June 6, 2010

John W. Baird, Head of School, Westtown School

“Friend Jon connected well with students from both Quaker and other backgrounds. His vibrant spoken word messages touched on themes of environmental stewardship, peace, equality, justice and other quaker testimonies with an authenticity and immediacy that expanded the vocabulary of worship for all of us.”

Read the rest of John’s letter…

Tom Hoopes, Religious Studies Teacher at George School

“Jon Watts brings people together across boundaries of age, theology and musical taste. After Jon’s recent performance at George School, I heard a wide range of affirmative responses from various people. A spiritually-seeking teacher in his late twenties remarked, “Wow. Jon Watts is the real deal. He’s got it.” A very savvy girl of 18 said, “He is SO hot! I have all of his CDs.” A colleague in her 50’s noted, “I love his stuff. And my kids and their friends all have his music on their iPods.”

Read the rest of Tom’s letter…

Walter Hjelt-Sullivan, Academic Dean of Pendle Hill

“Jon Watts is a skillful and perceptive performer. His performances take on the flavor of a Meeting for Worship. It is clear to me that Jon both prepares the play list to create that atmosphere and listens carefully to follow the leadings of the Spirit in the moment. What I appreciate most about Jon and his ministry is the honesty, sincerity, and transparency of his journey. He continuously seeks to be faithful – to find the true message that has been given to him.”

Read the rest of Walter’s letter…

Max Carter, Director of Friends Center at Guilford College

“After witnessing the profoundly positive impact Jon’s work has had on the Quaker community at Guilford, I have felt moved to share the fruits of his labor with the wider Quaker world. I hope that Jon’s music will inspire others to dig deep into the experience of early Friends and discover, as Jon did, deep resources for our lives today.”

Read the rest of Max’s letter…

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October 28, 2009

Reposted from the 2009 Friends Center Newsletter

I am not adept at most of the modern social networking devices. No Blackberry or cell phone, even. At the insistence of Friends Center staff and students, there is a Facebook account with my name attached – for purposes of getting the word out on campus ministry programs. But I don’t know how to operate it.

Thus, I was unaware of a YouTube video that recently went “viral” – at least in proportion to Quaker numbers – until friends referred me to it. The video shows 2006 QLSP graduate Jon Watts rising in the silence of worship in the Barn at Pendle Hill. His vocal ministry turns into a “rap” about Quaker history and theology, focusing on the diversity of views among Friends and his own upbringing in Friends General Conference. All around him, the worshipers gradually begin to dance about, sing, and play musical instruments. It turns into quite the “Quaker Holy Ghost Revival” – if liberal, unprogrammed Friends emphasized the Holy Ghost!

Anyone familiar with Jon’s QLSP senior project, a compilation of original songs based on the spirituality of George Fox, James Nayler, and Solomon Eccles – or his subsequent recordings through his own Bull & Mouth label – would recognize some of the themes in the video. He gives a “shout out” not only to his Quaker heroes, but also to Guilford, QLSP, Baltimore Yearly Meeting camps, and other influences on his spiritual journey. While emphasizing his deep roots in the liberal tradition of Friends, he makes a clarion call for mutual listening, understanding, and sympathy across the Quaker spectrum.

I dare say that some Friends might be taken aback by theological statements made in the video, but those of us who have known and worked with Jon are taken aback even more by how much he has grown and developed in his Quaker faith. I encourage Friends to read the “Proceedings” of Friends Center’s November 2008 Quaker Renewal Program conference on Convergent Friends (available on the Friends Center site). At that conference, young adult Quakers shared their deep concern that they had been shortchanged by their Friends meetings: pastoral Friends by the lack of teaching on Quaker distinctives and the testimonies; liberal Friends by the lack of teaching about the Bible and Christian beliefs.  Jon’s video displays that he has, indeed, become aware of the rich tapestry of a broader Quakerism – and that he is finding his home in it.

In Friends Center programs such as QLSP, campus ministry, the Quaker Renewal Program, and academic offerings, we have witnessed many students and older adults come into an awareness of a richer, deeper, more complex Quakerism. Few have had the capacity to express that growth in entertaining YouTube videos and music, but their journeys are no less fascinating. In this year’s Friends Center newsletter, you will be introduced to some of our ongoing work in continuing the mission to “strengthen Friends and their institutions” and to be companions along the way of spiritual pilgrimage. I hope you enjoy the articles.

And if you are inspired to create your own video on YouTube, be sure to let us know! But we’ll continue to maintain that the theological views and opinions will not necessarily be those of the management!

