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A FRIENDS' MEETING,
however silent, is at the very lowest a witness that worship is
something other and deeper than words, and that it is to the
unseen and eternal things that we desire to give the first place
in our lives. And when the meeting...is awake and looking upwards,
there is much more in it than this. In the united stillness of a
truly "gathered" meeting, there is a power known only by
experience, and mysterious even when most familiar.
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Explanation of what "In the Light" means. "A question that comes up a lot. Probably as many answers as there are Quakers. My answer is that you put yourself with the person in the Light of Divine Love, and hold them in that Light which is a comfort and a wisdom. It isn't prayer, in the sense of asking for anything specific, only that the person be comforted, feel loved, and be given some understanding that will help them in their situation. You can't hold somebody in the Light, without first putting yourself in the Light, so it is no easy thing to do. Where it comes from, I have no idea. I think it's a very old concept and originated with Quakers." - Lea Sutton, 2023 The Quaker concept of holding someone ‘In the Light’ is helping that person be at peace with the situation that they are in. It may be similar to the Navajo concept of "Hozho". Hozho - 'balance and beauty' the concept of Hózhó carries with it an important emphasis on states of harmony.
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I BELIEVE THAT GOD'S BEST for
another may be so different from my experience and way of living
as to be actually impossible for me. I recognize [a change] to
have taken place in myself, from a certain assumption that mine
was really the better way, to a very complete recognition that
there is no better way, and that God needs all kinds of people and
ways of living through which to manifest Light in the world.
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REJECTION OF CREED is not
inconsistent with being possessed by a living belief. We have no
creed in science, but we are not lukewarm in our beliefs. The
belief is not that all the knowledge of the universe that we hold
so enthusiastically will survive in the letter; but a sureness
that we are on the right road. If our so-called facts are changing
shadows, they are shadows cast by the light of constant truth. So
too in religion we are repelled by that confident theological
doctrine which has settled for all generations just how the
spiritual world is worked; but we need not turn aside from the
measure of Light that comes into our experience showing us a Way
through the unseen world. Religion for the conscientious seeker is
not all a matter of doubt and self-questionings. There is a kind
of sureness which is very different from cocksureness. |
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CHALLENGING MARKET ECONOMICS with
a Biblical sense of the goodness of God in creation is to join a
spiritual struggle. Faith in God and solidarity with the suffering
poor and all other forms of life demand that we take a stand and
say, "This destruction must stop." |
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IT IS EASY to let ourselves slip
into "action for action's sake." Without noticing it, we
unconsciously seek to enlarge of sphere of activity; our social
work confronts us with such heart-breaking realities, with such
urgent needs, that we should like to run from this one to
that...We find ourselves eventually at the bottom of a dry well,
with nothing but our wretched little human powers...Bit by bit, we
transformed what was a divinely appointed task into work on a
merely human level...because we neglected our inner life. |
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FRIENDS ARE NOT naive enough to
believe that an appeal to "that of God" in a dictator or
in an [aggressive] nation... will necessarily be successful in
converting the tyrant or preventing aggression. Christ was
crucified. Gandhi was assassinated. Yet they did not fail. Nor did
they leave behind them the hatred, devastation and bitterness that
war, successful or unsuccessful, does leave. What can be claimed,
moreover, is that this method of opposing evil is one of which no
person, no group, no nation need be ashamed, as we may and should
be ashamed of the inhumanities of war that are perpetrated in our
name and with our support. |
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IT'S HARD TO LOVE the questions
when you live in a society obsessed with answers. A believer takes
a great risk in affirming the questions and doubts of others
because to be a good Christian is to have all the answers and to
never admit you have any questions. Consequently, we have a lot of
people living out a spirituality they can hardly claim to be their
own. On the surface they look good. They can sing all the right
hymns and say all the right prayers. They quote all the right
verses and support all the appropriate groups. They have even
overcome great tragedy and despair and give claim to a testimony
of great victory. But deep within their being, they are torn apart
by this "spiritual schizophrenia." They have
doubts....But the Christian culture "code of silence"
has forced them on a journey of "Jesus is the answer"
without ever having been allowed to ask the questions. |
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TO FIND RELIGION itself, you must
look inside people and inside yourself. And there, if you find
even the tiniest grain of true love, you may be on the right
scent. Millions of people have it and don’t know what it is
they have. God is their guest, but they haven’t the faintest
idea that s/he is in the house. So you mustn’t only look
where God is confessed and acknowledged. You must look everywhere
to find the real religion... Living with God is not an apparition
but a wordless and endless sureness. Like the silence of two
friends together. |
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Thousand
Islands Meeting
