Worship Sharing Posts

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Worship Sharing November 22, 2024

Background

Pendle Hill (PH) is a Quaker conference, publishing, and retreat center located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.  Its new executive director is Francisco Burgos who is also a writer.  His poem “In Your Presence,” is included below and appeared in PH’s October 2024 newsletter.

Here I am
with my empty hands and my broken hope
carrying over my shoulders the conjectures of a guilty bystander.

Here I am
in my humble garment
as the sun appears in the horizon
searching for you
the One that illuminates my path.

Here I am
wrestling with my conscience
walking away from my routinary indifference
aiming to do good in a world that cries for love,
your voice whispering to me
sustaining me
encouraging me to co-create with you a better reality
a reality in which I am no longer blind to your presence in others.

Here I am
with my tiredness and limitations
standing as I am able
loving as I can
crying to you
who hears and heals my pain
asking you to teach me how to be just and peaceful
asking you for help to soften my resistance to love and gratitude. 

Here I am
in your presence
begging for help
as I don’t want to lose sight of your generous and unexpected ways
of making life and joy possible despite the hardship and devastation.

         Query: How do you finish that same phrase “Here I am…” for yourself as a Quaker?

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Worship Sharing, Friday, October 25, 2024

Background about John Woolman:

John Woolman, a leader in Quaker thought and action, lived mostly in the colonial Province of New Jersey between 1720 and 1772.  From his writings, we can place Woolman in a broad context:

● he read about Quakers who lived before him;
● he knew many people who owned slaves when slavery was increasing in New Jersey and across the colonies;
● he read and contributed to Quaker abolitionist writings;
● he questioned his own economic success because he understood that the production of goods and his own business activities involved the unfair treatment of others;
● and, he opposed involvement in war  –  especially important considering he lived at the later end of British colonial domination in North America.

– Scott Matthews’ notes regarding John Woolman for Jacksonville Worship Group at the Beaches discussion group, Fall 2023

And from Woolman’s own writings:

“My Employer having a Negro woman, sold her, and desired me to write a Bill of Sale, the Man being waiting who bought her…I gave way, and wrote; but, at the executing it, I was so afflicted in my Mind, that I said, before my Master and the Friend, that I believed Slave-keeping to be a Practice inconsistent wth the Christian Religion….”

–  JohnWoolman, “A Journal of the Life and Travels of John Woolman”, 1756, as included in John Woolman’s Journal, Vida Scudder (ed.), 1922, p. 41

Yet at a later date, someone asked Woolman to write a will that bequeathed slaves to the man’s children:

“…I told the Man, that I believed the Practice of continuing Slavery to this People was not right…and [I] desired to be excused from going to write the Will…and…[due to] a Motive of divine Love, and in Regard to Truth and Righteousness, [which] opens the Way to a Treasure better than Silver, and to a Friendship exceeding the Friendship of Men.”

–  JohnWoolman, “A Journal of the Life and Travels of John Woolman”, 1756, as included in John Woolman’s Journal, Vida Scudder (ed.), 1922, pp. 58-59

Query: Has there ever been a time when you felt your ideas or commitments changing because of Quakerism?  When?  Why?  What happened?  Are changes ongoing?


Worship Sharing, Friday, August 23, 2024

Background:

“In 1652 [Quaker] Margaret Fell had a sharp revelation that caused her to cry in her spirit, ‘We are all thieves; we are all thieves. We have taken the Scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.’  These words told of the searing power of the Light burning through Fell’s soul. These words marked her transition from a reliance on outward guidance of the church to awareness of Christ Within and her own obligation to listen and follow that Guide.  Two years later she could write an epistle to all Friends with assurance about the work of that Inward Guide, which ‘opens the Mystery of God, …[and] who is a Consuming Fire to all that is not of him.’”

Margery Post Abbott, To Be Broken and Tender: A Quaker Theology for Today, 2010;  as quoted in Quaker Theology, Spring-Summer, 2010

“Treasure your experience of God, however it comes to you.”  “Each of us has a particular experience of God and each must find the way to be true to it.”

Jim Pym, Listening to the Light: How to Bring

Quaker Simplicity and Integrity into Our Lives,

2000; as quoted in Goodreads, 2024

“The Light Within is the fundamental and immediate experience for Friends.  It is that which guides each of us in our everyday lives and brings each of us together as a community of faith.  It is, most importantly, our direct and unmediated experience of the Divine.”

SEYM, p. Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 16

Query:

Do I really accept the direction of an “inward teacher,” “Inward Guide,” or “The Light Within,” a presence who dwells in my own heart and mind, leading me as I go about my day?

Worship Sharing July 26, 2024

Background
There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once.  On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs.  But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings….Between the two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul ever dwells in the presence of the Holy One.”

    Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, 1941, pp. 9-10

“Simplicity, also called simple living, has long been a testimony of Friends.  A life of simplicity is one that is centered in God and focused on core values and faith.  It need not be cloistered and may even be a busy life….Simplicity is based in the right ordering of one’s priorities in placing God at the center of life.”

      SEYM, Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 58

Query:

Difficulties, fears, pressures, and tensions challenge me every day and require my attention.  Joys and positive experiences use my energy also.  Can embracing Quakerism enable me to be in the world but not of it?  Or, is embracing Quakerism my key to being be both in the world and of it?

June 28, 2024, 10:00 Christian Meditation Center

Query:
What is the role of Quaker silence in my life, during meeting for worship and at other moments and times?

Background:

“When you come to your meetings…Do you gather together bodily only…Or, rather do you sit down in the True Silence, resting from your own Will and Workings, and waiting upon the Lord…until the Lord breathes life into you, refresheth you, and prepares you….?”
 William Penn, 1678, SEYM, Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 13

“I have never lost the enjoyment of sitting in silence at the beginning of meeting, knowing that everything can happen….The Light can come from all sides.  The joy of experiencing the Light in a completely different way than one has thought it would come is one of the greatest gifts that Friends’ meeting for worship has brought me.

Ursula  Franklin, 1979, SEYM, Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 15

Silence…
“leaves a space for the Other to come in….”
“is not a void, it is full of expectation.”
“is the quieting of the daily mind.”
“is a tool.”

Various voices, on silence, QuakerSpeak, 2014

May 24

Query:
How does God call me to be a steward of our shared resources?  How can I walk gently on the earth? 

Background:
“Friends are indeed called to walk gently on the earth. Wasteful and extravagant consumption is a major cause of destruction of the environment….Friends are called to become models and patterns of simple living and concern for the earth. Some may find it difficult to change their accustomed lifestyle; others recognize the need and have begun to adopt ways of life which put the least strain on the world’s resources of energy, clean air, water, and soil.”
                                                           — SEYM Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 62
“All that we have, in our selves and our possessions, are gifts from God….”
                                                           — SEYM Faith and Practice, 2013, p. 65