A good Brigid / Candlemas / Imbolc to you!
Brigid is the triple
Goddess of smithcraft, healing, and poetry. What are some ways
creativity, healing, or both are weaving themselves through your life?
What are some concrete things you might do to them in?
Showing posts with label Explicit Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Explicit Friends. Show all posts
Monday, February 1, 2016
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Being in community when our Gods are different
This autumn, I had the privilege to attend Rhiannon Grant's workshop "Or Whatever You Call It" with F/friends from South East Scotland Area Meeting (Quakers). It was an interesting and fun workshop, and I'm glad we brought it to SESAM.
Much of Grant's work with Quakers centres on how modern Friends use language to talk about That-Which-Is-Sacred, and is particularly informed by philosophy. My work amongst Friends starts from experience, and then comes to language pretty quickly: we need language to reflect our experience, to be able to talk to each other about it, one way to be in spiritual community with each other. And Quakers are very wordy, very language-oriented people. So her approach was really interesting for me.
After spending the day in different kinds of exercises, thinking and talking about different words, and what they mean, and why, and different names for Whatever You Call It, we settled into large-group worship-sharing with this query:
Quite a lot came bubbling up for me during this worship.
----------------
In order to be a faithful Friend, {my truth requires me to / Goddess requires me to / I must} use words some Friends often react to with hostility. Goddess. Witch. Pagan. Priestess. Gods. But other minority Friends, especially other Pagan and non-Christian Friends, are often very relieved to hear those words.
If I am speaking my own truth, in my own words, not translating into other people's words / language, then yes, it does require particular words.
To what extent are we obligated to translate as we speak? As we listen? Why am I so often, as a minority, the person expected to do both?
I, as a non-Christian Friend, am expected to be conversant about Jesus. Why aren't other Friends expected to be conversant with other Gods?
Yes, well, Quakerism is also historically white and straight as well.
Gods, plural. If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, and I want you to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously, we both have to allow as how they both might exist -- and are not the same.
----------------
Among Friends, I no longer have to pretend my wife is a man and I'm in a mixed-gender relationship. I no longer have to translate into heterosexual marriage terms for other Friends.
I should not have to pretend I'm in relationship with a different Deity than the One(s) I am in relationship with, either.
If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, then you need to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously.
Brigid is not Jesus in a skirt. And the Cailleach is neither.
I am talking about radical equality.
Jesus is a privileged god in Quakerism.
Jesus cannot be a privileged god if we are all Friends and all Friends are equal.
What does radical equality ask of each of us when it comes to being present with, bearing witness to, each others' spiritual lives? When it comes to being in spiritual community with one another?
Much of Grant's work with Quakers centres on how modern Friends use language to talk about That-Which-Is-Sacred, and is particularly informed by philosophy. My work amongst Friends starts from experience, and then comes to language pretty quickly: we need language to reflect our experience, to be able to talk to each other about it, one way to be in spiritual community with each other. And Quakers are very wordy, very language-oriented people. So her approach was really interesting for me.
After spending the day in different kinds of exercises, thinking and talking about different words, and what they mean, and why, and different names for Whatever You Call It, we settled into large-group worship-sharing with this query:
Does telling your truth require you to use any particular words?
Quite a lot came bubbling up for me during this worship.
----------------
In order to be a faithful Friend, {my truth requires me to / Goddess requires me to / I must} use words some Friends often react to with hostility. Goddess. Witch. Pagan. Priestess. Gods. But other minority Friends, especially other Pagan and non-Christian Friends, are often very relieved to hear those words.
If I am speaking my own truth, in my own words, not translating into other people's words / language, then yes, it does require particular words.
To what extent are we obligated to translate as we speak? As we listen? Why am I so often, as a minority, the person expected to do both?
I, as a non-Christian Friend, am expected to be conversant about Jesus. Why aren't other Friends expected to be conversant with other Gods?
Yes, well, Quakerism is also historically white and straight as well.
Gods, plural. If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, and I want you to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously, we both have to allow as how they both might exist -- and are not the same.
----------------
Among Friends, I no longer have to pretend my wife is a man and I'm in a mixed-gender relationship. I no longer have to translate into heterosexual marriage terms for other Friends.
I should not have to pretend I'm in relationship with a different Deity than the One(s) I am in relationship with, either.
If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, then you need to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously.
Brigid is not Jesus in a skirt. And the Cailleach is neither.
I am talking about radical equality.
Jesus is a privileged god in Quakerism.
Jesus cannot be a privileged god if we are all Friends and all Friends are equal.
What does radical equality ask of each of us when it comes to being present with, bearing witness to, each others' spiritual lives? When it comes to being in spiritual community with one another?
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Labyrinth pictures!
I realized I hadn't posted pictures of any of the labyrinths I'd built!
Enjoy!
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| 2013 Gathering labyrinth |
Click here for more pictures from the first labyrinth, at FGC Gathering 2013 in Colorado.
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| 2104 Gathering labyrinth |
Click here for more pictures from the labyrinth this last summer at FGC Gathering 2014 in Pennsylvania.
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| 2014 Fall Equinox labyrinth |
Click here for more pictures from the labyrinth we built for the Roses, Too! Tradition Fall Equinox ritual here in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Please see my past posts about labyrinths for the back story of how I came to build these labyrinths, and also for how-to help if you'd like to build a temporary labyrinth yourself:
http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/labyrinths
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Thanking the Goddess for tea
Yesterday, I posted to Facebook: "TEA. Thank You, Goddess."
Today, while making my tea, it occurred to me to ask myself: Can I thank the Goddess for tea when I don't believe in the Goddess?
I have said many times that I don't believe in the Goddess; I experience the Goddess. And I do.
I live on this planet, so I experience the Goddess -- the Air, Fire, Water, and Earth that are Her breath, energy, blood, and body. That are literally and metaphorically these things.
Air, Fire, Water, Earth in my everyday experience: I breathe air. I listen for the wind in the trees, down our chimney, against the walls of our house, against the sides of the bus. I feel the wind against my face, against my body, as I walk; it blows my hair in my face these days. I love sunny days; I depend on sunlight even on cloudy days, for the food I eat, for my mental health, for vitamin D, for so much else. I revel in how our cats luxuriate in the sun shining through our living room windows. I love how our back patio is a little sun-trap. My neurons fire, a near-infinite number of tiny points of tremendous energy. I love the moon. I drink water. I drink TEA. I am, myself, more than half water. My blood pumps. Making my tea, I had a clumsy moment which reminded me that I definitely experience gravity, and if that's not an Earth power, what is. I have a body. I walk on the ground. There are trees in our communal back garden, and flowers, shrubs, and other plants in both front and back gardens, and so many of our neighbors' gardens. I can walk down to the end of the block I live on, look east, and see Arthur's Seat, one of the "mountains" in town. Another few steps, and I can see Salisbury Crags. I can go climb them. I can walk across the green at the end of my block. I can go sit on our back patio and listen to the birds and the wind in the trees, and feel the sunlight on my face.
These days, I feel very estranged from that fifth element, that something more, the Spirit which binds all the elements, all life, together.
But I can experience the Air, Fire, Water, and Earth in the everyday.
I can thank the Air, Fire, Water, and Earth -- including humans -- responsible for my tea.
Thank You, Goddess.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
What shall I tell you about Winter Solstice?
Shall I tell you about the holiness of every day, of the sacredness of each of the four seasons? Shall I tell you about how tracking the seasons helps me understand, in a deeply... Read more
Thursday, November 15, 2012
More about Patricia Monaghan's death, and memorial arrangements
Via Aline O'Brien / M. Macha NightMare:
At Michael's request, I post the following:
I am devastated by the loss of my beloved wife and partner in all things, Patricia. I am also filled with gratitude and love for all the wonderful things said about Patricia. She has left our lives and yet she will live long. There is a huge hollow in me and in the life and all the things that Patricia and I did and will do.
She traveled a journey with cancer these last 2 years. It was a journey of hope and disappointment. It was a journey that included her work, whether it was finishing the paperback version of Goddesses and Heroines, how to strengthen the Black Earth Institute, the decorating scheme for the Wisconsin house after we moved from Chicago, or how to control the temperature in the new root cellar. She was concerned that we had not yet put the dried beans from the garden. On Friday evening we were working on editing a manuscript until 11:30 at night. She died at home in my arms on Sunday morning at 3:45AM.
She didn't like to be called brave though she was. She didn't at all like being called a force of nature but she was. She didn't like it when people said, "How can you do so much?", but she "did" from morn 'till night. W would work hard all day on many things and then say, "Well at least we got a little but done."
Patricia was a scholar, artist, spiritual practitioner and leader and political activist. She was a gardener and literally a path creator. One of my favorite memories is of her pulling our large honey suckle bushes in the wet spring soil to create a path in our woods. This creation she carried into all things, whether leading us to the goddess, to a land ethic or to the struggle for a more just society.
There will be an informal get together at Brigit Rest this Saturday from 2PM to 7PM. More like a potluck where in addition to covered dishes bring memories or mementos of Patricia. (Bring the covered dish, deserts and libations as well.
