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“I’ve been thinking.” Rufus Jones began a piece of vocal ministry with this statement one First Day morning many years ago. At the rise of meeting, one of the elders of meeting approached him as they made their way out of the meetinghouse. Looking him in the eye, she said, “Rufus, the sholdn’t think!”
The Conservative Quaker tradition in which I have put down my roots shares this skepticism about too much thinking. Nevertheless, I must admit to doing a good bit of it over the past several months. I’ve been thinking about the nature of the Christian life - what does it mean for me to be Christ’s man in Pharaoh’s world. We who have had the experience of the Living Christ are a small minority in a much larger world and a much more powerful culture. How to we survive, and thrive, and even carry out some of the tasks that God may be giving us? Somewhere in the midst of all this thinking came your invitation to speak, which seemed to be an opportunity to share some of the fruits of this inner work. If at the conclusion you say to me “Llod Lee, thee shouldn’t think,” at least I’ll know I’m in good company.
My yearly meeting is working to articulate its Conservative vision, both for its own sake and to help
make out self more understandable to other Friends. One useful aspect of this vision is its emphasis
on the corporate nature of our spiritual life and practice. While for some Friends it might be said that
the ultimate spiritual authority is central, in the yearly meeting of institutional structure of
scripture; and for others it could equally be said that the ultimate spiritual authority is the
discernment of the individual; for Conservatives that ultimate spiritual authority is the corporate
discernment of the local faith community.
Last Modified: 5.4.03