Quaker Community Testimony: I

QUAKER COMMUNITY TESTIMONY: I

37. Are Your Meetings Held in the Life (by Margaret M. Cary; 1947)
           When we think of the word relationship in connection with church or community we are drawn . . . to the word fellowship. [Acts and Epistle verses cited: Acts1:14; 2:1, 42, 44, 46; 4:32; I Corinthian 14:26]. In Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater says: “The Church was true for a moment, truer perhaps than she would ever be again, to that element of profound serenity in the soul of her Founder, which reflected the eternal goodwill of God to men.” [Or] as Thomas Kelly says, they were drowned in the overwhelming seas of the love of God, bringing them into a wholly new relation to their fellow Christians. “The center of authority is not in man, not in the group, but in the creative God Himself.
           It is an observable fact that this horizontal-vertical relationship tends to weaken as the groups increases in size. One lives in a kind of circle interlocking with many circles, until the whole membership is permeated, [and a] network of love, [a reality of heart] for the whole meeting [is created]. Thomas R. Kelly says that continuously renewed immediacy—not receding memory of the Divine touch—lies at the base of this reality of heart. Our relationship to the meeting must have in it reality of heart, newness and freshness.
           To attain to a newness of relationship with all things, people, the meeting, our job, we must take time to enjoy & cultivate our very own real, vital, [& creative] interests. We must get in fresh touch with the Eternal every day. The important thing is to keep creative urges as a beckoning light in the back of our minds, as a secret treasure to which we will return. Young mother . . . student . . . volunteer needs to find in the meeting for worship . . . a gathered worship, a deep & spiritual inspiration, perhaps a spoken message or prayer which will be a point of light throughout the coming week. Some are lonely . . . some have outgoing love [to spare] ... some have great mental gifts . . . Some of excellent judgment, wisdom, and executive ability will be ideal committee workers. It is not the gift or talent that marks the worth of a woman to her meeting, but the willingness to share her treasure.
           Out of the real sense of need in several meetings, these are some of the questions that have come: How can a meeting spread initiative and responsibility throughout its membership instead of overworking a small group? How can a meeting absorb children who are growing up in the midst and give them those qualities which will later make for adult leadership? In the light of the existing pressures in our lives how shall a woman apportion her time among home, meeting, and other activities? To achieve unity in worship and in fellowship in large meeting, we suggest the necessity of smaller deeply functioning, worshipping, studying, or meditating groups. [Whatever the focus of these groups, they] must at all times be conscious of and concerned for the meeting worship. Whatever one shares deeply and joyfully and with reality of heart with another reflects itself in the possibilities of greater fellowship in the larger group.
           If through this circle-within-circle method, unity of worship is attained, ways of using every talent will appear. Friends who visit those applying for membership should find out the special interests and abilities of the applicants and record these with the nominating committee. Someone should keep closely in touch with new members until they feel integrated with the group as a whole.
           The meeting should be a fostering group, a kind of matrix for its members, to which individual and other problems can be brought in faith and assurance. First, [there is] the nurture of young people (14-22). This nurture should include education in Quaker beliefs and testimonies, should spring out of young people’s classes managed largely by the young . . . but having one or more understanding men or women [with] a deep, committed, and enlightened concern that these young people shall be nurtured. The second important group to need nurturing is that made up of young parents. The growth and wise development of these parents towards the day when they will assume leadership of the Sunday School is a process that no meeting can afford to neglect. The third section of meeting is that made up of the new members.
           [As Paul said to] Corinth's young church: “When ye come together everyone of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.” Many of us find ourselves in the upper brackets of privilege . . . while much of the world is slowly starving to death, [without] health, shelter, employment, hope, light, or warmth. As women, mother, wives, educators, this is enough to give us pause. I believe that if we first fellowship with one another in & through God, come . . . with reality of heart . . . inner refreshment . . . we shall come to our meetings able to make wise choice as to our particular contribution to the meeting. As Henry Cadbury said: “Your performance must be according to your personal equation.” [The overworked work-horses] need to lay down the burdens for which others have a genuine gift or talent now wrapped up in a napkin.
           There might well be such joy, even a holy exuberance, if we each had daily contacts with Jesus Christ. Meeting for worship has been made open for the planting of the seed. Then indeed the problems of a meeting, whether large or small, new or old, [but definitely a Blessed Community] would solve themselves. We should [then] make full-hearted response to the challenge of the eternally youthful Christ: “What do ye more?”
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212. A place called community (by Parker J. Palmer; 1977)
           About the Author—As of April 1977, Parker J. Palmer is Dean of Studies at Pendle Hill. He holds a Ph. D. in sociology from the Univ. of California at Berkley, & before Pendle Hill spent 15 years in research, teaching, college administration, & community organization. He said that [in writing this pamphlet]: “1st,, I wanted to sort out my experience at Pendle Hill, where I have learned something about what a community is & isn't, should & shouldn't be. 2nd, I thought there was a need to write about community [to include more than communes].            

           Introduction—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 & their consequences are visible to all? The popular image of community, on the other hand, is distressingly sentimental & romantic. The problems of our age will yield neither to personalism nor romance. I write because the religious basis of community is at the heart of every great religious tradition. The Book of Acts reports that the formation of a community of goods was among the 1st fruits of Pentecost. The call to community was clearly a vital part of early Quakerism. At Pendle Hill, George Fox was shown “a great people to be gathered.” Most of what follows is meant to amplify the meaning of the “community” testimony for "now." 

           Quest for Community/Resurgence of Individualism—Much has been made about the quest for community in our day, but our rhetoric is not reflected in our actions. For 3 generations Americans have been in conscious flight from family and town communities. We have been drawn to large cities, and small (disposable) families. As much as we yearn for community, we yearn more for social and economic prizes individual mobility can bring. [We must 1st realize that community] is a value in conflict with other values we hold. Our verbal homage to community is only one side of a deep ambivalence in American character. 

           The settlers of the American frontier had to possess both strength of individuality & capacity for community. [In the meantime we lost our focus on community and are in danger of too much autonomy and isolation]. In community one could find the confining but comforting role which brought life back together. With the break-down of community, new therapy developed, aimed at creating individuals who could get along without others. 

           Education has become a training ground for competition, rooted in the assumption that we must learn to stand on own 2 feet. Competition is providing the means by which society decides who gets what, & how much. In religious life too, community has disappointed & failed us. The new religions with their emphasis on the solitary journey of the inward-seeking self, have found many followers. At their worst, these new religions have made self the vehicle [&] the religious quest's object. “Getting in touch with one’s self” has replaced “seeking the face of God,” because we have lost confidence that anything beyond the self exists or can be trusted. 

           The Risks and Politics of Community—The assumption that community is increasingly hard to find is well-founded. The assumption that community can't be counted upon is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will find the courage to assert [community’s value] & seek it only as we come to a new understanding of what it means to seek self-health. For self-health is one of those strange things which eludes those who aim directly at it, but comes to those who aim elsewhere. The ultimate therapy is to translate our private problems into corporate issues. Some of the truly private ones will fall away, and as we learn to see our own plight in others’ lives, we will begin to find health. What a curious conception of self we have! [Rather than lose ourselves in community, we will gain a] larger and richer content of the self. Once in community, the pain of losing one’s fantasies is fierce. On the other side of all that there is no risk at all, only the confidence that life was meant to be lived together. 

           Both the ultimate therapy & the ultimate politics is to build community. We are lonely because a mass society keeps us from engaging one another on matters of common destiny. Loneliness makes us prey to a thousand varieties of political manipulation. Political scientists have long known that community in all its forms plays a key role in the distribution of power. It amplifies the individual’s small voice so it can be heard by the state. 

           In mass society, on the other hand, individuals in it do not have organic relations with one another, only a common membership in the nation-state. In a democracy, as community begins to wither, the conditions are ripe for totalitarianism to take root. Without [community and a sense of relatedness], people will have no interest in government at all, except as it impinges directly on their self-interest. 

           The American condition seems to be one of deepening privatism. We are more anxious to protect our roles as consumers [and to buy our autonomy] than to develop our roles as citizens. In truth of course we are interdependent, despite our expensive efforts to construct a façade of autonomy. It will be some time before the worldwide pressure to share becomes great enough to make community the only sensible option. Community means more than the comfort of souls. It means the survival of species. 

           Communities: True, False, & Myth—A notable example of false community is the totalitarian society to which the decline of true community leads. Any brand of nationalism or racism is community run amok. 

                         False Community:                                                                   True Community: 

         Tends to be manipulated by the state,                                      Is independent of governmental power. 

        Holds the group to be superior to the individual,                        Individual & group have a claim on truth. 

        Tends to be homogenous, exclusive, and divisive                     Tries to unite persons across fixed lines 

        Idolatrous; their power is God’s power; demonic                       Takes the form of a covenant; self-critical           

           These categories are not fixed, for a false community can turn true, and a true community can turn false. Not all transcendent power is creative or benign. What the power is, and what it demands are factors that determine the quality of a community’s life. 