A formal ceremony will be held on Saturday December 1 at Brigit Rest as well. There will be a service at the Madison meeting hall of the Society of Friends (Quakers) likely the same day.
Let us all honor Patricia for all the things she was and will be.
Michael McDermott
Monday, November 12, 2012
The death of Patricia (Pat) Monaghan
Many are mourning the death of Patricia (Pat) Monaghan. Pat's death has been confirmed by Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary, and by Pat's nephew Brandon.
Selena writes:
Selena writes:
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Theaological diversity among Friends
In July, I co-led an interest group at FGC Gathering with John Hunter from NC.
Actually, it was two interest groups merged into one: "Theological Diversity Within Our Meetings," and "Every Quaker Has a Place in This Meeting."
The interest groups sub-committee had asked John and me if we would merge our proposed interest groups, since on the surface they seemed so similar. John and I emailed with each other, spoke on the phone, and agreed; once at Gathering, we met, settled on how we'd facilitate the evening, and finalized our queries. What we came up with was somewhat different than what either of us would have done on our own; I think it was an interesting compromise, and led to a richer experience for the folks who attended -- and certainly more so than if there had been two separate interest groups, because among other things, there was definitely a richer mix of Friends present than those who would have chosen to go to one of the interest groups over the other.
The two interest groups were:
(They do ask you, when you put in a proposal, to consider the Gathering theme...)
58 people attended -- the room was certainly full!
We opened with silent worship. John and I introduced ourselves, talked about what we planned to do with our evening (hour and 45 minutes), asked those present to introduce themselves -- your name, where you're from and where you attend Meeting, if you do; one word describing how you feel right now; one word describing what drew you to this interest group.
John and I each gave our presentations, and then we divided the room up into small groups, handing out slips of paper with guidelines for Claremont Dialogues (similar to worship-sharing, but with some differences) and with the queries/prompts for the dialogues.
The small groups seemed energized, respectful, and enthusiastic. I very much liked the feel of the energy among them.
The small groups didn't all "feel" the same to me -- many of them seemed to develop their own short-term sense of group identity. Some were quieter in their listening; some more boisterous, as folks' answers sparked resonating or sympathetic laughter from others in the group; some intensely talkative. At least one was quiet and intense during the dialogue rounds, finished early, and then took the rest of the time for what seemed to be deep and enthusiastic conversation. Each group really did seem to have its own little bubble of energy and space around it, as cramped as the room was.
(I confess I was vastly entertained by the myriad ways timekeepers in each group chose to undertake their tasks: everything appeared from watches, to people watching the wall clock, to smartphone apps going "Ding!" every few minutes and prompting more laughter.)
Towards the end, we brought the group back together for large-group discussion to talk about what we learned -- any surprises, etc?
There was a marvelous sunset out the wide windows of the room we were in, which someone pointed out, and we took a moment to open all the shades and admire it.
We ended with silent worship.
A number of people stayed for more conversation; some left for other commitments; some stayed for a bit then headed out for other commitments.
I felt blessed.
* * * * *
Would you like me to facilitate a similar workshop in your Meeting, Coven, Church, Circle, or other spiritual group? Contact me at stasa dot website at gmail dot com.
* * * * *
Actually, it was two interest groups merged into one: "Theological Diversity Within Our Meetings," and "Every Quaker Has a Place in This Meeting."
The interest groups sub-committee had asked John and me if we would merge our proposed interest groups, since on the surface they seemed so similar. John and I emailed with each other, spoke on the phone, and agreed; once at Gathering, we met, settled on how we'd facilitate the evening, and finalized our queries. What we came up with was somewhat different than what either of us would have done on our own; I think it was an interesting compromise, and led to a richer experience for the folks who attended -- and certainly more so than if there had been two separate interest groups, because among other things, there was definitely a richer mix of Friends present than those who would have chosen to go to one of the interest groups over the other.
The two interest groups were:
Theological Diversity Within Our Meetings - A great Strength of Quakerism
We all "have a place in the choir" at our home meetings. This is true even as we may hold different personal theological beliefs. We will explore how unity in such diversity might be a great strength for Quakerism. A presentation will be followed by small groups where we each may explore our own theological assumptions and how we are included in our meetings and in the wider body of Friends.
Every Quaker Has a Place in This Meeting
Three Friends walk into Meeting for Worship: a Christian, a Pagan, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Non-Theist. Each gives vocal ministry from their own experience; all experience gathered worship. Come create the rest of the story: coming together, supporting each other, building community, helping each other sing in our own unique voices, singing in harmony.
(They do ask you, when you put in a proposal, to consider the Gathering theme...)
58 people attended -- the room was certainly full!
We opened with silent worship. John and I introduced ourselves, talked about what we planned to do with our evening (hour and 45 minutes), asked those present to introduce themselves -- your name, where you're from and where you attend Meeting, if you do; one word describing how you feel right now; one word describing what drew you to this interest group.
John and I each gave our presentations, and then we divided the room up into small groups, handing out slips of paper with guidelines for Claremont Dialogues (similar to worship-sharing, but with some differences) and with the queries/prompts for the dialogues.
The small groups seemed energized, respectful, and enthusiastic. I very much liked the feel of the energy among them.
The small groups didn't all "feel" the same to me -- many of them seemed to develop their own short-term sense of group identity. Some were quieter in their listening; some more boisterous, as folks' answers sparked resonating or sympathetic laughter from others in the group; some intensely talkative. At least one was quiet and intense during the dialogue rounds, finished early, and then took the rest of the time for what seemed to be deep and enthusiastic conversation. Each group really did seem to have its own little bubble of energy and space around it, as cramped as the room was.
(I confess I was vastly entertained by the myriad ways timekeepers in each group chose to undertake their tasks: everything appeared from watches, to people watching the wall clock, to smartphone apps going "Ding!" every few minutes and prompting more laughter.)
Towards the end, we brought the group back together for large-group discussion to talk about what we learned -- any surprises, etc?
There was a marvelous sunset out the wide windows of the room we were in, which someone pointed out, and we took a moment to open all the shades and admire it.
We ended with silent worship.
A number of people stayed for more conversation; some left for other commitments; some stayed for a bit then headed out for other commitments.
I felt blessed.
* * * * *
Would you like me to facilitate a similar workshop in your Meeting, Coven, Church, Circle, or other spiritual group? Contact me at stasa dot website at gmail dot com.
* * * * *
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Balaam's ass kicked mine
At FGC Gathering this summer, when I was at the Meeting for Worship hosted by FLGBTQC one afternoon, a Jewish Friend gave vocal ministry about Balaam's ass.
Rather than share her re-telling -- which I honestly can't -- here is the version of the story of Balaam's ass told in the World English Bible:
This is not a new story to me. I enjoyed hearing her retelling of it.
And then her ministry kicked me in the gut.
One of the things she asked was:
Balaam's ass kicked mine.
As I sat in worship, I found myself asking:
Hard questions. Good questions to be asking, though.
If I am letting the desire for other people's good opinions of me separate me from the Goddess, keep me from "seeing the angel," than I know I need to stop. I need and want most to be a faithful Friend by being faithful to how She leads me. I know from experience there lies joy.
But one of the gifts of Quakerism, indeed of spiritual community, is the assistance of others in discerning the movement of the Spirit, of the Gods, in our lives, and of the direction that movement takes.
It can be very hard to recognize that the people with whom we are trying to be in spiritual community are not leading us to be in greater tune with That-Which-Is-Sacred, but asking us to compromise ourselves.
It can be very hard for me to recognize that the people with whom I am trying to be in spiritual community are not leading me to be in greater tune with, faithful to, That-Which-Is-Sacred, but asking me to compromise myself.
I am reminded of two things:
p.s. Doesn't "Balaam's ass" get her own name? She's designated as female in every version of this story I've read. She's a creature of the Goddess, That-of-Goddess, herself. Why should she be known only in reference to some guy? Besides, if she's coming into my life as some sort of spirit guide, she needs her own name. Well, I expect She'll share Her name when she's good and ready; but perhaps in the meantime you all can help me come up with a place-holder name for Her of Her own, other than "Balaam's ass."
Rather than share her re-telling -- which I honestly can't -- here is the version of the story of Balaam's ass told in the World English Bible:
1 The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
2 Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 Moab was very afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. 4 Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now this multitude will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field." Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. 5 He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, "Behold, there is a people who came out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they are staying opposite me. 6 Please come now therefore curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed."
7 The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam, and spoke to him the words of Balak. 8 He said to them, "Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Yahweh shall speak to me." The princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. 9 God came to Balaam, and said, "Who are these men with you?" 10 Balaam said to God, "Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, [saying], 11 'Behold, the people that is come out of Egypt, it covers the surface of the earth: now, come curse me them; perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.'" 12 God said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people; for they are blessed." 13 Balaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, "Go to your land; for Yahweh refuses to permit me to go with you." 14 The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, "Balaam refuses to come with us."
15 Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honorable than they. 16 They came to Balaam, and said to him, "Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, 'Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me: 17 for I will promote you to very great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore, and curse this people for me.'" 18 Balaam answered the servants of Balak, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more. 19 Now therefore, please wait also here this night, that I may know what Yahweh will speak to me more." 20 God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do."
