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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker Life
August/September 2002
350 Years of Quakerism—
Now What?
Shine For Christ
By Ron Selleck
High Point Friends, North Carolina
One of the truest things Rufus Jones said was that "Just keeping the flickering flame of Quakerism alive for one more generation" is too small an aim. Such a goal will leave us spiritually famished and will not call forth our best efforts on behalf of a lost and dying world.
The recent history of the Society of Friends has been the story of overall decline. Rufus Jones, in his own efforts to bring life, unwittingly contributed to this decline by driving a wedge in the crack that already existed in Quaker theology between religious experience and revelation, between the Light and the historic Jesus Christ, between the human Jesus and the Christ of faith. His heirs have carried these tendencies further than he ever could have imagined or countenanced.
The most devastating consequence of this interpretation of Quakerism as a species of mysticism is that, in seeking the Light, we have rejected the Word. We daily demonstrate our hostility to the grace of Christ by our hearty embrace of whatever human-made schemes for fulfillment or alternative "spirituality" the winds of time and fashion blow our way. Breathlessly pursuing whatever fad comes along, we imagine we are just one self-help group away from fulfillment. However, we are leaky buckets, never filled. We seek happiness by trying to satisfy our wants but we do not want what satisfies. We have become too smart for a salvation that provides no basis for self-congratulation. Having rejected the Word made flesh, we have rejected God's breath, or Spirit, as well. God's breath and God's speech are never separated. No amount of recounting our "faith experiences" can move us one inch closer to God. We cannot get to God by speaking of humanity in a loud voice. We only know God as God has drawn near to us in Christ.
A detailed account of our decline is possible, but it would only lead to further paralysis. The key to the future for the Society of Friends is very simple—it comes down to the basic question of identity. Shall we go forward as the Church, a living branch of the body of Christ, or shall we descend further into religious clannishness? "A voluntary association of those with similar views about religion" as the old Five Years Meeting discipline put it, describes a cult, not the Church. If we Friends are content to pride ourselves upon our alleged unique human insights, our future is the same as that of all human-made religions—perpetual crisis.
Religions are always more or less sick. They face a perpetual crisis of fresh recruits and fresh funds. Like other merely human organizations, they are born and, they die. There was a time when Quakerism was not, and, if it is merely another religion, there will be a time when it will not be again. Its god will die for lack of human support.
However, the Church endures forever because it is founded on Christ's promise to Peter. The real God does not need our support, but we need God, the same God who has uniquely revealed himself in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and whom Jesus addressed as Father. The Church knows no other God than this one. We do not sustain the Church; the Church sustains us. It was here when we were born and it will still be here when we are gone, in spite of our best efforts to improve it.
The Church is not in danger of collapse. However, we as Friends are in danger, as is Western secular society as a whole. God is still looking for a people who are open to his Word. If we are no longer such a people, God will not die, we will. Our circumstances may be gloomy, but no special circumstances are required to live the Christian life. We must aim to live as people of faith wherever we are and proclaim the mighty works of God in word and deed in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. The possibility always remains that our weaknesses may become occasions for Christ to glorify himself, if only we receive them as opportunities to rely more fully on God.
"In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation..."
shine for Christ.
(Philippians 2:15)
Remember Three Things
By Tom Hamm
New Castle Friends, Indiana
After 350 years, we Friends have much on which to congratulate ourselves. Out of all proportion to our tiny numbers, we helped the world see the evil of slavery, helped it recognize the wisdom of not subordinating and disenfranchising people just because of their gender, and helped to set higher standards for justice for all people. Our attempts at service have saved countless lives and relieved the suffering of many others. And in the 20th century, Quakerism spread literally around the world; Friends worldwide are far more representative of the worldÕs population than we were 100 years ago, as well as being more numerous. I expect some other answers to this question will emphasize our problems, and they are real: declining membership in some yearly meetings, an uncertain identity, a tendency toward internal strife. But these are not new, and should not distract us from what we have every right to celebrate.
My advice for Friends now? Three things.
