My Quaker Journey Ends, My Mennonite Journey Begins

I joined the Religious Society of Friends in Norway when I was 18, and for decades, “Quaker” was one of my strongest identifiers. Perhaps too strong, since it took ten years of struggle to acknowledge that I was no longer a Quaker. Even though my theology didn’t – and doesn’t – conceive of a way of being a Christian outside a community context, my discernment during those 10 years was often that God wasn’t calling me to go to my Quaker Meeting on a Sunday. I had once loved every opportunity for Quaker conversation, but gradually began to avoid not only Meeting, but also online communities and Quaker publications and organizations, because I increasingly found them irritating.

It was a confusing time, and the only comfort I found was in the experience that God was not nudging me on a Sunday morning to go to any faith community.

Thankfully, once I took the step of visiting Seattle Mennonite Church, it took only a few visits to realize that this is my new home and identity. I am once again in a setting where I love the conversations, learning what Jesus calls us to, and doing it in community – humbly and happily.

My core beliefs haven’t changed as much as my understanding of church has. At its best, church is a place to:

Seek to know God’s heart and hear God’s invitation to join with all of creation in growing towards a just, peaceful, and merciful world, and keep striving to understand “who is my neighbor”, embody God’s love, and seek to incarnate that love and justice on earth
Learn from the Bible, especially have our hearts and minds radically transformed by Jesus’ teachings, and then acting on what we’ve understood
Be part of a community that teaches us how to speak and act in ways that reveal God’s love, and help each other when someone struggles
Learn to love and be loved, heal and be healed, forgive and be forgiven, and take in what Jesus taught the disciples about living as his followers.

My blogging will resume – I hope – over at Susanne Kromberg’s Musings on Faith. Please join me there!

2 thoughts on “My Quaker Journey Ends, My Mennonite Journey Begins”

Raelene Fendall says:

February 20, 2020 at 07:39

Thank you, dear friend. You have explained this so well. 💕 We are very thankful for the ways our journey has brought us together and the ways you continue to enrich our lives. We are glad you have found a peaceful community of believers. Zephaniah 3:17 speaks to me today.

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Jutta Boysen says:

February 16, 2020 at 11:52

Thanks, dear Susanne! “Funny” enough I have recently been attending Weekend Courses on Peace theology by a mennonite Pastor and friend called Marie-Noelle von der Recke. I am curious to read your musings! And I am happs that you got through the storm alright!

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