Travellin'

As mentioned earlier, this week I travelled to Cambridge Friends Meeting. It was nice to experience new people in a new place and learn about them.

I am not the only one travelling - others are going outside of their own religious traditions....

Real Live Preacher will be visiting a Quaker meeting, among other places, and says this:
And on Sunday mornings, I’m going to church myself. I’m going to walk into churches with nothing to do but listen. I'm of the opinion that most ministers need to sit down and be quiet sometimes. Maybe we would if we could. Well, I can now and I will. I will be silent. Here is where I will be this Sunday morning at 10 am. I’m joining a San Antonio community of Friends (Quakers) for a time of silent worship. I hear these people show up at worship with no agenda and no schedule. And no one has to say anything unless the Spirit leads.

I look forward to reading his posts, and recommend his whole post here.

In a similar fashion is Steve Fuller's goal of visiting 52 churches in 52 weeks. Quaker meeting is #16 - and I find it hilarious. It's not my experience, but then, I also keep going back for more!

In my own quest for knowledge... tomrrow eve is Matthew Fox in Portland. A guy who is bent on getting away from specifics, and finding a new way to talk about spirituality that won't make us all nuts. I'm very much looking forward to the weekend!

Wednesday Adventures

I realize this week has been a little full with the Quaker meetings and readings, but I think sometimes it's good for me to immerse myself in something fully as I'm learning.

Today was no exception. I've mentioned before how much I have enjoyed attending the Amesbury Quaker meetings, meeting everyone, and sharing in such a peaceful place. I was curious, however, to see if this experience would be similar if I was at another, different meeting for worship.

Today I was able to answer just that question, as I attended the Wednesday meeting of Cambridge Friends. Totally unfamiliar setting, people I didn't know - and yet somehow I felt that same sense of peaceful quiet, and sure enough, the few words spoken summarized directly what I was feeling at that moment. I have not taken the time to really ponder how the heck that works. For now, just observing. But it was quite a relief. I also met a very nice bunch of people.

Sunday's quarterly meeting was difficult for me - without bothering to rehash the details, I was concerned that I felt so differently from some others present. I spent a few days really bothered by that fact, as I could see no "solution" at the time. I still don't see a traditional "solution" to our differences, but I strongly feel that the way through any group's problems is to allow ourselves to see each other as we really are. Thus, in the spirit of getting to know this wider faith community better, I ended up in Cambridge.

I still feel so "at home" in Amesbury , and that is where I want to be considered a member. But I am glad to have meet such wonderful new Friends and been able to share for a moment in their experiences on this path!

Mary Dyer

Mary Dyer: Biography of a Rebel Quaker - Ruth Plimpton

The biggest review/complaint about this book is its level of writing - and at times it does read like a middle-school book report text. However, it is detailed in its account of Mary Dyer's life. I found it an enjoyable read.

Along with her many "crimes" against the Puritans of Boston, Mary Dyer had a still-born child, considered a "monster", who was secretly buried by Anne Hutchinson. This was seen as proof of her unholy choices. Dyer was led to the gallows once, among two other Quakers who were hung, but she was granted a reprieve. She later returned to Boston and was hung on June 1, 1661, for the crime of being a Quaker.

Anne Hutchinson

American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans - Eve LaPlante

A terrific account of Hutchinson's life and struggles. An outspoken woman with an obvious calling to ministry in a time and place that did not allow for it. Hutchinson was not a Quaker, but spoke often of her "inner voice" and resisted the Puritan doctrine of the time. She was also a great religious influence on Mary Dyer, who was later hung in Boston for being a Quaker. Hutchinson was expelled from Boston (this book has accounts of her trials), and late in life settled in New York until she and most of her family were killed in an Indian raid. There is a statue of Hutchinson at the State House in Boston.

Quaker Lane

I found Quaker Lane today!

A topographical and historical description of Boston By Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff (google books)
has a chapter on the Boston Quaker Burying ground, which is where Quaker Lane now is located.

