
state of the Mind.” “Many have looked on
one another, been strengthened in superfluities, one by the example of another
… Dimness has come over many, and the
Channels of true Brotherly Love been obstructed.” “In the love of money and in the wisdom of
this world, business is proposed, then the urgency of Affairs push forward, and
the mind cannot in this state discern the good and perfect will of God
concerning us.”… “[Even when I say] ‘I must needs go on; and in going on I hope
to keep as near the purity of Truth as the business before me will admit of,’
the mind remains entangled and the Shining of the Light of life into the Soul
is obstructed.”
Exercise 1: “Shining of the Light … into
the Soul.”—Walk forward while
repeating the quote beginning with “I must needs go on …” How do
you walk when the Light is blocked from shining into your soul? How would it change our economic justice
efforts to focus on the psychic costs of our competitive economic system? Where
are Woolman’s observations about hurry most relevant today?
B. Penington’s Way of Waiting—Is your
meeting graced with a waiting spiritual worship? Let us explore [and “listen to”] how our bodies react
to the necessity of waiting.
Exercise 1—Allow ample
physical space. Imagine yourself in a particular waiting situation; be
specific. Find a posture expressing how
your whole organism is feeling. Hold
that posture until you can repeat it. In
a group, take turns showing your posture and letting the others guess what you
are waiting for.
Exercise 2: Waiting for a Birth—Find a posture suggestive of waiting for an inward
development. Imagine you are pregnant. How would your posture change as you
progressed through the process? Share postures and discoveries with the group.
Exercise 3:
Waiting to Feel the Seed with Penington—“Oh,
wait to feel the Seed, and the cry of thy soul in the breathing life of the
Seed … Wait for the risings of the power in thy heart … Be still and quiet, and
silent before the Lord, not putting up any request to the Father.” Let your body respond spontaneously and
directly to Penington’s images, without undue thought. Make some notes on what you have discovered.
Through the practice of “Authentic Movement” [which is
only the title of this discipline], I learned to wait till my whole body was
quiet & ready to be moved from within from a deep inner impulse.
Expectation, programs, agendas had to be set aside. “If so moved” is familiar
language to Friends. This discipline also fostered a discernment that answers
the queries: How do we know when we “are moved?” How do we distinguish our own will
from a true “leading?”
It
is not easy to wait or just be unprogrammed; it takes effort to stop and wait. Penington suggests:
Come out of the knowledge and comprehension about
things, into the feeling life … without reasoning, consulting, or
disputing. ///There is a river, a sweet,
still, flowing river, the streams whereof will make glad thy heart. And learn but in quietness and stillness to
retire to the Lord and wait upon him.
/// And so, sink very low and become very little, and know little; know
no power to believe, act, or suffer anything for God, but as it is given
thee.
Another movement discipline grounded in Zen is found
in Japanese Noh dances. Janet Heyneman
writes: “I still understand very little
of what goes on in the plays, but I know how the boards feel under my feet … It
is a kind of waiting, this mindless repetition of movement, waiting for the
articulation of an understanding that is too physical for consciousness. It’s a meaning the brain can’t explain, but
that the body understands. Noh dance had
developed out of the sacramental movements of a human being filled by a
god. It would uncover the movements that
trace the furrows of human inner life.”
In the mysterious organism of Mother Gaia, including
not only our planet but our interstellar system, everything affects everything
else. The unfolding of the divine Seed
within us is so momentous, so unpredictable, that we cannot afford to clutter
our worship with pre-programmed hymns, prayers and sermons; the only
appropriate response is to wait.
Keeping deliberately and faithfully unprogrammed is a way to keep that
void or center open. One format to
encourage spontaneity is to leave a spacious center free for movement, with
members sitting until moved to move.
Trust the Unexpected.
V. THE
“KEEPER” AND THE “FORWARD PART”—This
exercise utilizes the Breathing, Walking, and Waiting of the previous
chapters. It may be used by itself as a
single workshop without preparation. “It
is one thing to sit waiting to feel the power, and another to feel and keep
within the sense and limits of the power when Ye come to act… Oh, wait and
watch to feel your keeper keeping you within the holy bounds and limits, within
the pure fear, within the living sense, while ye are acting for your God; that
ye may only be God’s instrument.” [In
this scenario there are three figures]: The “Forward Part” (“outruns her
leadings”); the “Keeper” (i.e. “within holy bounds and limits; the
Quaker/Pilgrim (asked to wait). The
first 2 interact with the Quaker/Pilgrim; each person tries every role. Each group shares their movement-discoveries
with the whole circle.
305. Spiritual Discernment: The Context and Goal of
Clearness Committee (by Patricia Loring; 1992)
About the Author—Patricia Loring has
been released by Bethesda (MD) Friends Meeting for a ministry in nurture of the
spiritual life, [i.e.] creating/leading adult religious education; spiritual
development; retreat minis-try; workshops; spiritual guidance; writing. She
spent 5 terms at Pendle Hill & completed long-term programs in Spiritual
Guidance & Group Leadership at Shalem Institute in Washington, D. C.; this
pamphlet grew out of those programs. She was told to write something on the
clearness process as spiritual discernment herself.
We go to a clearness committee with heart and mind prepared, setting aside our own purposes, in holy expectancy of whatever new thing God is bringing about, as we wait, centered in silence, we trust we will be given the ears to hear what is significant and the words to evoke what is meant to come forth. Patricia Loring
Divine
Guidance and Spiritual Discernment—Spiritual
discernment lies at the heart of Quaker spirituality and practice. Discernment is the faculty we use to
distinguish the true movement of the Spirit to speak in meeting from the wholly
human urge to share. Discernment is a
gift from God, not a personal achievement.
We all have some measure of this gift.
As we grow and are faithful in the spiritual life we may well be given
more. The development of discernment is
one dimension of a lifelong, ongoing conversation with God, in which we learn
to listen to a profound and subtle language and “let our lives speak.” As we grow in our willingness and God-given
capacity to carry out the will of God or to live in tune with God’s will, we
grow towards living a discerned life.
Many
early Quakers did not distinguish [clearly] between a motion of the Spirit
& the most pressing or plausible impulse within themselves. Cruel
punishments inflicted on James Nayler for his ride into Bristol—& the persecution that came upon Friends—gave the
greatest impetus to Friends to [discerning if the source of leadings was divine
or human need]. It was no longer an individual issue when the community
suffered for the excesses.
Discernment:
Tests of Leadings—[The
“guidelines” Quakers developed] for discerning leadings remained rough,
experiential, & uncodified. As a
result, there are no handy lists of discernment tests in early Friends’ writings
of. The earliest group of signs Friends had as they were testing their leadings
is the “fruits of the Spirits” [Galatians 5:23,
namely] “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
gentleness & self-control” [They were assumed present in a life truly lived
in the Spirit]. Some of the fruits indicated what has been called the moral
purity of an action [i.e. freedom from self-willed, self-serving or
self-centered motivations]. Promptings
truly of divine origin are more likely to persist over time, despite outward
checks.
Obviously
self-control is a closely related indicator of moral purity. Early Friends [also talked of the “the
cross.” [some were led to the conviction
that the more humiliating to the individual were consequences, the more likely
it was to be a true leading. Another
rough grouping of fruits of the Spirit illuminates the quality of a leading by
its results in community life. To
experience unity in God’s love bears fruit in love of neighbor. The fruits of the Spirit, kindness and
gentleness, are dimensions of the first fruit love.
The
experience of being united in Truth produces the expectation [of consistency
between the] perceptions of persons attuned to divine guidance. Early on, quite
discerning people submitted leadings to others whose capacity for discernment they
respected. In discerning a formal leading in ministry to the body of Friends,
it became customary to bring it into the corporate discernment process of the
meeting for business. What is sought is a sense of deep, interior unity which
is a sign the members are consciously gathered together in God & may
therefore trust their corporate guidance. Friends have so valued the fruit of
group discernment that they have been willing to labor hard & to wait long
to come into unity with one another before proceeding in a matter of
substance.
Friends
utilize the Bible, the writings of spiritual leaders or saintly people from
Quaker & other traditions. They work
with passages they feel are in the spirit of the essence of the work rather
than with exceptional passages. Peace has been regarded both as a fruit of the
Spirit & as a sign of authenticity. Quaker experience has been that living
close to the Spirit has the effect of harmonizing and reconciling both within
and between persons. A new task disturbs
a person’s peace; faithfully discharging the task leads to restoration of inner
peace. The word “clear” is today more
apt to be used in the shape of a leading than in discerning when a leading has
been fulfilled.
Being
Led as Response to Outer Needs—Sometimes
something happens in the wider community or world disturbs a person’s peace,
and some action will be required to restore it.
The wait and solution may be short and simple, or prolonged [and
long-term]. For the person whose
mystical sense of unity has extended to the whole of creation the agony of
being in the world and at odds with its values and actions may be acute. It requires [real] discernment to discover
whether the ministry called for requires prophetic speech, humble and hidden
activities, bold and dramatic action, or other novel and previously unimagined
course.
We
are responsible for faithfully discerning and performing our own part in the
process, leaving the outcome to God. The
more deeply we come under guidance ourselves, and stay faithful [to all
direction, the less] time, energy, and attention [we have] for trying to bring
and keep others up to our mark. Peace
which is neither apathy nor avoidance has also been a sign for Friends that
they are in compliance with God’s will for them. There are no rules in this matter of leadings
and discernment. Leadings come from the
mysterious depths of God.
Being
Led as Growing into our True Selves—Divine
guidance doesn’t always beckon in outward events or situations. Some of our
leadings are promptings by inward impulses to growth or change, [when a logical
course becomes barren or shuts down completely]. To review lives in light of
Eternity fosters respect for the unpredictable timing, interconnections, &
[consequences] of events, for the manifold variations in human lives. Each of
us is a unique part of the unfolding of the universe, with unique constellations
of gifts, to be exercised in God’s service.
