Quaker Life, Sabbath, Fall 2023

Purchase a single copy of the Fall 2023 issue of Quaker Life: A mosaic of Friendly living on the theme of Sabbath.

Authors for this edition include Katherine Murray, Julie Rudd, Paul Graseck, Hannah Lutz, Tom Palmer, Emily Provence, Kelly Kellum, Phil Baisley, Katie Terrell, and a book review by Lynn Peery Mills.

All of our authors in this Sabbath-themed issue of Quaker Life agree that setting aside time for rest, reflection, and renewal is difficult—not only setting aside an entire day, as the words of Moses command, but even a portion of an hour. Yet they also agree that such time, whether on Sunday, an alternate weekday, or a small portion of time throughout the day, isn’t simply a legalistic observance but a practice with deep benefit for our souls.

Several of our authors consider the ways that they’ve discovered to find Sabbath time. Katherine Murray writes about her twin discoveries that she actually has more time than she thinks, and that it is God—and not her checkbook—which is her Savior. Paul Graseck discovers that each day can be filled with quiet moments of solitude and inactivity in which we can discover the connectedness of the world, and awe with a lower-case A. Tom Palmer writes that if we see Sabbath as an attitude, and not simply a day—which should come naturally to Friends for whom all of life can be sacramental—we will be able to experience Sabbath throughout our days.

Kelly Kellum suggests some methods to find Sabbath time outside the parameters of Sundays, including through the practice of self-examination, and by remembering that our true identity comes from who we are as beloved children of God, not from what we do or accomplish.

Hannah Lutz writes about her discovery that the work of Love is not exhausting once we discover that we don’t create or manufacture the Love we express. The Love we act upon arises in God’s graceful Love for us. Because we are not an engine creating Love, we can have the experience of which Christ assures in Matthew 11:28: an easy yoke, and light burden.

Julie Rudd writes about learning to see obstacles as, sometimes, God’s gathering in, God’s protection. In a similar vein, Katie Terrell considers how the observance of Sabbath allows us to practice the art of being interrupted, to practice relinquishing control and submitting to God’s initiative—for our own good, and for the greater good.

Phil Baisley brings together the two ideas of Sabbath as interruption and Sabbath as set-aside time when he writes about the surprising ways that God can lead a worship service away from what a pastor has planned for it, and draw it into a deeper, unanticipated manifestation of the Spirit in motion.

Emily Provance writes about the physiological and psychological necessity, in times of social and physical turmoil, of stepping away from our focus on problems and into times of imagination, creativity, unhindered expressions of joy. Stepping away from our focus on the world’s suffering at some times is necessary in order for us to develop the mind’s capacity to face those problems head on at other times.

Also in this issue, Lynn Peery Mills reviews the book, Annice Carter’s Life of Quaker Service. The book holds special interest for Mills, who met Carter on several occasions. Mills found the book especially interesting in describing the sweep of Carter’s life and some of the beliefs that anchored it.

— Daniel J. Kasztelan, Quaker Life editor

————

No fish were harmed in the making of this edition’s cover photo.

Individual subscriptions in the US/Canada are $40/year; click here.

For group discounts, please call the FUM office at 765-962-7573 or email your inquiry to info@fum.org.