           The 1st myth to deal with is that community is a creature comfort which can be added to a life full of other luxuries. Community is another of those strange things which eludes us if we aim at it directly. It is a byproduct of commitment and struggle. We can't have it just because we want it—because the foundation of community itself goes beyond selfishness into life for others. 

           The 2nd myth tells us that community equals utopia, that in easy access to one another [there will be universal brother- & sisterhood]. In learning about ourselves & our need for others, there is the pain of not getting our way, but the promise of finding the Way. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is right about the destructive potential of being in love with one’s dream of community. We can begin to know the fullness of truth only through multiple visions. 

           Community’s 3rd myth is that it will be an extension of our own egos, a confirmation of our “reality.” In a true community we won't choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. If our companions are given to us by grace we can avoid the trap of “the purified community.” [Likeness brings harmony; it also brings stagnation]. Community reminds us that we are called to love. Community can break our egos open to a God who can’t be contained by our conceptions. Community will teach us that our grip on truth is fragile & incomplete. Commit yourself to God; in that commitment you will find yourself drawn to community. 

           Forms of Life Together—Martin Buber says: “We expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, and the place is called community. Communes assume that the small intentional, withdrawn community is the only worthy form of the common life. But they are out of reach for many people. For some of us, the community to build is the family, but we will rebuild the community in the family only if the lure of achievement can take 2nd place to the cultivation of relations between the generations. If it seems idealistic to suppose that many people will place community of any sort ahead of financial gain, the prospect of shrinking world resources may force us to do just that. As women lay claim to their economic rights, it becomes clear that men must more fully share the tasks of family nurture if the family is to be a model of community. Perhaps we can move toward larger expressions of community by asking how to enlarge our sense of who belongs to the family. 

           For others, the community to build is in our neighborhoods—which tend to be held together more by mortgages & zoning laws than by love of neighbor. Without local communities, it is impossible for people to have true community nationally. In our mobile metropolitan life, it takes some external force to make a neighborhood become aware of itself as a community. Racial & economic factors have caused false, exclusive communities to form. People in a Washington D.C. neighborhood seminar set out to build community in small, concrete ways. [The very act of organizing neighborhood resources] was itself a community-builder. Others among us may be called to build community in the places where we go to school & work. When we destroy the work community [through hierarchy & competition] we get unethical products, degrading service; in education we get dehumanized teaching & learning. [A change in attitude will be necessary], because most of us are dubious of the benign assumptions about human motivation which lie behind group projects where everyone is “wins,” & no one “loses.” There is evidence that the group really is more intelligent & perceptive than any single member of it. 

           Quakerism and Community—Some of us may be called to build community in our churches, but the church is a human reality and has failed to be the kind of community God (and some of us) had in mind. [If the church could] learn to deal with its secondary differences in the context of its ultimate unity, the church would be the most compelling model community on the American scene. 

           The core of the Quaker tradition is a way of inward seeking which leads to outward acts of integrity and service. The Society of Friends can make its greatest contribution to community by continuing to be a religious society and centering on the practice of a corporate worship which opens itself to continuing revelation. Community happens as that of God in you responds to that of God in me. It is my joy in silent meeting to seek with those who find different ways to express the inexpressible truths of religious experience. 

           The mystical experience of unity isn't often manifest in the realm of human relations; those who seek inward unity may be tempted to flee the imperfections of outward life. The quest for truth among Friends is meant to be corporate, not a private reverie. Friends can contribute to community by refusing to follow religious individualism of our times. Friends also have an important contribution to make in individual growth. It is a Quaker principle that the individual must be empowered, not overpowered or outvoted in the meeting for business. 

           The truth Friends have been given has led them into some of the hard places of history, places where truth must speak truth to power. In these places the living experience of community has been found. [For the persecuted early Friends,] “their necessities kept them together” (e.g. caring for Quaker prisoners and their children; sharing the few animals not confiscated; witnessing to the need for justice). [If we can] abide in faithful living, then we will contribute to the creation of a community both human and divine.
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297. Gospel Order: A Quaker Understanding of Faithful Church Community (by Sandra Lee Cronk; 1991)
           About the Author—Sandra Cronk is a spiritual nurturer, teacher, and historian of religions. For 10 years, she taught Quaker faith and thought, spiritual life studies, and religious community at Pendle Hill. This paper was written to address an issue relating to the religious life and thought of the Society of Friends, and to explore what it means to belong to a community of commitment.

           Therefore keep your meetings, and dwell in the power of truth, and know it in one another, and be one in the light, that you may be kept in peace and love in the power of God, that you may know the mystery of the gospel. All that ever you do, do in love; do nothing in strife, but in love…”      George Fox
           Introduction—Participation in the faith community may be a witness to God’s new order of love, peace, & justice coming to birth in the world; it provides avenues through which God’s presence may touch our lives. “Gospel order” is the term which has been used [collectively for] the elements of Friends’ understanding of church-community, [beginning with George Fox]; Shakers also used the term. [Great national revivals asked]: How can we manifest faithfully our new commitment to God? Coming out of [a 17th-century] revival, Friends sought an on-going life of faithfulness. In our own era, the renewal which has touched many people personally has led them to ask what it means to be part of a faith community which lives as witness to God’s new order.
           Definition—Early Friends expected & experienced the in-breaking of God’s new order in their lives. The Light revealed the ways they had previously turned from God. It led them to Christ, their Inward Teacher & Guide. They felt that ultimately this order would affect all of creation. Early Friends used “gospel order” most often used to describe the communal/church & societal dimensions of this new order. “Gospel” does not refer primarily to the intellectual content of faith or a religious message. [Put together with “order,” the phrase means] the characteristics of daily living which flow from the actual life, power, & reality of a relationship with God.
           George Fox wrote of this relationship as a covenantal relationship. In Scripture covenant means an agreement between 2 parties, and signifies a relationship of abiding trust and fidelity with God. God’s covenant with Noah, and with all life on earth forms a significant element in the development of some contemporary theologies concerning the environment. The recognition that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions acknowledge a mutual covenantal relationship with God has inspired interfaith dialog. The covenant from Mt. Sinai is law and the framework through which the living bond with God may be expressed in everyday life.
           It is in this covenantal tradition that Christians have understood their relationship with Christ as a new covenant. For early Friends the new covenant was Christ Jesus and their living relationship with Christ, not merely a code of behavior. At the heart of Quaker faith is the understanding that one cannot live God’s new order alone. A community is necessary to embody a new pattern of living. Early Friends stressed that God’s new gospel order was present when people lived out of the fullness of the living relationship with Christ. To live in the gospel is the way to experience the empowerment that allows one to embody peace, holiness, and righteousness. Gospel order entailed an ordered way of life that had concrete expressions in virtually all areas of living.
           The Patterns & Structure of Gospel Order—The content of gospel order is in: the inward life of worship & discernment; the interior functioning of the church-community; Friends’ social testimony. 1st, without basic patterns of listening and responding to God, the rest of gospel order would not be possible. 2nd, George Fox said of the meeting-community: “Therefore keep your meetings, and dwell in the power of truth, and know it in one another, and be one in the light, that you may be kept in peace and love in the power of God, that you may know the mystery of the gospel. All that ever you do, do in love; do nothing in strife, but in love…” George Fox urged the community to care for all those with special needs. Gospel order affected marriage, family, and home as well as the meeting. The wedding itself consisted in the exchange of promises between the man and woman. The community witnessed the promises, a sign of its support and an indication that the wedding was a corporate act as well as a personal one. Friends experienced Christ’s ordering work in the patterns of home life.
           3rd was prophetic witness to the larger society. The witness was through testimonies like: plain speech; simple or plain dress; refusal to go to war, take an oath, or pay tithes. For the 1st generation of Friends the testimonies were a prophetic challenge to what they perceived as a vain, unrighteous order around them. Friends refused to participate in the existing social structure when it was faithful [or seemed to usurp the power of] God. The larger spiritual, socio-economic and political witness to that new order coming into the world faded over the centuries. It will be impossible to reclaim the depth of faithful community life without special attention to the holistic challenge to all areas of life, including the social, political and economic dimensions of society. The call to be gathered into gospel order is a witness to importance of the church-community, the people of God.
           Reclaiming the Importance of the Church—Friends might rightly be called a high church group in terms of the importance it places on church-community. Church, in this sense, has become very weak in today’s American society. “Americhristianity” refers to religious communities so acculturated to the society that they end up blessing American society’s general goals & norms. Church as gospel order has disappeared from our theological understandings. Our individualistic framework means that we tend to see religious life in a bipolar way. The bipolar model of religious life sees both the inward life & the work of social concerns in individualistic ways.
           In the Early Friends’ model of being gathered into gospel order, the inward life, the work of social concerns, and the life of the meeting-community are fused together into an integrated whole. Both the meeting for worship and the witness to peace and social justice for Early Friends grew out of living gospel order. That new [gospel] order was already present, at least in the form of a seed ready to grow to maturity.
           The frustration and sense of incompleteness which many feel in trying to deepen their prayer and worship lives or to make a more serious commitment to the work of social justice may find a solution through answering God’s call to be gathered into gospel order as a church-community. The process of mutual accountability was not a way of checking to see whether Friends lived up to certain petty points of lifestyle, but a way to give each other the strength to be a people who listened to God and lived God’s new order.
           [For Queries to Consider before and during Admonition see The Process of Mutual Accountability section]
           The Prophetic & Priestly Dimensions of Gospel Order—characteristic ways Christ enters into relationship with people are called the “offices” of Christ; George Fox speaks mostly about prophet & priest-king. Christ as prophet reveals our unfaithfulness & sin; leads us to righteousness, reconciliation, & unity; & empowers us to act faithfully when led by God. Mediated modes of worship were rejected as unfaithful to trust in God’s direct work in our midst. Ministers were not pastoral overseers, but rather prophetic voices of God’s Word.
           Testimonies of plain speech, non-payments of tithes, & rejection of oaths were all prophetic challenges to the fallen social order. Contemporary Friends have overemphasized reclaiming the prophetic element to the exclusion of a faithful response to Christ as priest-king as well. The priestly function of Christ is manifested among Friends in the everyday life of the community living in gospel order. Early Friends’ apocalyptic struggle with the forces of evil and unrighteousness, [suffering imprisonment and/or death], was named the Lamb’s War. The church, as the body of Christ in the world, lived Christ’s prophetic and suffering servant work as a single witness.
           The Process of Mutual Accountability—Historically, mutual accountability provided an internal dynamic to keep gospel order strong within the Quaker community. Abuses in handling church discipline in the past & the influence of our individualistic society have caused a negative reaction to this phrase. The core of the accountability procedure used by Friends came from Jesus’ [admonition] instructions in Matthew 18. The procedure is 1st, talking to the person in private, then with witnesses present, before the church, & finally if no repentance is forthcoming, disownment. Accountability is not just concerned with members meeting the group’s outward behavior expectations, but about nurturing the deeper relationship of trust, caring & responsiveness.
           In the gospel order, those gathered into the church-community have a covenant with God. Matthew 18 embodies accountability [without resorting to] an impersonal, legalistic framework. On the prophetic side, accountability is a method of mutual admonition. While contemporary Friends have trouble with this quality, early Friends recognized that admonition is an essential ingredient in the way God works with us. Those who have followed Matthew 18 know that to speak to another who has committed a wrong is to make oneself open and vulnerable to one’s own part in the situation, perhaps even revealing a misinterpretation of the situation.
       [Isaac Penington’s Queries to Consider before and during Admonition:]
        Is the thing, or things which thou hast against him, fully so, as thou apprehendest?

