Volume Eleven, Number One
Winter-Spring 2012
Editor: Chuck Fager
Associate Editor: Steven Angell & Ann K. Riggs
ISSN 1526-7482

From the Editor, #20

This is a compact, but packed issue: it opens with a new dispatch by Associate Editor Stephen Angell on the ongoing saga of approaching division in Indiana Yearly Meeting. This is our third update on the situation, and there has been plenty of action and discussion since our previous effort. And while there is plenty …

Editor’s Introduction: Divorce in Indiana – Quaker Style

Divorce is not as traumatic an experience as it once was. In fact, today most spouses resolve to part peaceably. No-fault laws and mediators can smooth the way to property and custody agreements. The results are still wrenching, but civilized, and much better for the children. Not only couples, but countries have managed this: in …

The Impending Split in Indiana Yearly Meeting

By Stephen W. Angell As we reported in Issues #18 (Fall-Winter 2010-2011) and #19 (Spring-Summer 2011), Indiana Yearly Meeting, after anguished discussion in an all-day Representative Council Meeting on October 1, 2011, agreed on a year-long process of “Deliberative/Collaborative Reconfiguration.” The roots of this momentous decision lay in a minute, approved in June of 2008, …

Appendix

February 3, 2012 Dear Friends of Indiana Yearly Meeting, As the Reconfiguration Task Force of Indiana Yearly Meeting, we are writing to invite your input to the early part of the reconfiguration process. As you may recall, at the called meeting of the Representative Council on October 1, 2011, Friends approved “Model 5 — Deliberative/Collaborative …

The Full text of Barclay’s Observations, translated from the Latin by Michael Birkel

Some Christian Observations on the Theological Disputation of Nikolaus Arnold, who proclaims himself a Doctor and Professor of Most Sacred Theology, Concerning Quakerism, and a Brief Refutation of It, by Robert Barclay Preface To everyone in all of Belgium and in particular to the doctors, professors, and students of the Academy of Franeker, Robert Barclay …

Christianity and War, and Other Essays Against the Warfare State.

Laurence M. Vance.Vance Publications, Pensacola, Florida. 418 pages. Reviewed by Chuck Fager In the spring of 2011, a young soldier came to see me, at the Quaker peace project where I work. He wanted to talk about filing a Conscientious Objector (CO) claim. Once a very enthusiastic recruit, he had been in the elite Special …

An Excerpt from “Christianity and War:” Are You a Christian Warmonger?

Originally posted April 7, 2005 by Laurence M. Vance Reprinted by permission It is appalling that many defenders of the war in Iraq are Christians; it is even worse when they appeal to Scripture to excuse or justify a senseless war that has now resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 Americans and the wounding …

An Interview With Laurence Vance Author of Christianity and War

QT. Please tell us something about your own background: where you were born, brought up, etc. And where you were educated; your brief bio speaks of degrees in history and theology – where did you study, and what fields did you concentrate in? LV. I am a semi-native Floridian. I was brought up on the …