What Canst Thou Say?

The Convergent Conversation Continues

2009-11-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

This post began as a comment on Liz Opp’s blog about pride and privilege.

Lord knows I have plenty of opportunities to work on my own struggles with both. But what I really wanted to address was her admission that it surprised her to read about people she doesn’t know talking about convergent Friends.

It’s funny how we come to this sense of ownership of a word. Liz herself used to think it didn’t apply to her. I have struggled with this same concern since I realized that there were other people for whom "convergent Friends" was a resonant phrase. My (unpublished) report to my anchor committee from July 2007 includes a reference to the fact that the phrase has already taken on a life of its own. It was very odd for me to read Rachel Stacy’s term paper on the subject back in 2007. It felt strange to read in someone else’s words about work I was doing. This summer, Angelina Conti wrote an article about a workshop that Wess, Martin and I co-led, and it felt much less strange to hear her take on it. Maybe the difference is that I had already met Angelina when I read her article, and I didn't meet Rachel until quite a while after she wrote her paper.

Over the last four years, the phrase “convergent Friends” has come to mean different things to different people. People are using it in different ways and projecting their own interpretations onto it, both positive and negative. Earlham School of Religion used it in their newsletter and Friends Journal in their fund raising appeal. Articles have been published in meeting newsletters, magazines and journals in the US and UK.

Discussions (that I know about) have happened at Pacific Yearly Meeting, Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative), North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), Friends General Conference, Friends United Meeting, and Friends World Committee for Consultation gatherings. I have organized some of them. Wess and Martin and Liz and Chris have been part of some, with and without me. Betsy Blake and Stephen Dotson, Scott Wagoner and Tony Lowe, Shawna Roberts and David Male, Will Taber, Erin McDougall, Micah Bales, Anthony Manousous, Rachel Dean and Rachel Stacy have been part of others. These are just some who have been in dialogue with me at various points. There are others who have read or attended something and gone on to organize or write something else with other people. Probably more than I know of. I think this is a sign of health in the Religious Society of Friends that this cross-branch, cross-country conversation is taking place.

But is it a movement? Is there a common thread? Is there a leadership cadre? Are there just humble servants of the Lord taking it day by day? I don't know.

I personally struggle with my own participation. Over the last couple of years I have gone back and forth between wanting to be a leader of something and feeling content with just being a footnote in history. It was about the time I quit my last job that we had the first convergent dinner at my house. Then I had two and a half years to travel and write a lot. Even then, there wasn’t enough time to do everything. Now, I have even less time and energy for this ministry. But it’s not all up to me. It’s not about me. I’m not in control. I’m not alone. I’ve said this before and it is a good reminder.

What originally got me into this was an opportunity to meet other blog readers and writers over dinner. I’d like to propose another convergent dinner party, possibly to include take out pizza and homemade chocolate chip cookies but they’re not required, in the Baltimore area on March 21, 2010, Sunday night, after the FWCC gathering.

Would anyone else be interested? Know a good place where we could meet? Leave a comment or send me an email!

Annual Report to Business Meeting

2009-11-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

This is my annual report to SF Monthly Meeting. SFMM appointed a clearness committee for me in late 2006, and my anchor committee began meeting with me in January 2007. In November of 2007, the meeting approved a traveling minute.

(For more background, I recommend a search of this blog under the tags convergent or myjourney, or simply through the archives - all available in the sidebar of the homepage of this blog.)

Each fall since then, I have submitted a written report on my work in the previous year, some reflections on that year and my plans for the coming year. This is my report from November 2009, slightly edited for internet publication. I hereby share it with you too.

First I would like to express my gratitude to San Francisco Monthly Meeting and especially to my Anchor Committee for their support and encouragement and patience.

In February, I co-led a weekend workshop for convergent Friends at BLQC with Martin Kelley of Philadelphia YM and Wess Daniels, a member of Evangelical Friends Church -Eastern Region, and now pastor of Camas Friends Church in Northwest YM. It was attended by almost 30 Friends, from six yearly meetings across the United States, including six members of SFMM. It sparked a series of blog posts, short videos and an article in Friends Journal by Angelina Conti. Much of the coverage can be found in the archives at www.quakerquaker.org

I also co-led a workshop on Quaker blogging at the FWCC Section of the Americas Annual Meeting in March with Gregg Koskela of Northwest YM. He and I spoke about how writing a blog has been a ministry to us and by us for others. We included a version of the exercise that Chris M. and I first led at SFMM, of a low-tech blog commenting exercise, where people could read posts on the wall and leave their own comments and then return to read what others had written. It was well attended, for a late night interest group, around 30 people from all over North America.

I wrote an article for Western Friend about Plainness, and a book review for Quaker Life about Lest We Forget: Self-Supporting Ministers from North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM).

I gave a short talk at College Park Quarterly Meeting last month about the essentials of Quaker practice, how to teach them better and how this meshes with convergent Friends.

I continue to maintain this blog as an outlet for my writing and a gathering place for cross-branch dialogue. Readership is down significantly since I am writing less often, but still averages about 50 visits per day. The most commented-on post in the last year was technically a book review of the semi-fictional trilogy by Brian McLaren called A New Kind of Christian. The comments, however, were mostly about various theories of the Atonement, from various perspectives across the Quaker spectrum. Three of my blogposts appeared in the new book, Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader, edited by Liz Opp that came out in July 2009.

