Quaker Life

A well-known Quaker historian explores the qualities of Quaker faith and practice that contribute to living sustainably in the world today. He explores such paradoxes as equality and community, unity and differentiation, integrity and personal discernment, and other aspects of life that Quakers have worked to bring into balance through their 350-year history. How have Quakers learned to create the kind of individual and community life that can prepare us to live fully and responsibly into a time of social and planetary change?

A collection of 145 letters written to Hannah Fells Wilson Roberts from 35 correspondents, containing over 1,000 unique family names, written between 1850 and 1860, and transcribed with original spellings and annotated markings by C. B. Frederick. They tell the story of Quaker life in rural counties near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These letters reveal the local history of Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties and the increasingly dominant trend of women's participation in the pre-Civil War society. Hannah Fells Wilson was born in 1828 to George Maris Wilson (1780-1866) and Sarah Fells Schofield (1802-1866) and raised in Gwynedd, Montgomery County. The letters end the year after her marriage to Guy Roberts in 1859. Of special interest are letters from Martha Schofield, who would later found the first school for black boys in South Carolina in 1868, although that endeavor is not mentioned in this collection.

In this lecture, Cho-Nyon Kim explores his spiritual journey in the Korean religious environment, in which Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity have all influenced cultural practices and been integrated into daily life. He is inspired by the life and thoughts of Ham Sok Hon, a prominent Korean peace activist and Quaker. He asks how we can live a simple life in a complex world. He wants to focus on how we can create a peaceful society in the face of nationalism and self-centredness. Quakerism has similarities to Taoism in its mysticism and its sense of waiting in a meditative way. Cho-Nyon Kim concludes that he must lead his life ‘in the manner of those who always seek truth with an open mind’. p.p1 {margin: 5.7px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12.0px; font: 31.0px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'} p.p2 {margin: 5.7px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12.0px; font: 9.5px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 17.0px; line-height: 12.0px; font: 9.5px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'}

Quakers have made the cultivation of the guided life the focus of their spirituality for over three centuries. Generations of Quakers have developed practices for nurturing their connection to an inward source of guidance, meaning and purpose. This Inward Guide is present in all people, cultures and traditions. It goes by many names and is understood in many ways, but it is equally available to everyone who is willing to listen and respond. The Guided Life shares some of the spiritual practices that the Quaker tradition has developed to discover purpose and direction in daily life. These practices may be of use to anyone who is wrestling with the complex challenges and dilemmas of the modern world.

"The most valuable aspect of religion," writes Robert Lawrence Smith, "is that it provides us with a framework for living. I have always felt that the beauty and power of Quakerism is that it exhorts us to live more simply, more truthfully, more charitably." Taking his inspiration from the teaching of the first Quaker, George Fox, and from his own nine generations of Quaker forebears, Smith speaks to all of us who are seeking a way to make our lives simpler, more meaningful, and more useful. Beginning with the Quaker belief that "There is that of God in every person," Smith explores the ways in which we can harness the inner light of God that dwells in each of us to guide the personal choices and challenges we face every day. How to live and speak truthfully. How to listen for, trust, and act on our conscience. How to make our work an expression of the best that is in us. Using vivid examples from his own life, Smith writes eloquently of Quaker Meeting, his decision to fight in World War II, and later to oppose the Vietnam War. From his work as an educator and headmaster to his role as a husband and father, Smith quietly convinces that the lofty ideals of Quakerism offer all of us practical tools for leading a more meaningful life. His book culminates with a moving letter to his grandchildren which imparts ten lessons for "letting your life speak."

A Quaker prayer life arises from a life of continuing daily attentiveness. The first generation of Quakers followed a covenant with God, based on assidious obedience to the promptings of the Inward Light. This process did not require the established churches, priests or liturgies. Quaker prayer then became a practice of patient waiting in silence. Prayer is a conscious choice to seek God, in whatever form that Divine Presence speaks to each of us, moment to moment. The difficulties we experience in inward prayer are preparation for our outward lives. Each time we return to the centre in prayer we are modelling how to live our lives; each time we dismiss the internal intrusions we are strengthening that of God within us and denying the role of the Self; every time we turn to prayer and to God we are seeking an increase in the measure of Light in our lives. David Johnson is a Member of Queensland Regional Meeting of the Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. David is a geologist with both industry and academic experience, and wrote The Geology of Australia, specifically for the general public. He has a long commitment to nonviolence and opposing war and the arms trade, and has worked with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. David delivered the 2005 Backhouse Lecture to Australia Yearly Meeting on Peace is a Struggle. He was part of the work to establish the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre in Australia in 2010, and is Co-Director of the Centre for 2013-14.

Quakerism began in England in the 1650s. George Fox, credited as leading the movement, had an experience of 1647 in which he felt he could hear Christ directly and inwardly without the mediation of text or minister. Convinced of the authenticity of this experience and its universal application, Fox preached a spirituality in which potentially all were ministers, all part of a priesthood of believers, a church levelled before the leadership of God. Quakers are a fascinating religious group both in their original 'peculiarity' and in the variety of reinterpretations of the faith since. The way they have interacted with wider society is a basic but often unknown part of British and American history. This handbook charts their history and the history of their expression as a religious community. This volume provides an indispensable reference work for the study of Quakerism. It is global in its perspectives and interdisciplinary in its approach whilst offering the reader a clear narrative through the academic debates. In addition to an in-depth survey of historical readings of Quakerism, the handbook provides a treatment of the group's key theological premises and its links with wider Christian thinking. Quakerism's distinctive ecclesiastical forms and practices are analysed, and its social, economic, political, and ethical outcomes examined. Each of the 37 chapters considers broader religious, social, and cultural contexts and provides suggestions for further reading and the volume concludes with an extensive bibliography to aid further research.