We
may be led to areas of weakness or disability to teach us humility. Most of the
time we are led to function in the area of our gifts; indeed, we’re responsible
for doing so. Identification of spiritual gifts doesn’t begin with system, but
with the vision of unique giftedness in each person in service of a harmonious
spiritual community. The development of the individual’s gifts is for the spiritual
community’s sake & God’s purposes; [that is often not the same as] the
prevailing system, [& in fact at times critiques prevailing systems [&
their faithfulness to divine unfolding]. In addition, there is no one identity
or leading which defines a person for a lifetime.
Unprogrammed
Quakerism’s vision has been one of slow and steady change, [consistent
faithfulness and character]; early Friends called this “perfection.” Their writings [indicate] deep willingness to
change and be changed, willingness to see and do and become whatever was
required of them in love and confidence in God.
[Paul’s expectation of] “unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory
of the Lord” [is meant] not just for a few, but of all of us as we enter more
intimately into relationship with God.
Thomas
Merton writes of false and true selves.
To the extent that the self is founded on or constructed of the labels,
expectations, or directives of other people, Merton calls it a false self. And to the extent that the self is
conceptualized rather than being made up of the activity of the undistorted
upwelling of Life in the individual it is false. The “perfection” of early Friends may be seen
as a movement from false self to true self.
At the entry of the pure breath of Life into us, at its taking shape in
us and our response, we find our most authentic self. The effort to come to the true self and to be
led through it, is discernment at its most profound level.
The
Role of the Community in Personal Discernment—Quaker tradition held expectations that God would
raise up prophets from the community to speak to people for the good of the
community & the world. Individual & community were accountable to each
other for the prophetic role. [The community would discern that a leading was
“of God,” & minuted its discernment, committing the individual to carrying
out the leading, & the community to support of the individual]. More
recently, it has meant financial assistance for the period of the
ministry.
We
can cultivate an environment among us which will foster one another’s spiritual
growth by directing & re-directing intention & attention to God. The
responsibility for spiritual nurture is shared by the members of the meeting,
[some having a greater gift for it than others]. The gift of vocal ministry was to bring the
community beyond outward preaching to the inward Teacher and Guide.
[The
elder’s gift might be to discern whether the vocal ministry’s source was from the
true self guided by experiencing the Truth] or from the false self’s need. The
elder’s interior experience of God’s work in his own heart & life was
integrated with sensitively observed experience of Quaker community life to
shape his discernment & guidance of others’ spirits. The proportions of
intuition & outward evidences in discernment varied depending on the
individual elder. In the 19th century, the proportion shifted
heavily in the direction of outward evidences, [taking the form of discernment
by outward rules of dress & marrying within the community]. This sad
perversion of discernment by a people who professed to be guided by the spirit
of God was a major factor in the near-demise of unprogrammed Friends. [The gift
of eldership still exists although most meetings abolished the office].
Unofficial elders are hampered by lack of recognition, cooperation, &
nurture of their own growth by their meetings.
The
Evolution of the Clearness Committee in the 20th Century—In the early part of the 20th century,
there seems to have been mainly relief at the removal of the eldership
authority. Young Friends became a
creative force in the Society.
Maintaining the Peace Testimony and initiating healing of the century
old division and wounds within Friends [became priorities]. Young Friends began the current adaptation of
clearness committees to discerning leadings and other questions of spiritual
import in individual’s lives.
The
purpose [of early clearness committees] was [more clearance than clearness], to go into the outward aspects of the
business or problem at hand, to determine the relevant & legitimate
questions which might be raised in reference to it & to find information needed
for deliberation; actual discernment was left for the meeting for business.
Another use of clearness committees among Friends has been in requests for
membership, again more a process of clearance than clearness; the applicants
sense of leading to join Friends is often regarded as sufficient.
In
the 60s clearness committees began evolving into an instrument for matters too
personal or not sufficiently seasoned to bring under the weight of the meeting
for business. [The “new”] clearness
committee seems to offer a way back into community support and guidance at
critical times in people’s lives. [In
the process of evolution, the term “focus person” developed] for the one whose
questions or leadings are the focus of the group. There was no conscious effort to use the
clearness process [specifically] for spiritual discernment.
The
Clearness Committee as an Instrument for Discernment—Much of the vitality of the clearness commit-tee lies
in its improvisational quality, which leaves both its form and its participants
open to the promptings of the Spirit. A
clearness committee should have members gifted with discernment developed in
their personal relation-ship with God.
They should be capable of restraining the very human impulse to give
advice. Support is given to the Truth of
the focus person’s leading by God and not to what could be a passing attachment
or mistaken judg-ment. [It is best if]
the committee members refrain from making statements or suggestions, but only
questions.
The
questions should, in Parker Palmer’s words be “authentic, challenging, open,
loving questions so that the focus person can discover his or her own agenda …
Caring, not paternalism or curiosity, is the rule for questioners. The clearness process is profoundly counter-cultural
in assuming that the greatest help we give is to refrain from problem-solving,
to create a situation in which a person may discern for herself what is needed. The focus person’s discernment process may
not only be thwarted, but she will undoubtedly feel violated rather than
assisted by the imposition of someone else’s sense of reality in place of
encountering reality for herself.
It
begins with a moment of silence in order to give over one’s own firm views, to
place the outcome in the hands of God.
[It continues with listening], with as much complete attentiveness as we
can muster. Douglas Steere says, “To
‘listen’ another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be
almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.”
Many clearness committees find a natural rhythm which includes a good deal of
silence. It is to allow the questions
and the answers to sink into us in the silence which follows them, and to sink
into them. Some time for reflecting back
what was heard may be allowed.
Sufficient time in silence at the end may allow a sense of what has
emerged to begin to crystallize. A gift
of tenderness and love is often a fruit of gathering together in intimacy and
openness to wait upon God’s guidance.
Details
of Preparation and Organization/In Conclusion—The focus person needs to be clear about what she
needs to discern. She puts into a FEW
pages of writing what is most important for her committee to know at the
outset. Her committee’s preparation will
be to read carefully, assimilate and hold [the focus person’s] back-ground
[material] in the Light. Who is to appoint the members of the
committee? It should be someone who
might be expected to have a developed sense of the gifts needed for the work
and of potential committee members. [Not
just anyone can be on the committee]; volunteers are discouraged, [as someone
who really wants to help] might have neither the requisite listening ear nor
the capacity to restrain themselves from imposing their solutions on the
situation. It is helpful to have another
member of the committee undertake responsibility for the convening the
committee and for directing the flow of the process. In
era when the loss of community is being mourned, a clearness committee may be
helpful in inviting greater involvement in one another’s lives. Within the committee, the focus person may
choose to establish areas of her life which are not open to questions, or
questions we may answer inwardly but gently decline to answer orally. Freedom to ask searching questions and to
give honest intimate, or profound answers—or to decline to give answers—must be
uninhibited by worry about where they will be repeated or how they will be interpreted.
Is any record of the proceedings to be
kept? [If so, what, and how?] Should the entire matter be left as
unrecorded as a meeting for worship, in confidence that the process will work
in its own way and that what is forgotten is not required for the right
discernment?
Insights
often emerge [long after the session, when] the experience percolates through
the consciousness, the unconsciousness and back again. Sometimes the result of the percolation is
that a new layer of questions has emerged and needs to be addressed in another
sessions. 2 hours generally seems to be
the maximum time that people can function with alertness in this kind of
intensely focused way.
The
crucial element for the meeting for worship for the conduct of business, [and
for the clearness committee] is the establishment of context of prayerful
attentiveness for the entire meeting.
Liberal amounts of silence be-tween utterances permits them to be heard
with all their resonances and taken below the surface mind. It can allow what does come forth to arise spontaneously
from the Center. Preparations need to be
made, and then let go of, the better to see what is in the present without
preconception under the guidance of the Spirit.
We
go to a clearness committee with heart and mind prepared, setting aside our own
purposes, in holy expectancy of whatever new thing God is bringing about, as we
wait, centered in silence, we trust we will be given the ears to hear what is
significant and the words to evoke what is meant to come forth.
306. Four Doors to Meeting for Worship (by William
P. Taber; 1992)
About
the Author—William Taber is in
his 11th year at Pendle Hill; he teaches about history, practice and
spiritual of Quakerism. He wrote The Prophetic Stream (PH pamphlet
#256). He and his wife, Frances have spoken about or led retreats on various aspects
of Quakerism, prayer, and the spiritual journey. The concept of the Stream, not original with
Bill, 1st appeared during a 1968 Pendle Hill conference. The “4 doors” metaphor grew out of a need for
a contemporary explanation of what happens in a Quaker meeting.
INTRODUCTION—When some people attend their 1st Friends
meeting for worship, they feel themselves gathered into a living Presence &
they know they have come home at last; others find it difficult, but something
draws them back. A modern synonym for worship is adoration, an intense and
loving focus on That which is most dear and important to us. The writings of George Fox and many other
Friends all point to communion as central to Quaker worship; early preaching
was meant “to take the hearers to Christ and to leave them there.” [They did
and we can] enter at any time a reality which has always been there from the
beginning of time. One way to enter the
stream is to imagine passing through 4 stages or doors which lead into and
through the meeting for worship.
THE 1ST DOOR: THE DOOR BEFORE—[This door opens] when we find ourselves in a
worshipful state of mind at any time during the week; once a week is not
enough. [In our stressful time] it
becomes all the more important that we enter the Door Before many times a week
so that we may enter the meeting room already prepared in mind & heart &
spirit. [In this prepared state a person] will require less time to let go of
the rhythms & preoccupations of life & can therefore enter more quickly
& easily into full attention. People who have gone through the Door Before
often find it easier to stay in touch with the living Source & have a
gathered meeting.
Entering
into worship often feels to me somewhat like entering into a stream. Entering into the stream of worship needs no
justification to one who has experienced the healing, the peace, the renewal,
the expansion which accompanies this altered state of consciousness; [worship
is something I enter rather than do.
In some mysterious way this stream unites me with the communion of the
saints across the ages, [and with Christ].
