FGC Religious Education: Lessons for the 21st
Century
By Beckey Phipps
A shortened version
of this article appeared in the Winter
2003 edition of FGConnections.
n December I asked three Friends some questions that are important to me as a religious educator. These are Quakers whom have experienced as teachers and I wanted to hear what was on their hearts and minds. In particular, I asked them to share some of their concerns about the spiritual condition of contemporary Friends. In their experience, where did they see that God was leading us? What are some of our present challenges, especially in terms of understanding ourselves as Friends? How can we grow a vital Quakerism in the 21st century? What I was after, ultimately, were suggestions for adult religious education courses or, at least, course content that might speak to our present spiritual condition.
I The three Friends I interviewed were Ernie Buscemi (Morningside Friends Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting), who serves Friends as clerk of the Quaker United Nations Office; Marty Grundy (Cleveland Monthly Meeting, Lake Erie Yearly Meeting), who serves as clerk of the Traveling Ministries Committee for FGC; and Arthur Larrabee (Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) who has served as clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
My questions were the mere shores from which they ventured. I wasn’t surprised that the answers they offered did not set a straight course or make an anticipated landing. But, they certainly did tack along side each other at times. Repeatedly, as you will see, I heard them counsel that we need to immerse ourselves in the religious experiences and practices of early Friends. To learn and practice Quakerism in the 21st century, we must take our direction, our lessons, from the same radicalizing spiritual energy that early Friends experienced as Christ, the Inward Teacher, the Inner Light.
Where do you discern that God is calling us as Friends?
“We are being called to community, to clear and joyful community,” said Arthur, who has recently become clerk of his monthly meeting again. Referring to early Friends, he recalled, “‘They were first themselves changed men, before they sought to change others.’ That happens out of community. That is where the transformation and rootedness is. There was a lot of joy for me in going to meeting for worship yesterday; I wanted to greet everyone in the energy of ‘greetings fellow members of a beloved community.’”
Marty, a religious historian, said, “My sense is that our task is to pick back up that charism that early Friends were given and to live it, to be faithful to it, doing that experience now. What Friends were given then, there are some basic bits that we have’nt been faithful to, that we’ve discarded. We need to try to find out what that is that early Friends had and be faithful to it. What that is, is experiencing the transforming power of Christ inwardly and living as faithful community in gospel order. Our purpose is not about [focusing on] the individual; our purpose is about living in [God’s] community. This is very counter-cultural.”
One of Ernie’s current ministries involves providing a neutral environment for United Nations representatives to dialogue. She feels Friends are being led to live our testimonies with integrity. She believes we are struggling with our very identity as Quakers: who we are inwardly, spiritually, and how we act outwardly. “We are at a stage where we need to delve deeply into those values. For me it is the core of who I am as a Quaker, what those values mean for me, every day. It comes out of my experience, being a person of color, being a woman, being a spiritual being, which I believe is so important. Being a consumer, being a world citizen, a global neighbor. And a political person.”
She added, “It has been my experience for Friends to say, ‘We are peaceful,’ and then I say, ‘But, how do you live? How many cars are in your driveway? Who are your friends? What is your personal stand on the environment? Do you even know what US foreign policy is?’ All the questions that run through our every day lives. I can only speak for myself. I try really hard to make sure it is from that spiritual place that I am speaking, or acting. Every day that I walk into the United Nations and sit around the table, and introduce myself as a Quaker, it has been my experience that somebody says in the meeting or comes up to me afterwards and says, ‘Thank you so much, the Quakers were there for my family.‘ And I feel very humbled by that, because I have to ask, ‘What am I doing for you today? What is my meeting doing for you today? What is the Religious Society of Friends doing for you today?’ And a lot of times I come up short, and that is very painful to me.”
What are our challenges? In terms of our self-understanding as Friends? In terms of our corporate understanding of ourselves as a faith tradition?
Arthur said, “I think God intends us to be happy, to feel joy. One of the challenges is finding joy in our community. That is a good and important thing to do. The challenge is to take time to be present for each other. To take the time to teach each other. To hear each other’s stories. When we hear each others stories, we lessen our alienation.”
He related that his monthly meeting has formed a new committee to increase awareness of racism. “What is our goal? The first step is self-awareness and self-acceptance; if we just start talking and develop awareness and acceptance of ourselves as individuals and community, then we till the soil for healing, for building the community.”
Ernie’s experience is that Friends are greatly challenged to understand our own history. She said, “The past is an important piece of who I am as a Quaker. It is just not words; there was something going on, something was transforming people to do what they did. And I know that transformation, to be so connected with God, to be so, so, it is not even a connection, that swirl of energy, where you don’t have any idea of what is touching what, I know what that is, and how powerful that is. “
Marty, like Ernie, is concerned that we don’t grasp how to use our own tools and practices. “Our branch [of Friends] has discarded the tools by which earlier Friends’ practices were formed. We’ve lost our understanding of what it is that we are about. We’ve thrown out the tools, which were based in the Bible, not like Jerry Falwell’s [interpretation], but as early Friends used it. We’ve lost our lived experience of our charism as a faithful community—of experiencing transformed lives [in Christ] together. The challenge is, what do we do now?”
What are your greatest concerns in terms of growing a vital Quakerism for the 21st century?
One of Arthur’s concerns is to make our Quaker process more accessible, while maintaining its integrity. He works with Quaker school boards to teach the Spirit-led decision-making process, outside of a meeting context. He sees our process as having three components, “First is the belief that there is spiritual energy; second is that this energy is available; and third, that when we invite this energy into our process we find life is more meaningful and satisfying.”
