The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of the preoccupation with passing things -- yes, even with the workings of our own minds; a resolute fixing of the heart upon that which is unchangeable and eternal. This "silence of all flesh" appears to be the essential preparation for any act of true worship. It is also, we believe, the essential condition at all times of inward illumination. "Stand still in the light," says George Fox again and again, and then strength comes -- and peace and victory and deliverance, and all other good things. "Be still, and know that I am God." It is the experience, I believe, of all those who have been most deeply conscious of his revelations of himself, that they are made emphatically to the "waiting" soul, to the spirit which is most fully conscious of its inability to do more than wait in silence before him.
Caroline Stephen
*November 2006
We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as to once command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor the kingdoms of this world.
Quaker Declaration to Charles II
*December 2006
All the windows of my heart are open to the day.
John Greenleaf Whittier
*January 2007
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.
George Fox
*February 2007
The Church is not a tribe for the improvement in holiness of people who think it would be pleasant to be holy, (but) a means to the integration of character for those who cannot bear their conflicts. It is a statement of the divine intention for humanity.
Harold Loukes
* March 2007
Let women then go on -- not asking favors, but claiming as a right the removal of all hindrances to her elevation in the scale of being -- let her receive encouragement for the proper cultivation of all her powers, so that she may enter profitably into the active business of life ... Then in the marriage union, the independence of the husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal.
Lucretia Mott
* April 2007
Now I find that in pure obedience the mind learns contentment, in appearing weak and foolish to the wisdom which is of this World; and in these lowly labors, they who stand in a low place, rightly exercised under the Cross, will find nourishment.
John Woolman
*May 2007
And the law of God is written in every heart, and it is there that he manifests himself; and in infinite love, according to our necessities, states, conditions. And as we are all various and different from one another, more or less, so the law by the immediate operation of divine grace in the soul, is suited to every individual according to his condition.
Elias Hicks
*June 2007
The position of the pacifist is unbearable if he does not undertake intense, practical action of his own . We need the firm rock of well-directed action if we are to resist the terrible drift dragging us towards reactions of fear, hatred, and violence.
Pierre Ceresole
*July 2007
May we look upon our Treasures, and the furniture of our Houses, and the Garments in which we array ourselves, and try whether the seeds of war have any nourishment in these possessions or not.
John Woolman
*August 2007
Over the years that I have worshipped among Friends, I have become convinced that this very personal form of worship, which is, as well, very corporate, includes all of the elements of worship that one finds in the traditional liturgies, and even in worship traditions beyond Christianity and Quaker practice. I often have said that Quakers practice the "highest" liturgy,- in that we come to it and practice it ourselves, without an intermediary, and therefore we are exposed directly to the power that we are promised in God's presence. I find it an exceedingly demanding discipline, personally, yet the rewards of renewal and strengthening are always worth the effort.
The other observation I think is important is that each one of us comes to the experience of worship utterly equal with all other worshipers present. While we may have "done" this kind of worship before, perhaps hundreds of times, we come to each such experience anew, just as does the person who is coming to it for the first time. In approaching God in true worship, there can be no hierarchy, whether of age, wisdom, intellect, or experience. Worship as experience is truly dynamic and therefore equalizing in the best sense.
That is not to say that experience avails us nothing; rather, it is to say that each experience is its own and therefore fresh and new. For example, through practice, I am often, though not always, able to center more quickly than the first time I experienced unprogrammed worship. But it is always true that if I try to skip centering, it takes me longer to settle into and begin to learn and grow from the other elements of worship. I've learned from experience, but what I've learned is that the process of worship is a discipline and a practice that no one else can do for me and that I must do each time for myself.
Kara Newell
*September 2007
Our faith challenges us as to whether we allow ourselves to become a divided people swept along by the stream of mistrust and fear, arrogance and hatred which produces tensions in the world; or whether by our own decision, confidence and courage, we can become a bridge linking those elements which promote truth, justice and peace.
Bad Pyrmont Yearly Meeting (Quakers in Germany)
*October 2007
Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak.
Britain Yearly Meeting
*November 2007
Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to Him who is within. In secret ejaculations of praise, turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be.
