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The Vital Center
By Anthony Manousos, Editor of Friends Bulletin
“Our Society has had opportunity to learn, by sorrowful lessons, the danger of exalting too exclusively the Christ within, on the one hand, and Christ without, on the other. We have need ever to guard alike against that refined and emasculated spirituality, which undervalues the Bible and the outward means of grace, and even the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, and that no less fatal outwardness and superficiality which would substitute profession, and prescription, and ritual, for saving faith and all the soul-renewing and life-transforming verities of Christian experience, realized through the imparted energy of the Spirit of Christ within.”—Joel Bean, “Quakerism and Bible Schools: An Essay” (read at the Annual Meeting of Friends’ First-Day School Association, Philadelphia, 1880).
Restoring Christ to the History of Western Unprogrammed Friends
For a the past year and half I’ve worked on a book about Western unprogrammed Friends called A Western Quaker Reader. By chance, or by Providence, the deadline for finishing the document was Good Friday, and the camera-ready copy needed to be at printer’s by the day after Easter. My final task was to do the index; and I was having a devil of a time with Pagemaker, a software program that was constantly breaking down in bizarre ways. By Friday evening, I had completed the index and was settling down to a well earned rest. As I began to reflect on all the topics I had included in the index—the American Friends Service Committee, border issues, peacemaking, Quaker education—it suddenly struck me. I had left out a critical theme: Christ and Christianity!
No problem, I thought. I will simply go back to Pagemaker, flag the word “Christ,” and it will give me the page numbers on which this word appears. But when I flagged the word “Christ” and pressed the enter key, every reference to Christ was deleted!
I was horrified. I went to my wife and said, half-jokingly, “Remember when I told you I suspected that Pagemaker was diabolic? Now I am convinced. It has deleted every reference to Christ!”
It took several hours to “restore Christ to the history of unprogrammed Western Friends.“ When I was attending a meeting of Quakers United in Publishing (QUIP) a few weeks later, I joked that I was fortunate to be a liberal Friend. If this had been a book about evangelical Quakerism, it would have taken weeks to restore all the references to Christ!
The word “Christ” doesn’t appear very often in A Western Quaker Reader, or in the writings of Western unprogrammed Friends. There is even some question about whether “Christ” should part of Pacific YM’s latest Faith and Practice.
What does this apparent “deletion” mean, and particularly, what does it mean iin terms of our relationship to Christ-centered Friends?
Before attempting to answer that question, let me say something about Joel Bean, considered by many to be the founder of Western unprogrammed Friends.
The Beanite Legacy
Joel Bean, a pioneer in the literal as well as spiritual sense, migrated from the East to Iowa in 1853; and Hannah Shipley, whom he married, came soon after. Joel was made clerk of Iowa YM just before it acrimoniously split into those who supported the more traditional form of worship and those who were more evangelical. The main body of the Yearly Meeting was evangelical; and though Joel disagreed, he felt he should stay as clerk and try to reconcile Friends. Finding this impossible, he and Hannah moved to San Jose and formed a worship group which met without a pastor. They asked for recognition as a monthly meeting by Honey Creek Quarterly Meeting, but were refused. In 1885 they built a meetinghouse and in 1889 became incorporated as the College Park Association of Friends, independent of any quarterly or yearly meeting. Finally, in 1891, Iowa YM withdrew its recognition of Joel as a recorded minister. In 1898, the entire Bean family, along with other San Jose Friends, was removed from membership by New Providence MM. This removal stirred international controversy among Friends. 1
As a result of this rejection, the Beans founded an independent organization called the College Park Association (CPA). CPA became the Pacific Coast Association of Friends in 1931, which led to the formation of Pacific YM in 1947. Joel Bean’s granddaughter, Anna Cox Brinton, played a crucial role in these developments. In Le Shana’s view, “Pacific YM…continues in the heritage of Joel Bean’s reaction against the ‘new measures’ and ‘new techniques’ of revivalism.”2
Although Bean was a controversial figure in his day, he saw himself as conciliatory, not divisive. As he makes clear from his speech to First Day School Association (see sidebar), he placed himself theologically in the “vital center” between what he considered the two extreme Quaker approaches to Christianity.
