Opportunity for Responses
Just what is the World Family of Friends? From 3-5 September Quakers from Britain Yearly Meeting, Ireland Yearly Meeting, Aotearoa/New Zealand Yearly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will be exploring this question through worship, workshops, activities and fellowship at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, UK.
The participating Friends will be bringing their own connections to many of the Yearly Meetings and worship groups around the world. But I would like to add some more perspectives to share with participants and to share online as a resource for other Friends who want to explore this starter question. To facilitate this, I would appreciate it if anyone would take the time to answer the following questions:
a. Why are you a Quaker?
b. How are you a Quaker?
c. Please give an example of how a Meeting for Worship is conducted in your tradition.
Ideally please keep to a word count of around 800-1,000 but any length of response will be accepted. Please also give me your name and Meeting details. A photo would be great too. Email to jez@friendswitness.org If you prefer to video your response, or have photos online that would help with your response, please email links to uploaded material to the same address. Initial deadline for material for the course is 2 September 2010 but earlier submissions appreciated!
There are many questions being asked in my life lately, I feel I am going through a change and don’t really know where it is leading me.
To start off, I grew up within the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends as a pastors kid. The meetings were usually rather small, some of the members having been members of the same meeting for many, many years. I have come to understand that my Quaker box that I have been living in is rather small, narrow minded, intolerant, and thinking we had it all figured out and my Quaker programmed view was the right view. And yet at the same time, I had a certain dissatisfaction with the way people in the meeting were coming together to meet with the Holy Spirit. It seemed superficial and lacked any true substance, not allowing the Spirit to flow openly. I feel there is a cultural shift taking place, one that is inspired to find the true connection of worship to God. One that is tired of playing church, going to church and now must put on their church smiley face.
I don’t know much about other Friends Meetings throughout the world, but I am coming to understand that it is ok to express our true heart to God in more ways than how I grew up. I wish my meeting would surrender to the Spirit of God, give up the death grip on control, stop being comfortable, and get real with God. I am looking into “Convergent Friends” because I think there are some similar feelings as mine.
I serve in my meeting as a committee member on Christian Education and as the Yearly Meeting Representative. I serve within the NWYM as Co-Clerk on the Board of Christian Education. I am getting ready to attend George Fox Evangelical Seminary on Sept. 9th for a Masters of Ministerial Leadership.
To all Friends out in the world: I speak Gods Blessing over you, I pray you allow Gods Spirit to speak to you, and you respond in obedience. I look forward to expanding my little Quaker box. Blessings to all