He is concerned that our Quaker language makes us, and our process, inaccessible to others. Even though he loves the old forms, one of our challenges is making what is at the heart of our faith and practice more accessible. In his workshop on clerking, he asks, “Why do we do the things we do? An unexamined Quakerism is not worth doing!”
He also puzzles over why we don’t attract more people to our meetings. What is that about? “We need to tap into God’s energy and God’s joy. Early Friends had that energy, they had a vision, they had the connection with the inward Christ, a source of infinite energy power and joy. We have disassociated the joy and energy of God’s creation with Quakerism. We need to see Quaker faith and practice through the lens of God’s power and energy.”
Ernie shared several concerns: that we need to educate ourselves better on our faith and practice, and that the elders who are our models are disappearing. “There needs to be training for the next level of elders. And what comes after Quakerism 101? People stop at that. We need a foundation for looking at where we came from. We need to have that conversation that shuts people down, that we are a religion that originated with George Fox and the Bible. If we can begin having this conversation it puts us in a more grounded position.”
She added, “And I believe that our youth have a lot to say; we are not good at listening to our young people and they [should] have a voice in everything. I believe that is a challenge for us in 2003 and beyond, to include their voices in our decisions and programs and whatever we are doing as Quakers. It is the most amazing thing, all the kids that I know that have gone into [Quaker] leadership programs—they’ve disappeared. I see the same thing [happening] as a woman and person of color, we are doing something wrong. It is easier for some of us to have a voice somewhere else, and carry everything we learned over there, and not deal with what is happening here.”
Marty admitted that she felt pessimistic about our future, when so many of our foundational practices and shared experiences have been lost, or are in danger of being lost. She is concerned that we may have thrown out so much that there may not be enough to rebuild. At the same time, she has faith that “The Spirit hasn’t given up on us! We need to be where the Spirit is, to blow on those embers.”
How might religious education programs and materials address your greatest concerns?
Ernie says she needs to hear more stories about Friends’ lives. “In the last ten years of my life, I’ve asked what early Friends were doing: they were all going to jail. And the children knew on Sunday that they might be sitting in the rain, in the silence—what kernel was put in that soil to develop that? I know it was hardship, and they came out [of jail] and continued to do what they knew was Truth. Without batting an eye, and having their property [taken]. And our contemporary Friends, who are in the Middle East and Africa, where it is not safe to be. Those are the stories I want to hear and learn from, it will help me get up in the morning, it will help me to speak out, to write a letter. It will help me do something.”
She would also like to see a course on continuing revelation. And one on discernment. “My experience has shown me that I cannot do it by myself. I can hear that still small voice, but I also need other Quakers to help me discern my true course of action. I need other Friends who are sitting in the lap of God to sit with me. I want to hear the clearness that they bring.”
Arthur suggested that Friends share their stories of their faith and practice, “reminding ourselves why we do what we do. Why do we need community? Why do we bother? Is there something about our forms [our manner of practice] that make it hard to renew energy and joy?” He asks that Friends search together for the meaning behind our faith and practice, balancing new revelations with holding onto what we already know. “I am empowered as a clerk when I remind myself why we do what we are doing. What can I do to help this community hum? There is more joy and energy in this than anything else I could do, that is where the joy is. When I was younger, it would have been helpful if someone had helped me see that.”
Marty believes we need to “steep ourselves in an understanding of our spiritual heritage, to rediscover our charism, to read the original Friends’ experiences, the experience Friends had of the Bible. You cannot understand early Friends unless you understand the Bible. The more you get into the Bible, the more it makes sense and can be nourishing. We need to steep ourselves in the experiences of their transformations. What changed for them? What happened to them? What can happen to us?”
Echoing Ernie and Arthur, Marty was clear that we need more opportunities to hear each other’s stories, “to be heard and challenged to go deeper [jnto our transformations]; that takes some careful leadership. We need to relearn, explore, experience our gifts, what the purpose of those gifts is, how they relate to the community.”
Being a historian, Marty suggests taking a new look at John Woolman, within the context of his monthly meeting. We have to read between the lines in his journal to find clues to his relationship with his monthly meeting. “Who was he in relationship to his spiritual community? He lived in a context that made his work meaningful, but we’ve lost the context.”
Marty feels strongly that within our meeting communities we need to understand how to use discernment well. “Discernment is the major Quaker tool.” We have important lessons to learn from the faith and practices of early Friends. “What was the purpose of those practices? Where was God in this? These are the questions to ask.” Similarly, we need to raise questions about Friends’ experience of spiritual authority. She is concerned that we are rudderless without an understanding of where spiritual authority comes from and “how is [that authority] held accountable?”
Conclusion
In summary, I heard from Ernie, Marty, and Arthur a sense of clarity that the locus of our spiritual transformation, and sustenance, is in the faithful meeting community. It is there that we can examine with others what is meaningful and satisfying about being a Quaker. It is there, in the beloved community, that we have our first opportunities to practice what it means to be a Quaker. In the FGC Religious Education Committee, we call this “the meeting as the curriculum.”
Religious education for Friends, they suggested, is about telling our own stories and listening carefully to each other’s. It is about listening for resonance with the transforming experiences of early Friends. Their energy, joy, and tender love are our inheritance. And the agency that God gave those first Friends for prophecy and ministry might be ours to be recovered. That agency is the charism, the transforming Light Within,that empowers us to become a community of co-creators with God.
Beckey Phipps serves Friends as clerk of the FGC Religious Education Committee. She is a member of North Shore MM, New England YM.
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