Quaker Lane had come up a few times in various readings, but I just couldn't find the place. This time I made note of the address of the connecting streets, and there it was. It is a street about 300 yards long, with four intersecting streets coming into it. An odd configuration, it comes from the paving-over of the original cemetery paths. The bodies buried there were interred in Lynn, but the lane remains by State and Congress streets in the middle of bustling Boston.

This book is also great for mentioning Edward Wanton, who became a Quaker after the hanging of Mary Dwyer, and was a shipbuilder in Scituate. I'm still researching the Quaker connection there.

THE QUAKER BURYING GROUND

BOSTON. The Quaker Burying-Ground was established in the year 1709, in Leverett Lane,now Congress Street, opposite Lindall Street. In the rear of the lot the front of the Quaker meeting-house was built, and stood for 100 years. The interments in the grave-yard were comparatively few and infrequent. In 1826, the remains of the dead buried there, were removed to the Quaker burying ground in Lynn, Mass., with the exception of those of two adults, which were deposited in King's Chapel Burying-Ground. The business building first erected on this estate, after the removal of the graves, was occupied by the "Transcript" newspaper.

I will post pix when I can remember to take the camera in for my next trip.

this fabulous thing called the internet.

So, today I had yet another one of my moments of my Internet life crossing paths with my "real" one (I use quotes because I recognize of course that it is all in fact "real")...

Two instances stand out above all else this week. First, at a potluck and gathering mid-week, a conversation ensued regarding some "issue", then unnamed, that was brewing in some Quaker meetings in other parts of the county, and in some smaller (my perception) concerns, here in New England as well. As the conversation went on, a Friend turned to me and asked if I had any idea what everyone in the room (except for me) was talking about. She noticed, in a moment of awareness and caring I am sure, that I, as a "new" Quaker, might not have any idea of the same-sex marriage controversies being spoken of in many ways and many places. I chuckled to myself as I explained that yes indeed, I was aware of the basics (although not perhaps the New England details) of the concerns. The chuckle came as I reflected on where the knowledge had come from - the Quaker blogs of course....

Instance two: Today I met Jeff. Whom I had met briefly before, this summer at my second attendance at meeting in Amesbury. Where had I really felt that I had "met" him? When I read his article here on Quaker Ranter (it spoke even more to my concerns today, BTW). I asked Jeff for some suggestions on how to find more information, and he said, not surprisingly, "keep reading the blogs." Certainly he did not mean as my only source of information, but for a wider view and sense of connection with a larger Quaker community? Of course!

So in two places now this question (in various forms) has come up - "how do we expand membership or awareness of our existence/mission/community to others, both within and without the smaller Quaker community?" I'm not advocating that we in any way diminish the avenues for personal contact that we have now, but as someone who came to meeting via a web search in the first place, I wonder how much longer it might have taken me if Amesbury Quakers had not had a website?

I was asked this week about my Quaker experience, from a curious acquaintance who had been intrigued by my "Quakerish" status updates on facebook. And as someone who has always found great comfort in writing, the added dimension of a blog helps to lend a little more validity to my musings. My first instinct was to send this person to a website for Quaker information, NOT invite her to a meeting, or to speak with me further. I was worried at my instant reluctance to extend an invitation - but I think at that moment, I sensed that she might have been best served simply by basic information.

As someone who came from what I saw as a controlling religious upbringing, I needed the neutrality of the internet to open that door to Quakerism for me. There is no substitute for me for the expectant waiting and community shared in a meeting. However, I'm pretty sure if someone had "invited" me to attend a meeting I would have run the other way. I get wary of being "invited" to religious venues, even if they seem pretty good for me at first. The internet provided a level of neutrality, combined with a rich text of contrasting views, that laid a foundation.

