Quick Takes

Today we celebrated now-Five Year Old's birthday with a baseball party at McCoppin Park. It was really fun to be out in the fresh air where the kids could run all around on the grass, the hill, and the path through the bushes, as well as some low-key tee-ball. Robin did a great job decorating the cake to look like a baseball diamond. (No photos to post yet, we still use film.) She also had the brilliant idea that, instead of a goody bag of cheap junk, we would give away a real baseball, a box of crackerjacks, and a few baseball stickers. The kids were excited!

• Update on grace before mealtime: Tonight while Robin was speaking a prayer, Five Year Old licked the macaroni and cheese on his plate. It reminds me of Kathleen's original article about grace that sparked my post, in which her baby just couldn't resist that good food in front of him.
  

• This morning a "flashmob" spelled out the word "impeach" on San Francisco's Ocean Beach. That's San Francisco Friend David Hartsough in the red jacket in this picture on the Chronicle's website.

• This event follows Thursday's vigil for peace outside the Federal Office building. There was a special turnout by the Declaration of Peace in support of Lt. Ehren Watada, who is facing court martial for refusing to deploy to Iraq. Twenty-eight people were arrested for trespassing, of some 150 people who attended; probably the largest vigil yet. Here's the Chronicle's report. I highly recommend SFMike's Civic Center blog, which has lots of great photos. I appreciate his faithful witness to the witness for peace. [WARNING! Post contains Unitarian jokes!]
  

Well, time to put the children to bed and figure out more details of the lesson I'm teaching at First-Day School tomorrow. It will have something to do with leadings, and God calling Samuel, and I'm not sure what else...

Seekers Found by Douglas Gwyn

I read our meeting's copy of Douglas Gwyn's The Covenant Crucified: Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism and loved it. I kept it on my bedside table for months, intending to re-read it "immediately." Well, that didn't happen. Now it's been reprinted by Britain Yearly Meeting, and a copy is on order for me from Quaker Books, where it's out of stock (sigh). I can't wait! This time I really will re-read it.

In the meantime, I am posting the following brief excerpts from Gwyn's 2000 book, Seekers Found: Atonement in Early Quaker Experience. These quotes have been sitting around as a draft post for at least three months, waiting for me to come up with some kind of brilliant insight to tie it all together.

Well, that's not happening, either, so I'll offer this as a sampling in hopes that you'll read, or re-read, both of these books yourself.
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Page 367:
Truly, early Friends had emphasized strongly the present apocalypse of Christ's coming in terms of the light within. Any future coming was usually left unconfirmed. It was contrary to early Quaker witness to speculate upon future or past events. What mattered was to know the truth of Scripture's prophecy here and now.

Page 368:
In 1690, George Keith proposed to PhYM that membership should be limited to those who would give written testimony to key articles of Christian faith.... The demurral of the YM to act on his proposal only confirmed his unease... Keith was censured by the YM in 9/1692... on the basis of the disorderliness of his actions, rather than his beliefs. Keith and his followers responded with an expanded critique of the YM and Quaker political leadership. They cited anomalies such as oath-refusing Quakers administering oaths to non-Quakers and the Quaker government selling gunpowder to Indians and supplying the Crown with money and troops, despite Friends' well-established pacifist position. Finally, they denounced the rapid increase in slaveholding in the colony and called for its abolition.

Page 370:
Pennsylvania Friends also resisted confronting the conflict between their faith and their political power. It was not until the 1750s and the French and Indian War that Friends finally admitted their position to be untenable and began to withdraw from colonial leadership. And after fending off decades of prophetic criticsm from the time of George Keith to that of John Woolman, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting finally renounced slavery in 1755. "Not until Friends had forgotten George Keith were they willing to endorse his reforms."