In the coming year, I anticipate to travel less and write less because of my full-time employment outside the Religious Society of Friends. My anchor committee has agreed to continue meeting with me, although less frequently than in the first couple of years, given the decreased level of activity and discernment required.

I’m wrestling with the nagging feeling that God is calling me to this ministry of hospitality and encouragement: this work of bringing Friends together, convening learning communities, facilitating conversations and supporting Friends on their spiritual journeys, which brings me such joy and fulfillment and peace. Aren’t I really supposed to be doing this all the time? Am I disobeying God’s leading by spending so much of my time earning a secular living? Or is the desire to devote myself to a full-time, "hireling" ministry a distraction? A temptation?

Actually, I think I am given both pieces of work to do. God is showing me what the Quaker path of ministry looks like. I have a “competency” as Friends have traditionally called it, and I am figuring out how to balance my household chores/family responsibilities, my paid employment and my religious vocation.

This is part of the challenge of living as a Quaker in the 21st century.

Essentials of Quaker Practice?

2009-11-03T21:46:00.000-08:00

Last month I was asked by the clerk of my Quarterly Meeting to say a few words about the essentials of Quaker practice. In preparation I asked a few Friends what they thought were the essentials. One Friend had a concise and concrete list which I like:

attendance at meeting for worship
attendance at meeting for business
serving on meeting committees
making a financial contribution to the meeting

What I like about this list is that it’s all about participation in the community: showing up and doing your share, whatever your gifts or abilities might be.

I have two further ideas about the essentials, both of which I learned from George Fox.

What stood out for me from Fox’s journal is how he talks about what this new movement is doing. He says (and I paraphrase) their work is to bring the people out of their “chaffy, light minds” (p.353, see Chapter XI), to lead them to the feet of their Inward Teacher, and leave them there.

Notice there are three parts to that. The first is to help people leave behind the distractions to their souls, to separate the wheat from the chaff in their lives. The second is to help people to find and hear the voice of their Inward Teacher – which presupposes that we believe that every person has and can hear that inner voice and that we have learned a few things that can help us listen (like sitting in silence). The third is that we have to get out of the way. Like that other old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. We have to remember that we do not convince or convert anyone – God does that. For our part, it’s enough to model good listening and good living and to teach people how to listen.

The other essential idea from George Fox is that "There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition."(p. 82, see Chapter 1) We can hear God – Christ Jesus – the Holy Spirit – that Inward Teacher – speaking to us about our true condition and we can do something about it. In the 17^th century, it was a radical idea that we were not predestined to a life of sin. The amazing thing about this concept, then or now, is not that God tells us we’re all basically fine and good, but that we can all change. We can hear and obey. Whether it’s a personal improvement or a social or political concern, we can hear those nudges from God, Quakers call them leadings, and we can follow. It takes practice and discipline to develop that ability to obey, but Quakers have learned a few things that can help with this too.

These I think are the essential Quaker practices in College Park Quarterly Meeting and beyond. As I have traveled more widely among Friends in the last few years, I have seen a variety of forms of worship, and I think those differences are less important than these essentials: that we all make time to listen to God, we rid ourselves of the things in our lives that impede our ability to follow, and we act on what we hear.

Page numbers are from The Journal of George Fox, edited by Rufus M. Jones, published by Friends United Press, 1976. Hyperlinks are to the relevant chapters of the Journal on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Theology and Covered Dishes

2009-10-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that sometimes church is about theology and sometimes it’s about covered dishes.

We need to talk about what we think and what we believe (all of us some of the time and some of us a lot of the time) AND we need to bring meals to people who are sick or have new babies or are otherwise overwhelmed by life and to know people who will do this for us.

Both of these are important parts of our spiritual development. Both the giving and the receiving. The speaking up and the listening to others.

I think that when people are looking for a new religious community or choosing whether to join a new community, they will decide based on some balance of these two elements.

As a meeting, do we make both kinds of opportunities available to people?

As individuals, do we make the time and have the courage to participate openly and honestly

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

2009-10-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to write about Climate Change because I signed up to be part of Blog Action Day today.

But really, I want to write about something that happened last Thursday. I went to the Quaker Vigil for Peace and Justice at noon in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco. The same vigil I've been to before. The same vigil that's been meeting there every Thursday for eight years. Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the US bombing of Afghanistan on Wednesday, and the eighth anniversary of the vigil on Thursday. These are some faithful folks. Me, I just show up when it's convenient for me. Or last week, I went for ten minutes to show support for the really diligent vigilers. (It takes my whole 30 minute lunch break just to get there and back.)

While I was there, Norman Solomon spoke about how women's rights are important in Afghanistan, and that poverty is important because it defeats women's rights, and he made the explicit connection that our war is impoverishing more women in Afghanistan every day.

In the ten minutes I spent at the vigil, I prayed as I always do at the vigil for women who have to stand in line, very inconveniently, for basics of food and clothing and water and soap. For women who don't have those things for themselves or their children.

Today, I think I just want to make the connection that climate change is also contributing to poverty in more places, through droughts and storms and unpredictable weather.

Dear God, be with the people who are suffering most acutely the effects of climate change, whether they know that's what's happening to them or not. Help all of us who can make a difference to have compassion and courage to act, today and every day. Amen.

