Where do we go from here?

2025-04-05 Presented during the 400th Anniversary Review of Fox's birthday

Context: I was asked to offer a playful, imaginative presentation as a last thought for our day long conference looking at George Fox's 400th birthday (last year) and what was learned from those events and where Friends might be at the time 2052 (the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the Quaker movement). This is what I shared.

There was a loud crack. A bang and sudden smoke. Out of nowhere emerged a Friend from the future wearing a white lab coat, hair frazzled, goggles, stumbling.

It was summer in the year 1700. This Quaker scientist had done the unthinkable. They discovered time travel and it worked.

Now they stood outside Swarthmoor Hall, only 400 years younger.

The Friend came from the year 2052 and had worked on time travel for 25 years.

Once successful, the Time-Traveling Friend secured a joint-traveling minute from Britain Yearly Meeting and FWCC world office to journey back and connect with a first-generation Quaker elder, bringing their wisdom to Friends today.

The Friend wanted to visit Margaret Fell, believing she was the unsung co-founder of Quakerism. Without her, Quakerism would never have become a movement.

Here stood Swarthmoor Hall. Their smart-watch displayed: June 10, 1700.

The Friend mustered up the courage to knock. The door opened to reveal an elderly woman in a red dress. They exchanged introductions and Ms. Fell invited The Friend inside for tea and scones.

They talked all day. Fell shared stories of the first Generation of Friends - what they cared about, what challenged them, and where the movement stood now.

She was excited to talk about writing a letter to Quakers just months ago that captured her concerns about the movement's direction:

"We are now coming into that which Christ cried woe against, minding altogether outward things, neglecting the inward work of Almighty God in our hearts, if we can but frame according to outward prescriptions and orders, and deny eating and drinking with our neighbours, in so much that poor Friends is mangled in their minds, that they know not what to do, for one Friend says one way, and another another, but Christ Jesus saith, that we must take no thought what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall put on, but bids us consider the lilies how they grow, in more royalty than Solomon.

"But contrary to this, we must look at no colours, nor make anything that is changeable colours as the hills are, nor sell them, nor wear them: but we must be all in one dress and one colour: this is a silly poor Gospel. It is more fit for us, to be covered with God's Eternal Spirit, and clothed with his Eternal Light, which leads us and guides us into righteousness. Now I have set before you life and death, and desire you to choose life, and God and his truth. -Margaret Fox, April 1700

In turn, the Friend told stories of present day Quakerism, the challenges they faced with the rise of Authoritarianism in the West, Wars, Quaker meetings in decline and the Global ones growing. The Friend spoke of the ways that Quakerism had become overly simplified over the years, reduced to just 5 or 6 words, often disconnected from its roots of spiritual resistance, and the ways Friends struggled to maintain a cohesive message. The Friend also spoke of the ways that Quakerism was diverse, beautiful, adaptive, and that many Quakers actively sacrificed for the common good of those in their community.

Night fell, and Ms. Fell invited the Friend to stay before traveling home. After breakfast and more tea, the Friend returned to their time machine, waved goodbye, and pressed the button to return to 2052.

Upon arrival, excitement swelled. What had the Friend learned? Quakers gathered from everywhere to hear.

What The Friend Learned

The Friend walked up to the podium and began.

"Thank you for supporting my ministry of time-travel. And thank you for being here today. It is hard for me to sum up what I have learned from my visit with Margaret Fell, but I can say that she was as wonderful, smart, powerful, and yes, beautiful as we all imagine."

"She was even wearing a red dress when she answered the door!"

[Laughter could be heard throughout the room].

"I saw that no pristine version of history exists. The Quaker movement, our spiritual tradition of resistance, emerged amid brutal realities, genuine struggle, and failures. A time like ours."

"It endured through deep commitment to each other and to the living Christ. She urged us to recommit to 'the inward work of Almighty God in our hearts.'"

"Now, let me share how early Friends' responses might help us continue in 2052 (and some questions that could become some of our future work)."

Early Friends were present oriented

They cared less about the past than we do as modern day friends. They also cared less about the future. Fell's main concern was drifting from the present Christ.

They embraced a theology grounded in the reality of Christ's presence now. One of the distinguishing features that stands out to me was that many believed that there was not going to be a second future coming of Christ—that it had already taken place - spiritually.

Whereas Empire always leads people to believe there is some future victory still coming, if only we can finally rid our country of the necessary enemies.

Quakerism teaches that the coming victory in Christ is already here. And if that is the case, our work is to not just be faithful and live into that reality, but stop structuring our communities in a way that is based on us vs them, but instead is based on a vision of "Gospel Order" or the blessed community as Thomas Kelly once called it.

