"On a brilliant early summer afternoon in 1652, [George Fox] climbed to the top of one of the southern Pennines, Pendle Hill, and there received a vision that he was to preach to the multitudes. In obedience he moved north to Sedbergh [England], known to be the center of the Seekers, women and men seeking a satisfactory spiritual path in the religious confusion of the times. At Firbank Fell, his vision was soon fulfilled. For the first time, and ever thereafter, George Fox had converts and friends—very good friends. Indeed, the organization he founded came to be known as the Religious Society of Friends." —M. Scott Peck, M.D., In Search of Stones, 1995, Hyperion, New YorkPeck wrote this book as a kind of journal of a trip with his wife through the western reaches of Great Britain: Cornwall, Wales, the Lakes District, and Scotland. They discovered that ancient stones attracted them and then steered their course to locate more of them. However, they also had an interest in the history of the founding of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers).
He included a short history of the tumultuous times of the 1600s in England, when religious wars were frequent and deadly, and led into a description of George Fox and the beginnings of the Friends. I was caught by his reference (see the blockquote) to a group of people who called themselves "Seekers," a group "seeking a satisfactory spiritual path" among the warring factions of Catholicism and Anglicanism and Presbyterianism and Lutherism and Puritanism. From his description, it seemed that at least some of those Seekers were the originating group of the Society of Friends.
As I rework my way into the doings and beings of the Montpelier, Vermont, area (having moved back from Colorado), I've found myself caught in a little dilemma. Where and among what group of people do I choose to live my spiritual life and how do I relate singing to it? I've long had ties with a rural church in East Montpelier and know quite a few of the folks there. I like both co-pastors, and the choir is full of friendly people. But…other than just before the service, the choir rehearses twice a month, and the pianist is the director and, while helpful in getting us to sound decently together, I'm left with the feeling that the music can be much more cohesive with a separation of accompanist and director. I've been spoiled by Rod in Colorado. It might have been painful, sometimes, to yet again rehearse a piece that was fairly simple, but when we sang it in church, it was tight and sounded great.
I consider seeking a different place for spiritual growth as I am not enthused about listening to preaching to the lectionary of Biblical scriptures. Yet, David did a masterful job of taking last Sunday's assigned scriptures and preaching about having no judgment of others and being forgiving of wrongs done to one's self. And noting that he didn't think that the passage whereby Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving one being tortured until his debt was paid, meant that Jesus supported torture.
I've been thinking about the Unitarian Church in town because it has a choir director that pushes hard, and I like that, and the beliefs (or as some people say, the non-beliefs) of Unitarianism fall more along what I believe. I would not be listening to readings solely from the Bible; instead, I would be hearing readings from a wide range of people who carry as much light as any of the writers of the canons of the Bible. I've never heard Marjorie speak but she's been pastor of that church for more than twenty years, and I don't think they'd keep someone who didn't answer their needs. And I know a number of people who attend.
...but to lose the camaraderie of the folks at the country church. Maybe, though, it's one of those ruts it would be useful to leave at this time. Or maybe I can alternate, since I do not plan to become an official member of either.
One of the promises I made to myself before moving east was that I would not tie myself down to one church every Sunday. Except my granddaughter likes to go.
Now I read that Seekers in the 1600s became the foundation of the Quakers. And I admire the people of the Society of Friends. They practice what they don't have to preach: ations for peace and non-judgment; they meet in square, facing each other, as the women face each other in circle at Star House. They speak to silence. They arrive at consensus.
Perhaps I will find a Friend and attend one of their meetings. I reckon, though, that I wouldn't be singing there.
Then there is the other idea I've been thinking about. Creating a place which Donna and I nicknamed, oh, at least eight years ago, "the church of the open barn." (She's a farmer.) Where there would be no preaching, no religiosity; a simple place where we'd gather and sing and pray and dance and talk together and leave refreshed.