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	Quaker Life November/December 2009 "Quaker Controversies"
Between Friends	Contents
By Katie Terrell, Editor A year and a half ago my advisory committee suggested the theme “Quaker Controversies” be addressed in an upcoming issue of Quaker Life. I had just taken over the editorship of the magazine and knew the General Board felt Quaker Life needed to move in a different direction. We discussed the subject further and agreed the magazine needed to be more relevant if it was going to continue as a ministry among Friends. I felt energized by the task ahead, eager to create a magazine that you want to read! Since then I’ve had my eyes wide open for controversies. Working at FUM I’ve discovered there are some that immediately come to mind — the personnel policy, the Richmond Declaration of Faith, the divinity of Christ, the disproportionate financial contributions among yearly meetings to FUM ministries, using Spirit-language verses Christ-language, what it means to be global partners. Greg Hinshaw (pp. 14-15) offers a historical perspective of how FUM came to be comprised of such differing views on these and other controversial subjects. I’ve also discovered that each yearly meeting has its own controversies, whether it be their relationship with affiliate colleges, the theology of their pastors, what to do with children in meeting, whether unprogrammed worship should be before or after the prepared sermon or how to support FUM ministries when you don’t support the personnel policy. Many of these controversies are mentioned in this issue’s yearly meeting reports (pp. 8-13). A theme I didn’t anticipate developing is that of a “house divided.” Abraham Lincoln once said (paraphrasing Jesus), “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (p. 30). Kevin-Douglas Olive writes, “If we think we can be as faithful as the early Friends while remaining a house divided, we are deceived” (pp. 27-29). David Johns gets to the heart of the matter when he says, “While Friends have been tireless in their work for reconciliation and understanding with others, they are more cantankerous and less patient with controversy in their own household” (pp. 16-19). Does this ring true for you? Are we more tolerant of views that differ from our own when we find them in non-Quakers than we do when we cross them in our Quaker brothers and sisters? Finally, we pay tribute to Earl Conn (1927-2009), whose vision 50 years ago helped make Quaker Life what it is today. He knew then what I am learning now, that only with “your prayerful concern, your contributions, your support, your active interest” (p. 46) will Quaker Life be up to the task ahead.	14 Orthodox or United? Changing Views of Friends United Meeting Greg Hinshaw 16 Controversy Runs Deep David L. Johns 20 Diligence in Love Deborah Shaw 27 How Tolerant Are We Really? Kevin-Douglas Olive _______________________________ Departments 8 Sacred Moments Sylvia Graves 9 News from Friends United Meeting 30 News 32 Reviews 36 Passages 40 Meeting Directory 43 FUM Member Yearly Meetings 44 Classifieds 46 Perspectives Remembering Earl Conn, 1927-2009   An update on Ramallah Friends Schools is included in this issue as a four-page, full-color insert titled, "Providing Hope While Building a Solid Foundation for a Peaceful and Just Future." (PDF)