Durham Friends Meeting Clerk Leslie Manning lifts up this article from the June/July, 2023 issue of Friends Journal:
Friends Journal recently spoke with the heads of several Quaker organizations about the spiritual resources they draw upon to power their work, as well as the sometimes painful leadership lessons they have learned.
• Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, director of the Quaker United Nations Office, was moved by the example of a Friend in Durban, South Africa, who went to prison for refusing military conscription in the early 1980s.
• Bridget Moix, general secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation, grew up Catholic and recalls having a lot of spiritual questions to which she did not get satisfying answers. She found Quakerism’s emphasis on experience and action fortifying, and draws strength from belonging to a community that dares to believe peace is possible.
• Tim Gee, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation, draws inspiration from the parable of the sower, which is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. In the parable, a farmer scatters seed on patches of ground with varying degrees of fertility. The seeds represent Jesus’s message about the reign of God, and the soil represents human hearts that receive and allow it to grow to different degrees of abundance. Gee considers it FWCC’s duty to take care of the metaphorical ground.
Click through for more testimonies from leaders at Friends General Conference, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and the Belize City Friends Center…
