satyagraha rules!

[QuakerDad]

Hey there... guess I got started in activism just after my 16th birthday. I grew up in New York City, and went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. My unofficial "coming out counselor", Craig Rodwell (owner of the world's first gay liberation bookstore, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop), told me about organizing a protest march to commemorate the riots the previous summer down in Sheridan Square. I used to drop by his shop after school to hear about the political news and learn about gay history... but that was 36 years ago.

Became a Quaker in grad school, went to divinity school later at Harvard, and have been causing trouble whenever I can ever since. Just got married a week and a half ago in a traditional Quaker ceremony in Gloucester, Massachusetts. If you would like to check out our wedding announcement, take a peek here:

http://homepage.mac.com/erickris/wedding.htm
Works best on a PC with Firefox or Netscape.

Looking for opportunities for faith-based antihomophobia work. We've been working on same sex marriage in the Society of Friends (Quakers) since the 1970s. Many of our monthly meetings (local congregations) in New England have been on record welcoming same sex couples to apply for marriage since the 1980s. It helps that we, as a denomination, are quite used to marrying "outside the law", since Quaker marriages were not recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until the 1940s! Nonetheless, it's been a struggle... but mostly a good one.

My husband is Canadian, so we moved to Ottawa in 2004. I'm looking for connections here to continue and support the work I've done for most of my life, and I send my love and prayers to all brothers and sisters south of the border struggling for the love and respect they so rightly deserve.

Eric

[keltic63]

hey QuakerDad, I didn't know all that about the Quakers, and I'm in the Quaker State!

[QuakerDad]

Originally Posted by keltic63

hey QuakerDad, I didn't know all that about the Quakers, and I'm in the Quaker State!

Well hey, time to check us out! quaker.org has some info, but best to connect with a local meeting and see what they are up to. Quaker polity is truly grounded in the local meeting, so there is some variety... and there are indeed evangelical Quakers in various parts of the country that are much more conservative than the mainstream (you can thank the 19th century evangelical revival movement for influencing Friends as they migrated west with the expanding United States).

But on the east coast, and in most university communities across the continent, Friends are overwhelmingly progressive on social issues. You can google "Friends General Conference" to get a sense of the liberal association of Friends in the U.S. The middle of the road Friends (some conservative, some liberal) can be found in the "Friends United Meeting" association. The most conservative Friends belong "Evangelical Friends International".

Hope that helps!

Eric

[keltic63]

I do recall that the Quakers have a meeting house near the campus of my Alma Mater (U of Pitt) and that many groups use it for various meetings. So they are around, just not too many of them here in SW PA

[Ellen]

Quakers are wonderful on so many "issues." And they're steadfast, with no flip-flopping to appease the public sentiments. Welcome, Quaker Dad!