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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker
Life
May 2002
Faithful to God's Leading
By Vanessa Julye
Dear God, "Please help me to hear
your calling
and be faithful to your leading."
These are words I repeat daily. Hearing and following God's guid- ance is challenging because many things God says are things I do not want to hear. I have often asked, "Why do you have me worshipping in a religion and community that is not my cultural home? Why do I have to constantly struggle to stay here? For centuries, people of African descent have been saying the things I am saying to Friends. They did not hear us then, why do you think they will hear me now?"
I am an African-American who joined Friends at the age of 34. Friends have been around my family for centuries. My maternal grandfather and his parents were raised in an area of Pennsylvania that was next door to a Quaker community. The local Friends meeting gave a piece of their land to my great-grandfather to build his church on. Members of my family still worship there weekly. Recently I went there with my mother. We walked around the cemetery identifying our relatives. Directly behind the church I saw an area separated by a stone fence; it was the Quaker cemetery.
As a child I went to Quaker camp and school. Although I valued their philosophy and respected many of my Quaker friends and their families, none of them looked like me. Therefore, I concluded, it clearly was a religion for people of European descent. When I graduated from high school, I left Quakerism behind. After many years of searching, attending other churches and not feeling comfortable, I was shocked when I returned to Quaker meeting at the age of 33 and felt at home. "No, this can't be right! Me, a Quaker? God, are you sure? This religion is for white folks. You can't want me here."
It took God several more months of gently speaking before I applied for membership. I knew this was where God was leading; however, I was still struggling with why. It wasn't until I participated in a workshop for people of color at the 1994 Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering titled "Internalized Oppression" that God began to answer me.
I spent this week with other Friends of color. We shared our positive and negative experiences within the Society; we cried, laughed and comforted each other. They confirmed my sense of isolation and I, theirs. Their lives and presence gave me strength, and this was a powerful experience. As the years pass, I continue to draw strength from these Friends who are holding me in the Light.
God continued to gradually lead me toward a ministry that is natural, frightening and exhausting. There have been many times when I have cried to God and have asked that someone else do this work because of the pain. Then I hear, "God doesn't burden you with more than you can bear." I know this, but sometimes it feels like he gives me more.
I began my ministry when I returned to the Society of Friends in 1994. I now travel among Friends sharing my experience as an African American Quaker, serve as a resource for Friends regarding issues related to Friends of color and support isolated Friends of color. I conduct workshops, write articles, helped establish and facilitate the Center for People of Color at FGC Gatherings, convene a monthly worship group for people of color, travel to Yearly Meetings sharing my experience and concern for Friends of color, joined the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent and helped plan their biennial gatherings and serve on several Quaker organizations' diversity committees. However, it took me several years to realize I had a ministry. When I was asked to join FGC's Traveling Ministry Program I went through a clearness process with my meeting and consequently received my minute.
God has called me to spread the gospel that we must truly seek his justice for everyone and exploit no one. We must truly recognize the full equality of all people regardless of race. These are among our basic beliefs. Unfortunately many of us are not and have not been listening to God for centuries. Many Friends have seen and treated people of African descent as less than human. In the 17th and 18th centuries African-Americans were denied our humanity when some Friends owned enslaved Africans, made us sit in segregated sections of the meeting house, denied us membership in the Society and deprived us of opportunities to be educated in the same Quaker schools as Caucasian children. Many abolitionist Friends wanted African-Americans freed, but did not want them to be a part of their communities and social structure.
My friends, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance. James 2:1
The seeds of inequality were sown in the origins of the Society of Friends. Quakerism is harvesting the fruit from those seeds. As a Friend of color, I am different. It is only natural that the first thing people see when they look at me is my skin color. However, the assumptions made and the treatment I receive because of these assumptions are generally negative. Why should this difference marginalize me in my religious community? I feel accepted as long as I am willing to leave my ethnicity and culture outside the door. Many times I feel invisible when I walk into a meetinghouse and all of the visual images are European-American.
Many times I am hurt by Friends' words. My husband and I were speaking to another parent during a function at my son's Quaker school. This parent shared a message he gave during school worship because he honestly did not understand why it upset some students. He said, "Rosa Parks was not attempting to do anything revolutionary. She just heard the words of God say to her, 'Now Rosa you just sit your black ass down and donŐt move for those white folk.'" Both my husband and I were speechless. I felt my heart stop when that last sentence came out of his mouth. Would God use such derogatory words to talk to Rosa? His words associated skin color with anger and used skin color as a weapon. This is a dehumanizing phrase that inflicts pain on many African-Americans. Does God use belittling racial epithets or identify his children by their race?
In the early 1800s Grace Mapps, an African-American attender, wrote, "The hardest lesson my Heavenly Father ever set me to learn, was to love Friends; and in anguish of spirit I have often queried; why the Lord should require me to go among people who despise me on account of my complexion?"
"You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture, 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker." James 2:8-9
Friends, we have work to do. Changes have occurred since the 17th century. People of African descent can become members of Friends meetings, we can sit wherever we choose in meeting and our children are educated in Quaker schools alongside Caucasian children. However, there are still walls in Friends communities. They are invisible and thus more difficult for some to see. The walls are how we live our daily lives and are fed by words and actions.
"You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone." James 2:24
There is a reason people of color do not participate in the Society of Friends in greater numbers. The opening exercises of the World Conference Against Racism state: "You cannot go into the future if you don't know your past." My ministry is to help Friends hear the words of my ancestors. Racism has been a part of the Society of Friends for over 300 years. It is time for Friends to learn and understand our complete history. We need to talk about it and begin a dialog on how this history affects us today. These discussions will build trust in our meetings, which we can use to tear down the walls.
Vanessa Julye is a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. She is currently writing a book about relationships between African-Americans and Quakers from the 17th century to the present.
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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