Total reliance on the past or preoccupation with the future extracts us from the present suffering of our neighbors.

Some questions that arise from this for us now:

• How do Friends think about and deal with issues of the present. As much as we need new histories, we also need current theologies. How might Friends resist rising authoritianism?
• Is there that of God in Machine Learning?
• As community and individuals continue to fracture, what role does technogloy play in pushing us further apart or bringing us together? Are members of our meetings more or less lonely now that so much of what we do is on zoom?
• What is a vision of the blessed community for our time now?

Our Quaker Ancestors sought a robust Christianity before empire

Early Friends committed to Primitive Christianity Revived. These were not Fell's words but she acknowledged them as summing up their perspective.

Their understanding of Christianity predated its conversion (and subversion) to the religion of empire under Constantine. Early Friends often talked about this great hypocrisy of Christianity metaphorically, "mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots" as Fox once said.

Today, a version of Christianity in the West has once again become the religion of empire. White Christian Nationalism is an extremist religion that is not only a toxic aberration of the heart of the original Gospel, it fundamentally perverts what Early Quakers imagined. Those early Friends created robust communities and practices rooted in spiritual connection to the Inward Light of Christ, believing that would help them resist these kinds of perversions.

As Quakers today, we must resist this perversion, name it clearly, and embody the spirituality of resistance we inherit.

Some questions that arise from this for us now:

• Is there a Quaker lens that aligns with the anti-imperial readings of the Bible? One that might help re-narrate christianity as a religion of liberation?
• Is there a strong, robust vision of Quakerism that will enable our communities to resist and withstand empire in all its forms?
• What are Quaker practices of resistence that might be renewed or newly established - that will not only revitalize Quaker community - but more importantly bringing liberation to the poor and releasing the captives.
• What are the ways we tell our history that re-enforce whiteness, colonilization, patriarchy, and other views that limit our moral imagination for the future?

Early Friends stood with those facing injustice

One last thing that feels important to point out is this: Early Friends, including Margaret, knew prison's harsh conditions firsthand. There they heard stories from the poor and marginalized - people with backs against the wall, forgotten by society.

John Woolman visited both enslavers and the enslaved, hearing their stories and advocating for them. He spoke with Native Americans like the Lenape to understand their struggles.

North Carolina abolitionist Levi Coffin's "sympathy with the oppressed" began at age 7 after meeting enslaved Africans who described family separation, forced labor, and beatings. Later, Levi, his wife Katherine, and cousin Vestal partnered with freed and enslaved Black people like "Sol" to connect freedom-seekers with the Underground Railroad.

Elizabeth Fry reformed prisons after spending countless hours with incarcerated women, hearing their experiences and needs.

Clara Cox, a white Quaker preacher from Guilford College in the early 1900s, committed herself to the poor and presided over the South Women's Anti-Lynching League when such stands endangered lives. Her commitments grew from relationships with those on society's margins.

Margaret showed me that early Friends connected deeply with those who suffered. Their lives, stories, and wisdom shaped Quaker witness.

I believe we must become true neighbors. We must draw close despite social structures that separate us. We must know the suffering of friends and enemies alike to follow Jesus, who lived among the poor, fed them, healed them, organized them, and built community with them.

The meeting house must no longer exist as a safe haven only for us. It cannot function as a hideout where the Quaker tradition transforms from a movement to a museum. We must, like our ancestors - in faithful courage - journey into the world, extend our relationships, show up to support others, and build networks of trust if we are again to build networks of freedom.

Our call is to come out of empire in every age. To resist it. To remain faithful to the work of Christ and Christ's kingdom alone, work that embraces nonviolence, roots itself in love and justice, commits to the seed of God in every single person on this planet, and builds an alternative community that has no need for enemies or scapegoats.

I believe this is indeed is a much more serious and robust Gospel.

Some questions that arise from this for us now:

• Are we steeped enough in our tradition and spirituality that we are able, like those mentioned above, to translate the call of faithfulness in our own times?
• Whose lives, whose voices are we close enough to to hear? Whose experiences inform our actions?
• If our meetings were to vanish tomorrow, who in our communities would notice that we were gone?
• Do we have ways of thinking about the kinds of churches and meetings we want to be, and a vision of what we can become? Do we have a center to our faith and practice that we can speak to, that nurtures us, and brings life to those we meet?
• Are we willing to experiment knowing that we might fail?

[And with that, the Friend sat down as the community gathered in a listening silence]