Newsletters

February 2023

Visitation

On a recent Sunday (First Day in antiquated speech) five attenders of our worship
group visited Olympia Friends Meeting. Olympia Friends had moved their meeting time
an hour later to accommodate our travel time and provide lunch thereafter. One of their
regular attenders commented toward the close of the visit that Olympia had the greatest
number at the meeting than they have had for some years. Your correspondent suspects
that might not have been due to our radiant personalities, rather it was, among other
factors, the beneficial nature of visitation among Friends.

An example from Britain Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Faith & Practice:

At the very small recognised meeting where I am a member – we have been as few as two
at meeting for worship – we welcome visitors from other meetings, whether casual or
regular, and look upon them as a source of enrichment. We understand that we in turn
can give from our quietly gathered meeting. Ingrid Williams, 1994

Letter of Introduction

For those who travel, particularly outside the immediate area, it may be useful to
ask for a letter of introduction. It can be a way to open doors to local gatherings, help to
establish interconnections between your home meeting and those you are visiting.

We urge Friends, when staying away from home during holiday or on business, to
attend a meeting for worship if there is one within reach. Such attendance may well have
the effect of strengthening the meeting, and of helping Friends who were hitherto
strangers to know one another. Britain Yearly Meeting Quaker Faith & Practice.

The letter, signed by the clerk, gives some information about the traveller’s participation
in our Religious Society and express such greetings as may feel to be suitable. The letter
is usually endorsed by the clerk of the meeting visited. That letter is returned` to the local
group along with the visitor’s reflections on their visit.

Traveling in the Ministry

One of the most useful services to our Religious Society has been provided by
those Friends who feel called to share concerns through religious visits to families, public
addresses, or specially arranged meetings for worship or other similar religious service.
Those so called are usually seasoned members and their call to service is subject to
discernment, which is well described in North Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Faith and
Practice. Another comment from Britain Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Faith & Practice:

For over 35 years I have been visiting meetings other than my own. For the last 15 years
monthly meeting has given me a travelling minute which is returned annually with its
endorsements. I have visited the smaller meetings in my own monthly meeting; I have
visited nearby meetings in other monthly meetings and thus kept contact with neighbours
who might easily be strangers; when further from home I have sought out smaller
meetings which might be encouraged by a visitor, and I am sure that the two or three
present have been so encouraged. I have attended special occasions such as the
reopening of a refurbished meeting house and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.
Richard Schardt, 1994

An extract from John Woolman’s Journal offers a clear description of the steps
taken to obtain a traveling minute:

Having been some time under a religious concern to prepare for crossing the seas in
order to visit Friends in the northern parts of England, and more particularly in
Yorkshire, after weighty consideration I thought it expedient to inform Friends at our
monthly meeting in Burlington of it, who, having unity with me therein, gave me a
certificate. And I afterwards communicated the same to our quarterly meeting, and they
likewise certified their concurrence. Some time after, at the General Spring Meeting of
Ministers and Elders, I thought it my duty to acquaint them with the religious exercise
with attended my mind, with which they likewise signified their unity by a certificate,
dated the 24th of third month 1772, directed to Friends in Great Britain.

For further reading: John Woolman. Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman.
Phillips P. Moulton, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971.

January 2023

Imaginary Friends

George Fox observed (in the 17th century) because “Friends could not put off their
hat to people, nor say you to a particular person, but thee and thou; and could not bow,
nor use the world’s salutations nor fashions nor customs . . . people would not trade with
them nor trust them. And for a time [Quakers] that were tradesmen could hardly get
money enough to buy bread, but afterward when people came to see Friends’ honesty and
truthfulness and “yea” and “nay’ at a word in their dealing, and their lives and
conversations did preach and reach to the witness of God in all people, and they knew
and saw that they would not cozen and cheat them for conscience sake towards God:—
and that at last they might send any child and be as well used as themselves at any of
their shops, so then the things altered so that all the inquiry was where was a draper or
shopkeeper or tailor or shoemaker that was a Quaker: then that was all the cry, insomuch
that Friends had double the trade beyond any of their neighbors.”

Honesty and integrity in business enterprises benefited Friends. That reputation
led to appropriating the image and reputation of Friends for the profit of businesses with
no relationship with Quakers, hence Imaginary Friends. A few instances follow.

We really must start out with coffee. Lee & Caddy’s Quaker Coffee does not
appear to be on the market nowadays.

There is no trademark protection for the term “Quaker”. Some Friends have tried
to have commercial enterprises drop its use, to no avail.

The Quaker reputation for thrift may be an endorsement for this money saving
heater.