P.S. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a Friend who is a little older than me and has children the same age as mine. We were talking about how climate change is really a big issue for young people today, and she compared it to the way young people used to be really concerned about nuclear weapons when we were younger. I said that the good thing about climate change is that children today can feel like there is something small that they can do that will help. Not that turning the water off or driving less will change it all, but they can feel like they are helping. When I was younger, I didn't feel like anything I did would make a difference about nuclear weapons. I like an issue with something for everyone to do.

A good enough reason to pray

2009-10-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

My Friend Brent Bill has a series going on his blog that he calls, "Quaker Wisdom for Today"

I commend it to you on a regular basis. But last Friday's quote was just so good that I want to copy it here to remind myself.

“A feeling of real need is always a good enough reason to pray.”

-Hannah Whitall Smith

For more on Smith, I commend to you my series of posts related to her book, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life.

End of the Year at Quaker Center

2009-10-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

An amazing trio of workshops to finish out 2009.

November 6-8
The Sacred Depths of Nature
Exploring the religious potential of our scientific understandings of nature.
Ursula Goodenough faculty webpage Wikipedia entry interview on beliefnet.com

December 11-13.
Quakers and Social Class
(rescheduled from March, now full but you can still get on the waiting list)
A challenging exploration of how Friends relate to the divisions of social class
George Lakey Training for Change bio

December 27-January 1, 2010
The Annual Year End Retreat (registration isn't open yet, but keep checking the Quaker Center website)
Celebrating the old and new years, in good company.
Dan Seeger Wikipedia entry

Sojourners Prayer of the Day 10/7/09

2009-10-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Spirit of God, let us be attentive to your leading. May we be open to the surprises you may lay in our path, and respond with courage and boldness to your call.

In my spare time, I subscribe to Sojourners' Verse and Voice daily email list. It comes with a social justice Bible verse, a quote from a modern religious leader, and a prayer of the day. I thought today's prayer was especially Quaker in nature.

October 2009 worship at HSBF

2009-10-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that there will be an hour of unprogrammed worship this Sunday, October 4, 2009, 10:00 am, in front of the Banjo stage at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. You can find more details (map, schedule, etc) at www.strictlybluegrass.com. The whole point is that you don't have to choose between going to worship and getting there early.

Three years ago, I wrote about how bluegrass gospel brought me to Christ, sort of. You can find it here.

A couple of years ago, I put together this half-page/double-sided outreach flyer. I still have most of the ones I printed then, I'll bring them on Sunday, but this is what they say:

Welcome!

You’re welcome to join this informal meeting for worship in the manner of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is being held here in order to allow Friends to worship together and not miss any of the wonderful music here today. We expect to end around 11:00 am.

Regular meetings for worship are held Sundays at 11:00 am and Tuesdays at 6:00 pm. For those new to Friends or unprogrammed worship, we offer an orientation to meeting for worship at 10:40 am every Sunday. All are welcome.

San Francisco Friends Meeting (Quakers)
65 Ninth Street, between Market and Mission, near Civic Center
www.sfquakers.org
www.quakerfinder.org

[other side]
Our meeting for worship, which is at the core of Quaker practice, is focused on the response of the human spirit to the call of the Divine. Worship begins when the first worshippers settle into the silence. This meeting for worship will end when the host of the meeting shakes the hand of another person seated nearby. At that signal, everyone may shake hands and greet each other.

You may find it helpful to close your eyes for most or all of the worship hour to reduce distractions and increase your focus on the presence of God among us. During worship people may meditate, pray silently, inwardly offer praise or thanksgiving or confession to the Spirit, or reflect on a passage from the Bible or other spiritual reading. In our corporate worship, we seek communion with God. We wait and listen together, seeking divine guidance or inspiration from a source known among us by many names: Wisdom, the Light, the Inward Christ, the Seed, the Word, Jesus, the Lord.

All present share in this process. At times an individual may be moved to speak, to offer a prayer or a message that has come out of the silence. All are welcome to do this. Listen to the ministry of others with an open spirit. If it is not God's word for you, it may be for others. After a message has been given, allow time to ponder its meaning and to let the Meeting return to silent worship.

The responsibility for the spiritual depth of the meeting rests with each attender. Those who keep silent as well as those who give a vocal message do their part when they yield their minds and hearts to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Friends hope that in the meeting for worship a consciousness of the Divine Presence will be felt by every attender, and will be a source of direction, strength and comfort after leaving the meeting.

A profound insight via Twitter

2009-09-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

Is that possible?

I retweeted these two quotes, one from a Brazilian theologian that I got from Sojourners' daily email "Voice of the Day" and one from a simplicity consultant in San Francisco. Then I realized that they are closely related:

There can be no evangelization without incarnation.

You cannot outsource or delegate physical exercise or personal character.

This will be my meditation for the weekend.

If you would like to read more of my Twitter feed, my name there is @robinmsf. I also just figured out how to make it appear in my sidebar, so you can see the last few things there.

If necessary, use words

2009-09-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

I am finally writing about a book that came out over a month ago that has three of my blogposts in it, along with a wealth of selections from 31 other bloggers. It’s called Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader, edited by my Friend Liz Opp, with help from my husband, Chris M. (full disclosure here) and a preface by Brent Bill.

