Learning and Leading

Peace Forum: What can Hiroshima and Nagasaki teach us about Peace?

2012-02-21T16:02:00.000-05:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

How much did the US population know about the aftereffects of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the 50s and 60s? How much do they know now? The lessons of these two cities were hard-learned in Japan, but have taken longer to filter out to the rest of the world. ESR Master of Divinity students Erin Hougland and Abbey Pratt-Harrington have both spent time in Hiroshima, Erin as an English teaching in a nearby town and Abbey as a summer researcher at the World Friendship Center.

Erin and Abbey explained that the bomb detonated about mile over Hiroshima and immediately killed around 70,000 people. There was no food or water in the area afterwards, and the medical centers were overwhelmed. Some people survived, but so badly burned that they jumped into the river, only to be killed by the boiling-hot water in the river. Radiation poisoning killed many more in the first 6 months and it is difficult to say in the end how many people died later because of various forms of cancer. No one was sure what the long-term effects of the radiation would be on the health of survivors.

The Japanese coined the term “hibakusha” to mean anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki when the bombs were dropped, or who were inside the city limits within two weeks afterwards, or who had direct contact with bomb victims. This is not a historical term, but a quite current one as the Japanese government recognizes more than 200,000 living people as hibakusha and some receive a special form of government health insurance.

In Japan, hibakusha were and are marginalized for fear that they could contaminate others or that their children would have genetic abnormalities. Particularly right after the bombs, they had difficulty marrying and often hid their status. Still, many went on to thrive and live long lives. Erin spoke of meeting a Japanese woman in her Tai Chi class in Japan who was 6 months old when Hiroshima was bombed. The next day, her mother took her and her 2-year-old brother into the city to look for her (the mother’s) parents. Her little brother, who had no shoes and so walked barefoot, died 6 months later of radiation poisoning. The woman grew up, married, is healthy herself, and has many healthy children and grandchildren. Erin told us this story in part to demonstrate the lack of knowledge Japanese individuals had in the after mass of the bombings (e.g. jumping into rivers or allowing their children to walk barefoot in the city) and the unevenness of the effects (some hibakusha have/had health problems, while others are quite healthy). American scientists initially told the Japanese that it would take 70 years for vegetation to grow in the area, but seeds sprouted the next spring. Erin describes modern Hiroshima as beautiful and lively.

Abbey’s connection to Hiroshima began when she started volunteering at the Peace Resource Center, located on the campus of Wilmington College in Ohio. Barbara Reynolds, the founder of the center, traveled to Hiroshima in the 50s with her husband. American and Japanese scientists were uncertain of what the long term consequences of the blast and Earle Reynolds traveled to Hiroshima to study radiation
and child development. Barbara brought 2 hibakusha to the US in 1962 to speak about the dangers of nuclear warfare. Returning in 1964 with 25 hibakusha, they traveled to several countries to speak against nuclear weapons. These survivors still travel; when Abbey was there in the summer of 2009 she met two hibakusha who had just returned from speaking in Pakistan.

Abbey and Erin were asked about how people in today’s Japan see the bombings and whether they blame the US. They told us that people take a broad view; the Japanese emperor led the country into war and ignored the US announcement that the A-bomb would be dropped if Japan did not desist. “They told me ‘this is what war does’” Erin explained, saying that Japan sees the bombings as punishment for the crimes committed by the government. This is not to say that everyone in Japan is of one mind on this issue. A small minority continually calls for repeal of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which renounces war and nuclear weapons.

Food for thought:

• Perhaps Abbey and Erin can tell us how the reaction to the Fukushima nuclear power plant being damaged in the spring was related to the communal memory of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan. Abbey? Erin?
• What would the US look like if it renounced all nuclear bombs and laid down the entire military?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

The Cycle of Poverty in the Local Richmond Community

2012-02-14T14:01:00.005-05:00

Peace Forum February 2, 2012
By Valerie Hurwitz

Laura Arendt, third-year Bethany Seminary student, spoke Thursday, February at Peace Forum about Open Arms Ministry. OAM is a non-profit that we’ve talked about on the blog before. They provide emergency assistance for people in the Richmond area, both from their own funds and through coordinating funds local churches have for charity. I won’t repeat the detail that the earlier post contains, but please read it if you’re curious to learn more.

Laura’s talk was part logistical information and part theological reflection. She talked about the cycle of poverty, an institutional web making it unlikely that people in poverty will be able to change their educational and financial position significantly in life. In Wayne County, 40% of the school-age children live below the poverty line, #2 in the state. According to Laura, however, the primary need is not financial but personal. People coming into OAM and want someone to listen and validate the struggles they’ve been through. There is a feeling that the rest of the Richmond community, Earlham College, and local Christians have no idea what people in poverty are going through.

There is the tendency to make the poor fit into stereotypes: lazy, unmotivated, etc. Laura told two stories that exemplify the type of person she sees. One was a grandmother with 6 other people living in her household, including an infant and a toddler. She is the only one with any income coming in. The second was a man who came in with his 17-year-old son. They were homeless, but the man had several job interviews lined up. (If you want to get Laura up on her soapbox, ask her about Richmond not having a family homeless shelter.) OAM helped him find an apartment and pay the security deposit so that he would have an address to list on his job applications.

I have a little personal experience with this on my street in Richmond, which is mostly rentals. I am constantly picking up garbage. The gentlemen down the alleyway have a confederate flag in their garage. One of the neighbor’s cats recently started visiting my house, looking for food. I happened to see and speak to the cat’s owner for a few minutes and found out that she has not had enough money to have the cat spayed and vaccinated and worries about the cat’s health. She also spoke of having to sell or junk her car for lack of money for repairs, leaving her without transportation. My other neighbors moved out without telling the landlord and shooed their (indoors) cat out of the apartment to live on the street. (As you can tell, I am a cat magnet.) Stereotypes are often there for a reason even when they’re not entirely true; I could look at the confederate flag, at the abandoned animals, at the trash, at the broken-down car, etc., and stereotype. Certainly there is a basic assumption (some people on my street live in poverty and have some of the associated limitations in living their lives) that is correct, although not universal and certainly varying greatly.

It’s critical to keep an open mind and heart to the people around you. It’s also important for those of us living in Richmond to be mindful of the incredible work that can be done in our own community. Laura pointed out that it’s easy for the residential students to feel poor living off part-time work and graduate loans, but ultimately important to remember that our educational loans are a “down payment” on skills,
transformational experiences, and future employment. Cyclical poverty is quite different. So, what examples of poverty have you seen in your area (particularly the Richmond area, if you’ve lived here)? What do you think are some solutions to that poverty? What can you do personally?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Reflections on Cross-Cultural Understanding and Partnership

2012-02-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

Last Tuesday at Common Meal, Stephanie Crumley-Effinger spoke about her sabbatical this fall semester. Among many other projects, Stephanie traveled to Kenya for three weeks and focused her common meal presentation on this. Stephanie started her trip in Nairobi and Kijabe. She visited with Aziz, the man from Southern Sudan whom we met at St. Paul’s University this past June. Stephanie brought him a number of bibles, bought with money raised from ESR, for churches in Southern Sudan. The continuing famine and violence in Somalia and central Sudan is a growing issue in Kenya and one we should keep in our thoughts and prayers. FTC students are doing ministry at Kakuma Refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, and there are many other ways that Kenyan Friends can have a direct impact.

The bulk of Stephanie’s time was spent at Friends Theological College. Having been there this summer, it was interesting to hear about the workings of FTC and how it is trying to increase its financial resources/independence. FTC recently received official accreditation (having previously had accreditation through St. Paul’s University) and is now subject to a rule that 50% of their income must come from within Kenya. FTC is traditionally supported heavily by FUM and Friends in the US, so this is a switch. They have, wisely, focused on investing donated funds into money-making projects. FTC has a canteen, a dairy, a bakery, gardens, a tailoring shop, and makes bio-sand water filters and fuel briquettes. Students work 7 hours a week in these projects to earn money to pay their school fees, and 5 hours a week on chores around the campus. (I found this difficult to imagine doing at ESR, but then I realized that our Cooper Scholars do 4 hours a week a volunteering, and many residential students work part-time. Maybe ESR should open up a coffee shop to employ students. Or a farm. Jay, any thoughts?)

FTC has certificate programs (2 years of study), diploma programs (3 years) and a Bachelor’s degree. Stephanie worked with the Year 3 Diploma students on the Incident-Reflection model she uses in Supervised Ministry at ESR. Diploma students do ministry at sites around the region, but do little critical reflection on what they’ve experienced. Ann Riggs, the principal of FTC, hopes to have more theological reflection incorporated into the ministry internships. Stephanie also mentioned that each class has a “class representative” who gathers papers for the class, turns them in, and reminds those who have not yet turned in an assignment. Stephanie seemed very pleased with the idea and joked that each class at ESR should have a representative.

A few other comical notes: Stephanie brought an ipad to FTC, which Friends there found fascinating. Stephanie told us proudly, “I finally did something that horrified my children” by riding on the back of a piki-piki (motorbike). This “mzungu on a piki-piki” apparently provided a great deal of entertainment for the Kenyans who saw her on the road. She also preached at two meetings. At one, Kivagali, FTC professor

Josephat Muchele translated her sermon into Swahili. Stephanie commented jokingly that sometimes Josephat seemed to speak much longer than she did, and the meeting laughed at certain points she hadn’t thought were funny in English. Having met Josephat, I am sure he was translating faithfully, but perhaps adding commentary, explaining things so they were clearer to a Kenyan audience, or adding jokes!

Stephanie hopes that connections between ESR and FTC can be strengthened and that more ESR students and alumni can spend time at FTC. As I mentioned when I wrote this summer, Friends at FTC are eager for visitors and hopeful for connections with the wider Quaker world. Stephanie identified many problems that Kenyan Quakerism and FTC are facing, including low pastor pay, (non-Quaker) TV preachers and the gospel of prosperity, corruption in the government, FTC’s physical plant, and rising food prices. American Friends don’t have all the answers, but I firmly believe that American Friends and African Friends need each other and can contribute a great deal to each other’s development.

Some questions for consideration:

• What are the best ways for American Friends to assist Kenyan Friends?

Books Stephanie brought for the FTC library

• What can Kenyan Friends teach Friends in the US?

• Kenya does not offer federal loans for education, as the US does. What would the US look like without these federal loan programs?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Peace Forum and the Beginning of Second Semester

2012-01-31T12:43:00.002-05:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

You may have noticed a quietness on the blog lately. First semester ended right after Thanksgiving and students and faculty were in and out for most of December and January. Second semester began this past Tuesday and life here is speeding up.

At Peace Forum on Thursday we had an Oxfam hunger banquet. Each person entering was randomly assigned to sit at a table, at a set of chairs in a circle, or on the floor. The distribution of people in the room, as you might guess, mirrors the distribution of wealth in this world. The people sitting at the table (15%) were served a full meal. The people in the chairs (35%) went to the back table to get rice and beans. Those on the floor (50%) were brought a huge pot of rice and given bowls.

A few comical notes: Pastoral Care professor Jim Higginbotham and I were seated at the table (upper income) with an Earlham student. It was quite lonely sitting at the table, and a little awkward. While the meal organizers were in the kitchen, we (rebels, apparently) snuck over to give our extra food to the people on the floor. As Peace Forum organizer Audrey said, “The problem with doing this in Brethren and Quaker circles is that people don’t know how to act rich.” We tried to offer our food to the middle income group, but they sarcastically told us they didn’t want our charity. Finally, as the low-income group was muttering about rebellion, the middle income group jokingly sent a few people and a pointy umbrella over to defend the last of the beans.

When the meal was over, organizers Audrey and Abbey shared a few observations:

• The low-income group served each other food, passing bowls around the circle.
• We (the high-income group) snuck our food over to the low-income group but then sat with the middle-income group (perhaps we felt more comfortable there?).
• We (the high-income group) ate before sharing the leftovers with others (that’s my observation).

The world produces enough food to feed every man, woman, and child. Starvation and malnutrition doesn’t need a complicated agricultural fix or new technology to raise crop yield. It is a simple matter of wasting less food and distributing it more fairly. (Take a look at this recent article about the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization research.)

This meal called to mind very strongly the meal ESR’s faculty had in Rwanda this summer, two hours off the main road from Gisenyi with a group of widows ESR alum Etienne was assisting. When mealtime came, we were invited up to a buffet of many different dishes. We each took a plate and food. Then, large platters of rice, beans, and cooked greens, were brought out for the women to share; perhaps 8-15 women per platter eating with their hands. It was difficult to sit there and be faced with the luxury we were afforded, even (or especially) in rural Rwanda.

Some questions for reflection:

1) Have you attended an OxFam Banquet? What were your observations?
2) How and where have you encounter poverty in the US?
3) How does a middle-class lifestyle in the US perpetuate an unequal distribution of food?
4) What actions might Americans take to lessen the uneven distribution?

Those of you who know me well know that I am obsessed with feeding people. I cooked in a co-op for four years and from scratch almost every single night. I cooked for a friend’s wedding in 2007 and for the Young Adult Friends Gathering in 2010. In 2008, my friend and I challenged each other to keep our food expenses for the month of January under $80. (I managed $72, and I had been out of the country for two weeks before that and so certainly wasn’t eating much from reserves . . . and yes, I did eat my veggies every day.)

Given that part of my personality, the last two questions above are very much on my mind. I eat primarily organic food as a political statement; I think the industrial food system and US food aid are morally bankrupt (that’s a much longer rant you can ask me about separately). Americans pay a smaller percentage of their income towards food than most other countries because of US subsidies, cheap labor, and because the food system can externalize its costs and push them onto governments or individuals. Organic certainly doesn’t answer all the issues. Additionally, many Americans are food-insecure now, with 1 in 7 on food stamps some people simply don’t have that option.

Where is God in all of this? I have been taking ESR’s online Intro to Old Testament and Literature and am noticing a lot of things in the first five books of the Bible that I hadn’t noticed before. God is quite clear about caring for the poor (e.g. Deuteronomy 24:19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.”) Later in Isaiah, God makes it clear that worship alone is not sufficient and that we must “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (1:16-17) The world we help create for those with less power and resources is directly relevant to how God sees us.

April Vanlonden, registrar for ESR and Bethany Seminary, gave a sermon in programmed worship Thursday, just before Peace Forum. She emphasized that spirituality could come from action, and that to become wrapped up in our inner reflection is to lose sight of the world around us. She encouraged ESR students and faculty to integrate an action-led spirituality into our lives. I pass her message along to you all as well.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Leadership Profiles: Dan Seeger

2012-01-25T09:06:00.001-05:00

Leadership Profiles: Chiyo Moriuchi

2012-01-20T11:08:00.000-05:00

Leadership Profiles: Brent McKinney

2012-01-18T14:23:00.000-05:00

Leadership Profiles: Arthur Larrabee

2012-01-13T17:21:00.000-05:00

Framed in Silence

2012-01-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

By Lynn Domina

In the end he believed
death could arrive with the satisfying thunk,
thunk, thunk he felt splitting
wood, repetition and variation
marking each oak log, every day
in this life, and his art—how everything changed
when beasts filled his canvas, when the lion
glared past his viewer’s gaze, when the second leopard
bared his teeth. His neighbors thought
all his paintings alike. This secret he kept:
he began each morning with a dab of red—
one child’s blushing cheek, ripe apples
dangling from gnarled branches, blood
tipping the lion’s claw—then painted it out.

He didn’t think he would return
to his studio, he remarked as his daughter
stroked his quilt, and then something—a bird or moth—
lifted his breath away.
Friends declared a great man
had fallen, recalled
his fiery faith, his preference for the narrow path,
all of them careful to frame their memories
in silence, for such is the habit
among those who grieve
anticipating solace.

Lynn Domina is an access student in ESR's M.Div. program. She lives in the western Catskill region of New York, where she teaches English at the State University of New York at Delhi. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Corporal Works and Framed in Silence, and the editor of a collection of essays, Poets on the Psalms. Her recent poetry appears in The Southern Review, The New England Review, Christianity & Literature, and many other periodicals.

The Man Born Blind Sent to See

2011-12-20T10:44:00.000-05:00

By Lynn Domina

He recalled his mother’s frustration
explaining transparency. You see
through it, she’d said, but he could discover
no pattern—wind though not smoke,
oil but not its lamp, not milk but water,
some demons only.

So here in the pool at Siloam, he stooped
to water cooling his feet, his ankles. He could see
water, its ripples, its eddies, and he could see
objects shining inside the water, stones,
clumps of mud, tawny weeds.
He could see his face,
frightening as magic, floating
inches below the surface. When he bent
to touch his beard, his finger
sank right through.

His hand leapt back into air
where he could see lines
at his knuckles, thin scratches, blue veins
curving to his wrist; yet still he saw
his hand’s image where his hand
was not. This would be his joy

he understood, always seeing
more than was there.

Lynn Domina is an access student in ESR's M.Div. program. She lives in the western Catskill region of New York, where she teaches English at the State University of New York at Delhi. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Corporal Works and Framed in Silence, and the editor of a collection of essays, Poets on the Psalms. Her recent poetry appears in The Southern Review,The New England Review, Christianity & Literature, and many other periodicals.

Sun in the Mountains

2011-12-16T14:34:00.000-05:00

By M. Lee Collins

Sun in the mountains,
but the peaks grow cold.
Beneath, the mist tells a story
of the origins of hidden footpaths,
traveled by weary seekers of
enlightenment—all this
for a glimpse—gnarled trees,
valley in shadow.

M. Lee Collins is a graduating senior in the spirituality program at ESR. She has studied under poets as diverse as James Reiss and Lucien Stryk. She received her M.A. in English/Poetry from Miami University in 1995, and has won several academic awards for her work. Since then she has gone on to publish poems in several literary magazines, and published her first book in 2001. Since that time she has worked hard on developing her own unique voice, and will plan on publishing, after ten years of enormous productivity after graduation from ESR, which, she says, “has had profound impact on my writing.”

Litany of Thanksgiving for the Word Savory

2011-12-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

By Lynn Domina

For parmesan, for ricotta, for soft mozzarella
flavored with basil, layered between thick-sliced tomatoes;
for beefsteaks and early girls and ponderosa pinks, for cherry and plum;
for Canadian bacon and Irish bacon, for Irish stew,
chunks of tender lamb, potato, simmering carrot, iridescent celery,
for pearl onions.

For pearl barley thickening soup, for rye, cracked wheat,
chunks of crusty bread dipped into penitential broth,
for warm biscuits glistening with butter, for butter
slipping around an ear of sweet corn.
For corn chowder and corn pudding and cornbread, for blue corn tortillas.
For every meal I’ve still to taste.

For chicken roasting through Sunday afternoons, its skin golden,
crisp, for its drippings. For gravy
ladled onto chestnut stuffing.
For sauerbraten, schnitzel, herb-roasted pork.
For beer-battered fish, fresh lake perch, for clam sauce,
linguini, fettuccini, for stuffed shells, seafood ravioli.
For those locusts and scarabs and weevils I hope never to eat.

For ratatouille, gazpacho, coq au vin,
for every international flavor, palak paneer,
vindaloo, tikka masala; for every word
stuffed as full as samosas, sweet as rasmalai
held in my mouth, sweetly dissolving.

For the word sweet whose Greek root suggests rejoicing,
whose Latin ancestor urges us to phrase our advice pleasantly;
for the word savory, which might have entered my language
via many routes. And so I rejoice
in this pleasant advice: savor uncertainty, hold doubt
upon your tongue, a smooth wafer that calls you to wonder
whether it offers the blessing of mint or of honey
or of something altogether new.

Two Things Have I Heard

2011-12-10T16:18:00.001-05:00

By Josh Seligman

My toes, legs, knees were shaking. Although I was standing on warm, solid rock, barefoot, I felt the wind could have lifted my feet and poured me over the edge. Below, the bright blue river was foaming and hungry. Dustin had spotted this cliff when we were still in our kayak. “It’s probably 15, 20 feet high,” he said. “We can definitely do this one. “You mean we’re going to jump?” I asked. “I don’t know, man.” We rested our kayak against three walls of rock, and a few others from our group arrived. After some encouragement, I agreed to jump. I took off my t-shirt, gave my glasses to Becky, the director of the retreat, and shakily followed Dustin up the cliff, heaving myself up a wiry rope.

At the top, I hunched over. The combination of being afraid of falling and not seeing clearly kept me bent. In the distance, red tables and towers of stone stood crooked over the Arizonan desert. Later that day, when I paddled with Becky, I would note how these rock formations have been here thousands of years, shaped by the wind. “So it’s kind of like God is still in the process of making them,” Becky said, “and we don’t see the finished product yet.” The finished product now, though, was my landing safely in the water. I knew the river would catch me—if I could fall without bashing my head on the rocks on the way down. “So do we go head first?” I asked Dustin.

“No, you’ll want to pencil it.” Dustin held out two fingers pushed together pointing down. We counted from three, and jumped together. I remember yelling, partly because I needed to get fear out, but mostly because it seemed fitting to do that in this situation. Like a pencil, I thought. My feet smacked blue and I slipped into the shadows of the Colorado River, the waters surging around me, first cold and then warm. I felt like Jonah must have felt just before being hurled out of the great fish. I pushed my arms down and surfaced, and we made some kind of sound like laughter, and the wind was strong against our wet faces.