        Hast thou seen evil in him, or to break forth from him?
        Hast thou pitied him, mourned over him, cried to the Lord for him, and in tender love                     and meekness of spirit, laid the thing before him?
        Hast thou any hardness of spirit or hard reasonings against him?
        Friends saw mutual admonition as part of a larger process of spiritual guidance and nurture that went beyond the specific advice in Matthew 18, [beyond telling others when they were wrong. It is admonishing a person to be courageous in adversity or to undertake a much needed ministry or service. A prophetic word at the right moment may be just what is needed to introduce us to God’s call, or to help us close the “life-gap” between our awareness of God’s call and our day-to-day behavior. The prophetic aspect of the process of mutual accountability is the commitment to help each other listen and respond to God’s call both as individuals and as a community of committed Friends so that we may live faithfully in God’s new order.
           [The whole of Matthew chapter 18] is about more than prophetic admonition. It assumes people will fall. The heart of faithful living is to learn how to love on the other side of hurt and betrayal. This the way of God’s forgiving love which restores relationships after there is a break or fall. The Foot-washing at Marlborough is about forgiveness and reconciliation, servanthood and spiritual cleansing. It is about Richard Barnard and Isaac Baily. Barnard was a conscientious elder of the Meeting who refused to pay war taxes. Baily was a contentious member of the meeting who was a strong supporter of the Revolutionary War.
           They had a dispute over a waterway, which Baily dammed. Barnard carefully followed Matthew 18 in seeking a solution with his neighbor. [Richard Barnard felt burdened by the lack of water to his property], & by the broken relationship with Isaac. Richard asked God for direction & guidance; the answer came. Richard felt that God was calling him to wash the Isaac’s feet. After resisting the call for a time, he was willing to surrender his notions & be obedient. He carried out the call to wash Isaac’s feet after some resistance on Isaac’s part. Isaac dug away the dam & went to visit Richard. The friendship between the 2 men remained deep & vibrant for the remainder of their lives. These neighboring Friends experienced Christ’s power of forgiveness & reconciliation as a living reality in their lives. Richard’s gift of sacrificial love made reconciliation possible with his neighbor.
           Disownment, once widely practiced by Friends, is now used infrequently. Some contemporary people find this aspect of the accountability process discomforting. Forgiveness cannot be forced; a forced change of behavior is no change at all. If after working through all the avenues of caring outlined in Matthew 18, the meeting felt it had no choice but to recognize that the relationship of love and trust with the recalcitrant person was non-existent, [i.e. disownment]. Disownment was understood not as the intention to cut one off from relationship with the community. It was the recognition that a fundamental covenantal commitment was already severed.
           The possibility of disownment among Friends prevented the accountability process from being a matter of cheap grace. When there is repentance & change of behavior, the meeting welcomes the person back into the community. For the process of mutual accountability to work with integrity, it is necessary for all community members to live in a relationship of love, trust, & caring. We cannot admonish each other unless we listen together for the way God is truly leading each of us as individuals & together as a community. Both the prophetic & priestly dimensions of mutual accountability require a covenantal relationship with God and each other.
           Elders: Overseers of Gospel Order—Living faithfully in gospel order was such a significant part of Quaker faith that a separate ministry of elders developed to oversee this aspect of Friends life. Vocal ministers stressed direct, unmediated communication with Christ who was the inward teacher and guide. The elders, while participating in the unmediated work of Christ, also understood Christ to work in priestly and mediated ways.
           Elders had oversight over worship and the spiritual life of the meeting, daily life of the meeting-community, and the practice of accountability. One of the elders’ primary responsibilities was care of the listening process. The elders rarely spoke in meeting for worship. They helped create an inward space for Christ to enter. Their attitude of deep listening helped the meeting as a whole to center down in worship.
           In joint meetings of vocal ministers and elders, inexperienced ministers could grow in the ability to discern the movement of the Spirit under the tutelage of experienced ministers and elders. The elders functioned as spiritual nurturers. In Quakerism, the spiritual guidance process is more communal than other Christian traditions. As the Friends movement matured, a whole culture of listening developed. Elders were responsible for keeping these avenues of listening spiritually alive and thus exercised a prophetic function. As overseers of these community relationships, elders exercised a priestly function of ministry.
           While God was the author of this healing work, the meeting was the locus receiving God’s love and practicing the art of loving others. The incarnated love helped them understand God’s love. The elders were expected to see that the inward life of Friends was translated in faithful daily living. As Friends communities developed in the mid- and late 18th century, the task of caring for those with special needs began to be separated from the work of the elders and given to that of the overseers. Together the elders and overseers were responsible for seeing that love and caring took practical form in the daily life of the meeting.
           The final part of elders’ work was overseeing the area of accountability. Elders could arbitrate or mediate in disputes, at the request of the parties involved. Elders watched to see if individual Friends & the whole meeting walked faithfully in gospel order. For 1st generation Friends, faithfulness to testimonies was one way to call society-at-large to accountability before God for its unjust social, political, economic, & religious structures. [Over the centuries] the wider prophetic aspect of gospel order tended to fade & has not been reclaimed. The prophetic oversight of the meeting’s accountability work had & has far-reaching potential. The eldering ministry was the church’s way of nurturing the meeting-community as an expression of God’s presence in the world.
           Knowing God’s Will—Through the eldering ministry, we are challenged to understand Quaker modes of knowing God’s guiding presence in the midst of daily life. [For vocal ministry], decisions about where to travel, what meetings to attend, which house to visit, what message to give, were all determined by inward listening to God. They spoke to meetings & individuals as God led them, not as they humanly analyzed the situation. Elders used this mode of knowing too, with mediated modes of knowing used to find out about Friends in their care.
           [The use of mediated & unmediated modes of knowing in worship is the source of the debate between programmed and unprogrammed meetings about] whether to it is right to use the human mind to analyze the needs of the congregation & plan a response or more appropriate to wait upon the Lord in silence & speak spontaneously. [The programmed meeting’s pastor has duties of both vocal ministry and eldering]. Unprogrammed meetings often struggle with these issues independently of any discussion of the pastoral tradition. Understanding the way in which elders held as important both mediated & unmediated ways of knowing can help us do the same.
           Tradition—While recognizing the danger of too much reliance on tradition, friends still saw it as a reflection of the church-community’s living history. The [minutes or] or record of the meeting’s discernment over the years became part of the church’s living tradition. To insist that the community re-evaluate every principle it had come to know through its relationship with God, on every occasion that demanded a decision seemed to make no sense. [On the other hand], in-breaking of the Spirit was necessary to prevent tradition from becoming an idol.
           [The later] traditional patterns of gospel order were stultifying to some people. There was little room for the development of new patterns. Many meetings discontinued the use of elders and many aspects of church discipline the elders had come to represent. Today most meetings must wrestle with the problems that come from lack of corporate discipline. If we forget that God’s new order must take some shape and form in daily life, we risk upholding an airy faith unrelated to flesh-and-blood lives.
           CONCLUSION—The elder was the caretaker of the living tradition which gave shape to gospel order. Gospel order is a rich, multi-valent concept and experience in Quaker faith. It unites the inward life of prayer and worship, the daily life of caring and accountability in the meeting, and prophetic witness in the world. Reclaiming the fullness of early Friends’ understanding of gospel order enables us to hear God’s call to deeper faithfulness today. [Deeper faithfulness calls for deeper listening]. Without this deep listening to the Inward Teacher, any “order” runs the risk of becoming form without power.
           The historical expressions of gospel order help us to come to grips with the areas of our lives where we slide easily and unthinkingly into the uncaring, unjust, exploitative structures around us. Looking at the historical expressions of gospel order raises provocative questions for the community of faith in regard to the nature of corporate commitment and the role of structure in faithful living. Communities of commitment need to see what forms the patterns of faithfulness and the ministry of caring oversight will take today.
           Queries—What does it mean today to be a committed people in covenantal relationship with Christ?      What does it mean to practice mutual accountability that keeps this relationship alive?      Do our lives with each other in our meetings and homes reflect fidelity, love, and trust?      Can we participate corporately in God’s new order so that our love speaks to a world dying from environmental destruction, violence, hatred, & systems of economic exploitation & injustice?
