A movable feast: Quakers in a mobile society

The network of Friends meetings is still limited.  Based on this map, (and this one) Quaker meetings are mainly in North and South America and Africa, followed by fewer in Europe, Asia, the Middle East.  According to a Friends General Conference map from 2002, even Friends in the U.S. are spread out, leaving a lot of room between meetings for Friends to live.

In this modern world, as people begin to marry and move due to work or calling, I find it compelling to look at how Quakerism is working with those less geographically rooted members in terms of membership to local meetings; members who join a local meeting but find a calling beyond the geographic reach of either their local meeting or even the reach of Friends meetings currently serving local communities around the world.  These are the Quaker middle-ground: neither fully participatory in the life of the meeting, nor missionaries for the spread of Quaker community.

However, as Quakers find themselves more and more mobile, it seems that Meetings are still central to their lives–friendships, spiritual affinity, and participation in the life of the Meeting remain an important part of being members of Quaker communities. I would posit that as this group of mobile Quakers joins meetings and then spend more time away from them than in them there is a certain strain on the meeting.  More members mean more care is needed by the localized Quaker community with mobile Quakers now being a part.

In my limited knowledge of Quaker history, it seems that in the past, when Quakers moved beyond their local meetings, they would set up a similar system at their new location–meetings based on locality–which drew in new members.  A new localized community of Quakers would grow up.  However, today, Quakers may live half the year in another part of the country, with another meeting, or even live abroad for several years, with no local meeting, before returning to their home meeting.  Setting up a new meeting is a long endeavor and, with mobile Quakers being mobile, probably twice as challenging due to the geographic restlessness they are a part of.

Personally, I’m feeling the strain of a Friends community which is localized and in need of care, while committee membership dwindles, and those members who are beyond the immediate community who need support for their callings and leadings.  I’m sure this is not uncommon in today’s world–many demands are placed on us for service to our communities and others.  But how should we, as Quakers, respond to these changes?  I offer some queries:

• What roles do meetings play for the more mobile Quakers?  What does membership mean to them?  What does their membership mean to the Quaker community they are joining?
• What roles to Quakers who are more mobile play in their home meetings?  What are the responsibilities they can hold?
• What are a meeting’s responsibility to maintain community with members who do not live in their geographic area?  How can meetings support their members living abroad for an indefinite time if there are no Quaker meetings available to them?
• How do new technologies promote community among disparate members of Friends meetings?
• How does the new global economy impact local membership in Friends meetings?  How can meetings respond to this change by supporting members who are mobile, while maintaining responsibilities to localized members?

Moyers on faith and social justice

Once again, Bill Moyers demonstrates his mastery at bringing together powerhouse thinkers on progressive thought.  The July 3 show of Bill Moyers Journal titled “Faith and Social Justice” featured Cornel West, Gary Dorrien, and Serene Jones who collectively teach a course at Union Theological Seminary called “Christianity and the U.S. Crisis” (which can actually be watched via iTunes–thanks, UTS and Apple!).  I wish I could post the segment here, but you’ll have to use iTunes to dig it up for yourselves.

His panel’s expertise is so diverse in  its voice that his questions range from the non-believers view of who speaks for Christians today to how do non-believers view the Christians of today beyond the lens of the majority, while also bringing the tangent of politics and social justice to bear on the current economic crisis as well as one of the most succinct summaries of the history of social justice that I’ve come across (let we forget that working unions are, fundamentally, based on love for one another in the face of oppression).  His panel, rooted in teaching, is often used not only to frame current teachings in their class, but how and what students are looking for in today’s faith practices.

Cornel’s voice is strong and, as always, his wit and street cred (academic and pop) are what make this panel pop and snap.  But it’s also quite undeniable that both Dorrien and Jones are looking forward to bringing a freshness to progressive Christian faith beyond academia and Bible study, in order to look to how faith is or is not being integrated into the daily practices and politics of Barack Obama’s administration.  And Moyers plays along–urging each of them to help us look backward and forward while standing at this intersection of faith and social justice.

Abroad

It`s been a dazzling week of travel and culture–a Chinese-Thai wedding, a visit to my godfather for an Italian dinner, the purchase and custom-fitting of a suit, learning about the Thai cats with two colors of eyes (who were in the process of moving to a new location), and now on to Japan (and having seen the cool Ghibli Museum), we`ve been in a lot of beautiful places and enjoying a lot of family time.

Traveling summer

As I set up for international travel this summer (lots of it), I’m debating how to trim down the load to lug around. Thankfully, we bought a Mac Air last summer, so toting the computer will be a breeze, plus photo processing will be simpler with transferring the pics onto the web for sharing (very important for family relations). Gear-wise, everything is much smaller than ever. Nice.

What I’ll miss the most is the Internet access from the phone. It’s back to paper–maps, directions, checking prices and schedules–and no cell phone calls when you’re lost. Ugh. What would be great is if there were free wifi, which would solve a lot of this. I doubt it will be there, though.

And lots of quiet time, just plain not speaking to people and reading a lot–yeah! Thanks to my language deficiency, I’ll be talking on an as-needed basis–fine by me!

Facebook and Twitter: Quaker 2.0 technologies

Today’s Times article on Facebook captures a lot a great insight into the connundrum of web 2.0 and it’s meaning to social networks of the future.  Covering the connective and disruptive power of uniting social groups under one public communication tool, journalist Brad Stone brings the wonderousness of reuniting families who have been long separated or estranged with the tragedy of a exec who Facebooked his way to being fired after he criticized a co-worker.

Quaker plain speech, as translated into our 21st century world, offers itself as a strong way to move between all social networking groups.  Characterized as simple and democratic speech, plain speech doesn’t depend on who you are talking to, but offer something to everyone who hears it.  The simplicity of the message can bring unity between people and remind us that something that is said online should match with what is said in public.  Aren’t they one and the same in today’s interconnected world?

Of course, privacy settings, visibility status, multiple/fake accounts, and development of niche social networking sites can continue our sectionalized online life where speech can remain segregated between groups.  However, interconnections can now be built between disparate areas of online speech via RSS, cross-posting, and other push-technologies (a la “your Twitter is in my Facebook” one-post-to-many-sources solutions) where there were previously fixed separations.  Web 2.0 technologies giveth and they can taketh-away,

Now, more than ever, “let your yea be yea and your nay be nay” (Matthew 5:37) brings bearing to an ever-connecting world.  Quaker plain speech, simple and caring, can bring light where conflict arises, take away the power of “truthiness,” and help build a stronger connection between the inner and outer self.