This memory came to me when I first began worshiping in silence at ESR. Only now, the river I was looking down into was darkness and silence. When I began entering the silence, I would try to listen for God’s voice. But often my thoughts would distract me, and I would wonder what God’s voice sounded like. I recently read a story which has helped me learn about God’s voice. It’s when the prophet Elijah stood in the Lord’s presence.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains part and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. (1 Kings 19:11-13, NIV)

Once during unprogrammed worship, I thought I heard the Lord. A paraphrase of Psalm 62:11-12 swirled in my mind: “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: That you, O Lord, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.” Is this God? I wondered. Should I stand and speak this? I reasoned that among the three others in the room, probably none of them needed to hear it. After my inner wrestling, someone left, and so did the prompting. I felt a little like Jonah might have felt when he was first swallowed by the great fish.

I’m not sure why, during those first experiences of worship at ESR, I didn’t think so much about the other time I cliff jumped. It was the summer after kayaking down the Colorado River. I was in Kansas celebrating the wedding of two of my friends, and for the bachelor party, about 11 of us drove to Two Buttes, Colorado, where apparently we were going to jump off a certain cliff.

“There's different ledges,” said Erik, the brother of the bride, as he drove a carful of us between corn fields into the sunset. “You can jump it from 30 feet, 40 feet, or even 60 feet. But we'll only jump from 40 feet.” Someone asked about the possibility of rocks.“An underground current connects the lagoon to the sea,” Erik said, “so there isn't a bottom." When we arrived at the campsite, it was night. The campground was sheltered on three sides by tall trees, and at the end was a lagoon. There, shadowed by cliffs, the water shimmered beneath a large moon.

One by one, the guys swam to the other side, where they climbed onto the bank, ascended the cliff, and jumped into the darkness. I couldn’t see them; I could only hear feet scraping dirt, followed by a stretch of silence, and then a splash. Afterwards they gave a yelp of some kind to let us know they made it. Along with a few others, I didn’t jump the cliff that night. (I did the next morning, though.) One guy’s ankle was sprained, making it risky. Another said, “There’s no way I’m jumping off that.” Friend spoke my mind.

When we returned to the campground, we built a fire and dried. We ate s’mores and imitated the bullfrogs croaking around us. Someone mentioned the grime that collects on his toilet. When the flames died down, Erik invited us to climb one of the Two Buttes nearby. "I think I'm gonna kick it back here,” a friend told me. “Are you going?"

"I think I am."

"All right! I was just seeing what you would say."

We all drove a few miles away and parked beside an open field of shrubs and rocks. In the moonlight, we could see the silhouettes of the two pyramids of stone and sand. We hiked like rabbits, ascending the butte in a zig-zag. Flashlights helped us avoid the cacti. Some of the boulders were so big we had to clamber onto them. When we reached the top, there was plenty of room for us on the stones. At first, we hopped around, finding our places. Some guys shouted. The land stretched before us like the ocean, like a thousand railways vanishing into points. We could barely see our cars parked below, beside the wiry road. Beyond them, red lights from steel towers pulsed. Up there, the wind was almost as strong as jumping into water. I stood straight with my arms held out to my sides. If I had tiptoed, the wind would have pushed me back. Then, for a few moments, in silence we sat and stood, facing the moon and the wind.

Josh Seligman is a student at Earlham School of Religion. He is from San Diego, California, and lives in Richmond, Indiana.

The War On Terror

2011-12-02T13:13:00.001-05:00

By Erin Hougland

communication stations in the
frame of this Nation, and its nations,
chaotically flows into ears and brains
and drains us down the tubes of fear-
bending our minds into times
that are crushing the lines
of justice.

the use of this fearing
is leering into our hearts,
is peering into our souls
and is sneering as we go
quivering into our closed rooms
where we sweep up confusion with brooms
made of definitions and rules-
creating a truth that binds us into a fuss,
until we surrender
and drool out the sad remnants of faith.

handing over and over again, our lives
into those hands that thrive
on our misery, it is their only epitome,
and drive us
off the cliffs into an abyss of list-less-ness...
the depths of submission
because we gave them our permission.

and it Reigns and it rains
down on us
trying to wash the stains away
we forget-
but we stay, and we pray
that they, may have
the solution to the problem.
and we are surprised to find
they don't.

we scream and we cry,
"these solutions are pollutions!"
and they ignore
because they are bored
with our cries,
so they glare
and continue to stare
at our problems that weren't even there
from the start.
but they tell us that they care
and our downfall is,
we believe them.

running and flailing around
we drown
with out any knowledge of how to swim
because we gave it away.

little did we know how grim
when we signed our names
on those lines that sought only to frame
us inside prison walls.

and nothing is gained
from this game parade
of blame and shame.

it's not them that will save you.
it's nothing you couldn't already do;
it's here and it's now.

so throw the radio to the wall
and watch it crumble and fall,
its fallible, don't worry that's not radical,
its real.

pick up the false broom,
crack the handle against the door of your tomb.

run out
into the fields of your old soul,
roll around and unfold your mold
in the memory of what you were from birth:
a miracle.

Erin is finishing up her first year in ESR's M.Div program, with an emphasis in writing. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband where she works as the volunteer coordinator for the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic and is an active member of the Episcopal church. Erin believes creativity and imagination in art and writing anchor people in the realities of being in the world.

The Slippery Slope

2011-11-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

By Anna Woofenden

The core of this piece was written late on a Saturday night in last June, at the Wild Goose Festival (a gathering of emergent and progressive Christians), sitting under the stars at the campsite, reaching to comprehend and process the transformations that were taking place in me and around me by texting a dear friend and colleague. Turned out to be one very long text.

The warning has come in many forms over the years: watch out for the slippery slope. If we dare to question what we’ve been taught, we cannot predict what could follow, what unearthly pit is around the corner. If we dare to question, before we know it we could be... well… something and surely hell and hand-baskets are involved. Don’t raise those questions, don’t voice any doubts, you don’t know where it may lead. I had been warned.

I didn’t listen. I’ve had conversations with people whose views differ from mine. I’ve gone to worship services that have stretched me beyond my comfort zone. I’ve traveled to other cultures. I’ve read those “edgy” theological books. I’ve entered into conversations where I am challenged and uncomfortable. And in January I finally left the church organization I had called home for many years, as a “radical” pursuing ordination as a woman. Since then, I’ve dared to open up the Bible without being preemptively sure of what it might have to say to me. I’ve become friends with fellow seminarians who are seeking to serve God wholeheartedly who also happen to be lesbian, transgendered and gay. I’ve begun to question the cultural assumptions that had defined my theological reality and am finding the Bible to be alive with humanity and contradiction and the gospels to be downright manifestos of radical living. I continue to question the theology and church culture, as I understood it, while boldly stumbling along, pursuing God and spiritual community.

You open any of these doors, and before you know it, you’re led down a road where you're speaking up about the marginalized, selling your possessions to give to the poor, and surrendering your life to something greater than yourself. It's a slippery slope. If you open yourself up to revelation being alive and moving, letting it be more than a moral code or a patriarchal history lesson, then you slide. You slide and find that you're surrounded by revelation. Poems, stories, myths, the writing and lives of Gandhi and Dr. King, Maya Angelou and Rumi, and the mountains, the people, silence, and yes, even the Scriptures are speaking to you. All overflowing with the Breath of the Spirit and infused with Divine Voice. Each offers pathways connecting the human and the Divine, enlivening and disturbing, moving you to action, bathing you in peaceful Love.

It's a slippery slope, letting go of the lines that divide, seeing people different from yourself as human. Let the walls that make me an "us" and they a "them" crumble, and there is a world of humanity to love. No longer can you ignore the vulnerability, the humanity, the absolute sinner and saint in all of us. No longer can you push others aside or arbitrarily categorize them. Confronted by the humanity around us, we confront the humanity within us and expose our collective brokenness. We come face to face with the things we are capable of, for ill or good. We lose the ability to hide behind our self-righteousness or be cozy in our carefully constructed boxes of absolutism and superiority.

And then we might start caring. We might start exposing ourselves to the people in the world around us. We might start seeing needs. We might start owning and feeling the pain of the human family as our own story, a story that we are drawn into, that we now want to participate in. It’s risky, this slippery slope of seeing humans as human. It’s transformative, God being Divine.

Entertaining the idea that God is untamable, uncontainable and immersed in all we know, might just lead us to respond. To ask what Jesus taught and at least play with the possibility, maybe for the first time, that we're actually called to follow these teachings, is a daring and radical notion. Maybe Jesus had something right when he told us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Maybe there's something to this command to take care of the widows and orphans. Maybe Jesus wasn't being metaphorical when he told us to feed, clothe and heal our human family.

Maybe, just maybe, this whole Jesus on earth thing, this spark of Divinity walking among us, is something to pay attention to. Maybe model our lives after. And maybe when we go back to the gospels we might find that most of what Jesus was interested in were the marginalized, the poor, speaking up against the oppressing forces, confronting the hard conversations, going to those that need healing, and approaching the broken parts of each of us. We could find that this radical Messiah came to speak and live out an alternative to ruling over others, to consuming, to living only for ourselves. We may begin to entertain the notion that there's something more to live for. We could start to hear the gentle breeze whispering in our ears that there's a force of Creative Love calling. Calling us to act. Moving us to live in harmony. Drawing us to follow this Radical Christ. And that, that my friend is damned uncomfortable.

Watch out for the slippery slope.

Anna Woofenden is a MDiv student at Earlham School of Religion and the Swedenborgian House of studies. She blogs at http://annawoofenden.wordpress.com

Occupy My Heart

2011-11-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

By Micah Bales

I remember when I first heard about Occupy Wall Street. I was looking at my Twitter feed and saw mention of a demonstration taking place in New York City. I did not take it very seriously. I had seen lots of demonstrations in my lifetime, most of them with little discernable effect.

That was on Saturday, September 17th. On the following Monday, I was not only still seeing tweets coming in out of New York, but they were increasing in number and frequency. They were still demonstrating! I began to click links. I read a smattering of blogs and independent media sources. I learned about the demonstrations bubbling up on Wall Street; how they had "occupied" Zucotti Park; and the way that the police were corralling the demonstrators, and in some cases brutalizing them.

As I scanned the internet that Monday, a strange feeling came over me. I felt a sense that I needed to be involved. This is important. Ever since shortly after September 11th, I had felt alienated from politics, and even more so from protest culture. After watching world leaders ignore the expressed will of the people time and time again (most brazenly in this country when George W. Bush chose to invade Iraq), I had come to the conclusion that mass public dissent was a useless gesture. I was not a protester. I was not an activist. I was too realistic, and too cynical, for that.

Yet, as I read more reports coming out of New York, and watched a flurry of Youtube videos from Wall Street, I was feeling a nudge. Was God asking me to join this movement? Was I supposed to go to New York? I still had lots of reservations about Occupy Wall Street - some cultural, some political, and others theological. But I had to test the leading. This felt too important to ignore.

So, I put out a feeler. I passed along a blog article on Facebook, and I included a comment: "I'm feeling tempted to head up to New York." Almost immediately, I received a response from one of my wife's friends: "If you do come up, you can stay at our house." With way opening so clearly, I made plans to visit Wall Street myself.

My time in New York allowed me to see first-hand the way a totally grassroots, radically democratic movement had taken shape in lower Manhattan. As I expected, I did not like everything I saw. The park was loud, organization was loose, and there was already a problem with unstable individuals using the Occupation as a platform for spouting conspiracy theories or just being disruptive. Yet, there was something powerful happening there.

When we marched on Wall Street, I saw the intense contrast between the lives of the elite financial executives and those of ordinary Americans. I felt the power of regular people coming together - students, the unemployed, unionists and young professionals - to pursue the dream of a more just and sustainable world. I returned to Washington, DC with my leading confirmed and deepened: I felt called to take part in this movement as it spread beyond New York.

I remained connected to the Occupy movement - both Occupy Wall Street, and the growing numbers across the nation who were preparing to occupy in their own cities. Soon, it became clear that there were others here in DC who were interested in getting an occupation started in our town, and I began to participate in online meetings to discuss how to move forward.

On the evening of Friday, September 30th, seven of us met up at McPherson Square, the park in downtown DC where we had decided to begin occupying the following day. Besides the two couples in the group, none of us had ever met before. We were not the "usual suspects" for this sort of thing. We were not professional organizers or seasoned activists. Just regular people with jobs, lives and families who felt drawn to participate in what seemed to us to be the most important social movement of our generation. Together, we would launch Occupy DC.

In the month and a half since then, Occupy DC has grown enormously, from a small band of inexperienced organizers to an experiment in grassroots democracy that has involved thousands of people from all walks of life.

I still do not agree with everything that happens in the Occupy movement. None of us do. When thousands of people from diverse backgrounds come together in open air meetings to express greivances and seek a better world together, things are bound to get messy. Nevertheless, I am convinced that I would be unfaithful if I allowed my desire for perfection get in the way of the good things that God is doing through this imperfect movement. Rather than maintain a safe distance, avoiding association with some elements of the movement that I find questionable, I have felt compelled to cooperate with God in being a influence for good.

To close, I would like to share a passage of Scripture that has become increasingly resonant in my heart in over the course of my involvement in the Occupy movement. It comes from the book of Luke, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Jesus has just returned from the desert to his home synogogue and delivers a message in their meeting for worship. He reads from the book of the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to

the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.(1)

At the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus proclaims the "year of the Lord's favor," the Jubilee mandated by God in the Hebrew law.(2) This radical re-set of the economy - forgiving debts, releasing slaves and healing infirmities - lies at the heart of Jesus' message and mission; and this Jubilee proclamation is the foundation of my understanding of why I am called to be involved in the Occupy movement.

I do not claim any sort of divine perfection for myself or for the movement as a whole. We are all poor sinners, and we fall short even as we try to do what is right. Nevertheless, I feel convicted that I must stand with those who are raising their voices against systemic injustice, debt slavery, corporate greed and a sold-out government. I do not know to what extent Jesus blesses the Occupy movement as a whole, but I do believe that he is blessing me in my participation in it. It is my sense that this is the call of the Lord on my life at this time.

What is the word of the Lord to you today? How are you called to cooperate with Jesus' ministry of loosing the bonds of the oppressed; forgiving the debts of a burdened world; and restoring fullness of health to those who are suffering? How are you being called to live out Jesus' witness of love and compassion, and his courageous call for justice?

1. Luke 4:18-19

2. See Leviticus 25

Micah Bales serves as Coordinator of Young Adult Engagement at ESR. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Faith Kelley. He is a member of Capitol Hill Friends and of Rockingham Friends Meeting, Ohio Yearly Meeting.

The Peace Testimony in an African context

2011-11-18T18:20:00.000-05:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

Silas Wanjala, an ESR Master of Arts student, spoke about his thesis work during Peace Forum on Thursday, November 17th. He is writing his MA thesis in the area of Peace and Justice Studies, focusing particularly on the gospel of peace in Kenya. Since Kenya’s independence in 1963, all three of its presidents have faced high unemployment and economic stagnation. All three have allowed corruption and nepotism, favoring their own tribes over the others in politics. A one-party system asserted central control of the government until 1992, obscuring the democratic form of government laid out in the constitution. Kenya has 42 tribes (plus a fair number of Caucasians and Asians; Indians brought by the British to build the railroads), and tribal identity often takes precedence over national identity.

Silas is from Western Kenya, as are most Kenyan Quakers. The lands around Kitale, Kakamega, and Kaimosi (which are familiar names to Friends who have donated to FUM projects there) are a rich agricultural region. As such, many tribes have moved into this area, trying to take advantage of the land for farming or raising animals. When I visited this region in June, Kenyans mentioned that the decreasing availability of land and the diversity of tribes as both an advantage (leading to a familiarity between tribes) and a source of tension (as competition for resources grows).

The end of the single-party system in 1992 saw the start of a pattern of election violence that continued in 1997 and 2002. Given the tribal nepotism of the central government and high unemployment, tribes hoped that “their” candidate would be elected, bringing economic and political opportunities. The 2007 elections were contested, with international election observers saying that the elections were below standards and challenger Raila Odinga calling for a recount. In the ensuing violence, over 1,000 people were killed and over a half a million were displaced. Western Kenya, with its already diverse populations and strained natural resources, was hard-hit by the violence.

So why focus on a Christian gospel of peace? Silas has seen first-hand the effects of election violence and moreover has seen the ways that the Bible can be used to incite violence. There needs to be a biblical and theological underpinning for peace movements to be successful in this 80% Christian nation. Kenyan Quakers, already having a reputation for integrity and building on the post-election work that the Friends Church Peace Teams and the Alternatives to Violence Project did, can have a particular impact on this issue in Kenya. Silas sees his academic work as creating a theological and biblical grounding for peace work in Kenya that can support the current work of FCPT and AVP, while also transforming preaching and pastoral care to be more non-violent.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Living the Kingdom of God, Now

2011-11-11T11:18:00.001-05:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

Pat and Kathy Floerke, from the Central for Development in Central America in Nicaragua, visited ESR and spoke at Common Meal on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011. They brought with them crafts and clothing from Nicaragua to sell. I had the chance to speak with Kathy a bit at lunch, and she explained that she and her sister moved down to Nicaragua 17 years ago to work on economic development, but return to the US about two months a year to travel to churches, colleges, and peace groups. They share news of the CDCA, ask for donations, and sell crafts made by the Nicaraguans. The main point of Pat’s presentation was that we need to ask ourselves “when will God’s kingdom be here?” Pat and Kathy ask us what we are doing to bring about God’s realm here and now.

Nicaragua is a country of 5.6 million people. Like the US, it has been hit hard by the economic recession in recent years, but the situation there is much more dire. 80% of adults are unemployed or underemployed, and families survive on an average of $2.00 a day and more than a third of children are chronically malnourished. This is a good reminder to keep things in perspective. In the US, average household wealth has fallen (largely as a result of home prices falling) and unemployment remains stubbornly high, but the reality is that the side-effects of the global economic crisis have fallen even harder on countries where people already struggle to feed and house their families. This perspective should not keep us from seeking out the policies, societal customs, and regulations that led to the this recession and changing them, but rather remind us that we still have plenty to give to others.

The CDCA is based in Ciudad Sandino, which is a 1960s refugee camp that grew into a permanent settlement. Their work focuses on sustainable agriculture, appropriate use of technology, sustainable economic development, health care, and education. Their projects grow out of listening to communities and asking what their needs are, and letting communities take initiative. Right now the CDCA is working on getting the Genesis Co-operative, a spinning plant, up and running. Their farmer’s co-op, El Porvenir, has grown to 2,000 members and the CDCA provides loans to grow organic coffee and organic sesame seeds. El Porvenir, with the help of the CDCA, gets better than fair trade prices for their crops. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch swept through Honduras and Nicaragua, leaving more than 2 million people homeless. Many of the homeless in Nicaragua were settled in a camp called Nueva Vida near Ciudad Sandino. The refugees only exacerbated the already high local unemployment rate. The CDCA established a permanent health clinic in Nueva Vida in 2001. After the Nicaragua government started to provide free health in 2006 the CDCA has focused on dentistry, pediatric care, and preventative health education.

For Nicaraguans, the question of when God’s realm will be here is an immediate one. Pat told us that the people there have so much hope, despite living through US-supported dictators and poverty. Their question about God’s realm is not an eschatological one, but rather related to the here-and-now. “When will I be able to earn a living wage for my work?” “When will health care be available?” “When will it be possible to get a fair price for my crops?” Nicaraguans want to work towards God’s kingdom in their own cities, and our prayers, donations, and willingness to pay a little extra for their food and crafts can go a long ways towards helping that happen.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Getting Naked(er)

2011-11-08T20:12:00.001-05:00

By Diane Reynolds

I had the Jon Watts experience twice while he was at Earlham School of Religion, once when he was performing at the Peace forum and once when he did a program called “Clothe Yourself in Righteousness” with his friend Maggie Harrison.

Jon Watts is that rarity, a young friend, and he has created a buzz with YouTube videos. In one, a group of Quakers in a meeting at Pendle Hill get up and start dancing. In another, at Guilford College, a group of Quakers purportedly “get naked” at the end of a meeting for worship … except they don’t actually get naked (at least not in the video I saw). They get underweared.

At the Peace forum, Jon talked and performed music. He had been at Guilford College and he then went to Portugal, but didn’t like living in a city there. He would walk the streets, wondering why humans paved over nature and killed animals and created this terrible thing—the city. Then one day, as he was walking and thinking, he met someone’s eyes—and realized he was communicating hate to that person. Not good. He realized that destruction comes from the pain and brokenness we feel as a culture. How to heal ourselves?

Jon sang a song called “We Are Lovers of Our Lost Earth.”

On Tuesday evening, for “Clothe Yourself in Righteousness,” held in the Quigg worship space, Maggie took center stage, talking about early Friends who had stripped naked and run through the streets as a witness to the need of people to clothe themselves not with outward apparel but with inward righteousness.

Maggie—and Jon when he performed—connected the physical nakedness of (some) 17th century Quakers with a metaphoric stripping down of our defenses, our false selves. If the word weren’t so overused into meaninglessness, we might say the two made a plea for living authentically. Today, as in the seventeenth century, the term “nakedness” is more powerful than authenticity---blunt, unguarded, provocative, vulnerable.