Page 371:
Over the course of the next century, a slow, subliminal drift took place among Friends. Some became more orthodox, reclaiming more biblically based doctrinal standards and beginning to see potential allies in the evangelical renewal movement of the wider church. Others found both apocalypse and atonement to be increasingly meaninglesss doctrines, even considering them to be ancient supersitions. These Friends came to view Christ more humanistically as a moral teacher and example. They found new allies among Deists, liberal humanists, Transcendalists, Uniteraians and others. Thus, we see the reconciliation between two types of Seekers - radical Protestant and incipient liberal - begin to break down by 1700 as the atonement drama of the early Quaker movement ended. Two streams of modern consciousness, so powerful in their personal and social dynamics, thus become enervatingly conflicted, even mutually destructive, as they move apart from one another. Therein lies the fall, the alienation, apostasy, and captivity of our modern consciousness.

It's showtime! MyMeeting! plus grassroots war memorials

"Tables, chairs & oaken chests," indeed! Looky! www.sanfrancisco.com/jesus-christ-superstar/

From the look of it on the web page, it's not as over-the-top as the London revival production of JC Superstar Robin & I saw for my birthday a few years ago at the same theater. I enjoyed that one. I'm not sure it's in our budget this year.
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I was looking for an explanation of how to do a Google map mashup for work. I stumbled across the MyChurch site and thought I'd offer it here in case you want to add your meeting/church. Might be interesting, or might just lead to a lot of spam. Here 'tis: www.mychurch.org/info/faq.php

(Your meeting is already listed at www.quakerfinder.org, right?)
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I liked Christian Parenti's essay about the Iraq Study Group's report. Quote: "And though it is written in polite, obfuscating Beltway vernacular, the report offers up a devastating critique of the Bush Administration's Middle East foreign policy. Most provocative, it correctly links Iraq's meltdown to a solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; these days that sort of suggestion is downright subversive. The right-wingers hate this report so passionately because they actually understand what it is saying."

Does the new majority in Congress understand it, too?
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From today's Chronicle: "Nighttime vandals late Tuesday or early Wednesday defaced the sign accompanying crosses planted on a Lafayette hillside as a memorial to American soldiers slain in Iraq."
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And news of another Iraq memorial, in Santa Barbara: "The toll of war is measured here on an acre of Pacific sand, where each Sunday volunteers array handmade wooden crosses in regimental columns to honor U.S. service members lost in Iraq.... The group of veterans that organizes the weekly tribute has decided to stop adding crosses because it is struggling to keep pace with the tally of death."
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Lord, forgive us, we know not what we are doing. (Me included.) Open our hearts up to one another, that we may have compassion and kindness. Send the Comforter to all who need Your presence in the midst of their suffering. And please take good care of Peggy Senger Parsons and her trauma healing students, okay? Thanks!

Children and mealtime grace

For some time, I have been planning to write something about the way our family has grace before meals.

Then we got an email from Kathleen Karhnak, Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, about the Phila YM Children's Religious Education Program's newsletter. She has an article in the latest issue.

Kathleen's article is wonderful. It's called Foundations for Children in Quaker Worship (pdf). Here's an excerpt:

Something that’s helped me is paying attention to fostering my child’s noticing those feelings of joy and connectedness, sometimes following his cues instead of expecting him to follow mine. For example, my 2 year old son was beginning to resent family mealtime worship. Why should we just sit here in silence when there’s food RIGHT THERE waiting to be eaten? We now have, in addition to quiet thank-filled worship, a sung grace followed by clapping and exclaiming, “Yay, God!” The clapping was introduced by Tim and we joined in. It’s now a permanent part of grace. My son seems to have that feeling of joy, love, and connectedness during grace now that I remember from my childhood and which is also part of my adult experience of worship. And it’s okay, too, if he samples some of the food while giving thanks for it!

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In our family the four of us take turns, from youngest to oldest, choosing one of several options: Silence, speak a prayer, or sing a prayer. The songs are usually a chorus of "All Creatures Great and Small," "The George Fox Song," "The Appleseed Song (Johnny Appleseed's prayer)," or maybe "Simple Gifts." We end by squeezing hands and saying "amen" -- unless it's the four year old's turn. He is adamant that we not say "amen" when it's his turn!

We frequently forget to have grace until we've already started. Sometimes almost finished!

Our eight year old usually calls for silence. Lately he has been closing his eyes and bowing his head. He sometimes lets it go on for a while. For a long time, when someone chose silence, our four year old would smack his lips or whine that he didn't want silence. If he was leading grace that night, the eight year old would doggedly persist until we got at least four or five seconds of silence.

