#the religious society of friends

[emohorseboy]

yesterday i went to meeting for worship in the morning and did my testosterone injection in the evening

never let anyone tell you that faith and transness are incompatible

#quakerism #society of friends #Quakers #religious society of friends #trans man #meeting for worship #trans Christians #queer Christians #trans Quaker

[hopefullystillliving]

You ever get lulled into a false sense of security during the first two thirds of a kid's movie that's good with a serious plot but mostly a pretty fun time, only to have the entire final third tear your heart out, chew it up and spit it out, crush it into even finer paste beneath its heel, and add the fine powder your ribs have been turned into by the sledgehammer it whammed you with as a seasoning?

Anyway Nimona was great, 10/10 would recommend, I was crying on and off for what probably totaled 20 minutes of tears.

#hopeful rambling #nimona #cw graphic #i think that's probably the right tag for that description #anyway yes im a little late to the train but i was waiting until i could watch it with my dearest #my takeaway is that they should put a content warning on it for trans people especially bc you will feel punched in the face #that allegory sure can trans. #i think i related to it in a different way than most people #bc being genderqueer yeah nimona going im not a girl im just myself hit home but im not *trans* #so i think i actually ended up projecting onto balistar as someone who deeply loves a trans person (different ways obviously) #being told 'yes you can rejoin the society you betrayed you aren't like *her* you arent a monster everything can go back to what it was #you can be one of the good guys if you reject the freaks' #but they betrayed you first and the good guys aren't good and how things were is worse actually than saying i love you i see you im with you #to the freaks and the monsters who will accept who you are unlike the society that never will always keeping you to an impossible standard #of never being yourself #so yeah the religious/societal prejudice trauma was very felt at some points #and i grieved for nimona not because she was me but because she was my dearest and she was a friend #and she was a thousand people i will never know who decided it was better to die as yourself than be killed as someone you aren't #and didn't have a person to say im sorry. i see you. #anyway. yeah im still crying. altered my brain chemistry is mild i think it rearranged my organs punched a hole in my chest and i thanked it #nimona spoilers

[gnosisandtheosis]

#I've always had a soft spot for Quakers #progressive christianity #christianity #lgbtq christian #trans rights #transgender #trans christians #quakers #religious society of friends #non binary

[moonandbreeze]

If anyone is in Norwich or surrounding areas and a young quaker (or pro-queer christian) I'd love to meet up for coffee or tea! I've yet to meet any other young quakers since university.

#norwich #norwich england #quaker #quakers #religious society of friends #society of friends #queer christian #quakerism

[luminousfire]

Waiting worship and 4'33"

I have this nagging feeling that waiting worship is not silent worship, as it is sometimes referred to. It is ambient. By this, I mean that is akin to 4'33".

John Cage's 4'33" has often been viewed as just silence. Cage's intent with 4'33", as far as I am aware, is to demonstrate the potential musicality of any and all sound.

I view waiting worship in the same way. I am listening to the music of creation. I am listening to God. I am listening to my Friends when they deliver vocal ministry. The sound of a passing fire truck or a cough are a part of the hymn that is waiting worship. In this way, waiting worship is a sort of musical improvisation.

In the case of my meeting, we engage in waiting worship for the first hour. I suppose my meeting performs 60' every week.

NB I'm no musicologist. I would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable of the subject if they have anything to say about this.

#progressive christianity #progressive christian #quakerism #quaker #christian #music #religious society of friends #quakers

[funeralprocessor]

Art from Mundus Carnis, a geiger-esque biopunk worldbuilding project by Screeble on DA.

I'm a huge huge fan of their art and writing and worldbuilding, have been for years. They did some fantastic work in a collaborative spec evo forum game I lurked.

Which have lived in my head ever since.

