EarthQuakers Unbound!

Workshop # 16
Carl Magruder with Patricia McBee

As the world faces unprecedented perils, our prophetic faith has more witness to offer. What corporate witness are Friends called to now?  How do the dire threats we face provide the impetus for radical surrender? Not a Think Tank, but a Worship Tank, exploring what Quakerism will look like in the 21st Century. Not for the faint of heart.

Percentage of time:
Worship/worship-sharing 20; Lecture 20; Discussion 30; Experiential 30

Open to all

Full Description
My objective is to utilize the Quaker discernment “technologies” of worship, threshing, clearness, scriptural study, and prayer to find a way forward in the darkness of dire ecological peril, increasing war and injustice, a growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor, and the loss of civil liberties that might otherwise be employed to combat these other evils.  I expect new Truth to be revealed, lives to be changed, and Way to open.  (That’s all!)

Specific topics that will be encountered include ecogeddon, war, poverty, witness, Testimony, Quaker theology, civil initiative (Jim Corbett’s brainchild), the tradition of Quaker ministers and elders, and where to sign up for the Revolution.

Format will include sitting in worship, for sure, at least half an hour every day.  We will sit in worship that is like a healing balm, and worship that is like a pressure cooker building up steam ‘til something pops, or we are all well done.  We will use threshing sessions, clearness committees, laughter, vocal prayer, tears, ritual, and singing to get this train moving.  We need to bring all of ourselves to the challenges we face because if intellect alone could prevail against the, the Kindom of Heaven would be fully manifest.  Mystical inquiry is needed.

There will be some presentation of information—I won’t talk all morning.  We will do some ritual and grief work, freewriting, and small group work.  We will go outside (which some Native Americans call “inside”).   We may even meet outside, if the facilities allow.