Thomas Kelly
*December 2007
Even in the Apostles' days, Christians were too apt to strive after a wrong unity and uniformity in outward practices and observations, and to judge one another unrighteously in these matters; and mark, it is not the different practice from one another that breaks the peace and unity, but the judging of one another because of different practices… For this is the true ground of love and unity, not that such a man walks and does just as I do, but because I feel the same Spirit and Life in him, and that he walks in his rank, in his own order, in his proper way and place of subjection to that; and this is far more pleasing to me than if he walked just in that track wherein I walk.
Isaac Penington
*January 2008
There is a spirit which I feel, that delights to do no evil, nor to avenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all temptations. As it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thought to any other: if it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring are the mercies and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness, its life is everlasting love unfeigned, and takes its kingdom with entreaty, and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else regard it, or can own its life. It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief, and oppression. It never rejoiceth but through sufferings; for with the world's joy it is murdered. I found it alone, being forsaken. I have fellowship therein with them who lived in dens, and desolate places of the earth, who through death obtained this resurrection, and eternal holy life.
James Nayler
*February 2008
The spiritual formation for my work as a healer came out of the Quaker tradition, out of repeatedly hearing the call in Meeting for Worship and testing it against ego's desire to speak. It comes from once having had a message in Meeting for Worship and not giving it and having a woman stand up beside me in meeting and say, "There is someone in this meeting who has a message who is not giving it. Will Thee be faithful?" The body of Christ, old Quakers say, is not a metaphor. It is a living climate, an organism in which we function. Those who minister are not separate; they are extensions of the one Life and Power. They dwell together in a pool of divine presence, which blends all souls into unity. They are not required to be leaders all the time; they can sink back as needed into the nurture and unity of the body until they are again called clearly forth to stand for the Lord.
Elisabeth Dearborn
*March 2008
I cannot remember when I first discovered that there was a meeting place within, where Spirit met with spirit and where the Above and the below belonged together. I knew it certainly as early as I knew that the water in our lake was buoyant and held up the young swimmer instead of drowning him. The two things came together. I learned to swim and to enjoy silent worship at about the same time.
The whole burden of worship was thrown upon each individual soul. One could be vacant and unconcerned with empty mind, or one could mount up as with wings of eagles into the heavenlies and find the Fatherland to which he belonged. Whatever was done in this period of silence had to be done by the person himself. It was once more like swimming. Nobody could do it for you. You either did your swimming or your worshipping yourself, or it wasn't done. There were no substitutes to perform for you in either of these activities.
Rufus Jones
*April 2008
No Quaker would suggest that Quaker worship, in its private or public aspects is a panacea for the ills of modern life. They would, nevertheless, want to affirm most strongly that their regular participation in silent worship is, at the very least, a vital and necessary form of therapy. By and large Quakers tend to be busy people, and you rarely find them wondering how to occupy their time. They would, however, be the first to recognize how essential it is for them to have periods of disinvolvement, even from the activities which express their continuing concern to care for people .... In our disinvolvement two elements will be present. First is a kind of detachment that while standing back, accepts all experience in the hope of transcending it- seeing beyond it creatively. Secondly a cessation from all mental activity so that the body and mind are as still and quiet as possible.
The Society of Friends has always encouraged its members to seek a daily opportunity to withdraw from, the necessary affairs of life, and, "in inward retirement", to renew their resources, and also to ensure that they get their priorities right. There is no hard and fast rule about how this should be done, and Friends will set about it In the manner most helpful and natural to them .... It is, of course, an individual discipline, but it has a two-fold objective. The first is to enable a person to be in touch with the inner core of his being so that his whole life may be renewed. The second is to help to prepare him to enter more fully into the corporate worship which is the central activity of the Society of Friends ... [Yet] the uniqueness of the Quaker approach lies in its emphasis on the role of silence.
George Gorman
*May 2008
...Sink down into the seed, which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee, and be in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee...
Isaac Penington
*June 2008
The artist and the Quaker are on the same internal journey. Each is seeking a relationship with the Divine, and each is seeking a way to express that relationship. There are just many different ways of expressing it. For many, the path to the Self has to be entered by way of the arts, whether or not we are gifted in that field. That doesn't seem to matter. As St. Paul says: If we have not love, we are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And for many of us, the pathway to love is through the arts. . . . The process of working with and forming material things can lead beyond them to the spiritual, and shape of clay or colors of paint can be a window into another world.
