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Joining the Convergent Conversation
by Angelina Conti
The first morning in the redwoods at Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California, the facilitators of Reclaiming the Power of Primitive Quakerism for the 21st Century invited participants to share their words for the Divine. There was considerable diversity in the room: many of the Friends used "God," a generous smattering said "Jesus" or "Lord," while others employed words like "Essence" or "Mystery."
While this diversity may be remarkable in some Quaker settings, it was not so here. Many of the 25 or so participants were affiliated with unprogrammed Pacific Yearly Meeting, but there were also Friends from Philadelphia, Baltimore, South Central, and North Pacific yearly meetings, as well as Freedom Friends Church in Salem, Oregon, and Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region (EFC-ER). All had come for a weekend focused on the converging of Quaker traditions, a reconnection with the faith of early Friends, and an overall cross-branch renewal of the Religious Society of Friends.
The facilitators, three well-known Quaker bloggers, have written and led workshops widely on the convergent conversation. They were Robin Mohr of San Francisco Meeting and author of the blog What Canst Thou Say (http://robinmsf.blogspot.com), Martin Kelley of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and creator of www.QuakerQuaker.org and blogger at www.Quakerranter.org, and Wess Daniels, a member of EFC-ER and blogger at http://GatheringInLight.com. Though friends and collaborators for several years, this was the first time all three had been in the same place at the same time.
C. Wess Daniels
In its most recent incarnation among Friends, the term convergent was introduced by Robin Mohr on her blog in 2005. She suggested it as a word for the increasing number of Friends who were expressing hyphenated, cross-branch identities such as "Conservative-leaning liberal unprogrammed" or "Socially liberal evangelical." These Friends were often wrestling with the same questions and concerns in their own corners of the Quaker world, using blogs to communicate and cross-pollinate. Convergent was a way of expressing an interest in renewal and innovation that was firmly grounded in, and sprang from, common tradition.
It also offered a linguistic link to both the Conservative tradition of Quakerism, which is Christ- and Bible-centered, as well as the unprogrammed tradition, and to the Emergent Church. The Emergent Church is a modern Christian movement focused on living faith in a postmodern world. Emergent Church communities, which can be denominational as well as nondenominational, tend to emphasize faith as a lived experience, service, or missionary work in the broader society, the importance of narratives and creativity, and a grounding in community life.
Each of the facilitators brought a unique perspective to the convergent conversation, a diversity they emphasized by trading off and blending facilitator roles throughout the weekend. Sessions combined historical information with conversation, worship, and opportunities to share from personal experiences and vision. One session focused on plainness and simplicity as early practices among Friends that are being reclaimed. Another session focused on precedents set by Friends in the 20th century for convergent work, though they did not usually call it that, and particularly on the work of Everett Lewis Cattell, an evangelical Friend from the Orthodox Ohio tradition who was active in the mid-20th century. Like convergent Friends now, Cattell sought renewal from within the tradition of Quakerism. He also saw the potential for unity among Friends through an understanding of the "church in mission."
The word mission is certainly fertile ground for a conversation among the branches of Friends. Wess Daniels, whose PhD work at Fuller Theological Seminary in Los Angeles has focused largely on missiology, offered an understanding of missions as not reliant on colonial oppression or even international travel. Rather, he presented missionaries as strangers in a new land or culture who, because they do not draw power from a king or government and cannot coerce, must witness and work with the Gospel to discover a new way of life from a place of solidarity.
If this description still makes Friends uneasy, try substituting "service" or "social justice work" for mission. They are not the same thing, and the presence of the Christian Gospel is central to missionary work; however, the first two descriptors may be more recognizable to unprogrammed Friends who witness to another way of life daily, with their lives, within the domination system that is modern U.S. culture and economy. How do we already offer what the world hungers for—an easy example being our historic witness for peace? What exactly are we talking about when we talk about outreach, anyway? How might we be missionaries in our own land?
Saturday afternoon Martin Kelley offered two questions he sees as central to the convergent conversation, and they are worth repeating:
Why do we do what we do?
Why don't we talk to...?
He reminded us that Jesus asked these same questions, and that they were the foundation of his ministry.
While writing this article, I struggled with whether or not to capitalize "convergent," and whether or not to conceive of convergent Friends as a movement. If nothing else, it is certainly a conversation. That there is a broader current among Friends towards more dialogue across the branches of Friends and a shared hunger for a deeper, more vital spiritual life together is clear. It can be seen in Friends organizations, such as Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) and Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP), and events like the young adult conferences at Burlington, New Jersey, in 2007 and Earlham School of Religion in 2008 (among others). It can be seen, too, in meetings that are incorporating the worship practices of other traditions into their own, as San Francisco Meeting has done with certain elements of the Conservative tradition. All focus on fellowship, collaboration, and/or cross-pollination across the branches (and in some cases have done so for years), though do not necessarily label themselves "convergent."
But there are Quaker blogs and bloggers who do. Indeed, by the time this article appears in print, considerable coverage and discussion of the weekend will have happened (and be long since past current) online. The convergent conversation is one that has been powerfully enabled by Quaker blogging and other forms of user-based Internet media. It bursts occasionally into the realm of face-to-face interactions among Friends and more traditional print media. Friends interested in the conversation would do well to watch and participate, and ask their questions there. These websites are good places to start: www.convergentfriends.org and www.quakerquaker.org.
To that end, I offer some questions that were percolating for me throughout the weekend (and have been posed by other Friends through a variety of media):
What are the implications of naming a phenomenon? What do we gain, and what do we lose? At what point are we simply Friends—from many branches, but still simply Friends—interested in shared renewal and vitality that draws from tradition? At what point does a new movement emerge? And what does a new movement mean?
How do we engage the hunger for renewal and vitality that exists in many of our meetings and churches, and do so in a way that is respectful of the diversity that may already exist there?
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This is a feature article from the
May 2009 issue of Friends Journal.If you enjoyed it, we encourage you to subscribe! You can also make a donation to support our work.
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