I found the session Tuesday night oddly comforting. Maggie’s unvarnished presentation modeled authenticity/nakedness. I found appealing the argument that it’s OK just to be yourself. It was soothing to attend an event that didn’t really have a point except to be about being. Just being. Not even being naked, really, because that, of course is a “statement.”. You were there in Quigg, and it was OK. You didn’t have to do anything. You didn’t have to be worried about factory exploitation in Indonesia or violence in the Gaza strip. You could just sort of chill. It was therapeutic. Young people came. There were a lot of big wrinkled cottony scarves, some bare feet, many boots. If the Quigg could ever be said to have a clubby, coffee house feel, it did that evening. I kept waiting for Allen Ginsberg to stand up and start reciting “America.” Well, OK, no…

Not to change the subject, but while I like their attempts to stir the pot, it nags at me that Jon and Maggie and their friends didn’t get naked in their get naked video. It seems a tease. If you’re going to say you’re getting naked, then get naked. The integrity testimony comes into play, in terms of “possessing what you profess.” Stripping down to your underwear is … faux daring. Safe daring. (What happened to streaking?) So that bothers me. Jon talked about getting to peace through shaking things up—“coming up through the flaming sword,” as the early Quakers called it. Stripping to your modest underwear on a video is not exactly the flaming sword. Going fully naked—yes, maybe.

On the other hand, Jon and Maggie evoked a mood and created a “space” for thinking about how we live. And beyond that, I didn’t really want Jon and Maggie to get naked. I was actually relieved that they didn’t, because I didn’t know how I would react to “too much information.” And that gets back to a thought about nakedness — Tell the truth but tell it slant. Get naked, but have the light and shade beams shining through the meeting house windows so that the most private parts stays private.

So I value the message Jon and Maggie are communicating. But I wish they would tweak it a little. We may need to strip down, but how about — like Jon and Maggie -- only to our underwear? How about getting naked-er? Or at least that’s my thought—and perhaps it says more about me and Jon and Maggie holding back from really shaking things up than anything else. Maybe, in the end, Jon and Maggie are just upholding the status quo, not really making us uncomfortable? What do you think?

Diane Reynolds is a student in Earlham School of Religion’s Master of Divinity program. She maintains a personal blog, Emerging Quaker.

Hospitality African Style: Can we receive it? Can we offer it?

2011-11-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

By Diane Reynolds

ESR professor Stephanie Crumley-Effinger spoke at the Thursday Peace Forum lunch held at ESR about the warm and caring hospitality the faculty and staff of ESR received during their summer trip to Kenya and Rwanda.

The enthusiasm of the welcome was overwhelming and much appreciated, she said, and included dancing, singing, speeches of greeting, and feasting.

For Stephanie and other Quakers in the United States, our characteristic location vis-à-vis our African brothers and sister is often that of giver. For her and others, it was strange to be in the dependent position.

The disparity in material wealth—and hence power-- was always present in interactions with East Africans, she said, if not always acknowledged. Added to that was a cultural difference: Kenyans and Rwandans attach no stigma to asking for money. For middle-class Americans, this is a cultural taboo and such requests can be unsettling. However, for East Africans, receiving a gift—or giving one—is a form of bonding.

For Stephanie, accepting hospitality freely and gratefully became an act of mutuality that started to dismantle the hierarchy of giver and receiver. If we can learn to both give and receive, and not to do one to the exclusion of the other, we have learned hospitality. Such hospitality is at the core of building relationships and making us all more human.

As I ponder giving and receiving, I think about how uneven hospitality can be in the United States, a function, I believe, of our wealth. Hospitality often seems optional: We tend to assume that people can afford their own food and lodging, and that such food and lodging is readily available. Sometimes, for bigger parties or events, hosts will send lists of hotel or inns where guests can stay. The assumption is that people will understand that the hosts can’t accommodate 25, 50 or 75 people and that the guests can easily afford to pay for a hotel. People may not attend, however, because they are embarrassed at not being able to afford lodging and this becomes part of the invisibility want can cause. On the other hand, we often feel more comfortable as hotel guests than houseguests, because the obligation of staying in a hotel ends with paying the bill.

As the downturn in the economy continues, people are turning more to each other for hospitality. I know I am personally more conscious of needing to be frugal these days and am grateful to be offered hospitality.

Hospitality enacts the Christian—and more broadly, spiritual—witness of a free and joyful offering of abundant life. It requires risk-taking in which we put ourselves into the vulnerable position of reliance on the other—and risk-taking too on the part of the host. Yet when offered, as it often is, with great generosity, it can help build what Walter Brueggermann calls the shalom community, a place in which we want to share because others have shared with us. It is a start toward building the Kingdom of God on earth.

While Stephanie was speaking of the wealth disparities between Americans and East Africans, I thought too about the disparities in our own country. These, of course, are in the news as people protest the 1% having so much of the pie we have all worked to bake. Do the top 1% feel awkward around the rest of us? Could we offer them radical hospitality, inviting them into our homes and lives and treating them with warmth and joy?

I am grateful to brothers and sisters in Kenya and Rwanda, who know want, and thus know the value of abundant hospitality, and can model for us how to offer this gift.

Diane Reynolds is a student in Earlham School of Religion’s Master of Divinity program. She maintains a personal blog, Emerging Quaker.

Learning about Quakers in Bolivia

2011-11-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

It is lovely to have visitors speak during Common Meal, worship, Peace Forum, and other venues, but sometimes it’s nice to hear from someone in our own community, as we did this week. Emma Condori Mamani, MDiv/MMin student from Bolivia, spoke to us on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 about Quakers in Bolivia and her own spiritual journey.

Bolivia in central in the South America continent and the majority of the country is over 10,000 feet in altitude. Additionally, 65% of the population is indigenous and has been cut off for centuries from the educational and political opportunities had by European colonists. Emma herself is Aymara and English is her third language, after Aymara and Spanish.

Bolivia is the site of Lake Titicaca, which is a sacred site for Incan creation myths, as well as Tiwanaku, a city that was the religious and political center for an Andean pre-Incan empire. Historical lesson aside, Emma makes the point that traditional religious beliefs and rituals are still very much present among the people. Quaker missionaries came to Bolivia in 1919 to start a Quaker meeting, and Bolivia now has the third-largest population of Quakers in the world and five yearly meetings. (According to FWCC, Kenya and the United States have the first and second largest populations, with Bolivia coming in third at 33,000.)

Quaker missionaries started schools for the local people and modernly this mission has continued through the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund. Emma spoke about the Internado, a Quaker house near a high school where children whose families lived far away from the local school could stay during the week in order to attend. Emma told us that some children live 2, 4, or even 8 hours walk from the nearest high school. The Internado is full and cannot accept all the applications they receive, and BQEF hopes to expand. The Bolivian Quaker Education Fund also provides scholarships, classes, and facilitates programs such as the Alternatives to Violence Project in prisons and hospitals. Another Quaker nonprofit, the Quaker Bolivia Link provides money for development projects such as greenhouses to crow vegetables in and livestock.

We asked Emma about current history in Bolivia. Between 1990 and 2003 there was unrest, culminating the “Dark October” of 2003, where there were civilian casualties in clashes between the police and protestors. The issue seems to have been (if a little internet research is true) of presidents cracking down on coca leaf production, public sector corruption, and the privatizing of natural resource extraction with most of the profits going to foreign companies. Then-President Sanchez de Lozada fled to Miami, Florida in 2003 and the US has refused to extradite him back to Bolivia to face charges. Current president Evo Morales began his first term in 2006 and in Emma’s opinion the way Morales lives out his socialist principles relates to the Quaker values of Equality, Simplicity, Integrity, and Community.

We asked Emma how her particular yearly meeting was different than American Quakerism and she named the Holiness influence as different from most of FUM and FGC. “It’s not about being saints”, she told us, but rather the belief in sanctification, that God can live within us and make us more holy. Emma explained that Quakers in Bolivia are known for their honesty and integrity in government and she believes they have an important role to play in the government and public life.

As the presentation went on, I found myself thinking about visiting Kenya this summer. Kenyan Quakers are trying to exemplify the Quaker values of Integrity and Peace as a counter to the corruption and 2007 election violence in Kenya. It seemed at certain moments as though they were looking at US Quakers, expecting Americans to guide them on living out these values. While at St. Paul’s University in Limuru (not a Quaker setting, but Episcopalian), for example, some of their faculty were speaking to us about Christian-Muslim dialogue and made a comment that implied that we in the US have this figured out . . . they were somewhat taken back by our sarcastic fits of laughter. This, as with everything, is not the whole story; there are certainly many Kenyan Quakers with a particularly Kenyan vision of how these principles should play out. This also isn’t to imply that US Quakers can’t offer anything to Kenyan and Bolivian Friends, but rather there is a mutual learning possible here that would greatly enrich both sides.

Back to Bolivia though. Emma encouraged us to visit Bolivia and said there are mission trips that come from the US, typically in June of each year. She also allowed me to share a few of her pictures of Bolivia. Emma encouraged us to learn more these Quaker nonprofits working in Bolivia and to keep Bolivian Quakers in our prayers.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Learning about Leadings

2011-10-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

By Madeline Schaefer

I have never quite identified with the idea of a "leading" in Quakerism--perhaps because it is a term that the Society has chosen to define as such, and in a specifically spiritual way. But I have always experienced "leadings" as a direct result of being alive, being human. Spirituality is woven into every bit of our lives, of course; but I was always deeply concerned growing-up that these Quaker leadings were something that only the most pure in our religion could understand. I have since come to understand that leadings, even the deep ones, are not truths to be magically uncovered, but teased out through the process of questioning and of living.

Our lives are filled with leadings--every moment is pushing us towards an existence that is satisfying, joyful, true. It is often not difficult to understand our passions, desires and callings on a day to day basis. But which passions to follow, what voices to hear, what paths to take? Sometimes the role of a leading is simply to provide a base from which to understand the falsity of a current decisions. But leadings, even if they are not followed, or followed foolishly, are always present in our lives. It is our responsibility to have faith and follow, follow, follow.

Often life can feel like a swing from periods of total confidence and assurance, to periods of change and chaos. Having faith that our leadings will sort themselves out if we only listen to the answers provided, is crucial for entering into those periods of stability. But many leadings may once again fill our lives; and our experience of faithfulness in the past, and reflecting on what we learned to be true, will help guide us through those periods of turmoil again and again.

Which brings me to my own "leadings," particularly those of my recent past. In many respects I had to learn how to "take hold" of my leadings after graduating college; no one was going to force me into any particular institution or situation; I was in charge now. Of course my life had been full of decisions up until that point--where to go to college was a major one of those--but for the most part I never had to ask myself where God was taking me.

After graduating college I realized that I had a role to play in this "leading" business--I had to understand that God is not just a force outside of us, but provides the power within us to make bold decisions and move forward in our lives.

When I decided to go to New Zealand after college, it was not because I felt "led" in any kind of long-term, this is who I am and this is what I'm going, kind of way; but rather I felt everything line up accordingly. If I hadn't received a scholarship, or engaged in a friendly correspondence--if I hadn't had faith--I would have never made it over there. I made a decision, started working towards it, and followed the good energy.

Does that approach sound frightfully "un-spiritual"? I would argue that it is deeply so. For spirituality is not something to be attained, but something to be used in this messy stomp through life. We stomp as gracefully as we can, while enjoying the mud along the way.

Madeline Schaefer lives in Philadelphia. She is the founder and host of the Quaker podcast series, Friend Speaks My Mind.

Working with Mexican Theologians

2011-10-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

I recently participated in an ecumenical conference in Mexico City at the invitation of the Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos (CEE). It was inspiring to work with so many thoughtful people who are deeply involved in social justice and its integration with theological reflection. Of course, connecting reflection to responsible engagement has been important to me for a long time and it is always good to connect with others who share similar commitments. However, the conference was as challenging as it was inspiring because, almost to a person, the participants’ theological reflection was born out of direct and first-hand experience of walking side by side with the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized. This is good…excellent, even. However, it was a departure from many of the conferences I frequent where folks are either thinking but rarely act or where they act but rarely think.

The conference, Esperanza de Liberación y Teología (the hope of liberation and theology), was attended by about three hundred Mexican theologians, philosophers, and activists from across the country, from those teaching in one of Mexico’s many theological institutes, to those working with indigenous populations in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to those working for peace in Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of the narco wars where over one thousand people have been killed this year alone.

Over the past three years I have visited the CEE in Mexico City a number of times and have twice taken ESR students with me as part of the Theology in Context course. Thus, when I received the director’s invitation not only to attend, but to participate as well and to present some of my own work on the conference’s theme, I was honored and accepted immediately. I was one of a handful of non-Mexicans who gathered at the Comunidad Teológica Mexicana to work on topics at the intersection of theology and social engagement. We were assigned specific groups where we focused most of our energy: human rights, economics, environment, Church practice, and citizen participation. Based upon some of my recent work, I was assigned to a mesa de diálogo focused on theology and/of migration.

Working in this group make me aware of how different the US experience is from the Mexican. This was evident simply in the language we used. If we had been meeting in the United States we probably would have used “immigration” rather than “migration.” It’s another angle on the same phenomenon and a reminder why neither the US nor Mexico can address the issue satisfactorily without substantial cooperation from the other.
The reality in Mexico is of citizen movement to the US or to one of the country’s major urban centers, particularly Mexico City. Additionally, Mexico sees the movement of persons across its southern border as they make their way north. However, before reaching the boarder many are subjected to rape, robbery, human trafficking, hunger, or death. As one participant explained: many escape violence in their own country only to encounter it in the US and in the journey through Mexico. She recounted a saying: antes de llegar a sueño americano tienes que pasar por la pesadilla mexicana (before you arrive at the American dream you have to go through the Mexican nightmare).

In July 2008 I spent time with a couple from Honduras who were traveling to the United States without documents. They were spending a few days in Mexico City where she was waiting to have an abortion. She had been raped by a coyote who had beaten her husband into unconsciousness and stole the money and belongings they carried with them.

Difficult social realities such as these were front and center at the conference. One participant described our work with the Spanish verb aterrizar (to land) which we generally use when speaking about airplanes and runways. Tenemos que aterrizar nuestra teología—we have to land our theology, she said, bring it out of the clouds. We tried to do teología contextualizada. To this end, our work was divided between first seeing the issue (descriptive), and then thinking about the issue (analytical), and finally, formulating proposals for acting (application).

In addition to the working groups, we began each day with worship and had plenty of time for fellowship. I stayed on campus with the Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos staff and roomed with a priest from Oaxaca. We cooked together and had enough late-night conversations to keep me thinking for quite a while. Several plenary sessions helped direct our attention as well. We heard from Doris Garcia Mayor, Padre Alejandro Solalinde, Maria Pilar Aquino, and also from Enrique Dussel, who in the last year and a half has become an intellectual hero of mine.

Dussel’s critique of post-modernity and neoliberalism was pointed. He drew upon Gustavo Gutiérrez and the Puebla Conference of 1979 where theologians began articulating justice in terms of “God’s preferential option for the poor” (which Paul Farmer has more recently modified: “disease makes a preferential option for the poor”). Dussel noted that neoliberalism exploits time and the earth as much as it exploits people. There is no rest in globalization and its march toward totalization; there is no sabbath—not for humans, not for the earth. Yet, salvation is not for humans alone; it is for the entire cosmos. El reino de Dios no cede la tierra (the kingdom of God does not give up the earth). A sufficient economy needs to take into account local communities as well as broader publics—el consenso del pueblo (consensus of the people), and families, and the health of human beings and the entire planet. This is the cost of a well-ordered life—economy (a concept that has been hijacked by those incapable of thinking beyond money and “free” markets).

Without a doubt there was tremendous energy among participants at the conference for exploring the social implications of being Church and it seemed no one hesitated to name concretely the challenges we face in our present context. Although we were surrounded constantly by an awareness of the crushing poverty and suffering of the human family, an underlying hope was present as well and it was repeated by many throughout the week—otro mundo es posible (another world is possible).

As I was saying my goodbyes, both to a city I dearly love and to people who are becoming very good friends, I said to one of the coordinators: “It’s been great to be here with all of you.” She responded: “Here there is no ‘all of you’ (ustedes); there is only ‘us’ (nosotros). This spirit of welcome extended also when I was accepted into the Mexican Ecumenical Theological Association. I’m not sure how many other non-Mexicans are members of this group, but there is no doubt that with these folks I feel right at home.

David Johns is Associate Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. He is an Associate Editor of Quaker Religious Thought, a member of First Friends Meeting, Richmond, and now a proud member of the Associación Teológica Ecuménica Mexicana.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Quakers and the limits of pacifism

2011-10-21T14:06:00.000-04:00

Bonhoeffer, a German theologian executed by the Nazis, poses a challenge to Quakers. Although a pacifist, Bonhoeffer supported assassinating Hitler. Meanwhile, German Quakers made a strategic decision to fight in World War II in order to survive as a group. The alternative to military service was execution as a traitor (ie, the Nazis didn’t recognize CO status). Bonhoeffer and the German Quakers raise a question: In extreme situations, how far can the peace testimony bend? Can personal purity or holiness become immoral? Were pacifist Germans wrong to participate in violence?

Learn more at Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Sneak Preview, a review by Diane Reynolds.

Diane Reynolds is a student in Earlham School of Religion’s Master of Divinity program. She maintains a personal blog, Emerging Quaker.

Report on the Division of Indiana Yearly Meeting

2011-10-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

By Chris Sitler

On October 1, 2011, the Indiana Yearly Meeting Representative Council met in a called session at Friends Memorial Church in Muncie Indiana to consider the report of a Task Force that had been appointed to consider possible ways the yearly meeting could respond to tensions between West Richmond Friends and the Ministry and Oversight of IYM regarding a welcoming statement that West Richmond had adopted. Among other provisions, the statement declared that West Richmond would be a welcoming and affirming congregation to homosexuals.

Members of the Yearly Meeting Ministry and Oversight began deliberations with West Richmond over the conflict between the statement and the yearly meeting’s minuted statements regarding same-sex relationships.

At the July yearly meeting sessions the Task Force had recommended a separation, known as Model #4. After discussions on the floor of the yearly meeting, the task force reconvened at a later date to define their recommendation which became known as Model #5, a collaborative realignment in which various parties would be represented in the process of establishing a new alignment of Indiana Yearly Friends into two bodies.

When I was still quite new to Quakerism, I was fortunate in that historian Tom Hamm was a member of the meeting I attended, First Friends, New Castle, Indiana. Having Tom teach the membership class session on Quaker history was a real joy. He did an excellent job distilling the 300+ years of Friends history into a one hour class.

Of course, the class included to-the-point descriptions of the splits that have occurred in North American Quakerism. That day the terms Hicksites, Gurneyites and Wilburites were introduced to me in a way that made historical sense. I also learned about the holiness Friends of Central Yearly Meeting, Anti-Slavery Friends, Waterites and others. I learned about Friends United Meeting, Friends General Conference, and, what was then the Evangelical Friends Association as well as Conservative Friends. To his credit, Tom made all of this clear to me. Having majored in history as an undergraduate, I was in my element listening to him lecture. While the overarching themes that Tom presented in clear, precise terms were enough for a foundational understanding of the separations, further study would bring out nuances that were not immediately evident.

Likewise there are nuances to the events of October 1, 2011 at Friends Memorial in Muncie, Indiana that years from now may be glossed over in Quaker history classes, not because of any attempt to cover them up, but because a full understanding would take a semester’s worth of work. My personal impression is that there are three general groups within the yearly meeting. Those that fully agree with the West Richmond welcoming minute, those that disagree with the West Richmond minute and feel it is in the words of one Friend “a deal breaker” and those that disagree with West Richmond but wish to keep in fellowship despite the disagreement.

It was the movement of this last group in particular that seemed to lead the Yearly Meeting (through Representative Council) towards the adoption of a collaborative realignment known as Model #5. A year-long process, the model seeks to bring forth an alignment of two new yearly meetings along certain theological and perhaps cultural lines.

Many who hoped for unity came to realize that the rift in the yearly meeting was deeper than just a question of where one stood on West Richmond’s welcoming statement. Although there were and still are those on all sides who will still point to that issue as THE issue that lead to the split, more and more of the representatives became convinced that the rift over the West Richmond statement was a symptom of even greater social, cultural and theological differences that have been pulling Indiana Yearly Meeting apart for many years.

Some seek a greater unity of theology within the Yearly Meeting that would place Indiana Friends squarely within the wider body of Evangelicalism. Others envision Indiana Friends as being more similar to other mainline Protestant denominations where a wide spectrum of theological points of view are held and the diversity and tension between those viewpoints brings forth new possibilities.

Historically, particularly during the Quietist Period, Friends tried to maintain a hedge, keeping outside cultural forces at bay. But eventually social, cultural and political forces that began beyond the walls of their meetinghouses had a way of forcing some tough decisions that often led to rancorous splits. Forces from the wider culture are at play now and like animals before an earthquake, we sense the ground moving below our feet. The sense of the meeting was that a division is inevitable, but rancor is not. Will we live into something new without some of the extremes that have plagued separation in the past when contending clerks would physically fight over the minute book to claim legitimacy? That depends upon our willingness to approach the year ahead with humility and patience and to be touched by the better angels of our nature.

A 2006 graduate of ESR, Chris Sitler is the pastor of Dublin (IN) Friends Meeting. His bachelor's degree is from Hanover College (IN) where he was a double major in History and Communication. He is the husband of Penny Rutherford Sitler and the father of Daniel and Mariah Sitler. He is also a competitive Scrabble player and enjoys hiking.

“How Can They Hate Us So Much When We Are So Good?”

2011-10-14T08:00:00.015-04:00

By John Fitch

George W Bush asked this question in his 911 address. It is a question that I pondered much during my retreat in NY with my Franciscan Order and especially during the 911 memorial at ground zero in Manhattan on the 10th anniversary. The theme of this year’s gathering was the story of St. Francis and the Sultan. We looked at the lessons learned from history and St. Francis' take on what Jesus would want us to do instead of waging war on our neighbors. Our main text was the book The Saint and the Sultan by Paul Moses.

