Originally published on Quaker Universalist Conversations,

the blog of Quaker Universalist Fellowship, on March 22, 2018.

Enlightenment…

One might think "mumbling" describes it better, as more incoherent than not, however "murmuring" sounds better.  Today is Easter, and April Fools.

I'm meditating on the foolishness of Man, quite appropriately. I'm going back to Genesis 2-3 when they apparently had the choice of a second tree's fruit, the fruit of Eternal Life.

Given a choice between Eternal Life and this other thing God said no about, and that had a snake on it, a talking one, Man chose this other thing. How…

George Fox, writing from Amsterdam in 1677, admonished Quakers against being draw into outward ceremony and observances. He wrote:

Where did ever Christ or his Apostles command any Believers, or Christians to observe Holy-dayes, or Feast-days; and let us see where it is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament, in the four Evangelists, or Epistles, or the Revelations? That ever Christ or his Apostles gave the Christians and such…

Research Notes, Geroge Fox, John Pennymen, John Perrot, Robert Rich

I am currently keyboarding Robert Rich’s [R.R.]collection of letters written by George Fox, James Naylor, John Perrot, and Robert Rich, wherein the the nature of the discord between Fox, Naylor, and Perrot is manifested. The full text will appear here and will also be published archive.org. For now I wanted to share something from a letter written to George Fox from Robert Rich. By the way, Robert Rich, was a Quaker…

Why I am come out of the valuation of International Women’s Day or other outward ceremonies and holidays.

I am come out of the valuation of outwardly contrived political and religious ceremonies through the appearance of the inshining spirit of Christ upon my conscience and consciousness. Through this inshining experience of immanent presence of Christ, it is discovered to me a conscience and consciousness that is informed solely through participation in and identity with the…

The following is an excerpt from an essay, "The New Way," which can be found at https://patradallmann.wordpress.com/. The essay is based upon ministry given in a Philadelphia meeting on 11/5/17.

There is a story about Jesus that takes place after he’d been ministering for a while. He was at home, visiting with…

I've long been aware of this branch in Jewish Orthodoxy and have wondered if the free-from-nations movement (FFNM) would be regarded as offensive to them. Paradox: FFNM encourages each self-respecting nation to fulfill plans for world domination virtually meaning: assume you've won, the world is your…

The rule, government and authority of immanent Presence fractures the rule, government, and authority of algorithmically established engagement.

In a recent post on Twitter Julian Assange wrote of the process of algorithmically preying on the people’s existing biases to increases engagement.

An algorithm is defined broadly as a step by step procedure or function for solving a problem or accomplishing an some end within a finite number…

I had never danced in church before. I knew, of course, that some Friends dance in worship.  I had participated in worship at the Friends World Committee for Consultation Plenary in Peru in 2016, during which some African Friends danced, but I didn’t feel comfortable joining them. I had arrived in Kigali very early on that Sunday morning and settled into my room at about two a.m. Exhausted from the journey, I had not planned on attending worship that day. However, as the sun rose higher in…

A recent post on quakerquaker (http://www.quakerquaker.org/profiles/blogs/sa-ed-atshan-on-the-quaker-practice-of-embracing-conflict?xg_source=activity) shares a summary of an interview published in Friends Journal. In that interview these words are published.

In peace and conflict studies, we teach our students to…

Excerpts from the Friends Journal interview

Republished from the blog of Quaker Universalist Fellowship @…

Through the inshining witness of immanent Presence (God) upon the conscience it is discovered that the very act of engaging in and identifying with the outward political contrivance of peace, in itself, creates and nurtures the occasion for war. In the Power, peace is an experience that is come and that is coming in the conscience and consciousness. Immanent Presence itself in itself, living in the conscience, and the activity of living in the power in all things and circumstances in daily…

I have recently posted a review of Derek Guiton's book: "A Man that Looks on Glass: Standing up for God" on the New Foundation Fellowship web site

Derek's book charts the rise of non-theism in Britain Yearly Meeting, and predicts the possible terminal decline of it. His book will probably be the death knoll of British Quakerism.



Please feel free to respond to my review here on Quaker Quaker:…

A new post on Quaker Universalist Conversations by Larry D. Spears…

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is pleased to announce the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The announcement will take place at an event at HHS headquarters from 10:30 a.m. to noon. It will be livestreamed here. Speakers will include Acting Secretary Eric D. Hargan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Representative Vicky Hartzler, Senator James Lankford, OCR Director Roger Severino, and…

Your Heart Knows What to Do

We have a traveling minister in our midst. Chuck Schobert, a member of the Traveling Ministry

Corps of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), recently visited West Richmond Monthly Meeting. An article about this visit written by Anne Hutchinson was distributed via the Madison Meeting Listserve. Here are excerpts from Anne’s article.

Chuck's message, entitled "Your Heart Knows What to Do," began with a reference to

Acts…

As I say sometimes, I am "not literal enough to be a Mennonite" and "not liberal enough to be a Quaker".

I suppose that this is partly a matter of class consciousness. I have grown up in a small village where most men were industrial workers (with some additional farming) and even if  I am lazy by nature I have internalized the small people work ethics.

Now, Anabaptism is historically a religion of (and for) farmers and craftsmen. The good side of that: They have still some…

It was very hot and humid with no breeze. Pete Moss and Random Hazard were in a very small hut which a local villager had transformed into a bar like establishment. Pete and Random were excited over the day’s events. Early in the morning they had climbed into a giant Bullet Tree, near the Central American village, that grew along a lagoon.

They were interested in the mini eco-systems anchored by the epiphytes that grew on the huge branches of the Bullet Tree. Specifically,…