#quaker worship

[theinwardlight]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ivanka Demchuk, The Holy Trinity (egg tempera on wood):: Solas :: [@solas_na_greine]

* * * *

“A poem is an interruption of silence, whereas prose is a continuation of noise,” the poet Billy Collins once said. Poets and lyrically minded prose writers see the written word rather as Quaker worship sees the spoken word: they think it more powerful if it emerges out of and is separated by silence. Writing and reading online, we struggle to find this silence out of which words can materialise and be contemplated. There is too much speaking and reacting, and not enough listening and reflecting.

Joe Moran [The Guardian]

[gristbitung]

I'm really interested in Unitarianism but I live in a "city" that doesn't have a Unitarian church. The closest one is 20 miles away, much faster by train than by bus. I think I'll keep going to Quaker meetings, but the Unitarian faith really represents how I want to learn from a lot of sources and how I don't think jesus was god. But in my home city there's a Unitarian church, so I think I'll give it a go next week! I've actually been to my home city's first religious gay wedding in that Unitarian church, but didn't understand what it was at the time as a 12 year old. I'm excited to try the Unitarian church, and I'm excited to go to worship tomorrow!

[emohorseboy]

yesterday i went to meeting for worship in the morning and did my testosterone injection in the evening

never let anyone tell you that faith and transness are incompatible

[christshands]

i dont really consider myself to be part of any one denomination for a multitude of reasons, but every so often ill get fixated on a specific denomination/group of christians (christianity, in addition to being my faith, is my special interest. which is the whole reason i made this blog) and their practices. right now im obsessively learning about eastern orthodoxy, before that though i was learning about anglicans, and before that it was quakers. idk the different ways people seek god are just really cool to me

[trans-cuchulainn]

i need therapy about one really specific trauma but it would only work if the counsellor was a member of the community it's about because otherwise they're just not gonna get it but unfortunately due to the trauma i cannot bring myself to talk to anybody from said community, do you see the problem

[nothingnowcancometoanygood]

regarding quakerism i'm a self identified quaker in the sense there are multiple barriers to me attending meetings & i have conviction and resolve to live by the spices and do as a quaker does so i don't believe that having a membership card so to speak is what makes someone more of a quaker than someone that doesn't. which probably makes me a rogue quaker but my faith is between god and myself and the church is the people not the building so to speak.

[aquietanarchy]

Something I heard a lot of, growing up evangelical, were sentiments along the lines of: "I'm a bad Christian, I'll be the first to admit I'm a terrible sinner, I need grace just as much as anyone!" (Usually, but not always, in the context of being unkind) ...and then they would change literally nothing about their behavior going forward. Like so much of evangelicalism, this is only a performance of humility and repentance. There's no actual change, so the harmful, "unchristian" behaviors continue.

If you know you're being unkind, and you know that this unkindness is at odds with what you profess to believe in, then you could just stop being unkind. You say you're a bad Christian. Okay. Get better at it then. Start now. Don't just use "we're all in need of grace" as an excuse to keep being an asshole.

[onlylovefordandelions]

Although I wouldn't call myself a very religious person

I want to live my life like a prayer

spoken out loud to the meeting

and I want to feel like the silent worship that follows it

I can hear time move in the silence

yet it feels as if time has stopped in that peaceful quiet

aas

[heathersdesk]

How would I describe my religious beliefs?

I'm a revolutionary socialist Latter-day Saint who is reconnecting with historical worship and practice that was anti-racist, feminist, and inclusive, while simultaneously decolonizing later contributions that were either xenophobic trauma responses brought about by polygamy or exports from Protestant evangelical Christianity; in partnership with other Latter-day Saints who are expanding that definition of inclusion to embrace our LGBTQ+ community and history, together with interfaith leaders who are engaged in similar processes with their congregations.

But that doesn't fit in a bio, so I just keep calling myself LDS and Mormon interchangeably as a shorthand for "I may be religious, but no one is the boss of me," which is perfectly understood within my own community because our leadership is on a "Don't say Mormon" kick right now, but it means nothing to interfaith people who hear Mormon and instantly think "radically conservative, sheltered door knocking dorks, possibly a polygamist," which is valid while still being unreliable in its accuracy because it represents many, MANY different schisms and communities that most people don't know about. Not unlike the Hicksite or Mennonite distinctions for Quakers and Anabaptists, respectively, for those who are familiar.

I'm a chaos of theology that I've ferreted from Mormonism, which is already a maximalist stuff room full of trinkets and doodads, as well as those from other faiths because I enjoy experiencing the sacred with anyone who is also seeking it, but in a way that respectfully Leaves No Trace and honors the dignity in absolutely everyone.

