HumanistQuakerNov 8, 2022

"Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts.
Trust them as the leadings of God whose Light shows us our darkness and brings us to new life."

(Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith and Practice" Advices and Queries no.1: http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/1-02/) #Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism

1.02 | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 8, 2022
Posting this mainly as a way of using the 3 hashtags in the hope that other Friends heading over here from the Bird Place might find this and want to connect? #Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism
Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 11, 2022

"...We, like every generation, must find the Light +Life again for ourselves. Only what we have valued +truly made our own, not by assertion but by lives of faithful commitment, can we hand on to the future. Even then, we must humbly acknowledge that our vision of the truth will, again +again, be amended.

In the Religious Society of Friends we commit ourselves not to words but to a way."

(Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith and Practice" Intro: https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/introduction/) #Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism

Introduction | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 11, 2022

At this time of year (as the dreaded #BlackFriday is just 2 weeks away, and the associated purchasing frenzy approaches), I often find myself returning to this passage with its thoughts on consumerism, acquisition, all that stuff and gadgets, and living simply.

(Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith and Practice" 25.09 https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/25-09/) #Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism

25.09 | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 12, 2022

This poem by Geoffrey Weeden describes one experience of Quaker "Meeting for Worship" (what we call our gatherings).

Hear it read aloud, along with footage of Friends from Quakers in Britain's Northumbria Area Meeting here: https://vimeo.com/127699534

#Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism

Discover a different way to worship

Vimeo
Show threadHumanistQuaker

Visited #Portishead #Quaker meeting house today (a different local meeting house elsewhere in Quakers in Britain's #Bristol area meeting than where I normally go).

7 of us shared the hour of silence, in a place where Friends have gathered since 1670: https://heritage.quaker.org.uk/files/Portishead%20LM.pdf (PDF link).

#Quakers #Quakerism

Nov 13, 2022 at 3:04pmWeb
Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 13, 2022
@maco @wess @martin @MontanaMagpie ^Thought you might like the pictures above Friends.
Show threadC. Wess DanielsNov 13, 2022
@HumanistQuaker @maco @martin @MontanaMagpie thanks for sharing!
Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 18, 2022

"Please be patient, those of you who have found a rock to stand on, with those of us who haven’t and with those of us *who are not even looking for one*...."

(Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith and Practice" 20.06, part https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/20-06/)
#Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism @quakers

20.06 | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 18, 2022

When there's so much that calls for our love, it can feel overwhelming, sometimes futile.
So we just start where we can - right where we are, right now.

(Text from Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith & Practice" 24.60 https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/24-60/)

#Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism @quakers

24.60 | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 19, 2022

A welcome reminder that no matter what our context, we can all play a part in putting more love and kindness into the world:

"...the vocation of ordinary men and women called to continual, unspectacular acts of loving kindness in the ordinary setting of every day."

(Text from Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith & Practice" 21.43 https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/21-43/)

#Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism @quakers

21.43 | Quaker faith & practice

Show threadMontana MagpieNov 18, 2022
@HumanistQuaker @quakers — Yes. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this attitude, of course. One might add, though, that the #SoF was historically made up of those who bore Friends’ testimony for Christ before the world in word and deed. Those “not looking for a rock” were welcomed to meetings for worship, but not into membership. Here is a very significant way in which liberal Quakers have felt led to make a break with the past and diverge from other branches of Quakerism.
Show threadSchroedingerNov 18, 2022

@MontanaMagpie @HumanistQuaker @quakers And yet, as someone mentioned once, many of the early Quakers would not feel very at home in many modern (UK at least) meetings.

I feel that is a strength - that we have moved, but kept the core principles intact.

Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 18, 2022
@SteveClough I posted something a few days ago that perhaps feels relevant here: https://mastodon.online/@HumanistQuaker/109325954752272793 @MontanaMagpie @quakers
Show threadMontana MagpieNov 18, 2022
@SteveClough @HumanistQuaker @quakers — I’m not persuaded that the “core principles” of modern Quakerism in Britain are all that congruent with those of early Friends. But I’d like to ask your more detailed opinion. Perhaps you could review the 1656 epistle from the Elders at Balby for me and see how many of the core principles embedded in it are still accepted in your yearly meeting today. I’d be very interested in your take.
Show threadMontana MagpieNov 18, 2022
@SteveClough @HumanistQuaker @quakers — One other thing you could do, and it is a bigger job but more to the heart of the matter, is to review Barclay’s *Apology*, and see how many of its core principles are upheld in today’s meetings in the U.K. Again, I would be genuinely interested in your comments on any specifics. I am always trying to learn about meetings elsewhere!
Show threadSchroedingerNov 18, 2022
@MontanaMagpie @HumanistQuaker @quakers I ill take a look and let you know.
Show threadSchroedingerNov 19, 2022
@MontanaMagpie @HumanistQuaker @quakers I suppose much of that are the things that we have moved away from. I suppose I am thinking of Foxs principle of looking inside, not outside, not to others and to structures.
Show threadMontana MagpieNov 19, 2022
@SteveClough @HumanistQuaker @quakers I think you are projecting something on ol’ George Fox there. He, and the other early Friends, looked both to the Bible and to the collective discernment of their fellows, as well as to the Spirit within themselves.
Show threadSchroedingerNov 19, 2022

@MontanaMagpie Maybe - but we would also accept that in our meeting. I think that is my point about them not being welcome today.

But this reliance not on tradition but on themselves in the now was there, and is still there.

Show threadMontana MagpieNov 19, 2022
@SteveClough — I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I deeply appreciate your involvement in these questions. But I think you still misunderstand early Friends. I find no either/or between “tradition” in general, and “themselves in the now”, in their writings. *Biblical* tradition was fine; e.g., they married themselves, rather than having a priest do it, because that was the biblical tradition. It was the apostasy that developed after apostolic times, that they condemned.
Show threadMontana MagpieNov 19, 2022

@SteveClough — As for “themselves” — I recall Fox’s statement, “I am nothing; Christ is everything.” Early Quakerism was individualistic to a limited degree, but early Friends disparaged the more eccentric convictions of individuals as “Ranting”. What they wanted was “Primitive Christianity Revived” (Wm. Penn’s famous phrase), which was a community project, in accordance with principles discoverable in the Bible.

I can well believe they might not feel welcome in today’s BYM.

Show threadSchroedingerNov 19, 2022
@MontanaMagpie But - for me - I am also seeking that Primitive Christian understanding.
Show threadHumanistQuakerNov 18, 2022

@MontanaMagpie

Yes, I'm very aware that in the past my membership request may well have not been accepted. But I am grateful that it now is.

"Our sense of community does not depend on all professing identical beliefs, for it grows from worshipping together, knowing one another, loving one another, accepting responsibilities, sharing and working together."

(Quakers in Britain "Quaker Faith and Practice" 10.03, part: https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/10-03/)

#Quaker #Quakers #Quakerism @quakers

10.03 | Quaker faith & practice