21 Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
22 God's anger was kindled because he went; and the angel of Yahweh placed himself in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the donkey turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the way. 24 Then the angel of Yahweh stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. 25 The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh, and she thrust herself to the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he struck her again. 26 The angel of Yahweh went further, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. 27 The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh, and she lay down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. 28 Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" 29 Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have mocked me, I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you." 30 The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Was I ever in the habit of doing so to you?" He said, "No."
31 Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face. 32 The angel of Yahweh said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come forth as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me: 33 and the donkey saw me, and turned aside before me these three times. Unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I would have killed you, and saved her alive." 34 Balaam said to the angel of Yahweh, "I have sinned; for I didn't know that you stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases you, I will go back again." 35 The angel of Yahweh said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak to you, that you shall speak." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
This is not a new story to me. I enjoyed hearing her retelling of it.
And then her ministry kicked me in the gut.
One of the things she asked was:
In what ways am I letting self-interest -- riches, other people's opinions -- separate me from G-d, keep me from seeing the angel?
Balaam's ass kicked mine.
As I sat in worship, I found myself asking:
- In what ways is this happening in my own Quaker community? Am I letting others' opinions about how to be a good Quaker come between me and the Goddess and how the Goddess informs my Quakerism? Am I letting my desire for their good opinion mean more than my authentic connection with, relationship with, the Goddess? Am I letting other people's opinions twist my basic Quakerism? Am I letting other people's notions of Quakerism, and my desire for community, corporate discernment, and Quaker process, mean more than genuine Quakerism?
- Community vs. integrity is an artificial, no-win fight.
- Am I allowing my desire to be a faithful Friend, in terms of community, keep me from being a faithful Friend, in terms of integrity and the Goddess?
Hard questions. Good questions to be asking, though.
If I am letting the desire for other people's good opinions of me separate me from the Goddess, keep me from "seeing the angel," than I know I need to stop. I need and want most to be a faithful Friend by being faithful to how She leads me. I know from experience there lies joy.
But one of the gifts of Quakerism, indeed of spiritual community, is the assistance of others in discerning the movement of the Spirit, of the Gods, in our lives, and of the direction that movement takes.
It can be very hard to recognize that the people with whom we are trying to be in spiritual community are not leading us to be in greater tune with That-Which-Is-Sacred, but asking us to compromise ourselves.
It can be very hard for me to recognize that the people with whom I am trying to be in spiritual community are not leading me to be in greater tune with, faithful to, That-Which-Is-Sacred, but asking me to compromise myself.
I am reminded of two things:
- Merry Stanford sharing: 'It was among Friends that I yearned so strongly to belong that I strove to be a “good” Quaker, rather than an authentic one.' (http://www.friendsjournal.org/i-am-who-i-am/)
- When the Meeting where I became a member didn't ask, "What will the neighbors think?," but rather, "How are we led?," and, "How can we help you be faithful?"
p.s. Doesn't "Balaam's ass" get her own name? She's designated as female in every version of this story I've read. She's a creature of the Goddess, That-of-Goddess, herself. Why should she be known only in reference to some guy? Besides, if she's coming into my life as some sort of spirit guide, she needs her own name. Well, I expect She'll share Her name when she's good and ready; but perhaps in the meantime you all can help me come up with a place-holder name for Her of Her own, other than "Balaam's ass."
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Two upcoming events
Two upcoming ministry events that I wanted to share. Both are at Friends General Conference Gathering in Kingston, RI in early July; one is open to the public.
Wednesday evening, 4 July
Interest group at FGC Gathering
John Hunter of NC and I will be merging/co-leading the following two interest groups:
For more information, see:
Friday evening, 6 July
"The Fire and the Hammer"
Open to the public!
I'm singing in "The Fire and the Hammer," a major choral work about early Quakerism in England.
Wednesday evening, 4 July
Interest group at FGC Gathering
John Hunter of NC and I will be merging/co-leading the following two interest groups:
Theological Diversity Within Our Meetings - A great Strength of Quakerism
We all "have a place in the choir" at our home meetings. This is true even as we may hold different personal theological beliefs. We will explore how unity in such diversity might be a great strength for Quakerism. A presentation will be followed by small groups where we each may explore our own theological assumptions and how we are included in our meetings and in the wider body of Friends.
Every Quaker Has a Place in This Meeting
Three Friends walk into Meeting for Worship: a Christian, a Pagan, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Non-Theist. Each gives vocal ministry from their own experience; all experience gathered worship. Come create the rest of the story: coming together, supporting each other, building community, helping each other sing in our own unique voices, singing in harmony.
For more information, see:
Friday evening, 6 July
"The Fire and the Hammer"
Open to the public!
I'm singing in "The Fire and the Hammer," a major choral work about early Quakerism in England.
This major choral work composed by two British Friends has been performed on both sides of the Atlantic on a number of occasions, most recently at the 350th sessions of New England Yearly Meeting last August. Dramatic passages from The Journal of George Fox alternate with songs based on these excerpts to provide a powerful glimpse into the Quaker movement that swept across England in the 17th century. New England Friends that formed the choir last summer will be joined by Friends from around the country, rehearsing together the weekend prior to the gathering.For more information, see:
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Happy Beltane! Happy May Day!
What do Beltane and May Day mean to you?
For me, connection -- to the past, to the future, to community around the world, to social justice and collective work, and to the land, what's happening in Nature.
It's also about those who have gone before -- loved ones who have died near Beltane, especially those who loved May Day or Beltane -- and those who will come after -- young ones I have watched growing up dancing around the May Pole, or eating strawberries and cream for May Day breakfast.
It's about faithfulness -- about weaving a Maypole every year, heeding that inner prompting, even when I don't fully understand why it's there, or why doing so is important.
Weaving connection, weaving community, weaving justice, weaving spring and life's continuation.
I grew up with May Day as a welcome spring holiday and as a workers' holiday. I went to a Quaker college that celebrated May Day with a day of canceled classes and festivities, including Maypole weaving/dancing (well, sometimes running). They now hold May Day on the weekend, but many alumnae still celebrate wherever we are, even if our only outward observance is strawberries and cream. I have celebrated Beltane in community with Pagans and Witches everywhere, even when all alone, even with (especially with?) myself and a lover. I celebrated Beltane for many years with a community of feminist Witches and our extended community of many spiritualities and none at all. I have hosted Maypole magic and May Day/Beltane potluck-food-and-hospitality magic from that Tradition in different parts of the US, and now in Scotland. I have celebrated Beltane with regional Pagans in the DC area, and with Seattle's Radical Faeries and the Goddess Ravenna Ravine. I have celebrated with friends and strangers.
Weaving the web of life.
Blessed be.
What are Beltane and May Day about for you?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A question about "Pagan" Quaker process
There's been some interesting discussion recently on the QuakerPagans email discussion list -- along the lines of, since early Friends came to/developed Quaker worship through Christian scripture (and through specific passages in Christian scripture), do Pagan Friends approach Meeting for Worship, and Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, in an essentially different way? If so, how? (And how would one explain any difference, or lack of difference, to Christian Friends?)
What I'm sharing here is expanded from an email I wrote to that list, so it's a little bit taken out of context, and sort of me thinking out loud; but I wanted to share it anyway.
Like many modern-day Friends, I came to Friends through experience, rather than through reading Hebrew or Christian scriptures (although I was well-read in both, long before I came to Quakerism). My participation in Meeting for Worship, and Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, is rooted most in my direct experience of That-Which-Is-Sacred, and less in written words -- in experience, not in theory, and not in anyone else's recording of their experience (although I very much appreciate attempts to put experience into words).
I started coming to Meeting for Worship because I had a leading to come. It's true that I initially thought that at worst, I'd get an hour of communal meditation out of it, but notice, even at the beginning, I knew that would be "at worst."
It's not Hebrew or Christian scriptures ("the Bible") that speaks to Christian Friends in worship -- it's the Divine Presence.
Why would I, as a Pagan Friend, not expect That-Which-Is-Sacred to speak to me/us directly in Meeting for Worship, whether "regular" worship or worship for business -- ?
I don't pretend to have all the theaological answers about which Gods/Divine Spirits are moving through us and speaking to us in worship. In general, it doesn't much bother me if we're experiencing different Gods, unless people start getting monotheist exclusivist about it (or, try to tell me they're all the same God). I can accept that there is some unifying spark, some unifying something which I don't fully understand; and that also works for me as a non-theist as well as a Pagan.
To me, the bottom line is that Quakerism is bigger than Christianity. Quaker practice is bigger than Jesus and Yhwh. It's not limited to the God/s of Christianity. Quaker practice can be informed by Jesus, Yhwh, Brigid, Herne, Cernunnos, Morgan, Athena, Demeter, Hecate, Cerridwen, Maiden, Mother, Crone, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Spirit, many others, no god at all.
That's how powerful it is.
And that's how Friends of differing theaologies can worship, and do Quaker business, together, in love and trust, asking how we're led.
At least, that's been my experience.
Of Quaker worship, and Quaker process, at its best, most powerful, most amazing, most magical, and most transformative.
What I'm sharing here is expanded from an email I wrote to that list, so it's a little bit taken out of context, and sort of me thinking out loud; but I wanted to share it anyway.