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328. The Servant Church (by Ricardo Elford & Jim Corbett; 1996)
           About the Authors—Ricardo Elford was born in Seattle (1938), entered Catholic seminary at 14, & was ordained 1964. Since 1967, he has worked both sides of the AZ-Sonora border, with Yaqui & Central American refugees. Jim Corbett was born in WY (1933), & became a Quaker in 1962. He ranched in Arizona as an adult as part of a covenant-formed community that converts land ownership into earth rights. This pamphlet is companion to The Sanctuary Church (#270). The latter highlights weaving of human rights initiatives into the social community. This pamphlet highlights the historical warp into which covenant-community initiatives are woven.
           [Abraham is] the father of Jewish, Christian & Muslims believers ... Other races & religions can use an equivalent name [& language] more appropriate to their tradition [e.g.] Translate "God," into "nature," "evolution," etc. If you [seek] to use your qualities ... if you hunger for truth & justice, you can & should go with us.
           [INTRODUCTION]—Helder Camara, prophetic bishop, [& the above quote's author] speaks for the servant church that enacts a way of life no state can or would enact. How does our civilization serve either death & degradation or life & creativity? How can we not live by subjugating & managing each other & the earth? We write to those feeling uninvited or excluded. [The authors' paths crossed] after El Salvador's & Guatemala's military forces & death squads forced 100,000's into exiles. [ICE] hunted refugees as "illegals" & returned them to persecutions they fled. We learned terrorism's politics here & abroad, & about faithful communion. For Quaker herdsman, & Catholic cleric, our discoveries converged & gave birth to this pamphlet. The Bible is a universal, shared inheritance. Sanctuary for the persecuted is a weft that today's covenant community weaves into the prophetic faith; the Bible provides historical warp; sanctuary is a [re-enactment of a Biblical concept].
           How does humankind own or not own the earth? How should men own & rule [or work & live beside] women? Civilization needs to outgrow preconceptions & disabilities transmitted through biblical inheritance. It needs roots in prophetic faith, whose service is constantly concerned with truth, justice, & love. Prophetic community renounces armed force & gives allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom, seeking transformation beyond the reach of state & politics. Their covenant to hallow life on earth with lovingkindness and justice is basic.
           An Invitation to Unbelievers—Belief in God as a being among beings—even the one and only supreme being—has generally been rejected as inherently idolatrous. Helder Camara sees the distinction between "Nature" and "God" as a quibbling difference. Seeing the Bible as ultimate authority is bibliolatry and unbiblical. One needn't bend one's mind to believe what one disbelieves. The rabbinical tradition praises Abraham for standing against worldwide condemnation as an atheist and criticizes Noah for just following orders for not arguing against the flood. Unbeliever and Universalists can be integrated. The torah (a leading)-seeking community needs them for its own integrity and to deepen its faith. Unbelievers, universalists, pacifists, feminists, gays, greens, and others who strive for truth, justice, and love can certainly find much in the Bible with which to disagree. The Bible's meaning needs to be grasped historically rather than ideologically. When we seek to thread the reign of peace, health, justice, and love into our war-making civilization, yet discard the prophetic faith's unfolding of the Peaceable Kingdom, we are weaving without a warp.
           The gospel emphasizes that the people who think they are exclusively included actually can't or won't hear the invitation; those who think they are excluded receive it. The prophet proclaims torah; torah (a leading) is fulfilled by any who choose to walk the way. From the prophetic faith's perspective, Jesus of Nazareth chose to fulfill Isaian torah & found a way. [Neither bodily resurrection or eternal bliss have anything to do with fulfillment of torah, which Jesus reportedly said was his mission].
           The resurrection to afterlife was ignored by the prophets. Early church writers sometimes emphasized that our understandings of afterlife are immature & clouded & our ways of thinking about it are indirect. We need new metaphors about life in the light of eternity. If these new metaphors are fossilized into doctrines, they will surely be the source of new divisions & excommunication. Those who truly love God or Nature realize that we live in Eternity's Light. Eternal time is experienced in works of art. For those who can listen, the Creation itself is a symphony of eternal Presence, but there's no one in the audience. We're all dancers. Unbelievers & believers are equal partners in truly catholic communion, but torah remains the prophetic faith's real concern.
           [Excerpts from Isaiah verses cited here]—Is. 1:2-4 Israel doesn't know [its master]; My people don't understand ... They have abandoned YHVH ... They have turned away from [the Lord]. Is. 1:11, 13, 15-17 What to me is ... your sacrifices? ... Though you make many prayers,/ I won't listen ... Cease to do evil,/ learn to do good;/ seek justice ... defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Is. 2: 3-4 Many people shall come & say: "God may teach us God's way ... that we may walk God's path ... They shall beat their swords into plowshares/ & their spears into pruning hooks/ Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Is. 10: 34; 11: 1-3, 6, 9-10 A shoot shall grow out of Jesse's stump ... The spirit of YHVH ... [counsel, valor, devotion, & reverence] shall alight upon him ... [predator & prey will come] together,/ With a little boy to herd them ... Nothing evil ... shall be done ... The stock of Jesse remaining/ Shall become a standard to peoples—/Nations shall seek his counsel,/ His abode shall be honored.
           Is. 19: 24-5 Israel will be blessed ... [as] Israel My heritage Is. 27:6 In days to come, Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom & put forth shoots, & fill the world with fruit. Is. 28:14-15 You men of mockery ... have made a covenant with Death,/ concluded a pact with Sheol. [You say the flood] "shall not reach us;/ For we have made falsehood our refuge,/ Taken shelter in treachery." Is. 29:13-14 People draw near with their mouths/ and honor Me with their lips,/ while their hearts are far from Me, their worship of Me is ... learned by rote ...The wisdom of their wise shall perish,/ and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.
           Is. 30: 1-2 Woe to rebellious children ... who make plans [& alliances] that [are not] from me ... They leave to take refuge in Pharoah's protection. 30: 9-11 They are a rebellious people, faithless children ... who say, "Don't prophesy to us what is right;/ speak ... smooth things, prophesy illusion ... let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. 30: 15-16 [& 31:1] Thus said my Lord YHVH ... You shall triumph by stillness & quiet;/ Your victory shall come .../ Through calm & confidence./ But you have refused, [&] ... have put ... trust in abundance of chariots ... [you] haven't sought YHVH 30: 19-20 YHVH may give you the bread of adversity & the water of affliction, yet your Teacher won't hide any more ... [you] shall hear ... "This is the way; walk in it.
           Is. 42: 1 Here is my servant whom I uphold,/ My chosen in whom my soul delights ...He will bring justice to the nations. 42: 6b-7 I have given you as a covenant to the people ... to open the eyes that are blind,/ to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons ... Is. 56: 6-8 & the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH,/ to minister to God, to love the name YHVH ... I will bring to my holy mountain ... For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people ... The Lord YHVH gathers the outcasts of Israel,/ I will gather others to them ...
           ISAIAH: The Many Faces of Faithful Service—[Isaiah 42:1 cited] The servant is Israel, the covenant people & the gathered covenant peoples grafted onto Israel. The servant is every person who unites with ancient Israel & enters the covenant to become a people that hallows the earth, from the pious patriarchs & Jews, to Catholics, Muslims, Quakers, pious Popes, Gotama, Seattle, & Gandhi. [God says of & to these people & us (Isaiah 42: 6b-7 cited)]. Other people, such as the Hopi, know the covenant to hallow the earth through a different history and tradition. The central concern of covenant people is what we must do today to live faithfully.
           Faithful service is primarily lovingkindness and justice, not just rituals and professing [Isaiah 1:11, 13, 15, 16-17 cited]. The prophets condemn the substitution of cultic religiosity for the people's covenanted task; they condemn a faith of mere words [Isaiah 29: 13-14 cited]. How do we know true torah, especially when some human beings claim to be ordained by God to exercise magisterial authority? [Isaiah 30: 19-20 cited]. Underlying all written expressions, the covenant of allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom is to seek and do torah. Only a people, [a community] can establish a way that institutes peace and justice as a social order that is discovered and explored, nurtured and cherished through successive generations.
           Against Politics—[Isaiah 30:1-2 cited]. Minimal social righteousness is more a matter of elementary political prudence than of covenant faithfulness; political prudence is a prime target Isaiah's denunciations. Politics is the way of the nations, but it is not the way of the Holy One of Israel. Over the course of recorded history, each next would-be world power has made a covenant with death, putting final faith in coercive violence over faithful communion. Every nation seeks its own advantage over all others. Alliances are designed by deceit, engineered with treachery, and built on violence [Isaiah 28: 14-15 & 30:15-16; 31:1 cited]. Political powers' covenant with death is built on a foundation of organized violence. [It is a choice between divine and human sovereignty; all faithfulness hinges on this choice. [Generations after Exodus sought to have kings over them; Gideon refused. When Saul's generation insisted, Samuel is to let them have a king, after solemnly warning about [the kingly demands on their children and wealth that will result]. The people asked Samuel to pray for them, "for we have added to all our sins the wickedness of asking for a king."