There are sections on “Worship & Ministry,” “Reclaiming & Re-examining Our Traditions,” “Convergent Friends,” “A Friendly Look at Christianity, Jesus & the Bible,” “Openings & Personal Stories,” and more. Each has posts from Friends across the branches of Friends, across the United States, and across theological differences. The first was written in 2003, the most recent in 2009. Together they offer a snapshot of the Religious Society of Friends in the early 21st century, but it is not a comprehensive guide to Quakerism today. As Liz says in the introduction, “Ultimately the volume you hold in your hands is an indicator of how a particular cohort of Quakers have gone about the business of grappling with and exploring the Quaker faith tradition, including investing in it and embracing it as our own. These writings, and the conversations they inspire, reflect the extent to which we are ready to engage in a rigorous and vibrant Quakerism.”

I like the selections a lot. Then again, I read most of them when they first appeared online. As I read it, I realized I’ve met most of the authors in person over the years. Some of them before they were blogging and some only because of their blogs. Some of them, even besides my husband, have changed my life through their writing and their friendship. So I’m probably not the best judge of whether these selections will speak to the book’s intended audience of people who don’t read blogs, but I suspect they will.

It would make a great addition to a Meeting or Church library or a thoughtful gift for a Friend who says, “I’m interested in what you’re talking about, but I don’t want to spend (any/more) time online."

It's for sale at QuakerBooks.org.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Worship 2009

2009-08-23T15:25:00.001-07:00

For the third year in a row, there will be a Quaker meeting for worship on the grounds of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.
(First year report) (Second year report) (Original inspiration)

October 4, 2009 at 10:00 am.

I'll get there early with my blanket and save some seats - if you bring your blankets, we can share.

I'm especially looking forward to these fine musicians:
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
John Prine
The Del McCoury Band
The Flatlanders featuring: Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock
Buddy Miller
The Chieftains
Doc Watson & David Holt
Boz Scaggs and the Blue Velvet Band
Emmylou Harris
The Claire Lynch Band
Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band
Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys

among many more fine acts over three days. The exact schedule has not been announced yet, but more information is available at www.strictlybluegrass.com. The concert is free and open to the public - thousands of people will be there. For more exact details on where the meeting for worship will be, bookmark this post and check back in the comments.

Come early on Sunday for worship and be doubly rewarded with great seats for the rest of the day!

Procrastination = Fear

2009-08-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend I finally did some tasks that I had been procrastinating about for a few weeks. What a relief. And in fact, I got a lot of other things done once these small but scary things were out of the way.

I wonder, how much energy would I release if I no longer put off doing the things I dread? If I could stop fearing them because they were already done, for better or worse? Because most of the things I'm afraid of are not fatal, not even really physically painful, just new and anxiety-provoking.

In much of my life, I prefer the planning part to the executing part. I'm really good at elaborate plans and charts and lists and diagrams. I'm a little afraid of the doing part, and especially of finishing. Afraid that I won't actually be good enough, that everyone will find out what a fraud I actually am, that really I don't know what I'm doing, etc., etc.

In what ways do I not trust myself?

How can my faith in God help me to learn to trust that I will be all right?

Part-Time Quaker

2009-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

This was the tenth year in a row that my family has attended Pacific Yearly Meeting's annual sessions - and the first time I only went for part of it.

This year, because of the limited vacation time I have in my new job, I was only able to attend the final 48 hours of the sessions. It turned out that during that period, a major decision was reached by the Yearly Meeting and the sun finally came out both afternoons, after what had been a cold and damp week. So I'm glad I went when I could.

I think this is the first time I've ever gone to PYM and not spoken once in plenary or in worship. I recognized in the business sessions that others had stated my piece of the truth - maybe not as eloquently as I think I would have expressed it, but sufficiently that I would have just been repeating what had already been said. This is also in keeping with my current silence in my monthly meeting - not intentional silence but rather I haven't been given words to share. I think this also has to do with coming to meeting for worship less frequently and less prepared than I used to when my daily occupation was various forms of Quaker ministry.

I missed the interest group around the new document on supporting Friends with leadings that is being circulated by the PYM Ministry and Oversight subcommittee on Ministry and Leadings. But I had a chance to tell the outgoing clerk of that subcommittee that I thought it was well done and that I had shared it with my anchor committee so that they might share their comments with the subcommittee.

It was a little overwhelming to arrive in the middle of the week, so many people, so much going on, and the sense that I had missed most of the week. However, I was warmly greeted by many people, reaffirming my sense that I have a place in this community - even if I was only there for a short time.

Work and Rest at Quaker Center

2009-07-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

There is always a balance of work and rest to be sought in life, and available at Quaker Center. This fall it's more obvious than usual.

August 7-11
The Annual Community Work Camp
Service through spirit in community.
David Forbes and others

September 25-27
Restoration, Preparation, New Light
Massage, energy work, quiet, and laughing; restoration tools in hard times.
John Calvi

September 18-20 was supposed to be a workshop on "Opening Hearts & Minds: Speaking Truth to Power" with Bonnie Tinker. This was already rescheduled once due to the death of Bonnie's mother last spring. It is with shock and sadness that we announce that this program has been cancelled due to the sudden death of Bonnie herself on July 2, 2009. A memorial service is planned in Portland on 7/25 at 11 AM.