Like many modern-day Friends, I came to Friends through experience, rather than through reading Hebrew or Christian scriptures (although I was well-read in both, long before I came to Quakerism). My participation in Meeting for Worship, and Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, is rooted most in my direct experience of That-Which-Is-Sacred, and less in written words -- in experience, not in theory, and not in anyone else's recording of their experience (although I very much appreciate attempts to put experience into words).
I started coming to Meeting for Worship because I had a leading to come. It's true that I initially thought that at worst, I'd get an hour of communal meditation out of it, but notice, even at the beginning, I knew that would be "at worst."
It's not Hebrew or Christian scriptures ("the Bible") that speaks to Christian Friends in worship -- it's the Divine Presence.
Why would I, as a Pagan Friend, not expect That-Which-Is-Sacred to speak to me/us directly in Meeting for Worship, whether "regular" worship or worship for business -- ?
I don't pretend to have all the theaological answers about which Gods/Divine Spirits are moving through us and speaking to us in worship. In general, it doesn't much bother me if we're experiencing different Gods, unless people start getting monotheist exclusivist about it (or, try to tell me they're all the same God). I can accept that there is some unifying spark, some unifying something which I don't fully understand; and that also works for me as a non-theist as well as a Pagan.
To me, the bottom line is that Quakerism is bigger than Christianity. Quaker practice is bigger than Jesus and Yhwh. It's not limited to the God/s of Christianity. Quaker practice can be informed by Jesus, Yhwh, Brigid, Herne, Cernunnos, Morgan, Athena, Demeter, Hecate, Cerridwen, Maiden, Mother, Crone, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Spirit, many others, no god at all.
That's how powerful it is.
And that's how Friends of differing theaologies can worship, and do Quaker business, together, in love and trust, asking how we're led.
At least, that's been my experience.
Of Quaker worship, and Quaker process, at its best, most powerful, most amazing, most magical, and most transformative.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
I didn't speak up, and my conscience is ruffled
I didn't speak up.
And now I have that same feeling I do when I was led to speak in Meeting for Worship, or Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, but didn't. Or when someone has insulted me, or someone else in my hearing, based on religion, gender, class, or something similar, and I didn't speak up.
My conscience is ruffled, like the surface of a body of water is ruffled when it is disturbed. This uneasy feeling won't leave me. I am not at peace.
I was at General Meeting for Scotland. As I mentioned earlier, Meeting for Business opened with this quote from Britain Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice:
This spoke to me deeply, and spoke to my condition. (It also reminded me of this post.)
General Meeting for Scotland "acts on behalf of Britain Yearly Meeting in such procedures as may be required by the Scottish parliament and Scottish legal affairs." A big Scottish governmental item right now is the Scottish Government's Consultation on same-sex marriage. And so one of the items on our agenda was the General Meeting's response to the this consultation. (For more information about the consultation on same-sex marriage, click here.)
Friends involved with the working group for the response presented the draft of "A general statement to accompany the response submitted on behalf of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), General Meeting of Scotland."
Beloved Wife and I found this a deeply moving document. It speaks not only of equality, but also of religious liberty, of conscience, and of not imposing our discernment on other religious faiths.
However, there was one part of it which made my heart pound in a different way. The very first sentence begins:
"Quakers are a non-hierarchical and Christian body..."
I was not in unity with this statement.
And I didn't speak up.
...Why didn't I speak up?
I know that there is a sizable minority of Friends in Britain who are most definitely not Christian. I am honestly not certain yet if Britain Yearly Meeting or Friends in Britain consider themselves a Christian body or not. Looking later, I find the Quakers in Britain website states, "The Quaker way has its roots in Christianity and finds inspiration in the Bible and the life and teachings of Jesus" (which can be interpreted as Christian, or as Christian-rooted but not by definition Christian); Britain Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice Introduction begins, "This book of faith & practice constitutes the Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain" (which sounds explicitly Christian to me).
I am even less certain how Friends in Scotland see themselves. There's quite a bit of theaological diversity among Friends I've met here, with a lot less fuss about it than in most parts of the States I've lived or traveled in. A lot of Pagan Friends have come out to me since I've arrived here. Even more people have told me about other Friends they know who are Pagan, some of whom are in the broom closet, some of whom are out. A lot of Friends seem very Pagan-friendly without worrying about whether other people will think they're Pagan, which I find tremendously refreshing. A few Buddhist Friends have also come out to me. So do Scottish Friends see themselves as primarily Christian, with some non-Christian members? Do they see themselves as rooted in or springing from Christianity, but with a membership which is diverse in theaology, and that diversity essential to the body? (A third way?)
The Quakers in Scotland website states, "Quakerism is a non-credal religion, with Christian roots, whose worship is based on silence and listening to the spirit."
(It doesn't say, "...listening to the Inward Christ," which would be clearly Christian, or even, "...listening to God.")
My experience of Quakerism and of Friends in the US and the UK is that Quakerism is not Christian. I know too many non-Christian Friends: Pagan Friends, Non-Theist Friends, Jewish Friends, Buddhist Friends, not-sure-how-to-label-themselves or not-willing-to-label-themselves Friends, who are not Christian. I know too many Quaker bodies which do not identify as Christian, though they acknowledge their Christian heritage. The Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting in the US where I still have my membership are theaologically diverse, and while in both bodies we acknowledge our Christian roots, we do not identify as Christian. My Monthly Meeting at one point was clearly led not to renew our membership in an interfaith organization which was restricted to Christian organizations; even though most of our Meeting's members are Christian, many are not, and we felt in good conscience we could not allow ourselves to be identified by others as a Christian church.
The lived, experiential truth of real-life Friends is that Quakerism is not limited to Christianity.
Therefore, it's not accurate to say Quakers are Christian, or that as a body we are Christian.
Yes, it may be perfectly accurate to say a particular body of Friends is Christian. If that body is in unity about such a statement.
But that body cannot speak for all Friends, and cannot speak categorically for Friends.
Whether Quakerism is majority Christian is completely beside the point.
Quakerism is majority straight, white, middle-class, cisgender, and (temporarily) able-bodied, but we would never say, categorically, things like:
...and so forth.
I, sitting there in that room, a Friend in Scotland to whom that document applied, am not Christian. And I was not in unity with that statement, "Quakers are a non-hierarchical and Christian body..." (Not any more than I would have been in unity with any of those other statements above.)
So: why didn't I speak up?
I had several options in that moment. I could have asked a clarifying question. I could have stood aside, not blocking, acknowledging that this was still rightly-ordered for the body even though I was not in unity with it. If I truly felt that saying "Quakers are a... Christian body" is not true and is a violation of the testimony of integrity for us as a body, that this was doing violence to non-Christian Friends and to all Friends in Scotland General Meeting, I could have gone further, but I would have had to have been very, very clearly led. (Which I was not; what I was, was deeply uncomfortable.)
I felt deeply uncertain if, in our diversity, Scottish Friends are in unity about being a Christian body.
So: why didn't I ask?
I could have found out very easily. I could have stood up to be recognized by the Clerk, and asked that question: "I know Friends in Scotland are theaologically very diverse and that we have a substantial number of non-Christian members. Are Friends in Scotland in unity that we are a Christian body?"
When I put myself back in that room, with my pounding heart and that sinking feeling in my stomach, why didn't I ask, why didn't I speak up?
...I was afraid.
That's really what it was. I was scared.
I am so very conscious of being new here, even though I'm a member and even though, well, I'm here; I'm not going anywhere.
I'm so very conscious of being an American, though I'm trying to get over this so I can just listen to the guidance of the Goddess and be who She grows me being.
I'm so very conscious of being an out Pagan Friend, with an out ministry to other Pagan (and non-Pagan) Friends. I feel exposed. Back out there dancing on that limb by myself again.
I'd already asked a question that morning, which I felt was misunderstood and taken in a direction I hadn't meant at all.
There are other areas of my life where I feel criticized for "talking too much."
Most of all, I guess I was afraid of that cascade of things that can happen, that does happen all too often, when I stick my head up as a minority.
Ugh!
Even though the issue we were already talking about was one of justice for a minority among us -- what's more (!), one of which I'm a member, and pretty obviously, too, sitting there holding hands with my wife, who'd also given vocal ministry as a member of a same-sex couple.
I didn't want to go there. I didn't want those things to start happening. I didn't want to feel more alone. I didn't want stand up, expose myself as a further minority within my community, and risk things like being more isolated, having my concerns not heeded or simply not seen, being put down or dismissed because I'm a minority and therefore less/not important/because I'm not Christian and therefore less/not important, being told yet again that of course Quakerism is Christian even if not all Quakers are Christian, or that reality and the truth are too complicated for us to present to outsiders/too complicated for this document/not relevant to this issue...
...As if integrity and the truth are ever too complicated or irrelevant to our testimony and witness in the world and to each other.
And I kept hoping that lovely thing that sometimes happens in worship or worship for business would happen -- you know, where someone else says or brings up something, and then you don't have to. Every other thing I was at all uncomfortable about in the draft, someone else brought up. I really hoped someone else could be in the spotlight on this one and I would be off the hook.
It didn't happen.
