The whole thing is an example of re-inventing the wheel.
BVS has been around, very successful, for more than 60
years. The Church of the Brethren is a great group. They
are far more ecumenical, both internally and externally,
than the other peace churches. They have on annual
conference for the whole world, which makes its decisions
by majority vote. They decided 15 or 20 years ago, I
think, to allow gay and lesbian marriages. Tneir
evangelical members hated this decision, but the church
did not splinter.

What we DO need, I think,is an information service that
would collect and publish information about as many as
possible of the opportunities for Quaker volunteering
and Quaker internships that now exist. There are
African Great Lakes Initiative workcamps in Rwanda.
Burundi, and Kenya. There are FUM workcamps in
Cuba, and FUM service opportunites for teachers of
English in Palestine and Belize. AFSC has had a person
in Burundi for years. QUNO has interns in Geneva, and
FCNL has interns in Washington. Center on Conscience
and War uses volunteers, and so does Quaker House
of Fayetteville. Many yearly meetings have summer
camps, and often they welcome volunteers to work in
the off-season. The Quaker missions on American
Indian reservations could use volunteers. One could
go on and on in this way. A little info service, with
maybe a half-time staff person, could spread this
information around, by computer and on paper, to
Friends meeings and schools everywhere in North
America. Now this would be something small, but
might be very useful. Jeremy Mott

Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Orthodox), though
its representatives helped write this declaration,
never accepted it, never published it in their
book of discipline. I believe the same may
be true for New York Yearly Meeting (Orthodox);
if they did publish it, they no doubt stated that
Friends were not required or even expected to
accept it. Many Friends in many Orthodox
yearly meetngs, especially Friends who
taught in the Quaker colleges, felt the same
way. Ohio Y.M. (Damascus)—now Evangelical
Friends Church–Eastern Region—was not
even invited to take part in the Richmond
conference of 1882—because it was too far
to the theological right already, and the
outward sacraments were (and are) in use
in that yearly meeting.

Free, you can rest assured that most of
the liberal or “modernist” Christian Friends
in FYM/FUM would accept you, in 1902 or
today; but some of the fundamentalists
would not. For it takes only a slight amount
of Bible study to understand the roots of
the dreadful anti-Semitism to be found
in all four gospels. Jeremy Mott

The struggle in FUM began long before anyone
had conceived of united or dually affiliated
yearly meetings; they are simply the scapegoat.
The struggle in FUM was not the Hicksite-Orthodox
struggle at all. It was a struggle between two
Orthodox factions, beginning in 1902 when Five
Years Meeting formed and continuing ever since.
On one side were liberal Christian or “modernist”
Friends, led by Baltimore(Orthodox) and New
York (Orthodox) yearly meetings. These
Friends believed in studying not worshiping
the Bible. On the other side were highly
“evandelical”, even fundamentalist Friends,
led by Oregon (now Northwest Y.M.), which
departed from Five Years Meeting in 1926.
Other similar yearly meeings have departed
since then; but there are still many funda-
mentalists in FUM (and, ironically, many
liberal Christian Friends in the Evangelical
Friends International yearly meetings).

Friends outside FUM can only hope and pray’
that my prediction is wrong, and FUM will
remain, as it always was, a coalition of all
sorts of Quaker Christians. Jeremy Mott .

The struggle in FUM began long before anyone
had conceived of united or dually affiliated
yearly meetings; they are simply the scapegoat.
The struggle in FUM was not the Hicksite-Orthodox
struggle at all. It was a struggle between two
Orthodox factions, beginning in 1902 when Five
Years Meeting formed and continuing ever since.
On one side were liberal Christian or “modernist”
Friends, led by Baltimore(Orthodox) and New
York (Orthodox) yearly meetings. These
Friends believed in studying not worshiping
the Bible. On the other side were highly
“evandelical”, even fundamentalist Friends,
led by Oregon (now Northwest Y.M.), which
departed from Five Years Meeting in 1926.
Other similar yearly meeings have departed
since then; but there are still many funda-
mentalists in FUM (and, ironically, many
liberal Christian Friends in the Evangelical
Friends International yearly meetings).

