Convergent Friends - August 5th 2006

Who Are Congergent Friends?

"Describes Friends who are seeking a deeper understanding of our Quaker heritage and a more authentic life in the kingdom of God on Earth, radically inclusive of all who seek to live this life. It includes, among others, Friends from the politically liberal end of the evangelical branch and from the Christian end of the unprogrammed branch.

Metaphorically, it suggests that Friends are moving closer together towards some common point on the horizon. Put otherwise, I would say that the winds of the Spirit are blowing across all the branches of Friends - blowing us in the same direction. Linguistically, it alludes to an affinity for both Conservative Friends and the Emergent Church.

Why do we need the Convergent Friends conversation?

"We tend to be a bit too “anachronistic” in the way iwe interpret our earlier [Quaker] history. I have too been guilty of this, as its easy to do, but we need try and avoid these kinds of interpretations on both sides. We need to begin to push beyond the old categories of liberalism, conservativism, moderatism, Evangelicalism and universalism (and all the more quirky designations we’ve come up with along the way) as they do not help us get beyond our old struggles.

Arguing over who is and who isn’t a Quaker, whether Fox was an Evangelical, Liberal, Universalist, or even Buddhist is getting our tradition nowhere. These were not questions Fox dealt with, because they were not questions the world dealt with for at least another one hundred years. We need people who are willing to exegete Fox’s theology and culture in a way that can provide us with translatable ideas and practices for the postmodern world, in the same breath we need those people to help us exegete our own culture and tell us what parts of the old is no longer of use.

Other Resources

• Quaker Blogs - QuakerQuaker.org