I decided to let it go, to trust the working group, to wait and see what I could find later about the supposed Christianity of Friends in Scotland.
My discomfort hasn't gone away, despite my determination to trust the working group and Meeting for Business. And now I am acutely uncomfortable. My peace of mind is all rumpled.
The week after General Meeting, a quote attributed to me started making its way around one particular corner of the internet. It comes from an on-line conversation where I was describing my interpretation of part our discernment in Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) about our changing our name. I protested it being attributed to me -- I was interpreting, and quoting! -- but I got stuck with it.
"Our fears and other people's prejudices can not determine how we live our witness in the world and among Friends."
I am so busted.
So. What am I going to do about my disquiet?
I don't know yet. Clearly, I need to do something.
In the meantime, I am listening for the Goddess to help me discern what.
And sitting in my discomfort.
And writing about it here.
I find I am feeling all sorts of reluctance to hit the "publish post" button. I don't think I'm any more eager to post this post than I was to stand up in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business.
But I very clearly need to.
And now I have that same feeling I do when I was led to speak in Meeting for Worship, or Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, but didn't. Or when someone has insulted me, or someone else in my hearing, based on religion, gender, class, or something similar, and I didn't speak up.
My conscience is ruffled, like the surface of a body of water is ruffled when it is disturbed. This uneasy feeling won't leave me. I am not at peace.
I was at General Meeting for Scotland. As I mentioned earlier, Meeting for Business opened with this quote from Britain Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice:
I have been greatly exercised for some time by the image we like to present of ourselves (albeit with beating of breasts) as a white, middle-class, well-educated group of heterosexual people, preferably in stable marriages with children that behave in socially acceptable ways. I do feel that this is a myth. The danger of such myths is that we exclude many potential Quakers who feel they cannot/do not live up to the image or who feel that such a group is not one with which they wish to be associated. Sadly, many of us within the Society who do not fit in feel marginalised and second-class.
Another effect is that many problems faced by a large proportion of people are seen as separate: people who are poor, facing oppression, living in poor housing, experiencing prejudice are the 'others'. This enables us to be very caring but distant (and sometimes patronising) and also makes it difficult to be conscious of prejudice behind some of the normally accepted assumptions of our society/Society, such as that people who are unemployed are a different group from those who have employment; that poor people are poor ... because they are not as bright or as able as the rest of us or because their limited homes did not give them the opportunities that a good Quaker home would have done; that children living in single-parent families are automatically deprived by that very fact.
Until we as a Religious Society begin to question our assumptions, until we look at the prejudices, often very deeply hidden, within our own Society, how are we going to be able to confront the inequalities within the wider society? We are very good at feeling bad about injustice, we put a lot of energy into sticking-plaster activity (which obviously has to be done), but we are not having any effect in challenging the causes of inequality and oppression. I do sometimes wonder if this is because we are not able to do this within and among ourselves.
Susan Rooke-Matthews, 1993
This spoke to me deeply, and spoke to my condition. (It also reminded me of this post.)
General Meeting for Scotland "acts on behalf of Britain Yearly Meeting in such procedures as may be required by the Scottish parliament and Scottish legal affairs." A big Scottish governmental item right now is the Scottish Government's Consultation on same-sex marriage. And so one of the items on our agenda was the General Meeting's response to the this consultation. (For more information about the consultation on same-sex marriage, click here.)
Friends involved with the working group for the response presented the draft of "A general statement to accompany the response submitted on behalf of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), General Meeting of Scotland."
Beloved Wife and I found this a deeply moving document. It speaks not only of equality, but also of religious liberty, of conscience, and of not imposing our discernment on other religious faiths.
However, there was one part of it which made my heart pound in a different way. The very first sentence begins:
"Quakers are a non-hierarchical and Christian body..."
I was not in unity with this statement.
And I didn't speak up.
...Why didn't I speak up?
I know that there is a sizable minority of Friends in Britain who are most definitely not Christian. I am honestly not certain yet if Britain Yearly Meeting or Friends in Britain consider themselves a Christian body or not. Looking later, I find the Quakers in Britain website states, "The Quaker way has its roots in Christianity and finds inspiration in the Bible and the life and teachings of Jesus" (which can be interpreted as Christian, or as Christian-rooted but not by definition Christian); Britain Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice Introduction begins, "This book of faith & practice constitutes the Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain" (which sounds explicitly Christian to me).
I am even less certain how Friends in Scotland see themselves. There's quite a bit of theaological diversity among Friends I've met here, with a lot less fuss about it than in most parts of the States I've lived or traveled in. A lot of Pagan Friends have come out to me since I've arrived here. Even more people have told me about other Friends they know who are Pagan, some of whom are in the broom closet, some of whom are out. A lot of Friends seem very Pagan-friendly without worrying about whether other people will think they're Pagan, which I find tremendously refreshing. A few Buddhist Friends have also come out to me. So do Scottish Friends see themselves as primarily Christian, with some non-Christian members? Do they see themselves as rooted in or springing from Christianity, but with a membership which is diverse in theaology, and that diversity essential to the body? (A third way?)
The Quakers in Scotland website states, "Quakerism is a non-credal religion, with Christian roots, whose worship is based on silence and listening to the spirit."
(It doesn't say, "...listening to the Inward Christ," which would be clearly Christian, or even, "...listening to God.")
My experience of Quakerism and of Friends in the US and the UK is that Quakerism is not Christian. I know too many non-Christian Friends: Pagan Friends, Non-Theist Friends, Jewish Friends, Buddhist Friends, not-sure-how-to-label-themselves or not-willing-to-label-themselves Friends, who are not Christian. I know too many Quaker bodies which do not identify as Christian, though they acknowledge their Christian heritage. The Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting in the US where I still have my membership are theaologically diverse, and while in both bodies we acknowledge our Christian roots, we do not identify as Christian. My Monthly Meeting at one point was clearly led not to renew our membership in an interfaith organization which was restricted to Christian organizations; even though most of our Meeting's members are Christian, many are not, and we felt in good conscience we could not allow ourselves to be identified by others as a Christian church.
The lived, experiential truth of real-life Friends is that Quakerism is not limited to Christianity.
Therefore, it's not accurate to say Quakers are Christian, or that as a body we are Christian.
Yes, it may be perfectly accurate to say a particular body of Friends is Christian. If that body is in unity about such a statement.
But that body cannot speak for all Friends, and cannot speak categorically for Friends.
Whether Quakerism is majority Christian is completely beside the point.
Quakerism is majority straight, white, middle-class, cisgender, and (temporarily) able-bodied, but we would never say, categorically, things like:
- "Quakers are a non-hierarchical body and white body..." (or, "Quakers are a non-hierarchical body of people of European descent...")
- "Quakers are a non-hierarchical and heterosexual body..."
...and so forth.
I, sitting there in that room, a Friend in Scotland to whom that document applied, am not Christian. And I was not in unity with that statement, "Quakers are a non-hierarchical and Christian body..." (Not any more than I would have been in unity with any of those other statements above.)
So: why didn't I speak up?
I had several options in that moment. I could have asked a clarifying question. I could have stood aside, not blocking, acknowledging that this was still rightly-ordered for the body even though I was not in unity with it. If I truly felt that saying "Quakers are a... Christian body" is not true and is a violation of the testimony of integrity for us as a body, that this was doing violence to non-Christian Friends and to all Friends in Scotland General Meeting, I could have gone further, but I would have had to have been very, very clearly led. (Which I was not; what I was, was deeply uncomfortable.)
I felt deeply uncertain if, in our diversity, Scottish Friends are in unity about being a Christian body.
So: why didn't I ask?
I could have found out very easily. I could have stood up to be recognized by the Clerk, and asked that question: "I know Friends in Scotland are theaologically very diverse and that we have a substantial number of non-Christian members. Are Friends in Scotland in unity that we are a Christian body?"
When I put myself back in that room, with my pounding heart and that sinking feeling in my stomach, why didn't I ask, why didn't I speak up?
...I was afraid.
That's really what it was. I was scared.
I am so very conscious of being new here, even though I'm a member and even though, well, I'm here; I'm not going anywhere.
I'm so very conscious of being an American, though I'm trying to get over this so I can just listen to the guidance of the Goddess and be who She grows me being.
I'm so very conscious of being an out Pagan Friend, with an out ministry to other Pagan (and non-Pagan) Friends. I feel exposed. Back out there dancing on that limb by myself again.
I'd already asked a question that morning, which I felt was misunderstood and taken in a direction I hadn't meant at all.
There are other areas of my life where I feel criticized for "talking too much."
Most of all, I guess I was afraid of that cascade of things that can happen, that does happen all too often, when I stick my head up as a minority.
Ugh!
Even though the issue we were already talking about was one of justice for a minority among us -- what's more (!), one of which I'm a member, and pretty obviously, too, sitting there holding hands with my wife, who'd also given vocal ministry as a member of a same-sex couple.
I didn't want to go there. I didn't want those things to start happening. I didn't want to feel more alone. I didn't want stand up, expose myself as a further minority within my community, and risk things like being more isolated, having my concerns not heeded or simply not seen, being put down or dismissed because I'm a minority and therefore less/not important/because I'm not Christian and therefore less/not important, being told yet again that of course Quakerism is Christian even if not all Quakers are Christian, or that reality and the truth are too complicated for us to present to outsiders/too complicated for this document/not relevant to this issue...