Each
day is filled with countless opportunities for going through the Door Before,
for dipping into brief moments of communion with that eternal yet ever present
stream. [Making the most of such opportunities] seems to be one of the most
important steps toward real spiritual growth & a more meaningful meeting
for worship. For some the time of going
to sleep at night or awakening in the morning can be a brief precious time of
remembering who and whose we are. Travel
can be a wonderful opportunity for going through the Door Before. [Seeking out and being aware of all the
beauty around us can provide] a momentary entrance through the Door Before, to
be touched for a moment, by the Stream “which makes glad the city of God.” Moments of
pain or frustration can be converted into brief times of secret prayer for
ourselves and blessing for the problem. Eventually
this practice of dipping in and out of the Stream, or going through the Door
Before, or practicing the Presence becomes an important part of each day, and
makes us ready for the rich communion of a regular meeting for worship.
It
takes time and patience for some people to feel the results of these spiritual
disciplines of the Door Before, [because we are culturally conditioned] to pay
attention to only a narrow band of physical and intellectual reality. I would give 4 suggestions for re-awakening our
[connection] to the spiritual dimension: [simple regular spiritual practice;
focus word or phrase; feel and experience beauty and wonder; worship with a few
spiritual friends. The improvement from
the 1st suggestion may be slow and a long time in coming. The 2nd may be a word, scripture
passage or inspirational writing. The 3rd
is often achieved by cultivating those moments that are already there. The 4th can sometimes be more
powerful than individual worship & make being in the Stream easier to
recognize.
THE 2ND DOOR: THE DOOR
INWARD—Passing through the 2nd
door is when the meeting begins. When
does the meeting actually begin? It often begins before its official start.
Each time we focus on & visualize the meeting-to-come we are already
“beginning” the meeting. The night before the meeting seems to be an especially
good time to focus attention for a few moments on the meeting to come. [The
Living Stream we touch that night] is the same stream which we shall enter when
tomorrow’s meeting gathers. Awakening on Sunday morning can be full of the
joyous wonder & sense of holy expectancy so characteristic of Jewish
literature about Sabbath. [Imagine] that on this day the Stream will be there
waiting for us to enter with our dear friends.
There
have always been a few Friends called to spend a special time of personal
“retirement” before meeting on Sunday morning; many found it helped their
experience of group worship later that morning.
Entering the meeting room door can be a “body prayer” as we continue to
let body, mind, and spiritual senses seek attunement with the Stream in this
holy place of converging willing souls,
as we move toward a seat.
Virtually
all religious traditions have developed aids to help participants make the
transition from the ordinary state of mind into worship’s expanded
consciousness. A Quaker meeting requires worshipers—not just the minister [&
worship planners]—to give the same kind of loving focused attention to this
transition from 1 level of consciousness to another. [Different Friends have
different approaches]; they include 3 qualities: desire to be in the Presence; focus,
alertness in God’s Presence; trust in
[floating safely] in the deep & Living Water of the Stream.
List of
possible approaches and images to use: Remember,
you are in the Presence; you are only
seeking awareness of it. Use a restful, easy-to-hold position; relax. Repeat
Lord’s Prayer or other inspirational phrase. Use mantra to lead towards the group experience of being open to the
work of God. Try spontaneous, free prayer. Pray for each person around the
room. Imagine: being in the Stream of Divine Presence; God’s transforming love [shining upon you, bathing
you deeply]; love flowing to members; Jesus or some other Divine aspect being
present in the room; participate in a Bible story; imagine a Quiet Presence, a
Space opening within & around you.
The
combination of relaxed focus seems
especially helpful. As we learn to relax
our anxiety to do the right thing,
then technique becomes far less important than our desire to be fully present. After
some difficult meetings we may wonder if we ever got there, [because of all the distractions we experienced]. The reality of God’s continuing,
transforming work within us becomes more and more evident as we realize that
there is a new steadiness, calm and centeredness underlying our daily
lives.
THE 3RD DOOR: THE DOOR
WITHIN—An experienced Friend can
usually feel the difference, that the meeting is “settled” or “gathered”; there
is no signal or sudden burst of light that accompanies this deepening quality
of silence. For many people, it feels like being lifted or expanded into
another state of consciousness which enjoys an inward, effortless quietness.
Others may experience an effortless flow of logical thought about some problem.
It is as if we have stepped into a living stream full of renewing, healing
energy, a stream which reaches back & forward across time. Most of us are
not yet like the apostles & prophets; the Stream still has plenty of work
to do in cleansing & transforming us. [The Stream shares many attributes
with an earthly river: we can recognize when we are in it; it seems to have no
beginning & no end; it is always alive & flowing & changing; it
flows between recognizable boundaries. Traditions & scriptures help us to
know where the Stream may be found.
In
this living Presence it becomes safe for the ego to relax, [the self’s sharp
boundaries can relax and blur, and we can enter into a] sense of corporate
reality, [“the body”. We can also]
become aware of being in the “mind of Christ.”
“Amazing grace and new perceptions in the Light” can also be very
painful. George Fox insisted that an
important work of the Light is to reveal to us how off-track and muddled our
lives really are. The same Light that
shows us [this] shows the way to get beyond it.
In our more expansive, less judgmental state of consciousness we may
become aware of new dimensions, or causes, outcomes of the problem as we
continue to hold it in the Light. It
is probably best not to “worry” such a problem too long in any one meeting, but
to allow the rhythms of the corporate silence to carry us farther out into the
living stream.
For
some the Inward Work of Christ may bring a strong sense of inward healing, joy
peace, praise for the wonders of creation. For others the only words are
“unity, unity, unity…” We may see a familiar member in a new way, [what lies
beneath the outer mask]. We may become conscious of a face or a bent head
across the room, that we are called to pray for that person, [or otherwise contact
them]. A person may be led to explore old memories in a dramatically new way,
[seeing where God & guiding had “been there all along.”] The cumulative
effect of new perceptions brought about by Inward Work of Christ is to bring a
profound but subtle change in the way we relate to ourselves, other people,
animals, & all created things. We may find ourselves “under concern” to devote
time & energy to some need in meeting, the community, or beyond. If we
allow the “magic” of the meeting to do its work, our listening becomes absorbing the words rather than merely
hearing and reacting to them.
For
over 200 years, monthly meetings “recognized” or “recorded” those whom they
discerned as having a calling and gift in [vocal] ministry. These recorded ministers were accountable to
each other, to the elders, and ultimately, their own monthly meeting. How
can the small number of modern ministering Friends, or anyone who speaks, be
sure that we are not speaking too often, too long, or from our own ideas? The most sure way is to make certain we
are feeling united both with fellow worshipers and with the Divine. [Eventually there will be] a skilled,
practiced awareness of the inward motion
and of the inward peace which follows such speaking.
It
is also important to recognize that the inward
motion can lead to many God-called activities other than speaking in
meeting. Sometimes those who speak
frequently in our meetings need to take a vacation from speaking for a
while. Even if I knew what the meeting
needed to hear, experience taught me that, if I spoke without a clear inward motion to speak, my words would
have little effect, and might even hurt.
There
is a more important silent ministry
open to everyone in the meeting. This
“invisible ministry” helps the meeting reach that state consciousness in which
minds and hearts and will are opened and united so that the work of God may go
on among us. Some are drawn into secret
prayer for others during meeting. If we
have a message for the meeting but lack the inward
motion to speak it aloud, we can spend time silently “praying the message”
on behalf of the meeting. As we do this,
we sometimes forget who is holding whom, and we just rest wordlessly in the
amazing Presence. The effectiveness of
my ministry depends on the invisible, hidden faithfulness of people who seldom
if ever spoke in meeting more than I realized.
THE 4TH DOOR: THE DOOR
BEYOND—This privileged experience of
nourishing oneness must end sometime, and we must proceed through the Door
Beyond, shifting back to the more “normal” state of everyday
consciousness. For some, their
experience in meeting has helped them internalize the spiritual laws of cause
and effect about which Jesus spoke so powerfully. We may leave the meeting with a heightened
sensitivity to the injustice, violence, and pain all around. Fortunately, the same power that makes us
more sensitive also makes us more open to an increasing awareness of beauty and
spiritual resources which can enable us to be faithful followers of the way of
which Jesus spoke.
No
matter how exalted our experience may have been, it was never intended to be
“just a trip” without reference to the quality of our daily life and witness
in the week to come. We need to be very
intentional about this [brief but important] shift. At the end of each silence, it is helpful to
take a “token” out of the silence into our life in the world. What
new insight, what new understanding has this meeting time with God given me to
take into my daily life? [What change
have we promised to bring into our daily life]?
Perhaps the promise is simply to call to remember God more often in
our daily life. Each handshake [at the
close of meeting] is a token, a promise of our new or renewed openness to God
and of our commitment to go forth into the world with new eyes and a greater
faithfulness in all that we do.
307 Beyond Consensus: Salvaging Sense of the Meeting
(by Barry Morley; 1993)
About
the Author—Barry Morley belongs to
Sandy Spring (MD) Meeting. He taught in Quaker schools for 25 years &
directed Catocin Quaker Camp for 23; he has had a variety of jobs. He has
become [very] concerned about “doughnut Quakerism” [i.e. those who] diminish
the spiritual core from which the values & concerns originally emanated.
[He believes in a Religious Society of Friends, rather than an Ethical Society
of Friends].
I.
Never Consensus—Sense of meeting
is a gift. It came to the Quakers through their commitment to continuing
revelation, which could lead them to revealed corporate decisions. For some reason, present-day Quakers seem
intent upon rejecting sense of the meeting.
I hear “consensus” everywhere. I
hear “consensus” whenever Quakers gather to conduct business. I do not
believe in consensus; I am committed to the sense of the meeting.
Streamlining
the language has affected the name Quakers use.
Very few Quakers know that their founders considered themselves Friends
of the Truth. [Friends seem to need
reminding] that they are the Religious Society
of Friends. Through a similar process,
Quakers may already have arrived at a place where they are more comfortable
with consensus than with sense of the meeting.
What is the difference between
consensus and sense of the meeting? Reaching
consensus is a secular process. In sense
of the meeting God gets a voice. Sense
of meeting is a commitment to faith.
Sense of meeting hears all of the concerns, then moves beyond the verbal
expressions to the spirit of the concern in order to discern what is ‘right’
for the group.
