The Wider Quaker Fellowship

1506 Race Street · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102 · 215.241.7293
wqf@fwccamericas.org · www.fwccamericas.org/about_us/programs/wqf.shtml

 

August, 2008

Dear Friends and Fellows,

In my first letter as new clerk of the Wider Quaker Fellowship Committee, I send you Friendly greetings.  I am grateful to Tina Coffin, retiring clerk, and to committee members and FWCC staff for their orientation, hard work and support.

The WQF Committee is considering ways of spreading the Quaker message to a wider audience.  We are discussing exciting possibilities for greater and more imaginative use of electronic media.   There are surely a good number of people who would feel drawn to Quakerism if only they knew about it! Of course we will continue to publish paper pamphlets, and enclosed is our latest offering.

One of the pamphlets contains two messages to plenary sessions of the Friends World Committee for Consultation Triennial that took place in August 2007 in Dublin, Ireland.  It is wonderfully moving and stimulating when Friends from 41 different countries assemble and worship together, sing together, and share their stories.  This gathering’s theme focused on prophecy.  One message we feature here is “Finding the Prophetic Voice for our Time:  What Can Friends Say Today?” by Doreen Dowd, an Irish Quaker and retired medical practitioner.  The other is “Lives Rooted in God’s Love” by Maria Armenia Yi Reyna, a Quaker pastor from Cuba.  In addition, we have a reprint from Friends Journal of an article by Margaret Hope Bacon, a Quaker historian and author.  “Remembering Agnes:  A Lesson in Nonviolence,” recounts a remarkable experience she had while working in a mental hospital with her husband, Allen, who was a conscientious objector during the Second World War.

At the end of April we bade farewell to our staff support person, Vicki Hain Poorman—a step made necessary by budgetary concerns.  Vicki has faithfully supported WQF for 10 years, and her work has been invaluable.  Committee members, with the help of other staff, will now shepherd the mailings through selection, production and distribution.  We extend our heartfelt thanks to Vicki, and we wish her success and happiness as she focuses on her teaching at a local university, doing consulting, and expanding her work as freelance interpreter and translator.  She plans to help WQF as a volunteer, when circumstances permit.

We deeply appreciate your financial support for this ministry.  Please continue to send us any comments you may have about WQF publications to the office via e-mail (wqf@fwccamericas.org) or postal mail.

For the Committee,

Judith Inskeep, Clerk

PS – Below are some suggested queries for discussion.  We hope you will want to invite a few friends to read the pamphlets and discuss them with you.

 

Discussion Questions

 

Doreen Dowd

Do you feel adequate to be a prophet?

How have you been used by God?

Have good works kept you too busy to be in relationship with God?

 

María Armenia Yí Reyna

Do you feel more spiritually indifferent or spiritually arrogant?

How does your religious community avoid growing cold and losing its motivation?

Which idols most attract you?

Where do you see signs of the Kingdom of God springing forth in your country?

 

Margaret Hope Bacon

Was Civilian Public Service equal to military service?

What does the author mean, “If perfect love casts out fear, then perfect fear casts out love”?

How can people hold on to a belief in the goodness inherent in people when we see so much fear and cruelty?