...As if integrity and the truth are ever too complicated or irrelevant to our testimony and witness in the world and to each other.
And I kept hoping that lovely thing that sometimes happens in worship or worship for business would happen -- you know, where someone else says or brings up something, and then you don't have to. Every other thing I was at all uncomfortable about in the draft, someone else brought up. I really hoped someone else could be in the spotlight on this one and I would be off the hook.
It didn't happen.
I decided to let it go, to trust the working group, to wait and see what I could find later about the supposed Christianity of Friends in Scotland.
My discomfort hasn't gone away, despite my determination to trust the working group and Meeting for Business. And now I am acutely uncomfortable. My peace of mind is all rumpled.
The week after General Meeting, a quote attributed to me started making its way around one particular corner of the internet. It comes from an on-line conversation where I was describing my interpretation of part our discernment in Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) about our changing our name. I protested it being attributed to me -- I was interpreting, and quoting! -- but I got stuck with it.
"Our fears and other people's prejudices can not determine how we live our witness in the world and among Friends."
I am so busted.
So. What am I going to do about my disquiet?
I don't know yet. Clearly, I need to do something.
In the meantime, I am listening for the Goddess to help me discern what.
And sitting in my discomfort.
And writing about it here.
I find I am feeling all sorts of reluctance to hit the "publish post" button. I don't think I'm any more eager to post this post than I was to stand up in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business.
But I very clearly need to.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Northern Spirit Radio's Song of the Soul: Singing the Goddess
At FGC Gathering this summer, Mark Helpsmeet of Northern Spirit Radio interviewed me for the program Song of the Soul. Three members of my Gathering workshop, Singing the Goddess -- Denise Madland, Peggy Bright, and Sandy Moon -- joined me.
Click here for more information and to listen to the interview:
Singing the Goddess: Stasa Morgan-Appel
The whole interview, including singing, is about an hour.
Songs we performed:
Notes:
Links to a lot of the different things we talked about (and some links I failed to mention, but add now):
Some of my favorite songbooks (more to be added!):
Friends General Conference ("FGC is more than Gathering!"):
FGC Gathering:
Winter Solstice Celebrations and A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual book and CD:
The Pagan Pride Project:
Threshold Choirs:
Melanie DeMore:
Betsy Rose:
Pagan festivals, get-togethers, gatherings, etc. Please note that I do not endorse any of these, or have experience with any of these, except for local Pagan Pride Day celebrations, unless noted with an asterisk.
Cherry Hill Seminary:
Unitarian Universalist Musicans Network (UUMN):
Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS):
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA):
Quaker Pagan and Pagan Quaker resources:
Quakers!! Where?
I hope you enjoy!
p.s. Blogger allows only a certain amount of room for labels, and so I was unable to include labels for all the orgs I provided links for.
 |
| Northern Spirit Radio |
Click here for more information and to listen to the interview:
Singing the Goddess: Stasa Morgan-Appel
The whole interview, including singing, is about an hour.
Songs we performed:
- "We Are a Circle," by Rick Hamouris*
- "Tallis Canon"/"Full Moon Canon," by Thomas Tallis (1567) and Stasa Morgan-Appel
- "The River," by Diana Hildebrand-Hull
- "Sending You Light," by Melanie DeMore
- "Imani," by Rachael A. K. Hazen*
- "Meditation on Breathing," by Sarah Dan Jones
Notes:
- This interview took place on Friday afternoon. I had horrible voice strain by the end of the week, and you can definitely hear that, both in my speaking voice and in my singing voice.
- We had no rehearsal time, and we'd sung each song together once or twice during the course of the week. I'm really grateful to Denise, Peggy, and Sandy for their courage and willingness to sing with me under these circumstances!
- The song I'm talking about at the very beginning of the interview, from my workshop in 2009, is Juliet Spitzer's "Shadow/Light," recorded by SheWho on their album "The Earth Will Turn Over."
- Here is the Pagan Pride Project's set of definitions of "What Is a Pagan?":
A Pagan or NeoPagan is someone who self-identifies as a Pagan, and whose spiritual or religious practice or belief fits into one or more of the following categories:
- Honoring, revering, or worshipping a Deity or Deities found in pre-Christian, classical, aboriginal, or tribal mythology; and/or
- Practicing religion or spirituality based upon shamanism, shamanic, or magickal practices; and/or
- Creating new religion based on past Pagan religions and/or futuristic views of society, community, and/or ecology;
- Focusing religious or spiritual attention primarily on the Divine Feminine; and/or
- Practicing religion that focuses on earth based spirituality.
Links to a lot of the different things we talked about (and some links I failed to mention, but add now):
Some of my favorite songbooks (more to be added!):
- http://stasa.net/resources/musical-resources#TOC-Songbooks
- http://stasa.net/resources/musical-resources#TOC-Songbooks1
Friends General Conference ("FGC is more than Gathering!"):
FGC Gathering:
Winter Solstice Celebrations and A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual book and CD:
- on my website: http://stasa.net/winter-solstice
- at Emerald Earth Publishing: http://emeraldearth.net/winter__solstice.htm
The Pagan Pride Project:
Threshold Choirs:
- http://www.thresholdchoir.org/ (Please note, there are restrictions as to who may join certain Threshold Choirs)
- The Eau Claire Threshold Singers' Song of the Soul interview: http://www.northernspiritradio.org/index.asp?command=ShowInfo&ID=557980107113
Melanie DeMore:
Betsy Rose:
Pagan festivals, get-togethers, gatherings, etc. Please note that I do not endorse any of these, or have experience with any of these, except for local Pagan Pride Day celebrations, unless noted with an asterisk.
- Witchvox (The Witches' Voice), to find groups, festivals, etc, near you: http://witchvox.org/
- The Pagan Newswire Collective, for coverage of all sorts of festivals: http://pagannewswirecollective.com/
- Pagan Pride Day locations world-wide (in the fall of the year): http://paganpride.org/where/where.html
- Reclaiming Witchcamps: http://www.witchcamp.org/
- Pagan Spirit Gathering: http://www.circlesanctuary.org/psg/
- Pantheacon: http://pantheacon.com/wordpress/
- Free Spirit Gathering: http://www.freespiritgathering.org/
- Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS): http://www.cuups.org/
- Our Lady of the Earth and Sky (OLOTEAS)*, a non-denominational Pagan church in the Puget Sound area of Washington: http://www.oloteas.org/
- Winter Solstice Celebrations (based on A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual), http://stasa.net/winter-solstice
Cherry Hill Seminary:
Unitarian Universalist Musicans Network (UUMN):
Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS):
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA):
Quaker Pagan and Pagan Quaker resources:
Quakers!! Where?
- To find a Meeting near you in the US or Canada: http://www.quakerfinder.org/
- To find a Meeting near you in Britain: http://www.quaker.org.uk/
I hope you enjoy!
p.s. Blogger allows only a certain amount of room for labels, and so I was unable to include labels for all the orgs I provided links for.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Recommended post: "The Discipline of Listening as Tool for Christian and Pagan Friends in Conflict" at Plainly Pagan
I have been mulling over similar topics recently...
Oftentimes I have read Christian Friends' comments regarding the frustration of Meetings and online conversations that are, if not openly hostile to the Christ-centered Friend, at least not supportive of him/her. This is a serious concern and a hard thing for me to hear. It is especially hard when Christ-centered Friends suggest or even openly advocate that Friends be limited to Christians only. My perspective is often the opposite and so I want to argue and bluster when I read such things. To hear these things makes me feel unwelcome and defensive... (Read more)Enjoy.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Fidelity and infidelity in community
Thinking more about Max's article, or, Part B.
I agree with Max about spiritual community and about how true spiritual community helps us be faithful to the Inner Light, the Goddess Within. Held by true spiritual community, my spiritual life -- not to mention my ministry -- is one not of contraction, or of artificial growth, but one of expansion and natural growth, of ebb and flow, within the rhythms of nature and the cycle of the seasons. Held by true spiritual community, I have been able to do things I have been led to do, but couldn't otherwise do.
And yet I have been particularly aware again lately of a number of the ways in which both other Friends and other Pagans have asked me to make myself smaller, or have tried to make me smaller, or have asked or demanded that I be unfaithful, so that they might be less uncomfortable, less disturbed, by my life or my witness or the truth of my experience. Not just ordinary folks I come across in a given day or week or First Day or committee service or Gathering -- but folks whose "job" it is, as a Friend, friend, co-religionist, or co-clergy member, to help me be faithful to myself and to what the Goddess is asking of me. Folks with whom I am in spiritual community.
So I am living very much in the awareness right now of the both/and of spiritual community -- of how good spiritual community can indeed help me be more a more faithful Quaker and Witch, and also of how poor spiritual community not only makes it harder for me to be a faithful Quaker and Witch, but actively inhibits me from doing so.