Eco Everyday Natural Laundry Soap

2009-07-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Back in May, after Quarterly Meeting, we were honored with a visit by the fabulous Betsy Blake, from North Carolina. Chris wrote about it on his blog at the time.

What he didn't mention was that she gave us a hostess gift of some of her amazing handmade laundry soap. Our bag is all used up now, but it is still available online through her Etsy shop or at farmers' markets in the Greensboro area.

It's environmentally friendly, it smells good and works great. Try it!

2009 San Francisco PRIDE Celebration & Parade

2009-07-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I marched in the SF Pride Parade. I went with my kids and other families from the San Francisco Friends School and a few folks from SF Monthly Meeting.

We were right behind the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays PFLAG contingent and with a bunch of other school groups. It’s the more family-friendly portion of the parade, but the whole morning was still a series of opportunities to have conversations with my kids about what various signs meant and why we don’t point at other people, no matter what they are or are not wearing.

The theme this year was “To Form A More Perfect Union.” The marriage equality debate was all over the place. A school staff member and his husband wore tshirts that said, “We put a ring on it.” I think they got more cheers than the kids.

It was fun, not too hot, and an inspiring but long walk. Afterwards, folks from the school can come to the meetinghouse, which is near the parade's endpoint, for a cool and quiet place to eat lunch and use the bathroom. The school has had a contingent in the parade for several years, but this was my first time.

Later that day, I took a turn in the SF Meeting booth at the Pride Festival. This was our second year in a row to have a booth. The meeting may have had one before, but not for many years. (We still have a parade banner from the early days of Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (now FLGBTQC) with felt appliques of two broad brimmed hats on one side and two bonnets on the other side with their strings intertwined.)

This is the result of a new member of our meeting who has a passion for outreach. He’s still mad that it took him so many years to find Quakers, particularly a community where he could be openly gay and openly Christian. He was the driving force behind the rotating signs in our meetinghouse window with quotations from Faith and Practice. Last year he and his partner pretty much ran the booth themselves. This year, I wasn’t at the FGC Gathering that weekend, so I helped him get other people to sign up. He also had a new banner made for the top of the booth and little business cards made up with the logo from our newsletter, contact info for the meeting, and the dates and times of our meetings for worship. The top also says “Honor that of God in everyone/Silent Meeting for Worship/All welcome” And finally, he really wanted to put an ad in the program, so together with a graphic designer in the meeting, we came up with this. It’s basically the same as the business cards, with a rainbow background.

The booth also featured longer pamphlets about Quaker worship, brochures from the Friends School, and a bunch of stuff from the AFSC. After numerous requests the first day, a member of our meeting put together a list of all the meetings and churches in Northern California, since people kept saying, but I live in Fresno/San Jose/Redding, are there Quakers there? Why yes, there are. Back to the parade for a moment, one of the interesting things about the PFLAG group was that many of them were carrying flags with the names of the various cities they came from, all over California. I don't know if they do that every year, or if it was especially important this year to show that LGBTQ folks, their families and allies are really everywhere, not just in SF.

In addition, the wife of one of our members, who is a Christian Scientist, brought information on several other inclusive congregations in SF. It was wonderful to watch people’s faces light up, to see that there are other openly gay Catholics or Lutherans, etc. Even if they never go to church, a lot of light was brought to the whole situation and myths were dispelled.

I'm glad our meeting was part of it, and I'm glad to have participated. If you'd like to help out next year, let me know.

Summertime

2009-06-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

It's here. How can I tell? The fog is in and the kids are out. Which is why I've been dreading this week for months. But next week I begin a new commuting pattern, with more time to read on the way to and from work, and so I expect to have more time to write in the evenings after the kids are in bed.

This week marks nine months in my new job. I still like it and they still like me, but there's been a lot of adjustments in my life this year. Mostly painless, but change is hard, even when it's positive.

I think I need to set new goals for myself, just to help me sort through what are my priorities as I go along. My spiritual life seems to have taken a back seat to my family responsibilities in recent months. I don't know how much longer that will be true, but it feels rightly ordered for now.

However, one of the signs of disorder in my inner life is that my physical space becomes cluttered. The living space I share with others is doing all right, and my desk at work looks fine, but my desk and files at home, where I keep the paraphernalia of my ministry, is reaching the tipping point. Figuratively and literally. So I see that there is work to be done here, probably when it seems most inconvenient, but all in good time.

Happy summer to all of you!

What I'm Reading Now - Fifth Month 2009

2009-05-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Nation by Terry Pratchett
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Eyewitness: Sports by DK Books
Eyewitness: Flying Machines by DK Books
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg
Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech
Counsel to the Christian Traveler with Meditations and Experiences by William Shewin, edited by Charles Martin
Strength in Weakness edited by Gil Skidmore
Bloom County (assorted) by Berke Breathed
Paul Revere's Ride by Xavier Nig
The Wonderful O by James Thurber
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg
Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott
Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost
Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism by Carole Dale Spencer
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben

Really, I'm carrying the Quaker books around but I'm staying up late reading the kids' books. I just didn't want a whole month to go by without posting anything.

