Dear Reader

If Friends have anything at all to offer the world, it is the invitation to join us as we sit under the immediate ministry of Jesus, our inward Teacher. No matter whether our Meetings have pastors and hymns and sermons, or we meet in silence, or some combination of these things, our genius is the "openness" of our worship. Here we find the One who will teach us all things, and who is the source of peace and power in our lives.

In 1673, at the age of 49, George Fox preached this message at a fair in Bristol, England, that well summarizes his mature understanding of the Gospel:

"God was the first teacher, in Paradise; and whilst man kept under his teaching he was happy. The serpent was the second, and when man followed his teaching he came into misery, into the fall from the image of God, from righteousness and holiness, and from the power that they had over all that God made, even the serpent. Christ Jesus was the third teacher; of whom God saith, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him'; and who himself saith, 'Learn of me';....So the Son of God is to be heard in all things, who is the Saviour and the Redeemer; and hath laid down his life, and bought his sheep with his blood.

"We can challenge all the world. Who hath anything against our way, our Savior, our Redeemer, who is our prophet, whom God hath raised up, whom we must hear in all things?" [Journal, Nichols ed., p. 665]

This is the context in which I hope you will read this issue of Quaker Life. He comes with healing in his wings.

Ben Richmond

Cover Stories

10 The Healing Power of Quaker Worship
Vera G. Dyck
Vera Dyck walked into a semi-programmed Quaker meeting and was amazed to find herself in a faith community that lives truths about worship she had long believed in but not yet seen.

13 A Safe Place To Ask God, "Why?"
May Mansur Munn
One of the gifts of Quaker worship is that answers to hard questions can be offered up to God in the integrity of each individual's life.

16 Encounters in Solitude
Linda Lee
In the midst of harried lives, we need time and space to be alone with God. Linda Lee shares the healing experience of the Solitude Room at the Quaker Hill Conference Center.

18 Creating Sustainable Lives
Carolyn Wilbur Treadway
The fabric and context of our lives breed anxiety and depression. A psychological counselor with thirty-eight years of experience shares the benefits of living more gently, quietly, slowly.

21 Is It the Voice of God, or Just Craziness?
Joe Kelly
Pastor and counselor Joe Kelly provides help in figuring out whether the "inner voice" you are listening to is actually the voice of God or some devious trick of the inner self.

Features

2 Viewpoints

4 Commitments
No Shortage of Power
Johan Maurer

4 News from Friends United Meeting

7 News

9 Salt and Light
Beyond 'One-Size-Fits-All'
Bruce Bishop

14 Poem
Quaker Meeting Room
Severn Towl

17 Poem
The Sound of My Soul is Silence Linda Lee

24 Bible Study
A Miracle of Healing
Jan Hodson

25 Reviews
How Now Shall We Live?
Charles Colson & Nancy Pearcey
Cultivating Wholeness: A Guide to Care and Counseling in Faith Communities
Margaret Kornfeld

26 Passages

28 Classifieds

30 Meeting Directory

35 The Back Bench
Called to the Ministry of Words
Nancy Thomas