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by Douglas Gwyn

A well-known Quaker historian explores the qualities of Quaker faith and practice that contribute to living sustainably in the world today. He explores such paradoxes as equality and community, unity and differentiation, integrity and personal discernment, and other aspects of life that Quakers have worked to bring into balance through their 350-year history. How have Quakers learned to create the kind of individual and community life that can prepare us to live fully and responsibly into a time of social and planetary change?

QuakerPress of FGC 2014
Paperback
210 pp
ISBN:1-937768-55-4

A short excerpt

The Covenant of Light

by Douglas Gwyn

Living more consistently attuned to the light/seed, we become more faithful to a presence that abides faithfully with us. We are befriending God, who is ready to help us and heal our lives, but who respects our freedom and must be actively invited into our lives. This is the beginning of life in the covenant, a very open-ended set of relationships that play out in three dimensions.

First, an open-ended relationship with God. Quaker faith and practice is rooted in a living experience and deep understanding of Christ. But the light we understand as Christ abides in people everywhere. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, pagans, non-theists, atheists—all have access to this transforming, enlightening, saving presence. They will name it with whatever terms are available and meaningful to them. Creeds are counter-productive, even to Christian faith. They turn participation in the life of God into propositions about God. Not only do creeds rule out people who don’t have the “right answers,” they also invite hypocrisy when Christians mouth beliefs they don’t understand or secretly doubt. So an open-ended relationship with God is participation in a reality we cannot fully understand or set boundaries on.

Second, an open-ended relationship with others. The more attuned we become to the light within ourselves, the more we recognize it in widening varieties of people. Our belief that the same light enlightens all kinds of people invites new friendships, mutual respect and cooperation between women and men, different races, classes, and cultures. It prohibits us from resorting to violence – physical, verbal, emotional – to solve our conflicts. We seek to befriend the stranger, even the enemy, in the search for a peaceful life together. Friendship is a polymorphous form of relationship that bridges social boundaries and subverts hierarchies of all kinds. Friendship is patient listening, waiting for the truth of the situation to emerge through dialogue. We live the covenant of light by extending friendship toward others. Widening experiences of friendship naturally lead us into community action and political advocacy to ensure the full rights and privileges of all members of society, to promote alternatives to violence, to oppose war.

Third, an open-ended relationship with the earth. Befriending God within ourselves and “that of God in every one” is an embodied life. It is spiritual practice that locates the divine presence in our bodies. It is also material practice that leads us to live peacefully and equitably with others – and to live more simply on the earth. Quaker spiritual practice is primarily non-verbal. When we suspend language and quiet our minds, we not only become more centered in our bodies. We also feel more distinctly our relationship with the earth and its species of life. We become better stewards of God’s creation, befriending the earth and its creatures. We become less “territorial” – physically, emotionally, economically, culturally and religiously.

by Ann Trueblood Raper

A Quaker Courtship is an intimate, endearing story of love and a tantalizing glimpse of the life, key leaders and organizations among Quakers in 1922, revealed in letters, photographs and telegrams exchanged almost daily by Paul Furnas and Betty Walter as they met, courted and planned to marry.

Paul and Betty were Quakers from different branches of Friends: the Furnases were Orthodox and the Walters were Hicksite. Their own courtship coincided with an effort among young adult Friends to unite these disparate branches and revive the Religious Society of Friends in the United States. As leaders of this movement much was made of their own union.

A Quaker Courtship was written and edited by Ann Trueblood Raper, who discovered their letters and became immersed in their world. It is an annotated memoir of the love of Paul and Betty, largely in their own words.

Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Ann Trueblood Raper (September 4, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0692254900
ISBN-13: 978-0692254905

BOUNTY: Lopez Island Farmers, Food, and Community is a 124-page book that combines photographs, profiles, and recipes to present an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to bring food from earth to table on Lopez Island.

Photography by Steve Horn, Summer Moon Scriver, and Robert S. Harrison; profiles by Iris Graville; recipes created by Chef Kim Bast.

Available from the author: iris@irisgraville.com

Hands at Work – Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands is a collection of dramatic black and white portraits, by Summer Moon Scriver along with companion profiles by Iris Graville, that captures the drama and tells the stories of people who work with their hands.

The 144-page coffee-table book offers 23 full-length profiles and three themed collages of people passionate about their work. Many of the 126 black-and-white art images are printed larger than life. Viewed in such deft detail, hands take on sensual elegance; an oboe player’s thumb and forefinger steady his instrument; a midwife’s hand clasps the palm of a laboring mother. Author Graville also moves in close, allowing individuals to speak with unselfconscious candor. Written in the tradition of Studs Turkel’s classic book, Working, Graville and Scriver have created a collection of stories that connect and inspire.

Available from the author: iris@irisgraville.com and amazon.com.