The gist of the story is that St. Francis traveled to stop the Fifth Crusade in 1217. The Crusaders' plan was to conquer all of Egypt which would capture the riches of the fertile Nile Valley and strategically defend against the Egyptian Navy by controlling the Nile. This would ultimately lead to safe passage to Jerusalem in the South. Francis first tried to reason with the crusaders camped on the opposite side of the Nile which came to no avail.

Francis tried to convince the Bishop in charge that war is not what Jesus wants us to do to our neighbor but instead we are to love our neighbor. The Bishop in charge of the army was certain he could win and would hear nothing about peace and reconciliation. Francis begged for permission to speak to the Sultan and permission was granted only that Francis was acting on his own as a missionary to convert the Sultan and did not have the authority to negotiate peace on behalf of the Church.

Francis then went with one other Friar to the Muslim camp and asked to speak to the Sultan. They were arrested and beaten but not killed because the commanders of the Sultan’s army believed they were sent by the other side to negotiate a peace settlement and hence were taken to the Sultan Malik al Kamil. Al-Kamil was a learned man who knew of the Coptic Christians and had great respect for holy men. He was interested in finding a peaceful resolution and ready to offer the Christians control of Jerusalem in return for peace. Francis told the Sultan he did not have the authority to negotiate a truce but instead wanted to convert him to Christianity.

Francis was not successful in converting the Sultan, although the Sultan was impressed by Francis and granted him safe passage back to the other side. The battle went on as planned and all the Crusaders were slaughtered ending the 5th Crusade. It does not seem to me that we have learned much about peace seven hundred and ninety five years later. We are still waging war at the tremendous cost of many lives and economic losses. Jesus' message of peace has not changed and I don’t believe he would say any of the wars have been justified.

On Sunday some of us traveled to Manhattan to attend the 911 Memorial. The mood was somber. I saw a lot of firemen and policemen who looked like they were reliving that tragic day 10 years ago. One fireman looked like he had been crying and he was carrying a photo of Fr. Mychal Judge the Franciscan Friar who was the much loved Chaplain of the fire department and was killed when the building collapsed because when warned to leave he said, “I can’t leave. I have to stay with my men. "

911 was a tragic event and it came as a shock to most people because always before wars and acts of terrorism have happened somewhere else. Because we are an introverted society we don’t pay attention to wars and conflicts that in many cases we are involved in around the world. “Why do they hate us so much when we so good” is the question we all need to seek answers to.

Most Americans believe our military interventions are justified and necessary for our defense but I suspect that the people on the receiving end of our bombs don’t see our actions as just and are responding to our violence with continued acts of terror. We have been responding aggressively for ten years at a tremendous cost in both money and lives lost since 911 and we have not made any real progress toward peaceful resolutions of conflicts.

In his sermon preached at the Episcopal Church on Wall St. on the memorial Sunday the priest called on us “to never forget the power of love”. Franciscans like Quakers have been especially aware of Jesus' message of loving our enemy. Our ecumenical Franciscan group has decided as our focus of study this year to learn more about Islam and the ongoing conflict to seek understanding so we can help find a peaceful means of solving our differences.

John Fitch is the founder of the Renaissance House community and is an alumnus of ESR. He is currently studying in the Doctor of Ministry program at Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology and is participating in a one year internship with the monks of New Skete training dogs and learning about traditional monasticism. In his spare time he enjoys photography.

Friend in Residence: Christopher Sammond

2011-10-11T09:50:00.001-04:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

This past week Chrisotopher Sammond, General Secretary of New York Yearly Meeting, visited ESR as our Friend-in-Residence. He spoke at many events, including our Common Meal, Peace Forum, joint worship on Friday, and a Friday afternoon workshop. When I sat down to write this post, I intended to focus on his Peace Forum presentation, but my thoughts ranged wider than that so I’ll comment on a number of the Friend-in-Residence activities I participated in. Christopher Sammond is widely knowledgeable; from the traditional seminary education he got at United Theological Seminary in Minnesota to his long history with Friends, and he had a lot to share with ESR this past week.

First, Indiana Yearly Meeting’s Representative Council meeting last Saturday is very much on our minds here. (You can read Margaret Fraser’s thoughts on the meeting here). While Indiana Yearly Meeting no longer appoints Earlham trustees and our formal relationship with them has changed significantly, West Richmond Friends is only a few blocks from ESR and has been (along with First Friends and Clear Creek meetings) a spiritual home for many residential students. Christopher Sammond, being part of dually affiliated FUM-FGC yearly meeting, has a particular vantage point being able to see trends within the liberal branches of Friends, as well as within FUM.

During a lunch with faculty on Wednesday, Christopher spoke both about trying to sustain liberal Friends and also about forming working relationships with other members of FUM. Christopher spoke about New York Yearly Meeting and the need for liberal Friends to reflect theologically. He drew a distinction between religious/spiritual experience (which he says NYYM does very well in its unprogrammed meetings) and being able to reflect communally on what is going on during these experiences and articulating one’s own theological beliefs. This does not necessarily lead to dogmatism about specific theological doctrines (although it certainly can). Christopher wants to encourage unprogrammed Friends to reflect on their experiences in meeting and develop their vocabulary of theological concepts in order to better do so.

Christopher has also worked with the FUM board, and the discussion turned to relationships among yearly meetings as they try to form a vision of FUM’s purpose and mission. Christopher could name many examples of having worked individually with superintendents and other representatives from less liberal yearly meetings, but noted that it often felt difficult to gain unity among the board as a whole. Christopher’s reflections on relationships within FUM came full circle during the West Richmond Friends meeting this past Sunday where a member stood and shared a joy. She had attend the FUM board meetings over the weekend and found an amazing feeling of Friendship and an absence of conflict. Let’s pray that FUM continues along those lines.

At Peace Forum on Thursday, Christopher spoke about being effective as Peace activists. He finds the practice of spending long hours during yearly meeting business sessions of crafting a minute of concern on a particular topic to be not effective in changing the world. (I laughed a little at this, having seen the process of laboring over each word on a minute a few times now. Not being Quaker, however, I can have a great deal of patience for a business practice that isn’t mine.) Christopher joked that, “the walls of every room in Congress could be papered with minutes of concern from Friends”, but acknowledged that sometimes this is part of an important process of clarifying identity and an outlet for anger and powerlessness.

Christopher instead believes in the power of individual action being contagious and encouraging. He mentioned the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting “Called to Action” program and the Quaker intentional village project occurring now in New York Yearly Meeting. Christopher and the attendees also discussed the Occupy Wall Street protests happening now, which have spread around the country. Christopher point is that we need ask ourselves “How have we acted to create the Kingdom?”, not defend, but create.

On Friday, Christopher spoke in joint worship on Luke 18, the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee praying in the temple. He encouraged us to be wary of our own sense of righteousness and see the ways in which we are the Pharisee, proclaiming how much better we are than others. After lunch, Christopher shared a workshop with us, focused on reading the parables of Jesus. It was a quiet sunny day and we sat in Quigg (the worship room), sharing the conclusions and connections we drew from specific parables. I was reminded of a theologian who commented that Jesus must have spoken in parables to avoid dogmatic certainty among his followers.

The name of the theologian escapes me, but the workshop was a reminder to read the Bible imaginatively and the joy of reading it communally. This post has come out a little scattered, as the week included many events. Christopher also carries a broad range of concerns that address many issues among Friends, from programmed to unprogrammed to larger structural issues within FUM and FGC. Hopefully this is good for thought for you and an update on how we’re doing at ESR!

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Following the Call

2011-10-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

By Diane Reynolds

For 18 years John Muhanji worked as a banker in Kenya, living a high-status life of material prosperity. In 2004, moved by the plight of survivors of the Rwandan genocide, he resigned from the bank to take a much lower-paying job with Friends United Meeting. “It was a moment of total change,” he said at last Thursday’s Peace Forum lunch at Earlham School of Religion.

This is a rare, but not unknown story—among others, John Woolman deliberately curtailed his tailoring business to free himself for ministry, George Fox chose a life involving years in jail, and Elizabeth Fry stepped into prison reform ministry. The call comes and some heed it.

The son of Quaker minister, Muhanji is participating in the rapid growth of Quakerism in both Kenya and Rwanda, a growth he attributes to the faith’s ability to provide a distinctive Christian voice. To continue to expand, Quakerism, he said, must maintain that distinctive edge and not become just another religious choice.

The Quaker distinctives Muhanji locate as important include the integrity and peace testimonies. As Kenyan Quakers stand for integrity, they not only talk about the faith but live in a way that shows the difference a Quaker version of Christianity can make in people’s lives. This, says Muhanji, is a powerful witness to Christianity as a force for good in the world. Most specifically, Quakers exemplify the connection between Christian faith and peace.

Quakers run 250 high schools in Kenya, Muhanji said, and these schools teach peace building and reconciliation skills, making them vitally important for changing the culture of government and police corruption that exists in Kenya. Students are hungry for this peace building knowledge. And creating a cadre of peacemakers, Muhanji said, is vital not only for Kenya, which in 2007 experienced an outbreak of unspeakable violence, but in the entire region of East Africa. Somalia is a special problem, Muhanji said, for terrorist training goes on here unchallenged, threatening the region.

Muhanji invited Quakers and others to come to Kenya to teach in the Quaker schools. Our knowledge and peace skills are needed there, he said. For those with the call, it seems that little could be more gratifying than entering a country where your life has the potential to make an immediate and a lasting difference.

I think often about Kenya because I have a friend who lived there for seven years: she and her family lived in a gated community with a private security guard, a maid, a driver, private schooling and all the privileges of the good life that American ex-patriots can enjoy. They also lived in a society in which they had to be on constant guard against theft, a country filled with desperately poor people, and with an infrastructure so overburdened that people without money were left to die on hospital emergency room floors.

When John talks about the hope of Quakerism, he is saying, I think, the same as Dorothy Day, who often spoke of building a world in which “it is easier to be good.” Nobody, I believe, wants to let a fellow human die on a hospital floor. Nobody wants to steal to stay alive.

The dialogue and partnership between U.S. and Kenyan Quakers is vital to both sides. Our society, as recent cheers for letting the uninsured die show, is threatened with hardness of heart. We need to share the vitality of Kenyan Quakers. What more can we do to promote the lived—not merely sentimental--tenderness that has long been a central tenet of our tradition? How can we rally more around our insight into Jesus Christ as a radical peacemaker rather than fight among ourselves?

Diane Reynolds is a student in Earlham School of Religion’s Master of Divinity program. She maintains a personal blog, Emerging Quaker.

A Paradigm Shift from “Just War” to “Just Peace” at the World Council of Churches

2011-10-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

By Diane Reynolds

Is “Just War” theory—which attempts to limit when and how a nation wages war- obsolete? At a recent meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, 1,000 members of the World Council of Churches—including Bethany Seminary professor Scot Holland—moved beyond it to embrace a vision of “Just Peace.”

Speaking at last Thursday’s Peace Forum lunch, held at ESR, Holland explained the importance of a new, more creative, way of imagining a world without war.

The shift towards peace has been long coming, Holland said. Shortly after World War II, the WCC invited historic peace churches, including Quakers, Brethren and Mennonites to Geneva, where the WCC decided that “war is contrary to the will of God.” However, at the time, churches were not yet able to work out what that statement meant in political or pragmatic terms.

Fast forwarding to the last ten years—dubbed by the WCC the “decade to overcome violence”—“Just War” theory became highly questionable, Holland said.

“Just Peace,” Holland said, is preferable because it moves us from a military metaphysics to a “poetry of peace.” Because we are used to “the bad fiction” of a master narrative of war, we equate guns with security, and worry if we don’t have strong militaries. The move away from this mindset, Holland said, is pragmatic,
because military metaphysics “simply doesn’t work.” Instead, a new story approach finds power in the human longing for a peace narrative.

Thus, the poetic or creative basis of “Just Peace” encourages us to imagine not just avoiding war but peaceful modes of being in the world. These include embracing an embodied spirituality that names the human form as a temple. If the spiritual is found only beyond the body, Holland said, anything can be done to the body.

The World Council of Churches enumerated four principles of Just Peacemaking:

o Building peace in our communities, including our spiritual communities, with an emphasis on our faith groups being “in the world, for the world.”

o Embracing eco-theological approaches to making peace with the planet.

o Promoting peace in the marketplace and acknowledging that economic injustice makes peace difficult.

o Focusing on peace between peoples by building “the peace of the city”—promoting outer peace in the world and trusting it to lead to inner peace. This form of peace was imagined by the prophet Jeremiah, who called for the Israelites to build houses and live in them, to plant gardens and eat of them, to marry and have children.

Personally, I love the idea of working together to build a just peace on earth, rather than merely sidestepping war until it becomes “inevitable.” However, many Quakers tend to believe that inner peace is a necessary first step to outer peace. What do you think of an external “peace of the city” leading to inner harmony?
Further, what do you think of “Just Peace?” Can a new paradigm lead to a more peaceful world?

More on “Just Peace” can be found at http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/speeches/just-peace-the-dream-that-comes-true.html

Diane Reynolds is a student in Earlham School of Religion’sMaster of Divinity program. She maintains a personal blog,Emerging Quaker.

Review of Jon Watt's New Album: "Clothe Yourself in Righteousness"

2011-09-30T10:44:00.000-04:00

By Stephen Angell

Jon Watts is a post-modern George Fox, or Solomon Eccles. (Fox was the 17^th century founder of the Quakers, Eccles a Quaker and contemporary of Fox given to prophetic actions such as stripping himself naked and running through the streets with a basket of hot coals on his head.) Like them, he is both prophetic and radical. Also like them, he is well rooted, but not lost, in the past (Christian or Quaker tradition), and is firmly devoted to speaking challengingly to his times. His rap poetry is exquisite and well suited to the delivery of a radical Quaker message, with gorgeous chords in the background that do not overwhelm the spoken word.

This album is a poignant combination of the social, spiritual, and personal, a paean to simplicity and a radical critique of consumerism. It includes both a lament of lost love and a reminder of the Inner Light that all possess – that means we are all loved. Youthful like Fox was when the Quaker movement had its Pentecost in the early 1650s, Watts ends with a moving tribute to his elders. You’ll want to listen many times, and let the music and message soak in.

Steve Angell is the Geraldine Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion.

What is Quaker Spirituality? (Part 2)

2011-09-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Quaker movement, had numerous mystical encounters that he called “openings” in which he was given revelations that brought new insights. He sometimes described such experiences as being “taken up into the love of God.” One such insight, that everyone was “enlightened by the divine Light of Christ,” became a key concept in Quaker spirituality. This Light, they claimed, was universal and “would work out the salvation of all, if not resisted.” Originally called the “inward light,” in later periods Friends divided over its interpretation, evangelically-oriented Friends preferring to call it the Holy Spirit, and mystically-oriented Friends, the “inner light.”

Quaker spirituality initially developed around the idea of holiness, which they called perfection or union with God, a spirituality of radical optimism. Perfection, always a work of grace, brought power to overcome sin, a new sense of spiritual freedom, and soul-joy even amidst suffering. Quaker theologian, Robert Barclay (1648-1690) called perfection the “holy birth…fully brought forth.” Quakers always described perfection in biblical terms such as “The life hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), “Christ in you, the hope of Glory” (Col. 1:27), to “partake of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and to be “one spirit” with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17).

Early Quakers had a thoroughly biblical worldview and considered the Bible authoritative. However, Fox felt he was primarily called “to direct people to the Spirit that gave forth the Scripture.” Quakers believed revelation was not closed, nor confined to Scripture, but Scripture was the touchstone of truth, and would confirm all direct, personal inspiration. The Bible and the practice of communal discernment became safeguards for self-deception.

Early Quakers, like many puritans in their time, initially anticipated the imminent second coming of Christ, but when it did not happen literally they recognized that Christ had come again spiritually, within each person. Quakers then began to proclaim a “kingdom now” theology, preaching that the Kingdom is within.

Quakers were evangelistic and prophetic, preaching good news to the poor and denouncing oppression--religious, social and political. They became a missionary-oriented movement on a grand scale, adopting an itinerant, apostolic style of preaching. A concern for freedom of conscience, equality of all persons, and social justice were corollaries of their evangelism.

Early Quakers could arguably be called a grass-roots Pentecostal movement. The experience of being "in the power," which meant being Spirit-filled and led, is one of the most recurring phrases in George Fox’s Journal. Early Friends often used the term "poured down" to refer to whole meetings that were “in the power.”

The first generation of Quakers were often harshly persecuted for their beliefs, and thus identified themselves as belonging to the long line of martyrs for God’s truth. Their experience of suffering was viewed positively as identification with Christ, and brought redemptive meaning and purpose. The cross as a daily enacting of the suffering of Christ, became a central symbol of Quaker spirituality. William Penn wrote, “The bearing of thy daily Cross is the only true testimony.”

Quaker christology emphasized the inward Christ (the inward Light) and the cosmic Christ (the universal Light) more than the historical Jesus. Quakers proclaimed that Christ must be awakened and experienced inwardly, not simply believed in as an historic figure or event. Quaker preacher, James Nayler, testified to this Christology which is the basis of incarnational holiness, “None can witness redemption further than Christ is thus revealed in them, to set them free from sin: which Christ I witness to be revealed in me in measure. ”

A twentieth century Quaker spiritual writer echoes this Christology in his classic text, A Testament of Devotion, “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking voice….Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all.” The biblical phrase “in Christ“ for Quakers did not mean simply being “in the church” or being “saved,” but signified a mystical relationship of divine indwelling and a complete transformation of being, a knowing God in oneself, and knowing oneself in God.

Carole Spencer serves as Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion. She is a recorded minister in Northwest Yearly Meeting.

This text is excerpted from the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Ed. Glen G. Scorgie.

Peace Forum, September 15, 2011 - Living Out Your Faith

2011-09-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

Joshua Abel, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, came to speak to a group of ESR, Bethany, and Earlham students at Peace Forum. ESR MDiv student Erin Hougland did her Americorps work at the NCLC, and now works as their volunteer coordinator. The NCLC began in 1991 when a Presbyterian pastor used his sermon to discuss the need for free legal assistance in the impoverished community surrounding the church building. Six attorneys in the congregation decided to create a legal clinic that provided pro-bono legal services to low income neighborhood residents. NCLC has from a volunteer organization to a not-for-profit corporation with 30 employees, including an Executive Director and 10 attorneys on staff. They offer legal services free of charge to those at 125% of the poverty line or lower. Areas of expertise include landlord/tenant law, foreclosures, child custody and visitation, immigration, bankruptcy, taxes, and wills.

A few things of note here: this is the first legal clinic that came out of a church setting, at least as far as the American Bar Association is aware. Second, the clinic does its work as a way of demonstrating the love of Christ. They do not evangelize in the sense that we think of evangelizing in the 21^st century. One could argue that they are evangelists in the sense that they bring “good news”; much-needed assistance to the poor and needy. I am reminded of John 1: 46 where Nathaniel asks if anything good can come out of Nazareth and Philip answers “Come and see.” Evangelism may simply be letting your work in the world and what you advocate be a reflection of your faith.

The Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic is always looking for partners; non-profits who can refer clients, attorneys willing to volunteer on cases, donations, churches willing to serve as intake sites, etc. There was talk at ESR on Thursday of where a good intake site in Richmond would be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one soon.

On a more personal note, I have dealt with legal bureaucracy two memorable times in my life. One was because the IRS made a mistake on my taxes and insisted that I owed money, while the other occurred because a landlord was (amazingly, suspiciously) slow in returning a security deposit. I muddled through both situations, but remembered thinking that this would be extremely difficult if I did not have the ability to take time during business hours to handle this, and if I did not feel equipped to research tax law and landlord-tenant law and argue based on that research. I mentioned these two examples to Erin Hougland, and she affirmed that these were not unusual issues for the legal clinic to deal with. For people who feel as though “the system” is stacked against them, having someone to affirm what their legal rights and assist them in navigating it is good news indeed.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

What is Quaker Spirituality? (Part 1)

2011-09-20T10:52:00.000-04:00

I am the Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion, a Christian Quaker seminary where students can choose a spirituality emphasis. When people ask me what I teach I am always a bit reluctant to say “spirituality.” It sounds so self-righteous and superior! I continually wonder if it is even possible to “teach” spirituality, and on a more fundamental level, what it is that I am actually teaching. Spirituality is a slippery word that can mean practically anything, and is notoriously difficult to pin down to a simple definition that can be universally agreed upon.

All spirituality is contextual. That is a postmodern axiom, true for all spiritual traditions, and emphatically so for Quaker spirituality which has always been contextual to the core, developing in reaction to, as well as accord with, its historical circumstances. When I teach Christian spirituality I bring to my classes a broad background of a lifetime of immersion in Protestant Christianity, as well as scholarly study of the diversity of Christian traditions. I also bring the experiences of my own spiritual journey and its grounding in the context of a particular Quaker tradition with its own unique history and development.

If I were to ask ten Quaker students at ESR to define and describe Quaker spirituality I would be certain to receive ten different descriptions each shaped by that student’s particular context and life experience. Granted there might be some commonality, but also wide divergence.

Knowing it is virtually impossible to summarize Quaker spirituality in a way that would be acceptable or recognizable to all within the diverse body called Quakers, it takes some boldness and even chutzpah to attempt such a task in 850 words or less. Yet this was my challenge when asked to write an entry on Quaker spirituality for the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, recently published by Zondervan. So I offer it not as an authoritative description, but merely as a place to begin a conversation around the question, what is Quaker spirituality?

