Monday, November 14, 2011 by Jay T.

I found a lesson one Saturday last summer, but the learning didn’t crystallize until two days ago.  The Greek Orthodox Church in Beaverton held their annual festival on a day when I was in Portland helping Linda set up for dye workshop.  Helping her leaves me free to roam in the city or its surroundings during the middle of the day.

I went to the Greek festival for the food and dancing, but there found the booth where the Orthodox clerics explained their faith.  One of their deacons, named Innocent in the church, was open to drawing contrasts with my faith.  We spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes.  He mentioned that he’d be giving a tour of their meeting room and a talk on their form of worship later.

With bells on, I came early for the tour.  I didn’t need to bring the bells, they had some there.  Not only bells, but smells.  I noticed the incense as I walked through the door.  And pictures–lots of them.  In a flat two dimensional style with vibrant colors.  The iconographer in the lobby had told me a bit about the training and apprenticeship that qualified her to do this work.  She did it with great care and prayer.  Elaborate woodwork.  Choral music–a capella, but in a distinct style with four parts.  Innocent explained that all of this was very carefully done to bring worshipers into God’s presence and out of the ordinary world we inhabit through the week.

This morning, dozens of years after learning that Quakerism doesn’t try to make those contrasts and several months after the smells, sights and explication of the Orthodox worship room, I came to understand why Friends keep our meeting places simple.  Friends want to maximize the similarity between sacred and profane, between worship and work in order to facilitate transfer of the skills and habits we learn in worship.  We don’t want the meeting house to be much different from our homes and our work places, because we don’t want our attitudes to be much different as we move through the week.

The home, the office, the classroom, the barn and the meeting house are all places to meet with God.  Why should we set up the meeting house to look or feel different from anywhere else we find ourselves?

Posted in Faith & Practice, Journal | 1 Comment »

Monday, July 13, 2009 by Jay T.

My name’s Jay and I’m a television addict.  I watched a great deal when I was a kid.  Some of it still rattles around in my head.  Not the “programming” so much.  I’m a good student, so I remember the main point of the TV productions.  The marketing.

Perhaps you, too, remember, “Stop!  Now you can pour a beautiful floor.” Or the Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots!

In the 60’s the kid shows advertised a game called Tip It.  Players took turns placing weights on a platform, balanced in the center on a small fulcrum.  Whoever made the platform tip too far lost.  I never owned or even played the game, but, thanks to the TV spots before my eyes, I remember how to play it and how much fun it must be.  And how much I would be missing out by not nagging my parents until they got it for me.

When I sat down in a sparsely attended meeting for worship yesterday, half the attenders were on one side of the room.  The other half (plus one) of us on the other.  A bunch of chairs and empty space were in between.  Then from my rattling head pops out the image of Tip It.

The meeting room in Corvallis is hexagonal.  The ceiling beams come to a point above the middle of the room.  Above there’s a windowed cupola which sheds light on us sitting below it.  I wondered if we were balanced on a point in the middle of the floor, or hung from the top of the cupola, which way would the whole thing swing? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith & Practice, Keeping low | 2 Comments »

Sunday, January 4, 2009 by Jay T.

I escorted my wife this foggy  Sunday morning on the way to Portland.  She was teaching a fabric art class at A Common Thread.  I was planning to worship somewhere in the Portland area, then attend a threshing session with Multnomah Friends Meeting on the revision of Faith & Practice.

I wasn’t sure where to worship.  When out of town, I often want to try something new.   A Google search for ‘agnus dei Portland’ yielded little.  Somehow, I figured out I wanted Imago Dei Community.  The website told me it met at the wrong times.  I didn’t want to walk in late when I wasn’t sure I would even remain.  [Be patient, this involved story is leading somewhere.]

My best choices seemed to be arriving on time to West Hills Friends, where I had visited twice over the past dozen years, or arriving late at Multnomah.

She drove.  I dozed.   By our arrival at the site of her class, I knew I wanted to arrive on time and stay awake at West Hills.  That felt a better option than arriving late and sleeping in the back of the farther away silent meeting.

Mike’s message at West Hills invited us to live in faith that God will lead us through our lives in this new year–moment  to moment, obviating the need for rules to live by.

During the worship following, I found myself reflecting on discernment.  Patricia Loring has cued me in on the prospects for discovery over a lifetime of a feeling and sensing way of discernment. “Earlier Friends, ” she writes, “often spoke of  ‘feeling after’ Truth…” (Loring, P.  1999. Listening Spirituality:  Corporate Spiritual Practice Among Friends.  Openings Press.  p. 73.)  This is different from the clear life leadings (career, marriage) with which God has shaken me in my boots and brought me to blessings beyond any I could expect.  This is practicing moment-to-moment reliance on the Spirit to help know which street to take or which coat to wear. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith & Practice, Prayer, Journal | 1 Comment »

Friday, December 5, 2008 by Jay T.

And for the principles of the Society, I would claim no inflexible, invariable form of manifestation. They are principles of life, and in life there is growth,and variety, and adaptation to time and place.

                   from Joel Bean, Why I Am A Friend, 1894

Posted in Conversations with Remarkable Friends, Faith & Practice | 1 Comment »

Thursday, November 27, 2008 by Jay T.

By words it is not possible to judge another’s approach.  Words speak only the dead ideas that may flow from a living Spirit or an active–but essentially lifeless–principle.  Or they may flow from self seeking motivation cloaked in high language and good thoughts.  The news has brought us some stories of prominent preachers brought low when their self seeking was discovered.

This distinction is at the root of the differing experience around perfection.  Fox, underpinned by the leading of the Light–touching his very personal self from the moment he was coming into the world–could make claims that Paul and Winstanely (I think.) would admit they’d fall short of–because they were at heart the old man with a new man’s cloak.

What claims can we make?  What can we live up to?  What is underpinning me?  As I teach?  As I write?  As I love? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith & Practice, Journal | 1 Comment »

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by Jay T.

 I wrote the invitation below for my local meeting.  Some information about the workshop is at the top.  Then there is a list of the topics we had available to read about and perhaps discuss.  Third is a bibliography for the readings.

Friends have some unique and wonderful ways of deciding things together.  You’re invited to participate in learning more about them in a September Workshop on Community Discernment at Corvallis Friends Meeting.  We plan for two sessions before worship on 9/7 and 9/21/2008.  This could expand to more sessions, if we need it and are led there.

This is a response to some inklings felt by the Committees on Ministry & Oversight and Adult Religious Education.  Our meeting has many people serving in new responsibilities this year.   We have a unique organization with volunteer coordinators and short term volunteers that we all could benefit from careful consideration of.  We hope this session will be of use to all in our meeting and of particular use to committee clerks.

I have selected and copied some readings on various topics.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith & Practice | 1 Comment »

Saturday, September 22, 2007 by Jay T.

This morning’s prayers were filled with understandings of love and fear, judgement and acceptance.

For about a week, I’ve been consciously struggling through my obsession with issues at school.  It’s the start of the year, there’s much to think about and work overflows and preoccupies too much space in my life.   Unconsciously, this just happened from Labor Day or before until about a week ago.  I’ve been aware of it since then, praying and finding some healing.  Long term, I’ll be OK, I’m sure.

School is a place of judgement, sorting and evaluation.  This affects students powerfully.  It affects me as an employee, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith & Practice, Prayer, Journal | 1 Comment »