This time, we’re discussing the Church visible and invisible, a phrase that goes back to Augustine, but about which early Friends were certainly concerned too. This is section 6B in Traditional Quaker Christianity, and the reading is mostly taken from Barclay’s Apology. The Church Invisible In discussing the Church visible and invisible, we’re starting with […]
Category: Episodes
What makes someone Christian?
What makes someone Christian? There are many ways to define Christianity and church. Accusations of apostasy and heresy flew back and forth between Quakers and everyone else and occasionally still come at us.
Traveling in Ministry
This time we’re talking about traveling in ministry. Quakers have traveled in ministry from the very beginning. It really started as sort of ministry campaigns, traveling in pairs. That’s a Biblical practice: Jesus sent the Apostles out in pairs in Luke 10. Early Days These early campaigns would have people traveling in ministry for months […]
Speaking in Meeting
Section 5C in Traditional Quaker Christianity is on speaking in meeting, so that’s what we’re talking about today. Should I speak? Speaking in meeting is, as we’ve discussed before, meant to be oracular. We have to do some discernment about when to speak or not to speak. In this episode, we talk about how we […]
Women Ministers
We talked some about women preaching when we talked about the new covenant, but chapter 5B in Traditional Quaker Christianity is specifically about women ministers. The book we’re using takes care to point out that women ministers weren’t part of a political or secular equality movement for women. It wasn’t motivated by feminism (which didn’t exist […]
The Call to Ministry
This time we’re talking about the call to ministry with references to section 5A of Traditional Quaker Christianity. One of the first things you see with a call to ministry is often a feeling of inadequacy or humility. Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. Jeremiah doesn’t want to prophecy. John Woolman doesn’t want to […]
Corporate Aspects
We talked a bunch about waiting worship in the last episode, so this time we’re looking at a quote from John Punshon about corporate aspects of worship. There’s a difference between personal and corporate. And corporate in this situation doesn’t mean businesses. It’s about community. A lot of American Christians talk about “Jesus as your […]
Is there a Quaker liturgy?
We got a listener request asking “is there a Quaker liturgy?” Well, yes and no. No, we don’t do the Liturgy of the Word followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharist, with a set of readings in the first part determined by the Lectionary. For that reason, and the fact that we don’t follow a […]
Quakers and holidays
In a timely post for December, we’re discussing the old Testimony Against Times & Seasons, aka holidays. Historically, Quakers did not do holidays. Every day is sacred. “This is the day the Lord has made.” Nowadays, most of us are fine with holidays. Why Quakers didn’t do holidays For some historical context, when Quakers were […]
Knowing Christ in Us
This, the last episode of season 2, is from Traditional Quaker Christianity‘s section 3J, titled Knowing Christ in Us. We’re looking at two readings from George Fox’s Journal. Sure Word of Prophecy In the first, Fox relates hearing a priest in a steeple-house preach that we have “a more sure Word of prophecy” and then […]