When we ask each other to be unfaithful because another's faithfulness makes us uncomfortable, we diminish ourselves. We diminish our own relationships with ourselves and the Divine within us. We diminish our own integrity. We diminish our ability to be in relationship with the Divine with each other -- spiritual communion and spiritual community. We weaken our Meetings, our circles, our Covens, and our larger spiritual communities. We weaken our ability to build and participate in interfaith groups and dialogue. We weaken community, small and larger.
We create an injury to the spiritbody of the Sacred.
I agree with Max about spiritual community and about how true spiritual community helps us be faithful to the Inner Light, the Goddess Within. Held by true spiritual community, my spiritual life -- not to mention my ministry -- is one not of contraction, or of artificial growth, but one of expansion and natural growth, of ebb and flow, within the rhythms of nature and the cycle of the seasons. Held by true spiritual community, I have been able to do things I have been led to do, but couldn't otherwise do.
And yet I have been particularly aware again lately of a number of the ways in which both other Friends and other Pagans have asked me to make myself smaller, or have tried to make me smaller, or have asked or demanded that I be unfaithful, so that they might be less uncomfortable, less disturbed, by my life or my witness or the truth of my experience. Not just ordinary folks I come across in a given day or week or First Day or committee service or Gathering -- but folks whose "job" it is, as a Friend, friend, co-religionist, or co-clergy member, to help me be faithful to myself and to what the Goddess is asking of me. Folks with whom I am in spiritual community.
So I am living very much in the awareness right now of the both/and of spiritual community -- of how good spiritual community can indeed help me be more a more faithful Quaker and Witch, and also of how poor spiritual community not only makes it harder for me to be a faithful Quaker and Witch, but actively inhibits me from doing so.
When we ask each other to be unfaithful because another's faithfulness makes us uncomfortable, we diminish ourselves. We diminish our own relationships with ourselves and the Divine within us. We diminish our own integrity. We diminish our ability to be in relationship with the Divine with each other -- spiritual communion and spiritual community. We weaken our Meetings, our circles, our Covens, and our larger spiritual communities. We weaken our ability to build and participate in interfaith groups and dialogue. We weaken community, small and larger.
We create an injury to the spiritbody of the Sacred.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
2009 FGC Gathering Notes
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Monday
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Monday
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Workshop
the phrase "not just god in a skirt" keeps coming to me --> part of why The Goddess and not just Goddess?
--> "Goddess" w/o "the" doesn't make enough difference in my head and in my thinking
women's community; women coming together
women's community that includes feminist men
--> the E of that community feels explicitly like the Goddess to me
Meeting for Worship
from songs my workshop participants who arrived early yesterday were singing while waiting:
i sat under an old oak tree
and asked the Goddess to carry me
She wrapped me up in ancient green
ancient green
all my fears
all my fears
all my fears
river gonna wash away
...which i learned from becky birtha during the first-ever singing the Goddess workshop i did, at qlc '98.
the river is flowing
flowing and growing
the river (she is) flowing
down to the sea
Mother, carry me
your child i will always be
Mother, carry me
down to the sea*
...which i know is in julie's book, b/c i learned it when a bunch of us got together and sang... a bunch of songs from sfe for julie...
* (c) Diana Hildebrand-Hull, "The River Is Flowing."
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Tuesday
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
Meeting for Worship
step by step, the longest march
can be won, can be won
many stones to form an arch
singly none, singly none
and by union what we will
shall be accomplished still
drops of water turn a mill
singly none, singly none
"God is not moderate"
you shall indeed go out with joy
and be led forth in peace
you shall indeed go out with joy
and be led forth in peace
before you, mountains and hills
shall break into cries of joy
and all the trees of the wild shall clap
clap their hands*
*(c) music, Nancy Schimmel; words, Isaiah 55:12
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Wednesday
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
Meeting for Worship
thought train: teach magic. time spent this week talking about the Goddess and magic.
the question about magic really is, what spiritual practices in your life are transformative? (rather than, what spiritual practices in your life are magical?)
[when talking about magic:] what spiritual practices in your life are transformative? when in your life have you experienced transformation and change?
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Thursday
--------------------------------
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Workshop
social and sacred ritual as an E-saving device
--> don't have to decide together each time how to shake hands, etc.
[thoughts/notes from what folks are sharing, for our work tomorrow:]
new beginnings
community
direct experience
transformation
teaching magic
--------------------------------
[Bonnie Tinker died Thursday afternoon, and my emotional, mental, and spiritual state was such that I did not take any more notes Thursday or Friday. I am grateful that I was with Friends, in a community with no laity, while we ministered to and supported each other. I also had amazing and wonderful support from the members of my workshop, the other Healing Center co-Coordinators, and the Compassionate Listening team.]--------------------------------
Monday, July 27, 2009
Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference.... and some other thoughts on Quaker community
Walk with Me: Elders, Mentors, and Friends
Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference
June 16 - 20, 2010
Seabeck Conference Center
--------------
I have heard bits of pieces about this group, this gathering, on and off for years. Since I didn't have much interaction with programmed Friends before, and since I didn't live out here, I thought it was neat, but I didn't feel much connection with it.
Assorted things have changed, and now I feel a live, electric connection.
One is my own ministry, particularly around Explicit Friends. (Click here for the background, and here for additional blog posts on this theme.)
Courageously Explicit
Three Friends walk into Meeting for Worship: a Christian, a Pagan, a Jew, and a Non-Theist. Each gives ministry from their own experience; they all experience gathered Worship. Come create the rest of the story: coming together, supporting each other, building community, helping each other be faithful, speaking explicitly.
I am certainly called to ministry among Pagan Quakers (and also Quaker Pagans). But I'm also called to ministry among Friends of different thea/ologies, to help us be in community together, to help us be faithful Friends together, to help us speak in the languages of our own experiences and listen to each other in our different languages -- coming together in our shared experience of and commitment to Quakerism.
Over the last two years, I'm coming to see that this includes Friends from different branches of Quakerism, not just within the unprogrammed tradition.
Another thing that changed was my feeling like I just couldn't understand programmed Friends, thanks to the 2007 Mid-Winter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC).
In 2007, our Mid-Winter Gathering was held in Greensboro, NC. There are seven different kinds of active Quakerism in that area. Wow. (I can remember, and talk at least a little about, five of them.) During our weekend together, I learned quite a bit about other kinds of Friends, and also about their points of view. There were programmed Friends with us that weekend, for whom I came to feel respect, affection, and kinship.
I even attended programmed Meeting for Worship.
Now, you've very likely heard or read me say that I'm allergic to programmed Quaker worship. To me, as soon as you introduce programming, you almost always introduce dogma and/or conflicting theaologies, and this prevents me from being in spiritual communion/spiritual community with the other folks present.
One of the things I love about unprogrammed worship in expectant waiting is that we so often come into spiritual communion with each other across that combination of differing and shared experiences of the Divine. That's part of the deep magic of Quakerism for me -- that place beyond words, beyond theaologies, in shared experience and communion.
So, I hate anything that spoils that. But I was willing to experiment, and I also felt like it was a way to show respect for Agnes and Willie Frye.
So I went to programmed worship.
It's still not my cup of tea... But it didn't feel like it wasn't Quaker.
That had been my fear: that it wouldn't "feel" Quaker to me, that it would feel like any other Christian, Protestant service, where there would be no space for me as a Friend who experiences the Divine through the Goddess, who is neither Christian nor Protestant.
So that opened up a small space inside of me: I had this experience of programmed worship, and while it's still not my cup of tea or my preferred form of worship, it still felt Quaker. It still felt like family.
Another thing that's changed is living in the Pacific Northwest, and in North Pacific Yearly Meeting, this last year. You know what? There are a lot more programmed Friends out here than in the Delaware Valley or southeastern Michigan. So, it's much harder to imagine them as incomprehensible.
Another thing is the Association of Bad Friends, a notion of Brent Bill's. (Click here for information about the ABF; click here for the Facebook group. Heh heh heh.) There are programmed Friends in the ABF, too. And you know what?, many of them are Bad Friends in the same ways that I am a Bad Friend. We laugh quite a lot at ourselves in our Association, and the ABF has gotten me into more dialogue with programmed Friends than almost, but not quite, anything else.
Back to living in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to there just being more programmed Friends around, the fact that there are more programmed Friends around leads to more experiences with individual people. There's a Friend from Freedom Friends Church in Salem, OR, sojourning in my Meeting in Seattle. I can sit next to her in worship in deep delight. What's more, I have found that Ashley's not incomprehensible to me, spiritually or personally. We don't know each other very well yet, but I can definitely say that we have become friends as well as Friends. I know I look forward to her company and grow spiritually through our friendship. I've met several other Friends from programmed churches, like Sarah. They're not incomprehensible to me, either, and I really look forward to getting to know them better.
North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM)is an unaffiliated Yearly Meeting. It's an amazingly diverse Yearly Meeting, and there's a deep commitment to that diversity -- including theaological diversity. Wow. There are many reasons, current and historical, for our being unaffiliated, but part of it is out of respect for and commitment to that diversity.
(A year ago, that would have seemed pretty odd to me; I couldn't have imagined a YM with a preponderance of unprogrammed Meetings not wanting to affiliate with Friends General Conference (FGC). But I get it now. (We may yet affiliate with FGC; things are in discernment.))
