My World Gathering
Quaker Queeries and a nice quote . . .
Hi everyone,
Just thought I'd share this quote with you.
At the world gathering I stumbled into the 'Quaker Queeries' meeting . . . for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transexual Friends. I was touched and impressed at the way these amazing young friends discussed ways of making their presence felt in the wider gathering without offending/hurting any of the other participants. I was also a little shocked to hear some of the things they were having to cope with . . . one had tentatively mentioned homosexuality in her basegroup, only to be told by another Friend that it was immoral and a sin according to the bible. I also found it was a place where I finally started to see some of the diversity at the gathering (the formal presentations were overwhelmingly, and sometimes crushingly, Christocentric and evangelical). I made a bunch of lovely friends there, and joined the email list that was set up. One of the posts to that list included the following quote, which comes from the 'Freedom Friends' website.
Freedom Friends is an unaffiliated, programmed (American I think) Quaker Church that is open and affirming of all people (including and especially GLBTQ).
http://freedomfriends.org/index.htm
"Is it Possible that you might be a Quaker and not know it?"
You might be a Quaker if…
You think listening is at least as important as talking. You think justice means more than just locking up criminals. You are more interested in being like Christ than in being like most Christians. You want to read the Bible but you don't want to be beaten with it. You think the contents of a person's heart is more important than the contents of their house. You are more worried about the Hell that people live in here and now than any Hell they might occupy after death. You think war makes more problems than it solves. You suspect than nobody was ever saved by a ritual. You think mandatory creeds and dogma fit like a strait-jacket. You think the best ministers are often found sitting in the pews. You think investing great leaders with great power is dangerous. You think equality is not so much a goal to be sought, but a fact that is often ignored. You think honesty is not just the best policy, but that it ought to be the only policy. You think that church business should not look like "business as usual". You think that good relationships are more important than good arguments.
Not all of this is 100% a fit with me, but I like the general gist, and love some of the points made. Just thought it might be a good example of what I got out of the Gathering
:0)
"Let us then try what love will do"
Anna D: Freedom Friends are definitely in the States - great quote, thanks for sharing it... it'll come in handy :0) I'm really hoping you'll make it down to help us feed back, both Fran and I missed all the workshops and you're heaps better at putting it all into words than I am anyway. Hopefully Jonathan can keep that side up! I keep reading stuff here, and on teh email lists, and wishing I had the ability to express it all so succinctly and clearly, maybe I just haven't got far enough through processing it all yet. But also maybe I missed out on more than I thought I had. My main challenges were internal, in my head/heart/soul, triggered by ministry within worship or from the speaker sessions I got to, not from face to face interactions. I think I got protected from the face to face stuff a lot which is probably just as well realistically in that I had a job to do, but kinda sad now looking back. However I have to remember that that isn't why I was there and be grateful for those like you who are able to share their experiences so well. love & light Anna xxx (11/06/05)