           Against the Warrior Way—[Isaiah 1:2-4 cited] Isaiah must have wondered why YHVH had been so tolerant of this most fundamental betrayal. Israel started as nomads who could assimilate peasants who chose to escape. By the time the Israelites asked Samuel for a king, they were the land's settled inhabitants, and the Philistines were organized for concerted military action under a king, and were overrunning the Israelite tribe. The people want a king to "govern us and go out before us and fight our battles." Isaiah's rejection of the way of the nations was also a rejection of the warrior way, whether imperial or nomadic. The faithful people shall light the way for all peoples [Isaiah 2: 3-4 cited]. [Isaiah's] politicians in Jerusalem thought national survival required vassalage under one or another of the powers, with a crafty eye for timely shifts of allegiance. Isaiah assures them that they will be winnowed, burnt down, smelted, [brutalized by conquerors] and exiled. Yet a remnant shall survive, renew its growth, & persist. The covenant people shall pass through dispersions, inquisitions, apostasies, & assimilations—to conquer conquest & open the way out of war. [Is. 10: 34; 11: 1-3, 6, 9-10 cited].
           Sprouts & Grafts: Relapse, Rejection, & Revival—[Is. 27:6 cited] [Covenant] people choose to serve rather than conquer, to prevail through stillness & peace not contention & war, & claim for itself earth-encompassing tasks, not a territory-grasping empire. [How can peaceful, covenant people, more interested in gaining peace-loving souls than territory, still be a nation or people]? Isaiah insistently denounces every segregation like that of "church & state." In covenant faithfulness, you can't walk 2 ways at once. In the Judaic outlook of the prophets, "if religion is anything, it is everything." United into a people of peoples by being grafted onto Israel, Isaiah's people of YHVH is to be catholic. Yet no less Israel, no less a covenant people. Torah is to be fulfilled, not nullified or replaced. There shall be no alternative covenant; they are made by false prophets & apostate people [Isaiah 30:9-11 cited]. People of peoples can be fittingly called "the church"; the people of YHVH's soul remains Abrahamic, the covenant-formed descendants of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah [Is. 56:6-8 cited].
           [Excerpts from Luke and Matthew cited here (parallels mentioned)]—Matthew 5:44-45 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. [He benefits] the righteous and unrighteous equally. Luke 6:20 Blessed are you who are poor,/ for yours is the Kingdom of God. Luke 6:29-30 (par. Matthew 5:39-42) Do not resist an evildoer. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other also... go the 2nd mile. Give to those who beg; [lend to those who would borrow]. Luke 11:2-4 (par. Matthew 6:9-12; The Lord's Prayer) Luke 16:13 (par. Matthew 6:24) No one can serve 2 masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other. You can't serve God and wealth. Luke 17:20-21 The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say, "Look, here it is, or There it is. For, in fact, the Kingdom of God is among you.
           JESUS: Out of Galilee/ Again Against the Warrior Way—Jesus of Nazareth was thoroughly & totally Jewish; Torah & Isaiah were in his bones [Luke 17:20-21 cited]. Jesus looked into Roman domination's face here & now, & like Isaiah, he didn't despair; God's Kingdom was a seed already planted. Jesus understood the real problem was no longer a golden calf, long ago minted into imperial coinage. Caesar ran the bank; & Herod the local branch [Luke 16:13 (par. Matthew 6:24) cited]. Serving Money or serving Peaceable Kingdom couldn't be further apart. [Jesus was clear with the rich as to their condition & relation to God's Kingdom]. Impoverished listeners must have struggled to comprehend his words about them [being blessed; Luke 6:20 cited].
           Job's discovery about God's use of rewards and punishments comes into real life here in the gospel. Having nothing to lose, the poor can hear the invitation and see the Kingdom; they can even undertake the co-creative imitation of God [Matthew 5:44-45 cited]. Jesus' everyday attitude and actions belied any putting off of the Kingdom of God, [or any measuring of a person's right to sit at God's table by traditional piety]. If the rich and "righteous" appear to be left out, it's only because they exclude themselves.
           No one had to follow Jesus around Galilee for long to see that he left no room for [the image of himself as a violent revolutionary]. [Luke 6:29-30 (par. Matthew 5:39-42) cited]. Jesus calls for a real revolution: the transformation of our involuntary servitude to oppressors into voluntary service to those in genuine need.
           The Sign of the Cross—Any of the rebellious or insubordinate in the underclass could be publicly nailed to the cross as an example to any others who might consider disobedience. Only Jesus, of all the crucifixion victims, found an indelible place in human history, through the sign of the cross. It would be explained through the centuries by a theology of blood payment for humanity's sins. When the followers of Jesus of Nazareth took the cross to be their own symbol of joyful allegiance to the Kingdom, they were truly overcoming conquest.
           [Existing meaning that needs more emphasis is that] Jesus' cross signals freedom, equality, & prophetic faith becoming nonviolent co-creativity, with institution-shattering, community-forming practices, elevating outcasts & the poor into friends serving together in his Kingdom; He invalidates empires [& kingdoms save his own, & transforms rather than destroys evil]. Martin Buber writes: "This world ...contrary, unabridged, unsoftened, unsimplified, unreduced ... shall be consummated ...Every reduction hinders consummation ...It's redemption, not from but of evil ...God, Creator-Redeemer wills to draw to God's arms nothing less than all needing redemption."
           Jesus couldn't avoid the profoundly human fear of death, but he didn't retract his challenge to all other claims to sovereignty or conform to the values of empire. The empire's most nullifying, [shaming instrument of terror flowered as a symbol [honored & embraced by the community]. Those whose faith led them to continue seeing Jesus in their midst after the crucifixion soon began to call themselves church, even though Jesus didn't talk of church. The word well defines those who gather to pray [The Lord's Prayer, among others]. " Your Kingdom come." Indeed it is already in us & around us, but it must burst anew onto the human scene every day ... Life will flourish when empire fades & church—as wide as Isaiah's vision & Jesus' embrace—is born.
           CHURCH: From Cross to Sword—In time, "church" became exclusive, communion gave way to excommunication. Jesus' "Jewishness" faded from conversation. The Roman Empire was crumbling much the way Isai-ah's Judean kingdom crumbled. Emperor Constantine saw that the once-persecuted Christian communities could be used to rebuild the disintegrating Roman monolith. In 325, Constantine's Council of Nicaea converted a covenant people into a [very hierarchical], political organization that replaced the circle of friends that once gathered.
           The 2 [central] Christian tenets were equality and nonviolence, "Church as family" [could not convert to] "church as hierarchy" [without drastic compromises]. The next century demanded that Christians bear arms against others and each other, and call themselves Crusaders, Inquisitors, Conquistadors, led by emperors, kings and presidents. Preachers would quote Isaiah in talking about virgin birth and eternal life, but not about the fairy tale of swords into plowshares. They avoided offending royalty with prophet's thunder over the empire's actions. In spite of hierarchy and sword Christians have done marvelous things; Jesus never stopped healing. But the church has yet to become the forge for plowshares and the banquet for all.
           The Jewish Gospel of Rabbi Jesus—Jesus' Jewish gospel proclaims Kingdom of God among us & rejects divided allegiance. One must choose between serving Kingdom & serving other kingdoms. Those grafted onto Church Israel, don't need to [appear] Jewish to enter into Jesus' prophetic faith; just profoundly Jewish, turning from selfish spirituality so as to take torah seriously. We must gather into societies that seek leadings (torah) they can practice in lifestyle that redeems its homeland. "[The word] isn't in heaven ... or beyond the sea, that you say, "Who will go ... bring the word to us, that we may hear & do it?" The word is very near you. It is in your mouth & heart, so that you can do it" [Deuteronomy 30: 12-14]. After centuries of revisions & postscripts, Jesus of Nazareth's gospel still turns Western, empire-building wisdom upside down.
           Kingdom parables open a way through doubts about the "already-here" & "not-yet" of the covenant people's co-creative task, & about faithful service. If you plant a mustard seed, don't expect a Lebanon cedar, but something near impossible to eradicate & large enough to provide birds shelter. Yeast is associated with everyday corruption & transformation. [Listen] for authenticity in Kingdom parables. It's amazing they're still there after almost 2,000 years of urging to make them politically/ morally correct. To see "that of God in every other means ceasing to want punishments or vengeance for injuries, insults, & betrayals, just as it means not seek rewards for faithful service. Everyone is in communion, no less than those who give up the sword & give away their money. Having discovered that communion is universal & unearned, one is free to choose. [Genuine] members of a covenant community must trust one another to walk the hallowing way they profess, to act as covenant community.