Friends outside FUM can only hope and pray’
that my prediction is wrong, and FUM will
remain, as it always was, a coalition of all
sorts of Quaker Christians. Jeremy Mott .

I’ve heard from a number of blogs and other Quaker sites similar observations that Quakers today do not know their history or the bare basics of what it means to be a Quaker. But I am wondering, what, in your view, would constitute a Basic Quaker Curriculum (BQC)? I think it’s time to get specific so that the discussion can move forward. I would venture the Bible, the Journal of George Fox, Journal of John Wooldman, Barclay’s Apology, and a good history of the Quakers. These are just off the top of my head. As someone much more knowledgeable, I’d be interested in knowing what you think would constitute a good BQC.

Sincerely,

Jim

Hi Jim–

Sugest a start withmy book, “Without Apology,” after a lengthy browse through the pieces linked on this page: http://quaker.org/quest/webtheology-quaker.htm

Now I’m not advocating here a return to early Quakerism, just a need to balance both our reconciling and our prophetic witness. To do the work of the Spirit/God in the world we need both kinds of witness, but many modern Friends are incresingly uncomfortable with our prophetic witness, incorrectly labeling it as some form of “violence.” We have become increasingly uncomfortable with being Publishers of the Truth and in fact many modern Friends would no longer recognize that as one of our first monikers! Indeed, how many spiritual journals are Friends publishing these days? How much of our publishing is simply political tracts? We have forgotten that the basis of our work in the world is the Spirit, not the Politic.

Many in Meeting shy away from talking about what they believe and we find ourselves increasingly draw to a common-denominator Quakerism. Quakerism by consensus. We have become Seekers and Quietists, especially quiet about what we believe and increasingly reluctant to espouse any beliefs for fear of offending someone. George would hardly recognize where his flock has gotten to, and as a “liberal” Friend I am often envious, though often in disagreement, with evangelical Friends who are not shy about proclaiming the good news they have found. As a gay man I clearly disagree with their theology! As a Friend I am envious they have one!

What many Friends and Friend’s organizations have lost in the shift from the prophetic to the reconciling is the power of the prophetic. AFSC should be out ahead of Friend’s Meetings as the most prophetic voice we have in the world. We should accept that Friends Meetings will always be uncomfortable with our prophetic voice, seeing that discomfort as a call to see whether we have “outrun our light.” I, in fact, don’t think the AFSC is doing its work without stirring up Meetings and Friends, yet too often it has backed away when it clearly had not outrun its light. In the new change in leadership, I would hope the AFSC would look to and use its prophetic voice to stir us up. To challenge us. To speak truth with power and not apologize to Friends for doing its job. I long for an AFSC that owns its prophetic voice, not abandoning its reconciling voice but speaking with the power of its vision, guided by the Spirit and the work we are being called to do in the World.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” A vision requires a prophetic voice. A prophetic voice comes from the depths of our spirituality. I fear that too often our spirituality has no depth. Keeping to our reconciling witness we float and fear to plumb the depths. We need our prophetic witness to float above the works of the world, but only our prophetic witness can help us sink to the depths of our spirituality. We will often make mistakes if we sink to those depths, but without sinking to those depths we merely float on the surface of a Quakerism tossing and turning on the waves of politic and unable to sink to the depths of true spirituality.

Many years ago I attended a worship service in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s church. I clearly heard the Spirit in that service. I understood in a way I had never understood the power behind King’s prophetic voice. It has always colored my nonviolence and my reconciling witness. His “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” remains a piece of writing I turn to again and again. Next to the Spirit I felt in that Church service, our Meetings are mostly just skimming the surface. The experience of a Gathered Meeting becomes rarer and mostly a thing of the past, more often brought about by our reconciling witness than our prophetic witness.

I thank God for the AFSC, which, though it often fails, is still Friend’s best chance to reclaim our prophetic witness!

Your Grandchild?

That makes you

SUPER GRANDPA!

best job ever!

Chuck replies: Hey, I like Jesus, but too many of his would-be friends do turn him into an insufferable dork. The gotta do better.