Wendy Sanford is the presiding clerk of the Friends Meeting in Cambridge, MA. A review of Practicing Peace, a Devotional Walk through the Quaker Tradition by Catherine Whitmire, Sorin Books, 2007.
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I don't know about you, but I need guidance and inspiration for the humble, daily walk of practicing peace. Being preached at doesn't help, nor does being told to suppress my anger and be nice. Nor, in fact, does having peacemaking saints and heroes held up and idealized, because I compare myself to them and feel inadequate.
I am delighted to report that Catherine Whitmire's Practicing Peace offers guidance in the most accessible, human and un-preachy way, through the voices of a whole range of Quakers -- some heroic, many as stumbling as I am. As Whitmire says in the introduction, "This book is not about 'taking six easy steps to peace.'" The experiences of Friends suggest that practicing peace is a lifelong, complex, multifaceted spiritual discipline. This book's goal is to offer spiritual accompaniment, encouragement and guidance for those seeking to practice peace in their personal lives, in their families, and in the wider world."
Whitmire addresses thirty-one dimensions of practicing peace -- with ourselves, for example, through loving ourselves and through spiritual renewal; in everyday life through parenting, or simple living, or gratitude; with others through forgiveness, and through honoring equality in race, religion, and gender; practicing peace in the face of suffering, fear, or vengeance; through nonviolent action, pacifism, hope.
Each topic receives concise and spirited treatment. First, a brief story of a peacemaking moment. Hutu Friend David Niyonzima faces Tutsi collaborators in Burundi. Israeli musician Daniel Barenboim performs at the Friends School in Ramallah. An ordinary Quaker interrupts a gang beating long enough for the victim to get away. Next come well-selected quotations from a range of Quakers through history, followed by incisive questions (what Quakers call 'queries') to help us reflect on our lives.
As Whitmire says in her introduction, "Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends), have been walking the path to peace for centuries, and the stories of their journeys have much to offer those of us seeking to practice peace today." The two hundred or more Quakers whose words she has selected cross centuries, sexes, races, ages, sexual orientations, though most are from the liberal, un-programmed (silent worship, no clergy) branch of Quakers, who tend most often to be white and middle class.
Some are famous, at least in the Quaker world, others are not. Cathy herself and many of the Friends she quotes use what I think of as moderate religious language -- they speak of God, or Spirit, sometimes of Christ -- never do I sense that they are trying to tell me what the language of my own faith should be.
In a time when religious fundamentalism has spurred a reaction among many of us to drop our sense of affiliation with or openness to the divine, it is heartening to hear from so many Friends who seek, who pray, who listen inwardly, who try as best they can to follow the leadings of a spirit of love.
Whitmire's preparation for creating Practicing Peace includes a Masters in Divinity, Alternatives to Violence training, nonviolent communication and mediation training, the Shalem Institute's program in spiritual direction, and many years as a Protestant chaplain and pastoral counselor on a psychiatric unit of an urban Boston hospital.
In 2001 she published Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity, another succinct and engaging compilation of Quaker wisdom. I knew Cathy Whitmire well when she served as presiding clerk of my Friends meeting in Cambridge, MA, and in spiritual retreats she led for women in our meeting. I have always appreciated her spirit, her courage, and her perceptiveness. All three shine in this book.
She's also gifted at selecting quotes. I'll end with one of my favorites, from Quaker mystic and writer Thomas Kelly: "No giant figure of heroic size will stalk across the stage of history today, as a new Messiah. But in simple, humble, unimportant people like you and me wells up the spring of hope. We have this treasure of the seed in earthen vessels -- very earthen vessels. You and I know how imperfect we are… Yet those little demonstrations of love and goodwill… deeds done in the midst of suffering… stir hope that humanity as a whole will be aroused to yield to the press and surge of the Eternal Love within them."
Whitmire is donating any profits from Practicing Peace to peacemaking organizations around the world.