Quakers blogging

Monday, March 19th, 2007

One of the things that gives me life lately is blogging, and reading other blogs. Blogging helps me process what I’m thinking about and learning, and it’s helpful to have it commented upon by people who may or may not share my perspective. In this way my opinions are challenged, and I am connected with like-minded people who I wouldn’t otherwise ever know.

Right now there’s a pretty healthy community of Quaker bloggers out there in the “blogosphere,” and the best way to find out about them is to go to quakerquaker.org, which lists many of the best/most consistent Quaker blogs. It’s fun to read what other Quakers are thinking about, and how Quakerism is practiced around the world (at least the English-speaking world).

Reading Quaker blogs are a fun way to be part of the “online conversation” that happens in our culture. Among Quaker bloggers there is an almost automatic sense of community because we’re all Friends. Right now there’s a movement some are calling “Convergent Friends,” where each blogger is thinking about what it means to be a Friend and being drawn together in the process. This conversation about identity would be different if we had it only with others from North Valley, or only people from Northwest Yearly Meeting. Instead, in this online venue, it can be a conversation where people with all different opinions can share their voice.

Obviously the blogosphere isn’t the best place for communal discernment or for making definitive decisions about what it means to be a Friend, but it’s an interesting conversation that connects us with the culture through asking about our relevence to the world and to one another as branches of Friends.

Check out quakerquaker.org for many Quaker blogs. My blog site is quakeroatslive.blogspot.com. If any of you at North Valley have blogs you want listed on the website let me know and I’ll add your link!

Conversations

2 Responses to “Quakers blogging”

  1. Scot Headley Says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 3:15 pm

    Cherice, thanks for inviting a broader conversation through this site, both in posting your own thoughts and in asking for others to join in.

    I agree with you that the blogosphere is not the best place for communal discernment, but it does provide opportunity to learn of the diversity of thought and the thorough commitment of Friends from many places.

    And, in even a further-out sphere, I have been meeting with Friends on a weekly basis in Second Life. If anyone is familiar with Second Life and wants to attend a Friends meeting for worship there, let me know and I will get you time, date and place information.

  2. Scot Headley Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 5:54 am

    Friends:
    I just read an interesting piece from Wess Daniels which refers to an article posted by the Mennonite Mission Network. The article presents information about growing networks of Christians online.

    The post by Wess can be found at http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/03/21/online-communities-and-radical-reformation-perspectives/

Leave a Reply