Upon his death, a Friend from Iowa paid him this tribute: “In the death of Joel Bean the Society has lost one of its most useful members. . . . His personal views on some matters may not have coincided with those held by many members of the Society, but it may have been that his vision was larger and his experience different. His religion was a life rather than a system of belief. The elements most strongly expressed in his life were those of worship, love, and devotion to duty. With him the true test was whether or not a person was willing to offer himself for service. . . . Many will long remember the kind friend, the helpful teacher, the devoted neighbor and tender minister who at all times was willing to make the world better for having lived in it.” 3
Western Unprogrammed Friends And Christianity
What do spiritual descendants of Joel and Hannah Bean believe? It is sometimes difficult to say since, much like the Beans, independent Western Friends profess little interest in theological “labels” or doctrinal statements. North Pacific YM’s Faith and Practice observes:
Even those who have been among Friends for a while may find it challenging to sort out our theology. The difficulty arises in part from the fact that the Society of Friends is not a single, homogeneous group but a large spiritual family with several branches that have evolved in different directions over the past three centuries. Another part of the challenge in understanding Quaker faith derives from our attitude towards creeds or other formal statements. Friends do not make a written statement the test of faith or the measure of suitability for membership.
This is of course not always true: Iowa YM did make a written statement the basis for disqualifying Bean as a recorded minister, and some Friends’ Churches and YM’s still do today. No doubt because of the Beans’ experience, the discipline of the College Park Association of Friends was kept deliberately simple, with an emphasis on service and the “social gospel” rather than on doctrine.4
With a few exceptions, Western independent Friends have been wary of theologizing, seeing it as potentially divisive, prideful, and “notional.” Instead of theology, they have emphasized “group mysticism” (the experience of worship), openness to a variety of religious experiences (particularly those of the East, such as Buddhism), and putting one’s faith into practice (the social gospel).
Over the past several decades, Western independent Meetings have attracted increasing numbers of attenders and members who see their spiritual heritage as other than Christian. As a consequence, we have had to struggle with theological questions. Ellie Foster describes the diversity of views found among today’s unprogrammed meetings:
As members of the Pacific YM Faith and Practice Revision Cornmittee visited monthly meetings to determine Friends feelings about the “core of our faith,” they heard a variety of words, a diversity of beliefs. Some Friends spoke of their emulation of Jesus, the simple carpenter, “Oh Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild;” many had been deeply instructed by a study of the teachings of Jesus. For others the belief in a universal who enlightened all humankind through all ages bound them most closely to the experience of early Friends. Many Friends spoke of their discomfort with traditional words, such as “Lord” or “Kingdom,” hearing in them echoes of patriarchal dominance. Friends often spoke of finding a universal spirit in nature which moved them with a sense of spaciousness and reverence. Some found the image of “goddess” more satisfying than “god;” some used neither word. A number had come to Friends from their own spiritual searching unrelated to any traditional religious teachings. Others were nourished by Jewish or Buddhist teaching from their childhood or early searching.5
North Pacific YM’s Faith and Practice addresses this diversity by noting the need to find a balance between universalism and a Christ-centered faith:
One central area of belief which has received considerable attention over the years is the relationship of Quakerism to Christianity. Whether one interprets the Quaker movement as a strand within Protestantism or as third force distinct from both Protestantism and Catholicism, the movement, both in its origin and in the various branches which have evolved, is rooted in Christianity. However, from its inception it has offered both a critique of many accepted manifestations of Christianity and an empathy with people of faith beyond the bounds of Christianity. Some Friends have placed particular emphasis on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, while others have found more compelling a universal perspective emphasizing the Divine Light enlightening every person. One of the lessons of our own history as a religious movement is that an excessive reliance on one or the other of these perspectives, neglecting the essential connectedness between the two, has been needlessly divisive and has drawn us away from the vitality of the Quaker vision at its best.