Any reference to appropriating the reputation of Friends to move product must
include a certain oatmeal packager.

Some products were very much at odds with Quaker values. The Quaker Maid
product speaks for itself.

Other products kept us on the road.

The appearance of honesty and integrity have cash value in the market place.

The Quaker meme has been used in fiction, film, paintings, stage plays and
popular music. An example is All the Quakers are Shoulder Shakers. The fox trot can be
heard at the Internet Archive (archive.org).

December 2022

Quaker History

Recently, an interest in learning something about the history of the Society of
Friends was raised at the close of meeting. There are rich and deep resources for the
study of Quaker history. During a lecture several weeks ago at the Friends Historical
Association, the presenter remarked on the significant collections at Haverford College
and Swarthmore College. Friends are usually careful custodians of their records. In
comparison, when writing about the history of Baptists in Virginia, the presenter found
significant gaps in the records, due in part to war as well as less attention to their
preservation. For Quakers the challenge is to select from the surprisingly large number of
sources. Following are a few.

Margery Post Abbott and Carl Abbott. Quakerism: the basics. Routledge, 2021. This is
an important contemporary overview of the worldwide body of Friends. It covers the
history, distinctive practices of Friends, and comments on the possible future of the
denomination. Recommended. It may be available at a local library or through
booksellers.

Howard H. Brinton. Friends for 350 Years. Pendle Hill Publications, 1964. “Quakerism is here defined as the type of faith and behavior which developed in the Society of Friends during its first century and a half.” (From the introduction.) Howard Brinton was a widely respected representative of unprogrammed Friends. He and his wife Anna played a role in nurturing Friends Meetings in the western United States, which led to the formation of the Pacific Coast Association of Friends, the forerunner of Pacific Yearly Meeting and our own North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Friend Brinton later became the Director of Pendle Hill, a Quaker Study Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, which has had a formative influence on the Society of Friends at large. The book is available from Pendle Hill as well as on-line booksellers.

Thomas Clarkson. A Portraiture of Quakerism. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806. In three volumes. Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was the architect of the British campaign to abolish the African slave trade. Although faced with powerful vested interests and public indifference, he lived to see the slave trade and slavery outlawed by the British Parliament. He was not a Friend; however, his campaign brought him into frequent contact with British Friends, who in the 18th and 19th centuries lived largely apart from general society. The Portraiture of Quakerism is the result of those frequent
occasions he had to observe Friends’ mores and social behavior. It is perhaps the first unbiased exposition of the Society of Friends to be published. The text can be read at Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org). There are sets, most of which are incomplete, listed on online used book sites.

Chuck Fager. Remaking Friends: How Progressive Friends Changed Quakerism &
Helped Save America 1822-1940. A number of issues troubled the quiet found among
Friends in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Those included ending slavery, supporting
women’s rights, temperance, and peace. Lucretia Mott is among the cloud of witnesses
followed in this alternative history of Friends. Chuck Fager is a progressive advocate
who for many years served as the director of Quaker House, Fayetteville, North Carolina,
which provides counseling and support to service members who are questioning their role
in the military. The book is available on-line.

Thomas D. Hamm. The Quakers in America. Columbia University Press, 2003. This is
described as an authoritative introduction to the history of Quakers. Friend Hamm wrote
in the preface “Quakers today span the whole spectrum from fundamentalist to New Age
universalist.” The book closes with sketches of 15 Quaker lives compassing five who
have made an impression on the larger American society e.g. John Woolman, an
additional five who been central figures since 1950 e.g. Kenneth Boulding, and five
known to American society at large e.g. Bonnie Raitt. The book is currently available.

H. Larry Ingle. First Among Friends: George Fox & the Creation of Quakerism. Oxford
University Press, 1994. A very thorough biography of Fox and correspondingly a history
of the Society of Friends in its 17th century context. A useful reading companion to The
Journal of George Fox. The book is currently available.

On your correspondents reading list: Janet Moore Lindman. A Vivifying Spirit: Quaker
Practice & Reform in Antebellum America. Penn State University Press, 2022.

November 2022

At the close of a recent Meeting for Worship, a discussion developed around Friends
thoughts about death and what may follow after. As a way to carry forward the discussion your
necessarily humble correspondent has surveyed the Books of Disciple from four yearly meetings
for statements that have met with approval from those bodies. Perhaps this community of voices
will give a sense of Friends experience.

First, from an early leader of Friends:

I am glad I was here. Now I am clear, I am fully clear… All is well; the Seed of God
reigns over all and over death itself. And though I am weak in body, yet the power of God is
over all, and the Seed reigns over all disorderly spirits.