Fair Pay Day

2009-04-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

According to the National Women's Law Center, April 28, Equal Pay Day, marks the day in 2009 when the average U.S. woman’s wages will finally catch up with those paid to the average U.S. man in 2008. The day serves as an important reminder of the persistent wage gap and the urgent need to take action to ensure that women can receive equal pay for equal work.

From the NWLC website: View state-by-state information on how women continue to be short-changed in their pay and the economic challenges they face, and urge your Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

I meant to write earlier today about how the interesting thing about unprogrammed Quakers is that we pay our women ministers the same as our men ministers: nada.

Except that it's really more complicated than that. Do we hire women in the paid positions we have at the same rate we hire men? Is there a difference in the pay for positions that have been held by a series of men rather than a series of women? I don't know, I'm just wondering.

And do traveling women ministers get the same respect as traveling men? In my meeting, I think they do. But they haven't always, our collective fuzzy memories notwithstanding. A couple of years ago I read the book, Daughters of Light by Rebecca Larson, and wrote a review here on my blog. Until I read it, "I had not understood that London Yearly Meeting was originally composed only of male ministers and representatives of the men’s quarterly meetings. I didn’t realize that women were not allowed to attend the powerful Meeting for Sufferings in London. And that it was very questionable whether they should come to meetings of ministers and elders, but women prevailed in the end."

In the end, I know that Quakers are not immune to the sexism that permeates our society. However, no one can hold up a book of Faith & Practice of the Religious Society of Friends and say that's the way it's supposed to be. And that alone is a blessing to all of us, women and men.

[Here is the list of other posts for Fair Pay Day!]

More news

2009-04-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

One past and one future:

The theme of the current issue of Quaker Life magazine is Friends and their Pastors. I'm proud to report that a review I wrote of Self Supporting Ministers: Lest We Forget by Billy M. Britt has been published in this issue. I have a longer post to come about the same topic, but just thought I'd encourage folks from all branches of Friends to read this issue of Quaker Life. It's really interesting to see a variety of perspectives on the role(s) of pastors among Friends.

Next week is Fair Pay Day, Tuesday, April 28, which symbolizes the day in 2009 when the average woman's wages will finally catch up with those paid to the average man in 2008. Which is kind of mind-blowing in itself.

The National Women's Law Center is organizing a synchroblog/twitterevent. If you want to join me in blogging about fair pay for women (and everyone), the sign-up form, is here: http://action.nwlc.org/blogforfairpay If you write about it on Twitter, the hashtag is #fairpay.

Plain update

2009-04-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

I’m excited to report that an article I wrote was accepted for the April issue of Western Friend magazine. It’s called "Plain in the 21^st Century," and it follows closely the outline of the talks I’ve given at SF Meeting, my FGC workshop last summer and the convergent Friends workshop this spring.

But even better than my article, I think, is the new Pendle Hill Pamphlet, “Finding the Taproot of Simplicity: A Movement Between Inner Knowledge and Outer Action” by Frances Irene Taber. It’s actually a reprint of an essay she wrote twenty years ago that first appeared in an anthology titled, Friends Face the World.

I had read little excerpts from this essay, and even quote from it in my own Plain Manifesto. I didn’t realize though how much my own thinking has grown to parallel Fran Taber’s writing. The whole thing is worth reading again and again.

At the end of Pendle Hill Pamphlets these days, there are a series of Questions for Discussion. I’d like to open this one for discussion here:

What difficulties sometimes arise for children when their parents decide to change their previous practices in favor of a more simplified lifestyle?

As in, beyond the no tv, no skipping meeting for worship to go to birthday parties, but otherwise fairly mainstream kind of simplified lifestyle we have now.

What if we really gave up all quasi-religious holiday celebrations? What if we really ate only a healthy diet? What if we got rid of our cars? Our cell phones? Our computers?

What if we didn't allow our children to read books that include fantasy violence? (Like the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, for example) What if we started reading the Bible aloud before school?

What if we stopped saving money and gave all we have to the poor?

All of which I have considered at one point or another. Would my kids eventually admire my lack of hypocrisy or would they just hate me?

You know, Jesus never had kids. Maybe I've blown my chance at becoming a real disciple already.

The New Monasticism in print and in person

2009-04-09T02:38:00.000-07:00

[August 2009 Update: this workshop has been moved to May 14-16, 2010. For more information, visit this link on the Pendle Hill website. If there are more updates, I'll try to post them here, but I make no guarantees.]

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this or not but two Friends of mine, Martin Kelley and Wess Daniels, are going to lead a workshop at Pendle Hill this fall called New Monastics and Convergent Friends. You can read more about it on the Pendle Hill website, on the QuakerQuaker event page, or email Wess or Martin via the contact info on their blogs.

I’m probably not going to make it to Philadelphia in November, but just as a coincidence, a local Friend just gave me a book someone gave her and she thought I would like. It’s called New Monasticism: What It Has To Say To Today’s Church by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Jonathan is one of the co-founders, along with his wife Leah, of Rutba House, an intentional community in Durham, North Carolina. He is a leader in the coming together of a variety of intentional communities of radical disciples of Jesus. This book connects these groups to the long history of Christian monasticism, from Antony in the desert, through Benedict and Francis and the Anabaptists in Europe. Then beginning again in the 20th century with the Bruderhof in Germany in the 1920’s, the Catholic Workers in New York, Koinonia Farm in Georgia, John Perkins and the CCDA in Mississippi, the Jesus People in Chicago, the Simple Way in Philadelphia and Rutba House in Durham.