Quakerism began as an experiential faith with a strong mystical interiority, yet a mysticism that was not primarily individual but oriented toward the creation of an alternative community and mission in the world. Being theoretically non-creedal and non-sacramental, its spiritual expression became highly malleable to historical trends and conditions.

Although we rarely think of Quaker spirituality today as puritan it was originally molded by its emergence in a Puritan/Calvinist context, and subsequently shaped in turn by forces of Quietism, evangelicalism, revivalism, modernism, pluralism, and secularism. In each new context, divergent forms of Quaker spirituality developed, conserving some elements of the tradition and secularizing others.

The first Quakers called themselves “Children of Light” and “Publishers of Truth” but were derisively called “Quakers” because they trembled when they spoke through the inspiration of the Spirit. Quakers today rarely tremble, and the spirituality of its various contemporary branches ranges from conservative evangelical to non-theist.

Quakers are uniquely divided by two forms of worship, “unprogrammed” Friends, meet in silence, without clergy, music or visible sacraments; and “programmed” or pastoral Friends follow a set order of worship, with hymns, scripture, sermons, and prayers. Early Quaker worship was both contemplative (based in silence and surrender) and charismatic. After a long period of silent waiting, messages would be delivered spontaneously through the inspiration of the Spirit.

Quakers of all types continue to be connected by a strong sense of history, as well as a few unique elements such as a consensus decision-making, a testimony to peace and gender equality, and an appreciation for the spiritual value of silence. The basis of all Quaker spirituality is a direct, unmediated experience of God. This may happen individually in the process of conversion and prayer, and communally in the experience of worship.

Carole Spencer serves as Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion. She is a recorded minister in Northwest Yearly Meeting.

This text is excerpted from the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Ed. Glen G. Scorgie.

Uncharted Waters

2011-09-16T12:19:00.000-04:00

By Anna Woofenden

September 13th Common Meal
Annie Glenn: Uncharted Waters

Annie Glenn came to ESR in 2004 as an unprogramed Quaker who was happy to state whenever need be: “I would never be a pastor.” Coming out of a rich variety of vocational experiences as a caseworker, writer and editor and a teacher, she came to ESR as a gift to herself. At age 49 she decided to give herself a 50^th birthday present and explore spirituality. Her ministry goal, “To talk with people in all aspects of life”, or as she candidly admitted, she didn’t know where she was heading.

As Annie shared her story of formation and transformation during her time at ESR she highlighted the process of having everything she knew be broken down and from that place God calling her in her continued ministry. Annie related to Abram and his call and pondered how long between he received his call and struck out and followed it. In her journey, this call to ministry has landed her right where she thought she’d never be, as a pastor of a programmed meeting. Though she fought this along the way, she’s found clarity of purpose and usefulness as she is actively walking alongside a congregation in their work.

Annie exhorted us as seminary students to, “Let our lights shine” knowing that God will call us into and out of the work God has for us. She called out for the continued raising up of leaders, particularly in the Quaker community. Leaders who can use their gifts, resolution and guidance within a structure that honors each person’s gifts and purposes. She ended by sharing, “I don’t think ministry is defined by a job. It is the gifts, the leadership and the calling. What defines me is the gifts that the Spirit of God has given me.”

Anna Woofenden is a first-year MDiv/MMin student at Earlham School of Religion. She is a member of the Swedenborgian church and did outreach work for a church in Colorado, as well as for the national office of her denomination, before coming to ESR in January of 2011.

Report from New York Yearly Meeting 2011

2011-09-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

By Wayne Williams

Being both a member of New York Yearly Meeting (Brooklyn) and a student at ESR, I was invited by the school to attend the 316th Session of our Yearly Meeting this summer at Silver Bay, NY. While there, I provided a presence for ESR and had the opportunity to meet and engage with Friends, old and new. When asked to submit an article about my experience for ESR’s blog, Learning and Leading, I said that I would. Why has it taken me so long to respond? Only recently did I discern the reason for my delayed response - I have something to say that I don’t want to say. New York Yearly Meeting needs prayer for its future.

Christopher Sammond, NYYM General Secretary, reported a 50% loss of membership in the past 56 years. Today’s membership is 8% less than what it was 10 years ago. Only 32 of 53 Meetings mention new attenders in their State of the Meeting Report, and some meetings conclude that they do not have the energy to do outreach. Many Meetings are in danger of being laid down because, as Christopher Sammond reports, “We are nearing the time when we may not have the necessary critical mass to do the work of outreach necessary to preserve many of our meetings.” Christopher suggested that this steep downward trend could be averted only with a change in current behaviors. He called us to carry this concern when decisions are made regarding resource allocation and programming.

Christopher spoke on the topic of agency, “the person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.” He defined it as “the innate capacity to effect change.” I would agree with Christopher’s assessment that we underestimate our ability to be change agents. Often, the discrepancy between where we are and where God wants us to be can produce overwhelming feelings: inadequacy and apathy are two common responses. However, he spoke of certain Meetings that were finding renewal and strength in unity. However, he encouraged Friends to support individuals “on fire with commitment. A Friend with gifts in forming community, with gifts in witness, or with gifts of spiritual depth can act like a seed crystal, inspiring those around that person to join in creating a more vibrant meeting.” Having made over 150 visits to worship groups and meetings over the past seven years, these are the qualities he observed in Friends’ responsible for bringing fresh fire to meetings.

I’m not an expert on agency, but my belief is that the Living Christ is “that person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.” Some Friends do not welcome such a perspective in NYYM. The growth and spread of Quakerism in the 17th and 18th centuries was undoubtedly due to those agents of Christ. Women and men who were filled with the same fire and commitment Christopher Sammond has observed in contemporary Friends over the years.

My heart grieves when I reflect on the reality that today, Christ-centered Friends at NYYM appear to be meeting like a special-interest group. I worshiped with “Christ-centered Friends” in a separate bedroom on the second floor of the Inn. Was there no other room in the Inn? I understand that these Friends request to worship separately from the body. Why? One individual informed me that her vocal ministry had been silenced in the past because, “they don’t want hear about Jesus.” Therefore, in order to share without fear of censorship or disapproval, “Christ-centered Friends” gather for worship to speak freely and in support of each other’s witness to the Foundation of our Society. Apparently for some Friends, Jesus isn’t even welcome at the table.

Does it surprise me that when Christ is excluded from fellowship with His people that we witness a decline in membership? No. Fifty-six years ago, when NYYM had 50% more members, was there such a label as “Christ-centered Friends”? I don’t know, but I think perhaps it’s time to examine if there is a correlation between our changing theology over the years, and the current state of our Yearly Meeting. There is room for all at our Quaker table, but let us not forget from whose table we are given our Spiritual gifts.

My theory is that perhaps some desire to limit God-talk or reject vocal ministry that calls upon the name of Jesus because they secretly fear the change that the Living Christ in our midst can lay claim to. Personally, as a Christ-centered member of NYYM, I welcome that baptism. I pray God gives me the courage to witness to the miracles and healing that the Living Christ can perform, and wants to perform, for each of us. Can we open our hearts and welcome in this Light? It’s already here…waiting. Please keep New York Yearly Meeting, her stewards and prophets in your prayers, and support our precious agents of Christ.

Wayne is a current MDiv student at Earlham School of Religion. He is a member of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting.

The Silence of Holy Saturday

2011-09-09T11:44:00.000-04:00

By David L. Johns

The most penetrating sound of September 2001 came
not on Tuesday the 11th but on Sunday the 16th.

In November of 1963, only two days after Kennedy
was murdered in Dallas, gridiron warriors assembled on one
hundred yard fields and pushed, and tackled, and punted, and
passed. Near capacity crowds were somber, but nevertheless
cheered on seven NFL games; Pittsburgh tied Chicago 17-17,
Cleveland trounced the Cowboys by ten points. On a Sunday
afternoon in late January 1991, while soldiers were engaged in a
Storm in the Desert, the most creative television commercials of
the season were shown during breaks from Super Bowl XXV.
Allied troops fought Saddam; the New York Giants beat the
Buffalo Bills 20-19.

The most penetrating sound of September 2001 came
not on Tuesday the 11th but on Sunday the 16th; in stadiums
across the country there was no football, there was only silence.
The silent stadium was a more truthful witness to the moment
than were the immediate demands for war; the silent stadium
spoke more poignantly than the immediate calls for peace.

It was the simple-minded naiveté of both the hawks and
the doves that first made me uneasy. It was all so simple. Too
simple. “Steer clear, dear Odysseus, steer clear and save your
life!”

On one hand, there was the immediate response to “kill
them,” “retaliate with everything we have,” “unleash the dogs
of war.” We are victims, they are the enemy! On the day
after, Lance Morrow wrote in Time magazine, “A day cannot

live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let’s have
rage. What’s needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of
purple American fury—a ruthless indignation.”

At the same time, another chorus of voices sang a
dirge of national self-loathing. Here the model of blame is
inverted…they are the victims and we are the enemy. “Our
foreign policy has alienated and disenfranchised and, therefore,
the actions of the terrorists, while horrible, were certainly
understandable.”

It was all so simple.

Then came the statement of Pat Robertson and Jerry
Falwell—identical in sentiment to the statements made by
some others. “The United States is getting what it deserves,
what it has asked for. The anger of God (or, Disenfranchised
Arab and Muslim peoples) has been simmering for years and
on September 11 it reached the boiling point. We know who
the guilty party is, says Falwell and Robertson: homosexuals,
the ACLU, feminists, and abortion rights activists; we know
who the guilty party is, say the purveyors of national self-abuse:
corporate America, the government, the military establishment.
Therefore, since we are guilty, the attacks of God (or,
Disenfranchised Arab and Muslim peoples) is understandable, if
not actually justified.”

It was all so simple.

But it was precisely the simplicity of the solutions that
convinced me of their impossibility. From the “war on them” to the “war on us” everything had the ring of sanctimoniousness and superficiality. Many organizations hastily generated statements concerning the attacks. These statements appeared so swiftly it was obscene.

It was so with Friends. By Wednesday morning the
Friends Committee for National Legislation and Friends
General Conference had posted statements on the internet.
FCNL even posted photos of its office draped with a banner
sporting a bumper-sticker-esque slogan: “War is not the
answer.” Like many other colleges, even my beloved Earlham
jumped into the real-time statement game. In a statement dated
September 12th and posted on the college’s website: “Yesterday
[the] President, student leaders, and teaching and administrative
faculty leaders drafted this response to the day’s events.” I
was breathless. Memos and family pictures from the World
Trade Center towers were still drifting over Manhattan and we
were announcing to the world what we would and would not
do, what was in principle acceptable and what was not. For a
denomination that speaks much of the value of silence there was
precious little of it in response to September 11.

These statements were formulaic and predictable—
like form letters resting peacefully on a hard drive waiting for
someone to fill in the blanks, verbal ejaculations to protect
against our fear of corporate anger. They included a ceremonial
denunciation of the attacks to quiet the masses, then they
stated prepackaged solution. But how could we know how to
respond? In rushing to make statements we demonstrated just how messianic some of us think we are.

Blaming clogged the internet, but empty football
stadiums spoke more truthfully. The orthodoxy of political
correctness, of course, still grants permission to make
demeaning and smug remarks concerning “brainless
testosterone-driven athletes who sit in the back of the
classroom;” however, it was the chorus of silence sung by
absent line-backers that spoke more wisely than the erudite
prose of any academic.

Our time is distinguished by a certain ambiguity. An
ambiguous time is a time in-between, a place of tension, a time
when simple answers simply do not answer; the foundations
that once supported us have been removed and nothing is
completely settled. Louis-Marie Chauvet has written that even
God does not guarantee our certainties. By scrambling to ease
our dis-ease we ingest a panacea that inoculates us from living
with the pain, the anguish, and the anger of real victims.

Each year in the liturgical rhythm of the Christian
calendar a little noted day is lodged between two more
celebrated days—Holy Saturday. It is often neglected, but
it speaks to this moment in our history. Our time is a Holy
Saturday. The horror of the crucifixion is over; the image of
the embodiment of our hopes broken and bleeding and dead still
lingers fresh and raw. In the liturgy, Holy Saturday reenacts
a waiting for something we know has come. Our waiting is
different. In agony and in fear we want to rush into the tomb
and rescue Jesus, to save him from the chill of the tomb. But when we remove Jesus on Saturday we have nothing but a corpse. Easter has not yet come. And who knows, maybe Easter will never come. But, if it does, who can know what form it will take?

Holy Saturday is a day of wondering, of anguish, of
anger, of gnawing emptiness, of fear, and of the questioning
eyes of children. Holy Saturday is a place in-between, a time of
waiting, a time for tears, a space for grieving. Holy Saturday is
a day to remain silent before the ambiguity of life and death, of
death in life.

In many ways, Holy Saturday is the longest day of the
year. “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day” (II Peter 3:8). This longest “day” began on September
12th , but it has not been respected nor reverenced by us crafters
of words or by backseat legislators. Yet, silent stadiums …

Plato spoke of metaxy as an in-between place, a place
where humans meet God. We are standing now between
horror and hope in a chasm of betweenness, uncertain, messy,
dangerous, ambiguous. Yet, this metaxy is the place where
God is. On the lengthy Holy Saturday following September
11th I did not stand with chattering academics or with military
advisors or with spin doctors or with resolute pacifists; I chose
to stand in-between, beside the padded shoulders of a silent line
backer.

This essay will be included in an upcoming book, Quakering
Theology, and first appeared in Friends Journal (March 2002).

David Johns is Associate Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. He has traveled extensively among Friends in Mexico and Central America and is a regular contributor to Quaker Religious Thought. He resides in Richmond, Indiana with his family.

Transitions

2011-09-02T10:19:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

Summer is coming to a close, and we here at ESR are in transition. Like all educational institutions, we are welcoming a new cohort of students - both residential and Access - and gearing up for another year of classes, seminars and events.

This summer was a rich and productive one for us. We had the opportunity to visit Yearly Meetings all over the country and touch base with Friends from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We were also able to host events here on the campus of Earlham School of Religion.

One event we were able to host this spring was the annual Willson Lectures. This year, our lecturer was Joerg Rieger. We invite you to enjoy the video series that we have produced from his lectures:

Report from Northwest Yearly Meeting, July 2011

2011-08-23T10:01:00.000-04:00

By Carole Spencer

From July 24-28 I attended the 119th session of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Churches (NWYM) at George Fox University in Newberg Oregon. Northwest Yearly meeting is an evangelical Yearly Meeting made up of programmed churches in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. NWYM is the meeting I have been connected with all my life as a Quaker (30 some years) until I moved to Richmond last summer. This summer it seemed strange to attend as a “visitor,” but it was wonderful to see so many long-time friends.

The keynote address was the last message given by the outgoing YM superintendent
Colin Saxton. Colin has served seven years as superintendent of NWYM and will be
moving to Richmond to become the General Secretary of Friends Uniting Meeting in January 2012. There is a great sadness in NWYM with Colin’s departure as he is deeply loved, respected and admired. The only person there who felt joyful about his coming to Richmond was, of course, me!

Before Colin delivered his message, he introduced Rebecca (Becky) Ankeny whose nomination to become Superintendent was approved a few days later by the business meeting. Becky is a faculty member in the Literature & Writing Department of George Fox University and has also held administrate posts there. Becky will become the first female superintendent of NWYM. At the session to
approve her nomination a number of people spoke to the importance of the Quaker testimony to the equality of women and men, and some lamented the failure to consistently maintain it over time within the YM. When the recommendation of Becky was finally approved by the meeting, and she was called in to hear the announcement, she was given a standing ovation. Becky’s parents were missionaries and she grew up in Northwest YM. She is a graduate of George Fox College and the University of Oregon.

The theme of the 2011 sessions was “In Christ—one people—growing together” and the key biblical text: Eph. 4:13. The YM brochure reminded everyone that “True spiritual maturity is most fully expressed in community. When individual members experience the connecting power of the Holy Spirit and when our differences and disputes are surrendered to Jesus, we find a unity that transcends our diversity. We have a new purpose and direction.”

The theme of love and unity amidst conflicting viewpoints was a consistent thread throughout the sessions. Colin made
a point in his keynote to speak to people on the “poles” --those on the conservative and liberal ends of the YM --asking them to listen to each other and have respect for one another even if they have divergent perspectives. To facilitate this theme of unity and lay the groundwork for working through conflicts, some business sessions were laid aside for small groups to prayerfully share their experiences of times when differences of opinions divided them and times when conflict was transcended.

In two evening sessions Jan Wood from Seattle, Washington, presented messages on unity amidst diversity. (Jan also spoke at Indiana Yearly Meeting this year). Five people were recorded as ministers this year. One, Leslie Murray, a good friend
of mine, is a Youth Pastor and a dynamic young leader in NWYM. I was delighted to be able to attend a gathering in celebration of her gifts.

On the final night, a closing banquet was held honoring the five ministers who were approved for recording, and celebrating the golden anniversary of Friendsview Manor, a lovely retirement community in Newberg, OR.

Carole Spencer serves as Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion. She is a recorded minister in Northwest Yearly Meeting.

ESR Examines the "Core of Quaker Leadership" at 2011 Conference

2011-08-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

By Jay Marshall, Dean of ESR

Joe Volk delivers his plenary address to attendees

I spent the past weekend with about sixty Friends who have an interest in leadership. Mine is a biased opinion, to be sure, but the collective buzz and the energy it generated were exhilarating. For the second consecutive year, ESR hosted a conference on leadership. It is one result of ESR’s decision to add a leadership emphasis within the M. Div. curriculum.

Attendees work in small groups during a workshop

This year’s theme, “Seeking the Core of Quaker Leadership”, captures the essence of the motivation for this new venture. The conference included presentations from: Joe Volk, who recently retired as executive secretary of FCNL; Bonalyn Mosteller, who works in the area of leadership development with Friends Services for the Aging; Alan Kolp and Peter Rea, who teach business persons about the integration of virtues and business; a panel presentation by businesspersons (Peter Laughter, Chiyo Moriuchi, Ray Ontko, and Lawrence Ross); plus some leadership with Earlham connections (Jennie Isbell, Paul Lacey, and myself). Friends, indeed all groups, benefit from good leadership. Where better to discover how such leadership can thrive than among Friends experienced with leading?

Bonalyn Mosteller leads one of the workshops

This year’s event was rich and diverse in terms of experience. The attendance roster included leaders from the corporate and the non-profit world, religious and secular organizations, academics and practitioners alike. Attendees and presenters together contributed much weight to the learning experience. One exciting feature was the simple fact that about 2/3 of conference participants live outside of Richmond, Indiana. In fact, most of that 2/3 number live outside of Indiana! This indicates the topic has an appeal to a wide range of individuals, many of whom are willing to travel in order to participate.

Attendees enjoy a meal and conversation

I made more new acquaintances at this event than any I can remember in the recent past, many of whom have skills and talents that I do not have but about which I would like to learn more. Even now, a breakfast conversation echoes in my mind. I was reflecting upon a new idea from the day before, and acknowledging that I did not know how to apply that to my work even though I could see its value. One person at the table said in response, “I can help you with that. That is what I do in my work.” Indeed, she has already sent a document describing how I might proceed and offering further assistance when I need it.

Many of us have experienced the power and good results that emerge from the synergies of Friends who value implementation as highly as conversation. I hope that time will prove this to be one of those occasions.

Report from Ohio Yearly Meeting 2011

2011-08-16T14:41:00.000-04:00

By Micah Bales

This past week, Friends gathered from across the eastern United States for the annual sessions of Ohio Yearly Meeting. OYM is one of three Conservative(1) Yearly Meetings that remain in the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, there were seven. However, because of a great decline in membership and several mergers with non-Conservative Yearly Meetings, only Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio Yearly Meetings remain as standard-bearers for the Conservative stream of Quakerism.

Among the three remaining Conservative Yearly Meetings, Ohio Yearly Meeting has been particularly tenacious in conserving the distinctive doctrines and practices of the Quietist Period(2) of American Quakerism. The theology of Friends in OYM largely lines up with that which is expressed in Barclay's Apology. A large minority of Friends have chosen to dress "plain" (somewhat similar to the Amish or conservative Mennonites). Vocal ministry in our meetings for worship is unrehearsed and (we hope) led by the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit. Spoken ministry usually draws heavily on Christian tradition and the Scriptures.

My wife Faith and I became involved in Ohio Yearly Meeting through Rockingham Monthly Meeting, which meets near Harrisonburg, Virginia - about two and a half hours away from our home in DC. We began attending there on a monthly basis in the fall of 2009. What drew us to keep coming back despite the distances involved was the clear Christian witness of the Meeting and the love, care and spiritual maturity that we sensed among the members. Faith and I were looking for a Quaker Christian community, and it seemed that God was opening the way for this among Friends at Rockingham.

This was our first Yearly Meeting session as members, and it was a particularly intense year for Ohio Yearly Meeting. Along with many other Christian bodies, Ohio Yearly Meeting is wrestling with its understanding of human sexuality. Our struggle as a Yearly Meeting began last year, when Salem Quarterly Meeting brought a suggestion to revise our Book of Discipline (Faith and Practice) to - among other things - define marriage as being "between one man and one woman." This elicited a strong reaction from many Friends. The matter was tabled and forwarded to Stillwater Quarterly Meeting - OYM's larger Quarter, and the one where Rockingham Meeting is a member.

Stillwater Quarterly Meeting instructed its Monthly Meetings to consider and share their response to the suggestion from Salem Quarterly Meeting to alter the Discipline. After consideration by the Monthly Meetings, Stillwater Quarter drafted a corporate response to be forwarded to the Yearly Meeting. Friends in Stillwater Quarterly Meeting were not in unity to revise the Book of Discipline. Friends had a sense that we as a Yearly Meeting did not yet have the full picture, and that we need Christ to guide us into the fullness of truth in this matter.