I recognize that my path was one of a reader, a writer, a solitary researcher, and perhaps that path is more unique than I imagine. I certainly also feel "predestined" to end up where I have right now, led by experiences such as Parker Palmer's work at Courage Northeast, and my dialogue process work with Umass' CCT program. Those programs and experiences were not "Quaker" in direct format, but they introduced to me alternate methods of communication, so I felt that when I finally arrived at meeting this year, I had a personal vocabulary upon which to layer a deeply spiritual experience.

I have lots of thoughts still running through my head from a pretty busy week. I suspect this week will be one of "putting it all together" as I return to work and a regular schedule. But I will certainly be keeping up with those blogs and postings, to keep abreast of the larger community that in some way supports my smaller one.

And today, the buy-in moment....

Today was probably close to my breaking point in terms of a long week of Quaker information. I find it doubly exhausting to be so spiritually awakened and yet physically drained. Today had all the exasperating elements of growth and struggle, wrapped up in one day...


As I spend more time with the F/friends of Amesbury and beyond, I grow more curious as to my perspective, and how it influences what I see. All these queries of late, perhaps this whole process, has changed me to the core - the very way I perceive the world around me.


Today was yet another snapshot of Quaker procedure - a quarterly meeting. I had strong opinions regarding many of the issues considered, but I didn't feel quite comfortable yet speaking of issues that I had just been introduced to. I am sure my comments would have been heard and welcomed, but I felt that I merely wanted to respond to the emotion in the room, but not the facts that were then still unclear to me. Thus, I sat and listened with careful concern.


There are many huge issues facing Quakers today - and I came away still convinced of my own views, willing to seek more clarity, but pondering a separate issue - how do we as Quakers, as humans, choose to interact and communicate? Are we truly providing avenues and openings for shared meaning and understanding? Something to ponder:

God comes to us in the midst of human need, and the most pressing needs of our time demand community in response. How can I participate in a fairer distribution of resources unless I live in a community which makes it possible to consume less? How can I learn accountability unless I live in a community where my acts and their consequences are visible to all? How can I learn to share power unless I live in a community where hierarchy is unnatural? How can I take the risks which right action demands unless I belong to a community which gives support? How can I learn the sanctity of each life unless I live in a community where we can be persons not roles to one another? - Parker Palmer

I came away disheartened perhaps at our "failure" to find a resolution to a serious concern. I also was comforted by my strong belief that it is this very crisis of inability to come together that might lead us into new relations with each other.

The words of a friend of mine, who left his Protestant ministerial post years ago, kept popping up into my mind throughout the afternoon. When asked why he left the church he had loved for so many years, he described his conflict in this way, "I see our church and its people as sitting inside a great building, lovely to sit in, but we are merely looking through the windows to the outside as we watch the world pass us by". This was his explanation for why he left that path of faith, that he found stagnant and ineffective.

How many steps does it take for any organization to get to the "easy way out" of blind following without questioning? I chose to associate with my particular membership of Quakers because I find them each, in their own way, deeply caring for others and welcoming. I haven't seen any conflict within their ranks yet - but I have a deep inner sense that when they do encounter conflict, their caring for each other will help them to find a way to come to unity in a way that teaches us all.

So, here's my take on the Quaker version of "un-Robert's Rules of Order": if there is no unity in opinions and views gained after careful thought and prayer, then the issue gets tabled. I get that. But isn't that a little simple? Today a number of us felt there was not unity in our statements re: same-sex marriage. Thus, we developed a new minute that for now, addresses the fact that some of us are not really addressing it yet. And we're going to ask everyone to please try to address it.

Someone also brought up exactly what I had been thinking throughout the first half of our meeting: While this issue keeps coming around for discussion, what if there are there other issues that perhaps are being left out of discussion, that are equally important to us? While we are bantering around with terminology and semantics, the world around us in falling apart, and we have precious little time in which to fix the messes.