The list of 12 Marks of a New Monasticism is another list of characteristics of a religion I want to be part of. Much like Gibbs/Bolger’s nine elements of emerging church or Diana Butler-Bass’s Ten Signposts of Renewal. Each of these strikes me as a good set of measurements or goals for considering how I’m living my own life and how my Meeting is connecting our community life.

The first is “relocating to the abandoned places of Empire.” Fifteen years ago, SF Monthly Meeting moved to the South of Market of San Francisco on purpose. It’s less abandoned now than it used to be, but it’s still a place where we regularly wrestle with our right relationship to our homeless, poor, mentally ill or addicted neighbors. It’s hard sometimes, and I wouldn’t say we always get it right, but we can’t ignore them either.

Chris and I used to live in the same neighborhood. But for the last seven years we have lived in quieter, cleaner neighborhoods. How are we modeling our discipleship here? Or have we just backslid and given up? This is a real question for me some days.

Another is “nurturing common life among members of intentional community.” One of the recurring functions of our Meeting is to set up small groups that meet in each other’s homes for a meal and fellowship. We call them Friendly 8’s.

Chris and I are currently part of a group that we were assigned to because of geographic proximity. The two things we all have in common are attendance at SF Meeting and the fact that we all live in the same county just to the south of SF, not even the same town. Among the six adults and our two children, we have a range of theology, stages in life, and pretty much anything else. We have to be intentional about our community because it’s not based on a natural affinity. I mean I like these people, but we didn't all really know each other before. It’s not super-time-consuming either; one night a month we meet for an early potluck dinner and worship sharing. But it’s a good beginner’s laboratory for building community.

The other marks all seem relevant but it would be a book not a blogpost to address them all. In any case, I recommend the book to you and if you can make it, the weekend with Wess and Martin.

Twitterpost: What WOULD Jesus Twitter?

2009-04-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

robinmsf: Going to What Would Jesus Twitter? with @breyeschow http://tinyurl.com/dd74mr on April 1 in SF!9:47 PM Mar 24th from web

breyeschow: @w2e Just a reminder, "What would Jesus Twitter" at the web2open, help spread the word, 9:00am on the 1st! http://tinyurl.com/cdr3gb #w2e6:01 PM Mar 30th from TweetDeck

breyeschow: #w2e twitters are starting; hope I'll get a spot at the #web2open 2morrow; do folks care what JC would twitter? http://tinyurl.com/cdr3gb 11:39 AM Mar 31st from TweetDeck

robinmsf: RT @breyeschow #w2e hope I'll get a spot @ #web2open 2morrow; do folks care what JC would twitter? http://tinyurl.com/cdr3gb I hope so too 12:24 PM Mar 31st from web

breyeschow: Just arrived at the Web 2.0 Expo, Geek quotient way high. #w2e

robinmsf: waiting for Web2Open session on WWJTwitter? at #w2e

breyeschow: "What would Jesus Twitter?" Got a slot! 12:40-1:20, room #1 at web2open #w2e http://twitpic.com/2ojmk

mortond: @breyeschow Hate I'm going to miss your session., but I would love to hear your thoughts and outcomes.

breyeschow: @mortond I'll post some kind of relfectin afterwards @ http://www.reyes-chow.com/. Thanks for asking.

robinmsf: RT @breyeschow "What would Jesus Twitter?" Got a slot! 12:40-1:20, room #1 at web2open #w2e http://twitpic.com/2ojmk I'll be there!

breyeschow: Jesus Twitter board http://twitpic.com/2ot9m from Tweetie

breyeschow:Thanks all who came to the "What would Jesus Twitter" session, just guessing there were 12 of us ;-) #w2e from TweetDeck

robinmsf: WWJTwitter at #w2e more an intro 2 how churches & non-profits use social media. Not enough audience overlap to drive discussion?

robinmsf: Churches use social media for internal work (organize potlucks) and external credibility (read our reviews on Yelp) not evangelization

robinmsf: Does having your church life and work life integrated online make you more likely to practice integrity? Could this be part of formation?

via Facebook: Interesting question. There is the opportunity here (some people choose not to do this) to share from all parts of your life. Raises the question if we live our lives as a seamless whole. from Bill Samuel

robinmsf: So what WOULD Jesus Twitter?

via Facebook: One son stayed home, one left and did bad. Came home and father thru a party. from @funnel101

via Facebook: b@itudes? from Lisa H.

robinmsf: Thank you @breyeschow for hosting the What Would Jesus Twitter? web2open session at #w2e Good food for thought.

wikileon: @breyeschow I missed the Web2Open session on WWJT. How did it go?

breyeschow: @WikiLeon I think it went well, had a dozen or so folks, good conversation.

breyeschow:@robinmsf you are very welcome, great to have a little more face time as well #w2e

chadstep: @robinmsf I think I just posted on this but didn't realize what I was posting and you hit it on the head

bobpearson: @breyeschow Don't be discouraged by only 12, Jesus started that way also...#w2eabout

breyeschow:@bobpearson not discouraged at all, actually about 6 more than I thought would sho up ;-) #w2e

[Actual Twitter stream regarding What Would Jesus Twitter? Web2Open session at Web 2.0 Expo April 1, 2009 in San Francisco. If you also twittered from this event, please add to the comments!]