           Walking the Way—Moses brought the covenant that formed the people down from Sinai; his torah gave birth to the covenant people. Jesus brought allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom down to earth as faithful service that is open to all peoples; prophetic faith needed [Jesus'] practical insight to match its vision of the Peaceable Kingdom. How can torah be fulfilled, brought to earth, as an actual practice that hallows every aspect of daily life? If no people give the Kingdom allegiance & serve, there really isn't a reign where it counts, on earth. "What is the fast I choose? To loose the bonds of injustice ... to let the oppressed go free,/ to break every yoke ... to share your bread with the hungry ... [your house with the homeless & cloth the naked] ... Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,/ & your healing shall spring up quickly ... the glory of YHVH shall be your rearguard ... you shall cry for help, & YHVH will say, Here I am ... [If you do loosing of bonds, freeing op-pressed, breaking yokes, sharing bread & home, clothing naked] ... then your light shall rise in the darkness/ & your gloom be like the noonday. YHVH will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs" [Isaiah 58: 6-11].
           Quandries (by Jim Corbett)—Pima Meeting realized that prospective new members should be told that they were entering the meeting's sanctuary covenant, which the U.S. government said was a criminal conspiracy punishable by many years in jail. Quakers are widely known as social activists, but now we rarely act as faithful communities, to initiate humanity's turnaround toward shalom. Quakers generally realize that our reputation is a false front. We are as likely as anyone else to want the state to enact a favorable way of life; we are as assimilated into the dominant culture; allegiances are at least as divided.
           The Clerk of Ministry & Oversight, Clare Goodwell, wonders whether she should tell the policeman now sitting with them to leave his pistol outside. [She thinks of Fox's words to William Penn]: "Wear thy sword as long as thou canst," [& of 2 vocal ministries: one will direct the meeting's response; one will call for self-examination of the members' part in letting this policeman "wear their sword for them" [i.e. "When you take timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's" Luke 6:41-42].
           The basic society of friends can explore & find the way for its members to serve the Peaceable Kingdom, if it will just clear away the delusion that it already practices what it professes. Individuals can resist injustice and refuse to collaborate with violence, but only a community can do justice and practice peacemaking. The contradictions between the professing and practices of individuals are just more slivers. Members of a faithful community can practice their allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom one way or another as their way opens. The policeman leaves before introduction, avoiding any eye contact; many think they must have failed him somehow.
           The legend about William Penn's sword could [reflect concern] for dressing appropriately, or self-defense; it is about neither. It has to do with: How does one deal with a moral quandry? The Inner Guide ponders considerations and struggles with quandries. They don't vanish for those who seek torah within a covenant community, but they cease to be dead-ends; they point toward co-creativity rather than guilt.
           The State's Law necessarily wields the enforcement-sword. If that sword became the Peaceable Kingdom's plowshare, the state would cease to be a state. Torah can be law as well as leadings or guidance, but it is community-grown law rather than state-made law. Fulfillment of torah is rooted in cohesive forgiveness rather than coercive punishment. It forms enduring society by gathering into stewardship communities, not by might & money used to build a nation like others. Torah, covenant people, & hallowed land are inseparable. Service as stewardship is integral to prophetic faith's practice. "Civilized" humanity assumes that we have managerial control of life on earth. This misleading usage is dictated by culture. Faithful practice must correct the word's [enactment by us]. What would it mean if Law's sword were made into stewardship's plowshare? Covenant communities would convert management into symbiotics, possessions into communion, & ownership into earth rights.
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314. Spiritual Hospitality: A Quaker’s Understanding of Outreach (by Harvey Gillman; 1994)
           About the Author—Harvey Gilman was born in Manchester in 1947 of Jewish parents. He studied French & Italian at Oxford, & became a teacher of modern languages. He became a Friend in 1978, a publication secretary of Quaker Peace and Service, and in 1980 outreach secretary for Quaker Home Service. [He has published several things, including poetry]. This pamphlet arises from 1993 Pendle Hill and Swarthmore Meeting talks.
           That of God: Our Leitmotiv [Recurring Theme]—As we reach out to God, we find other people. As we reach out to others we reach out to God. Spirituality is about self, relationship, the other person or people, the world around, and that which is beyond or within all people which confers some sort of meaning to reality, [and purpose to life]. In my search for reality [and purpose], I have been both guest and host. My spiritual journey began in the Jewish world, led through doubt and isolation, agnosticism and atheism, [even] Zen. I tried to make connections at each stage; when that was no longer possible I moved on.
           At each stage I was made welcome. [Along the way people have shared their stories, their anger and bitterness at dying (and at the same time their love of life)]; my father taught me what it could be like to be a man in touch with and not afraid of his deepest feelings. If I have become a Quaker, it is simply because I have found there the best home for my spirit. I hope I am writing for those who are Friends, who are thinking of becoming Friends, who are uncertain, and those whose spiritual paths are taking them in other directions.
           Caroline Stephen, in her classic Quaker Strongholds (1890; abridged version in Pendle Hill Pamphlet #59) writes: "It is not Quakerism, but Truth, that I desire to serve and promote ... That view of Truth which has found in Quakerism its most emphatic assertion ... is of perennial value and efficacy, and the need for fresh recognition [of purely spiritual worship and the supremacy of the light within] seems to be in our own day peculiarly urgent." How welcoming and open are we?      How far are we answering the eternal in each other?      How far we allowing people to find their real selves, where their light shines most brightly?
           The One Who Welcomes—In my 20's I would have called myself an atheist, because I didn't recognize God's face & didn't experience God as living reality. One day, I was startled by unsought apprehension of a harmony underlying all existence. I was startled by feeling I belong to the world, & that it was necessary to see clearly & then I would be in the presence of one who welcomes. To me, "the one who welcomes" is both Christ, not Christ, light, fire, personal, not personal, male, female, & neuter. The welcomer isn't labeled, but is defined by act of welcoming. I use Christ in its original sense of anointed & a translation of the Hebrew Meshiakh. Each human being has a role in creation; we are all as it were anointed with oil for a particular role, a particular way of channeling welcoming grace; we are all called to be Christs. I am careful about using "Christ" in order not to get in the way of welcoming. I most often worship with Quakers in Britain, though I worship also with Anglicans.
           Outreach—Ole Olden wrote to The Friend in 1955: "I should like to change the name seekers to explorers. There is considerable difference there: we don't 'seek' the Atlantic, we explore it. The field of religious experience has to be explored, and has to be described in a language understandable to modern men and women." [One hears of] an open-ended process of seeking, [or of] a great [timeless] find of early Quakerism. [I find that] the ever-seeking and the constant finding live in healthy tension as each generation has sought that which speaks to its condition, weaving more threads into the 350 year-old tapestry.
           People react to what they think others are saying; what they hear is based upon their own past histories. What I am most concerned with is intentional outreach, communicating our faith to theirs, [simply because] faith is worth sharing. John Woolman writes: "That the mind was moved by inward Principle to love God as an invisible, incomprehensible being, by the same principle it was moved to love God in all God's manifestations in the visible world." If God is one who welcomes, then we are called upon to [manifest welcome], to be welcomers.
           Spiritual hospitality is enabling each human being to find his or her sacred space and to dance therein. The image of dance is chosen because it involves the whole body and mind, [while] so many Friends speak and act as if only the head mattered. The dance becomes a process of total liberation where "that of God" becomes real and manifested. How are we liberated in the Spirit or clear channels of the Spirit? If we live and live abundantly, then we can change the world. But the call to life is frightening, as it may lead to and through dark places of the self and to the loss of masks we have been forced and have chosen to assume.
           George Fox writes: "I had a vision ... that I was in this travail & suffering ... I went on & bid Friends dig in the earth ... & there was mighty vaults full of people, & I bid them throw it down & let the people out, & so they did." Fox could use what was blocking his life to help empathize with others & rescue them from pain. Risking opening out to others, risks the opening of Self, & there may be many stones & rocks to remove in the process.
           Fundamental Principles/ Hospitality—How we treat others is our personal statement about God. If enquirers want to know what Friends are about, they will read the books, they will also read us. My "Christocentric" queries are: How are we Christs to one another?      How do we walk as fragile, vulnerable, anointed human beings who were sent to do the Spirit's work? My "Universalist" query is: How much of the universal light do we show in our own understanding of the Spirit?      HOW ARE WE THE GOOD NEWS?
           Hospitality implies reciprocity; it involves a sacred relationship of trust & bonding. The paradox is that we are all travelers, hosts & guests. In the tent image, the tent is the temporary home, we can live there, move within it & with it; it is the explorer's best home. One is host in a house that doesn't belong to them. The earth doesn't belong to us; neither do we own the meeting house. The meeting house is only as holy as we allow God to make it. The members of one meeting told me they loathed the word "outreach" and yet Friends always complain that few people know much about us and what they know is often inaccurate.
