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Friends United Meeting |
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June 2002
Salt and Light
Can We Put the Pieces of George Fox and Margaret Fell Back Together
Again?
By Jack Kirk
The early Quaker Movement was one of the most holistic expressions of the Christian faith that the world has ever seen. The journey inward of prayer and worship and the journey outward of witness and service were held in vital balance. It was both socially active and evangelical. It was a roots and fruits religion with no artificial, humanly defined separation between sacred and secular. All of life was seen as sacred and of concern to the creator God. Its source of authority was the inward Spirit, the Bible and the Spirit-led community of faith. It shook people to the depths of their emotions and challenged them to think.
The original Quakerism of the 17th century was a rich tapestry comprised of many diverse threads of the human spiritual experience. It was a bright banner that attracted thousands of seekers from Britain, Europe and Britain's North American colonies. In the divisions and splits and varied emphases of the 19th and 20th centuries the banner was torn to shreds. Today different groups of Friends claim to have the entire banner when in reality they have only a tattered piece of it. The fact is—we all need each other. None of our Quaker groups is complete unto itself.
It is sad today that when we introduce ourselves as Quakers we often put a qualifying adjective in front of the name. We call ourselves universalist Quakers, evangelical Quakers, feminist Quakers, foreign missions Quakers, pacifist Quakers, born-again Quakers, unprogrammed Quakers, programmed Quakers, conservative Quakers, liberal Quakers and on and on it goes. Why can't we just be Friends with all of the spiritual wholeness it implies?
We are good today at playing Quaker word games with each group having its insider vocabulary. We often let mere semantics divide us and create barriers. In the wider family of Friends, there may be three or four different words describing the same inward spiritual experience. However, we often allow a word that differs from the one with which we are comfortable to throw up a red flag and never hear what the person is trying to say. We need to graciously invite those who employ a God language that varies from our own to further explain their faith experience. We should never allow unfamiliar religious words to lead us to mentally excommunicate another from the Quaker fellowship. George Fox bid Friends to "...know one another in that which is eternal."
It would be really boring if we were cookie-cutter Quakers, if every Friend needed to have the exact same spiritual experiences and utilize just the right code words. Friends need to embrace theological discussion and sharing once again and not fear it. Friends have been correct in downplaying speculative theology, but at our best we have always welcomed the theology of experience which is simply thinking about our encounters with God. We can learn much from each other by sharing our experiences of the living Christ.
The Quaker movement today is suffering from a fragmented sense of identity. However, we are living in a world desperately in need of a holistic Quaker witness that seeks to apply God's love and light to every aspect of the human endeavor. In a world crying out for Quaker wholeness, isn't it selfish of us to settle for narrow definitions of the Quaker undertaking?
Are we up to trying to put the pieces of the shattered spiritual vision of George Fox and Margaret Fell back together again? Are we really ready to undertake it?
To do so we would have to stop being elitist about our particular brand of Quakerism and set aside our prejudices of other types of Quakers. We would need to sincerely listen to each other and be willing to be taught by one another in much the same spirit that John Woolman carried with him when he went to visit the Native Americans on the Pennsylvania frontier. It would be essential to take a fresh look at resources dealing with the spiritual headwaters of our faith like George Fox's Journal, Elfrida Vipont's, George Fox and the Valiant Sixty and Rosemary Moore's, The Light in Their Consciences. We would also closely examine the passages of Scripture that inspired the early Quaker vision. But most of all, we would need to allow ourselves to be shaped and molded by the powerful Spirit which gave rise to the original Quaker Movement. Do you think we can do it? I'd like to try.
Jack Kirk is pastor at First Friends Meeting, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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