#spec evo #spec bio #biopunk #worldbuilding #body horror kinda #and some of the other MC designs are...not very safe for work #or life #but that's a side effect of being Geiger inspired #screeble #deviantart #god primordial evo games were so fun and cool I would love to do one with some friends #started with some incredibly basic mspaint blobs as like the original organisms and each post could add a little more to one #eventually we got sophonts and societies and shit like the Lufae and their fungal biotech #I'm using we very loosely there I contributed like three posts before I got scared lol #but god I followed the threads religiously once they got going #and I've stolen stuff from them for my tabletop campaigns for years #the Lufae especially I immediately started using as my go-to underdark-y species #which makes their alien vibes that much cooler when compared to like...an elf

[gxlden-angels]

I finally found the little ✨Dream Girl✨ passage in the Faithgirlz! Bible that made me realize I might just be gay

#You can't tell me this doesn't sound like a lil 11 year old getting a crush on their best friend #mostly because I 100% agreed with this passage and turns out I just had a crush on my best friend #I was like 13-14 I think #But emotionally and developmentally behind a bit because ya know #The Whole Cult Thing #so I never recognized childhood crushes until high school when I fell Hard for my bestie #who luckily no longer has tumblr lol #this is literally what my first crushes felt like even before I recognized them #I love a good childhood friendship between young girls that lasts and allows for growth #but also this is so fuckin gay this is so fuckin gsa blushing kicking my feet doodling their name gay #it's so cute #sucks that it's a passage for girls in a bible #otherwise it would be a great way to talk about having a crush on a girl and how to reconcile with that in our current society #I'm reading it again and it's really so so gay in a way only a repressed christian who refuses to believe they could be gay can write #and I know #because I used to be that repressed lil gay kid #ex christian #religious trauma

[lightseed-chaplain]

Hello tumblr world.

I have some exciting news that I wanted to share with you.

This last Sunday, January 14th, I was officially welcomed as a Member of my local (liberal unprogrammed) monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) and, by extension, the Religious Society of Friends at large. This community has also endorsed me for ministry as a chaplain. I experience this as a source of great joy and have found a deep sense of peace, integrity, and Truth in my convincement.

This journey has involved several years of discernment with Catholic communities, Quaker communities, my spiritual director, therapist, and some close friends - including many of you, dear internet friends. It is not a decision I have made lightly or one that has been at all easy.

I feel that finding a home in the Quaker tradition has made me more grounded and intentional in every area of my life, and, I feel, a better husband, a better chaplain, a better son, brother, uncle, friend, and all around better human being. I have also felt deeply welcomed as a married gay man, as our Meeting supports all “loving bonds between two people regardless of their gender.”

To summarize: this means that my primary religious and spiritual community is now in this tradition. I still maintain so much love and gratitude for my Catholic roots and continue to be involved in some parts of Catholic life, as this will always be a part of me. For me this journey has not been about rejecting the Catholic Church at all, but rather feeling drawn by God to a different spiritual community.

(That being said, there are, of course, many things that I have long rejected about the Catholic Church and continue to do so. But I digress.)

Thank you for all the ways, both big and small, many of you have supported me throughout my long journey of finding a religious and spiritual home, even if we’ve never directly interacted.

In Light and gratitude,

John

#personal #my life #Quaker #religious society of friends #life update #quakerism #catholic #christian #convincement

[sunshinegremlin]

I realized I haven't really updated here, but I've finally been able to attend the Quaker meeting in my area.

It is heavenly. It's where I belong. It's what I've been missing.

If you ever feel like church is too much noise and not enough resting in the Lord, go attend a Quaker meeting, even just once. The peace and tranquility of silent worship is out of this world, and it's really what I've been craving for so long.

I personally identify as quaker, but I know I'm a super baby quaker. But I also know it's where I belong. It feels like home. The people are my type of people. For so long I've been trying to find a place of people like me, and I've found it.

I've also been delving more into my spiritually finally. I have rituals of my own now, practices that I just naturally fell into that are so healing to my mind. I want to delve deeper, but it's a slow process, and so hard when you have so much past religious conditioning. But I'm slowly settling in to where I belong, God willing.

I'm a baby quaker and a baby witch, but I've never felt more at home in my religion.

#mine #li rambles #religion #quakerism #quaker #religious society of friends #spirituality #witchcraft #christian witch

[spicesofinnerlight]

I'm a little nervous to attend a meeting even if it's online. I've heard many good things, but I have lost all my love and patience for anything institutional in religion—precisely why an unprogrammed meeting is probably up my alley. Still, I can't help but feel like I should brace myself for the rejection and emptiness that attending a service brings me.

I also worry about what may be lost by online worship, but it's my only option to attend a meeting. Does anyone have experiences in this? Pros and cons? This is just something I'm thinking about a lot.

