8:30-9:00

Registration

9:00-10:30

Welcome and morning address: Reading Within

Early Friends practiced a meditative way of reading the Bible. They aspired to read the Scriptures in the same Spirit in which they were given forth. With early Friends as our reading companions, we can discover the power of Scripture to take us into the presence of God, and we can come to understand how they were inwardly nourished by their encounters with the Bible.

10:30-11:00

Break

11:00-12:15

Workshop (choose one)

A: Meeting for Reading – Michael Birkel

In this workshop we’ll explore a practice of group meditative reading of Scripture. Meeting for Reading is a way of reading with others that attends to the power of the images in Scripture to take us into an awareness of the presence of God.

Workshop Leader: Michael Birkel teaches Religion at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. He has written about Quaker spirituality and has traveled widely among Friends as a speaker and a leader of workshops and retreats.

B: How Modern Friends Read the Bible – Paul Buckley

This workshop will present selections from How a Quaker Reads the Bible to begin exploring the variety of ways in which contemporary Friends read the Bible. Participants will be encouraged to discuss the ways that they have found to be the most and the least helpful in approaching scripture.

Workshop Leader: Paul Buckley is known among Friends for his work with various Quaker organizations and for his articles and workshops on the history, faith, and practice of the Religious Society of Friends. He most recently co-edited How a Quaker Reads the Bible with Steve Angell.

C: Key Texts for Quaker Distinctives – Tim Seid

Early Friends read the same text as others, in the same way, with the same questions, but Friends arrived at different answers. We will focus on key texts in Scripture which Friends found to lead them to their unique ways of worship and practice as a reclamation of primitive Christianity. What are the key texts that define or describe our own worship and practice?

Workshop Leader: Tim Seid has served as a pastoral minister among Friends for seven years, both in New England and in Indiana. He is an Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies at Earlham School of Religion.

12:15-1:15

Lunch on site

1:15-2:30

Workshop (choose one of above)

A B C

2:30-3:00

Wrap up