Organizing from Spirit

I have written a number of posts on this blog about climate organizing.  All of which have been secular organizing.   I have turned over a new leaf and I have begun to organize from leading.  One leading was to get together activist I knew who belonged to churches and have a conversation about what would it look like for the churches to have a powerful moral voice on climate?  We did not have an answer on that but we did decide to organize a conference on Faith and Climate...and 175 people came to that.  Many seeds were plants and many ripples are going out from the event.  It would seem that we will keep organizing as people of faith.

We had as our keynote speaker Jay O'Hara.   I hope as Quakers reading this you all know who Jay is, but my guess is that because of how the mainstream media is that you do not all know who Jay is.   Jay is the Quaker guy from the Lobster boat blockade.  Jay and his co-defendant Ken Ward, piloted a small lobster boat in 2013 in front of a 40,000 lb coal barge to prevent it from delivering its carbon load to the Brayton Point coal plant, the largest coal burning plant in Massachusetts. (Now slated for closure in 2017).   They of course were arrested for this act of holy obedience.  But in one of those openings that only God can create when the Judge decided to allow their defense of the necessity plea  (a legal defense that says you had to break a law to prevent a greater harm...eg break in into a building in order to get someone trapped within.) the prosecuting attorney held a press conference and stated he was dropping all charges because he believed their act was necessary that the government was not doing enough to stop climate change!

So Jay was our keynote speaker.   Jay was great.   He did something I did not think possible in 45 minutes - he explained the heart of Quakerism.  He began with telling the joke about how there is a button in Quakerism that says:  "I am a Quaker.  In case of emergency be silent."  Yes you all know the button.   But the audience laughed and then Jay explained to them that this would not be like what they expected from a keynote speech that there would be silence, but the silence would not be because he forgot what he was saying but because he was listening for what spirit would have him say.   In this very simple way he explained Quaker silence and Quaker ministry.   And so there were many silences filled with a Living Silence.  In this room of 175 people where few were Quaker you could hear a pin drop in the silence and it was a holy silence.  People of other faiths were also listening in that silence.

 Those of you who have ever been in a Covered Meeting (and with any luck it is still the case that all of you have had that experience at least once and I hope more) will understand what I mean when i say a living silence.  I am posting a link here to the talk and I hope you will all make the time to listen to it because the content is wonderful.   Other than the very first silence which the camera man edited out because it was 3 minutes long, all the silences are in there.   But the thing which is so interesting is like me none of you have ever been in a meeting for worship which was recorded.   So know moments of Living Silence have been recorded.   so what I discovered when I listened to it again is that those silences are in there but they are not living silences, they are just silences....because the Living Silence is being in the Presence of God and that is something which cannot be recorded on film - it is quite literally something that lives in that real time moment.

Jay also introduced and explained his elder Erin who was there with him holding him in prayer while he spoke.  While you cannot unfortunately see her in the video many people said how touched they were by this reminder that we are not faithful alone, and that we must hold each other in prayer to do the big things we must do to stop climate change.   Jay and Erin had been in prayer for quite a while in the morning leading up to the talk, and as a result Jay was centered, able to be faithful and to give ministry, to allow the words to come through him like one does in Meeting for Worship when given a message.   This also taught the audience about Quakerism about what we listen for in silence and what comes through.

Jay talked about his own journey from secular activism to faith based activism and explained getting a leading and discernment - two other critical Quaker concepts.  He peppered in some Quaker history, mentioning both George Fox and Margaret Fell.  He called Quakers to return to their roots and he called everyone in the room to find the radical and spirit alive roots of their faith and live it.  People have been telling me ever since how Jay's words, really how The Holy One's words, touched them.  I invite you to listen as well to this message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXdKCHjekjc&feature=youtu.be