Callid Keefe-Perry

I am regularly reminded of the rawness and beauty that undergirds the experience I call daily life. A Siddha Yoga teacher I know often says that as humans we end up spending most of our lives ignoring the sheer intricate Awesomeness of life itself. If we didn’t, he suggests, we would spend most of our time slack-jawed and agog at the Beauty of it all. As a Friend, I would name that sense of Awe the inbreaking of the Spirit. And I would say it happened to me during the weekend of the Traveling Ministries Program (TMP) consultation at Gilmary Retreat Center, Pittsburgh, PA, during the second weekend of Eleventh Month.

That event was sponsored jointly by Friends General Conference’s Traveling Ministries and Youth Ministries programs, and concerned itself with the fellowship, support, and Communion of Friends identified as experiencing emerging Gifts in Gospel Ministry. The age range of folks ran from somewhere near 18 up to somewhere near 80, and many different Yearly Meetings were represented. It was a wonderful chance to connect deeply with folks quite different from myself, and it afforded me the opportunity to explore some of the growing edges in my own faith life. I heard two major themes in the weekend’s conversations and each speaks to me in its own way. I would like to share with you some of the openings that arose within these themes.

The Gifts of the Spirit are rightly exercised within Community

I feel like this truly hit home for me. The Quaker testimony of Community is often bandied about without a full recognition of its essential nature in the development of a life of faith. Over and over again I heard it truly named and called out: Gifts rise from the Body and are for service to the Body.

Though they will be carried and stewarded by individuals, it is the Gift that should receive recognition for building up the Church, not the Minister. The Minister may be thanked for her faithfulness in exercising her gifts for the edification of the Body. Anymore than that does not make sense if we truly understand the Gifts to come from and be the Will of God. As Friends, we are part of the tradition of Christian mystics and prophets. To take up this mantle we must acknowledge that there are works and words for us to do and say, and that these things come from a place truer than any one individual. It is in community that we will find our way forward.

It is when we associate the individual with the Spirit that issues of human inequality come into play, and some are raised up above others. To avoid this situation, we have the great Quaker technology of corporate discernment: by testing Leadings in strong, open-hearted, willing communities, we will more properly be held accountable for our actions. It is in a deep connection to a loving and Plain Spoken community that I can be most certain I will not outrun my Guide.

The Kingdom of God will be built in readied hearts and realized with willing hands

Readied hearts are willing to open to new life, and willing hands will toil for the joy of the work even if they leave before the fruits. I find that this also makes sense by way of a paraphrased koan:

A Japanese Zen Master was visited by a professor who came to inquire about Zen. The Master invited him in to have tea. As the visitor sat, the Master began to pour. He filled his own cup and then began to pour into his visitor's. It quickly became full and yet he kept on pouring. The professor watched the tea pour out until he couldn’t hold himself back any more. "It is full! Why are you still pouring?!?" The Master replied to this evenly, "Like this cup you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

As I continue to explore the inward landscape of my spiritual life and practice to deepen in my faith, I find that my assumptions continue to get in the way. I have to be willing to give up what I think is the best way forward. That doesn’t mean I become a Meeting controlled automaton. It means that I lay my individual certainty down in favor of corporate discernment done in expectant Silence. A discernment of God’s will.

I bring my sense of things to the Meeting, and am willing to feel my sense change. I bring my bread to the table and pass it without saving a piece, knowing it will nourish others and that I will be nourished by what they bring. Sharing the fruits of the Spirit with each other makes for the greatest Quaker potluck there can be! As we share deeply with one another, we are fed and strengthen ourselves, preparing to receive the Call to hard work.

When I respond to that Call with acceptance and willing hands, I have often found myself met by Joy. Then, the more I live into that Joy, the easier it becomes to respond to future Calls without trying to deny them first and head for Tarshish. As I learn to accept Joy as a fruit of the Spirit, I also learn to give up my demands and my vision, and become more willing to do greater work and travel the truer path. As I move toward the Kingdom, I find that I am asked, bit by bit, to give up my attachment to outcomes and “the best way of doing things.” As in the parable of the Sower, I cannot know which of my actions will bear fruit and which will fall on rocky places. I just have to trust that being faithful to what I have been given will be enough. I think it is because of this that Friends have been known to ask, “Was thee faithful? Did thee yield?” These questions prompt a very different kind of inward examination than “Were you successful? Did you get the job done?”

After a weekend of worship and conversation I was felt full and fully present. For moments here and there, Spirit seemed very near indeed. At the heart of it all, we are called to a life of faith. Of opening every moment up to the possibility of acknowledging Awe and Beauty. Of willingness to do what is needed to open up those moments for others. In others. I may be called to action. I may be called to prayer. Whatever it is, and whenever it comes, I want to make sure I am listening and prepared to respond to what I hear. I left the weekend with a participant’s reminder to “Stay strong in the Lord” held in my heart, and the following words kept in mind.

“There is that near you which will guide you; O wait for it and be sure ye keep to it… Be not hasty either in conceiving anything in your minds, or in speaking it forth, or in any thing ye are to do; but feel him by his Spirit and life going along with you, and leading you into what he would have any one of you, or every one of you do.”

Isaac Pennington
7th of Seventh Month, 1678

In the Light,
Callid Keefe-Perry
Rochester Monthly Meeting
New York Yearly Meeting

The epistle from the weekend is attached.