Monday, November 9, 2020
Many Friends churches and meetings suspended in-person worship last spring. In response, we at Barclay Press created an online space, This Day, which we’ve replaced just this month with this weekly email. Each week, you will receive excerpts from Fruit of the Vine and Illuminate, a photograph taken by one of our staff (above), a poem, and a brief update on the work of the press. Thank you for your support! —Eric Muhr
“Parent birds tend to the eggs, using their own bodies to keep them warm. Once the chicks are hatched, parents carry food back to the nest, fend off predators, and do all they can to safeguard their little ones until the young birds can take care of themselves.
“When my children were young, Susan and I loved them and protected them from real and imaginary threats. And now in my old age I similarly need the reassurance of the eternal love and fierce protection of my mother hen God (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34).” —Gary Fawver, excerpted from Fruit of the Vine
“So what does the letter to Philemon have to do with the topic of peace? Much, in every way. The rhetorical dynamics promoting relational peace within the letter are clear. The goal is for a slave named Onesimus to be accepted and embraced as a “beloved brother” by Philemon, his master (v. 16).... The answer being sought is not the problem of the social sin of slavery, but the matter of mutual, agape love between two persons within the household of God.
“Can you relate to this? It’s not a stretch for us to know first-hand such circumstances at home, at our work spaces, and yes, even in our own churches and meetinghouses. When conflict is not addressed, love grows cold, unity breaks down, and what was once a shared journey now drifts apart.” —Mark Condo, excerpted from the Illuminate study of Philemon.
I spoke my Word
I love you
it hung there naked
mirage-like shimmer
invisible until light
shone through it
like perfume sprayed
into the air waiting
for someone to walk
through it where it could
do some good
I love…
—Joann Renee Boswell, from “Is Love Alive?” in Cosmic Pockets
Two weeks ago, Barclay Press hit an important milestone. We successfully published our fifth new title this year (our 34th since my start here as publisher in 2016)!
Every vision starts somewhere; ours started in a Portland basement in 1948, when Ray Carter and Ralph Fletcher purchased a press that they used to print Northwest Friend magazine. Since those early days, our efforts have been inspired by the worldwide fellowship of Friends, and we’ve weathered more than six decades of change, sharing stories, facilitating worship and study.
Quaker theology, polity, and praxis offer counter-cultural faith “technologies” like waiting worship, communal discernment, corporate mysticism, and active peacemaking. This is why Friends testimonies matter. Their value extends beyond Friends (and even beyond the bounds of the church).
We are grateful for your support and for the good work you do each day. Thank you.
Now, our focus is to build even more creative collaborations with other Friends “publishers of truth” in our work to support the work of Friends everywhere. To support and sustain this work, we need your help to raise $28,000 between now and the end of this year. In addition, our goal for this next year is for forty supporters to make recurring monthly donations of $25 or more each month. Click here (or on the DONATE button below) to show your support.
We look forward to serving you (and serving alongside you) for many years to come.
Eric Muhr
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