Janet Mustin
*July 2008
If we better studied and understood God’s creation, this would do a great deal to caution and direct us in our use of it. For how could we find the impudence to abuse the world if we were seeing the great Creator stare us in the face through each and every part of it?
William Penn
*August 2008
From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth. (Editor's note: that is, the Bible).
Because they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principle ground of all truth, and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Yet because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty; for as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify, that the Spirit is their Guide by which the saints are led into all Truth; therefore, according to the scriptures, the Spirit is the first and principal leader.
Robert Barclay
*September 2008
First Day Thoughts
In calm and cool and silence, once again I find my old accustomed place among My brethren, here, perchance, no human tongue Shall utter words; where never hymn is sung, Nor deep-toned organ blown, nor censer swung
Nor dim light falling through the pictured pane! There, syllabled by silence, let me hear The still small voice which reached the prophets ear; Read in my heart a still diviner law Than Israel's leader on his tables saw! here let me strive with each besetting sin, Recall my wandering fancies, and restrain the sore disquiet of a restless brain; And, as the path of duty is made plain, May grace be given that I may walk therein, Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain, With backward glanced and reluctant tread, Making a merit of his coward dread, But, Cheerful, in the light around me thrown, Walking as one to pleasant service led; Doing God's will as if it were my own, Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone!
John Greenleaf Whittier
*October 2008
We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.
Bayard Rustin
*November 2008
The life of faith requires that we have
vision, that we be attentive and obedient to revelation. It requires that we
have a sense of the potential for God’s work to take place in and through us—
the capacity to apprehend the ideals which we can grow to embody and personify
in our lives. It also requires an awareness that much of what we must do to
live life fully in faith has been revealed and is to be heeded— a commitment to
being mindful of what Friends have long called Truth and right order in our
lives...
In some places one see Friends who with some
justification, have taken pride in their Quaker heritage, but who now are
content merely to abide comfortably in their familiarity with other members of
the meeting and their versions of the Quakerly way of doing things. One finds
Friends basking in the reputation of Quakers as good people, and resting on
their or their ancestors' laurels...
Our religious life becomes little more than a
maintenance project where we strive to uphold lifeless forms of an ancient and
honorable, but increasingly empty, tradition....
We must be cognizant of how much God has
already shown us and our ancestors about what it means to be in harmony with
divine purpose. These revelations are available to us in the Bible, in the
journals of our Quaker forbears, in the devotional literature, and in the rich
and varied record of human history... It is the challenge to become a people
with a vision…so that Truth might flourish in our lives for the benefit of all.
It is the challenge to become the people God wishes us to be.
Thomas H. Jeavons
*December 2008
Quakers have long since discarded the Quaker gray, the broad-brimmed hat,
and the Quaker bonnet, which were once their distinguishing marks. Other Quaker
ways have disappeared, too. If modern Friends use "thee" it is only
within their immediate family. The prohibition against art, music, and theater
is regarded as the sad mistake of another age. Quakers, a predominantly
middle-class group, share the tastes and interests of most middle-class
Americans.
And yet one Quaker can usually recognize another in a crowd. There is a
penchant for a simple, direct style of dress, a habit of understatement, and a
directness of approach which most Quakers share. In addition the birthright
Friends, the descendants of the old Quaker families, bear a certain resemblance
resulting from common ancestors. There is a Quaker look, Just as there is a
Yankee look, although it is difficult to describe.
Since the Quakers have remained a small group in society, the old Quaker
families are generally interrelated. From Maine
to California
genealogy quickly becomes a topic of conversation whenever birthright Quakers
meet. The years of isolation, of persecution, and of the championing of lost
causes have developed among Quakers a family feeling rather unusual in the
modern world. One Quaker is welcome in the home of another at almost any time
and place. This fellowship is not reserved for the old" Quakers, but
extended to the convinced as well.
