Primitive Christianity Revived, Again! A Convergent Friends Community

Quaker Community, the Good & the Bad

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Talk about the ideals of Quaker community but also the problems and alienation than many Convergent Friends find themselves facing.

Members: 7
Latest Activity: May 21

TAGGED: quaker.community

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Discussion Forum

planned/organic sense of community 3 Replies

Started by Nathan Swift. Last reply by Cat Chapin-Bishop Apr 29.

FEATURED

Passionate Ashley on our connections of support

No. see that web again, but i. different light. All of those people are still providing support for me, but they are also connected because of me. Some of them were connected to each other before an. am strengthening those connections. Others are meeting through me. Others will never meet each other, bu. am blessed to have them all as my friends.martin_kelley 2009-06-30T13:18:54Z

Ben Lloyd: The Quaker Elephant in the Room

There i. dis-ease in our Yearly Meeting and its primary symptom is this: we can't find enough people to do the work of the Yearly Meeting, and even when we do, we in these positions o. what? Authority? Perspective. we sense we are often not finding the right people to serve.martin_kelley 2009-06-22T14:38:08Z

How'd Amy on finds a different kind of spiritual community outside Friends meeting

I get discouraged with being part o. tiny meeting that's pretty set in its ways. Any hope of working in the community was answered by "we are too small." My meeting knows the life details, my kids names and birthdates. But my ecumenical groups know my theology, my spiritual struggles, what brings me to tears, what scripture is most meaningful to me, ho. try to live my faith, why I'm mostly hopeful, ho. know God.martin_ke

Aj Schwanz on doable spiritual community organizing vs future despair

These pictures give me something to move towards, something to look forward for, something to share with and promote in my community, something that gives me an option other than spending all my time rolling my homemade tortillas or all my money buyin. four-pound free-range organic grass-fed fryer chicken. My dilemma is still present, but at perhaps it’s forcing me to move toward. healthier, doable option.martin_kelley 2009-01-24T21:41:38Z

Peterson shows how his meeting supports his ministry

This weeken. appeared before my local Quaker Meeting’s business meeting to report to them about the work tha. have been doing these past two years since they approve. minute to travel in the ministry. This is part of some excellent Quaker practice that gives individuals an opportunity to be supported and affirmed in the work they feel led to do while also receivin. measure of on-going accountability and clearness.martin_kelley 2009-01-21T

How'd Amy on the stages of passing the faith of Friends

Then come. second stage where the young Friend decides that this whole religion thing is your stuff not his/hers. They may start to resist attending meeting. It’s boring and dry and meaningless. Often at this stage Quaker values are appreciated but not necessarily the faith that goes with them. Youth gatherings are mostly social gatherings. Then it happens. God works on their heart. They get it. They understand what Jesus’ message is all about.

LizOpp on low attendance at meeting weddings & funerals

If we're not there for each other at the best of times and at the worst of times, how can we expect our fellow community members to be spiritually present in the most mediocre or or the most average of times?martin_kelley 2008-12-15T23:04:41Z

Livejournal jandrewm asks for advice on dealing with consistently disruptive conflict in Meeting

Yet my recognition of all that doesn't negate the painful feelings that arise when hostility enters the meeting room, when long-held grudges boil over and harsh words are spoken. Afte. few months of regular attendance at my meeting. came close to abandoning this "experiment" with Quakerism because some Friends were so consistently rancorous, divisive, disruptive. had to ask myself: "D. need this negativity in my life r

Asterisms Pam on community as road block to spirituality

I've met and interacted with too many Quakers that engage in community out o. sense of obligation, "because that's what Quakers do." Surprisingly, that does not lead to remarkably profound spiritual community.martin_kelley 2008-08-05T13:02:22Z

Paul L: Why Quakers' historic testimony against music and other frivolous entertainments does not apply to singing from the Sacred Harp

The early singing school teachers and shape-note tunebook writers would have agreed with this criticism. Their aim was to demystify the professionalization of music and to return it to the masses and therefore is consistent with the concern expressed in tmartin_kelley 2008-07-09T00:51:50Z

ComfortZone Mike on Newberg Friends Church

I have sat in silent open worship well over 1500 times there, and gazed at the beams, the stain glass windows, and the woodwork, a. listened to Christ… or just sat… and waited.chrismsf 2008-04-27T03:17:38Z

Quakerism and Structure « Susanne’s Quaker Musings

My Ffrien. has advocated the practice of disbanding the Religious Society of Friends every 5o years. He believes that the spark of the initial vision and passion survives for about 50 years before developing structures start to choke the movement of thesusannekromberg 2008-04-18T17:57:00Z

Friend in Need Heather: Awesome and Sufficient

[Our meeting is] in the process o. radical restructuring in the spirit of the Jubilee Year, and we lack the comfort of familiar forms for our ongoing work in the Spirit.chrismsf 2008-04-04T04:41:34Z

Peterson Toscano on defensive shields around diversity work

I know we have work to do in our meetings around heterosexism and even homophobia. But when the shields go up--We have already dealt with that stuff--then the meetings can grow stagnant with some people feeling silenced or marginalized.martin_kelley 2008-03-13T20:51:18Z

LizOpp on how Friends are and are not individualistic

The trick is that our meetings, a. whole, must be willing to engage in the labor of understanding just how far to tilt the scales, whether it be toward the individual and each of our preferences, beliefs, and practices.martin_kelley 2008-03-07T01:40:29Z

Susanne K on why she's a (liberal) Quaker

Form of worship, reliance on unmediated revelation, potential for living into the Light and decision-making assumptions top the list. She also lists issues she didn't discuss, including freedom of belief.martin_kelley 2008-02-26T01:52:52Z

Showmen Ben on trusting individual discernment and one another

I. don't trust my Friend, the. won't trust her initiative an. will resist her ideas. Trust is the trust we give the Holy Spirit, the trust we give to Jesus, the trust of handing our will and our lives over t. power greater than ourselves.martin_kelley 2008-02-19T00:18:54Z

Imperfect Eileen on hearing one another

After eight years of threshing sessions, discussions, meetings for worship for business, personal conversations, and called meetings for worship. have the sense that we still have not totally heard each other. We can't just wait this out.martin_kelley 2008-01-21T21:32:18Z