And I agree in some sense, determining what takes precedent is a difficult but worthy consideration. But looking back on it now, I do not see today's concern as simply that of same-sex marriage, or even marriage in general. I think it was a symptom of what happens when problems get too big in a meeting - and I'm not so sure the "Quaker way" as I understand it now is capable of responding. I'm still VERY new to all this - and I'm also not sure if my "educational" background in group dynamics and organizational change is helping me to see this as it truly is, or just clouding what is probably still a non-Quaker view of all this. But I did come away today with one more question to ponder: Is silence on an issue, reluctance or inablity to make a statement (even out of respect for members who are conflicted), in itself a statement of purpose or intent? Is it seen that way to outsiders? Or to the membership entrusted to our care?

Of one thing I am sure - very often in these past months, despite the warm welcome, I have still felt like an outsider. This was not imposed upon me, the feeling came from inside. Today was the buy-in. I no longer feel like I don't know enough, haven't read enough, don't have an "issue" to ponder or weigh in on, am too new to the meeting/area/town, etc. Perhaps it took being in a room where I was not the latest unfamiliar face - perhaps I just needed to hear about an issue that for me, was closer to home. Regardless of the whys, THIS message is clear: conflict and consternation aside, I have still arrived home. It's a good feeling.

Measuring up

(alternately titled: Quaker coincidence of the day...)

A life long struggle of mine has been my personal feelings of inadequacy in the face of so many who do monumental work on this planet. I have been fortunate to be in the presence of so many gifted souls - people who create peace, work with those less fortunate, create art and music that inspires and comforts. I have always felt that surrounding yourself with such beings is the first step to living a life of inquiry and growth - but it can lead in the worst of times to a nagging inner conflict of "but what have I done?".

Thus my confusion with my love for Quaker meeting - a truly diverse group of people who all seem to have resumes filled with "good stuff" that has helped our planet. And although I don't consider making the "good stuff" happen a contest, I did find myself thinking "so what?" in regards to my own making-a-difference-in-the-world view of my actions. This week in particular, I met a roomful of people who'd founded schools, created peace camps and classes, and had overcome adversities too horrible to fathom, and I must admit my own life seemed a little smaller, a little less consequential. I've been "here" before, and my choice has always seemed to have been to leave. Yet the Quaker experience, these encounters, on so many levels, just keep drawing me in to where the learning is despite all my self-created quandaries and angst.

And then arrives this morning's meditation on the beach... for which I happened to grab a copy of Faith and Practice, from a darkened kitchen as the family still slept at 6 a.m. As I sipped my coffee and watched the sunrise over Newburyport's marshes, I opened to this:

I think I have wasted a great deal of my life waiting to be called to some great mission which would change the world. I have looked for important social movements. I have wanted to make a big and important contribution to the causes I believe in. I think I have been too ready to reject the genuine leadings I have been given as being matters of little consequence. It has taken me a long time to learn that obedience means doing what we are called to do even if it seems pointless or unimportant or even silly. The great social movements of our time may well be part of our calling. The ideals of peace and justice and equality which are part of our religious tradition are often the focus of debate. But we cannot simply immerse ourselves in these activities. We need to develop our own unique social witness, in obedience to God. We need to listen to the gentle whispers which will tell us how we can bring our lives into greater harmony with heaven.
Deborah Haines, 1978

I do make contributions, every day. Perhaps they seem small, perhaps they ARE small - but they are mine alone to make in response to my unique situations in this world.

As I return to school this week, after a blessed week of reflection and peace, it would do me great good to remember this passage from F+P. I will find out in the next few weeks if I will be laid off from a job where I know my interactions with students, however small and routine, are of great impact, to them and to me, and they may not continue after this spring. How I choose to cope with that news, or how I continue to move on after pondering such an outcome, even if I am offered a contract, will illustrate what lessons I've learned from all of this!

Way opens?

"Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent." "Let your Life Speak," by Parker J. Palmer

I've spent the week doing lots of reading - most of the texts Quaker related. I have two conflicting feelings: I have a deep and unexplained feeling of peace when I am at a Quaker meeting, and yet I am surprised at this since the whole concept of Quakerism is contrary to my usual mode of conversation, action, and measures of success.