George Fox, shortly before his death, 1691. Source: Quaker Faith & Practice: the book of
Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in
Britain:.

Quakers do have something very special to offer the dying and the bereaved, namely that
we are at home in silence. Not only are we thoroughly used to it and unembarrassed by it, but
we know something about sharing it, encountering others in its depths and, above all, letting
ourselves be used in it…

Diana Lampen, 1979. Source: Quaker Faith & Practice. Quoting Diana Lampen, Facing Death
(London: Quaker Home Service, 1979), 16-17:

And so comes the next opening—the sense of being part of a universe, of a personal
relatedness to all life, all growth, all creativity. Suddenly one senses that his life is not just his
own little individual existence, but that he is bound in fact to all of life, from the first splitting off
of the planets, through the beginning of animate life and on through the slow evolution of man.
It is all in him and he is but one channel of it. What has flowed through him, flows on, through
children, through works accomplished, through services rendered; it is not lost. Once given the
vision of one’s true place in the life stream, death is no longer complete or final, but an incident.

Death is the way—the only way—life renews itself. When the individual has served his purpose
as a channel, the flow transfers itself to other channels, but life goes on. And in this great drama
of life renewed, one sees and feels the divine presence, and feels himself one with it.

Bradford Smith, 1964. Source: Faith and Practice, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends, 1972. Quoting Bradford Smith, Dear Gift of Life: A Man’s Encounter With
Death. Pendle Hill Pamphlet 142, 1965. He wrote in his diary “At 54 I am ready … to plan my
life without reference to earning more money.” Four months later he learned that he had cancer
and in the shadow of that fact wrote his last pages which became the basis of his essay.

I do not know whether human personality survives physical death. I am content to wait
and see what comes after death, open to any possibility. If it should turn out to be eternal sleep,
that too is a gift after a full life.

But I know that we live in the lives of those we touch. I have felt in me the living
presence of many I have loved and who have loved me. And I know that this is not limited to
those we know in the flesh, for may of the guests of my life shared neither time nor space with
me.

Elizabeth Watson, 1979. Source: Faith and Practice: Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends. Quoting Elizabeth Watson, Guests of My Life (Philadelphia: Quaker Press of
FGC, 1996).

Dying holds no terrors for me. I just wish society in general wasn’t in such a state of
denial. Dying is as much a miracle as birth. It isn’t the end of something, just the continuation
of a recycling process. I have recycled bits of me over most of Europe, Britain, Australia. As I
water the clouds and mists and swirls of rain drift over Kings Park I know that bits of me are
recycled in those too. But so are bits of everyone! We are each other! We are breathing the
recycled air Chaucer breathed out. So, that means there is that of everyone in everyone. As a
Quaker I believe there is that of God in everyone. Maybe that’s that the word God really means
—‘Everything, Everywhere, Everytime’; or maybe that’s what eternity is—being part of an
everlasting cycle. When I die I will still be here in a variety of forms. As long as any one
person remembers me and things about me my energies will still be around.

May Mathews, 2000. Source: this we can say: Australian Quaker Life, Faith and Thought.
Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), 2003.

An added caution from A. Neave Brayshaw:

If anything should seem to be spoken amiss, the spiritually minded worshipper [reader] will have the wit to get at the heart of the message, overlooking crudity and lack of skill in its presentation, and so far from giving way to irritation at what seems unprofitable, he will be deeply concerned for his own share in creating the right spiritual atmosphere in which the harm fades out and the good grows.

Source: The Quakers, their story and message, 1921. Quoted in Quaker Faith & Practice: the book of Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.

October 2022

The first question to ask “is there such a thing as Quaker humor”. Considering the serious pose
that Friends have often struck, it is perhaps better to write about Anecdotes or Mildly Humorous
Stories. The stories often highlight a Friends testimony. The following has echoes of thrift:

Stephen Spender in the period before World War II visited his Quaker aunt for tea. She
would bring out a plate of cookies from her cupboard. Spender attempted to take one of the
freshest; his aunt turned the plate and pointed to one saying “Take that one, its the oldest”.

And another story from England:

A rich Quaker, generous to local charities, was diffidently asked for a subscription
towards rebuilding the parish church. The Friend hesitated, but learning that that the project
included pulling down the old church, he asked how much this part of the scheme would cost.
After more thought he finally said: “Thee was right in supposing my principles would not allow
me to assist in building a church. But for pulling down a church thee may’st put me down for a
hundred pounds.”