As one might expect, we spent a lot of time praying at our annual sessions this year. There was deliberation during three business sessions about how we could faithfully engage these difficult questions together as Christ's Body. I have detailed this process on my personal blog - here and here.

Ohio Yearly Meeting was unable to come to unity on our sense of how or whether God has ordained same-sex romantic relationships. However, we were in agreement that "Friends of all perspectives are equally committed to the Lord." This is no small matter when dealing with a question that has and continues to divide Christian bodies around the world. Friends in OYM recognized that we have not yet been shown how to move forward together as a community on questions of sexuality and marriage. Nevertheless, it is our conviction that the Holy Spirit that Jesus sends us will lead us into all truth as long as we are faithful in waiting upon the Lord and submitting ourselves to him.

There is a strong sense among many of us in Ohio Yearly Meeting that there is a "third way" that we have not yet seen. We believe that our God is one of order, not of disorder(3) and that if there are different, strongly held convictions in the body, that there must be some amount of truth in both of them. What we still lack is the complete openness and submission that would clear the way for Christ to lead us into the fullness of his truth.

And yet, despite our disagreement on these very important issues, we do sense a deep spiritual unity that surpasses our human understanding of what unity should mean. We disagree, yet we know that the Holy Spirit is present in our midst, binding us together as Christ's Church. We are in spiritual unity, though outwardly we are in disagreement. This is a mystery of Christ's work in the body. If we choose to be faithful to his teaching in our hearts and in our midst, I do believe that Jesus will lead us out of our faulty human understandings and into the clarity that comes from repentance and purification by the Inward Light of Christ.

1. Conservative Friends "conserve" many aspects of the Quietest-era Quaker tradition, including unprogrammed worship, explicitly Christian faith and various traditions and folkways that have largely been discarded by the wider Religious Society of Friends. For more information on Conservative Friends, see the QuakerMaps description of Conservative Quakerism and The Conservative Friend.

2. The Quietist period ran from the mid-1700s to the early 1800s.

3. 1 Corinthians 14:33

Micah Bales serves as Coordinator of Young Adult Engagement at ESR. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Faith Kelley. He is active with Capitol Hill Friends and is a member of Rockingham Friends Meeting, Ohio Yearly Meeting.

Missionary Work Abroad: Iowa Yearly Meeting (FUM)

2011-08-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

My summer has, as you know from previous posts, included time in Kenya and Rwanda. Perhaps because of this, at Indiana Yearly Meeting I found myself more aware of the reports of FUM ministries abroad. This was even more the case at Iowa Yearly Meeting (FUM) this past weekend. Perhaps my time in Africa is continuing to echo through my experience and drawing my attention to the international work of Friends.

Iowa Yearly Meeting is a group of programmed meetings in Iowa and Wisconsin. Iowa YM's worship has an evangelical bent to it (in the choices of music, for example), and I am reminded of the great range of diversity within FUM. This was underscored by their keynote speaker, Ron Stansell, who is from Evangelical Friends Mission. Candi Young, who teaches at Belize Friends (Boys) School, spoke about her work there. John Moru was visiting Iowa YM from the Turkana Friends Mission. Two Iowa YM members(Nathan and Brianna Martin), home from being missionaries in Cambodia to have a baby, also spoke.

Belize Friends Boys School

Candi Young spoke about her desire to expand Friends (Boys) School in Belize, and her joy at the enthusiam of her students to learn. (I put "boys" in paraentheses because she showed us pictures of the first girls to attend the school!) I was reminded again of how much of a difference a little money can make. USFW donates the money to give each child there a snack: a banana, an orange, and a biscuit. For most of the children, this is all they will eat each day, and the cost is so small.

John Moru, testing water (FUM website)

John Moru had several opportunities to speak, and was very engaging. FUM General Secretary Sylvia Graves, who was also visiting Iowa YM, spoke about Turkana Friends Mission being a "Kenyan" mission. Kenyan Quakers, having been evangelized by missionaries a century ago, are now traveling out to build missions themselves. Ron Stansell pointed out that FUM is not a white organization anymore, and Quakerism is not a white denomination. African and South American Quakers will take control of their own institutions, and take responsibility for missions in their area, in an increasing way. John Moru feels a particular calling to plant churches in Sudan, having been there as a child. With the majority-Christian southern part of Sudan separating off from the northern part on July 9th, he feels that his way will soon be clear.

ESR's registrar, April, presenting a workshop in Kenya

I have been thinking lately about missionary work. Many Christians do "mission trips" within the US or to other countries, which seem to be a valuable tool for increasing cultural awareness and forming connections on both sides, as well as sometimes getting some practical work done! Our trip to Kenya and Africa was, in some sense, similar. The intetion was to develop our awareness of African Friends and to offer some workshops and presentations. I do, however, wonder about long-term church-planting. Some point to the great commision given in Matthew 28:19-20 ("Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.") Some believe that non-Christians will go to hell and conversion is an imperative. Others see this conversion as colonialism, or unnecessary given strong religion traditions across the world and point more to interfaith dialog.

I wonder what it would be like to go plant a church in a place with a strong religious culture. How does a missionary in Cambodia or Thailand view Buddhism? What would it mean to be a Christian missionary in Saudi Arabia? Can one be a long-term Christian missionary and respect the validity of other religions? Can one take a "come and see" attitude (John 1:46), offering what Quakers have available while respecting the existing religious and denominational forces in a particularly area?

Just some thoughts on my mind this morning! It was lovely to visit with Friends in Iowa YM and I enjoyed worshipping with them very much.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Postlude: Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting

2011-08-09T15:57:00.000-04:00

Gara, from Wilmington College

I posted about Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting last Friday, but realized that I wanted to news of a particular event. On Saturday, Larry Gara and his wife Lenna Mae spoke in a session titled "Simply Speaking." Larry is a retired Wilmington College professor and editor of a recently published book A Few Small Candles: War Resistors of World War I Tell Their Stories. Living in Richmond, I have met several people who were contentious objectors during World War II or the Vietnam War.

What I didn't know was that there were some who went one step beyond and refused to register for the draft as contentious objectors and were sent to prison for "non-registration." Larry Gara was himself a war resistor and spent three years in a federal prison. Once released, he was re-arrested for continuing to refuse to register. Finally, while teaching at Bluffton University, he spoke with a student who had already refused to sign up for the draft and encouraged him, leading to another arrest, trial, and 18-month prison term.

Gara spoke about his time in prison, his trials, his decision not to sign up for the draft, working towards racial reconciliation, and the evolution of laws regarding draft resistance. It's well worth your time to read the Wilmington College press release about the honorary PhD they awarded him from a few years back, and to learn a little more about this topic.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions: July 28-31

2011-08-05T21:37:00.000-04:00

I had the joy of “traveling” to Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting annual sessions this past weekend. (By “traveling”, I mean I walked across Earlham’s campus to the Landrum Bolling Center to join Friends for business sessions, meals, and workshops.) Ohio Valley YM is an unprogrammed yearly meeting with monthly meetings in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, including Richmond’s own Clear Creek Meeting. OVYM is a part of Friends General Conference.

Business sessions began with silent worship and readings of quotes from the Journal of Elias Hicks. There were the usual committee and Quaker organization reports, and among those issues discussed a few things rose to the surface for me. OVYM Advancement and Nurture Committee did a broad survey of members on YM work this year and presented the results. There is discussion of doing a broader visioning process for OVYM. After seeing Wilmington YM do this in April, I agree that threshing sessions focused on vision are essential and encourage OVYM to do this. OVYM also discussed the formation of a standing committee on Earthcare (they currently have a more ad hoc committee), Earthcare being a particular concern of the yearly meeting. I was reminded of Micah’s blog post about Great Plains Yearly Meeting when I heard the report of OVYM youth traveling to visit Friends from the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. I also heard some rumblings of unhappiness about how the Quarterly meeting structure operates. This complaint seems to be one endemic across Yearly Meetings, and I invited anyone who feels strongly their YM’s Quarterly Meeting structure works well and is effective to share their secret.

I attended a workshop by Mark Rembert, a Haverford alum from Wilmington, OH. He has an interest in International economic development, but came back to Wilmington to found Energize Clinton County. This non-profit does economic development work in Wilmington and the surrounding area. Mark is concerned with the questions of how our everyday consumer decisions are a ministry. This message is typically perceived as “liberal" one: buy local, etc. Mark, however, has re-cast this message as one of keeping wealth in the community and gaining more control over how your money is used. He is running a campaign to weatherize houses in Clinton County for this winter and arguing that unnecessary energy costs caused by insufficient insulation and inefficient furnaces are an added “tax” by energy companies that consumers can choose not to pay. Weatherizing can “free up money that’s going to things you don’t really care about to spend it on things that you do.”

I also attended a workshop by Noah Baker Merril, who was visiting from New England Yearly Meeting to give the Plenary talks. He divided up the participants into four groups: the voices of Quaker past, Quaker present, and Quaker future, and a smaller group of “inquisitors”. The inquisitors questioned each of these voices about various aspects of Quakerism. This is an instructive (and funny) exercise.

In visiting many different Quaker communities, one begins to notice language differences between the two. Whereas last week when I was attending Indiana YM the language was very (and primarily) Christ-centered, OVYM members spoke more about “the presence”, “the divine.” Some did use “Lord” and biblical passages read referenced “Our Lord”, but the shift in language was noticeable. I say this not as a comment on these two particular yearly meetings, but rather an acknowledgment that anyone who travels among Friends notices these language shifts and contend with the extent to which they can be flexible about the language they use.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Epistle from North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) annual sessions

2011-08-02T08:16:00.000-04:00

A note from Valerie: Andrew Wright, an ESR Access student and member of North Carolina YM (Conservative) attended yearly meeting. I asked Andrew if he could share his reflections on the annual sessions, and he asked if we could share the epistle, feeling that to be a good reflection of the annual sessions. Micah Bales also shared his thoughts on attending this yearly meeting a few weeks ago. I found these words to be lovely and poetic, and (with the permission of Andrew and the Clerk of the meeting) am glad to share them here.

To Friends Everywhere –

How can we become the blessed community that we aspire to be? In these 314^th Yearly Meeting sessions we have lived into some of the answers to this question which has been our theme. In our query responses, state of the meeting reports, and times of worship we have shared experiences of all the facets and phases of life. We have held each other as we have mourned, struggled, and grieved together. We have celebrated new life, rejoiced in success, renewed old friendships and discovered ever growing love among us. We have found ourselves held in the hands of God, protecting us, healing us, and knitting us together into the blessed community.

We have learned from our children as they are tender with each other, as they enjoy and play well with each other. We watch as our children rejoice in the mystery and wonder of the present moment. Playing at the beach with Young Friends is like swimming in an ocean of light. One Friend noticed that even the salt in the water works to lift us up together. The elements have conspired, along with the laughter and play of our children, to lead us toward the blessed community.

We are aware of our dependence upon God’s support, because we see evil around and within us. We are mired in it up to our ears. We have witnessed decades of war, and we see violence in our communities – and we feel the effects of both in our own lives. We watch with sadness as our way of producing, consuming, and working destroys the life giving capacity of our earth. Our economy is driving greater and greater inequality between the richest and poorest people of our world community. These things stand against our deeply held beliefs, and yet we find them both within us and infused in our way of living. What little we do to change the world often seems small and ineffectual, and we sometimes feel paralyzed by discouragement. We recognize that this discouragement itself is a symptom and part of the evil we oppose. At times the effort to sustain our belief in God’s power for good is the largest part of our struggle. Yet God is with us, even in these troubled times. We remember that Friends in our history faced systems of enslavement and an economy of radical inequality that seemed just as intractable as our present systems of domination. In their simple and peaceful ways, these Friends found new ways of being in the world that moved beyond what seemed impossible.

In our Bible studies this week we have been reminded that there is still good soil for God’s seed, and that seed can yield a hundred-fold harvest. God is very much with us, caring for our welfare and intervening on behalf of the widow, orphan and alien in a strange land. The women of the Exodus story – Shiphrah and Puah, Moses’ mother and sister, and even Pharaoh’s daughter – model for us the courage to risk faithful acts in dark times. Over and over, we see that God gives us the tools, the strength, and the courage, at the right time, to do what must be done to advance the Kingdom of God in the face of the evil that opposes it. And so we send you, dear Friends, a message of hope in these dark times. The Kingdom is here – already here among us.

On behalf of the yearly meeting,
Richard Miller, Clerk

North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

Indiana Yearly Meeting, July 21-24, 2011

2011-07-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, I had the joy of attending Indiana Yearly Meeting at Quaker Haven Camp near Syracuse, IN. Indiana Yearly Meeting consists of pastoral meetings in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. Indiana and Western yearly meetings share Quaker Haven, the lovely 160-acre camp and retreat center on a lake, and summer sessions include campers from both yearly meetings.

Worship was spirited and Jan Crouch, from Bear Creek Meeting, provided music at the piano. Jan Wood, Director of Good News Associates, spoke about reconciliation among Friends with differing theologies. The attendees met in small groups to discuss the theme, “God has a dream”, in reference to the book God Has a Dream: a Vision for Our Time by Desmond Tutu. We discussed our dreams and God’s dreams for ourselves, our meetings, and the yearly meeting. Threading these discussions was the theme of discerning between our own impulses and God’s will.

The yearly meeting heard reports on new ministry among Hispanics in Indianapolis and two monthly meetings that joined Indiana Yearly Meeting. Visitors from several organizations came to speak, including Friends Fellowship in Richmond and Friends United Meeting. FUM brought several Kenyan Friends as visitors and there time in a separate session to ask them questions and hear about the work FUM is doing in Kenya. There was a particular awareness of the famine in Somalia, as there are now many refuges in northern Kenya. Kenyan Friends see the refugee camps as an opportunity for humanitarian work.

A major business item at the yearly meeting was related to conflict over West Richmond Friends's welcoming and affirming minute. IYM has a 1982 minute condemning homosexuality as a sin. A later 1994 minute acknowledges a broad spectrum of opinion among Friends on this issue, but affirms the 1982 minute. A few years ago, after a long process of study and discernment, West Richmond Friends approved a welcoming and affirming minute. Some other monthly meetings and individuals fear that WRF’s minute will be seen as speaking for all Quakers or for all of IYM. These members see IYM as having authority over monthly meetings to create unity on certain issues. Alternately, others claim that monthly meetings may have a “prophetic witness” to the yearly meeting (a term drawn from Faith and Practice), and have a policy in contrast with IYM.

This has, you might imagine, led to continued tension in the Yearly Meeting and this spring a task force began exploring options to move forward. IYM and the task force acknowledged that things cannot continue as they are. Last weekend the task force presented their report and laid out four models for the future of IYM. They were honest in saying that each has advantages and dis-advantages. The first is to move to a more Congregationalist structure, where the yearly meeting speaks to, but not for, individual meetings. The second is to apply Faith and Practice consistently on this issue and others. The third is disciplinary action against West Richmond, although not necessarily requiring the meeting to withdraw its minute. Finally, the task force recommended splitting the yearly meeting intentionally, giving meetings the opportunity to choose between different ecclesiastic or theological options. The task force recommended model 4. Individuals of the task force agreed that this was the only viable way forward that they see, but seem to disagree about whether this is the best option. To quote a task force member, “We brought [the recommendation] to the yearly meeting trusting that wisdom would prevail.”

The discussions sidetracked into scriptural debates, and the clerk wisely re-focused the meeting on the central issue: We know that we have differences in theology and scriptural interpretation.What do we think about the options the task force has laid out for us? I scribbled down some quotes as people spoke passionately on the issue. Several people expressed a desire to remain in fellowship with WRF (“As a family, divorce is the last resort”, “If we split, how are we going to minister to those we think are in need?”, “I feel as though we’re deciding whether to cut off our left foot, or our right foot.”) They acknowledged that their own meetings had diverse opinions on this issue, or explained that they felt the yearly meeting benefited from diversity. Others insisted that West Richmond is going a different way than their meetings and that they wished to part (and remain) F/friends (“sometimes in love, you need to draw lines”, “you’re going in another direction, and I can’t go with you”). One begged WRF to withdraw the minute in hopes that this would quiet tensions. The monthly meetings will be discussing this in the next few months and there will be a fall meeting to make a decision about the way forward.

Skirting along the edge of the scriptural issues here (and I recognize that these are not in the least bit small, but are simply not resolvable in a blog format, or in fact possibly at all), what are your thoughts about the possible ways forward? Do you see any other creative options? What is a good balance of diversity and commonality in a yearly meeting? What is the purpose of a yearly meeting? What, if anything, does this say about the larger project of forming connections across branches of Friends? Is splitting a way to remain F/friends and possibly even strengthen connections? If a split occurs, what will happen to meetings within IYM where there is a diversity of opinions about homosexuality?

Please take a moment and pray for Indiana Yearly Meeting, that they may be able to corporately discern the best way forward for them.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Report from United Church of Christ US General Synod

2011-07-26T10:21:00.001-04:00

By Adam Webber

I recently spent five days in Tampa, staffing the exhibit for Earlham School of Religion at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ. The UCC's Synod is held once every two years, in different locations around the country, for learning, for business, and for worship. There were three thousand people in attendance. My little booth was one of nearly a hundred in the exhibit hall, including sixteen other educational institutions.

Many Conversations

Few of the people who stopped to talk with me knew anything about ESR. A quick sampling of my interactions:

A woman researching M.Div. programs for her husband. Her: "I can't picture my husband moving us to Indiana." Me: "It's not as bad as it sounds."
"Can I have a pen? I have a friend who's a graduate."
"Is that Quaker?"
A long talk with a young man who seemed interested and took all the flyers.
Several people asking about occasional courses -- not seeking another degree, but seeking interesting classes for continuing education.
A long talk with a 60-something African-American guy, who told me about an enslaved ancestor who was taught to read by Quakers. I described modern Quaker diversity, and he had many questions.
Several people looking for D.Min programs -- sorry.
An Earlham College graduate, touching base.
"Is that like Amish?"
A UCC pastor who wondered if there were hard feelings at ESR against the UCC on account our faith ancestors' persecutions of Quakers. (He mentioned Mary Dyer specifically.)
A guy who said he was too old for seminary -- I tried to convince him he wasn't.
Good questions from a guy who's unsure of his calling. He wanted to take a few classes -- wanted Greek and Hebrew -- was intrigued about the Access program.
"I'm a Quaker, and I've been planning on taking some online courses."
A navy chaplain, with whom I had an interesting conversation about the peace witness and military chaplaincy.
A Quaker who is a licensed minister in the UCC.
A Hungarian leader from the Calvin Synod. I think they'd like to start their own seminary, and they're looking for ideas.
A woman from Maine, who wanted to know more about the arts and music in ministry at ESR.

I'm not sure how many new students I attracted, but I am sure that I gave my little spiel about ESR at least a hundred times. Marie Eastman, a current ESR student, was there as a Synod volunteer, and I also found several indirect ESR connections. I spoke to people who knew several of our UCC-ordained recent graduates, including Hunter Thompson and Tyler Conoley.

Synod Business

I took a few breaks from manning the display to sit in on some of the business sessions. High parliamentary procedure is the process there, with voting by a thousand delegates apportioned democratically. It's quite a spectacle, like a political convention, except that the process pauses frequently for prayer. The UCC's polity is very congregational, so the resolutions of Synod are not binding on local congregations or on individual members. Synod speaks "to, not for" the congregations; congregations consider themselves bound in covenant to prayerfully consider the resolutions of the Synod, but not necessarily to agree with them or to obey them.

The Synod ratified a "Mutual Recognition of Baptism", an ecumenical agreement previously worked out between the Roman Catholic Church and the four major parts of the Reformed tradition in the United States (United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Reformed Church of America, and the Christian Reformed Church). In other business, the Synod tabled a resolution relating to the Palestinian situation -- a resolution that would have called for actions including divestments and boycotts. It adopted a resolution calling for advocacy on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and another resolution supporting the right of LGBT people to adopt and raise children. It approved a resolution in support of "mindful and faithful eating", a resolution calling for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners, and a strong resolution "To Counter Actions of Hostility Against Islam and the Muslim Community".

After some tense debate, the Synod also approved revisions to the UCC's constitution and bylaws. These revisions streamlined the governing boards of the denomination, establishing a "unified governance". (The prior mess of overlapping governing boards was an artifact of the UCC's history as a child of the mergers of a number of earlier denominations.) Incidentally, these revisions also removed some gendered language from the denomination's 1957 constitution: "believing in God as Father" is now "believing in the triune God", for example. Conservative religious news services pounced on this change, and Christian News Wire reported it under the headline, "United Church of Christ Set to Reject God the Father"!

Common Ground

The polity at Synod was rowdy and parliamentary, and the worship noisy and theatrical. It made quite a contrast with the Quaker ways I loved at ESR. Yet, as I told people over and over, I think ESR is a great place for UCC folks to study.

For one thing, the UCC slogan these days is "God is Still Speaking," including that trailing comma to indicate open-ended, continuing revelation. (That sounds familiar -- isn't that just the sort of idea that got people thrown into prison in George Fox's time?) UCC folks at ESR get a chance to learn from a tradition that not only expects continuing revelation, but also has a strong shared practice of listening for it.

