7/12/2006

Epistles to Friends

In my workshop at Friends General Conference, “Finding Ourselves in the Bible,” we had the task of writing an epistle. I addressed mine to the participants of Max Hansen’s workshop on the Blessed Community in the Epistle of James (participants including Robin M. and Martin Kelley, among others). It was a classroom assignment that sparked a good lunchtime conversation with Max (thanks, Max!).

In closing worship during our workshop, I dreamed of writing the following epistles:

> To Sacred Harp Singers:

> To World Gathering of Young Friends attenders:

> To Quaker Bloggers:

What is the common thread? People who are searching their spiritual tradition and taking it seriously and engaging in a high-maintenance, high-performance religion. Perhaps in the case of the singers, it’s not about religion of the lyrics, but about the power and the beauty that comes through, and they are not scared of that power nor of the language used to express it. Hallelujah!

To whom would you write your epistle?

1 comment:

Martin Kelley said...

So hey, what was your epistle to our group?!?