Comment by Chel Avery on 11th mo. 26, 2009 at 5:09pm

Raye, I think I am the author of the blog that you are concerned about. Sorry you couldn't post a response -- someone named Tyler Hampton posted something similar to what you are pointing out. The blog consists of responses to questions people send to the Quaker Information Center, and one of the reasons we decided to start blogging some of our responses is so we could get feedback about how we represent the RSoF. Often I twist myself into spirals trying to be clear about what (little) can be said for Friends as a whole, and how variations play out in our different branches. I was more limited in this response because the writer was from the UK, so I only spoke for "unprogrammed Friends." I was aware that I was lumping together the branch I think of as "liberal" (FGC-affiliated and many western independent friends) with the three Conservative YMs. I myself am part of the liberal branch; I read the literature of and rub elbows a lot with Conservative Friends, but feel less qualified to speak for them. (The organization I was writing for -- Quaker Information Center -- is not specifically a liberal Friends organization, although our supporting Friends organizations are weighted in that direction.) Based on this much exposure, my impression is that Conservative Friends are much more consistently Christ-centered than are liberal Friends; however I have also observed that in a general way, Conservative Friends are even stronger in their noncredality -- I would like to be corrected if I'm wrong. In retrospect, I do wish I had double checked my understandings about Conservative Friends before describing how unprogrammed Friends respond to "inappropriate ministry." No one has corrected me yet, but if there is any inaccuracy, I hope to hear about it. Chel Avery (email me at: info@quakerinfo.org; see blog at qqqqanda.blogspot.com.)

Comment by Raye on 11th mo. 26, 2009 at 6:38pm

Chel, Thanks for the comment! I do not envy you the job of having to try to answer questions on behalf of the entire Religious Society of Friends. As I wrote, I certainly could not cover all the variations. I am learning more each month, sometimes each week, as I broaden my acquaintance among Friends.

Based on the time I have spent in non-Conservative (liberal, FGC, there are different terms used) meetings for worship, I think your answer was thorough. Someone much more experienced among these meetings could set me straight, perhaps, but from what I recall, what you wrote matched my experiences sojourning among meetings other than my own in Ohio.

I wanted to post a thanks to you, and plan to begin a more thorough effort to fill in a couple of gaps as clearly as possible about how I have experienced eldering, ministry and oversight among the Friends of Ohio Yearly Meeting, because in these are the answers to the original question posted on the QIC blog, from my perspective based on my experiences as part of OYM. It seems to me that not all yearly meetings referred to as conservative handle matters identically, so someone else will need to step up for answers from the rest of the Conservative bunch. (c:

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