As a Quaker, I see every person as a child of God and oppose any form of prejudice or violence. Black men, women, and children should feel loved and respected, not afraid to walk the streets or go about their daily business.
What I’ve Learned About Friends’ Decision-Making
Unlike other religious and secular organizations, Quakers have placed the final authority on decision making not with a single person, like an elite cleric, a trustee, or a clerk. They placed the final authority with Spirit as discerned by the Group. This makes decision-making full of listening to each other, trusting that the way forward may come through any voice in the room. Because we are all human with all the distractions, and human frailties, we enter silence, in waiting worship, asking all present to think of something larger than themselves. That something we call “the Sense of the Meeting.”
PANDEMICS, PLAGUES, AND QUAKERS: QUAKER HISTORY #10
“Along with imprisonment early Friends were confronted with the Great Plague as well.... Some 52 Quakers died of the plague at the New Gate prison alone.” This sentence appears in a book entitled, “The Second Period of Quakerism” written by the prominent English historian and writer William Braithwaite. The book was published in 1921, which would indicate that the author was among those who had endured the terrible worldwide Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
Spiritual Seekers Series: Brief Background on Quaker Practice
Quaker practice grew out of a movement of seekers, who sat in a circle in silence literally turning to God waiting and expecting revelation and guidance. Quakers continue to meet for worship, often sitting in a circle, waiting and expecting messages for ourselves as individuals and as a people. We have taken on other forms of worship and celebration, but we are still grounded in this practice of seeking direct divine guidance and yielding to it.
Buffalo Quaker Meeting attender creates a new book
I work with a non-profit organization entitled Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religious Justice. In our 25 years, we have created a template for free theological education, either in prison or through correspondence. In that effort, we have visited and corresponded with over 600 prison inmates, distributed over 1000 books, published many articles, and have helped inmates get published. We have also produced two books. We are now completing our third book entitled More to this Confession: Relational Prison Theology.