A Way Forward: Reclaiming a Quaker Mission that is both Ecumenical and 'Peculiar'

By Jon Kershner, Seattle, via peace@friendsjournal.org At the opening worship gathering for Heeding God's Call: A Gathering on Peace, the conveners asked the represented Christian traditions to stand and be recognized. Besides the large majority of Quaker, Mennonite, and Brethren representatives present – the three traditions sponsoring the gathering – were Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Orthodox, Christian Reformed, Moravian, Church of God in Christ as well as Jewish and Muslim observer/participants. In all, 23 Christian traditions were present. The ecumenical nature of this gathering represents, in my view, a challenge and a hope. In worship we were challenged with the unfamiliar. For example, while I desired more in the way of extended times of silent waiting, some of the non-Quakers in the group thought the times of silence to be plenty long enough! As some shouted their 'amen' at the bold proclamation of Jesus' name, others seemed to feel that Christ-language had become too much a part of the gathering. Presbyterian missiologist George Hunsberger has noted that one of the challenges of faith traditions with strong counter-cultural tendencies, such as we Quakers, is to work out a way not to be separatist in character. The challenge is to not merely stand for peace, but to live it and enact it. And it is precisely here that Heeding God's Call makes a path out of separatism and into missional faithfulness and vibrant witness. Heeding God's Call, in its ecumenical orientation, recognized that peacemaking is not a sectarian position, but at the heart of the gospel and the content of God's call to self-sacrificing love and discipleship. Followers of Christ from liturgical traditions and free traditions, episcopal and congregational, contemporary and traditional are all indicted in the command of Christ to love the enemy and do good to the persecutor (Matt. 5:44-45). Moreover, this ecumenical gathering implicitly recognized that activism alone was not sufficient – rather it is as the body of Christ, united in Spirit and Love that we walk arm in arm as peacemakers following the leadership of Christ. It is time for Quakers to find the common ground – the common mission and discipleship – that connects us with spiritual tendons to sisters and brothers of other traditions. Quakers can be the vanguard of this movement toward ecumenical reconciliation and embodiment peacemaking. Hunsberger suggests that it is in dialogue with our tradition that we find our mission. We are inheritors of bold faith and courageous witness. It is our task to point the whole of the body of Christ to the gospel of peace, to denounce the idols of nationalism and wealth that blind spiritual eyes - not to thumb our noses at those we disagree with in the church. Self-righteousness is the first step toward separatism. Instead of separatism, Heeding God's Call offers a hope for invigorated Quaker action. Jesus said to his disciples, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). It is possible to invalidate our peace testimony by fighting amongst ourselves and other followers of Christ. At Heeding God's Call I saw a diverse church that was unified in purpose and mission. A church that allowed for differences and had to practice love and peace toward each other – let alone perpetrators of violence and injustice on the streets of Philadelphia. Ecumenical gatherings like this give us Quakers a chance to model the kind of peaceful community we believe God calls us to. In a world separated and fractured to the core, diverse ecumenical gatherings like this are a statement that peace and mutual love are not dependent on homogeneity of perspective, race, politics, or social status. It is the work of God. The challenge remains strong. In a wonderful statement of our common tradition, the planners of the gathering decided not to specify on name tags if a Quaker was a programmed or an unprogrammed Friend, an evangelical, liberal, universalist or conservative. The name tag said: Quaker. Enough with the categories. Enough with the barriers. Hear each other out. Over the course of the gathering the desire to take positions grew and eventually stickers with this position or that were place by some on their name tags to further place themselves within Quaker circles. The epistle that resulted from the gathering evoked strong emotions, it was not what some wanted it to be. The challenge remains. In what was one of the most meaningful moments of the gathering, Thomas Swain acknowledged the differences about the language in the epistle but asked all of us to sacrifice our positions on what constitutes sufficient silence in worship and what is too preachy, to listen for the Spirit's voice speaking to all 23 traditions. Enacting the sacrifice he was asking of us, he took off his name tag and stood arm in arm with Susan Mark Landis of the Mennonite Church and Stan Noffsinger of the Church of the Brethren. This picture of solidarity reminded me of John Woolman's vision of 1769. Woolman saw himself mixed in with humanity in a state of suffering to the extent that he could not consider himself a separate being from the suffering of others. In this state he heard the words “John Woolman is dead” and after some pondering it occurred to him that this death was the death of his own will. This is the kind of self-sacrifice that ecumenism and peacemaking ask of those who would seek to walk that path. Self-sacrifice and identification with the suffering of others leads us toward God's mission for the world. Dialogue with our tradition and ecumenical listening is a path toward a shared vocation of faithful action: fully Quaker and fully engaged. Jon Kershner is a young Friend living in Seattle, WA. He attends North Seattle Friends Church, in Northwest Yearly Meeting. For three years he pastored a Friends church in Tacoma, WA and is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in theology through the Woodbrooke Quaker Studies Centre in Birmingham, UK.

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