August 8, 2005

Recommended anthology: Whispers of Faith

Within 30 minutes of receiving and paging through my copy of Whispers of Faith: Young Friends share their experiences of Quakerism, I received an email from an older parent asking, Would you recommend this book for my 20-year-old son [who has been among Friends for nearly all those years]?

You might guess my answer.

Here are the chapter headings, to which a total of 3 or 4 dozen young Friends from around the world respond (many but not all are from the U.S.):
Worship
Testimonies
Community
Spiritual Journeys
and
Walking On Water.
The last chapter sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

Each chapter has a preface written by a member of the editorial board for the book--all of whom are Young Friends themselves. By young, I mean under 20 years old.

...What was I doing when I was 17, 18, 19 years old?!?

Just paging through and stopping at random pages, I came across tender poetry, personal struggle, questions of faith, and answers of practice.

In these few pages alone which were exposed to me, already there is a sense of ministry, within and beyond this book, that cannot be received fully if adult Friends and young Friends do not work to bridge the divide between us.

The work does not fall to one group or the other to build the bridge. The bridge must be built from both islands, so that we may reach out to each other.

I'm glad I bought two copies of Whispers of Faith: One for me to pass on and the other for me to keep... and write in, circle, underline, and add exclamation points, of which I'm sure there'll be lots!

Blessings,
Liz

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To buy a copy--or two!--contact one of two places: in the U.S. and Canada, contact QuakerBooks of FGC, either by phone at 1-800-966-4556 or through their website. In Europe, contact Quaker Bookshop, by phone at 020 7663 1030 or through their own website.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this review. I recieved a msuing from Lucy about it, but did not act. After reading your review I ordered one. My oldest son is having a hard time with meeting for worship, I am hoping this might be insightful for me.

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  2. Liz - thanks for posting this. I highly, highly recommend this book, though I'm biased on two fronts.

    Having worked on the book as one of the editors, I am quite obviously biased. However, in returning to the pieces between its covers and re-reading them from a completely different perspective, I am moved, over and over again, by the words these young Friends speak (or should I say we young Friends speak?).

    I'm also biased as someone focused on the issue of youth ministries. Of course I would advocate for a book with pieces by young Friends!

    Anywho, done rambling now. Besides - you knew all this already, Liz! ('T was a ramble for those who didn't.)

    Love and Light,
    Claire

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  3. Thanks for stopping by, Anj and Claire. I'm speechless and will let the actions of these young Friends, including Claire's, speak for themselves!

    Blessings,
    Liz

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I am moderating comments for posts older than 30 days, so you may not necessarily see your comment online right away. I retain the right to choose *not* to publish comments, especially if they are for particularly old posts, and/or if the comment repeats points made in earlier comments. --Liz