Great Resources
Betsy Blake explaining the branches of QuakerismGood Questions:
- What are the different branches of Quakerism?
- What is a Clearness Committee?
- What are the different types of Quaker worship?
Great Resources on:
A Summary of a Past YAF Conference
A Wonderful Article
“Unity” by Terri Johns appeared in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Quaker Life. This is an excerpt from that piece.
When FUM (Friends United Meeting) was formed in 1902, its purpose was to create a better spirit of unity and action on the part of widely separated groups of Friends. Now, over 100 years later the spirit of unity is crumbling and because of that the spirit of action is stifled. What separates us? What divides us? The first thoughts in your mind are surely the sexual ethics policy. But I want to suggest that what truly divides us is not this policy but something much deeper. What divides us and separates us from one another and therefore takes our focus off of our purpose and off of God is a misunderstanding of unity.
God invites us all to his table to dine and there we sit bickering about who has the right to be there and who does not. We are guests of God. Only God has the right to decide who is to be blessed at God’s table. And yet we bicker, judge and condemn in front of our host. How very displeased God must be with the chosen guests. How long will God continue to invite us back?
Do we listen to the still small voice? Do we try to discover why God loves each of us? Do we look for that of God within each one, the light within, the presence of God within the other guests? Can we see past ourselves to see the beauty and purpose and design of others?
God does not ask us to be cookie cutter images of one another. God has designed us to be unique to fill special purposes. My theology and the way I express it will never look just like yours, but I am a child of God just as you are. I dine at the table and I belong there just as each of you belongs at God’s table. We do not look the same, talk the same or believe the same, but we are united as dinner guests, as one body, as part of the vine, as friends of God. Can we not, for the sake of our host and the other guests, recognize the value of those differences and not allow that diversity to separate us from the unity we have in God?
I need the strong biblical foundation that I get from my Midwest Friends; it anchors my life. But I also need the love, acceptance and deep interior strength that comes from a strong spiritual experience with God; a blessing from my East Coast Friends. Friends United Meeting offers this opportunity for people like me who find themselves caught in the middle of two worlds. It is one of the beautiful things about FUM and one of the most precious. To love one another out of a deep desire to learn from, share with and work alongside one another is what FUM is all about. To worship with Friends who are so very different from one another, yet share the same deep desire to serve God from the depth of their being, is a fantastic experience.
Let us work together to preserve this special spirit of unity and action that Friends 100 years ago recognized as being a crucial step towards healing and wholeness among Friends.
