The subject line of a recent e-mail from Friend Jon Watts caught my attention:  Can I Continue to Be A Musician? 

 

This Quaker singer and songwriter explained he’s at a crossroads after four years of ministry through music and the success of his latest album, “Clothe Yourself in Righteousness.”  Even more than any of his previous works, Jon’s latest explores faithful Quaker practice and serious transformation.  He’s had great turnouts at concerts and good sales of his music. …

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Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/purityofclearness.mp3

In 12 years of being Quaker and participating in as many clearness…

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Have you seen consensus used for secular organizations? how did it work if so?

How about CLEARNESS? have you seen it used in secular organizations--if so, how did it work or not work?

Martin Kelley - Spiritual self-understanding as pretext to organizational renewal. If you’ve got a group of people actively listening to the guidance of the Inward Christ then any process or structure probably can be made to work (though some will facilitate discernment better). Our books of “Faith and Practice” were never meant to be inerrant Bibles. At their… Continue

Chronicler: Travel in ministry (and the process in Ohio YM). During the past two months, I have felt an increasing call to travel in the ministry. What I am about to post is probably going to be unfamiliar territory for Friends of other yearly meetings, though the current process in Ohio YM is what other YMs would have recognized historically. This post is not at all intended as a… Continue

Chris M: San Francisco starts a "Fund for Leadings". In May 2010, San Francisco Friends Meeting created a Fund for Leadings (Minute 2010-05-09). The purpose of this fund is to encourage Friends who feel “a sense of being called by God to undertake a specific course of action” to pursue their leadings. I share them here because I think this is an exciting effort that Quaker meetings and… Continue

A Passionate and Determined Ashley wrestles and fights with God. I think I sometimes unintentionally give the impression that this faith stuff is easy for me. It's not. It is very, very hard. But I committed to try to make God the center of my life, and I shouldn't be surprised when God moves in and disrupts all of the ideas I have about how my life should go.… Continue

C Wess Daniels: Queries and a Life of Discernment. Quakers have been living with questions for a really long time. These questions have been known as queries, most of you are familiar with them by now and they have a history of their own. The first reference I have found to queries is in George Fox’s journal in 1657. There he writes of queries that he posed to local professors and… Continue

As I have lived my life more in line with the Spirit, I have felt a greater communion with others. My anger and resentment has diminished noticeably. I find myself more comfortable around people who are superficially different from me. But I notice too that my emotional response to other people's pain and suffering is considerable. Where before I might have dismissed a tragedy with a shrug of the shoulders, I now often burst into tears. When… Continue

Lydia Caros: The Written Test (Friends Journal): Queries have been used since the time of the early Quakers as a way of keeping track of personal and community progress. The Queries ask us to examine our lives, our spiritual activities, our connections with others in our meetings, and in the rest of our daily lives. Taking a few minutes for introspective responses is a good way to check in on… Continue