-Max L. Carter

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April 30, 2006

interview with max carter 11/30/05

What happened, as often happens with those enthusiastic movements, those things get formalized and Quakerism becomes a religion of “don’ts” and “thou shalt nots”. When people ask “What do Quakers believe?” you run off this litany of things that we don’t do. “Well, we DON’T baptize, we DON’T do communion, we DON’T take oaths, we DON’T…” and as part of that Quietist Quaker culture, we don’t do music, we don’t dress the way the world does, we don’t worship the way the world does, and that became hardened.

… and it had just hit hard after the Civil War, so you’re already spiritually exhausted from the migration, the battle of the Underground Railroad, the war, the poverty, and in come these holiness revivals. It was just singing and vocal prayer and praising the lord and people’s eternal assurance that they had been saved and sanctified. They knew if they died tomorrow, this is where they’d spend eternity. And you go back to these Meetings and the elders are saying, “Well… you can never be absolutely sure, you know… its too much creaturely activity. It’s too much self will. You have to be – if you think you’ve been saved – your personal salvation… you know, that’s pretty prideful.” So in order to literally save the Quaker youth for the Friend’s Church, the elders, who had no evangelical tendencies themselves, would incorporate some of these, what we call “new measures.” Bring in some hymn singing, some vocal prayer, some planned messages out of the silence to add some more spiritual vitality to the meeting. And that evolved from the 1860’s and 70’s into kind of a full blown pastoral protestant form of worship.

It’s the old dilemma: in order to save the village, we had to destroy it… the old Vietnam adage. In order to save Quakerism, they had to essentially destroy the Quakerism they inherited. But, in retrospect, we probably lost more than we gained. But they had to do it.

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April 30, 2006

James Nayler hadn’t slept for days. He had a letter in his pocket
from George and Margaret Fell. They prayed that he would read in time to stop it.
They eldered him. He would respect them and not Martha Simmons.

It started when James went to London. He had so much success there.
He preached and worked, converting hundreds. No one questioned his welfare.
Then ranters came, interrupting meetings. They said they preferred James’ preaching
to Burrough and Howgill and even George Fox.
Their leader was Martha. James, ask her to stop. They came to the Bull and Mouth Sunday with rocks.
They want to split Quakers with you at the top. Oh god don’t listen to Martha and her flock.

James stopped eating then. He made a decision from an Exeter prison. He would wait for George’s visit.

George came in from the street and James stood three feet below. They spoke in front of people and then George Fox had to go.
And James said –George, let me hug you.-
George said –I’m not bowing down.-
and James said –well, let me kiss you.-
George offered his foot. It was a falling out.

James decided to go on his own
and George went preaching and keeping the meetings afraid of James.

When James came into Bristol he rode upon a horse. The women sang as they went –oh Lord.-
James Nayler hadn’t slept for days, a letter in his pocket from George and Margaret Fell. They prayed, but prayers could not have stopped him.
No Quakers came to see that day James Nayler’s reenactment but Parliament heard otherwise and said that James had blasphemed.
They indicted him, his punishment: three hundred and ten lashes, a red hot iron through James’ tongue and branded B and laughed at.
“God gave me a body and spirit to endure this.”

They tied up his hands. He could barely stand.
Oh james, you’ve gone too far now. Oh james, you’ve fallen down.
You’ve brought our movement with you. You’ve brought the Quakers down.

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April 30, 2006

interview with max carter 11/30/05

“Early Friends believed that they were restoring original Christianity and, in their own experience, there was no need for programming in hymns and rites and rituals and liturgies because they had the very presence of the living God and it had come to them apocalyptically in their own inner selves. Christ was present. So you don’t need to sing hymns to Christ; Christ was there. You didn’t have to be baptized into this life. Christ was baptizing you inwardly. You didn’t have to take communion in remembrance of Jesus, he was there. You could commune directly.

…people coming together in expectant waiting upon the very reality of the presence of Christ and God in their midst and communing with that Spirit. And if that Spirit then leads you to preach, to prophesize, to sing, that’s proper.

They sang songs or hymns out of their own spiritual leading but not out of hymn books, not out of liturgies, not out of masses, not out of rites and rituals.

Instead of depending on other peoples’ experience second-hand, have your experience. And the best way to do that is in the silence and waiting. And if then the Spirit moves you to sing, to burst forth with a psalm or music that the spirit gave you, then that was fine.

They just rejected all forms that had become idols – or impediments, actually – to the real substance that those forms sought to manifest.

In personal life, it was a rejection of the superfluous. It was a rejection of classism. And in the religious life, with the Quaker emphasis on the direct and immediate experience of God, why would you sing other peoples’ words about their religious experience? You should have that experience yourself.”

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