So yeah. Original sin can eat my shorts. God is the title of my Daddy AND Mommy. Scripture has no inherent authority. There is no hell and one of my biggest motivations for the afterlife is to be reunited with all of my cats. The heavens are open and God speaks to all, bitches! Brigham Young was a racist and he owes me a fight in a Wendy's parking lot. Let's gooooooo!

[theinwardlight]

From Christopher Stern, "Quaker Worship: We Cannot Do It on Our Own"

[pazzesco]

The Examination of a Witch (1853), depicting the trial of Quaker preacher Mary Fisher in 1656. Oil on canvas, 38.5 x 53.9 in.

6 Facts You Didn’t Know About the Salem Witch Trials

Witches Tests Could Not be Passed

No One Was Burned at the Stake

The Youngest Accused Witch was Four Years Old

Courts Allowed Spectral Testimonies

Most of the Accusers were Children

The Trials Only Stopped when the Governor’s Wife was Accused

Witches Tests Could Not be Passed - Clergymen conceived the tests, and the accused witches would be tested until they failed, proving their practice of witchcraft. There was no way around the tests, and no one could pass every test.

No One Was Burned at the Stake - This style of execution is commonly thought of in conjunction with witch trials because, out of the tens of thousands of witch executions in Europe, many were burned at the stake. However, in Salem, no execution was carried out by burning the accused alive. The majority were executed by hanging.

The Youngest Accused Witch was Four Years Old - While most of the accused witches were adults, even elderly adults, one exception is Dorothy Good. Dorothy was four or five when she was charged and arrested for witchcraft. Her mother, Sarah Good, was an accused witch who would be one of the women executed by hanging for her supposed devil worship. Dorothy was said to be animalistic and deranged, traits she acquired from consorting with the devil.

Courts Allowed Spectral Testimonies - Spectral evidence is a form of evidence based on religious beliefs or visions and dreams. The alleged victims of witchcraft would claim to have been tormented by the spectral images of certain named members of the community; this was taken as evidence that those named were witches.

Most of the Accusers were Children - Those who were “afflicted” or victimized by the supposed witches were relatively young. The first accusers were Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, aged 9 and 11. The girls were the daughter and niece of Puritan minister Reverend Samuel Parris, and when they fell ill, they blamed their symptoms on an enslaved woman in Parris’s household named Tituba. Many other young women followed suit, the oldest being 20. They accused supposed witches of afflicting them with all manner of symptoms. In reality, if the accusers were sick, it was due to contaminated drinking water rather than sorcery.

The Trials Only Stopped when the Governor’s Wife was Accused - When Phips learned of the allegations against his wife, he finally decreed that spectral evidence would not be permitted in the Salem witch trials. The eight witches Stoughton had planned to convict were cleared, and the Lieutenant Governor abandoned his post. Soon after, in February 1693, all accused witches were pardoned and released from prison by May.

[gristbitung]

I visited the York Minster today because I had a bit of free time. I wasn't actually planning to go in but someone kindly gave me their ticket that they were done with. As I was wandering round I felt called to worship. I went into the crypt. Nowhere in there was quiet because it was a very busy day, but the crypt was colder than upstairs. I lit a candle in prayer and then sat with my eyes closed and was still. I sat in the light.

Later when I was walking around the rest of the minster, I was thinking about how compelling the figure of Jesus is. Even though I don't believe in him as the son of God, I recognise that in the culture I come from he is revered as the only way to God.

And as I broaden my horizons I find myself becoming more compelled by other ideas of God. I feel deeply drawn to explore the specific beliefs and practices of faiths that have never recognised jesus, not just through being taught how they're different to the dominant religion.

I want to learn more about Islam and Judaism, and get out of the box I was raised in. I would also be interested in learning about Christianity beyond the very white protestant English angle I have been raised around.

Right now I would most accurately describe myself as a Quaker, and if I had a local UU chapel I might regularly attend that too. I'm living in an area important to Quaker history, so it is rich around me, and I like how it doesn't stop me from being anything else in and of itself.

[thedreadvampy]

I find Americans talking about religion fascinating because they think the weird pentecostal/evangelical eschatology cults are Normal Christianity and not like. a really specific thing.

and that is by no means to say Christianity elsewhere is less fucked up but it's different.

like Americans will say stuff like "like most Christians, this cult believes we're in the end times and have to reclaim Zion to bring about Revelations, but what's weird about their beliefs is..." and it's like???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN LIKE MOST CHRISTIANS?????

like Scotland's still a pretty Christian country. some of the biggest sociopolitical divides are Christian sectarianism. we got Presbyterians we got Catholics we got Episcopalians we got Quakers (hi) we got Baptists and Methodists and Jehovah's Witnesses and so on. half of the population are Christian. but I don't think I have ever met more than a handful of people whose Christian belief is focused on Revelations and the end times. that's weird stuff my guys.

my outside appraisal of American Christianity is that it looks really very samey. there doesn't seem to be a lot of significant theological difference, or tbh aesthetic difference, between a good number of the major churches. worship practise, structure, and the focus on sin, evangelism and apocalypse seem to be way more common threads there than in Europe. and I feel like people grow up in that and think that means all Christianity is the same as that. which like. it isn't.

A lot of folks I know who've been to American Quaker communities, for example, have been really surprised at how much some Meetings in the US are cramming into the same episcpentamethodbaptitradcathevangelist church model - fire and brimstone preachers, our god is a great big god songs, focus on end times prophecy - and it just doesn't. line up with the degree of diversity in practise and focus for different Christian sects in most other parts of the world. where like. those types of churches also exist (the evangelical born-again rapture and damnation churches) but they're one approach among many.

and again that's not cause like. Christianity is only bad in the US and not bad anywhere else. Christianity does a lot of social good and a looooooot of social harm everywhere. but it's wild what Americans, Christian or otherwise, seem to take as the baseline beliefs of global Christianity. like I went to a Church of England school and I don't believe I was ever taught about Revelations, let alone the rapture or young earth ideology or biblical literalist creationism, except, eventually, as a thing some other people believe and it's weird. when the young earth creationists came into my secondary school to prostyletize it was a bloodbath cause every 14 year old in that room was like "what r u talking about m8 that's cult shit".

what I'm saying is: there's not a huge amount of universal Christian beliefs across all sectors except like "God is there. There's some Bible which contains some amount of spiritual value for some amount of literal interpretation. Jesus? Pretty great and important guy. Probably the son of God or actually God or some secret third thing." and everything else there's some dissent on. but of the things that are broadly though not fully universal - maybe like heaven, hell, sin, redemption through faith or deed, the resurrection, a physical/spiritual divide, prayer, some key holidays etc - I don't think that 'weirdly intense eschatology involving reclaiming Zion, global warfare, the Antichrist, decades of torturous end times, physical rapture etc' is in that mix. that's your country's weird thing that it's since exported through cultural colonialism, just like Christianity itself was largely exported through European cultural colonialism.

[copperbadge]

My Ancestors Sure Did Hate Some Puritans

Notwithstanding the purpose of their emigration from the mother country was that they might enjoy liberty of conscience in religious matters, [the Puritans] commenced the work of persecution, and enacted laws to restrain people from worshipping God according to the dictates of their consciences. Among other restraints, a law was made, that any person, who should entertain one of the people called Quakers, should pay a fine of five pounds for every hour during which he so entertained them.

Obed Macy wrote The History Of Nantucket in 1835 and was already talking extremely justified shit about the Puritans, who left England so that they could freely persecute all other faiths.

The History of Nantucket was recommended by a couple of sites as having more information about the colonization of Nantucket and some of my family members and it's...a whole lot to read, but also I suspect cousin Obed (he's a third-cousin way back) has an extremely subtle and dry sense of humor. 

His great-great grandfather Thomas Macy, one of the first white colonists to settle on Nantucket, was also pretty fun. Thomas was called to pay the abovementioned fine because he sheltered a couple of Quakers during a rainstorm and responded thus:

This is to entreat the honoured Court not to be offended because of my non-appearance. It is not from my slighting the authority of the honoured Court, nor fear to answer the case; but have been for some weeks past very ill, and am so at present; and notwithstanding my illness, yet I, desirous to appear, have done my utmost endeavor to hire a horse, but cannot procure one at present. I, being at present destitute, have endeavored to purchase one, but at present cannot attain it....

"I'm sick and there are no horses to rent and I can't afford to buy one, so fuck off Puritans."

Anyway the court case over him sheltering some Quakers during a rainstorm drove him off the mainland and led him to sail to Nantucket with Edward Starbuck (hey 10th great-grandfather!) to settle there. Which is just...really...Yankee. Like the spirit of New England was with Thomas Macy as he told the whole-ass government, such as it was, to go fuck itself, and straight up flounced off the mainland entirely.  

[endreal]

When you are accidentally the 2004-iest european dreamtrance deejay on the weekly sunday Quaker meeting for worship in expectant silence zoom call