How Do We Embody the Beloved Community?

“How do we do the work of embodying the Beloved Community in [our] meeting? It starts with honoring each other’s gifts and callings and showing loving kindness and respect towards one another. In our Meeting we have doctors, nurses, therapists, writers, artists, actors, teachers, academics, lawyers, gardeners, parents, grandparents, children, and much more. Each of us has different gifts: for hospitality, for clerking, for teaching, for organizing, for compassionate listening. Some of us have gifts we aren’t even aware of. We become the Beloved Community when we use our gifts to benefit not only our Meeting community, but the world around us.”

— Anthony Manousos, 2020
“What does the Beloved Community mean to Quakers?”

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Today’s Invitation

Reflect on your gifts. How are they valuable to your community?

Query of the Week

How does diversity enrich your community?

What have you learned from those in your community who are different from you? What is the value of religious and theological diversity? What have you done to be a welcoming presence to people of diverse backgrounds, abilities, and identities in your community?

Author

  • Maeve Sutherland

    Maeve Sutherland is a communications professional who never recovered from her wonderful childhood at a Quaker elementary school. She has spent her career helping nonprofits share their stories, from schools and universities, to museums, to radio stations. As a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, Maeve spent a year living in “Peaceable Kingdoms,” pacifist intentional communities around the world, where she learned that everyone has a role to play in shaping a better world. She worked as a freelance social media manager before joining Thee Quaker Project. After returning to Quakerism as a young adult, Maeve now attends Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting in Philadelphia.

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