First, remember that God is timeless. The same power that George Fox and Margaret Fell and others of the first generation of Friends knew still works in the world today. The transforming power of the Light of Christ Within not only showed early Friends their need for a Savior, but served as their Inward Teacher, and that Inward Teacher set them on a course that would create a powerful religious movement. That power is accessible to us when we seek it. As we do so, however, we need to keep in mind that it may work in unexpected ways, and we need to be open to its new leadings. That can be dangerous; there is always the possibility of confusing our own desires with its leadings. But we have the necessary checks in Scripture, the experiences and accumulated wisdom of Friends over 350 years and the Spirit working through the gathered meeting.
Second, be consistent. My personal Quaker pet peeve is how far too many contemporary Friends set up what they pronounce absolute, fundamental, uncompromising standards for defining Quakerism and then proceed to compromise them. It's true of both liberal and evangelical Friends. If some Friends want to make the Richmond Declaration of Faith the definition of a consistent Quaker, then letÕs embark on that experiment. First, let yearly meetings put that explicitly in their Faith and Practices. Then, let them hold to the whole thing, including its statements on peace and the ministry of women. At the other extreme, if the hallmark of Quakerism is to be welcoming and tolerant of diversity, then let's embrace diversity, including Friends who speak openly of how their experience of Christ has transformed and shaped their lives, or those who see opposition to abortion as an implication of the Peace Testimony.
Third, beware of seeing change in structures as the solution to problems whose roots are not organizational. I had no use for the Realignment proposals of a decade ago, not because I thought bad motives lay behind them, but because I am convinced that Quaker history shows us they would not work. The Hicksite Separation of 1827-1828 began when John Comly and other leading Philadelphia Hicksites left their yearly meeting, apparently convinced that a temporary withdrawal would lessen tensions and then they would return. That took 128 years. After that separation, within a generation, both Hicksite and Orthodox Friends had experienced a new round of separations that added Gurneyite, Wilburite and Progressive to the Quaker lexicon. The Five Years Meeting (now FUM) was formed in 1902 in large part to bring together most Friends under a Uniform Discipline that was supposed to promote unity. Yet, almost immediately, it was torn by strife, the consequences of which are still with us. Organizations do many good things, and there may be good reasons to reorganize them, but they do not bring unity to Friends. Unity is born of the Spirit of God working among us.
Unlike some Friends, I am not convinced I will see the end of Quakerism in my lifetime. I see too many signs of life. But I think we will come closer to realizing the vision God has for us if we act consistently and are mindful of the lessons of our history.
Quakerism as a Spiritual Movement
By Michael Hatfield
Austin Christian Friends, Texas
Do you love me?... Feed my sheep.
ÑJohn 21:17
Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, offers a "Friends Class" Sunday school. Attenders meet in waiting worship before the Sunday morning congregational service and then meet mid-week to study peace issues.
These Baptists are nourished through Quaker doctrines and worship. They are nourished through truths available to all, but, in either theology or practice, neglected or rejected by most Christians: Jesus Christ's being present to teach his people himself, the testimony against war and its seeds, and the transforming reality of spiritual communion and baptism.
These Christian truths embraced by Friends are neglected or rejected by other Christians. By our modern sensibilities, it is shocking to see how early Friends challenged Christians who neglected or rejected these truths. But these challenges must be seen in the light of love.
Early Friends left Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Puritan and other congregations in search of a more fulfilling relationship with Christ. Their experience of direct spiritual communion with Christ's living presence revealed the creeds, forms and rituals they left behind as substitutes for his living presence. They wanted to be possessed by their Lord Jesus who gathered them in his presence, not merely verbally professing him to be their Lord. They wanted to reach others who were lost in substitutes, professing Christ but not allowing his living presence to possess their lives.
Early Friends knew that merely professing Christ without being possessed by him is spiritually dangerous because it is spiritually unfulfilling. Unfulfilled, the mere verbal professorÕs attentiveness turns from Christ, either by losing all spiritual hope or by becoming lost in substitutes for Christ's living presence. Today, as 350 years ago, those substitutes include tradition, theology, community building, emotions, ideas, politics, moralizing, good works and an intellectual fascination with Biblical words, themes and principles. Although useful for Christ's work, any of them can become a substitute for attentiveness to his living presence.