A
consensus, a decision that all of us can accept brings us to an intellectually
satisfactory conclusion. Because
everyone has given up something to attain consensus commitment to the
conclusion is often shallow. [At Catocin
Quaker Camp, I tried to force a consensus without imposing my authority. We all compromised and reached
consensus]. It was clearly not a sense of
meeting. I found later that I had gotten
agreement without commitment. [There was
an issue around the availability of drugs at camp. After giving them the opportunity to ask
questions about this issue, I said: “I
think we should set this aside for now.
Talk among yourselves. I suggest that I not be at the next business meeting, so that you can talk more
freely.”]
Whatever
process counselors & staff were working their way through seemed to spark
their sense of purpose. [In the 1st
week of camp, the counselors asked to meet with me. In the discussion process,
one counselor started forming queries without realizing what they were. I
suggested they write a set of queries, & ask one of them at each business
meeting & meditate on it]. We had another meeting to arrange language &
clarify meaning. [In the midst of the meeting we found the sense of the
meeting. The queries were shared at the yearly meeting, who thought they were
wonderful. When a similar issue involving alcohol arose, a minute was written
which said]: “We encourage each other to
refrain from using substances which might harm our performance or reputation.”
[The
difference between a consensus & sense of the meeting is that consensus
aims at making decision that produces a product. Sense of the meeting involves
nurturing a process which is completed when God’s recognizable presence
settles over us in silence. [At camp], our immersion in the process elevated
the quality of our work & the atmosphere in which it was done. We arrive at a place of Intended Resolution
in which an elegant solution is delivered to us out of the Light; we allow
ourselves to be directed to the solution that awaits us. We have allowed ourselves to be led to a
transcendent place of unmistakable harmony, peace, and tender love. When we allow ourselves to be led to and
gathered by the peace of Light and Love where unity rests in silence, bonds are
forged which extend infinitely. [Even
long after we had left camp], members of that group still sensed an ongoing
depth of connection that is uncommon in ordinary comings and goings; we had
acknowledged the Presence together.
II.
Allowing the Process—A Quaker
meeting for worship is particularly vulnerable to abuse by [people who place
more faith in their flawless reasoning than they do in the work of Light and
Spirit]; meetings for business are subject to the same kinds of abuse. When we are all able to set our ideas aside,
doors are opened which allow [the sense of meeting] and solutions to enter on a
shaft of Light. Compromise and consensus
can assist early in the process; they must be laid aside as we reach for the
Inward Presence.
Ideas
should be offered & explained, rather than argued. Pressures imposed by
urgency must not be allowed to erode process. At Sandy Springs, the need for a balcony caused a very contentious
dispute. At issue were the 2nd -story partitions, which had to be
removed to build the balcony. [They had been part of the meetinghouse so long
that many Friends resisted their removal]. “Those beautiful old panels” became
the symbol of the impasse, [which lasted 3 years]. One day a Friend stood up in
worship and said: “I see a balcony in
this room & it is faced with the panels from the partition.” The next
business meeting adopted that vision [as the sense of the meeting]. There was
increased sensitivity to each others feelings during the 3 years, and even now
I still find myself connected with the elderly Friends, long gone, who loved
the partitions.
3
components are essential in the process which leads to a sense of meeting:
release; long focus; & transition to Light. Friends whose feelings have
been aroused by an issue need to release them. They should be listened to
lovingly & no effort should be made to intervene. Release should be
encouraged & appreciated. Loving
encouragement allows feelings to emerge at any point in the discussion. Tender
attentiveness is the meeting’s gift. The sense of a [place where feeling may be
safely expressed] is essential in reaching the sense of the meeting.
In
long focus, we should focus our attention beyond the immediate discussion toward the sense of the meeting. Strong feelings, really important issues,
personal investment—these push us towards consensus. Contention and compromise narrow our
focus. Experienced Friends who treasure
sense of the meeting stand on an inward high place and look beyond the ideas
being discussed, where ideas lose the sharp edge of immediacy.
In
transition to Light, long focus brings to the Source of resolution &
clarity, and we turn increasingly inward in order to transcend differences. Transition to Light makes possible a gathered
meeting. Once, when a distressing issue
was raised in meeting for business, sadness, upset, & anger needed to be
released. One Friend, by shifting the
focus from the cause of the upset to the upset person, began to lengthen the
focus. The upset caused by the Nixon
Presidency began with a letter asking his Meeting to read him out the meeting,
triggered the response, “I had hoped that Friends had reached a place where
they no longer read people out of meeting,” and ended with a letter expressing
support of his home meeting for the pressures they might be feeling at this
difficult time.
It
is not essential that all 3 components be employed every time a sense of
meeting is sought. The nature of the
issue and the feelings generated by it will determine the mix. By opting for consensus we decide that the
immediacy of a decision is more important than moving toward spiritual
completion as a gathered people; urgency and impatience are uncentering. We are
products of a culture committed to products.
The process by which we produce the products is, at best, secondary. In seeking sense of the meeting, process is
paramount. The gifts generated by that
process seem endless. Quakers at their
best are people who perceive the world differently, [influenced by the Presence
that is found in the sense of the meeting].
It is not decisions they respond to, but a process and Presence through
which they sense their joyful connection to one another.
III.
The Great Testimony—Whether we
wish to admit it or not, sense of the meeting is a Quaker equivalent of
Communion. [In sense of the meeting] we form invisible bonds among ourselves;
it came through us & for us, not from us. We participate in each other’s
well being. We take to ourselves the gift of experiential faith which the early
Friends promised us. We make decisions which feel good to us long after they
cease to be germane.
Since George Fox’s time, Quakers have
sought to take away the occasion of all wars. Somehow we haven’t done it. At
times our efforts seem feeble & ineffective. George Fox implies that we
aren’t required to end war. We are encouraged to live in the virtue of Life &
Power, to center ourselves in it. That will
take away the occasion of all wars. Do I
dwell consistently in the virtue of Life & Power so that occasions for war
may dwindle?
Quakers’
faith in the sense of the meeting fades.
But Catoctin Quaker Camp has been run through the sense of the meeting
for 25 years. [It has been so
successful] that the governing board of the camp has ceased promulgating
functional policy for the camp. Board decisions
affecting day-to-day functions are passed on to the camp as suggestions. When offered a raise for experienced
counselors, the sense of the meeting was that salary increases were
inadvisable as they might encourage people to seek jobs at the camp primarily
because of the pay scale.
[Sense
of meeting had many uses at camp, from deciding acceptable risks in challenging
the campers’ physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, to honoring the
staff’s place in the decision-making process, to training young campers to grow
in the depth of their answers and the sensitivity of their listening. In response to the Catoctin experience of
sense of meeting, administrators of other Quaker institutions sometimes say
that running a summer camp is different from running a year-round, day-to-day
operation. But no Quaker institution of
which I have direct experience makes day-to-day decisions whose immediacy is as
critical or far-reaching as in a summer camp.
My daughter’s college rowing crew uses a similar process in preparing
for a regatta. Each of the young women
in the boat, as it slid upriver toward the starting line, had reached a place
of internal harmony which manifests in collective outward harmony.
The
world craves this gift. But if Friends
are to give it, we must 1st come to cherish it ourselves. And before we can do that we must rededicate
ourselves to making sense of meeting work among us. Encouraging the learning of the sense of the
meeting can easily be incorporated into adult education programs, and become a
staple in offering to adults.
Inspiration and instruction for centering, which is integral in seeking
the sense of meeting, should be readily available. Yearly meetings can offer workshops on sense
of meeting. The world is filled with people
who long for sense of the meeting without even knowing what it is. Perhaps it is not too late for Friends to
recover the gift intended for them which they seem willing to toss aside.
308 Marriage: A Spiritual Leading for
Lesbian, and Straight Couples (by Leslie Hill; 1993)
About the Author—Leslie was born in 1954, in Waltham Massachusetts. She is a
graduate of Simmons College, School for International Training, and Harvard Divinity School. She lives in Brattleboro, VT and joined Putney Friends Meeting, serving the
meeting as Clerk, and on various committees.
She married Jim Kirby under the care of Putney Meeting. This essay has been revised from a research
paper submitted for a ministry course on contemporary interpretation of
religious tradition.
“For the right joining in marriage is
the work of the Lord only and not of priests and magistrates; for it is God’s
ordinance and not man’s … we are but witnesses (1669). George Fox
It changed some of my ideas about marriage … Now I think it can form a stronger bond. It seemed so good that they went through all those tests to get married … I think that it is right that if 2 good men love each other, they should be together and get married. (13 year-old) Jessica Dolan’s thoughts on a gay marriage.
[Introduction]/
The Marriage of George and Margaret—Friends
in many meetings are revising the definition of marriage to include same-sex
couples. What is the meaning &
purpose of marriage? How does Quaker marriage relate to [LGBT] & straight
couples? When Friends in the future look back, the 1989 marriage
certificate of John Calvi & Marshall Brewer will be important evidence that
gay relationships were joyfully celebrated I [Putney,
VT. The marriage clearness committee carefully examined
how the couple related to Quakerism, each other, & the meeting’s support.
This
account of same-sex marriage & this particular marriage is] offered in the
prayerful spirit of seeking Friends. It is faith in continuing revelation which
empowers us to hold all loving relationships in the light. Quaker marriage’s
evolution began with the marriage of George Fox, 45, traveling preacher, &
Margaret Fell, a 55 year-old widowed woman of property. Advices on marriages
for couples today may be found in early Quaker epistles.
George
Fox 1st received the idea from the Lord, then mentioned it to Fell.
He consulted with Fell, Fell’s children, & meetings of men & women at Bristol, who approved the marriage on 18th day, 8th
month 1669. 9 days later, the ceremony was held, the certificate read aloud, &
signed by Friends. Biblical references to the marriage of New Jerusalem to the
Lamb, used by Fox & Fell to describe their leading to marry, symbolized
their shared vision of a new equality in marriage relationships. Fox admonished
that [married Friends should] “leave each other free for God’s work.” Fox &
Fell affirmed that the: marriage union is spiritual & sexual; basis for
marriage is spiritual leading; partner’s calling has equal value; meeting has a
corporate responsibility to assist couples in discernment.