When I went to NPYM Annual Sessions this year, I also got to see firsthand the deep respect between folks in our Yearly Meeting and Friends who were sojourning or visiting from Northwest Yearly Meeting -- a programmed Yearly Meeting which overlaps with us geographically. They are not strangers; they are beloved family.
Ashley and Sarah are co-clerks of next year's Pacific Northwest Women's Theology Conference. I know almost all the women on the planning committee; several of them are from my own Meeting.
And almost everyone I know who's involved has asked me if there's any way I can come back out to WA next year for it. I aim to find a way.
These folks are not strangers. These women are my beloved sisters.
I don't understand it completely yet, but I have a leading here.
And I invite other women from the unprogrammed Quaker tradition along for the ride.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Shabbat with Jewish Friends
I did something new last Friday evening... I went to Shabbat with other Jewish Quakers.
I've been on the Jewish Friends list-serv for a while, and for several years have had vague -- sometimes, even specific -- plans to go to Shabbat hosted by Jewish Friends at FGC Gathering. It never worked out. I am usually exhausted by Friday night, and often go back to my dorm and go to bed after the Friday plenary. Several years, I've had conflicts I couldn't get around -- committees, meetings, etc. -- that foiled my intentions. When I've had mobility limitations, it's been hard to get golf cart rides that late, especially if we were far away from where the plenaries were.
And, I've always felt a little shy about it.
So, we come to this summer's Gathering. I was over-booked going in, and knew it and accepted it, because I was led to do what I was doing. On the other hand, I hadn't had bronchitis when I agreed to all that; so I just accepted an extra level of needing to take care of myself and not exhaust myself. I figured I would not make it to many things I wanted to do this year, including any Jewish Friends events at all.
One Jewish Friend whom I knew from the list, but hadn't met before, talked to me in the dining hall one afternoon and really, really encouraged me to come to Shabbat, just to meet other folks on the list, just for fellowship, if nothing else.
And it wasn't, actually, someone else's pressure on me to add one more thing to my plate: it came across, very clearly, as an invitation to do something nice for myself.
I still felt very shy about it. I'm fairly comfortable on the email list. But Shabbat... My family wasn't religiously observant when it came to Judaism; I was raised culturally half-Jewish. The only time in my life that I can think of when I've done Shabbat was last December, when we were visiting my cousins over the holidays. Oy.
And then my week got really, really hard, with Bonnie's death, and everything else...
I wasn't sure I was doing any evening activities Friday. But Nikki Giovanni was the plenary speaker; and then FLGBTQC's postponed auction was after the plenary, and I needed to be there, with my community.
And Shabbat this year was in the same building as the evening plenary, and next door to the building where the auction was. So, I went.
It was lovely.
I even ended up saying kiddush, the blessing over the wine (sparkling grape juice, in our case, and to my relief).
I need not have been shy. I belonged.
And it was so good to be with my people.
And when I left, I went to the FLGBTQC auction, to be with more of my people.
Brucha at elilah
elohaynu malkat ha’olam
borayt p’ree hagafen.
Blessed are You, Goddess, our Goddess, Queen of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.
B’rucha at Shekhinah
b’tocheynu ruach ha’olam
borayt p’ri hagafen.
Blessed are you, Shekhinah, who brings forth the fruit of the vine.
So, this Friday at sundown... Shabbat shalom, and blessed be.
I've been on the Jewish Friends list-serv for a while, and for several years have had vague -- sometimes, even specific -- plans to go to Shabbat hosted by Jewish Friends at FGC Gathering. It never worked out. I am usually exhausted by Friday night, and often go back to my dorm and go to bed after the Friday plenary. Several years, I've had conflicts I couldn't get around -- committees, meetings, etc. -- that foiled my intentions. When I've had mobility limitations, it's been hard to get golf cart rides that late, especially if we were far away from where the plenaries were.
And, I've always felt a little shy about it.
So, we come to this summer's Gathering. I was over-booked going in, and knew it and accepted it, because I was led to do what I was doing. On the other hand, I hadn't had bronchitis when I agreed to all that; so I just accepted an extra level of needing to take care of myself and not exhaust myself. I figured I would not make it to many things I wanted to do this year, including any Jewish Friends events at all.
One Jewish Friend whom I knew from the list, but hadn't met before, talked to me in the dining hall one afternoon and really, really encouraged me to come to Shabbat, just to meet other folks on the list, just for fellowship, if nothing else.
And it wasn't, actually, someone else's pressure on me to add one more thing to my plate: it came across, very clearly, as an invitation to do something nice for myself.
I still felt very shy about it. I'm fairly comfortable on the email list. But Shabbat... My family wasn't religiously observant when it came to Judaism; I was raised culturally half-Jewish. The only time in my life that I can think of when I've done Shabbat was last December, when we were visiting my cousins over the holidays. Oy.
And then my week got really, really hard, with Bonnie's death, and everything else...
I wasn't sure I was doing any evening activities Friday. But Nikki Giovanni was the plenary speaker; and then FLGBTQC's postponed auction was after the plenary, and I needed to be there, with my community.
And Shabbat this year was in the same building as the evening plenary, and next door to the building where the auction was. So, I went.
It was lovely.
I even ended up saying kiddush, the blessing over the wine (sparkling grape juice, in our case, and to my relief).
I need not have been shy. I belonged.
And it was so good to be with my people.
And when I left, I went to the FLGBTQC auction, to be with more of my people.
Brucha at elilah
elohaynu malkat ha’olam
borayt p’ree hagafen.
Blessed are You, Goddess, our Goddess, Queen of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.
B’rucha at Shekhinah
b’tocheynu ruach ha’olam
borayt p’ri hagafen.
Blessed are you, Shekhinah, who brings forth the fruit of the vine.
So, this Friday at sundown... Shabbat shalom, and blessed be.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
June 2009 is International Pagan Values Blogging Month!
Pax over at Chrysalis has called for Pagan bloggers to write about our values during the month of June:
If you're interested, please link to his post, and please list your blog in the comments section on his post.
I am reminded of how the public debate over same-gender marriage has been polarized into the notions that "Religious people oppose gay marriage" and "People who support gay marriage are godless atheists with no morals."
First off, it's same-gender marriage, thank you very much, and the real issue is marriage equality. IMHO. Secondly, there are plenty of "religious" folks -- both individuals, and organizations -- who support marriage equality.
It's time for religious/spiritual individuals and organizations to stop allowing ourselves to be made invisible on the issue of marriage equality - to stand up and reclaim our space, our stance, our values, our beliefs.
I am also reminded of the notion that people who aren't religious can't possibly live ethical lives, with atheists as those of us in the most danger and with the least guidance. The notion that reason and inner conviction aren't good enough to lead us to live "good" lives. Oh, please.
Many of the same arguments are held up as why Pagans can't live ethical lives. That without Yhwh, Jesus, or Allah, we're doomed -- our Gods aren't good enough. Again, oh, please.
So it's also time for Atheists and Pagans (and those who are both) to stop allowing ourselves to be demonized and made invisible on the issue of ethics and values - to stand up and reclaim our space, our stance, our values, our beliefs.
Christians, in general, are united by a theology that is supposed to inform their values. Among Pagans, there's a lot more diversity of thealogy, and I suspect just as much, if not more, diversity of beliefs among Atheists. I'm really looking forward to reading more about other Pagans' as well as Atheists' values.
In the meantime, I'm very much enjoying the Seattle Atheists' Bus Ad Campaign on Metro Buses. Because they ask people to think.
I have decided that I am tired at how some factions within other spiritual and faith traditions talk and act as if they have a monopoly on values and virtue and ethics.
If you're interested, please link to his post, and please list your blog in the comments section on his post.
I am reminded of how the public debate over same-gender marriage has been polarized into the notions that "Religious people oppose gay marriage" and "People who support gay marriage are godless atheists with no morals."
First off, it's same-gender marriage, thank you very much, and the real issue is marriage equality. IMHO. Secondly, there are plenty of "religious" folks -- both individuals, and organizations -- who support marriage equality.
It's time for religious/spiritual individuals and organizations to stop allowing ourselves to be made invisible on the issue of marriage equality - to stand up and reclaim our space, our stance, our values, our beliefs.
I am also reminded of the notion that people who aren't religious can't possibly live ethical lives, with atheists as those of us in the most danger and with the least guidance. The notion that reason and inner conviction aren't good enough to lead us to live "good" lives. Oh, please.
Many of the same arguments are held up as why Pagans can't live ethical lives. That without Yhwh, Jesus, or Allah, we're doomed -- our Gods aren't good enough. Again, oh, please.
So it's also time for Atheists and Pagans (and those who are both) to stop allowing ourselves to be demonized and made invisible on the issue of ethics and values - to stand up and reclaim our space, our stance, our values, our beliefs.
Christians, in general, are united by a theology that is supposed to inform their values. Among Pagans, there's a lot more diversity of thealogy, and I suspect just as much, if not more, diversity of beliefs among Atheists. I'm really looking forward to reading more about other Pagans' as well as Atheists' values.
In the meantime, I'm very much enjoying the Seattle Atheists' Bus Ad Campaign on Metro Buses. Because they ask people to think.
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