Margaret Hope Bacon
*January 2009
Today, June 6, 1999, we Quakers in Tokyo met at the
meetinghouse for a meeting for worship. Heavy on our hearts was our anxiety for
the welfare of our clerk, Ishitani-san, who was recovering from major surgery
on his malignant bladder. Ishitani-san had been a boy in Nagasaki during the atomic bombing and many
felt his cancer was the result of the bomb's radiation. Another result of the
event had been Ishitani-san's life-long struggle against war.
After a half hour of silence, the first one to
speak was my soul partner, Yeri. She spoke about the political refugees hidden
away in Japan's immigration
center near Nagasaki.
Being prisoners of conscious, they were unable to return to their native
countries and they had no other countries to go. Japan has a strict policy of not
normally accepting political refugees. So the refugees stay inside of the
facility with indefinite life sentences. Many had given up hope and suffered
from psychosomatic physical illnesses, waiting for their physical deaths to
follow their spiritual ones.
Then a long-time attendee of the meeting, a
political refugee from Sri
Lanka, spoke. He reported that Ishitani-san
was in very good spirits and that we all had much to learn from his example in
leading a simple Quaker life with humility while vigorously pursuing peace.
After some silence, a woman spoke saying that
speaking with Ishitani-san on the phone, she learned that he had received great
strength from the Psalms 23. She then read it in its entirety, including with
those well-known words, "He prepares a table before me in the presence of
my enemies."
Listening to those words in this context I
found a special meaning. The writer of Psalms does not proclaim the Lord will
destroy one's enemies or even hide one from those enemies. But the Lord places
one among one's enemies and yet provides one's welfare.
I considered how our enemies are other
humans. We are obviously social animals but as we move along in our pack
formations, we need not be simply clogs within a social machine. Yet we so
often seem to be so. Too often we turn our heads away from injustices and
sufferings, thinking we are denying or ignoring such evils or unpleasantness.
When, in fact, we are denying the human virtues that set us aside from simply
being parts of the mass. In other words, when we turn away from others we turn
away from ourselves. Or, as Walt Kelly noted, "We have met the enemy
and he is us."
As we spend deep moments of reflection and
meditation during our meetings for worship and other private moments, we can
witness our weaknesses and failings. In so doing we can see our microcosms as
reflections of larger evils and injustices around us. Yet at the same time we
can experience the Light and hope of God and we have the daily opportunity to
share that light with others around us.
In Nagasaki
many died over 50 years ago and others today quietly die as a result of people
acting for the "common good." As we prayed for Ishitani-san recovery
and celebrated his humble greatness, perhaps we realized that simply accepting
the common good is insufficient. As mystics we may rejoice in gratitude in our
communion with Christ. And yet, that, too, is insufficient by itself. As Henri
Nouwen once wrote, "The appearance of Jesus in our midst has made it
undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are
not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the
cross."
Tom Coyner
*February
2009
THE LIFE of faith requires that we have
vision, that we be attentive and obedient to revelation. It requires that we
have a sense of the potential for God’s work to take place in and through us—
the capacity to apprehend the ideals which we can grow to embody and personify
in our lives. It also requires an awareness that much of what we must do to
live life fully in faith has been revealed and is to be heeded— a commitment to
being mindful of what Friends have long called Truth and right order in our
lives...
In some places one see Friends who with some
justification, have taken pride in their Quaker heritage, but who now are
content merely to abide comfortably in their familiarity with other members of
the meeting and their versions of the Quakerly way of doing things. One finds
Friends basking in the reputation of Quakers as good people, and resting on
their or their ancestors' laurels...
Our religious life becomes little more than a
maintenance project where we strive to uphold lifeless forms of an ancient and
honorable, but increasingly empty, tradition....
We must be cognizant of how much God has
already shown us and our ancestors about what it means to be in harmony with
divine purpose. These revelations are available to us in the Bible, in the
journals of our Quaker forbears, in the devotional literature, and in the rich
and varied record of human history... It is the challenge to become a people
with a vision…so that Truth might flourish in our lives for the benefit of all.
It is the challenge to become the people God wishes us to be.
Thomas Jeavons
*March 2009
My luck is getting worse and worse. Last night, for instance, I was
mugged by a Quaker.