📣 New Video! To celebrate International Women's Day, we will be looking into the Mother of Quakerism herself, Margaret Fell!
#quakerism #quakers #britishquakers #iwd26
youtu.be/wk0EgcFGecU
Picture of Swarthmoor Hall, with sign on gate. C Quakers in Britain
Just off the phone with Swarthmoor Hall. So much looking forward to going there with international Friends in May.
In the meantime here's a recent news story about it's most famous historic inhabitant:
www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/2588378...
This looks great! Beautiful Lake District holiday destination + deep dive on Margaret Fell. Brilliant.
20. Therefore it is hypocritical for priests to preach sermons about women’s words in the Bible, while still saying “Women must not speak!”.
19. There are yet more examples of women giving ministry in the Bible, including Deborah, Huldah, Sara, Anna the prophetess and the four daughters of Philip.
18. In the book of Revelation the ‘New Jerusalem’, is depicted as a woman.
17. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul refers to women speaking, and does not command them to stop, but rather, calls them to do so in societal modesty - covering their heads as a means of embracing Jewish traditions.
16. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul praises the public ministries of Euodia and Syntyche – both of whom are women.
15. Likewise in his letter to Timothy, Paul must be talking about some particular women, not all women.
14. Paul did not say that women should not speak prophetically if they are called to, rather, those who are under strife, confusion, and malice should not be speaking in worship meetings.
13. When all this is taken into account, Paul’s instruction for women to keep silent in church can’t have been a matter of gender preference, but must have been to reduce the amount of ungrounded ministry in a particular community from some members of it.
12. Women spoke in early church meetings for the purposes of sharing a song, a teaching, or a prophecy, and this was understood to be in good order. In order to not have too much babble, in some circumstances both men and women were told to stay silent.
11. We also read that Priscilla (a female teacher) co-tutored Apollos. He did not reject her teaching, although later generations of Christian men would have done, because of her gender.
10. In the same book the prophecy of Joel is fulfilled that “both sons and daughters will prophesy”.
9. In the book of Acts, the apostles are joined together in prayer and supplication with women as well as men.
8. It was women who first learnt of the resurrection and told these things to the apostles.
7. It was women - Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome - who brought spices to anoint Jesus upon his burial.
6. At the crucifixion, it was women who stood by Jesus, while the men were far off, and Mary Magdalene who reported this to the men.
5. Several women supported Jesus and his ministry, financially and personally, out of their own resources. These included Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna.
4. Women play an important role in the Gospels, including Mary, Martha, the woman at the well and the woman with the alabaster jar. In these stories women are given information or insights before men.
3. The people of God, and the church, are repeatedly described as a woman.
2. God put enmity between the woman and the Serpent. If the woman’s voice is silenced then only the voice of the Serpent will be heard.
1. In the beginning God joined women and men together, in his own image, making no distinctions between them, as humans do.
Today I held in my hands with the original 1666 edition of 'Women's Speaking Justified', by Margaret Fell, the first full length written defence of women in public ministry.
There's a new modern English version coming soon, translated by @paulanderson88.bsky.social . Here's my summary:
Looking forward to being part of this. International online places still available. Bookings close on 6 February.
"What Quakers offer is.. the spiritual space that allows people to know what their vocation is and that vocation towards good. Secular NGOs can't do that. Media can't do that. Political parties can't do that. We can." - General Secretary Tim Gee speaks on the Quake It Up podcast tinyurl.com/2sz9m5vm
I enjoyed talking with @quakeitup.bsky.social about international Quakerism in its joys and challenges. The full video has just gone live.
Working with other churches is both rewarding and challenging.
It's also more familiar than you might expect as many Christian World Communions have a similar theological breadth to Friends globally.
The challenge is whether we can work together for peace.
thefriend.org/article/curi...
Advert for vacancy in Quaker World Office now live on Charity Job. Deadline at end of the month. www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/friends...
The unity of Quakers is closely related to the unity of Christians more broadly. And the unity of Christians is closely related to the unity of humanity.