One evening, when we were particularly tense or tired or both, I called out, "Laughing." So we did. It was wonderfully cleansing and joyful -- and funny! For most of a year afterwards, Four Year Old asked for laughing pretty much every turn he had. It was less and less funny for the rest of us, but he was having fun, so we forced out some guffaws for his sake.

Another time there was lobbying from various small parties about what I should choose, so I called for each of us to pick something. After that, Four Year Old wanted to pick "everyone choose" each time.

He's making progress. At the end of November, we were almost done with dinner when the 4 y.o. said, "We forgot grace!" So we had end-of-meal grace.

Then on his next turn a few days later, he actually chose silence. The silence didn't last long before he squeezed our hands to signal the end -- and we didn't say "amen," of course -- but it's what he chose. Yay!
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• Do you have a practice of mealtime grace?

• What gives you joy that makes you say, "Yay, God"?

• Do your spiritual practices help you center and appreciate the gifts of life? Do you ever feel as if your usual practices are just keeping you from the spiritual food that God has put RIGHT THERE on the table?

Episcopalian leader arrested during SF antiwar protest

Breaking news on the San Francisco Chronicle's website, SFGate.com:
Episcopalian leader arrested during SF antiwar protest

Newly elected bishop, Mark Andrus, gets arrested outside the building where Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office is. The die-in was David Hartsough's idea. Many thanks again to Stephen, Markley, and Friends for continuing the vigil for peace outside the San Francisco Federal Office Building for over five years now.

Update: Here's the story from today's print Chronicle: Click here.

Guest post: Kristina's queries on membership in the RSOF

Kristina Perry gave me permission to lift up her comments on my post "So you want to be a Quaker!" to be a guest post. I invite your answers to her questions, as well as your broader thoughts and responses on membership, especially in your own experience. -- Chris M.
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I haven't had a lot of time, since coming here to ESR, to be hanging out in BLOGland but, I recently tuned in to the conversations to see what Friends are saying about Membership.

The subject of membership, and particularly membership for Friends who are mobile, is much on my mind.

I know this is not the topic of your brochure, Chris, but -- I too wonder, so what does membership *mean*? Or what qualifies you: relationships that are active or proximity?

PhilaYM says:

"Members express their care for one another in many ways. They support one another's spiritual journeys. They participate in the intimate joys and sorrows of birth, marriage, death, and other rites of passage. Members facing important decisions receive counseling, as in the case of those contemplating marriage or those who are facing decisions about the military. At times of distress, the Meeting responds with the appropriate support, and, if needed, makes referrals to professional care-givers. A Meeting assumes responsibility for helping members resolve their differences. It responds to the special needs of the young and the elderly, and of new members, prospective members, and members at a distance.

"All members share the duty and privilege of caring for one another."

While our own PacYM states:

"Membership establishes a commitment between the individual and the Religious Society of Friends within the framework of a particular Monthly Meeting. Membership implies that, for each member, the Religious Society of Friends provides the most promising home for spiritual enlightenment and growth. It commits a person to the daily pursuit of truth after the manner of Friends, and commits the Meeting to support the member in that pursuit. Membership represents the outward recognition of unity with other members of the Religious Society of Friends and a commitment to cherish and share in the living tradition. "

Here's the source of my question: Callid and I just sent a letter requesting that our Meeting/s form a committee to sit with us regarding marriage clearness. We sent it to Rochester MM (NYYM) and to Humboldt MM (PacYM). Realistically, these meetings are Thousands of Miles Apart! How do they jointly "take us under their care"? I have not been resident in Humboldt for years. I have spent more time worshipping with Rochester and have been offered support for discerning emerging ministry that Callid and I share.

In the PhilaYM definition - ROC is more of a Meeting Community of accountability and care. I don't fit any of PacYM's geographic qualifications with Humboldt. Do I transfer my membership?

Does anyone know of other discussions on the relevance of geography vs. active accountability on membership and spiritual home?

Much Love -- Kristina