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| Friends approve the epistle from Nordic Yearly Meeting 2025, Stavanger, Norway. |
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| Michael Eccles and Julia Ryberg (with Arturo) were the Nordic Yearly Meeting's main speakers. |
I wrote last week's post during the first evening of the combined Nordic Yearly Meeting of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish Friends, July 3-6, 2025.
A week later, I'm back home, a little wobbly from 27 hours of travel but very grateful for my experiences and for the hospitality of Friends. Here are a few of my main impressions.
The departure of the sloop Restauration on its commemorative transatlantic voyage (video and links on last week's post) was a highlight of the first full day of the gathering, and marked a special anniversary in the history of Norwegian Quakers (and Norwegian-American history generally).
However, in the full context of the Nordic Yearly Meeting, this commemoration was not the center of attention. Friends conducted business in business sessions of their national yearly meetings and service organizations, received a live report from the Gaza Strip and collected funds for work in Gaza, and enjoyed each other's company in worship meetings and a variety of other settings. Our main speakers, Michael Eccles (Britain Yearly Meeting and Friends World Committee for Consultation, European and Middle East Section) and Julia Hinshaw-Ryberg (who has served Sweden Yearly Meeting and FWCC EMES in a variety of roles), interviewed each other on their experiences serving Friends and their encouragement to Nordic Friends to use their differences and commonalities to serve each other, Friends everywhere, and the wider world.
I didn't attend the separate Norwegian or Swedish business meetings, but heard that Norwegian Friends minuted that "... transgender, non-binary and all others, regardless of gender identity and gender expression, are welcome among Quakers." The full minute is available on Norway Yearly Meeting's Web site. (An unofficial bilingual version is here.)
Two overall impressions and one question:
Idealism: Given all the national and temperamental differences among participants, and the general acknowledgment of crises and tragedies in our world, Friends retain our idealism. In the social evening, we sang "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" without embarrassment. In the final meeting, one Friend stood and simply said, "'Here the Gospel of Joy begins.' Mark, chapter one, verse one." We remain a hopeful people.
Discernment: Friends continue to make space for quiet discernment. Prayer was evident and was invited often. All voices were heard, whether gentle or passionate.
Question: It's the same question I've had for fifty years. In the marketplace of faith communities and spiritual options, why do Quakers remain such a microscopic presence? Will we ever overcome our diffidence on the one hand, and our exceptionalist conceits (our boutique mentality) on the other, and finally provide access to a wider range of seekers?
I asked a related question in one of the Nordic Yearly Meeting workshops. Noting that we have often provided a safer alternative for skeptics and refugees from authoritarian religiosity, I asked whether we could also work harder to welcome people who are enthusiastic about their faith in Jesus but need a trustworthy place to live out that faith without power plays, theatrics, and exploitation of their enthusiasm?
The answer I got was familiar and dismissive—more or less "let the happy-clappy people go elsewhere." But is it a coincidence that our greatest period of growth was when we risked everything in the trust that "Christ has come to teach his people himself"? Now we generally offer a choice between varieties of generic evangelicalism on the one hand or "a quiet faith for a quiet people" on the other. Creative hybrids do exist, but as far as I can see, not many. And even in our tame state, miracles do happen! Still, if it's up to us, we may functionally become chaplaincies for ourselves and people we are already comfortable with.
It's come to this: In a Nordic population of about 28 million people, Friends number several hundred. In our faith movement's country of origin, Britain, we once reached something like 60,000 (1.15% of the population at the time, 1680); with the same proportion, we would now have roughly 800,000 Quakers in Britain, rather than the current figure of under 20,000 members and attenders.
God's promises will be fulfilled one way or another, whatever we Friends decide to do about increasing access to the trustworthy communities we're trying to build, and the amazing qualities and potential of those communities. So why do I remain discontent?
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Peter Blood-Patterson believes that the revival has come.
A Swedish-language children's book based on the story of Julia Hinshaw-Ryberg and Arturo, her 57-year-old parrot companion, is scheduled for publication in August 2025. Details here. Translations in Spanish and English are planned as well. We enjoyed Arturo's company at the Nordic Yearly Meeting.
Here are links to the epistles from Nordic Yearly Meeting 2025.
Meanwhile ... Rule by caprice, malice, and decree: a recent summary by Heather Cox Richardson. "Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon."
Jemar Tisby comments on Trump's personal army.
Philip Bump on useful political lessons from Zohran Mamdani's college application. "America's understanding of race and ethnicity is still woefully simplistic."
Russia's Communist Party declares its disagreement with Khrushchev's historic "secret" speech denouncing Stalin's cult of personality.
Peter Wehner ponders the lack of evangelical response to the U.S. administration's abandonment of the bipartisan PEPFAR campaign against HIV.
It’s a revealing comparison: A decision by a venerated Christian relief agency to hire Christians in same-sex relationships caused an immediate, angry, and explosive reaction across the evangelical world, while the decision to effectively end a program that has saved more than 25 million lives on the African continent barely registers. Few of those who are aware of what’s happening have anything to say about it. And many who are inclined to say something pull back, fearful of the consequences.
Mike Farley on aging's gifts of hiddenness. "Contentment is not seen as a character flaw."
Nordic Yearly Meeting's multinational choir sings, and Arturo listens (visible after about 40 seconds).
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