Another point of contact is in our diversity. With the flexibility of its highly congregational polity, the UCC holds together a lot of diversity. (Even while the Synod was voting for a progressive set of resolutions, its "Biblical Witness" subgroup was in the exhibit hall asserting their dissenting opinions that A) God is the Father, and B) He isn't happy about homosexual behaviors.) Most of the people I spoke with were unaware that modern Quakerism encompasses a similar degree of diversity.

A third connection is our shared stance of respect for science -- a special area of interest for me because of my former career as a professor of computer science. At Synod I attended the dinner of the UCC's "Science and Technology" working group. There I heard a very interesting presentation on evolutionary psychology, bringing it into conversation with Christian ethics. It was a solid talk -- respectful, intelligent, humorous, and challenging -- a pleasant surprise these days, when so many discussions involving faith and science seem to degenerate into knee-jerk reenactments of the Scopes trial. I found myself wishing I could bring the speaker to a colloquium on faith and science at ESR. There are too few places these days where such conversations are welcome.

For these and many other reasons, I'm glad that ESR had a representative at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, and I'm grateful that I got to be it. I'm an introvert, as some of you know well, and it should have been highly effortful for me to spend five days striking up conversations with strangers. As it turned out, I really enjoyed it. I'm sure I have some brothers and sisters in the UCC who would benefit from finding ESR, and it was fun to try my hand at helping them make that connection.

Blessings,

Adam Webber

Adam Webber graduated with an MDiv from the ESR Access program in 2011. He is a founding member of the Open Prairie United Church of Christ in Princeton, Illinois, where he has served as organist, composer, preacher, teacher, retreat leader, and chocolatier. He blogs at adambrookswebber.com .

Photographs from Africa

2011-07-22T10:42:00.000-04:00

Our faculty returned from their trip to Africa with many stunning, inspirational, and thought-provoking photographs. We wanted to share a few of them with you today.

If you would like to see more, you can visit our Flickr photo page by clicking here.

Reflections on North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

2011-07-19T11:53:00.001-04:00

by Micah Bales

This past week, I traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina as Friends gathered there for the sessions of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). It was a blessing to be with these Friends during their annual gathering. I would like briefly to give a sketch of what I observed while with them.

There are two North Carolina Yearly Meetings - one which is a part of Friends United Meeting and another which a part of the small Conservative branch of North American Quakerism. Each of these Yearly Meetings is the result of the division in 1902 of a previously unified North Carolina Yearly Meeting. Today, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM) is a generally pastoral body - that is, most of their local congregations employ pastoral ministers and have adopted pre-planned sermons, vocal prayer and congregational singing as part of their worship services.

North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) is "conservative" in the sense that it conserves the Friends tradition of extended waiting worship and has not adopted the practice of financially releasing pastors. Neither have Friends in this body adopted the pre-planned elements - congregational singing, sermons and set prayers - that are now common in the other North Carolina Yearly Meeting. If you were to attend any of their local congregations, you would encounter a worship service that consists of roughly an hour of silent waiting, occasionally punctuated by spontaneous sharing in words or in song.

While Friends here have much in common with the Liberal-unprogrammed tradition represented by Friends General Conference and Britain Yearly Meeting, they see themselves as forming part of a distinct branch of Quakerism. Together with Friends in Iowa and Ohio, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) seeks a middle path between the innovations of the pastoral/Evangelical and Liberal-unprogrammed branches.

Friends in NCYMc place their emphasis on waiting upon the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Informed by their wrestling with Scripture, North Carolina Conservative Quakers seek to submit their lives to the personal, living guidance of the God of Abraham and Jesus. While there are clearly a wide variety of theological understandings within NCYMc as a whole, it seems fair to describe the Yearly Meeting as being fiercely God-centered and intent upon leading lives that are submitted to God's Holy Spirit as it is experienced in each individual's heart, as well as in their midst as a worshipping community.

I was blessed to be with Friends in North Carolina this past week. As a member of Ohio Yearly Meeting, I see these Friends as my spiritual kinfolk. We share a rich historical tradition, and I pray that we might grow closer together as we wrestle with our shared history and tradition as Conservative Friends.

For further reflections on my trip, check out these posts on my blog, The Lamb's War:

Called to be God's Temple - Visiting North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

Being the Body in the Age of Facebook

Greetings from SAYMA by Sandy Tracy

2011-07-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

Friends from across the Southeast held their 40th yearly meeting in the shadows of the Smoky Mountains where Warren Wilson College nestles into the hill just outside of Asheville, North Carolina at SAYMA. This beautiful liberal arts college, along the banks of the Swannanoa River, is known for its programs in environmental sciences and sustainable agriculture as well as its celebrated MFA program.

Weather relief: Although storms raged across the US and tornados and floods in the southeast this year, Friends enjoyed cool, beautiful weather during the SAYMA weekend. SAYMA’s daily activities included Meeting for Worship, Worship Sharing with specific Queries, choices of workshops ranging from Interplay (dance) to piano playing. Attendees also enjoyed plenary sessions on FWCC and Quaker Quest, a Talent Show and a Folk Dance. SAYMA Business Meetings were also held daily as well as excellent children’s programs.

ESR, Earlham and SAYMA: I met two or three folks who had graduated from Earlham and ESR and many were quite interested in hearing about the Access Program. Most Quakers are involved in social justice programs now, but a growing number of Quakers are interested in taking social justice into the workplace.

Blessings and Light,
Sandy Tracy

Sandy Tracy is in the ESR Access M.Div. program with focuses on pastoral care and spirituality and prayer. She is currently working with women and the homeless during her Supervised Ministry year. Sandy is sexton of the Burial Committee and member of the Religious Education Committee at West Knoxville Friends Meeting, and member of the Outreach Committee for SAYMA. She works full-time in Home Care.

Visiting Kenyan and Rwandan Friends, part 2

2011-07-08T11:24:00.000-04:00

Dear F/friends,

I left off the story of our trip on Tuesday in western Kenya. Monday the 27^th we fly back to Nairobi and then took a flight to Kigali, Rwanda. After lunch, we went to the Genocide Memorial Centre. It’s difficult to describe the Center (and heartbreaking to walk through it), so I’ll simply say that it was thoughtful and well put-together. For those who don’t have a firm grasp on the events of the genocide, it’s well worth studying and the Center’s website has a good summary. Built in 1999, only 5 years after the genocide, the Center represents a strong effort on the part of Rwanda to uncover the truth of what happened, punish those that need to be punished, and move on.

As we drove to a restaurant for dinner, I found myself looking at people on street and wondering what exactly there were doing for those 100 days in 1994. Were they Tutsi? Hutu? Did they participate? Hide in their homes? Who had lost family members? I could imagine this kind of thought process driving me crazy. Kigali is beautiful, clean, and the buildings spill out over several hills into a valley. There is quite a bit of new development (modern-looking buildings) and it’s hard to imagine what it looked like in 1994.

At dinner we met with several leaders from Rwanda Yearly Meeting. One of the pastors explained that there needed to be justice and acknowledgement of wrongdoing, but after that the country could not move forward without reconciliation and forgiveness. (To paraphrase her, “There are women whose husbands died in the genocide and they are widows and there are women whose husbands are in prison for being perpetrators and they are both hurting and unable to support themselves. We need to move on and work together.”) Friends here are doing deeply meaningful work through HROC workshops organized by the African Great Lakes Initiative and AVP.

Tuesday the 28^th and the 29^th we spent near Volcano National Park. This park is the home to family groups of mountain gorillas and we had permits to “track” them. Groups of 8 go with each guide (and a few porters, if tourists want them) and hike into the park. Getting to the area of the park where the gorillas is can take half an hour . . . or 3 and a half hours (as it did for my group)! The money from the tracking permits goes to support the park, pay the guides, and invest in infrastructure and services for the local area so that poaching becomes less attractive. I was impressed that Rwanda had such a sustainable model for conserving the park and caring for the animals. The mountain gorillas have 97% the same DNA as humans and can catch our colds and illnesses. I had heard that looking into a gorilla’s eyes is uncannily like looking into a human’s. It’s true, and I now understand why my guidebook referred to the 2007 killing of several gorillas in the DRC by poachers as “murders.”

Our lunch in the villlage

On the 30^th and July 1^st (Thursday and Friday) we were Gisenyi, which is on Lake Kivu and near the DRC border. Etienne, one of ESR’s alumni, is a pastor in the area and we were able to sit down and talk with local religious leaders. (We also got to play with the children of meeting members, who were hanging out in the yard of the meetinghouse!) On July 1st we drove out to a small village where we had lunch with widows and families. Several groups sang for us, and we sang two songs for them as well. We also got to meet some sheep and goats that had been bought with money some of us donated.

On Saturday morning we left and 42 hours later we were home! The trip back was long, but we’re all in generally good condition and more or less adjusted to the Eastern Time Zone. This summary has felt a little jumbled, partly because I’m still processing what I learned and saw. I do have a few general thoughts:

1. I really wish we could sing and dance like the Kenyans and Rwandans we saw! It was truly a gift to see how they worshipped.

2. Traveling to this part of the world is a reminder of how much we think we need in the US but don’t. People do quite fine and are happy with much smaller houses, simpler food, and less stuff.

3. Aid can do good, and it can do harm, and sometimes it does very little. When we give aid (corporately or governmentally) we should discern the needs and gifts to be given with the input of those from the country we wish to aid, as they have the best understanding of logistical and contextual issues. There are many wonderful organizations and projects out there (as I mentioned, we heard first-hand about the world done by AGLI and FUM ministries) and they are worth our support.

4. Friends in both countries were excited to know that American Friends are thinking of them. When we introduced ourselves at the Peace rally and in the village, the Quakers in the group added “I bring greetings from my home meeting of . . .” and this was always met with excitement. I am sure this is not limited to Friends in Africa, but more generally demonstrates the value of intervisitation.

I’ll leave it at that before this gets any longer~

In Peace,
Valerie Hurwitz

Director of Recruitment and Admissions

Earlham School of Religion

Visiting Kenyan and Rwandan Friends

2011-07-05T15:37:00.000-04:00

Dear F/friends,

All of the travelers from ESR have returned safely home, without any major travel delays or mishaps! Many people have been praying for us and it is truly a blessing that we were able to go and return home. There is a good deal of processing to do and hopefully myself or others will be able to share further thoughts on this blog in the future. Micah Bales has already written a really thoughtful and heartfelt post about the trip from his perspective that I encourage you to read. For now, let me tell you a bit about what we did:

The majority of the group left on June 16th and flew to Kenya to go on a safari before the main part of our trip. I did not attend, but met them at the Mennonite Guesthouse on the 20th. One of the first things I noticed was the flowers, bright-colored and spilling out over everything. The guesthouse had a labyrinth with morning glories vining up in the middle. The beautiful flowers and other plants spilling over everything became a theme of our travels.

On June 21st, we went to St. Paul's University in Limuru, where Esther Mombo (a previous Willson Lecturer here at ESR) teaches. There is a Christian-Muslim Relations master's degree program there, and we meet with three professors in this field and some of the students as well. One student was from central Sudan. As we walked, he held up his cell phone: one of his nephews had been killed in the continuing violence there. "Tell people it's still going on", he said, "that many people are still dying there."

The reality of Nairobi hit me as we drove out of the city through a slum. I had read about the slums, the gangs, and the poverty, but seeing them there, with house made out of scraps of everything and anything, is much different. People had told me that you've never really seen material poverty until you've been to sub-Saharan Africa, and soon I knew what they meant in a very gut-wrenching way.

Wednesday the 22nd we flew to Kisumu and were met at the airport by Eden Grace, who works with FUM ministries. We drove up to Kaimosi Friends Hospital. It was fascinating to hear about how a rural Kenyan hospital works:

The hospital became run-down in the 90s, but improvements are being made and the number of patients using the hospital is rising. The HIV care center in particular sees a huge number of people in a given week.
The nearest hospital is at least a half-hour drive away, and most of the people in the area don't have cars. This area also has a particularly high infant-mortality rate, making the hospital uniquely suited to improve the health of people in the area. They have extensive immunization services.
We spoke to the chaplain and some of the volunteers at the Comprehensive Care Center who work with HIV positive people. They do HIV testing, education, support groups, antiretroviral therapy, and testing for complicating illnesses (i.e. typhoid, malaria, or other illnesses that HIV positive people are more prone to get).
We saw baby quilts and clothing, donated by American Friends, being sorted to give to new mothers!
Just as we arrived, there was a baby born premature by c-section (due to maternal health complications). The electricity was out in the region, so the operating room lights had to be run by generator. The incubator, however, drew too much from the generator and the baby was taken to a larger hospital using the land rover donated to the hospital by FUM.

The items donated through FUM really made a difference in the health and lives of those who use the hospital. The generator, the baby clothes, the incubator, and the land rover are extraordinarily and practically useful donations that are well-used.

Lonnie Valentine, speaking about Peace

On the 23rd some of us met Getry Agiza, project coordinator for the Friends Church Peace Teams, at a Peace Rally in the Turbo region, about an hour and a half from Kaimosi. After the 2007-2008 elections, FCPT was formed to facilitate reconciliation between different tribes. For those who are not familiar with the context, after the 2007 elections, some people (splitting along certain tribal lines) were not pleased with the results and even accused officials of altering results. In the insuing violence, buildings were burned, people were driven out of their communities into IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, and some were even murdered. FCPT formed and began, among other activities, to train people to do the Alternatives to Violence workshop in their communities.

Me, drinking fermented milk

The Peace Rally included singing and dancing, people speaking about the value of the AVP workshops and how it had changed their lives, and a firm commitment to peace during the 2012 elections. It was a deeply spiritual experience for me to be there and see how much work on reconciliation had been done since 2007 and how strongly these people had committed their lives to peace. Lonnie Valentine, who is ESR's Peace and Justice Studies professor and an unprogrammed Friend, demonstrated an ability (surprising to many of us), to deliver a passionate sermon on peace in the world. He spoke directly to the heart of the meeting and received many "amens" from the Kenyans there for his words. A Kenyan Nandi (one of the local tribes) brought fermented milk, streaked with ash, to share with everyone. This is considered an honor, so we partook, although somewhat tentatively as this was an odd taste for us.


(Don Spencer, plus children)

Friday the 24th a group of us hoped to visit some of the local Right Sharing of World Resources projects, but at the last minute our trip was canceled. Instead, we traveled into Kisumu to see the city, its museum, and the market. On the way back we stopped at the Equator, where some children walked by and wanted to be included in the picture of Don Spencer, husband of ESR's Christian Spirituality professor.

On Saturday June 25th we all went to Friends Theological College, where we were greeted by women singing in the chapel as we arrived. We met with the faculty and some of the students for singing and worship, as well as heard from one of the faculty about the Friends testimonies in an African context. Kenya has, as mentioned above, recently had difficulty with tribal violence. It also has a long post-colonial history of corruption. Churches still struggle with the idea of women in leadership. Thus, the Quaker testimonies of Peace, Integrity, and Equality could speak a great deal to their lives in western Kenya both in spiritual and in positive, concrete ways. The use of AVP by FCPT after the 2007 elections is a strong example of this.

After eating lunch with our hosts, I went on a tour of the campus with an FTC student. He showed us the FTC farm, which provides both money and income for the institution. They have a greenhouse, a chicken coop, and have a nursery of plants they are raising to sell. As a higher education administrator in the US, I was struck by how different a mentality this is; in Kenya colleges must diversify, coming up with other revenue streams aside from tuition. It was explained to me that this is little different from the life of a pastor: work is part-time and pastor must develop "tent-making" skills that allow them to support themselves materially while allowing them to continue in their ministries.

Some happened at FTC that sticks in my mind clearly. During a break, a few of us walked up to FTC's bookstore to see what they had. There was a stack of baskets on one of the shelves, ranging from larger to tiny. I bought one and when I left the bookstore, one of the FTC faculty said to me, "Oh, I'm so glad you bought a basket!" "Oh?" I asked, thinking that this person's response was a little too enthusiastic for one little basket. "Yes! The widow who makes these brought some yesterday because she heard we were having visitors. Her cupboard is empty and she has no money to buy food."

Yikes. It was difficult to resist the urge to walk back into the bookstore and buy every single basket sitting there. Our tour guide told us that the price of cornmeal, a staple for Kenyans, has quadrupled in the last few years, stressing the food budget of many families. The Kenyans we met were so spiritually and communally rich. The material poverty there makes it tempting to scramble for what you can personally do to "fix" it. I had moments in Africa where I simply wanted to give away all my money, but ultimately I can't know best where money should go or how it should be used. There are also deep structural issues and impediments to development in many countries, issues which we should be asking ourselves deep spiritual questions about. (I think, however, that ESR folks bought most of the baskets, so our widow will have food for the foreseeable future!)

Sunday, June 26 I was not feeling well and unfortunately missed the morning sessions and part of the afternoon. Various ESR and FTC professors presented on Women in Ministry, Being a Mission-Sending Church, and Interfaith Dialog.

Well, I've written a lot and haven't even gotten to Rwanda! I'll finish this on Friday.

With Love,

Valerie Hurwitz, Director of Recruitment and Admissions

Stoney, a local ginger ale which was a particular favorite of some in our group!

Greetings from Illinois Yearly Meeting by Paul Buckley

2011-06-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

In a number of ways, Illinois Yearly Meeting is a throwback to a much earlier era in Friends’ history. Business meetings are held in an 136-year-old meetinghouse without air conditioning, just as they have been since the first sessions in 1875. Following a practice that goes back to the seventeenth century, the yearly meeting’s ministers and elders (now called the Ministry & Advancement Committee) met on the day before the annual sessions commenced. Many of those in attendance camped on the meetinghouse grounds, while others shared rough summer-cabins (i.e., naturally ventilated by the chinks in the walls and with no running water) that were built out of materials salvaged when an old dormitory was torn down.

For the last decade, the historic meetinghouse and its grounds have taken up a large portion of the business sessions. It started with termites in the meetinghouse and a concern for the safety of the dormitory, moved on to a grand plan for a new kitchen, dining hall, and dormitories, and finally to the unexpected purchase of six adjacent acres, complete with a farm house, barn, and assorted out-buildings. Fundraising for this last endeavor was accomplished in the space a few days!

Half a dozen ad hoc and standing committees have been involved in all this work, and it wouldn’t be surprising if a certain degree of property-weariness had set in. But if anything, the steady improvements to the site have energized the meeting – both in its annual sessions and in-between – and to support the work, contributions have more than tripled since 2000.

But not all energy is tied up in bricks-and-mortar. This year, the Ministry & Advancement Committee presented a vision statement for service to the monthly meetings and their members. A centerpiece of this plan is two annual series of events, called days of spiritual sustenance, that are aimed at providing spiritual nourishment to those who, in an earlier time, would have been recognized as ministers, elders, and overseers – especially, those in smaller and more geographically isolated meetings.

While the yearly meeting encompassed much of the theological range found elsewhere among Friends, it seems to have held these in creative tension, rather than points of contention and discord. This isn’t mere tolerance of each other’s divergent views – they seem genuinely to respect the diversity and enjoy their times of worship, business, and more informal discussion together.

William Penn wrote more than 300 years ago, “They meet together – they help and support one another. It is common to hear someone say, ‘Look how the Quakers love and care for one another.’ If it is the mark of primitive Christianity to love one another and know intimate religious communion, to meet frequently to worship God and care for one another, then – bless the Lord! – they have it in abundance.”

You could say it today at Illinois Yearly Meeting.

Paul Buckley is well-known among Friends for his many articles on the history, faith, and practice of the Religious Society of Friends and for his books, The Quaker Bible Reader, Twenty-First Century Penn, Owning the Lord’s Prayer, The Journal of Elias Hicks and most recently, Dear Friend: Letters and Essays of Elias Hicks. He also gives short courses, workshops, and retreats for groups across the Quaker spectrum and occasionally teaches at the Earlham School of Religion.

Greetings from IMYM by Rob Pierson

2011-06-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

Greetings from IMYM! IMYM held its 37th Annual Gathering in early June at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. If you know Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings, you'd recognize Ghost Ranch as her old haunt, with its mesas of ochre, vermilion, yellow and gray rising above the valley cottonwoods. This year smoke sometimes obscured the inspiring vistas – a reminder of raging wildfires to the West, threatening our clerk’s home in the wilderness near the New Mexico / Arizona border.

The Big Country: This year, 333 Quakers camped among sagebrush, bunked on the mesa and ate ribs and barbecued tempeh in the ranch dining hall. There were slightly under 100 Young Friends (up through high school) and over 100 OAFs (Older Adult Friends - a term of endearment chosen by the 60+ year old crowd). I'm in the residual third, neither YAF nor OAF, and this year, aside from representing Earlham & ESR, presenting one seminar on pilgrimage, and being nominated as representative to FWCC, I got to sit back and enjoy the gathering!

Our region spans the vast area from Wyoming south to El Paso and from Colorado and New Mexico west through Arizona and Utah. (That's an area 12 times the size of Indiana!) Many of the Meetings and small worship groups are separated by hundreds of miles. So it is a great joy to gather and worship together. In fact, each afternoon during Early Days offered three hour extended worship sessions. It was also nice to sit over lunch talking with Friends from northern Mexico and Mexico City.

To Diversity & Beyond: One of my favorite activities at IMYM, worship sharing groups, comes in a variety of flavors: traditional, bible-based, intergenerational and Spanish. Although there's inherent diversity within the gathering, we are increasingly aware of issues of privilege based in our predominantly white middle-class roots. The keynote speaker, Niyonu Spann [link: www.beyonddiversity101.org/BD101_associates.html ], a musician, former dean of Pendle Hill and creator of the Beyond Diversity workshops, led singing and spoke on "Confronting Racism." She called us to connect, tell truth, let go of fears that block the Light and do the "heart work" needed to transform systems of discrimination at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.

