A Natural World Order: Part VIIa
A new/old World Order: 1, 2 , 3, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 17a
Part VIIa of a series — Part VII here & Part VIII here — on how pretending that men are equal to women leads us to all sorts of problems. See the rest of the subtitled series — 4, 7, 8, 12,15,16 & 17 above — see all series’ recap here and wrap-up here. This post addresses Cambridge Quakers’ reaction to my poem in section 2 of the previous post (here starting with “Late last summer…”).
This post is elicited by attending the papal Mass below, and (non?) coincidental Quaker decadal survey posted in Cambridge Quakers weekly newsletter… God works in mysterious ways, does He not?!
The poem in my previous post reflected this series, that there is a benign patriarchy to be regained in order to properly reframe male/female roles that I hold to be confused at present. At issue is the reaction Cambridge Quakers had, by later issuing a statement re-asserting women’s equality and thereby — my opinion, I doubt they thought about it — perpetuating the confused roles I address here. So far, so good, we can agree to disagree…
Except that a decadal survey run by British Quakers (web) asks “… where British Quakerism is at present and what its future may hold […] following on from ones [run] in 1990, 2003 and 2013 [for] a vital piece of that information-gathering...” Here is a question I put to my local Friends who challenged my view on gender roles: “ for all the a-patriarchy that’s called upon here [in Cambridge], how come the Marian tradition isn’t mentioned? I mean the survey mentioned only God and Jesus […]… the Catholic tradition appears to me more Marian than [Quaker founder] George Fox’s!”
I went on to copy my transcript, from the video above, of parts of the Papal Homily I could jot down while listening — I didn’t go back to complete it, and if it’s posted I’ll share the full homily — to explain “Marian tradition”:
Mary is introduced as the Ark of the Covenant… Mary and Elizabeth are young and old, fertile and barren, yet their meeting reflects the contradictions that our faith is there to bear… Do we believe that God is in our lives, that He acts in ways we don’t understand?… There is a way to discern God’s presence: when Elizabeth greets Mary the baby leaps of joy in the womb… leap of faith… a quiver that stirs our heart… opposite of quiet heart that is frozen in the breast… as we let migrants die on our shores… a cold flat heart can lead to sickness, inaction and sadness… and lets bring passion to those who don’t believe in God… even among our daily toils and challenges in society, those who believe have a spring in their step, a commitment in their own mission…in order to create a new world… God appears at our doorstep as Elizabeth greets Mary, not in extraordinary events but in day-to-day… in vast mix of religions, faith fights excesses, violence, isolation and sadness… true spirit of mercy is the very spirit or God… for God the poor are the masters… artists and thinkers who have inspired a leap forward in faith, charity and hope… we have to love our families and dare to love the weakest… let’s look to Mary who inconvenienced herself to show her faith… that example will help us leap into our faith… Paul Claudel: “I see the church open”… I have nothing to offer, Mary, but my faith.
In other words, while it’s OK to push feminism at a local level, it behoves the national level to support it by not posting (unintentionally?) patriarchal surveys. Watch this space for Cambridge Quakers’ reaction if any.