The Historical Roots of Quaker Marriage—[As Quaker marriages evolved, spirit-led vows became
memorized promises and] Women’s Meetings became influential in making marriage
decisions and keeping records. Civil
marriages became compulsory in 1653, but the married couple was instructed to
report their marriage to a justice only
if they felt it was right to do so.
By 1661, civil marriage was abolished, and shortly thereafter Quaker
marriages were challenged and upheld as legal by the courts.
In
1667-68, George traveled through England, establishing Women’s Meetings & entrusted them
with responsibilities in the marriage process, a decision that was
controversial among male Friends. Letters of consent were required from the
couple’s parents & the couple themselves. Assurances that there were no
prior entanglements & that all children of previous marriages would be
provided for were sought. At the end of the century the procedure consisted of:
the couple being Friends; the couple stating their intention in meeting for
worship; producing letters of consent from parents & themselves; making 2
appearances before Women’s Meeting & 1 before Men’s; provision for
existing children; couple being free of prior commitments to others; probably
memorized vows; certificate being signed; marriage being registered in the
Book of Minutes or Marriages. A Quaker couple married for love, to help each
other in the life of the spirit & service to God. Their union was to
benefit the meeting & God.
At
the third 5 Years Meeting, in 1897, it was decided to publish a common book of
discipline, the Constitution and
Discipline for the American Yearly Meetings of Friends; New England Yearly Meeting adopted it in 1901. At that time, parental consent was only
necessary for minors. Only one spouse
had to be a Friend. Monthly Meetings
and marrying couples could not violate the laws of their State. “Each Yearly Meeting may adopt such
regulations for the solemnization of marriage as its local conditions may make
advisable.” Friends are now applying a
single standard to all committed relationships.
Reaching Clearness—Since 1970, the Quaker focus has shifted to requests
for marriage by lesbian & gay couples. “Clearness” has become a broader
concept, including all considerations a couple may take into account. Elizabeth
Watson suggests that the composition of a clearness committee should be
relevant to the couple’s needs. [The committee’s role is to ask queries that
explore how well-thought-out the planned union is]. Putney Friends’ Committee
on Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Concerns has developed one set of marriage
queries for all couples.
[Canadian
and London Yearly Meeting begin their marriage disciplines with George Fox, who
writes]: “For the right joining in
marriage is the work of the Lord only and not of priests and magistrates; for
it is God’s ordinance and not man’s … we are but witnesses (1669). Iowa Yearly meeting states: “A major goal of marriage is a spiritual bond
which will make itself felt not only in the home but also in the Meeting and in
the community. North Pacific Yearly
Meeting states: “We are unable to reach
unity on whether marriage is ‘a covenant between 2 persons’ or ‘a covenant
between a man and a woman and God.’
In
1989, a Quaker Conference on Sexual Morality stated: [There is disagreement
over]: “to what extent homosexuality is genetic or subject to change;
scriptural authority, interpretation, & tradition with respect to homosexuality;
the meaning of marriage & family today as compared with previous times.”
[The 2 most persistent claims against gays, their non-reproductive &
“unnatural” relationships, are not consistent with many current homosexual
marriages or with examples from nature].
Bible exegetes on opposing sides of the scriptural argument have drawn
on the same texts in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament either to support or
refute claims that scriptures prohibit homosexual relationships. My reading of the Greek Biblical texts and
modern translations leads me to agree that discrimination against lesbians and
gays is a form of popular intolerance not supported by scriptures.
The Sense of Putney Meeting—In 1983, New England YM passed a minute affirming
homosexual Friends. In 1984, Putney
Meeting affirmed and welcomed lesbian and gay Friends, saying in part: “Having been brought up in a society where
sexuality and spirituality are often separated … we wish to sponsor a rejoining
of these aspects of ourselves which we sense to be deeply and naturally
connected. Our aim is to move beyond
unexamined and sometimes rigid judgment to a real interest in finding out what
makes another person smile and sigh … Friends need to recognize that when gay
men and lesbian members are not fully embraced, they feel only parts of
themselves are acceptable to the Religious Society of Friends … Our expressions
of love and spirituality are intertwined: to deny loving expression is to deny
part of our spirituality.” Friends
throughout New England were becoming increasingly concerned about hostility,
prejudice, and discrimination being leveled against lesbians and gays. Hartford MM passed an inclusive marriage
minute in March 1986. The 327th
New England YM recorded a minute advising all MM that were part of this YM to
consider the questions which Hartford Meeting had raised.
Not
all members and attenders of Putney MM were enthusiastic about making this
concern a priority. The queries used
were: What does marriage under the care of the meeting mean for any couple? What are the responsibilities of the meeting
and the couple? How do we nurture all commitments among ourselves? We limited our consideration to the
recognition of the spiritual union between same-sex couples. In March 1988, after more than a year of
corporate discernment on same-sex marriage, Putney recorded the following
minute: [excerpt] “We affirm our
willingness as a Meeting to participate in celebrations of marriage for both
opposite-sex and same-sex couples. We
intend to follow the same … process … for all couples who wish to unite under
our care. At every stage we intend to
treat all couples with respect, care and love.”
Because
lesbian & gay couples in Vermont & elsewhere, do not have the same
civil rights as straight couples to a marriage license, Putney Friends began to
seek clearness on whether we should approve any
marriages, other than spiritual ones, in order to abide by a single
standard. [There were strong differences
within the meeting on how to go forward].
Rather than try to reach unity, gathered Friends looked inward for
guidance and decided to explore our feelings of homophobia, [which is a
spiritual disease (i.e. it lacks love and the presence of the spirit].
The
1989 New England Yearly Meeting State of Society Report included the
following: “Many meetings continue to
struggle, painfully but prayerfully, to listen to each other and to God around
the affirmation and condition of gays and lesbians within our midst and in our
wider culture. They have found that this
struggle has deepened their understanding of committed relationships between
individuals, among Friends and before God.”
Open acceptance of legal marriage
for lesbians and gay men, at state and federal levels, and in the private
sector, is an essential step in changing attitudes toward homosexuality and
increasing lesbian and gay rights.
Putney Friends’ Committee on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns printed
a small card which says in part: “We
affirm God dwells in every person regardless of sexual orientation. We welcome lesbian and gay attenders to our
meeting for worship and to all other occasions.
We are committed to educate ourselves in the Meeting about the condition
of lesbian and gay men, and to end ignorance about discrimination against these
women and men.”
The Marriage of John & Marshall/Continuing
Revelation—[We prepared the
Rockingham Meetinghouse for the wedding]. The calligrapher put the certificate,
looking like an illuminated manuscript, on the table with a special pen. The
atmosphere was light, jubilant, expectant, & solemn. [A diverse group of people] all found their
places & prepared to worship in silence. John & Marshall reached their
bench & sat together facing the gathered Friends. [A brief history of gays &
Christianity, Quaker weddings, & same-sex marriage was given]. John &
Marshall rose, took each other by the hand, & declared to each other the
promises they could faithfully carry out using traditional Quaker vows.
This
particular wedding had a significance for many guests beyond our joy for John
and Marshall. There was hope that an end
to injustice, prejudice, and the oppression of all people, was imminent. A 13-year old said: “I think it was beautiful and it was evident
that there was a lot of love and respect and caring there; it was the most
romantic thing I’ve ever been to … It changed some of my ideas about marriage …
Now I think it can form a stronger bond.
It seemed so good that they went through all those tests to get married
… I think that it is right that if 2 good men love each other, they should be
together and get married.”
The
Quaker process of spiritual discernment was established long ago to do what is
needed today—to respond to ongoing revelation.
Our committee for marriage reached the clear sense that each man was
following his spiritual leading to marry, and that we were clearing the way by
agreeing to bless and oversee the marriage.
The marriage of John and Marshall heralds the coming of a new age in
which the leaves of the trees of life on either side of the river serve for the
healing of the nations.
Marriage Queries—Are you seeking a
spiritual union, a legal union, or both?
Have you taken steps necessary to
compensate for any lack of state recognition or legal provision for committed
lesbian and gay relationships.
What are your expectations of
marriage? What are your thoughts on a
spiritual Quaker marriage?
What do you think about the traditional
masculine and feminine roles?
Can you be ready to compromise your
plans or wishes out of respect for one another?
How do you deal with conflicts between
you?
How will finances be handled in your
marriage? Have you discussed any health
problems?
How do you feel about your new extended
family?
Are you willing to give the time,
patience, and openness to a good sexual relationship?
Are you willing to recommit yourself,
day by day, year by year, to try again in spite of difficulties, to recognize,
accept, love and delight in each other’s individuality?
315 Answering that of God in Children (by Harriet
Heath; 1994)
About
the Author/Foreword—Harriet Heath is the mother of 3 and grandmother of 8;
she became a Quaker after graduating from college. Implementing Quaker values while living and
working with children became part of her spiritual journey, As a psychologist,
she works with parents and families through the counseling service of the
Family Relations Committee and the Religious Education Committee. The recognition of the need for this pamphlet
and its writing has evolved over several years.
The author hopes that it will give insights as to how Quaker values can
guide their daily lives with children, [and find that of God in them].
I wonder as I wander with a child by my side;/His seeking, her searching, how can I be their guide?/ So much I don’t know; their questions spur mine/ To wonder as I wander with a child by my side. Harriet Heath.
In What ways are our Quaker beliefs
relevant to our lives with children? The Quaker belief in the Inner Light has given me
values by which I wish to live and guide my children. [Psychology has] given me the “nitty gritty”
information I need to be a parent.
The
Query/ Answering to that of God in Every Person —As a Quaker,
To what [of God] do I answer, that is in every person? At what age does the Light appear in
children? How does its Presence in my
children affect my task of guiding them?
Parents see the Inner when
their children are: asleep; intent on a creative project; dancing. Can we
see the Inner Light when they [“being difficult”]? The Puritans believed in “spare the rod,
spoil the child.” Is the child inherently good and can do no wrong? Harold Loukes wrote: “We friends start from an affirmation of the
child’s humanity; not a naïve belief that he is born good, but a belief that
he[/she] can grow into goodness.”
