Published: April 1, 2023
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This is a first, folks! With humble gratitude, I'm happy to share that I, Chris Hall, am now the author of a Pendle Hill Pamphlet: Forgiveness: Freed to Love. Since 1934, this respected organization has published short, substantive writings by some amazing Quaker voices. I'm honored to join the list.
The forgiveness essay is based on a plenary talk offered to a NW regional Quaker gathering in April 2022. More than ten years of working with Way of the Spirit groups and guest presenters helped bring the message into focus.
My hope is to help reclaim the authentic inner experience of forgiveness, rather than survey theory or theology. So in the pamphlet, you'll encounter spacious language, queries for reflection, and many suggested exercises. Several personal stories illustrate how forgiveness works with me—forgiving myself, forgiving a family member through the culture wars, and in big personal stretching about my own settler-colonial ancestry.
Now... I wonder what God will do with this out in the world? Please join my prayers that it falls into the hands, and touches the hearts, that the Holy One dreams for it. Thank you.
Grace and peace to you,
from Christine Betz Hall, Whidbey Island Friends Meeting (3/27/2023)