Immigration and Border Issues: Meetings within our region have decried the militarization of the U.S./Mexican border and the treatment of both legal and illegal aliens within this country.What are we led to do? For many here, immigration is the "Civil Rights of our time" driving them to take a stand and face prison time if necessary - for example by illegally placing water tanks out in the desert to reduce the number of dead from the border crossing. One Friend has recently published a book on the experience of four bright young women in a Denver high school whose fates are intertwined with their differing immigration status.

Yearly and Monthly: Many Friends were gladdened by the focus on immigration. Others were alarmed by the lack of attention to the ongoing wars. The clerk reminded us that yearly meeting cannot offer simplicity. It is our responsibility to maintain simplicity and seek clarity among all the activities. A new Stewardship Proposal re-emphasizes that we find authority and responsibility for service arising at the Monthly Meeting level, with our Yearly Meeting remaining, deliberately, a small volunteer body with no paid staff, minimal budget, and little central authority.

However, I was glad to see, after almost forty years of remaining independent, that IMYM's recent association with FGC had borne fruit through the visits of traveling ministers who worked with us on issues of finances and service through ministry & oversight. Also, although a few Meetings in our region lament a lack of vigor, I was heartened to hear that some of our Meetings are struggling with issues of growth and expansion.

Quaker Art & Rampant Frivolity: Given my own ministry in writing and photography, I was happy to find a renewed emphasis on the arts within IMYM. A move is afoot to associate with the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts (FQA). There was a week-long track for Quakers expressing their gifts in music and dance, sculpting and painting. No longer a "frivolity," the arts are seen as another way of publishing Truth.

No account of the week at IMYM would be complete without mentioning the ultimate frivolity, the "Intergenerational Exchange of Colors." Picture four or five dozen Friends from tot to elder, all dressed in white (at least to start), some sporting goggles to protect the eyes, and clutching bottles of sprayable dye in vibrant blue, green, pink, yellow and red. What would George and Georgia say? (Fox & O'Keeffe, that is)

The ESR Connection: There are quite a few Earlham graduates scattered throughout IMYM, though only a very few ESR grads (for example Peter Anderson. As I try to represent ESR here, I find myself trying to explain again and again why anyone (myself included) would be crazy enough to go to a Quaker seminary in Indiana!

But I was pleased to find unexpected help from another ESR grad on the

Ghost Ranch staff. Susan Rench (ESR, late 1980s) works at Casa Del Sol (Philip Newell's retreat center) at Ghost Ranch, and she sends a shout-out inviting all of you to look into the programs at Casa Del Sol and come out to Ghost Ranch for a retreat!

With love & light from Rob, George F. & Georgia O.,

Rob Pierson

Rob Pierson is in the ESR Access M.Div. program with particular interest
in the relation of science and faith, Quaker readings of the Bible, and
the nature of pilgrimage as a practice of sacred time and sacred place. He
is a systems engineer and clerk of Oversight & Counsel at Albuquerque
Monthly Meeting.

Traveling Among Friends by Mac Lemann

2011-06-21T09:06:00.000-04:00

Traveling to my yearly meeting for the first time in 2009 set me on an unexpected path. Growing up in New Orleans, the eastern-most meeting in South Central YM, I had never attended yearly meeting before. Having recently graduated from ESR, I supposed it was time. When I arrived in Bruceville, TX I was greeted by a newly forming group of Adult Young Friends. Talking with them I realized that we had a common question: What does it mean to be a Quaker today? It seemed that young people in our Religious Society were disappointed with their understanding of Quakerism and were hungering to learn more about the roots of their faith and its practice. I returned home and asked the question in my monthly meeting. They replied; “if you figure it out, let us know.”

I resolved to travel to Pendle Hill. I expected to stay for only one term, but after that term was over I knew that there was still more for me. Living at Pendle Hill gave me a terrific opportunity to meet with Friends from across the country, and indeed the world. Listening to them over meals and in worship I realized that many Quakers were asking the same question: what does it mean to be a Quaker today? I began to tell a story to the Friends that I met. I told them that in the 20th century many people came into Quakerism because of the Religious Society’s stance on equality and peace. It was a very violent century and so it makes sense that the testimony of pacifism was held up above the other testimonies. Many people I met agreed with me.

I also the chance to travel to Guilford College that year as well as Ben Lomond Quaker center for small gatherings focused around “Convergent Friends,” an emerging group within Quakerism that I believed might be addressing the question that seemed to be burning among us. The power of these experiences was not in the answers that arose but in the opportunity to connect with other Quakers in worship, joining together to seek communion and Truth. I came to believe that when we travel to Quaker events we need to have less time in workshops and more time in worship, that our spiritual practice must be the ground of our life as Friends.

I was once in a very powerful worship with several young Friends and Deborah Shaw. None of us felt able to break the silence and close the meeting. Finally, Deborah said, “we separate in body Friends, but not in Spirit,” and we were released. Being in a place like Pendle Hill with many traveling Quakers, and traveling myself across the United States, I and realized that though we are not physically present with one another we are bound together in God when we practice. We can sense the common Truth of our experience as we seek the answer to the perpetual question of what we are, and how we are, as Friends today. Many revelations came to me during that year and continue to follow me since returning home to New Orleans. When I travel to South Central Yearly meeting, to Kansas last Fall, to ESR for the Leadership Conferences, being in worship and meeting with Friends brings a continual unfolding of my sense of where Friends are and what we could be.

Mac Lemann, ESR '07, is the clerk of the Friends Meeting of New Orleans, Board Chair of the New Orleans Food Cooperative, and is renovating property damaged by the failure of the flood-walls after hurricane Katrina.

Travel Interlude

2011-06-17T08:40:00.000-04:00

Dear f/Friends,

From June 16 to July 3rd, the majority of the ESR faculty will be traveling to Kenya and Rwanda. (I am leaving tomorrow on the 18th.) Please pray for us, our safe travel, and for illuminating experiences for both us and the people we will be visiting. We ask all of our Master of Divinity/Master of Ministry students to take cross-cultural trips that allow them to explore theology in a very different context. We're taking a "dose of our own medicine" (actually, for this trip it's more vaccines . . . lots and lots of vaccines), expanding our own experience of Quakerism, and delving into new cultural contexts!

As you might have noticed, our blog posting has slowed down somewhat as the semester has ended here and this trip will continue that trend. You'll hear from some of our alumni and current students on Yearly Meeting annual sessions while we're gone. When we return we will be sure to share our thoughts and impressions from this trip.

Peace,
Valerie Hurwitz

Not the Best, Just Faithful, by Faith Kelley

2011-06-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

As I read through the Old Testament, God calls individual after individual to be part of his plan for humanity and almost every person has a similar reaction, “Sorry, God, not me. You’ve got the wrong guy.” Moses is probably the most famous example of this with his claim that his speech impediment disqualified him from God’s service, but there are other examples. Gideon was so unsure of himself that he made God jump through hoops involving wool and dew. Jonah said no by running in the opposite direction and then pouting. Leadership is avoided.

Sometimes, we seem to have a very different attitude towards leadership. Leadership is something to be grasped and striven for, even in the church. Often we don’t wait for God to call us, but hurry ahead mumbling “Well, someone has to do it.” We set up meritocracies in our meetings similar in attitude to secular businesses and non-profits. People must earn leadership and gain skills, rather than be called and gifted by God. I’ll blame at least part of this on secular society’s expectations and values infiltrating the church, but a good part of it might just be unredeemed human nature. I don’t think running from God’s call is a good practice (as it doesn’t seem to work and may get you swallowed by a big fish), but trying to earn a particular place of leadership in God’s denies God’s grace and wisdom just as much as Moses’s shrinking from the burning bush’s instructions.

For many years I didn’t realize that God’s kingdom works differently than the systems of power of this world. Or even if I knew it intellectually, I didn’t live it. Throughout most of my schooling I was “Super Faith,” with extra-circulars, honors and all A’s. I was very involved in youth group and service work. I was busy all the time. I enjoyed the challenge to do my best, but a big motivation was a desire earn others approval and love. I longed to be recognized and put in leadership positions at school and in my meeting. When I wasn’t a small voice in the back of my head would start to say, “They don’t like you. You’re not good enough. You must have failed.” All my self-worth was tied up in being the best and being in charge.

I probably could have gone on like this for most of my life- striving for the recognition of others and only feeling loved when I was given leadership and honors. I grew up in a Quaker home, had excellent models of faithfulness at my church and was taught about God’s great grace and mercy for each of us. I had gone to the altar and confessed my sins and asked Jesus into my heart. I know he was working there and I felt his living presence, but still had this compulsion to earn my salvation by leading and doing. I, and most of those around me, seemed to all be part of the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps school of spirituality.

Thankfully, after I graduated from college every single graduate program I applied to rejected me. I had no backup plan; no idea of who I was if I was not the perfect student any more. This crisis gave God an opening to begin the process of slowly stripping away what society had taught me leadership meant and where my self-worth came from. A larger part of this work took place in the context being hired as an intern at the William Penn House, a Quaker hostel and seminar center in Washington, DC. My coworkers there encouraged me to ask the question what was God calling me to and then to begin that work. For the first time I began to realize that God was not calling me to be in charge of everything or to be the best at everything. Tied up in this was the radical revelation that God’s love for me was not contingent on me “successful.”

About a year into my internship I was part of a retreat in which someone asked me what gave me life, what filled my heart with meaning and purpose. In a moment of divine clarity I was able to name was God was calling me to more clearly and concisely than I ever had before. I answered that I have a burning passion for creating space for transformation to happen in other people’s lives. Since then the question has always been does this job/event/committee/role fit with God’s call in my life. The focus is no longer on doing and being a leader in everything. Rather, I keep my eyes solely on God and the way he is moving me. Being surrounded by others on a similar journey has been particularly helpful. As a Quaker institution that strives to live what it professes to believe, the William Penn House has allowed me to explore how my call fits WPH’s mission and incorporate the organization’s call with mine where they overlap. I still can be taken over by the desire to be the best so as to be recognized, but the basis of my identity is slowly being remade into something more Christ-like. On my best days I no longer want to be the best, I just want to be faithful.

Faith Kelley is the hospitality coordinator at the William Penn House in Washington, DC. She grew up in Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region and is now a member of Rockingham Monthly Meeting, a part of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Together with her husband, Micah Bales, she has started Capitol Hill Friends, a Christian Quaker worship group in DC.

Young Adult Friends Gathering Video Series - Service Days

2011-06-09T11:38:00.001-04:00

By Micah Bales

This video is the tenth in a series put together from footage and interviews taken during the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. This gathering took place over the 2010 Memorial Day Weekend and was perhaps the most diverse and balanced YAF gathering in generations. Roughly equal numbers of Liberal-Unprogrammed, Pastoral and Evangelical Friends were in attendance, along with a small number of Conservative Friends.

This video features the service portion of the gathering, which took place after the weekend event. We spent our days doing landscaping for Mennonite Housing in Wichita. Our nights were spent playing games and getting to know each other better. While only about a dozen of us were able to stay for the service days, it was a blessed time that had its own special flavor.

Native American Quakerism at Great Plains Yearly Meeting

2011-06-07T11:39:00.001-04:00

By Micah Bales

Great Plains Yearly Meeting was founded as Nebraska Yearly Meeting in 1908, when it was set off (amicably separated from) Iowa Yearly Meeting. Nebraska Yearly Meeting was established as a member of the Five Years Meeting (today Friends United Meeting). It was founded as a pastoral, Evangelical-leaning body of Friends on the great American prairie.

In 1957, twenty-one of Nebraska Yearly Meeting's twenty-seven local churches left NYM to form Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting. Though officially RMYM was “set off” from Nebraska Yearly Meeting, this reorganization was essentially a schism. Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting, with the vast majority of NYM's Monthly Meetings, would become a part of the emerging Evangelical Friends branch. Nebraska Yearly Meeting, with its six remaining churches, would remain loyal to FUM.

It is perhaps an indication of the character of the old Nebraska Yearly Meeting that one of the favorite hymns of Friends in Great Plains Yearly Meeting is "Trust and Obey." In many ways, Nebraska Yearly Meeting represented the "loyalist" faction of pastoral Friends in Nebraska and Kansas. The Yearly Meeting, renamed Great Plains Yearly Meeting in 2001, continues to embody this character.

Today, GPYM is a fellowship of five Monthly Meetings in Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Of the original Nebraska Yearly Meeting, only Central City (Nebraska) Monthly Meeting remains. There are two Meetings in Wichita, Kansas - one pastoral/Evangelical and another non-pastoral. The other two Meetings are Native American congregations in northern Oklahoma. With a total membership of around 600, GPYM is one of most diverse Yearly Meetings in the world. It represents cultures rural and urban, Anglo-American and Native American, theologically liberal and Evangelical.

This year, GPYM met in Hominy, Oklahoma, in the heart of the Osage Nation. We were reminded that a substantial portion of our Yearly Meeting is ethnically and culturally Native American, and we were invited to deepen our relationship with this part of our heritage as a Yearly Meeting. We played local games and learned Osage dances. We heard the stories of the Kiowa people and were blessed by a keynote address of a local Pawnee Baptist pastor, who is doing the work of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ within the Native American context, rather than as something separate and foreign.

Great Plains Yearly Meeting this year gave me much to think about, especially with regards to how our Quaker Christian faith plays out in different cultural contexts. What makes us Friends? Must we adhere to the British cultural heritage of most North American Quakers, or can the gospel as understood by Friends be adapted authentically to non-British, non-Western contexts and cultures?

Thanks to the brothers and sisters at Hominy Friends Church, we are learning what it can look like for a Quaker Meeting to live fully into its non-Western cultural identity, while at the same time remaining true to the gospel of Jesus Christ's living presence and teaching power in our midst. This can only serve to strengthen Great Plains Yearly Meeting as a member of the wider Body of Christ. I pray that this might also provide an example for Friends beyond GPYM.

How are Friends called to emerge from our cultural heritage as a mostly British-originated religious movement? How can we open a space for women and men of all cultures and nations to receive and embody the good news that Jesus Christ has come to teach his people himself? What of our theological insights and traditions are essential, and what ideas and practices can be faithfully jettisoned or adapted in order to meet the challenges of new cultural contexts? I pray we will be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all that we do. I thank God for Friends in Great Plains Yearly Meeting, who provide us with a living example of how this important work is being carried out.

Young Adult Friends Gathering Video Series–The Epistle

2011-06-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

By Micah Bales

This video is the ninth in a series put together from footage and interviews taken during the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. This gathering took place over the 2010 Memorial Day Weekend and was perhaps the most diverse and balanced YAF gathering in generations. Roughly equal numbers of Liberal-Unprogrammed, Pastoral and Evangelical Friends were in attendance, along with a small number of Conservative Friends.

In this video, we hear from one of the members of the YAF 2010 Epistle Committee about the Spirit-led process of composing a statement for the gathered body of Young Adult Friends from across North America.

Make sure to check out the YAF 2010 Epistle, which is available on the Gathering’s the official website, where you can also find the advance materials that Friends were asked to use in their preparation for the conference.

Young Adult Friends Gathering Video Series – Two YAFs Reflect

2011-05-28T16:01:00.001-04:00

By Micah Bales

This video is the eighth in a series put together from footage and interviews taken during the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. This gathering took place over the 2010 Memorial Day Weekend and was perhaps the most diverse and balanced YAF gathering in generations. Roughly equal numbers of Liberal-Unprogrammed, Pastoral and Evangelical Friends were in attendance, along with a small number of Conservative Friends.

This video includes interviews with two Young Adult Friends who share their experiences of the 2010 YAF Gathering.

For more information about the 2010 YAF Gathering, please check out the official website, which features the advance materials that Friends were asked to use in their preparation for the conference, as well as the epistle that those gathered issued at the end of the weekend.

A Visit to Wilmington Yearly Meeting

2011-05-24T10:18:00.001-04:00

By Valerie Hurwitz

During the summer, faculty, administrators, students and alumni from Earlham School of Religion travel to many Yearly Meeting sessions. In addition, we’ll also be at events such as the FUM Triennial, and a group from ESR will be traveling to Kenya and Rwanda to visit with Friends there. Now that the academic year is quieting down, we’ll be bringing you more news from the road!

April 29-May 1, I attended Wilmington Yearly Meeting in Wilmington, OH. Wilmington is an FUM-affiliated pastoral meeting that has part of its meetings in Ohio, and one Quarterly Meeting in Tennessee. As you can imagine the Tennessee quarter has events centered around their meetings, and the Ohio quarters have events centered around their meetings. People work to get to know each other across the distance, but find that this is sometimes a barrier. The Yearly Meeting summer sessions trades off meeting in Ohio and Tennessee. April, as you might notice, is a little early for a northern-ish yearly meeting. Wilmington Yearly Meeting is incredibly excited to be hosting the FUM Triennial this July, and decided that in order to avoid having the Yearly Meeting business sessions and Triennial back-to-back, they would meet now for an abbreviated time.

Wilmington College is affiliated with the yearly meeting, and is the home of the Quaker Heritage Center, a Peace Center, and a Quaker Leader Scholars Program. If you are ever traveling in that area, it’s worth stopping by the Quaker Heritage Center to see what they have on display. The Peace Center has artifacts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also does conflict mediation training with children. Dan Kasztelan, an ESR alum and campus minister, runs the Quaker Leader Scholarship program, which creates a cohort of Quakers attending Wilmington that do community service projects together, as well as community-building exercises. The Yearly Meeting has some wonderful resources right in its backyard!

The first event I attended was a visioning exercise. The yearly meeting has lost membership in recent years and is having serious and thoughtful conversations about envisioning the future of the Yearly Meeting. Friends were asked to consider what are the things they like best about the yearly meeting, and what are the things they like least (or, as I would prefer to say, “the things that can be improved”). Some of the big positives that arose in discussion were the assistance the yearly meeting gives, fellowship with other Friends, the informality of the yearly meetings, the training and recording process, and the feeling that the Spirit is moving in Wilmington Yearly Meeting. People discussed wanting to improve the fellowship, especially between those in Ohio and those in Tennessee. There is also a concern about keeping the Yearly Meeting relevant, about encouraging gifts (pastoral and otherwise), reflecting simplicity and Christ in the Yearly Meeting (simplifying committee structure, for example), sharing Quaker beliefs with others, and encouraging Yearly Meeting youth. This is difficult and necessary work, and Friends were very kind to each other in this process.

That evening was the banquet, and the Quaker Leader Scholars from Wilmington College spoke about how much this program means to them. Dan also showed a slideshow of events and travels from the last year, and I was glad to see several pictures from their trip to the YAF Gathering in Wichita, KS last May! On Saturday the yearly meeting conducted a Bible study and their business sessions. Wilmington YM had a limited amount of time this year for business, and encouraged Friends not to read their reports, but to summarize and move quickly. Friends, they finished their business sessions with two hours to spare! (Clerks, take note!)

I also wanted to share a bit of what ESR student Jon Goff (and pastor of Maryville Friends) told me about the Wilmington YM recording process. Jon and I spoke about this during the YM sessions, and he summarized later over Facebook:

“ . . . WYM records ministers in the areas of Pastoral Minister, Chaplain, and Evangelist. I believe that's all for now, though there's been talk of other areas.

“Within each of these there are a variety of readings based on a core curriculum that each recording candidate needs to go through. I don't know the specifics of the Chaplain and Evangelist track, but in the Pastoral Minister track, some of the areas to read include Old and New Testament, Church History, Pastoral Care, Theology, Friends Studies, etc. A certain amount of reading is required in each field, which basically translates to one book each, chosen by the candidate . . . In addition, George Fox's Journal, John Woolman's Journal, and Barclay's Apology are specifically assigned. In addition to the reading, a three page report is written on each book/reading that's completed. [It should be noted that Jon completed these requirements through ESR’s MDiv curriculum.]

“ . . . In addition, a seasoned Friend agrees to serve as a "Counselor Friend," a mentor to the candidate, meeting regularly (at least once a month, I believe, though I met with mine once a week for a lot of it) to discuss how ministry is going, serve as a sounding board and give guidance about any questions that may come up. Upon completion of the curriculum (reading and writings) and the recommendation of the Counselor Friend, the Training and Recording Committee meets to discuss recommending the candidate to YM Ministry and Counsel; approval is followed by approval, and then the recommendation comes before the Yearly Meeting at large for approval, followed by a recognition during Yearly Meeting Sessions.”

Two things struck me about this. The first is the recognition of specific tracks within recorded ministry, not limited to pastoral ministry. ESR’s MDiv/MMin program has several emphases: pastoral ministry, unprogrammed ministry, religious leadership, writing, pastoral care, spirituality, and peace and justice studies. ESR works to acknowledge the breadth of different types of ministry not only in Quakerism, but also in the larger Church. The second is the academic and interpersonal aspects of the recording process. Candidates both must develop an academic background in relevant areas and spend time with a seasoned minister to give guidance.

Does your yearly meeting record ministers? What is the process? What do you think the process of recording ministers should ideally look like?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Young Adult Friends Gathering Video Series – Sunday Evening and Monday Departure

2011-05-20T13:07:00.001-04:00

By Micah Bales

This video is the seventh in a series put together from footage and interviews taken during the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. This gathering took place over the 2010 Memorial Day Weekend and was perhaps the most diverse and balanced YAF gathering in generations. Roughly equal numbers of Liberal-Unprogrammed, Pastoral and Evangelical Friends were in attendance, along with a small number of Conservative Friends.

This video documents the close of the weekend gathering, with some reflections on the importance of the event.