“Growing
into” speaks of searching for truth, listening to the inner voice, the inner
belief about what is right. The process
of seeking and testing truth and choosing and doing good actions lie at the
heart of Quaker belief. Quakers are
wonderers. We wonder at: the beauty of
nature and friendship; the reasons for the world’s condition; what we should be
doing in life. Wonderings are an
integral part of Quakerism. Marveling
keeps us aware of the beauty and complexity of all that is around us and keeps
us seeking; it provides a means for us to “grow into goodness.” “I wonder as I wander out under the sky/ the
beauty and grandeur that around me doth lie;/ Will my soul find its calling/
[with the universal eye]?/ I wonder as I wander out under the sky.”
Believing
that people can grow into goodness led me to be able to articulate what is the
Inner Light, that of God, to which I can and do answer. [To discover the beauty and rightness in
nature, in understanding a situation or person, in solving a problem], is that
not also to grow into goodness? I
cherish the freedom to search that Quakerism provides and its deep belief in
continuing revelation. Part of wondering
is seeking as when we ask “What can I do?
What should my role be? Though my
child’s perceptions differ drastically from mine, the insights broaden my
perspective. When I succeed in
responding openly to another’s wonder, life gains more meaning and richness for
us both.
Answering
that of God in Our Children—Wondering
can be found in the youngest children. Even newborn infants can be involved in
the wonder, the marvel, of this new world around them. Infants, seeking their
role, learn it quickly if the people in their environment are cooperative. It
is easy to miss infants’ wondering because their wondering content is
elementary, simple, & basic. Their explorations are of their immediate
physical world; our search is of the abstract spiritual one. Seeing my child as
a wonderer with the potential of growing into goodness expands my understanding
of that child & defines my role as parent or caregiver.
8-month
old Lennen [learns the different properties of a banana peel and a wooden
spoon: floppy vs. stiff; soft vs. hard; slippery vs. not slippery]. 10-month-old Sara is taught how to touch a
younger baby. She is allowed to explore
and a 10-minute walk to the mailbox takes 30 minutes. Susy and Mary, both 4 years old, were busy
building a castle. Susy tells Mary to
build the wall; Mary wants to build a tower.
The teacher comes over and helps them explore their choices in building
the castle; they agree on one.
8-year-old
Tom is angry at some black kids for wrecking a baseball game. His mother walks him through the events, &
shows him that the black kids were not the sole cause when it was someone else
who interrupted the game. Pat & her father discussed the “Give us this day
our daily bread” phrase. Pat asked: “Why should God give us bread & not
people in Somalia? Maybe they should have bread too. If we shared better, all would have
bread.”
12-year-old
Pam asked her Mom: “What would you say if I told you I was on crack?” Mom mentioned some of the consequences of
using crack, for the user and those around the user. She had to think through
what her response would be. They started talking about why people use drugs,
& what some possible responses to situations involving drugs would be. Mom shared the discussions her parents and
grandparents had with her about alcohol.
Dan
overheard his 14-year-old son think about “peeking at the girls” through a wall.
Dan asked himself: When should boys begin to recognize the women’s rights? Dan
thought about it & shared the conversation with a camp counselor, who said:
It is good to have such information. It can be woven in meaningfully into our
discussions.” Ken, a junior in college, shared his interest in joining the
Peace Corp rather than going right into graduate school. He demonstrated
careful thought in how spending time in a developing nation would enhance his
chosen field of environmentalist.
Lennen
and Ben were about 2 years old and looked forward to seeing one another. [At the family-get-together, the wonder and
awe each of us was radiating, I recognize now was an outward expression of the
inner Light. Within an hour, the little
guys were fighting over a red dump truck.
[My 2 daughters realized that their sons’] understanding of ownership is
to have the item in their hands. We
started talking about the steps children need to go through to understand
“sharing” and “ownership.”
Answering
so that Children may Continue Wondering—Children from infancy onward grow into goodness by wondering. Viewing
children as wonderers gives a different perspective, a different
challenge. Seeing children as searching
redirects our efforts from either ignoring a situation or imposing order to one
of searching for ways of guiding them. [Child-raising queries include: What is my child trying to accomplish? What does my child understand? What does
he/she need to know? How much can she
understand now? What is my child able to
do? What does she need to learn? What do I want my child to learn? [All the
parents given as examples] functioned as guides to their children as their
children searched to learn about their world & how it works. The pa-rents
become searchers themselves as they sought for ways of guiding their children
into goodness. A challenge to create the right conditions for growth leaves
much to the imagination and is somewhat daunting in its magnitude.
Creating
an Environment that Nurtures Wonder involves
10 factors: 1.Believing there is order in universe; 2. Working from a value system;
3. Recognizing the Thou; 4. Considering the developmental level of the
child; 5. Loving them unconditionally; 6. Trusting our
children; 7. Providing them with the accurate information and relevant skills;
8. Listening; 9. Giving them time; 10. Encouraging the searching and the
seeking.
1.) Parents, as they conduct their own search, model for
their children Quakers’ basic belief in the existence of a Way, that there is
Truth to be found, at least in part. 2.)
[I call the value system demonstrated in the examples given] “caring,” which
means being concerned about the welfare of another, about the effects of
behavior on others, concern about the outcome, wanting the outcome to be
beneficial for whoever and whatever is involved.
3.)Viewing my child as one who is
searching for answers and seeking her way leads me to see the “Thou” in my
child, to accept my child as he or she is.
The parents in each of the examples recognized the “Thou” in their
child. They affirmed the seeking that
their children were going through. In
the ongoing living with children it is easy to lose this perspective. Trying to see the situation through the eyes
of the child [is a lot of work]. Responding
to children as seekers, recognizing the Thou in them, leads parents to view a
situation from their children’s point-of-view.
It guides parents to [form queries like the child-raising queries
mentioned earlier].
4.)
[Level of development] affects the level of the child’s searching. The infant &
young child’s exploration is concrete dealing with how objects & people
function. As they grow toward toddler-hood
they add words to their explorations, putting names to everything and every
action. Elementary school-aged children
are still exploring, but their ability to understand complex relationships is
limited. A 12-year-old can start the process of thinking about what role drugs
would take in her life. To do so she
needed factual accurate information.
They are all seekers, each at her or his own level. Recognizing the level of their search is
important as we guide our children.
5
& 6. Accepting their actions as their efforts to understand, attempts to
learn, frees me to go on loving un-conditionally as I deal with the situation. Our
trust in our children cannot be “blind.”
Parents need to recognize the limits of the child’s understanding &
control. I can teach infants to be careful with hot food, by using uncomfortably
warm peas & saying, “hot, hot.” Parents must thoughtfully use the trust
they have in their children to guide their behavior. Trusting that the child
will make good decisions is scary when the decision involves drugs, becoming
sexually active, & all those other issues our young people face today. My
trust in my children is built partially from experiences with the child,
knowing how the child thinks & the processes he or she uses to make
decisions. Guiding children through age-appropriate experiences of making
decisions has deepened my trust.
7-10.
Children need skills like conflict resolution, and accurate information on
things like sex and drugs. Part of the
challenge is recognizing the information and skills needed; [if we don’t have
the information, it is time for outside help].
Some call it profound listening; it may involve watching behavior as
well as taking in their words, and it gives children a sense of being
heard. It takes time to marvel at the
beauty of the world or to reflect on the kindness of another. It is so hard to give our children this
time.
Encourage
taking time, and the searching and seeking by allowing it, modeling it, and
teaching it in age-appropriate ways.
[The parents used here as examples], recognized all 3 components of
wondering: marveling; searching for understanding; and seeking to find the path
for them They set up right conditions
in the children’s environments for their children’s growing into goodness. Quaker discipline emphasizes helping the
child understand rather than just passively accepting the whys of a situation.
And
the Wondering
Comes Full Circle—Parents,
creating environments that nurture find themselves wondering. The parents searched to understand their
children; meaning and purpose to life grow out of this search to understand our
children. Seeking to find the right
conditions for our children in time and space in which we live gives me a sense
of continuity to that which has gone before and that which is now. [With my own mother], our looking together at
issues, our searching to understand, and our seeking for solutions continued
into my adult life and motherhood until her too early death.
And
now I see my daughters. They do not nurture their children as I did. They
nurture them as I would were I to start over. When a child develops a problem
behavior in daycare, my daughter & I began to think about what the child
had been trying to accomplish & what behavioral alternatives he had.
Together we were searching to understand & seeking to find a way. And I
feel certain that this searching to understand & seeking to find our way
while daring to marvel that it is so is the Inner Light visible within us all,
young and old alike. By responding and
relating to the Inner Light in the other as best we can we are answering to
that of God in every person.
Queries
How do you see that of God in people of
any age?
How could young children’s exploration
of their environment encourage them to question and help them to develop the
skills to search for answers to spiritual questions?
How do you view children? How does your view of children define your
role as a parent?
How do your Quaker beliefs influence how
you live with and nurture your children?
How has your parental role changed as
your children have grown older?
How have your Quaker beliefs and
understanding changed as you have parented and as your children have grown
older?
316 For that Solitary Individual: An Octogenarian’s Counsel on Living & Dying (by John R.
Yungblut; 1994)
About the Author—John Yunglut was
born & raised in Dayton, Kentucky. He graduated Harvard, including Divinity School & the Episcopal
Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he was an
Episcopal minister for 20 years. In 1960
he became a Friend [Quaker]. He has been
a Director of: Quaker House (Atlanta); International
House, Washington, D.C.; Studies at Pendle
Hill, Wallingford, PA; Guild for
Spiritual Guidance, Rye, NY; and Touchstone,
Inc., Lincoln, VA. He has written Pamphlets # 194, #203; #211;
#249; #292, and 5 books.
“Throughout
my life, by means of my life, the world has little by little caught fire in my
sight until, aflame all around, it has become almost completely luminous from
within … the transparency of the Divine at the heart of the universe on fire.” Teilhard de Chardin
[Introduction]--Sǿren Kierkegaard
addressed a book to “that solitary individual.” I address that solitary individual
in you, to whose condition this message might speak. Life is lived within a
great mystery. We fear [to ask the deep questions, because] to do so might make
us feel queasy & doubtful of our own sanity. We don’t have a clue as to their
answers. I want to share with you some convictions I have come to by way of the
fragile & fallible discernment process.