I have been blessed to spend time in the presence of some amazing people in these past few months. It has been terrific to see how effective people can be when they find their "mission" or calling in life, or manage to combine "soul to role" as Parker Palmer puts it. It has, however, brought up in me a surprising and lingering discomfort on some level.


The details aren't yet all clear - but I know when I am feeling most effective, most able to make an impact on the world, it is usually in a classroom. And the music, while enjoyable in itself, is just a vehicle - a pretty convenient one that allows me to break down barriers and reach the "unreachables" in my school community. And that might all be going away in the next round of layoffs. Thus I lose my voice, my medium? I am not sure yet how this part of the journey plays out in my favor. But still, I'm not convinced that losing this particular job is such a disaster.


Quakers have this way of sitting, waiting, for a "way to open". I see myself at a juncture right now - but I need to let go of where I am in order for the new paths to emerge. For the first time, I am just sitting. I am not trying on paths of others, venturing into new territories, just sitting. It's not an avoidance of movement out of fear, rather, it's just trying to be still and seek a new awareness of how perhaps I cannot have all the answers right now. I've spent quite a few years trying to do what others have told me is "right" - often, it was right for them but not for me. Too exhausting.

Martin Buber's words came back to me this evening, as I listened to an amazing woman talk about her mission of peace, and how she embarked on what I see as an impossible task. Buber quotes a rabbi who considers the paths to serving God.

Buber says, "this story tells us something about
our relationship to such genuine service as was performed
by others before us. We are to revere it and learn from it,
but we are not to imitate it. The great and holy deeds done
by others are examples for us, since they show, in a
concrete manner, what greatness and holiness is, but they
are not models which we should copy. However small our
achievements may be in comparison with those of our
forefathers, they have their real value in that we bring
them about in our own way and by our own efforts.....

The Baal-Shem teaches that no encounter with a being
or a thing in the course of our life lacks a hidden
significance. The people we live with or meet with, the
animals that help us with our farmwork, the soil we till,
the materials we shape, the tools we use, they all contain
a mysterious spiritual substance which depends on us for
helping it towards its pure form, its perfection. If we neglect
this spiritual substance sent across our path, if we think
only in terms of momentary purposes, without developing a
genuine relationship to the beings and things in whose
life we ought to take part, as they in ours, then we shall
ourselves be debarred from true, fulfilled existence."
- Martin Buber, The Way of Man

I will say I am finding it shockingly easy to draw on all these readings from various and previous days of my life to illustrate the new thoughts that are emerging. I think the Quaker silence is helping with that - I see myself as developing a new "vocabulary" with which to define how I see the world around me. But I do feel that I have a habit of quoting others a little too often....

Oh yes, here's a Quaker commentary for all this quoting of others:
"You will say Christ saith this, and the apostles say this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?" (Margaret Fell, quoting from her first encounter with George Fox)

I'm still working on that inner light angle. But the small voice is slowly getting a little easier to hear.....

Kenyan peacemaker tonight at the Meetinghouse.

7:00 pm at the Amesbury Friends Meeting House.

I am looking forward to meeting her, and finding out about Kenya. More info about her work:


As the Program Coordinator of Friends in Peace and Community Development, Getry is in charge of organizing and coordinating AVP and HROC workshops at the Friends Peace Centre in Lubao near Kakamega, Kenya. She has conducted over 100 workshops herself and serves as the host for visitors, workshop facilitators and participants who visit the Peace Centre. Additionally, Getry has volunteered with the Uzima Foundation doing documentation and training youth about reproductive health and gender-based violence. A very committed peace worker at the grassroots level, Getry is very much involved with ongoing efforts to reduce personal and societal violence by teaching conflict management techniques. The programs Getry works on promote community trauma healing and reconciliation, and they encourage peaceful co-existence with family, neighbor, and community.

