#quakerism

[theinwardlight]

Some of the descriptions of Christ found in early Quaker writings:

The Light. The Teacher. The Guide. The Lord. The Way. The Truth. The Life. The Seed. The Captain of Your Salvation. The Son. A Husband unto You. The Rock Most Sure. The Word. The Voice You Must Hear. The King. The Judge. The Lawgiver. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Lord of Joy. Lord of Peace. Thy Teacher by His Spirit. The Wisdom of God. The Mediator. The Everlasting Covenant. The Everlasting Priest. A Hammer. A Sword. A Fire. Your Rest. The Head. The Pure, Living Spring. The Water which Washes. The Bread of Life. The Witness in Heaven. The Ingrafted Word. Your Crown and Life. Him from Whom All Your Help and Strength Comes. The Door. The Second Adam. The Preserver. The Sanctuary. Your Savior. The Pearl. The First and the Last. The Word with You in All Places. The Anointing in You to Teach You. The Bright and Morning Star.

[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.

[python-nebula]

To all my trans siblings in the US today, I’m sending all my love and holding you all in the light

[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.

[melisssg99]

Am I religious? Am I?

I've been in a bit of a weird path when it comes to religion.

My parents are atheists who had me baptized as a baby and I had my first communion as a child, both in a Roman Catholic church.

They did this because of tradition and that's what was expected of them.

They themselves didn't really have any interest in going to church or teaching me about God.

I as a child did show interest however, I wanted to know more, wear a cross and I wanted to learn more about the stories of the bible but my interests weren't encouraged.

Then later in my teens I only saw everything bad about religion. People who use the bible for their own gain, to alienate others or to use others. People who twisted the word of God to fit their own narrative or the people who saw themselves as better than others because of their religion. I believed the atheists who were full of hate and my realisation that I was bisexual and seeing the homophobia didn't help either.

I started calling myself atheist, then agnostic, then atheist again. I was filled with hate and disgust for religion.

But there was still a curiosity that I kept hidden because I felt ashamed for it as I was surrounded by atheist, "rational thinkers".

Now for about a year now I feel like I'm back to how I was a child. I have an interest. I am willing to learn more and I see the good things about religion again. Small things happened that to me felt like signs. I started praying again in private and it felt so good. It felt like a huge relief.

My rational thoughts tell me that it makes sense as prayer can work like meditation to clear your head, calm down and be present.

But I do love to believe that God is there for me, will listen and wants the best for me.

At this point I'm not sure what to call myself. An agnostic Christian maybe?

It's hard for me to even type this.

I was even scared to include a little cross icon in my bio. (♱) It's so silly but I was/am so afraid of the reaction of others. Atheist thinking bad of me or maybe other religious people who might think I'm not religious enough or don't know enough yet.

I'm somewhat forcing myself to post this so I can get used to sharing this.

To make it more real. Maybe even learn from others?

It's so weird and I feel like it's not relatable at all. Usually you'd see stories about atheist kids rebelling against their religious parents.

But I'm a grown woman, scared to come out as somewhat religious?🤭🤣

[apostle-therock-peter]

this was a difficult part in wisdom's daughters that i'm reading as i'm starting to read it because i had that angry urge to go "PETER DIDN'T DESERT JESUS!" but like...the three times peter betrayed jesus before he died and his insane guilt around it. and i remembered. oh. nobody but one of the john's and the women around him stayed consistently with jesus. the WOMEN were consistently with jesus. women, especially to us fgc quakers, are an important vessel of christ's message and spirituality, and that's why i'm so drawn to quaker interpretations of christianity in the first place, because the marginalized (in gender, in race, in class, in sexuality, in disability), they are CONSISTENTLY centered as a GIFT that god has given and not a defect that god will fix once we are in heaven or an inherent sin against god's creation.

to god, we are all sinners, yes, but none of us are sinning by being alive, by being ourselves.

and that's the beauty of the friends.

[aroace-omnist]

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

[northernslug]

My version of Quaker plain dress.

Shirt: Thrifted

Kerchief: handmade

Jumper dress: Custom garment from Graceful Threads

Necklace and earrings: made by local artists

It’s been a slow transition away from fast fashion for me, but it’s feels very right in my heart.

[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.)

[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

[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!

[clemcordero]

i went to a quaker meeting today for the first time via zoom and one of the queries for open worship was "how can we be creating communities invigorated by individual changes so that we may be able to witness each individual grow into their truest self without fear of being rejected by us?" i thought id share my thoughts on what came to mind.

it reminds me of this one sentence i wrote in a letter just recently that goes like, "even your 'flaws' or insecurities, i want to show you how they glitter like gold." i want everyone i get a chance to love to feel like they can be their authentic self around me. in the end, were only human. we change, we grow, we form into different people but yet we are still the same person. i hope to be a place where people feel accommodated for and feel like their emotions and worries are taken into consideration. i want to embrace peoples changes, i want to celebrate them. i want to love in a godly way.

[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