Faith to Move Mountains

Last fall I was blessed to co-lead the Inquirers' Weekend at Pendle Hill with Emma Lapsansky.

We had a deeply engaged group of eight people on varying places in relation to Quakerism. One had attended four meetings for worship; one is an Episcopalian minister with ancestors who were Quaker, and so she wanted to better learn Quaker vocabulary and practice; one had been a member 30 years ago and eventually resigned, and now is considering joining a meeting again; and many of the others are regular attenders at meeting for worship and are considering next steps.

I had never facilitated a full weekend workshop before, though many afternoon or evening ones, plus many a Sunday morning class with children. And I've clerked 12 weekend-long Friends Journal board meetings in total over the last four years; those are somewhat similar, logistically anyway.

Anyway, it went very well. Emma was a fantastic co-leader, with her probing questions and knowledgeable answers in turn--the very model of a well-loved professor. I brought some different activities to mix it up a bit and make sure we took stretch breaks. We watched a couple of QuakerSpeak videos that spoke to the group's condition.

Afterwards, I reflected that this had been something of a "mountaintop" experience for me, but it wasn't a tiptop peak experience, either. I've had them before. I hope to have them again. The fact that I drove home every night to be with our sons while my wife was also away meant I didn't engage 24 hours a day, and that may have had an impact.

But the mountain didn't feel as high as when I was newer to Quakerism.

In considering that, I realized, that's partly because I am further up "the mountain" of spiritual experience in my daily life. I fall far short of Paul's injunction in Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing," yet I often remember to. And I've been practicing as a Quaker for 25 years now. It makes a difference.

It occurred to me that when Jesus spoke of having sufficient faith to move mountains, maybe it wasn't as literal as the words recorded in the Bible, at least as translated into English:

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
- Matthew 17:20, New International Version

Perhaps this passage gives us a clue that we can move the mountaintop to us. We can have a daily spiritual practice that brings us closer to God, closer to the feeling we get on retreat at the top of a mountain, a peak experience literally and spiritually. I can't believe in prayer literally moving mountains, at least not with what I understand of how the universe works. I can totally see how we can move the spiritual mountain to us - and ourselves up it - so that we are there all the time.

During the weekend, Emma had reminded us the early Quakers believed humans can attain a place, as she said, "above Adam, and beyond falling." I felt we touched a little bit of that place in our weekend together.

Written November 2015, posted May 2016.

10th Anniversary of San Francisco Meeting Vigil for Peace

Well, I left San Francisco Friends Meeting, but it hasn't left me -- thanks to the magic of meeting email lists. This report came through and its author, Markley Morris, agreed that I could post this here.

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10th Anniversary of San Francisco Meeting Vigil for Peace

Last Thursday was the 10th anniversary of our vigil. The first vigil was held on October 11, 2001, the same week U.S. bombing of Afghanistan began.

There was a wonderful turnout. At 12:30 Supervisor John Avalos arrived and presented the attached proclamation to the vigil. Note that it is signed by all eleven San Francisco Supervisors. After this, Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus gave a blessing and we resumed our vigil.

For photos by Sean McConnell see http://www.flickr.com/photos/diocal/sets/72157627839290668/

The vigil continues. Please join us whenever you can from noon to 1:00 every Thursday (except federal holidays) at the old federal building at the corner of Larkin Street and Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco.

In peace, Markley

Clerk of the Eternal Meeting

Today at San Francisco Meeting, a Friend gave ministry about his sense of growing up spiritually. He has the sense that God the Father wants his children to move from simple obedience to being co-workers. The idea of being God's co-workers was from Wilmer Cooper, quoted by Wess Daniels at yesterday's Quaker Heritage Day (pdf) at Berkeley Friends Church.

Further, this Friend imagined God as the Clerk of the Eternal Meeting. We are in that Meeting, working to find unity together with God. Occasionally, God may even defer to us, to let us try something ourselves.

I love this image, this new office, for God.

Off and on for the rest of meeting, I meditated on a new wording of the prayer taught by Jesus that this sparked for me: "As it is in the eternal meeting, so may it be in the earthly meeting."

It is from self-absorption we must be saved

A couple of years ago I read If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland. I wrote out a passage I liked at that time, and it's been sitting on my dresser since then. So it's time to put it out there.

This is from page 151; copyright 2003 (I think) by the authors; emphasis added:

Salvation comes with believing God loves you unconditionally. It is abandoning the misconception that you are rejected because of your bad behavior or accepted because of your goodnewss. Only when we repent of this self-absorption and focus on God’s love can this love alter us. Then and only then can God transform hearts darkened by sin and soften hearts hardened by self-righteousness.

It is from this self-absorption that we must be saved. Often, when I speak of my belief in the salvation of every person, someone will object that without the threat of hell, people would sin wantonly. They consider the possibility of eternal punishment as the only deterrent to human selfishness. Unfortunately, if this is true, even serving God and loving our neighbor become acts of selfishness. Self-absorbed choices, by their very nature, separate us from God and from others.

I learned this from Jesus.

I read Gulley's most recent book, If the Church Were Christian, a few months ago, and noted several sections for me to come back to later, so maybe you can look forward to my thoughts on that in about three or four years. :)

20 years of Quaker meetings

Today at meeting for worship I realized this week marks 20 years since I attended my first meeting, at 15th Street Meeting in Manhattan. It was either 9/16 or 9/23/1990.

I went because I didn't like the buildup of US military forces in Saudi Arabia, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Quakers were speaking out against it, so I thought I'd check it out.

Months before, a friend of mine from where I worked, a major publishing house, had encouraged me to attend. She thought I would like it.

I found the meeting incredibly powerful, at a gut and heart level. It was just so profound to see this group of people sit in silence together, in the middle of the biggest US city.

At the rise of meeting, I introduced myself, and gave credit to my friend for encouraging me to attend.

She came up to me afterwards and said, "Chris, I don't think anyone here even knows me! I attend the meeting in Flushing, Queens. I just happened to come here today because we were running late and didn't have time to get out there."

Ah, synchronicity. It's been a consistent theme in my experience of Quakerism.

For those with ears to hear, let them hear.

SF Meeting's new Fund for Leadings

In July 2010, San Francisco Monthly Meeting approved the following guidelines for our new Fund for Leadings. I share them here because I think this is an exciting effort that Quaker meetings and even other congregations should know about. They were drafted by an ad hoc budget committee, and edited by me following two periods of discernment at monthly meeting for business.

San Francisco Friends Meeting
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. We hope members and regular attenders will feel inspired to apply for ministry support money to help manifest spiritual leadings. Friends will submit a written request and funds will be approved by the meeting for business to ensure fairness and transparency.

The meeting approved creating the Fund for Leadings with $30,000 from the General Fund. In First month 2011, the meeting will review and evaluate this program and the fund. Based on this review, the meeting would decide to continue the fund, apply additional funding, or lay down the fund. If the funds are not expended at that time, Friends will review the Fund again later.

We are excited this financial resource is being put to use for good works, spiritual leadings, and ministry as an expression of witness to our faith and practice as Friends. We look forward to education and conversation around the topic of our leadings in the coming months.

Guidelines for Requests for Support from the Fund

The intention of the Fund for Leadings is to support members and regular attenders of the San Francisco Friends meeting to pursue a new leading or a new phase of an existing leading, which would otherwise not be possible without corporate discernment and financial support. Ideally the Fund for Leadings would assist an individual (rather than an organization) who does not have access to or support from other funding sources.

Support from the Fund for Leadings will help Friends bring their ministry into action. Our hope is that the Fund for Leadings will stimulate dialogue and discernment of how Spirit is moving us to act in the world. From this deep listening, we encourage Friends to step forward, seek support, and consider submission of a proposal. All requests will be considered with the following guidelines in mind. To nurture this process, Ministry & Oversight will offer a series of workshops on discerning leadings and ideas for how to bring a leading into acts of ministry in the world. (Note: Funding is already available for scholarships and travel assistance to Quaker gatherings and conferences through the meeting’s Gatherings Fund.)

Clarification on “Leadings”

In Pacific Yearly Meeting's Faith & Practice, a “Leading” is defined (p. 135) as “a sense of being called by God to undertake a specific course of action. A Friend may submit a leading to the Meeting for testing by corporate wisdom. A leading often arises from a concern.” (A “concern” is defined as “a quickening sense of the need to do something about a situation or issue in response to what is felt to be a direct intimation of God’s will.”)

It is Friends practice to test a leading through prayerful individual and corporate discernment. (Discernment is “the process of seeking and discovering that which is deeply true.”) Friends seeking support through the Fund for Leadings should request a “Clearness Committee” from Ministry & Oversight for further discernment of their leadings. The report from the clearness committee should be included in the written request for support.