Friends were known to be careful about their language:

The Trenton Trial was held to determine whether Arch Street or Race Street Friends could
legally claim what had previously been their joint property. Samuel Bettle, clerk of the Yearly
Meeting in 1827, was being cross-examined by the opposing counsel.

“Mr. Bettle,” he said, “in your testimony you made frequent use of the words also and
likewise. Would you be so obliging as to explain to the Court what is the difference between
these two terms?” Samuel Bettle replied, “Our counselor, George Wood, is a lawyer. Thou art
also a lawyer but not likewise.

Yet another lawyer:

Nicholas Waln (1742-1813) gave up a successful career at the bar and became a plain
Friend. An errand called him back into court. A fellow lawyer murmured, “Here comes
Nicholas; let’s jolly him.” Then aloud he said provocatively, “Mr. Waln, there is a great deal of
dignity and intelligence under that hat of yours.” Instantly Nicholas took off his hat and handed it
to the lawyer saying, “Take it—thee hast need of both.”

In an out of the meeting-house:

A Friend went to an old meeting-house. When the hour for gathering had passed and no
one else had come, he thought that he was going to have the meeting to himself. Presently the
latch clicked, however, and an old man shuffled up to where he was sitting and said, “Friend,
thee is sitting in my seat.”

It was a very warm day in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, and Nicholas Waln was in
attendance at the meeting for worship. Although in those days such gatherings were often two
hours long, Nicholas shook hands to close meeting in about half an hour. When criticized
afterwards for such an early closing, he said, “I desire mercy and not burnt offerings.”

Eldering:

At New England Yearly Meeting there was an aged Friend with a voice like a filing saw,
but a much concerned Friend. Rufus Jones, a Quaker historian and theologian, was one of the
Sunday morning speakers. After he had spoken, this elderly Friend, thinking what had been said
was over the heads of the audience, arose and said, “Jesus said Feed my sheep, not Feed my
giraffes”.

Another practice of Friends:

Commonly Friends pause for a short period of silence before meals. A Friend brought a
Methodist minister home one day. His wife was embarrassed when their two little boys tittered
as the guest asked a blessing before they ate. Rebuked by their mother later, the boys said, “But,
mother, that man talked all through the silence.”

Plain seeing:

Herbert Hoover, who had a strict Quaker upbringing, was riding on a train looking out the
window. His companion remarked, “Those sheep have been sheared.” President Hoover replied,
“Well, on this side, certainly.”

September 2022

Lower Columbia Worship Group
of the Religious Society of Friends

Friends were recently asked what they would like to see in the Monthly Bulletin. The response was something about Quaker cooking and Quaker humor. In keeping with the general sense of the meeting, we have assembled a few notes on cooking for this month.

Elizabeth E. Lea (1793-1858) self-published her Domestic Cookery: Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers in 1845. Subsequently eighteen editions were published by Cushings and Bailey in Baltimore, Maryland. The edition in hand is A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook, The Domestic Cookery of Elizabeth Elliott Lea edited, with an introduction by William Boys Weaver, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1982. This edition reproduces the 1853 edition (the fifth) with an extensive introduction and detailed glossary.

William Weaver’s introduction notes “What is remarkable about Elizabeth Lea’s Domestic Cookery is that a Quaker woman in Maryland complied a collection of recipes that forms one of the most varied samplings of the rural American folk cookery of her era. If, by today’s standards, her recipes seem overly plain, then remember that rural eating habits before the Civil War were generally simple. But here we are dealing with a Quaker, and in Quaker terms, there is nothing so complex as simplicity.”

Since the point of a cookbook is the recipes we’ll record two, the first is:

A Baltimore Oyster Pie

Take eight pounds of scraps of pork, that will not do for sausage; boil it in four gallons of water; when tender, chop it fine, strain the liquor and pour it back into the pot; put in the meat, season it with sage, summer savory, salt and pepper to taste; stir in a quart of corn meal; after simmering a few minutes, thicken it with buckwheat flour very thick; it requires very little cooking after it is thickened, but must be stirred constantly.

A pie of this size will bake in three-quarters of an hour, if the oven is in good order; if the
heat is not quick allow it an hour. If in baking, the crust is likely to become too brown, put a piece of paper doubled over it, and the light color will be retained; when taken from the oven, if it should look dry, pour some of the liquor that was drained from the oysters in the dish, having previously strained and boiled it. As paste always looks more beautiful when just from the oven, arrange your dinner so that the pie may be placed on the table immediately it is done.