Quakerism began as a spiritual movement among Christians seeking a more fulfilling relationship with the living and present Christ, a relationship free of substitutes. Today Christians remain who verbally profess Christ but who, being lost in substitutes for his living presence, are spiritually unfulfilled. Early Friends preached the truth of Christ's living presence, a truth neglected or rejected by the theology or practice of other Christians but essential to their spiritual fulfillment. Are we willing to preach and live that truth? Early Friends were imprisoned for it.
Early Friends preached that being still and attentive to the Light of Christ's living presence was the first step to spiritual fulfillment, possession by Christ. In stillness, the Light shows us our sins, but also shows us Christ's powerfully loving presence. It is only with the knowledge of both that we can begin giving our whole lives to Christ, who, in turn, will use us to manifest his presence, power and love in the world. This is how we are fulfilled. It is our purpose in being. Christians today still need this essential truth, and we remain obligated to share it. In the Light of Christ's living presence, the attractiveness of all substitutes evaporates. Knowing the truth frees us from the slavery of substitution.
The most important future of Quakerism may be the future among other Christians of the truths we embrace and they need in order to be free. When the concerns of early Friends no longer included the spiritual needs of other Christians, the spiritual decline of Quakerism began. There have been attempts to reverse that decline, but none has caused a revival of Quakerism as a spiritual movement. Perhaps it is because none has yet included the spiritual needs of other Christians.
How can Friends today express concern for other Christians' spiritual need for Christ's living presence? What would Quakerism as a 21st century spiritual movement look like? Quaker house churches? Waiting worship in Baptist Sunday schools? Interdenominational waiting worship groups in our homes? Prayer, study and support groups for those wanting to live our testimonies of peace, simplicity, equality and integrity? Using our denomination's resources to reach those in other denominations? What that movement might look like is not as important as our being open to it, regardless of what it looks like.
If we are to have a future as Jesus' Friends, we must feed his sheep. And his sheep can be nourished only through his living presence.
Vision, Prayerful Study and Zeal
By Wellington W. Whittlesey
St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, Florida;
College Avenue Friends, Oskaloosa, Iowa
When George Fox and the early Friends gathered, there was no program designed for their meetings, but there was a sense of urgency in proclaiming the glorious message God had imparted to them, an expectancy the Holy Spirit would continue to fire their lives with zeal and a recognition He was guiding their every movement.
Charles Wesley later stated that, had the Quakers continued to be true to their Calling, there would be no room for the Methodist movement. However, the Quietist Period had set in, and, I'm sorry to relate, it has not fully dissipated yet. Quiet waiting there must be; the "Sense of the Meeting" must be discovered and approved before running off in every direction. Gentleness is more required in our day than almost any other quality we emphasize; the problem is not that we are too patient, but that we are not zealous. Early Quakerism was the movement of the Spirit upon the faithful. Present Quakerism is the quiet, refined, orthodox, staid, settled movement of the elite—more concerned for Society than it is for the slighted.
What must we do to regain the reason for the high respect Quakerism holds in the minds of the thoughtful?
First, we must see our own age not through the eyes of the common 21st century believer; we have been doing that too long already. We must see it as God sees it—a soul-starved, holiness-hungry, world-warped flood of humanity, many who have never heard the name of Jesus, who are physically starving and in dread of their lives. Our next-door neighbors are living in luxury physically, and dying in misery spiritually, because we complacently accept the illusion that, since they go to their church, they receive all that God has for them. Either Friends have the real thing to offer, or we have nothing to offer.
Second, we must learn to read and memorize Scripture and pray as our foreparents did. Why did they not carry their (physical) Bibles to Meeting? Because it was hidden in their minds. Why did they sit expectantly in gathered meeting? Because they knew the Holy Spirit would answer their prayers and guide their daily walk. For them, service began when meeting was over. Rather than ask why more people are not attracted to Friends, we should be asking how we retain so many in our fellowship? Now what? Expect much from God who has called us.
Third, we must take a lesson from our newer yearly meetings. Do you ever wonder why there are almost as many Friends in East Africa as there are in all the rest of the world combined? It could be that they have not yet forgotten the reason for our Society. Three great Commandments Jesus gave us, only threeÑlove the Lord your God, love one another and go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.
