#quakerism

[theinwardlight]

The first Quakers did not adopt silence as a form of worship. Silence by itself has a random quality. It’s a matter of chance what will intrude on the emptiness. The silence of the first Quaker worshippers was anything but random. They were not just waiting. They were waiting upon the Lord. Gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they stilled themselves to be able to recognize his presence among them. Their silence was always coupled with an expectancy resulting from their faith. They did not receive a lot of separate truths and insights. They were not exchanging opinions or working for ‘consensus’. They listened together and heard together. The silence often issued in powerful expression. Quaker ministers preached in meeting as well as outside. Others bore witness, ‘bubbled’, sang, prayed aloud, as the Spirit moved them. Another distinct feature of the early Quakers’ worship was the abundance of thanksgiving, joy, and praise. Having received and appropriated the Good News from God, they were lifted up with relief, gladness, and gratitude, and they wanted to share it.

William Stafford, "Quaker Worship"

[chronically-chaotic-cryptid]

If you've ever wondering what it's like being a Quaker but specifically being a Quaker in my brain I have a moment about 2-3 times a day minimum where ill be doing something random and probably fun or quiet (or not, maybe it's really loud) and my thoughts and such will stop dead in their tracks and I will take a hard 180° and start to think about how there's this light inside every human that makes them inherently interesting and beautiful and equal and good, or how silence comes from all around us and the joy of just sitting in the sunlight of creation, or how people are some of the most beautiful things to ever exist and how grateful I am to get to experience us, or the importance and wonder of the natural world and all of creation and the necessity of fighting to protect it, or how queer people are holy and sacred in our own little ways or the injustices of the world and how oppressively horrible they are but also that that's why hope and fighting and seeing a better world is so important.

And on and on and on. And then I'll go back to like making brownies or doing maths homework or something.

[emohorseboy]

transgenderism isn’t an ideology it’s a gift from God actually

[yak-leather-whips]

My sincerest apologies to the single person who had been using the quanglicanism tag to refer to the intersectional faith of quaker anglicans for flooding your tag with conspiracy theories about a time quangle from a DND show about fantasy high schoolers

[christshands]

to live life in the service of god, in his image, you HAVE to live life in the service of yourself AND others. and the cool thing about that is, if you find the rhythym, both strengthen each other. respect and service for yourself will lay the foundation for respect and service for others, and both are inherently acts of love towards god, because he is within us. find the parts of you, the parts of others, that shine with the light of god (hint: its everything) and praise them. act in love and you are acting in worship.

[omnist-angels]

It's ridiculous how many exceptions to "thou shall not kill" people can come up with.

[novamonastica]

Nearly everyone believes God is loving, but there is considerable debate over the width, length, hight and depth of his love. For many, God's love is limited and conditional, offered to some but not others... Grace is God's commitment to love us regardless.

If God is Love by Philip Gulley and Jame Mulholland

[liberationtheology]

The word ‘testimony’ is used by Quakers to describe a witness to the living truth within the human heart as it is acted out in everyday life. It is not a form of words, but a mode of life based on the realisation that there is that of God in everybody, that all human beings are equal, that all life is interconnected. It is affirmative but may lead to action that runs counter to certain practices currently accepted in society at large. Hence a pro-peace stance may become an anti-war protest, and a witness to the sacredness of human life may lead to protests against capital punishment. These testimonies reflect the corporate beliefs of the Society, however much individual Quakers may interpret them differently according to their own light. They are not optional extras, but fruits that grow from the very tree of faith.

Harvey Gillman, 1988, Quaker faith & practice 23.12 (5th ed.)

[apilgrimsprogress]

In case you didn't know -- I maintain a google calendar of free/pay-as-led Quaker events! I'm on way too many newsletters so this way they all stay organized and easy to grab a registration!

[pbscore]

🏳️‍⚧️🕯️🕊️ Bless the trans angels who have returned to their home in the sky. Although you were lost in this life, you shall be born again in another and (hopefully) more peaceful place.

Thank you for having blessed us with your presence and giving us the opportunity to meet you. We will be united again one day and I pray for the wellbeing of those you loved while you were here.

To my trans friends still alive and trying their best everyday to get by:

Remember that you are loved and you are seen and you have every right to exist as you are. You have so much to see and so much to experience. Hope is a hard feeling to keep alive during wayward times but it is important to remember how powerful it can be when we keep it alive as a community.

Please, take care of yourselves and watch out for one another. The world is in a series of so many changes and it can be easy to get lost in the fray. Remember who you are and what you want your purpose to be in this life!

[jellyfishhhhhhhhhhh]

I highly dislike those memes where they show off catholic and orthodox churches and the lavishness of them while making fun of protestant churches for being in strip malls. I can smell the classism through the screen

[theinwardlight]

We are not called to save the world. That’s a burden too heavy for us to bear. We are instead called to follow the Spirit of Christ speaking within us, the Spirit of the one who carries the sin of the world, the one who can lead us out. Part of the work of Jesus is to break us out of the closed circle of self-justification. As long as we struggle to be good we will never be able to bear the weight of our guilt. [...] If instead we rely on the goodness of God, the goodness we partake in as God’s beloved creatures, then our guilt can be faced. Then we can do our small part to untie the sticky knots of sin that riddle our lives. We are loved and we are responsible. We are sinners and we are saints. We are warped by sin and we are precious children of God.

Mark Russ, "The Good News of Sin"

[chronically-chaotic-cryptid]

Back on my Quaker nonsense (seeing that of God in everyone, viewing every person as inherently worthy of a good life and fair treatment, hoping and trying to fight for a better world, finding God in nature and tragedy in people being forced into violence, etc)

[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

[god-is-queerer]

you are enough. just because they tried to bake a cake in a thimble doesn't make the ingredients wrong.

[elfgarlic]

quakers are one of the religious groups that ran indigenous boarding schools in the usa, and it's important for people to know. just because we have a peaceful reputation does not mean we are not colonisers too. we all need to fight for indigenous sovereignty and not bury this evil legacy. you can learn more in this article: