Current Discussion Topic

Summer 2025

Hello Friends,
In May, we will resume our Quaker study group by reading a book by Lloyd Lee Wilson, Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order. This study group will run from May to September at take place in our room at Community Presbyterian Church in Atlantic Beach. Please check the calendar for dates and times.
Friends can purchase the book by clicking here. The link takes you to Barclay Press, which has the best and cheapest version of the book. The book, though, is published by Quaker Press of Friends General Conference. Amazon only has expensive and older versions of the book, so avoid Amazon. I’ll provide three copies of the book for attendees who aren’t able to purchase it for any reason. If you aren’t able to get the book in time for the May class, I can make copies of the essays we’ll read and email them out. If you think you might be interested in participating in this study, reply to this email to let me know.
About the Author and Book
The author of this book, Lloyd Lee Wilson, is a former clerk of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and former General Secretary of Friends General Conference. For those who aren’t familiar, “Conservative” here doesn’t refer to politics but to Quaker meetings that most “conserve” original Quaker practices and the Society of Friends’s Christian roots. Though we are a Liberal Quaker worship group and part of a Liberal yearly meeting, I think Wilson’s writings possess a unique spiritual and intellectual depth that make them valuable to Friends of any persuasion.
Wilson’s book is a collection of twelve essays that fall under three broad headings: “The Quaker Message,” “Spiritual Gifts and the Faith Community,” and “Witness and Testimonies.” A theme linking these essays is the idea of “gospel order,” a phrase often used by George Fox. According to Wilson, “gospel order is the order established by God that exists in every part of creation, transcending the chaos that seems so often prevalent. It is the right relationship of every part of creation, however small, to every other part and to the Creator. . . . An attention to gospel order enables the meeting faith community to perceive and accept the spiritual gifts which God offers, as well as to develop and exercise those gifts as God desires. Finally, gospel order is both a distinctive aspect of Quaker witness and testimony and the means by which Friends come to understand how they are to witness to the world.”
Please let me know if you might be interested in joining our study group or if you have any questions.
Scott
Scott L. Matthews
Professor of History
Florida State College at Jacksonville

Spring 2025

Getting Acquainted with Quakerism in Jacksonville: Past and Present “
 
During this session we will explore the history of Quakerism here in Jacksonville in two ways.  
 
First, if you have the chance, we hope that you will visit the Currents of Faith  — Belief at the Beaches exhibit at the Beaches Museum before we meet.  The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and Sundays, noon – 4 p.m.  Admission is free.  The exhibit will be available until Sunday, February 16th.  We will have the chance to talk about your ideas and impressions of the exhibit, especially as the panels illustrate the various faiths’ presence at the Beaches, and Quakerism among them.  If you haven’t been able to go see the exhibit yet, we can talk about what questions you might have about faith traditions in the Beaches area.
 
Second, as we consider our place in the religious community at the Beaches, and discern our calling as a Quaker worship group, we also want to reflect on our meeting’s past.  
 
Jacksonville Quakers have had a presence in our community for at least 92 years.  How is our meeting’s history a light leading us into the future?
 
Attached is a set of articles from Jacksonville newspapers about the activities of Quakers in Jacksonville between 1933 (the first mention of a Quaker meeting in Jacksonville) and 1986 (when news about Jacksonville Quakers begins to fade).  The newspaper database we used only goes through the early 1990s.  
 
The articles don’t tell the full history of the Jacksonville Friends Meeting but do give us some examples of its work and faithfulness.  Here are some questions to consider after reading the articles:  
 
1. When you read these articles, did some of the events surprise you? If so, which ones and why? 
2. Are there any threads that seem to knit the articles together for you?
3. What insights do you have about our Quaker past in Jacksonville?
4.  What additional questions do you have about other Quaker activities here in Jacksonville?
5. How might the past work of Jacksonville Quakers help guide us in the future?
 
We are looking forward to seeing you on Friday.
 
Scott Matthews
Sarah Sharp 

Fall 2024

This fall and winter our Quaker study group will read and discuss three Pendle Hill pamphlets: ‘Forging Beloved Community with Friends’ by Bridget Moix, ‘Humanity in the Face of Inhumanity’ by Sue Williams, and ‘A Culture of Faithfulness’ by Marcelle Martin. We chose these pamphlets because they speak to issues relevant to our growing worship group and tumultuous world. Our hope is that our discussions will help us discern how to best live out our Quaker testimonies for each other and the communities in which we live.

October 2024

Our first reading is “Forging Beloved Community with Friends” by Bridget Moix. This lecture is also available on line by coping the follow link into your browser:

Forging Beloved Community with Friends, with Bridget Moix – Stephen G. Cary Memorial Lecture 2023

Here is a set of Questions concerning our selected reading for Quaker Study Group on Friday.

Scott Mathews and Sarah Sharp will be leading the discussion.

  1. What does Moix mean by a “beloved community” (title, p. 21)?  How about some of the other terms that she uses in her pamphlet, such as “Refiner’s Fire”/”transformative fire” (pp. 6, 13, 15);  “chrysalises,” “cocoon,” “womb” (pp. 8, 14)?  What do these terms mean to us as individuals, as Quakers?
  2. Moix tells us that she drew the phrase “Refiner’s Fire” and its imagery from the writings of Marcelle Martin (p. 6).  Martin herself drew upon early Quakers’ writings for this phrase.  Together, Moix and Martin give us the chance to think about past Quakers, here in the United States and elsewhere.  How do all of these references to other Quakers affect your thinking about Friends’ history, activities, and ideas?
  3.  On pp. 10-11, Moix lists the ways that “our world is in turmoil…”  Which of these weighs heaviest on you?  Or is there another way that isn’t listed?  How do you make your own path forward as a person and as a Quaker to absorb or confront what concerns you most?