Re: When is a Quaker a Quaker?

In article <Le6dncs_usBW9gLeRVn-tQ@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bill Samuel <bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>In article <dnn047$ccp$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

>To the best of my knowledge, Marshall has never been a member of FUM, so I'm
>not sure why studying his positions would help you learn what it means to be a
>member of FUM. I wouldn't consider his view of Quakerism to be very close to
>the corporate sense of FUM.

Then I was misreading in how I read the following exchange...

> Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker
> From: Marshall Massey <mmas...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 09:27:18 -0600
> Local: Thurs, Dec 8 2005 10:27 am
> Subject: Re: When is a Quaker a Quaker?
>
> >3ijd: All the schism's within the RSofF are to my mind wrong.
> >2 mm: Absolutely. But saying, "I won't join any of you because
> >2 : you participate in this wrong," only compounds the folly
> >2 : -- you make an additional schism between you and all the
> >2 : others.
> > ijd: But when one attends two distinct yearly meetings isn't
> > : joining the one equivalent to saying to the other "I won't
> > : join you because you participate in this wrong".
>
>
> Only if you yourself declare that that is what it means. It is
> possible instead to say, "I'm not joining you because -- as you
> yourself agree -- I can only be a member of one congregation at a
> time. But this does not lessen my regard for you, and I hope to
> continue to participate in the corporate life of your congregation to
> the degree that my membership in the other congregation permits."
> That is what I said to Great Plains Yearly Meeting (FUM) when I joined
> Omaha Monthly Meeting of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) instead;
> and my pledge to continue participating in GPYM was received with the
> same love that I gave it with.
>

It was the use of "instead" which left me thinking Marshall had terminated
membership in FUM and then at a later time decided to join the Conservative
meeting, coupled with the indication that he had formerly participated in
GPYM. But either way, my reading was that he was for some time participating
in GPYM and then switched to joining Omaha Monthly meeting. The issue was
more the extent to which these two schism might potentially influence those
that attended them regarding faith and practice that I was speaking too --
not the specifics of whether Marshall was or was not a member of this one,
that one or both at a specific time. To some extent the precise issue of
what Marshall was a member of and when is to my mind tangential to the
central question of how the varying schisms within the RSofF influence them
that join them.

>
>I don't think any member of an FUM-only meeting has been active here for any
>length of time. And while members of so-called "united" meetings (who have
>sometimes been active here) are technically members of FUM, most such meetings
>are little distinguishable from FGC-only meetings.
>
>I am probably the most experienced with FUM here. I have belonged to four
>monthly meetings, the first two of which were FUM-only at the times I
>originally became members of them (both of them are now "united" meetings). I
>have also served on the General Board and Executive Committee of FUM, and was
>(still am, actually) very much in tune with the purpose of FUM, but
>representing a "united" yearly meeting generally hostile to its purpose,
>objection was raised to reappointing me.
>

You're welcome to explain Marshall's word to me in ways that make his words
clearer, and I thank you for having done so above.

Ian.
.

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