Michener Seminar: ‘Remixing’ & Quaker Renewal

Michener Lecture 2018. photo: Mercedes Soca

In his energizing Michener Lecture on Sunday, January 14th, Wess Daniels called on Friends to bring about a Quaker renewal—to be faithful to the living faith of our past while adapting and reinterpreting our tradition to embody how Spirit is moving among us and the wider community, practicing love in the contexts we find ourselves in. Daniels offered an approach to renewal that would be about ‘Remixing’— discovering what is most authentic and alive both in our tradition and in our communities today, and combining these in new ways. He used examples from the Quaker world and from our current culture — such as the internet and hip-hop—to illustrate what a new, creative, decentralized, ‘Remix’ of Quakerism in a ‘participatory culture’ might look like. He also offered queries, ideas, and other tools for Friends to use.

Near the end of the lecture, he offered this quote from Vincent Harding, Civil Rights leader, who offered this to Quakers:

Michener Seminar 2018

“You know something about building a Quaker community, you can see it. The vision that you have is not meant to be kept to yourself, it’s meant to be expressed, to trouble some people, to push some people, to embrace some people, but for you to keep saying, “I see a Quaker community that does not yet exist and I am absolutely committed to its coming into being.”

In the interactive seminar following the lecture, Friends were further challenged to go deeper in discerning what was truly alive in our Meetings and in our experience. Friends worked in small groups to write responses to queries posted around the room on large sheets of paper. Time was allowed for each of us to move around the room to address each query.

Here are the Queries—- click ‘read more’ to see Friends’ responses.

Query 1: Share a time when you felt most fully alive in your faith. What conditions allowed that?

Query 2: What are the core parts of Quakerism to you? If we were going to remix Quakerism, which parts would you want to sample?

Query 3: Identify people, places and communities where God is moving around your community and Meeting. Consider contexts we are not quick to notice. What can we learn from these groups?

Query 4: Considering Vincent Harding’s words, what are three hopes and dreams you have for your Quaker community today? (see quote above, in post)