More Quaker Books

A week off has given me time to read some great overviews of Quaker writings and history. I would fully recommend each of the following:

An Introduction to Quakerism (Introduction to Religion)by Pink Dandelion

A terrific comprehensive look at Quakerism, past and present. Easy to understand and interesting.

The Quaker Reader by Jessamyn West (ed.)

This long-treasured introduction includes a rich selection of Quaker writings from 1650 to the present. The writings illuminate the tenets of a just and loving religious faith and practice, and can inform and guide those familiar with or new to Quakerism.

Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)by Douglas V Steere

A terrific collection of writings. The contents include: Abridgment of the Journal of George Fox — A selection of passages from the epistles of George Fox — Selections from the Letters of Isaac Penington — Abridgment of the Journal of John Woolman — Selections from Quaker strongholds by Caroline Stephen — Selections from the writings of Rufus M. Jones — Selections from the writings of Thomas R. Kelly.

Matthew Fox is coming to Maine

"Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America. He has the scholarship, the imagination, the courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the more official Christian theological traditions are having difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most creative spiritual traditions of the past. Here he has given us abundant selections from the spiritual literature of the Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and the indigenous peoples of Africa and America to illuminate our understanding of Creation, the Divine, the Human experience of the Divine, and our way in to the future. Out of these sources, and with reference to discovery of an emergent universe by contemporary science, he has, it seems, created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our traditional beliefs".

And I signed up to see him today! I will review his books in a separate post - but overall, I am most impressed with his ability to speak between spiritual traditions, and honor the goodness in them all while creating a new way of seeing. This talk/weekend is sponsored by CHIME of Maine. They have also sponsored a series concerning religions/traditions of the world in Newburyport this year which has been fabulous. I am excited to attend and learn something new!

Quaker Education for a Socially Just World

I was very interested in people's views on the selection of a Quaker school for the Obamas. This is from Marketwatch.


Pulitzer Prize Winners Anthony Shadid and Caroline Elkins; Dean of Harvard College Evelynn Hammonds; Former Chair of Quaker UN Committee Don McNemar; MIT Professor Helen Elaine Lee Explore Social Justice in Quaker Education

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Dec 09, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- By selecting Sidwell Friends as their daughters' new school, the Obamas have touched off a flurry of questions -- and editorials -- on their choice of educational institution. Founded by religious dissenter George Fox in 1652, Quakers (members of The Religious Society of Friends) have long advocated for peace and social justice across race and culture, religion and gender. Actively engaged in the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements of the 17th-20th centuries, the Quakers' involvement in education is another extension of their commitment to seeing "the light within each person." From Washington Post Foreign Correspondent Anthony Shadid, whose book about the Iraqis' perspective of the war in Iraq earned him international acclaim, to Harvard College Professor Caroline Elkins, whose research on genocide in Kenya led to an award-winning book and a BBC documentary film, many educators and authors who are deeply committed to social justice have chosen a Quaker education for their children.


Anthony Shadid, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and author of the book, "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War," addressed the connection between Quaker education and social justice: "If there was one lesson I learned from reporting in Iraq, it was that differences in culture, traditions and even history paled before our commonly held values. Like Americans, the people I interviewed there want their children to eat well, to be safe, to be educated and to live in a just world. More draws us together than keeps us apart. I chose a Quaker school for my daughter because I wanted her to understand that there are principles that join us as citizens of the world, and those principles -- justice, tolerance and equality -- matter."


Caroline Elkins, Associate Professor of African Studies at Harvard College and author of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya," shared her opinion: "I can only believe that if more schools were guided by Quaker philosophy, that there would be far less intolerance in our culture -- and far fewer atrocities in our past and present. If we can teach our children to understand that difference is not the same as inferiority, we will be far less likely to demonize any population which is not a carbon copy of our own."


A leading scholar on the history of race in science, Evelynn Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College, offered her view of Quaker education: "We chose a Quaker school for our son because the environment stimulates students' intellect and creativity but also engenders an awareness of the larger world, encourages personal responsibility, and celebrates human difference while affirming the dignity and value of each human being."


