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Permalink Reply by Jayne on 1st mo. 9, 2009 at 2:06pm

Its funny, I did take that test and I was rated Liberal Quaker 96%.. I can't find the original printout but I had already come to consider myself a Quaker so I was very pleased with the results.

For,I guess over 30 years, I've been finding my own path to God, trying my best to remain truthful in what I believe but I thought I more or less made up my own religion. I happen to like Judi Dench so when I saw she was raised Quaker, I read up on it. There it was, my belief system...over 400 years old! So much for me inventing anything! :D

Allen Stockbridge said:

It is nice to meet you, virtually. I think that you would find the beliefnet.com web site interesting and specifically the belief-o-matic test.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx

This is their intro...

Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-MaticTM knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.

One other source that will help you connect with quakers is quakerfinder.org. It will help you connect with quakers where you live or when you travel. Visit different Quaker meetings. Each one is different, and will offer a different sense of community.

There is a lot of info on the internet. See Quaker.org where you can get lost for months in details about any aspect of interest.

I would be pleased totake it off line. You can email me at clean.air@goparkcity.com if you like. It would be helpful to know what brought you here and what you know or want to know about Quakers.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Nakao on 1st mo. 24, 2009 at 12:43am

Thanks for this. Something struck me about the "sticking your plain self out there and being visible as a Friend." Well, my mom's an English teacher at an inner-city high school. Whenever I go home during school breaks, I visit her classes and let the students ask me whatever they want. She's trying to get her students to realize that college can be an option, so they usually end up asking me about college life. But this time, when I was home last week and went to talk to her students, I was in plain dress. So, although they could ask me anything they wanted, without fail, each class began with someone raising their hand and asking about the way I dressed.

That opened up a whole conversation about Quakerism; many of the students hadn't even heard of Quakers (the rest remembered that oatmeal man). I explained how we try to live our faith, and I described a few of our testimonies. I connected Quakers to the things they knew about already: abolitionism, the underground railroad, the civil rights movement. They were fascinated, and asked wonderfully open and honest questions. I can't help wondering if they will continue to look into and consider our testimonies, now that they've had a chance to speak to a "real live Quaker."

Similar conversations happen frequently now that I'm in plain dress. Sometimes, people open themselves to me in very unexpected ways. Today, my boss shared her spiritual frustrations and journeys. A man in a thrift store reached out in an attempt to find a common spiritual ground. An employee at a local burger joint asked me about peace. I'm certainly not the best example of Quakerism they could find, and some people have glowing things to say about Quakers and act as if they're in the presence of a living saint. So it can be uncomfortable, but I still love these little surprising moments of connectedness. The media likes to tell us that we are a secular, soulless people. But the interactions I've had clearly deny that. We're all human together, all children of God trying to find our way.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Thatcher on 2nd mo. 21, 2009 at 9:44am

Business cards! The first advertising that any other business venture invests in.

They include a personal outreach. They're cheap. They give a person a reminder of the when, where and who of the group they had some interest in.

Has anyone's meeting or church printed some up? Church name, address, phone, worship time and some tag line. Perhaps a place to put the name of the Friend who hands it out.

I just laid one out for my meeting, using a template that came with WordPerfect. When I figure out a way to make it into a .jpg file, I'll put it up here.

I didn't put much consideration to a tag line, but came up with, "All are welcome. Simple, spiritual, peaceful." Working together, I'm sure my meeting (or yours) could write something that fits well with what we are.

Jay Thatcher

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Bienert on 5th mo. 12, 2009 at 7:23am

Tom--

Your idea of a virtual 'school' soundswonderful.As a very interested prospective Quaker, who hopes to attend my very first Meeting this Sunday, I would also welcome an online school. I am also wonderingwhether a Group might be started here for neophytes? ... Just a thought.

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Permalink Reply by Betsy Packard on 5th mo. 14, 2010 at 10:39am

I just discovered that the local food pantry here uses the income guidelines that the state uses for food stamps. This food pantry is run by the Presbyterian Church, so my immediate thought was, "So much for separation of church and state."

What this use of the food stamp income guidelines means is that there are people who need food who can't get it. If they have extreme expenses for any reason, such as medical expenses or even just the gas required to get to medical care, a furnace that goes out and needs to be replaced, a huge expense for work on a septic system, then they don't qualify for groceries. That is just WRONG in my book!

I'm wondering if Scott County needs another, less rigid, food pantry. I'm wondering if I should be the impetus behind such a move. Please hold me in the light as I ponder this situation.

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