I looked at my bloglines today and noticed I had 1,961 unread posts. (Reminds me of Robin's post "1,401 posts to go".) Fortunately for my sanity, a significant chunk of those are from newspaper feeds, which I will forgo reading.
I brought along Wilmer Cooper's A Living Faith (Friends United Press, 1990), which I enjoyed reading in reverse, from the last chapter forward. I started that way because I was more interested in Chapter 11, "Quaker Assessment and Future Prospects" than Chapter 1, "A Short History."
Tonight I was reading Chapter 4, "Quaker Understanding of Christ," which ends with a discussion of whether or not Quakers need to be Christians. I found the conclusion particularly to be food for thought:
So the debate goes on and shows no signs of being resolved. Yet the Society of Friends has moved into a new day, and its survival may well depend on a rediscovery of its identity within the context of its own history, coupled with an effort to interpret that identity in a relevant way to a constantly changing world.
Hm, sounds a bit like trends within the convergent Friends conversation... At least that's my take on it.
4 comments:
Hi Chris: sure, Cooper's been a big influence on all this. His willingness to live in different Quaker worlds and interpret them to one another has been invaluable.
Hope all's a little better with you mother, have been thinking of you (and of my own aging mother!).
M
What this, and my own post similar to this one, tells me is that convergence is poised to become a major movement in the RSOF, if it's not already. And that this movement is also Spirit-led.
@Martin: Thanks for the notice and kind words. I'm sorry I didn't manage to call -- same time zone, different area code. Just didn't have much time or energy left once the day was over and the siblings and wife had all been updated by phone.
@Tania: Thanks for the head's up, I looked briefly at the post and will re-read again in more detail soon.
Thanks for the post (and link) Chris - I agree Cooper's been a big influence on my thinking as well. And I can't help but say amen! To the quote you posted. I think it's exciting to see that these thoughts have been around awhile too - I agree with tatiana that it's the Spirit.
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