           Friends are wary of those who do not see the person at the gate as the holy guest who may be offering us gifts and is a manifestation of God. They see not the guest, but the potential convert, remade in the missionary's image. Hospitality is about accepting the guest in the form and shape in which he or she comes to us. Most of us from a more liberal, mystical, non-evangelical tradition have to reinterpret the evangelical's sacrificial, suffering, death, cross, resurrection vocabulary [before giving assent to this description]. We are about liberation of the sacred through the infinite possibilities and diversities of the sacred.
           Affirmation & Being Good Hosts—Affirmation is the basis of the bond between host & guest. Meeting for worship, & ["finding the sense of the meeting"] in conducting business are [among the] modes of affirmation for the spiritual explorer. [As good hosts], we are about the spiritual health of all who come to us; that involves our own spiritual health. [Many kinds of seekers come to us, among them: the spiritually hurt; the formerly non-religious]. Outreach [after] greeting people is making sure they are ministered to once they are inside the building & giving them the opportunity to minister to us. [Are we seeking the role of host or always wanting to be guest? How can meeting provide an opportunity to meet someone or something beyond all those present?]
           How able and willing are we to show the guests around [our own inner, spiritual] house? Liberal Friends fear being too prescriptive so we lapse into an embarrassed silence. When our guests ask us to share with them, we have the duty to respond. It means accepting the [limited, doubtful, fearful] stranger within ourselves. Some days I think that kindness is everything. By kindness I mean reaching out in love and empathy to the pained world around and seeing our own responsibilities for this state of affairs. Being "nice" can be static, being kind can lead to a greater wholeness and growth. We need to speak to them in a language they can understand, [avoiding] the Quakerese of our many acronyms or our use of words in ways others might not understand. Hospitality extends to the way we speak as well as how we act.
           Community—Community grows when we feel at home with other people, but still remember what it means to be the guest ourselves. There is always the danger that we end up designing our faith-home so that only close relatives feel at ease. The challenges of the guest can be a liberation from the Quaker cliché of language and practice. [If our reception leaves the enquirer untouched, because we fear getting it wrong or our own limitations], then we have revealed our true theology, which may not be the one we profess [out loud].
           We empower our guests to ask what gives us so much nourishment, & we are empowered to share what we have found. [In this asking at its best there is a] meeting of Spirit with spirit, [& an opportunity to share Quaker spirituality, rather than Quaker theology, which can come later]; without the Spirit our theological treasures will seem lifeless. If we have done our part, Friends can rejoice in whatever path the spiritual explorer will take. We can actually rejoice in the diversity and we do not need a formula which will iron out the difference.
           One Quaker treasure is an epistle written by Young Friends in Greensboro in 1985. They wrote out what for them was the essence of Quaker good news. They came up with 4 sources of authority: Light or voice in the heart; discernment of the worshipping group; Christ speaking in the heart; words of the Bible. That we do not all name the tree with the same expression does not impede the growth of the tree. Quaker tradition has thrown up many different expressions for the tree's growth. We are to share its fruits with a hungry and thirsty world.
           Young Friends wrote: "After much struggle ... we can proclaim [that] there is a living God at the center of all, who is available to each of us as a present teacher at the very heart of our lives. We seek ... to be worthy [of] the Lord's transforming word, to be prophets of joy who know from experience and can testify to [God's work in] the world ... We call on Friends to rediscover our own roots in the vision and lives of early Friends; who's own transformed lives shook the unjust social & economic structures of their day ... We call upon Friends across the earth to heed the voice of God & let it send us out in truth & power to rise to the immense challenges of our world today." My prayer is that we be hosts to & guests of this divine voice, hearing it in our own depths, in the words of people we meet, and in the very murmurings of creation.
           Hopes for the Future—On one occasion I fell in love with the town where we joined in a Quaker Meeting's anniversary celebration; we eventually moved there, based on hospitality [we had received]. The Religious Society of Friends will stand or fall by the life it leads today & tomorrow, rather than by sitting on yesterday's laurel leaves. What follows as a conclusion to this pamphlet is a list of hopes or visions related to hospitality:
        I envisage a Friends' Society with a vision that emphasizes the spiritual interconnectedness of all things, and a                         concern for the world's welfare.
        I envisage a Friends' Society with a new vigor in worship, & seeking the sense of the meeting in its business.
        I envisage a Friends' Society of trust and openness, [where the whole person attends, shadows and all].
        I envisage a Friends' Society that focuses on the spirit's liberation and not something's Quakerliness.
        I envisage a Friends' Society experimenting with new forms of community living and discipleship.
        I envisage a Friends' Society of spiritual nurturing and healing, where spiritual journeys are seen as not just a                         movement away from past hurts, but a path towards a positive commitment.
        I envisage a Friends' Society that will find ways of rejoicing in and not fearing diversity.
        I envisage a Friends' Society that bears witness to the full [universal] participation and ministry of women.
        I envisage a Friends' Society that learns from and fully respects children's and young people's ministry.
        I envisage a Friends' Society that celebrates all loving relationships irrespective of sexual orientation.
        I envisage a Friends' Society whose meetings are their community's focus of care.
        I envisage a Friends' Society that respects cultural & language diversities & listens to unfamiliar expressions of God's               voice.
        I envisage a Friends' Society with new ways of witnessing to peace, shalom, respecting life, justice, dignity.
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427. Radical Hospitality (by Lloyd Lee Wilson; 2014)
           About the Author—Lloyd Lee Wilson is a recorded minister of the gospel in West Grove MM (NCYM; Conservative). He wrote Essays on the Quaker Vision; Wrestling with Our Faith Tradition; Holy Surrender; and PHP #409, Who Do You Say I Am? His message is that "Christ has come to teach his people himself."
           Lucie Stone—She was a tiny woman from England, who immigrated to this country after WWII. She visited German prisoners. They glued together pieces of wood, and made a bowl that she still has. Someone broke into her house in the middle of the night. She talked to him, fixed him breakfast, gave him work, and helped him find permanent work. She wouldn't have named it this way, but Lucie Stone was practicing radical hospitality, a way of living in the Kingdom of God in the present moment and a way of bringing the Kingdom into its fullness for everyone, making the Kingdom complete both now and everywhere. You probably believe that answers to or guidance for the most difficult questions we face can be found in the realms of spirituality and religious faith. [We are often not satisfied with the answers] because we are asking the wrong questions.
           The Key Question—The great religious question of my time has been "How can I be saved?" One can hardly avoid engaging this question in today's world, even if only to deny its relevance. Whether the question feels relevant or not, it has profoundly shaped religious & secular cultures. This question perceives the world as dangerous & threatening; life's point is escape from those dangers. This question reflects the notion that the individual is at the center of her story. Inequality, oppressive structures, environmental distress, & other evils are subordinate to individual salvation. This question's typical answer takes the form of rules for avoiding danger.
           How can I achieve happiness and security in such a dangerous world? When one combines this question with being saved, the most common answer becomes, "Follow this set of rules of behavior, except when they conflict too much with the accumulation of power, possessions and privileges." [The question about happiness and security] is the wrong question. The real great question is "How are we to live in God's creation, broken and troubled as it is?" We are to live in a way that helps bring the Kingdom of God in its entirety.
           Perfect Harmony—God yearns for a perfect harmony with all creation & for that same harmony among all of creation's parts including humans, what Friends call gospel order. For we Friends, the universe is at the heart profoundly good; evil places are places of brokenness & distortion, which we are to help heal. [The prevailing] religious-cultural view says the universe is such that there is only so much of any good thing; more for you means less for me. The other view says the universe is inherently good & harmonious; the stranger is our friend. Our actions are testimony to the truth & a tool for facilitating the growth of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is already establishing itself in the world, here now but not yet present in its entirety. Creation is both profoundly good & unfinished. We were created to live in harmony with God of our own free will. It brings us the greatest happiness & security. We are invited to live into the relationship God yearns to have with us.