[Thursday am: I added a few more tweets I found plus other reactions.]

Blogging as ministry

2009-03-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is a report on my presentation with Gregg Koskela at FWCC in Oregon last week and with Will Taber and Gil Skidmore at QUIP last year.

Last April, I was invited to speak on a panel at the Quakers Uniting in Publications annual meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina. Will, Gil and I accepted the invitation. (Others were invited but declined for various reasons, mostly distance.)

This year, I had been asked by the local arrangements committee for the FWCC Section of the Americas annual meeting in Canby, Oregon about possibilities for a convergent Friends interest group. I suggested several other people who are involved in FWCC, but none of us really felt called to that. Then it occurred to me that since the meeting was about half an hour from Newberg, that maybe Gregg and I could lead a discussion on Quaker blogging. Gregg said yes and the arrangements committee said great.

Both times, I think the sessions went well. We each talked a little about our own journeys into blogging, the way blogs made our friendships possible across barriers of geography and theology, and how blogs can be a ministry to writers and readers, and a net benefit to the Religious Society of Friends. Both times, I had the chance to meet new people and to connect in real life with other bloggers and people I’ve heard of but not met before.

Both times we did an exercise I call low-tech blog commenting. We chose short blog posts, printed them out in large type on paper and hung them on the wall next to large sheets of easel paper. The instructions are to go around the room, read the post, write down your reaction, your questions, agreement or disagreement, and then move on to the next one, and then as you move around, to come back and read what others have written and perhaps comment again. This exercise was Chris M.’s idea a few years ago for a workshop he and I led at SFMM. I’ve also done it with the teens at PYM’s Junior Yearly Meeting. It works well as an introduction to blog commenting, except for people with visual disabilities, so a couple of times I or another participant have read the posts and scribed for people who had difficulty with that.

So why do I think blogging is ministry?

For me, the first point is that my blog is an outlet for the essays that were composing themselves in my head. It has offered me a means to improve my writing and editing skills, and a chance to share my theological reflections with others. Unlike most forms of writing, blogs also come with the opportunity for frequent interaction, unlike writing a book, for example, when it may be years before anyone else reads it.

The second point is that Quaker blogs are a source of religious reading material. I still subscribe to a couple of Quaker magazines, but they only come once a month. Every day there are new blog posts on different aspects of spiritual life, and whenever I’m ready they’re there. As Martin Kelley has reminded people, blogs are available every day and at all hours, when you’re stuck at home with little kids or an illness or a physical disability, if you work irregular hours, or when you are too far away from a meeting to attend regularly.

One example for me are Gregg’s sermons. I am dedicated to unprogrammed worship in my spiritual life, but the scholarship and relevance of his carefully prepared messages have been a valued source of devotional reading for me. (An irony of this is that as Gregg has relied more and more on the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit for the delivery of his messages, he has less and less written material to post. But I don’t hold that against him.)

A third point is that Quaker blogs are part of an ongoing conversation about what is happening in our spiritual lives, including events we go to, books we read, theological questions we wrestle with, and our everyday joys and concerns. They offer a chance to stay in touch with Friends in a substantive way, between conferences, meetings, without travel costs, and often with photos of mutual Friends.

I like to point out how Quaker blogs are different from other blogs, especially political ones. Too often, blog comment streams become very contentious and offensive. I haven’t found that on Quaker blogs. The comments have been honest and respectful, even when they are disagreeing or challenging the author. I think this is in part because each blog is written by a real person. For the most part, Quaker bloggers and commenters use their real names. The Religious Society of Friends is a small world, and the chances are high that you might one day meet the real people behind the blogs. It’s more like talking in some one’s living room, rather than shouting at a protest march.

We also talked about how people can get involved. Someone always mentions QuakerQuaker.org. It’s an easy-to-remember name of a site where you’ll find the latest and best in Quaker blogposts, as chosen by a short but diverse list of people who read widely. There are also archives by category on particular topics. Other features on QQ.org are always changing.

Other tools we recommend are a feed reader, like Bloglines or Google Reader. These are free services that can be a timesaver as well.They offer a way to keep track of as many blogs as you want, without having to go to each one to see if there’s something new each time you want to read them.

Some blogs have a way to subscribe via email, which works well for some people, even if others prefer not to have anything more in their email inbox. I think all the members of my anchor committee subscribe to my blog by email. They don’t read a lot of other blogs, but they want to know when I write something.

If you want to start your own blog, I recommend Blogger.com for a free service that makes it very easy to start a blog. If you can send email, you have the technical skills to use Blogger software. If you are more techy, there are other services that offer more features, but if that describes you, you don’t need me to tell you how to do it.

Quaker blogs have changed my life. As I wrote a couple of years ago, for a blog carnival in honor of Martin Kelley’s birthday, “Quaker blogs opened my eyes to a much wider world of Friends. I had been to Quaker meeting in a few places before that, but Quaker blogs opened windows through walls I didn’t even know I wanted to see through. Through Quaker blogs, I have found common ground, common ideas, common concerns with Friends across vast distances of geography and institutional theology.”

Thank you to all of you who have been part of this journey for ministering to me.