Now, if this sounds too prosaic, just recall that in the first century and the 17th century, it was the simplicity of this message that brought God's light into the world in a new and transforming manner. I have suggested just three things: vision, prayerful study and zeal. Although the order may not be correct, we shall be renewed if we take seriously the purpose God has for us. We must be cooperative with all who name the name of our Lord and we must be as cooperative with the One who has called us. We do have a message that is much needed. We do have a task that needs to be accomplished.
But we must focus anew. We must be more concerned with the "Why" in our meetings than with the "How." If someone should stand up and shout, would it disrupt meeting? If the shout is in adoration of the Lord, it certainly should not; but in most of our meetings, I'm afraid it would. Early Friends not only shouted—they also shook. But now, when I am termed a "Quaker," folks properly wonder why!
Laurels are wonderful, but not to be rested upon.
Please God, Give Us Graced Wisdom
By Dean Freiday
Manasquan Friends, New Jersey
Whether you view the "Now What" portion of our topic with anticipation or somewhat antagonistically, it raises some major questions for Friends.
How many of us have really thought through the basic beliefs that identify us? What, for example, is a liberal Friend? What about those who claim the right to believe what they please, as long as there are potluck meals and social action of one kind or another?
John Punshon's Reasons for Hope lovingly, yet critically, calls the Friends Church to reclaim the central thrust of open worship and urges them to remember and reassert the Quaker part of being evangelical. He doesn't take up the mega-church movement of Southwest Yearly Meeting, more akin to Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral than Quakerism.
Are British Friends still Quaker? If so, which kind of a half-a-dozen varieties? And worldwide, why are only the mission Quakers growing, while most others, even evangelicals in the U.S., are shrinking in membership?
FUM rightly held its Triennial in Kenya, where there are now more Friends than all varieties together in the U.S. How long before Kenya starts to missionize the U.S.? That might be our salvation in more senses of that word than one.
Thirty-two years after the St. Louis Faith and Life Conference has there been any real coming together of Friends in the United States?
My wife, Sandy, says the distinctive aspect of Quakerism is its concern for other people—locally, nationally and universally. For example, New Jersey Quaker Alice Paul's Equal Rights Amendment in 1982 failed ratification by only one of the States required for its adoption, after a 10-year-long struggle to obtain passage. Its rejection left great inequalities for women untouched. Most other denominations are still struggling over ordaining women. Friends have not picked up the leftover challenges in this area of human rights.
Most importantly, the Testimony that brackets us with the other "historic peace churches" needs clarification and implementation as never before. "Stamp out terrorism" as the only clearly enunciated aspect of our so-called foreign policy leaves nuclear, ecological, impoverishment and overpopulation issues still festering.
With global warming, nuclear chain reaction threats and denial of economic and human rights, we may be nearing destruction of all our technological progress; our lone superpower strategies are risky indeed.
Please God, give us all—Quakers and Christians of all varieties, people of other faiths and none—some Graced Wisdom, or there won't be much of a future for Friends or hardly anyone else.
Excited To Be a Friend
By Doug Shoemaker
Westfield Friends, Indiana
Several years ago I received an interesting phone call asking about the church where I served as pastor. "Is your church like the Sheridan Friends Church?" was the question I was asked. The caller on the other end had recently moved out of Sheridan and had a positive experience with the Friends Meeting there. She wanted to know if we were "like them." I was sure we weren't. No two churches are alike, but I didn't tell her that. What I suggested was that she come and see for herself.
One of the hot topics around here recently has been the variety of beliefs and practices that are present among different groups of Friends. This diversity among present-day Quakers is delightful to some and terribly frustrating to others. Encountering many Friends who are "different" has caused me to look carefully at our historical and biblical roots and cautiously evaluate my own beliefs.
I'm happy to report that after doing so I'm more excited than ever to be a part of the Society of Friends. We are part of a spiritual movement that has been a witness of Christ Jesus for 350 years. We have been among the first to speak out against slavery, to advocate prison reform and to pioneer treatment, not punishment, of the mentally ill. We have a reputation for recognizing the value and gifts of women and have also been a friend to Native Americans. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers," and peacemaking is also a valued part of our heritage.
From "The Friendly Persuader" Newsletter, June 2002.
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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