Over the years, unprogrammed and pastoral Friends have drifted increasingly further apart on matters of doctrine, worship style, and church governance. The theological gap widened recently when Friends Church Southwest YM (formerly California YM) severed its ties with Friends United Meeting (FUM) and joined Evangelical Friends International (EFI).6
Nonetheless, pastoral and unprogrammed Friends have found common ground and have at times worked together on projects relating to peace and social justice, as I discovered in the course of my research. Many deep and long-standing friendships between Friends of different theological persuasions were forged in Civilian Public Service (CPS) and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) work camps, on picket lines or through projects and causes sponsored by the AFSC or Friends Committee on Legislation (FCL) of California.7
Relations Between Christ-Centered and Universalist Friends
The last chapter of A Western Quaker Reader explores some recent attempts to build bridges between programmed and pastoral Friends through the Western Gathering of Friends, FWCC (Friends World Committee for Consultation), and the Quaker Women’s Theological Conferences. Dialogue among Friends of different theological persuasions has not always been easy; but as Marge Abbott notes, liberal and evangelical Friends “are united in their conviction that life must be centered on that dynamic Spirit which is vital and among us today, and that faith must be lived day to day, permeating all we do.”8
One of the pioneers in recent efforts to build bridges between evangelical and liberal Friends, Marge Abbott is a member of Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and past clerk of North Pacific YM. In 1995 she traveled in the ministry in Intermountain Yearly Meeting as the Howard and Anna Brinton Visitor.
Her Pendle Hill Pamphlet An Experiment in Faith: Quaker Women Transcending Differences (1995) describes how women from evangelical and liberal branches met together and had meaningful dialogues about their spiritual experiences. These meetings eventuated in the Quaker Women’s Theological Conferences that have been taking place regularly over the past decade.
It is encouraging to see that Quaker women are having these dialogues across theological divides. My hope is that dialogues between Christ-centered and Universalist Friends will spread for a couple of reasons:
1) Many who come to liberal Quakerism have been wounded by intolerant, narrow-minded exponents of Christianity. They need exposure to Christians who are compassionate and non-judgmental, and truly embody the spirit of Christ.
2) Christians who profess to be Quakers need exposure to Friends whose lives have been enriched by other religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Judaism, etc. A central part of our Quaker faith is that there is “that of God” in everyone, and that God wants everyone to be “saved” and find inner peace and harmony by doing God’s will. Both liberal and evangelical Friends need to reminded that Quakers are Christian Universalists:
“Universalist: one who believes in the doctrine that all men will finally be saved, or brought back to holiness and God; a member of a Christian denomination that holds this doctrine as a distinctive belief.” American College Dictionary (Random House, 1963)
I have a personal commitment to fostering dialogue among Friends because my spiritual life has been deeply enriched by being a member of both Whittier First Friends Church and of Whitleaf Meeting—pastoral and unprogrammed Meetings that have “mutually irradiated” one another (to use Douglas Steere’s phrase) for many years.
For me, Whittier First Friends is a model of what Christ-centered pastoral Quakerism is at its best—deeply rooted in the Christian tradition, and yet willing to work with Universalist Friends and honor the Light within all people of faith.
Whittier First Friends has also been committed to the social testimonies of Quakerism—peace, equality, and justice—as embodied in the American Friends Service Committee and the Friends Committee on Legislation. Indeed, in the late 1930s the Southern California office of the AFSC was conceived by Friends from Whittier First Friends and Orange Grove Meeting (an unprogrammed Meeting founded by Philadelphia Hicksites). In the early 1950s, the Southern California branch of FCL of California was started by Friends from Whittier First Friends.
I therefore feel blessed and privileged to be able to hold dual membership in Whitleaf Meeting and Whittier First Friends Church (which is a member of Friends United Meeting). This means that I am the first editor of Friends Bulletin to be a member of both Pacific YM and of FUM.
If Joel Bean were alive today, I think he would be very pleased.
Notes
1 A Western Quaker Reader, edited by Anthony Manousos (Whittier, CA: Friends Bulletin, 2000) 6-7.
2 A Western Quaker Reader 7.
3 David Le Shana, Quakers in California: the Effects of 19th Century Revivalism on Western Quakerism (Newberg, OR: Barclay Press, 1969) 143-44.
4 A Western Quaker Reader 9.
5A Western Quaker Reader 10.
6 A Western Quaker Reader 11.
7A Western Quaker Reader 11-12.
8A Western Quaker Reader 12.