#faith journal #faith journey #quakerism #quaker #religious society of friends

[attackofthespaceturtles]

I saw an op ed in the paper this week about how Colorado's new free breakfast program for kids is bad actually because it's training children to depend on the government. I am still in awe that someone could actually say those words without a hint of irony. No giving food to hungry children because it's their fault if they can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. What the fuck is wrong with some people?

All of this reminds me why I left the church and Christianity. I took my faith Very Seriously as a child/teen and Jesus said to feed the hungry kids. I had always assumed this was the least controversial take in the world. Of course feeding the hungry is good!

I didn't realize until I was older that most people who proclaim to be Christians don't actually give a damn. I have heard self proclaimed Christians callously say things like homeless kids deserve to die on the street because they were burdening society. It's when I realized that nobody actually takes Christianity seriously, and Christians least of all. They just want to feel morally superior to everyone else at best and at worst con people out of their money.

I still feel so betrayed. I built my whole moral code around this faith, but in the end I was lied to. It feels like the whole world was in on a big joke that I treated seriously.

At least I know better now.

#i know not every christian is like this #i have some wonderful friends who are christians and good people #but as a whole #as an institution #the church does very little good for society #most of these people do not practice what they preach #i should know because they all turned their backs on me the moment i came out as anything other than cis and straight #these people who preached the beauty and power of unconditional love #but their love was conditional all along #ky speaks #my thoughts #rambles #religion #religious trauma

[emohorseboy]

my posts about my faith are actually a plot to find cool Quaker/Christian blogs; it is going exactly to plan

#quaker #quakerism #trans christian #trans quaker #queer christian #faith #religious society of friends

[gothicquakercollective]

Welcome to The Gothic Quaker Collective!

We are a Quaker-run collective of art and publishing houses, theology, reviews, businesses, and so much more. We aim to create diverse and open spaces for artists and alternative people in religious spaces to express themselves freely without fear of ramifications or judgment for doing so. It is a place to foster and house ideas, concepts, and expressions often overlooked by spaces of conformity. Everyone at GQC hopes you enjoy traversing our page and we hope you may consider one day contributing to the movement that is GQC. 

- Paige G. (Founder)

#alternative #nature #grunge #gothic #goth #quaker #religious art #religious society of friends #blog #art house #publishing #publishing house #vintage #film noir #alternative goth #artwork #fashion #art #religion

[lucaskindagay]

I don't feel welcome in my local Quaker meeting anymore, not through any fault of theirs particularly, but just because I am unable to sit in silence and hold peace as I used to be. They are a wonderful group, but they have not been able to understand and accept my tourettes and seizures etc. As part of me and as unavoidable even when I am worshipping. It sucks. I miss the stillness and peace so much, and I feel almost like I'll never find it again. Even my expressions of autistic joy, and quiet stimming (which have always been part of my expression of community, communication, and self especially in worship) aren't acceptable there, because it's not the way they do things. This is not explicitly said, but judgemental looks and words hurt. I miss being able to participate in meeting and feel safe and welcomed.

#quaker #quakerism #religious society of friends #tourettes #non-epileptic seizures #disability #disabled tag #lucassad #luca talks

[northernslug]

Instant gratification gets put off for long walks and talks with God. He doesn’t pretend to know why there’s so much suffering – he just serves the food and goes home and sobs.

Jon Watts, The Burden of Vision

#this song speaks to me #I wish it was still on YouTube #but luckily I got it on Bandcamp #Quakerism #Quaker #religious society of friends #clothe yourself in righteousness

[morayofsunshine]

also i've always been a little devastated over the lyrics to adam & steve bc it's a very empowering song but it's made as a response to such visceral emotional cruelty and it chokes me up to think about what it must be like to be subjected to that

#i've never really had queer identity related religious guilt bc i stopped believing in christian ideology #before i considered that i might not be straight #i've only been visibly targeted by homophobes for religious reasons maybe twice by just a couple of people #and i'm only out to friends family and anyone i don't think will hate crime me basically #so i can't imagine being subjected to that scale and specificity of right wing christian bigoted hate #this song is basically screaming 'NO FUCK YOU YOU'RE WRONG GOD FUCKING LOVES ME' and it's incredible #but the conditions in society that led to it being written just break my heart #dorian electra