Topic: Becoming Patterns and Examples

Activities like yoga, labyrinths, and mandalas are designed to help focus and calm the mind and body. Explore what happens in your mind and your body when you try simple yoga poses or use a finger labyrinth.

The stance of reliance on the Inward Teacher and following that Light that leads all into compassion, mercy and justice, can call us into the unexpected.

A leading might be inconvenient, nudging you onto a path you hadn't previously considered. It might feel foolhardy or unclear. How do we know when to say yes? How does a true leading from God differ from the prompting of the ego?

“I live in that life and power which creates the Kingdom of God beneath my feet as I walk.” What spiritual opportunities were presented to me today?

Contemporary Friend Gretchen Haynes observes that "many faiths urge social action; Quakers understand that social action is prompted by the transformation that finds the source of all action in the inward Spirit. This leads to a different quality to the action.”

Our spiritual communities are vital for our work to heal the world and Quaker practices offer deep and practical tools for supporting and sustaining social witness. How can we come together in community to become patterns and examples?

Quakers use the term Query to refer to a question or series of questions used for reflection and in spiritual exercises. Friends have used Queries as tools for offering spiritual challenges to the community.

The first call is to God, to faithfulness. Out of faithfulness rises the call to live in peace. In these times, we hear God calling us to live peaceably in all our relationships.

Explore the spirituality of art and the art of spirituality.

"The quiet power of a life transformed by the grace of God is so explosive that it can redirect the course of human events. Consider the story of John Woolman, a successful tradesman in colonial America who pared down his business in order to live simply and fully in response to the pull of divine Grace upon his life." Richard Foster and Kathryn Helmers

Make a “listening mural” where everyone represents in words or imagery what they experience in the silence of worship.

"Finally I became aware that there must be something the Divine Spirit wanted me to do." Steve Angell

One of the most painful lessons is that the work of peace and justice, like the work of the Seed within, is one of patient waiting. Patience is an active condition of the Spirit. It can march; it can demonstrate; it can live in jails. It can survive the long haul of transformation. But it is not fed on the bitter fruit of resentment. Doug Gwyn

The transformation of society and culture takes generations, although there may be times of breakthroughs. Friends’ work to abolition of slavery began with Friend John Woolman in the 18th century and continued for over 100 years. The struggle for true racial equality and civil rights is still a work in progress.