Building Bridges
Description:
The following text is the keynote talk delivered remotely by Kenya Casanova to North Pacific Yearly Meeting on July 23, 2020.
The following text is the keynote talk delivered remotely by Kenya Casanova to North Pacific Yearly Meeting on July 23, 2020.
Growing up, I was taught to live by and hold high the Quaker testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Service. But I also always felt the influence of another important testimony – Environmental Caretaking. While this testimony may fall under several of the traditional Quaker testimonies listed above, it also holds a power strong enough to stand on its own.
The majority of liberal Friends in the West share similar traits: First, very few of us grew up among Quakers; we arrived as adults, often fleeing dogmas or religious paths that we now reject. Second, many of us feel a sense of “homecoming” in Friendly traditions like our Peace Testimony, silent expectant worship, and the general spirit of tolerance in our meetings.
The way of love is not a subtle argument,
The door there is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall. And in falling
Are given wings.
--Rumi
