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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again

indianan volcano

Indiana Volcano erupting,.... but where's the magma chamber?

There is about 150 years behind this particular eruption. Thus far pastoral Friends who like to call themselves "Orthodox", and Hicksite/Beanite Friends (wisely) have steered clear of this embarrassing feud.

I'm now 67, and a majority of Orthodox Friends sincerely believe I will burn in hell, so what's to lose ?

I used to visit widely among YM's, I learned a great deal listening to various pastors talking among themselves about others. I avidly everything Quaker published in the last 350 years, and created that Family tree that hangs on so many meeting house walls.

As I worked two years ago to finish the "350 Years of the Society of Friends" tree, not only was it obvious that among Orthodox Friends have there now been more than 40 schisms, but there is a long, well orchastrated effort to dismember the FUM.

A schism occurs generationally : every 25 to 35 years. The surface issues are all different, but the underlying source is the same: interpretations of the Bible which differ from Ohio's version. Ohio will not compromise on its interpretation of The Word of God .There's an exciting "who done it" book here.

An historical, thumb-nail sketch, as it appears on the family tree chart, is as follows:

1860's- First paid ministers (without ym approval) in Ohio (Damascus)ym

1875 - Iowa ym becomes first ym to allow for paid ministers.

1878 - Ohio repudiates the doctrine of the Inward Light as "false, unsound, and unscriptural". (see Barclay's Apology prop. 2)

1882 - David Updegraff, minister in Ohio baptized at Berean Baptist church in Philadelphia

1885 - Ohio (Damascus) votes to allow water baptism 198 yo 183..

1887 - Richmond (Indiana) conference, precipitated by Ohio's un-Orthodox position on baptism, approves the "Richmond Declaration of Faith". This document was written largely by delegates from London and Philadelphia. Interestingly, neither ym joined the FYM.

1895 - Ohio responds to the Richmond Declaration with mass water baptisms at Updegraff's funeral.

1902 - Five Years Meeting (FYM - now FUM) formed in an effort to maintain some uniformity of belief among the newly evangelical "Orthodox" yms. Ohio refuses to join.

1909 - Ohio articulates its refusal to join the FYM/FUM because FYM "has no adequate statement of faith based on the Word of God (see Barclay's apology, prop. # 3)

1927 - Oregon ym withdraws from FYM

1937 - Kansas leaves in part because of FYM's participation in the communist tainted

1957 -Rocky Mountain leaves, in part because doctrinal uniformity s not requires of missionaries.

Earlham School of Religion was formed in part to counter the effect the Malone College (Ohio Damascus) grads were having on FUM meetings. Unfortunately for the FUM, this looks to have been too late.

1995 - California leaves FYM/FUM

And now a volcano in Indiana out of nowhere ?"Gimmie a break". Anyone who really believes it's the issue of marriage equality needs to take a closer look.

Ohio has had it in for the FUM since the beginning. As goes Indiana, so go the rest of the pastoral yms. The only real question is when.

1 member likes this

Comment by Michael Jay on 1st mo. 28, 2013 at 11:36am: You mixed up KS Ym and RMYM. (RMYM was opposed to participation in the 'communist tainted National Council of Churches.' KYM was the sentence fragment about missionary activity.)

Pretty easy typo -- as they are right next to each other.

Comment by Sharon Annis on 3rd mo. 5, 2013 at 10:52am: I would also like a copy of the "Family" Tree. for our Meeting. We have an older one but the up date would be very helpful. sharon

Comment by Clem Gerdelmann on 3rd mo. 11, 2013 at 6:46am: Stray from the founding charism and find yourself astray. See my "On A Short Leash", please.

Comment by Laura Scattergood on 4th mo. 23, 2014 at 12:23am: A majority of Orthodox Friends sincerely believe that you will burn in hell? I guess'n I better take a poll on my own status, since it seems that these so called Orthodox Friends are keeping very close track of the matter of whose going to hell. Funny, I hadn't noticed any of them carrying around the files or anything.

Comment by Olivia on 4th mo. 26, 2014 at 5:13am: "In the Light I have found fellowship with those who dwelt in dens and desolate places as time began. I just can't bring myself to lessen the wonder and beauty of the Light to being just another go in the Greek pantheon."

May we just acknowledge though that anyone who in their wisdom sees the universal church does not disparage the pieces of which it is made as being "just another go in the Greek pantheon"?

Each of us are welcome to see the universal church and to feel drawn to that over a specific faith practice, OR to be drawn to deeply root in a specific faith expression of this universal.   But at no point does the wise and divine viewpoint on the divine, call the various religious expressions a mirage. They are all valid. That's the point.

As liberal Quakers we have to know this too. Your viewpoint, if universal, may need to come to peace with the schisming since time began....   It is part of, and exists within, the universal.

Maybe informing this thought for me (though it sounds kind of random) is an experience I had once in a nursing home while looking at a man who had been slowly getting eaten up by gangrene over the past 20 years. He was almost just a box-shape, with no limbs left. This had been developing for TWENTY LONG YEARS.

This was a moment of clarity for me: "If my theology is not large enough to have room for this type of suffering in it then it's not worth anything. " This struck me as a litmus test for all valid spirituality.

If you're going to see the whole picture, then come to peace with the schisms. That's part of the whole picture, not the failure of it which is then fair game for scorn and disappointment.    This is what the world is doing, hating on one another and judging "the other side"... in other words, Friend, you're acting all schism-y, yourself.

What happens if you think bigger?   I don't know what truth you will find or what language you will find for such a paradigm shift, but the open-ended question I'm wondering about is "what truth is large enough to contain even these schisms, and everyone being right? "

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