           Ethical Basis: Consequentialist Ethics/ Deontological Ethics—How are we to live in the world in which God has placed us? A student asked me 3 questions about my nonviolent commitment. The 1st focused on the consequences of my ethical stand. In Consequentialist Ethics the ends do justify the means: one judges whether an act is ethical or not by its consequences. One should act so as to produce the best consequences possible. We can't accurately predict the consequences or outcomes of our actions. Ethics based on unknown or unpredictable consequences is inadequate for the life in harmony with the Kingdom of God that we seek to live.
           In deontological ethics, an action is judged to be ethical or not depending on whether it is consistent with a given set of rules. Most of us are familiar with what is called the divine command theory, where God declares an act ethical. The actual practice of divine command has problems when people disagree on which rules are applicable in a given situation, or how to apply a rule. Jesus demonstrated how difficult it is to use divine command as the basis of ethical decision. Quakerism, with its continuing revelation, had to be wary of ethics that depends on a fixed understanding of divine instructions. In 1656, Balby elders wrote down 20 "necessary things, and then added: "These things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by; but that all with a measure of the Light which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the Light walking and abiding, these may be ful-filled in the Spirit, not in the letter; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."
           Ethical Basis: Virtue Ethics—If I'm not choosing one of the 1st 2 Bases, how am I making ethical choices? Being committed to choose peace because that's the kind of person I want to be is part of virtue ethics. My ethical choices are designed to bring me closer to emulating Jesus. What sort of person is at home in God's Kingdom & would help that Kingdom get established & flourish? Greek classical ethics' goal was to reach eudaimonia, activity in accordance with perfect virtue. Our 1st task is for us to enter the Kingdom. 3 principles which are especially relevant to sustaining the Kingdom's harmony are inclusiveness, self-sacrifice, & noncoercion. Radical hospitality is lived "at the root," & says everyone is welcomed, has a place at the table, has enough; no one has too much. Jesus' life & teachings demonstrate radical hospitality [& the 3 principles mentioned above].
           Inclusiveness—We gradually learn that there is something desirable about being different from the "others." We often express this as there being something undesirable about being an "other." The important thing about this behavior is that it isn't how God behaves. God is creator of everything & everyone, caring for & sustaining every person & every part of creation in every moment. We often want God to be on our side, against the other.
           A lawyer asked Jesus essentially: "What is the minimum amount of love of neighbor required of me? Jesus responded with the "Good Samaritan" story. [Supposedly upright Jewish folk did not help a man in desperate need. Only a Samaritan, a bitter enemy of the Jews was willing to help. A Samaritan was by definition an outsider, a rebel, heretic, half-breed, political subversive worthy only to be despised by any good Jew. When the Samaritan stopped to help he did not see an enemy who despised him, he saw a neighbor who needed help. This is the inclusiveness of radical hospitality. [The unclean, "unacceptable" people Jesus dealt with and healed were placed at the center of the story of the Kingdom].
           Kenosis—The metaphor for current North American life is someone constantly stuffing themselves with possessions, power, privilege, and rights to keep the wolf from the door. The problem for Qoheleth in Ecclesiastes and for all of us who walk the path of accumulation, is that God doesn't act that way and does not want us to act that way either. [Seeing God as the one of whom we say "For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory"] prevents us from seeing and hearing God more clearly than we do.
           [In contrast to a life of accumulation,] Jesus' teaching and example gives us kenosis—self-emptying, a giving up of power, possessions, and privileges as a strategy or way of life. In Philippians 2, Paul writes of Jesus: "Christ Jesus did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness." God chose to become human, to practice solidarity with humanity, rather than use power or coercion; we are called to the same path.
           In the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman, Jesus was tired—he had been teaching non-stop—and wanted some quiet time to rest and pray. His hoped-for privacy was immediately violated by a Gentile woman who barged into his presence unchaperoned and asked him to go back to work. He tried to give Jews precedence over her. She countered by saying she is not asking much—not more than the crumbs which fall from the table when the children eat; he healed the woman's daughter from a distance. He allowed her to question the truth of his statements. Jesus' example calls for us to set much of our safety aside and to engage others as though we were "nobody special"—just another human being. We are called to treat strangers like angels or the Christ.
           Non-violence & Non-coercion—Nonviolence is a hard path to walk with consistency. I believe Jesus calls us to go beyond nonviolence to non-coercion. The innocent should be protected, & injustice & oppression should be resisted wherever they occur. God has demonstrably chosen not to act in certain ways to protect the innocent or end oppression, and we are called to behave in the same way. Authentic harmony is the result of a free choice on the part of all concerned. Jesus both prohibited others to use violence on his behalf and refused to defend himself violently, although he had the means to do so. "The scriptures ... say it must happen this way."
           The meta-message of scripture is a growing realization that God's Kingdom cannot be achieved or defeated through violence. The Kingdom of God must happen by means of a commitment to non-violence and non-coercion. Jesus love the rich man in the parable. Jesus wanted the best for him, that he spend his life following Jesus. Jesus could have spiritually made the rich man do what was needed. Instead, he was allowed to make the wrong decision. God refused to create a universe where human beings had no choice but to be good. Forcing people to change their behavior is not the Kingdom of God. We are called to the much more difficult task of helping build a world where hearts are changed so that humans want to be good and in harmony with each other, the universe and its Creator. Our tools are precept and example, teaching and living the Gospel.
           Radical Hospitality—We have not achieved [the radical hospitality or] the inclusiveness of the Kingdom of God until we regard every person as part of our own community, beloved of God and therefore worthy of being loved by us. Until we can learn to love the Samaritans in our lives, those who appear to be diametrically opposed to our values and beliefs, and can have compassion on their circumstances, we have not begun to practice radical hospitality. We must also continue to practice care for those at the margins of society, to see to it that everyone has enough and no one has too much, and to be with the poor and oppressed, not merely for them.
           To be truly with another person in his or her circumstances, means I must give up some of my individualism, power, possessions, and privilege that seem to define who I am, that seem to provide me with personal security. Our goal is the transformation of human hearts, so that persons want to be good and fair, to do the right thing for one another and creation. There may always be a place for legislation to inform one how to care for employees, creation, clients, or neighbors, and for separation of some individuals from society. These are and will always be intermediate measures, not ultimate solutions. Our success in bringing about the harmony of the Kingdom will come in becoming ourselves, in community, a living testimony to the truth that transforms hearts, that invites each person we meet to enter the Kingdom.
           There will be failures and pain in the practice of radical hospitality, just as there will be failures and pain in the practice of individual pursuit of worldly power, prestige, and privilege. In the long-term radical hospitality is an effective path to the Kingdom of God; individualism is not. Suffering as Christ suffered is the only way to build up the virtue/values/character/society that comprises the Kingdom of God.
           Cal Geiger—He was a member of Durham Friends Meeting in NC Conservative YM. Early in his life, Cal was plowing a neighbor's field when an escaped convict came up behind him and threatened to rob him. Cal talked him out of any "rough stuff" and out of running away. 5 years later Cal encountered a traffic accident. He felt led to help 2 drivers who were fighting. One man was beating and kicking the other. Cal wrapped his arms around the one doing the beating and held on until the police came and took control.
           Some years later, Cal was volunteering at a mental hospital when he was sought out by a former patient named George Harris. This man was the convict Cal had talked into returning to the chain gang years ago. He was also the man doing the beating at the traffic accident. He was a patient in the mental hospital where Cal volunteered in the recreation program. Cal probably prevented George from murdering the man he was beating. He waged a losing battle with alcohol that landed him in the mental hospital where Cal was volunteering. George straightened out, went to school, became a teacher, married & had 2 children. His last visit with Cal was to thank him for helping save his life. Cal had no way of knowing what would be the outcome of his actions and did not act in accordance with a predetermined set of ethical rules. He acted as the kind of person he wanted to be.
           To live in ways that hasten the Kingdom of God & to invite others to share in that life, we must practice radical hospitality. Once, the traveling Quaker minister Joseph Hoag was detained by a military force during the War of 1812. He explained traveling ministry & Friends faith & practice to a general & his staff. One of them said "Stranger, if all the world was of your mind, I would follow after." Joseph replied, "Thou hast a mind to be the last man in the world to do good. I have in mind to be one of the 1st, & set [an] example"; [be that example].
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