Events

Walking in the World as a Friend: Community Practice Group

Subtitle
Essential Quaker Practices
September 16, 2024
October 21, 2024
November 18, 2024
7:15 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern

Details

Join Nadine Hoover and Beth Collea in the simple yet powerful essential practices described in Walking in the World as a Friend.

We invite participants to commit to practicing for three months, September to November, to experiment with listening inwardly to love and conscience working within us, testing discernment, recording, and yielding—and keeping a journal of an experiment with Spirit in our lives.

We encourage participants to find a companion that you can meet with every week or two over the three months of the course. It would be great if you both attend the sessions, but not necessary. During these sessions, we will pair Friends up randomly for companion time to broaden our experience.

7:00 Visiting or counsel—informal exchange
7:15 Welcome & Worship—listen inwardly for messages and journal messages
7:45 Companions—share messages or testimonies arising
8:15 Discernment—testify and receive feedback and record
8:45 Closing—comments
9:00 Close

Tests of Discernment:

  • Sense of the Spirit
  • Persistence in the silence
  • Simplicity, seemingly trivial or impossible, not willful or desired
  • Integrity: honesty, authenticity, and consistency
  • Consistent with texts of other practicing communities/scripture
  • Writing in a journal or log
  • Reflection and feedback from companions
  • Recorded by monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting communities
  • Published in writing, art, news, courts, or law
  • Experience of the fruits: love, joy, peace, strength, compassion,
beauty, truth, equality, and liberty

Resources for these workshops:
Click here for the videos
Click here to purchase the book, Walking in the World as a Friend
Click here for a free PDF of Walking in the World as a Friend
Click here for the article, “Lessons from Thriving Meetings"