Twelve Quakers and God


Book Description

What is God? Who is God? Or maybe the question is: Who is God for you? What is the name you use? What is your experience, your understanding? Twelve Quakers write from their own experience, starting from their own insights, not from any agreed statement of belief. Twelve pieces, twelve different viewpoints, yet each has been life-changing for the person involved. This small book is part of an exploration for writers and readers alike, together growing in understanding. It has been published for people who are looking for a God in which in which they can believe, whatever name they give to the divine. Though few in number, Quakers have had a positive influence in society. Those wondering about the Quaker way, and what motivates its followers, should find these twelve honest accounts helpful.




Twelve Quakers and Jesus


Book Description

What part does Jesus play in the Quaker faith? Do Quakers 'believe' in the Bible? No one can speak for Quakers as a whole on these matters, but in this booklet twelve individual Quakers share their responses to these questions. Some focus mainly on the teachings of Jesus; others also search for meaning in the Christ of faith. The variety of different approaches to the topic reflects the emphasis that Quakers place on each individual's speaking in a way that in truthful to him or her. We hope that these twelve honest accounts will be helpful to those wanting to explore the Quaker way.




Twelve Quakers and Prayer


Book Description

What is prayer? If it isn't pleading or wishing, what is it? What's the point if prayers are not answered? Is prayer expecting God to do what we should do? Can you pray if you don't believe in God? Twelve Quakers respond to these and many more questions about prayer from their own experience. Each responds differently. Some recognise that how they know or understand God shapes their prayer life. Some see praying as 'holding the light'. Some know that letting go of self to enter into a greater self is crucial for them. All see prayer as communication. Simply and clearly, they describe how they pray and tell of the changes it has made to their lives. They hope their attempts will inspire readers to engage again with prayer in a more experimental and radical way




The Spirit of the Quakers


Book Description

Who are the Quakers, what do they believe, and what do they practice? The Religious Society of Friends--also known as Quakers---believes that everyone can have a direct experience of God. Quakers express this in a unique form of worship that inspires them to work for change in themselves and in the world. In "The Spirit of the Quakers," Geoffrey Durham, himself a Friend, explains Quakerism through quotations from writings that cover 350 years, from the beginnings of the movement to the present day.Peace and equality are major themes in the book, but readers will also find thought-provoking passages on the importance of action for social change, the primacy of truth, the value of simplicity, the need for a sense of community, and much more. The quoted texts convey a powerful religious impulse, courage in the face of persecution, the warmth of human relationships, and dedicated perseverance in promoting just causes. The extended quotations have been carefully selected from well-known Quakers such as George Fox, William Penn, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Fry and John Woolman, as well as many contemporary Friends. Together with Geoffrey Durham's enlightening and sympathetic introductions to the texts, the extracts from these writers form an engaging, often moving guide to this accessible and open-hearted religious faith.




Twelve Quakers and Worship


Book Description




Quaker Quicks - Quakers Do What! Why?


Book Description

Structured around questions which non-Quakers often ask, this book explores Quaker practices, explaining them in the context of Quaker theology and present-day diversity. It describes how Quakers make decisions and why they have preferred this method, as well as looking at the Quaker rejection of common Christian practices like baptism. Each short chapter gives an answer, considers why that is so, describes some of the diversity within Quaker groups, and points to other resources which could be used to find out more.




Our Life Is Love


Book Description

Our Life is Love describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers, who turned to the Light of Christ within and allowed it to be their guide. Many Friends today use different language, but are still called to make the same journey. In our time people seeking deeper access to the profound teachings of Christianity want more than just beliefs, they want direct experience. Focusing on ten elements of the spiritual journey, this book is a guide to a Spirit-filled life that affects this world. Quakers in the seventeenth century and today provide examples of people and communities living in the midst of the world whose radical understanding of Christ's teachings led them to become powerful agents of social change. The book offers a simple, clear explanation of the spiritual journey that is suitable not only for Quakers, but for all Christians, and for seekers wanting to better understand our spiritual experience and the fullness of God's call to us. The book would make an excellent focus for study groups. Marcelle Martin has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She served for four years as the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill and was a core teacher in the School of the Spirit program, The Way of Ministry. She is the author of the Pendle Hill pamphlets Invitation to a Deeper Communion and Holding One Another in the Light. In 2013 she was the Mullen Writing Fellow at Earlham School of Religion while working on this book.




A Testament of Devotion


Book Description

Since its first publication in 1941, A Testament of Devotion, by the renowned Quaker teacher Thomas Kelly, has been universally embraced as a truly enduring spiritual classic. Plainspoken and deeply inspirational, it gathers together five compelling essays that urge us to center our lives on God's presence, to find quiet and stillness within modern life, and to discover the deeply satisfying and lasting peace of the inner spiritual journey. As relevant today as it was a half-century ago, A Testament of Devotion is the ideal companion to that highest of all human arts-the lifelong conversation between God and his creatures. I have in mind something deeper than the simplification of our external programs, our absurdly crowded calendars of appointments through which so many pantingly and frantically gasp. These do become simplified in holy obedience, and the poise and peace we have been missing can really be found. But there is a deeper, an internal simplification of the whole of one's personality, stilled, tranquil, in childlike trust listening ever to Eternity's whisper, walking with a smile into the dark."




Advices & Queries


Book Description

Advices and queries designed to challenge and inspire Australian Quakers in their personal lives and in their life as a religious community.




Being a Quaker


Book Description