SDA memoir

No movement on the memoir about my time with the Seventh-day Adventists--I have one more publisher to whom I'll send a proposal in January, then I'm out of ideas. On the other hand, I've been energized by my conversations with Andy Hanson & the guest posts he has facilitated in different Adventist blogs about my experiences. I'm glad to be part of the SDA conversation on the future directions of their church, especially regarding how they deal with gays and lesbians. It's interesting reading more about Quaker history, too, especially on the splits between the "liberal" Friends and the more evangelical branches. I had wondered why, with similar prophets, the Adventists and Quakers were now so different. It is because Quakers have themselves gone in different directions--in the 1800s during the revivalist period when Adventism was also founded. The Friends' pastoral branches are much more like the Adventists, and were influenced by some of the same theological movements (Wesleyan, Finney, etc.).

Guest post #2

Thanks to Andy Hanson for posting an essay I wrote called, "God-given Nature" in his blog Adventist Perspective on Thursday, December 10, 2009. It is set in the midst of his passionate discussion of Andrews University's Conference on the Adventist Response to Gay Marriage. I am grateful to see my voice added to the Adventist discussion.

Also, I've been really excited by the forthcoming book on Ellen White (Ellen White Project) and the follow-up talks (Ellen White in a New Key - LLU, part 1 and part 2). I'm sorry I missed the conference in October!

re: Convergent Friends

On 11/16/09, Robin M posted The Convergent Conversation Continues and on 11/23, Liz Opp wrote about "how the Convergent conversation addresses certain topics." In the comments on the latter there was discussion about digging into the Quaker tradition & whether or not that is helpful. I've found that among our liberal meeting, most are "converts," i.e., we come from other denominations or spiritual practices or from no practice at all. So, learning about Quaker tradition has helped me, & seemingly others, to be more open to the Spirit and its leadings. Sometimes simply learning the language (Quaker and/or Christian) helps us talk openly with each other.