Nine Editor Picks including: "Friends as a Corrective for Culture," "Pain and the (Quaker?) world" and "Navigating the boundaries of sexuality," plus member posts and new events.

EDITORS PICKS:

Obedient Linda: Friends as a Corrective for Culture
Everything that being a Friend has led me to has been counter-intuitive to the prevailing culture of individualism. Where my society would call me to be a staunch individualist in all areas of my personal and working life, my faith calls me to be a member of community.

Johan Mauer remembers FWCC's Gordon Browne
Within and beyond his ministry at FWCC, Gordon never abandoned the high ideals that first led him to worship and serve with Friends. I think he had a zeal deep in his bones for the essentials of prophetic Christian discipleship. It was obvious to him that Friends should urgently, persistently stand up for racial justice, including in our own institutions, and he frequently voiced this concern in his home yearly meeting, New England. He and Edith advocated and practiced military tax resistance, even to the point of suing the Internal Revenue Service.

Emerging Diane: Pain and the (Quaker?) world
Shouldn't all of us with commitments to religious communities feel at least a smidgeon of hope, a soupcon of joy, and a large serving of humility because we are at least one tiny step closer to solving the world's problems? Shouldn't we embrace our pain and the pain of being in our communities and become the change we want to see? Are we being called, through our pain, to a closer and deeper relationship with our spiritual homes?

Kathleen Karhnak on navigating the boundaries of sexuality
There are aspects of our sexuality about which we as Quakers have community expectations and standards – ways we hold each other accountable for using our God-given gifts responsibly. I can't, however, tell you where the boundary is between acceptable and unacceptable. If we can't articulate where the boundaries are, how do we avoid crossing them? We stay in tune with God, with ourselves as individuals, and with our partners. We identify elders, mentors, peers and loved ones with whom we can talk through the things that confuse us.

Heather from A Friend in Need offers how Not-Knowing relates to bei...
I can't pretend to be in control. I can't pretend that I know what I'm doing when I don't. All I can do is prepare the best I can, and show up open to whatever happens. All I can do is hold that tiny bit of Light that I have been given and shine for all I am worth.

Emerging Diane attends Faith and Micah's wedding
I do think the world would be less harried--and impoverished-- if more couples adopted the simplicity of the Quaker wedding. This is a place where less is more. Where simplicity is beautiful.

FWCC: Flooding in Phillipines and the death of Gordon Brown
Report from Friends in the Phillipines: "All Friends Churches in Pasig and nearby town are under flood. All members of the Friends church are affected. Our houses including mine are totally destroyed by the 15-18 feet of water." Includes donation information.

Wee Dragon on the limits of self-sufficientcy
These past two months I have been faced with some of the worst parts of myself. I have really seen a clear picture of how, apart from G-d, I am completely incapable of love and sacrifice. Part of my spiritual failings in the past have been that I am chronically self-sufficient. I always see my opinions and my WAY as right. Trouble is, that WAY is always changing, because no matter which WAY I go, it's still ME with all of my struggles and failings.

Life-force Laurie on sharing Quakerism on Social Networks
I am, by no means, claiming myself as a missionary. And I have no need to convert anyone from their belief systems or religious traditions. I am only expressing the Light of Friends, as I know it, and that at times has a really nice bonus attached to it. The bonus that others can learn about what Quakers do, that they are not just guys on an oatmeal box, that they have testimonies that are real and valid for the 21st century, and that they are NOT a dying religion

POSTS OF NOTE BY QUAKERQUAKER MEMBERS

Madeleine Cadbury Brown: Quarterly Meeting Musings
Daniel Fairman: Lone Quaker in Omaha, ne area looking for a pastora...
Martin Kelley with photos from blogger Eileen Flanagan's book talk ...
Rik Panganiban Video! Dancing from Your Center, Sharing the Center

NEWLY POSTED EVENTS

Quakerspring gathering in New England, Nov 21
Friends in Christ Bible Study, Oct 5, Silver Spring, MD
One in Christ Meeting for Worship, New York City, Oct 7

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