Quotes for Reflection: Worship Sharing Groups

RantWoman is clear to post this for a couple reasons and with a couple caveats:

--RantWoman DEEPLY appreciates Friend Chris for pulling together these quotes, for one reason because RantWoman did not make it through anywhere near all of the Daniel Snyder Quaker Witness as Sacrament Pendle Hill Pamphlet. RantWoman sometimes lets herself be tempted to try to read regular print. RantWoman usually regrets this really fast. That is what happened with this pamphlet, and the quotes here are nuggets RantWoman clearly did not get to. This comment is partly reflection on the realities of RantWoman reading, partly continuing reflection on the question of whether other people besides RantWoman would also enjoy having Pendle Hill pamphlets in electronic format. Meanwhile, RantWoman got plenty of mileage out of nuggets.

--RantWoman is sometimes grateful to be able to share something from a past event. That will not happen reliably if the document sits in email or on some flash drive. So RantWoman posts here giving FULL credit for the work of compiling and developing to Friend Chris.


--These quotes elicited wonderful reflections in RantWoman's worship sharing group. First, we decided that we probably could not both walk and fully follow the directions. Then we took chairs outdoors and reflected in glorious fall sunshine.

--RantWoman is also sometimes a Very Bad Friend. The quotes contributed to some Bad Friend thoughts posted separately.

Quotations for Reflection

NW Quarter, North Pacific Yearly Meeting

September 26-28, 2014

Prepared by Christine Betz Hall

 

                                   

1.           There is an experience of the Eternal breaking into time, which transforms all life into a miracle of faith and action. Unspeakable, profound, and full of glory as an inward experience, it is the root of concern for all creation, the true ground of social endeavor. This inward Life and the outward Concern are truly one whole, and, were it possible, ought to be described simultaneously.    
                           —Thomas Kelly (d. 1982)[1]

2.           True Godliness does not turn Men [sic] out of the World, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their Endeavours to mend it.     —William Penn (d. 1718)[2]

3.           From an inward purifying, and steadfast abiding under it, springs a lively operative desire for the good of others...  And being clearly convinced in my judgment that to place my whole trust in God was best for me, I felt renewed engagements that in all things I might act on an inward principle of virtue and pursue worldly business no further than as Truth opened my way therein.                                                   —John Woolman (d. 1772)[3]

 

4.           For one thing, the legacy of John Woolman invites us to be open to recovering more fully the collective dimension of meeting for worship. We are summoned to “dwell deep.”
         For another, we are invited to see our activism as a species of worship. For activists, this is an invitation to root our activism more fully in the transforming power of meeting for worship and the love of God we encounter there. For those who are more of contemplative than an activist orientation, it challenges us to broaden our understanding of the boundaries of the meetinghouse, and the boundaries of worship itself.
                           —Michael Birkel (contemporary)[4]

5.           “The Society of Friends,” says Evelyn Underhill, “has produced no great contemplative.” This is true if, by a great contemplative, we mean a person primarily engaged in contemplation. The Quakers set aside regular times for contemplation, both individual retirement and public meetings, but contemplation has always been for them the inner side of a complete action, which to be whole must represent perfect balance of inner and outer. Real experience of the divine Presence has the result of sensitizing the conscience so that the worshiper could rise from quiet waiting with the feeling that a new and sometimes very difficult task had been laid upon him.            
                           —Howard Brinton (d. 1973)[5]

6.           There is a journey that some follow by starting in prayer and others follow by starting in action. It is the witness of our tradition that those who are naturally inclined to begin in prayer will eventually feel led into outward action, and those who are naturally inclined to begin with action will eventually feel called more deeply into prayer. However, it is sometimes the case that those who pray do not act, and those who act do not pray. There is an unfortunate tendency among some Quakers to separate prayer and action rather than to integrate them.
                           —Daniel Snyder (contemporary)[6]

7.           The activists in our groups <in classes at Pendle Hill> kept us grounded in the real and urgent needs of a broken world. The contemplatives in the class challenged us to resist the temptation to carry the world’s problems on our own shoulders. The activists were challenged to season their sense of urgency in prayer. The contemplatives were challenged to bring their faith to outward visibility. Together we began to discern the contours of hope, for although we yearn to see and to celebrate the visible results of our work, we dare not anchor hope in the visible, for we are working toward a future that we may not see in our lifetime… —Snyder[7]

8.           …being awake to the Presence of God does not take us away from the world but allows us to be even more deeply in it <paraphrasing William Penn> …We came to understand this inward/outward path as sacramental. Quaker witness is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace. This is the classic definition of a sacrament. It means to live, walk, speak, and act in the world, not as our anger, guilt, fear, or despair shapes it for us, but as it is re-shaped, again and again, in our ongoing encounters with God. To live sacramentally is to fall so completely into God’s infinite Love for us and for the world that we come to see, to know, and to act in the world in light of this Love. —Snyder[8]

9.           Every one of us is called to be a contemplative—not in the sense of a particular vocation we call “the contemplative life,” but in the sense of a holy habit of contemplative love that leads us forth in partnership with God into creative and redeeming work.  
                           —Richard Foster (contemporary)[9]

 

 

LAST WORD ACTIVITY: Worship group members review the quotes above separately. Each one chooses a sentence or passage that means something to her or him.

1.   One person reads aloud the passage she or he chose without commenting on it.

2.   One at a time around the circle, the other group members may talk about that passage/quotation for a brief minute—share thoughts, feelings or questions.

3.   When others have finished commenting on the quotation, the person who introduced it shares why they chose it and what it means to them. The person who brought the passage has "the last word."

4.   The next person reads aloud the quotations they have chosen, and all comment.

5.   Repeat until everyone has shared their quote.

 

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[1] Kelly, Thomas R., and Douglas V. Steere. A testament of devotion (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941). 65

[2] in Snyder, Daniel O. Quaker witness as sacrament Pendle Hill Pamphlet 397. Wallingford, Pa.: Pendle Hill Publications, 2008, 35.

[3] John Woolman, “Journal,” in The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, Ed. Phillips P. Moulton. (Richmond Ind.: Friends United Press, 1971), 38.

[4] Birkel, Michael. “Mysticism and Activism: On Learning from John Woolman” Wider Quaker Fellowship: Voice Of Friends, Friends World Committee for Consultation, Web. 30 July 2012. Southeastern Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Annual Michener Lecture, 2002, 19.

[5] Brinton, Howard Haines. Friends for 300 years; the history and beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox started the Quaker movement.. [1st ed. New York: Harper, 1952], 27.

[6] Snyder, Daniel O.. Quaker witness as sacrament Pendle Hill Pamphlet 397. Wallingford, Pa.: Pendle Hill Publications, 2008, 22.

[7] Ibid, 29-30.

[8] Ibid, 31.

[9] Foster, Richard J.. Streams of living water: celebrating the great traditions of Christian faith. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998, 58.