My only authority is that bestowed by if the seeker in you resonates to
what I have to say.
On Being a
Contemplative—You should become a contemplative where you are, in
the circumstances that beset you, the responsibilities that burden you, the relationships
that frustrate or encourage you. I mean learning the art of living mindfully,
reflectively, watching for the connections between thoughts & events as
they reveal their hidden synchronicity. I mean a practice of the presence of
the Holy, a sense of the spiritual in everything & at all times in response
to the transparency of the divine [in the universe]. How does one cultivate awareness of the transparency of the divine? [I]
propose reading poetry & the mystics, & engaging in contemplative
prayer.
As a youth, I was troubled to realize that my
religious education was limited by the [history of the Episcopal Church, whose
teachings were limited by its history].
Rufus Jones, my favorite preacher, recommended that I “turn to the
mystics of all the living religions.” Reading in the mystics has
been the secret sustenance of my life ever since. Read among the great poets and mystics until
you discover those that speak to your condition. We are called to transcend our specific
religious heritages. [We may retain our
religious tradition, even our creedal statements, so long as they are]
understood metaphorically.
The 1 thing that all living religions have in common
is an “apostolic succession” of mystics. What Eastern religions call
meditation, we call contemplation. You may not be called to practice this form
of prayer [in your current journey]. But be receptive to the invitation from
within to embark on this boundless sea. To enter into this altered state of
consciousness is to open the door of access to the unconscious. You may not be
ready for this.
It is my conviction that we never outgrow the need for
[the different forms of meditative prayer] in establishing the health of our relationship
to the Holy One. You will discover that
there is an inescapable connection between contemplative prayer and motivation
to engage in social reform. It is here
we discover that we are not only our brother’s and sister’s keeper, but in some
profound sense we are our brother and
sister. We are called to be a contemplative for the sake of the world even for
the sake of the survival of the species.
On Seeing
Everything from the Perspective of Evolution—Teilhard de Chardin
said of evolution: “It is a general
condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow &
which they must satisfy if they are to be thinkable & true.” Life evolved
toward complexity. When reflective consciousness was attained in man &
woman, the direction was that of “complexity consciousness.” Teilhard sees
spirit & matter as 2 sides of the same coin. He perceived spirit as the
transparency of the divine at the heart of matter. He said: “Throughout my
life, by means of my life, the world has little by little caught fire in my
sight until, aflame all around, it has become almost completely luminous from
within … the transparency of the Divine at the heart of the universe on fire.” The
slow pace of evolution which achieved higher consciousness in us against
enormous odds & potential abortions in the unfolding process justifies hope
that the species will find a way to move [toward] ever higher consciousness.
On Aspiring
to Higher Consciousness—Thomas Berry identifies 3 values that appear to
characterize evolution: differentiation, interiority, and communion. The source of continuing creation through
evolution has clearly invested heavily in the process of differentiation. Carl Jung wrote: “If the individual follows through his intention
of self-examination and self-knowledge, he will have gained a psychological
advantage of deeming himself worthy of serious attention and sympathetic interest.” If you were to identify yourself as [such an
individual] you would be aligning the little straw of your inner journey with
the whole axis of evolution.
[Evolution is the divine gradually becoming clearer to
us], an unfurling from within, a progressive revelation of what had been hidden
potential. If the individual were highly differentiated, individuated, if that
individual possessed profound interiority, & evolution has moved in the
direction of ever higher consciousness, it has also made possible deeper,
conscious communion. Have you experienced times of profound communion with
others? The new concern for ecological balance in the past few decades has made
it essential that we experience a deeper unity with nature & consequently
a more profound communion with all other creatures in nature. It means
accepting the violence found in nature, from the individual struggles for
survival in animals to the violent forces of nature. One of the things evolution has achieved as
consciousness was raised is the advent of the phenomenon of forgiveness, which
makes sustained communion possible; it makes possible the restoration of relationship. Never stop forgiving. Only so may communion be maintained, both
within and between oneself and the other.
On Discerning
a New Sex Ethic—Biblical injunctions [on sexual behavior] are no
longer operative. Where can we turn for
authority and a new sex ethic that will command respect and successfully invite
obedience. I believe that new authority
can be found in evolution and deep psychology.
What is evolution saying to us
about a new authoritative sex ethic?
What has deep psychology to offer to a new sex ethic?
Evolution appears to have invented sexuality for 2
purposes: ongoingness of the species (reproduction) & the up-reachingness
of higher consciousness through mutation of genes (spirituality). It stands to
reason that children who grow up in a stable home which is pervaded by an
atmosphere of continuity of may be better conduits for the evolutionary
movement toward higher consciousness. [The 3 main instincts are: for food &
drink; religious (i.e. realize integration); & sexual]. Sexuality has a way
of pulling into its orbit as much of one’s being as it can. But it cannot serve
as the center of integration. It is part of the whole of life, affecting &
in turn affected by all the rest.
In sexuality from a depth psychology point of view,
the health and integrity of the psyche are at stake. If one engages in sexual expression with more
than one person contemporaneously, none of the relationships is what it could
be if it were the only one. Both love
and religious conviction demand an unconditional attitude of complete
surrender. Depth psychology suggests
that those individuals who postpone mating until some degree of individuation
is attained have a greater chance of duration in their marriages. It seems to me that these proposals pass the
test of compatibility with the values of evolution: differentiation, interiority,
and communion. And they accord well with
the insights of depth psychology regarding individuation and the integrity and
wholeness of the self; the same principles apply to homosexual
relationships.
On
Cultivating One’s Gifts—Neglecting the cultivation of one’s gifts robs us of
the opportunity for greater fulfillment and deprives the community of one more
important resource. Answering that of
God in everyone can be discerned in responding to the gifts in one
another. One might have someone close
who will gently call our attention to a budding gift. But one must also search the depths of his or
her own psyche for signs of hidden gifts.
This means being attentive to one’s dreams and fantasies and awaiting
evidence of a spontaneous resonance. Frank
Nelson said: “no one should go into the
ministry who can possibly stay out.”
The Religious Society of Friends will bring together a
small group of persons chosen by the seeker which is called a Clearness
Committee. Its purpose is not to make a
decision for the individual but to raise relevant questions for her to ponder
in the course of her search. Questions
seem to well up out of the unconscious, unlikely connections are made,
intimations arise out of the silence, intuitions occur that would not otherwise
come to the fore. Quakers also have a
phrase, “as way opens,” implying a trust that a certain inherent rightness will
be revealed in the synchronicity of outward events and inward readiness. If you have retired you will want to look for
a new occupation in those areas of interest and talent which you have long
neglected or suppressed of necessity. If
you are in mid-life it would be well not to wait for retirement to make this
decision. You could explore your “other”
vocation and enjoy it when the opportunity comes. The greatest gift of the later years is what
Wordsworth called “the philosophic mind,” what I call the “contemplative
mind.” You do not need to wait for old
age to cultivate the contemplative mind and to imbue your work with its ethos. I encourage you to begin now.
On Making a
Good End—Teilhard de Chardin had an aspiration to “make a good
end.” He died on Easter Day as he
wished, after spending a full day worshiping and listening to music with
friends. For my own death, I should like
to remain sound of mind and conscious as close to the end as possible, and to
be unafraid.
No matter how much we would like to believe it today,
for many of us there is no assurance of personal survival [after death] in any
recognizable form. [None of the “proofs”
of life beyond death can] not be accounted for in terms of spontaneous
uprisings from the collective unconscious.
I cannot accept belief in reincarnation for the same reason. How
can any consciousness survive the disintegration and decay of the body? There
is no way to prove that the soul is eternal.
The mystical experience in which one feels a part of the whole,
inseparable from “the all,” may be an intimation that there is that in us which
is immortal. But this does not prove
that the individual survives death in any recognizable form. [In our fear of nothingness and non-being] how do we make a good end? What shall be my approach to encountering
death? We must learn to say: “Though God consign me to oblivion at death,
yet will I trust God.” I must recollect
my own mystical experiences of being loved [unconditionally] by God. “All shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well.”
The only way we
can effectively cope with the instinctive fear of death and oblivion, is to
place our trust in the intimations of something or someone at the core of the
universe who genuinely cares for us. We
can practice letting go of the demand of the ego for survival. To practice contemplation is to rob death of
its sting by reason of accepting in advance the worst death can do us, to
embrace life’s great diminishment. In
this way we may learn how to die into God.
319 Stories from Kenya (by Tom and
Liz Gates; 1995)
About
the Authors—Tom and Liz Gates
were in western Kenya from Nov. 1991 to May of 1994.
They are the parents of 2 boys, Matthew (13) and Nathan (11). Tom is a family physician; Liz is a school
teacher. Tom came to Friends through
studying conscientious objection; Liz came to Friends through Tom. This pamphlet draws on their mutual
experiences living and working at Friends Lugulu Hospital in Kenya.
Preface—The stories here were 1st presented as a
plenary address to New England YM. We alternated stories of our experiences; that
mimics the way we work. Tom was a physician & had a clear role at the
hospital. Liz home-schooled our sons, held the household together, assisted in
administrative tasks, taught computer skills, & responded to emergencies
[outside the hospital]. Kenya has a child mortality rate 10 times higher than the US; per capita income is $300 per year & falling;
patients regularly die for lack of proper medicines; sugar & milk are in
short supply. The daily struggle of people’s lives has joy & meaning that
can be difficult for us to comprehend.
The Rich Young Man (Mark 10: 17-22): Go, sell everything you have and give to the
poor … then come and follow me—We
considered applying to Lugulu Hospital in 1983, but with an infant son and a 2nd
one coming [we decided to wait and] remain open to any future leadings. In 1989, we wondered if we [were close to a
time] when such an undertaking would be possible. [Around the same time] Isaiah Bikokwa, a
Kenyan Friend and missionary whom we had met wrote to tell us he felt that God
was calling us to work in Kenya. Could we do
it?
