Opening Doors To Quaker Worship

The modern reputation of Friends in the United States and Europe is grounded in the relief work they have conducted in the presence and aftermath of war. Friends (also known as Quakers) have coordinated the feeding and evacuation of children from war zones around the world. They have helped displaced persons without regard to politics. They have engaged in the relief of suffering in places as far-flung as Ireland, France, Germany, Ethiopia, Egypt, China, and India. Their work was acknowledged with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Friends Service Council of Great Britain. More often, however, Quakers live, worship, and work quietly, without seeking public attention for themselves. Now, the Friends are a truly worldwide body and are recognized by their Christ-centered message of integrity and simplicity, as well as their nonviolent stance and affirmation of the belief that all people--women as well as men--may be called to the ministry. The expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) relates the history of the Friends through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on concepts, significant figures, places, activities, and periods. This book is an excellent access point for scholars and students, who will find the overviews and sources for further research provided by this book to be enormously helpful.

This bold, pioneering book explores rites of passage in America by sifting through the accounts of influential thinkers who experienced them. Arthur J. Magida explains the underlying theologies, evolution, and actual practice of Jewish bar and bat mitzvahs, Christian confirmations, Hindu sacred thread ceremonies, Muslim shahadas and Zen jukai ceremonies. In rare interviews, renowned artists and intellectuals such as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, holistic guru Deepak Chopra, singer Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), actress/comedienne Julia Sweeney, cartoonist Roz Chast, interfaith maven Huston Smith, and many more talk intimately about their religious backgrounds, the rites of passage they went through, and how these events shaped who they are today. Magida compares these coming of age ceremonies' origins and evolution, considers their ultimate meaning and purpose, and gauges how their meaning changes with individuals over time. He also examines innovative rites of passage that are now being "invented" in the United States. Passionate and lyrical, this absorbing book reveals our deep, ultimate need for coming-of-age events, especially in a society as fluid as ours. Conversations with: Bob Abernethy, Huston Smith, Julia Sweeney, Roz Chast, Harold Kushner, Ram Dass, Elie Wiesel, Deepak Chopra, Robert Thurman, Coleman Barks, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), And others

Our Life is Love describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers, who turned to the Light of Christ within and allowed it to be their guide. Many Friends today use different language, but are still called to make the same journey. In our time people seeking deeper access to the profound teachings of Christianity want more than just beliefs, they want direct experience. Focusing on ten elements of the spiritual journey, this book is a guide to a Spirit-filled life that affects this world. Quakers in the seventeenth century and today provide examples of people and communities living in the midst of the world whose radical understanding of Christ's teachings led them to become powerful agents of social change. The book offers a simple, clear explanation of the spiritual journey that is suitable not only for Quakers, but for all Christians, and for seekers wanting to better understand our spiritual experience and the fullness of God's call to us. The book would make an excellent focus for study groups. Marcelle Martin has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She served for four years as the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill and was a core teacher in the School of the Spirit program, The Way of Ministry. She is the author of the Pendle Hill pamphlets Invitation to a Deeper Communion and Holding One Another in the Light. In 2013 she was the Mullen Writing Fellow at Earlham School of Religion while working on this book.

The spiritual basis of the structures and practices that sustain a Quaker worshiping community; the spiritual grounding and understanding of worship, ministry, eldering, oversight and other spiritual gifts in mutual service within the meeting as spiritual formation; personal transformation and transformed relationships within spiritual community; communal discernment in personal matters and in the conduct of meeting business; wider Quaker service; adult religious education as part of spiritual formation.

An Open Door of Liberty is about how religious freedom came to be an important part of the basic law of the United States. There has been much discussion and some controversy over the years as to what a religiously free society requires of its citizens and its government, but there is widespread agreement that Americans should have an absolute right to maintain their own religious (or unreligious) opinions, exceptionally broad rights to their religious practices (or the right not to practice) and that government should not establish any set of beliefs as an "official" religion. It was not always so. At the dawn of the colonial era in the early 1600s the newly-formed colonies followed the then-common practice of Europe and particularly England by demanding adherence to the beliefs and practices of a state-sponsored church. Massachusetts, established by Puritan dissenters from the official Anglican church, enforced its own interpretation of Christian theology, exiling anyone from their society who would not conform. Virginia, a bastion of orthodox Anglicanism, admitted no one who would not acknowledge the king as the head of the only true church. An Open Door of Liberty describes how generations of religious dissidents changed the culture and eventually the law. The story includes the founding of religiously free Rhode Island by Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and other Massachusetts exiles, the efforts of English Catholics led by the Calverts to create a tolerant haven in Maryland, the role of the Quakers throughout the colonies in challenging oppressive laws at considerable physical peril as well as the establishment of Pennsylvania by Quaker William Penn as one of the most tolerant societies of its day and the role of the early Baptists from John Clarke to later figures such as Isaac Backus and their advocacy of "soul liberty." Through their efforts and those of others, most Americans came to agree with Thomas Jefferson that "Almighty God hath created the mind free" and supported the religion clauses of the First Amendment as well as similar laws in the first constitutions of the newly independent states. Also discussed in this book are some of the ramifications of attempting to create a religiously free society. For example, what is meant by "separation of church and state" and why does use of this phrase sometimes result in arguments? How did breaking apart the church-state power structure help make democracy possible? If religious freedom is part of our basic law why have some religious groups been subject to hostility and violations of their rights? These topics and other aspects of religious freedom have been the subject of their own detailed works, but the overview contained in An Open Door of Liberty helps give some context to the subject.