Don McNemar, Board Member, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), former president of Guilford College and former Head of Phillips Academy at Andover, described the Quaker philosophy of education: "Quakers sometimes talk about the role of education as 'awakening the inner teacher,' encouraging the student's curiosity about his or her own spiritual and social values. That approach to education is good for children from all different families, religious backgrounds and social outlooks. Like the vast majority of families who send their children to a Quaker school, the Obamas are not Quakers -- and yet they value this approach to education."


Helen Elaine Lee, Associate Professor of Writing and Humanistic Studies at M.I.T. and a member of PEN New England's Freedom To Write Committee, recently completed the manuscript of her third novel, "Life Without," about the lives of a group of people who are incarcerated in two neighboring American prisons. Professor Lee described the experiences of her son, now in his fifth year at a Quaker school:

"I come from a long line of people who worked to transcend and demolish barriers to full participation in American society. My great grandfather was born a slave and became a university president. As a writer and teacher I create narratives of African American experience which criticize and resist social injustice, and celebrate culture and identity. For the last seven years I have been writing about and working with prisoners because the crisis of incarceration is one of the most pressing issues of social justice before our society. I chose CFS for my son because it is academically rigorous while embedding social criticism in its curriculum and instilling engagement, activism and leadership in its students. CFS develops students into critical thinkers and provides an outlook which they would not get anywhere else."

Mr. Shadid, Professor Elkins, Dean Hammonds and Professor Lee are all parents of children attending Cambridge Friends School. Mr. McNemar is chair of the Cambridge Friends School Board of Trustees.

Book Round-up: Interactions Between Us

These three books I read all in the past few weeks, they are all unrealted, but carry the common theme of how we interact with our environment, each other, and ourselves. All written with careful thought and wisdom.

Turning To One Another
Simple Conversations To Restore Hope In The Future
BY MARGARET WHEATLEY

"I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again. Not mediation negotiation, problem solving, debate or public meetings just Simple truthful conversation where we each have a chance to speak, we each feel heard and we each listen well." This book is a selection of One Book, One Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Plain Living
A Quaker Path To Simplicity
BY CATHERINE WHITMIRE

This book is a collection of the sayings of Friends (ranging from Margaret Fell and Isaac Penington to Jan Hoffman and Patricia Loring) which speak to every aspect of living a spiritually centered and simple life. Topics explored include work, plain speech, money and resources, committed relationships, grief, fear, leadings, community, practicing non-violence, spirit-led service and inward simplicity. Each section is followed by queries. An excellent resource for study groups. "Plain Living will be a well-loved, well-thumbed book, touching on every aspect of our personal choices, as ... we try to walk the challenging walk of holy simplicity." - Elise Boulding

Radical Presence
Teaching As Contemplative Practice
BY MARY ROSE O'REILLEY, FOREWORD BY PARKER PALMER

This book is about our lives as well as our work, suggesting that the "secrets" of good teaching are the same as the secrets of good living: seeing one's self without blinking, offering hospitality to the alien other, having compassion for suffering, speaking truth to power, being present and being real. These are secrets hidden in plain sight. But it takes the clear sight and courage of someone like Friend O'Reilly to call secrets of this sort to our attention.

The Quakers in America

The Quakers In America - Paperback
BY THOMAS HAMM

This multifaceted book is a concise history of the Religious Society of Friends, an introduction to Quaker beliefs and practices and a vivid picture of the culture and controversies of the Friends today. The book opens with lively vignettes of Conservative, Evangelical, Friends General Conference, and Friends United Meetings, reflecting Friends' diversity in the wake of the sectarian splintering of the nineteenth century. "There has long been a need for a study of American Quakers in the twentieth century. With meticulous scholarship and a graceful style, Thomas Hamm has filled this need admirably." -Margaret Hope Bacon

This was a good introductory book for me - available at the Amesbury Library!

