“Hope can arise from places undreamed of. Hope is the intersection of the dreams of ordinary people and the promise of something new that permeates our tradition. Hope can carry a person through fear, past the very real dangers of this world, in ways I don’t pretend to understand.”
“We started the month looking at the historical context of the peace testimony in Quakerism, with writings from George Fox and Margaret Fell, which ran strongly against the militaristic culture of their day. We read that pacifism is not passive and that nonviolent resistance can be an effective, practical solution as much as a moral stance. We went on to read about the experience of conscientious objectors, both historically and in a case currently being litigated in court. We also read that some Friends feel a call to military service and what grappling with that looks like.”
May 26-June 1, 2025: This week’s messages are guest edited by Paul Buckley. Paul is a member of Clear Creek Friends Meeting in Richmond, Indiana. For the last 40 years, he has traveled extensively among North American Friends offering a variety of workshops, seminars, retreats, and short courses. He has published books and articles on Quaker history, faith, and practice. His most recent publication is a Pendle Hill pamphlet, Teach us to Pray.
Destruction hasn’t been your only story. / All living things beyond you that you’ve loved, / you’ve made love live in them: at the junction / of chocolate & cream-colored rings on the king / snake’s skin, in the morning sparkle of cows’ / dewy slobber all over the pasture, in the powerful / slice of a gator’s tail, in the 5 a.m. ruckus
“Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Friends have struggled to make sense of their pacifism and the morality of their non-violent stance. Watching the horrors of the war unfold has led many Quakers to reflect on what it means to be a pacifist and, for some, to question whether Quakers should be pacifist at all. […]
In the case of Ukraine, opposing war in such a time does not mean staying neutral, allowing injustice to go unchallenged, or doing nothing. Instead, Friends seek ways to engage and fight injustice without killing another human being.”
“Quakers are not ‘for peace’ but rather know, in the deepest sense of the word, that peace is a holy imperative as part of a just society.”
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
“The peace testimony is about deeds not creeds; not a form of words but a way of living. It is the cumulative lived witness of generations of Quakers… The peace testimony is not about being nice to people and living so that everyone likes us. It will remain a stumbling block and will itself cause conflict and disagreement.”
“I felt like I was being a really good Quaker. I was putting my [Quakerism] to work all the time. Not in that I was a pacifist on the sidelines, shaking my fist and holding my handmade sign saying ‘war is wrong.’ But I was showing up: present, available, listening. Willing to understand the way that God moves in people’s lives in unexpected ways. […] A big part of my chaplaincy work was just creating open spaces for people to show up and be human beings.”
“On my third or fourth attendance at the Sunday service with Friends, an American young Quaker who was on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee working in Tokyo came to talk about his own experiences of having been a conscientious objector during World War II and about the ideas of conscientious objection (CO) in relation to Quaker beliefs. It really was an epoch-making shock to me to know such a thing as CO existed in this world. I had never heard nor dreamed anything like that even though I had been brought up in a devout Christian family. This person had lived ‘love your enemy’ in the US at the same time that I had been caught up with the mad notions of nationalism and of winning the ‘Holy War’ in Japan…”
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