The second recipe is for a pot pudding, known as scrapple, currently available in the MidAtlantic States:

Scrapple

Take eight pounds of scraps of pork, that will not do for sausage; boil it in four gallons of
water; when tender, chop it fine, strain the liquor and pour it back into the pot; put in the meat, season it with sage, summer savory, salt and peppert to taste; stir in a quart of corn meal, after simmering a few minutes, thicken it with buckwheat flour very thick; it requires very little cooking after it is thickened, but must be stirred constantly.

Note: after the pudding “sets,” it is sliced and fried like sausage. Traditional scrapple contains buckwheat flour which Habbersett’s scrapple omits. Even so, Habbersett’s a good example of rural cookery from a firm founded in 1863 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

August 2022

Lower Columbia Worship Group
of the Religious Society of Friends

Continuing a Series on Friends Testimonies

The testimonies are a summary of the actions and behaviors that Friends hold as a
public witness to Truth. They are a product of continuing discernment; there are
testimonies that Quakers hold in the 21st century that were yet to be formulated in
the earlier centuries of the Society of Friends. The list of testimonies varies over
time and among sectors of the Society. That list may include equality, marriage,
oaths, peace, plainness of dress and speech, simplicity, times and seasons, tithes,
and truth. North Pacific Yearly meeting records integrity, community, peace,
simplicity, equality, and stewardship in its current Faith and Practice from which
the quoted sections are being drawn.

Testimony of Simplicity

A life centered in God will be characterized by simplicity, sincerity, and integrity.
Integrity is being all of a piece. Sincerity is being without sham. Simplicity is
cutting away everything that is extraneous, so that our outward life fully reflects
our inward life.

A simple life need not be cloistered and may even be a busy life. Its activities and
expressions are correlated and directed toward the purpose of keeping our
communication with God open and unencumbered. Simplicity is a Spirit-led
ordering of our lives to this end.

In the past, Quakers could be readily identified by plain dress and plain speech.
Today, we have no recipe book for simplicity; all Friends find their own way.
Simplicity does mean avoiding self-indulgence, maintaining a spirit of humility,
and speaking clearly and directly without exaggeration. It also means keeping the
material surroundings of our lives serviceable to necessary ends. A simple life need
not be barren and without joy and beauty. Often the most simple lines, words, or
moments, when marked by grace, are the most beautiful.

Quotation

It may surprise some of us to hear that the first generation did not have a testimony
for simplicity. They came upon a faith which cut to the root of the way they saw
life, radically reorienting it. They saw that all they did must flow directly from
what they experienced as true, and that if it did not, both the knowing and the
doing became false. In order to keep the knowledge clear and the doing true, they
stripped away anything which seemed to get in the way. They called those things
superfluities, and it is this radical process of stripping for clear-seeing which we
now term simplicity.
Frances Irene Taber, 2009

Advices

Do we center our lives in the awareness of God so that all things take their rightful
place?
Do we clutter our lives with things and activities? What are the ways out? What
helps us avoid commitments beyond our strength and light?
How does our meeting help us simplify our lives? How do we order our individual
lives to nourish our spiritual growth?
Do we keep to simplicity, moderation, and honesty in our speech, our manner of
living, and our daily work?

July 2022

Lower Columbia Worship Group
of the Religious Society of Friends

Friends Testimonies

Quaker practice is upheld by the testimonies which may be used as an outline for a
consistent faith. Testimony is a rather formal word, first coming into use in the 16th century, thus identified as Middle English. We are most likely to hear of testimonies in a court of law or judicial hearings. In those instances, the person giving testimony is required to swear an oath that their statements are true. Quakers have often declined to swear an oath becaust that suggests whatever they might say under any circumstance is unreliable, in essence their conversation falls short of being true.

The contemporary list of testimonies is conveyed by the acronym “SPICES”. To spell that out they are: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Equality, Stewardship. For the July issue of the monthly bulletin we’ll focus on integrity.

Integrity

Living with integrity presents the daily challenge of keeping our lives congruent with the Light – in essence, living in Truth. Our choices in how we use our time, spend our money, and form relationships are consistent with what we believe. Our conversation in public and private is a seamless whole. On those infrequent occasions when we are required to swear an oath, we can advance the cause of truth by simple affirmation. The greater discipline is to continually exercise care in speech, making statements that convey truth without exaggeration or omission of essential fact.

Newsletters

February 2023

Visitation

Letter of Introduction

Traveling in the Ministry

January 2023

Imaginary Friends

December 2022

Quaker History

November 2022

October 2022

September 2022

August 2022

Continuing a Series on Friends Testimonies

Testimony of Simplicity

Quotation

Advices

July 2022

Integrity

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