We
felt like the rich young man, whose “things” prevented him from following God’s
leading. What was hardest to give up was
our security, our illusions of being in charge and in control. William Kriedler said: “Protection is from
God; safety comes from the devil.” When
we were ready to surrender some of our obsessive quest for security, only then
could we experience the true protection that comes from God.
All
of this sounds so noble, but of course it was not like that. [We didn’t sell everything, we put it in
storage], as a kind of backup security.
[We applied tentatively, found clearness to go, and then had the
opportunity postponed for a year and then were offered it again]. [Only after 18 months of the process] were we
prepared to answer unequivocally with the prophet Isaiah “Here we are Lord. Send us.”
Who Am I, that I should
go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? God said, “I will be with you.” (Exodus
3:10-12)—Elizabeth: I felt I had
much in common with Moses. What could I,
a public school teacher in rural NH, possibly offer to people in Kenya? I had to trust God to show me.
Lugulu
came as a violent shock to me. Nothing
in all my previous experience had prepared me for the reality of living in the
3rd World. Everything was
different: the food, the people, the language, even the trees and birds. I was coming down with a severe case of
culture shock. I felt lost and vulnerable; I survived by clinging to the very
clear leading I had once felt, that God had a purpose in calling both of us to work in Kenya. After 3 weeks [in this state], Tom thought we
might be forced to return home.
Edith
Ratcliff, a living legend in Kenya, founder & builder of Lugulu Hospital for 30 years, showed up in our home in need of
serious medical attention; she had hepatitis. Suddenly, I had someone else to
worry about, someone who needed a lot of care and attention from me. She
gradually gained strength & began to join for meals & conversation. She
told us of her trip to Kenya & the early days in Lugulu. She stayed with us
for a full month. Edith’s arrival was when my healing began. [After she left],
I was ready to dig in & begin my work in Lugulu.
A Heart of Flesh I will remove from your body the heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel
36:26)—Tom: Practicing medicine in
Lugulu required major adjustments on my part.
There were few medicines and lab tests, no specialists to consult, and
little opportunity to refer to a larger hospital. I treated diseases new to me: malaria,
typhoid fever, tuberculosis, AIDS, tetanus, and rabies.
The
most difficult adjustment for me was the terrible toll of the children
dying. In the 1st quarter of
1994, 67 children under age 10 died, 1 out of every 8 child admissions. I was never very good at dealing with all
this. [I was told that all I could do was move on to the next bed, and all I could
say was “Pole sana, mama. Pole
sana, mama. Amekufa (We are very sorry, mama. Your child has died.”) It became my most polished Swahili
phrase.
Equanimity
was absolutely necessary, but it is not the same as not caring. It is not aspiring to a heart of stone, but
learning that the heart of flesh which God has given us comes with a
price. The constant danger for me was
that in persevering I would become numb and callous. Invariably something happened to wake me up
and turn my heart back to flesh. [As 1
child died and a mother grieved, I could] look around the ward, and see her
pain reflected back in the faces of the other mothers. [Something always shook] me out of my sense
of complacency.
Give me Water If only you
knew … who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him &
he would have given you living water.” (John
4: 7-15)—Drawing water was something I had not anticipated doing in Kenya. There was virtually never running water during our
entire time in Lugulu. 3 times a day, women would line up & await their
turn to draw up water with a bucket & rope. I wanted to learn how to carry
water on my head, & I didn’t want to be served ahead of the others. [I
gradually learned how, but] even when I performed flawlessly, the very thought
of a white woman carrying water on her head drew nervous laughter from the
crowd.
It
was easier to carry water on my head than to persuade others that I should not
be treated preferentially. No matter how
long we stayed, the watchmen would always consider me a guest & serve me
first. The physical drudgery of carrying water 2 or 3 times a day, & the
preoccupation with having enough, were a constant part of my life in Lugulu;
slowly that water came to be living water for me, [& connected me to the
community]. [I sometimes drew my own water, &] the most precious times
were when I was allowed to draw for other women, serving them as they served
me. [The most meaningful tribute I received was] “You are one of us—you carry
water.”
Instruct
those who are rich … Tell them to do good and to grow rich in noble
actions, to be ready to give away and to share, and to acquire a treasure which
will form a good foundation for the future (I Timothy 6:17-18)
For I have learned to be content
whatever the circumstances. I know what
it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in
any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, in plenty or in want. I
can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)
The Lord is Your Keeper (Psalm 121)—Dr. Lugaria read Psalm 121 to us when we arrived, &
again when we left. The words are familiar & comforting. The Kenyans took
the sentiments of this Psalm quite literally.
[They would say prayers for protection or “traveling mercies” for
journeys. They would pray for food & money]. For Kenyans, getting money to
pay fees or buy seeds was as much out of their control as whether not or the
rains would come; praying was a natural response. Kenya is not a place where our American sense of
self-sufficiency could long survive. [Relying for help from unlikely,
unexpected sources was an important part of life at Lugulu]. There was always
hope. Sometimes our hope was rewarded, & sometimes it was not—but there was
always hope.
Kapkateny—Elizabeth: When violence broke out between the Bukusu and
Saboat people on Mt. Eglon, [2 of the many place people found refuge were
Namwele Friends Church and Kapkateny, east of Namwele]. Ann Lipson brought the sick from Kapkateny to
the hospital and promised to pay their bills.
Between Ann in Britain and us in the US, we raised enough money to pay all those bills.
[Measles broke out, which could be fatal in malnourished or sick children. People from Britain visiting the hospital worked with their churches to
send Vitamin A to Lugulu hospital]. When
a 5-year old girl weighing 20 lbs. died, I drove her mother to a place near her
shamba, homestead, which was
hazardous even to visit, so that the mother could fulfill her obligation to
bury her daughter at home. “Blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
As I watched her walk away, I wept, and silently prayed that somehow
this young mother could feel that comfort.
Is Not This to Know Me? (Jeremiah 22: 15-16)—Tom: Always in the back of our
minds, we pictured Kenya as a kind of spiritual quest; it didn’t happen like
that. There were no lightning bolts, no mystical experiences. We grew
spiritually in unexpected ways. We found countless opportunities that invited
us to help create meaning. We met God countless times in the people asking for
help. None of this was easy. Some days it seemed that the interruptions, the
constant flow of visitors with such overwhelming needs, would drive us crazy. Responding
in love to “one of the least of these my brothers” was not an abstract
principle in Lugulu; they were on our porch every day. The emergencies, the people on the porch, all
the things that were the bane of our existence in Lugulu were not just
unavoidable nuisances. They were opportunities given by God to allow us to show
that it is not just me, but Christ who lives in me. Love “is not just a matter
of words & talk … but must show itself in action (I John 3:18).
The Poor Widow (Luke 21: 1-4)—Elizabeth: I feel as though I met [“the poor widow”] in Kenya. Her
2-year-old son, Japeth, came to our hospital after spilling hot porridge on
himself. Infection had destroyed much of the skin & the wound was infested
with maggots; he was also malnourished. I tried to help by bringing him
hard-boiled eggs each day. It was hard for me to see Japeth’s suffering. [He
slowly recovered], but he was left with disfiguring scars & a barely
functional left arm and hand. [But he could not be discharged until his bill
was paid].
My
Kenyan friends persuaded me to have a “porch sale”; it netted over 9,000
shillings. I decided the best use for the money was to pay Japeth’s bill &
send him home. Japeth’s mother entered our house, embraced me, shook my hand
several dozen times. She then proceeded to pray loudly & fervently for
several minutes in Swahili, thanking God that her child had been released
& asking for blessing on both our families. She presented me with a
battered cardboard box containing a large, angry duck, who proceeded to flap
and quack all around our house, and finally out the door. She gave all that she had, her “2 tiny
coins”; I paid Japeth’s bill out of the extra that I had.
Instruct those Who are Rich Tell them to
do good & to grow rich in noble action; be ready to give away & to
share, & to acquire a treasure which will form a good foundation for the
future (I Timothy 6:17-18)—Tom: It took the experience of living in a
different culture to teach us how Christianity, especially the Quaker variety,
can be a challenge to the dominant culture. In Kenya, becoming a Christian can mean making a decisive
break with one’s culture. It may mean rejecting [magic], the authority of the
elders, perhaps marrying outside of one’s own ethnic group. Christians in Kenya face these issues daily; I respect their faith &
courage in doing so. [And yet] Kenyans could be blind to their culture’s negative
parts [e.g. patriarchy, bride price, polygamy, ethnic & tribal chauvinism],
things that were [just] the way the world is; not even their deep religious
faith could challenge them.
An
important effect [of our 2½ years was that we found in the US] that we could see a many ways in which our faith is,
or should be, a challenge to the wider culture in which we live. Chief among
these is the extreme consumerism & materialism of our culture; what were
once luxuries are now considered necessities.
Even if we resist [our culture’s temptations] 99% of the time, we still
accumulate much more than we need, more than is spiritually healthy. A couple
who served nine years in Liberia, [perceived]
themselves to be rich, even though their income was about the same as their
neighbors. Those of us who are rich in this world’s goods shouldn’t be proud;
our riches aren’t a reward for anything we have done. Neither should we feel
guilty. We must see riches as opportunities for doing good. Paul writes in II Corinthians 9:11: “You will always be
rich enough to be generous.”
Epilogue—To many readers, the stories we have told may seem
amazing, And yet, we do not feel like
amazing people. We responded by doing
the best we could, exactly what most Friends would have done in the same
circumstances. If we were to sum up our
lessons, it would be in these words:
“Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who
lose their life will find it” (Luke 17:33). We close
with an excerpt from our final newsletter, written just a few days before we
left Lugulu:
Looking back, we are aware that so much of what we
have written about in these newsletters has been negative; [the negatives] are
part of the reality of life there. But the other reality in Africa
that is missed by mass media is that despite all the hardships & suffering,
Africa is not a joyless place. The people, sustained by the traditional
family, community, & God, have kept their capacity to find joy and meaning
where [Americans] may see only deprivation; we have felt somehow closer to the
heart of life.
For I have
learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know
what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any &
every situation, whether well fed or hungry, in plenty or in want. I can do
everything through him who gives me strength.
(Philippians
4:11-13)
