This fall Swarthmore Meeting is offering a 7-week Tuesday night class on the Quaker Spiritual Journey, taught by Marcelle Martin, using her book Our Life is Love as the text. We will examine and discuss ten elements of the Quaker spiritual journey as experienced by the first Quakers, by contemporary Friends, and by ourselves. Class time will include large group discussion and sharing in pairs or trios.
The class will meet on second and last Tuesdays, 7:15 to 9:00 pm, from September 13th until mid December. The dates are: September 13, 27, October 11, 25, November 8, 29, December 13.
Reading between sessions is about 20-30 pages over two weeks. Books can be purchased in advance or at the first session. Advance reading for the first session is available online at InnerLightBooks.com (pages 1-26).
A donation to Swarthmore Meeting is requested: $50 (or whatever you can afford).
Swarthmore Friends Meeting • 12 Whittier Place • Swarthmore, PA 19081
For more information or to register, use the Contact box below.
About the book Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey:
From the August 2016 Friends Journal book review by Marty Grundy:
I wholeheartedly recommend this book for any Friend or meeting that yearns for the heart of Quaker faith and practice, summed up here by paraphrasing William Penn: that we must be changed ourselves before we can change the world.
From the QuakerBooks March 2016 “Ellen’s Corner” book review by Ellen Michaud:
The brief but well-crafted stories of 33 early Quakers like Elizabeth Hooten and James Nayler evoke powerful, piercing images that offer concrete examples of spiritual journeys from which to extract valuable lessons, as do the 62 stories of more contemporary Quakers such as Richard Taylor, Eva Hermann, and Thomas Kelly. … As a result, and particularly if one or another of its chapters is read in the meeting community and accompanied by reflection and discussion, Our Life is Love will help each of us recognize who we are as a people, where we’ve been, where we are, and—as Way opens—where we’re being led. It’s an amazing journey. And we are so blessed to be on it.
From the Foreward by Carole Spencer:
This book … can build a holy bridge among all branches and traditions of Friends who have the courage to walk across it, so please pass it on! It will also capture the imagination of spiritual seekers of all faiths, far beyond the bounds of the Religious Society of Friends, for the spiritual journey Marcelle describes is not limited to any one tradition. May your encounter with Our Life Is Love surprise you with new and fresh insights into the spirituality of early Friends and reveal hidden moments in your own journey….
Our Life is Love can be ordered from Inner Light Books in hardback, paperback, and ebook. The book is also available from QuakerBooks, at the bookstore on the campus of Pendle Hill.
A Whole Heart 