Holy as A Day is Spent

For many years, this was my favorite song. It has only recently come to "light" to me why that might be (inside Quaker humor - tee hee)


Holy As A Day Is Spent

Holy is the dish and drain
The soap and sink, the cup and plate
And the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile
Showerheads and good dry towels
And frying eggs sound like psalms
With a bit of salt measured in my palm
It’s all a part of a sacrament
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the busy street
And cars that boom with passion’s beat
And the check out girl, Counting change
And the hands that shook my hands today
Hymns of geese fly overhead
And stretch their wings like their parents did
Blessed be the dog
That runs in her sleep
The catch that wild and elusive thing

Holy is a familiar room and the quiet moments in the afternoon
And folding sheets like folding hands
To pray as only laundry can
I’m letting go of all I fear
Like autumn leaves of earth and air
For summer came and summer went
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the place I stand
To give whatever small good I can
The empty page, the open book
Redemption everywhere I look
Unknowingly we slow our pace
In the shade of unexpected grace
With grateful smiles and sad lament
As holy as a day is spent

And morning light sings “providence”
As holy as a day is spent
Carrie Newcomer

Clearness Committee

From Parker Palmer (Courage and Renewal)...

I want to describe a method invented by the Quakers, a method that protects individual identity and integrity while drawing on the wisdom of other people. It is called a "Clearness Committee." If that name sounds like it is from the sixties, it is—the 1660's! From their beginnings over three hundred years ago, Quakers needed a way to draw on both inner and communal resources to deal with personal problems because they had no clerical leaders to "solve" their problems for them. The Clearness Committee is testimony to the fact that there are no external authorities on life's deepest issues, not clergy or therapists or scholars; there is only the authority that lies within each of us waiting to be heard.

I'm doing a little reading about this process today, as I am participating in a clearness committee tomorrow. I was involved in one earlier in my life, at the NE Courage to Teach program, but this one holds more value for me, and is truly a Quaker process.

I reflect on how we so often need need a special process to remind us to get out of our own way, get out of everyone else's way, and let solutions and peace come to light. How contrary to the "debate and win" methodology I find myself in. And often, even "winning" an argument, "convincing" someone else how to "fix" a problem does not work long term.

Finding safe space to rest on a long journey!

Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775

from Amazon: Daughters of Light by Rebecca Larson is a startling reassessment of the place of women in American colonial history. Larson's story of 18th-century Quaker women describes women's power in popular reform movements of that era, and explores Quaker women's redefinitions of marriage and motherhood. Colonial Quakers, like their contemporary descendants, believed that "the Holy Spirit had been planted in the hearts of all humans to inwardly teach them." Although Quakers had strict rules regarding women's dress, language, and behavior, Quaker women were never denied their claims of a direct connection to God. (Their Puritan sisters, by contrast, practiced a religion that idealized female submission in both the earthly and spiritual realms.) So when Quaker women believed they were called to preach--in meeting houses, courthouses, and private homes; to other Quakers, to Native Americans, and to ecumenical audiences; in the West Indies, England, Europe, and the American colonies--they were given the freedom to do so. All domestic duties were configured to account for divine demands. (The Spirit leading Quaker women, as one wrote, "was to me like a needle of a compass ... for so it pointed where I ought to go.")

Great contribution to women's history writing in general, and Quaker history as well. This book was very detailed, but very interesting. I feel proud of the Quaker's equality after reading this book!

Museum of African Art - Portland

We're hoping to get here in the next few weeks. I met a fascinating man last week - Oscar Mokeme, a Nigerian priest. He presented his masks and his culture at the Newburyport Public library, as a CHIME presentation. He is a very spiritual man, he had a gentle way about him that happened to calm me greatly after a week of great consternation and fear.

He offered blessings to us all, but perhaps just his presence alone was enough for me that evening. I hope we can soon get to his museum, and see the masks and him again!

Six Minutes Against Torture

Brought to you by the New York Yearly Meeting of Quakers. Somehow I find this much more powerful when read in the voices of the yearly meeting members.