SEEKING PRAYER

Mary has a dear friend who is suffering from multiple problems. Her friend is presently undergoing detox for alcoholism. With medical problems, losses of family members, job insecurity, and other stresses she has not been able to shake alcohol dependence. Mary is asking us to pray for her friend to receive the kind of healing which only God can give. My prayer is that Danny may receive the blessing of knowing God's love can overcome her addiction.

We are all in need of forgiveness for we all fail to measure up to the full potential which God has placed in us. We have within us the ability to live with compassion for one another. As we forgive the failures we recognize in our brothers and sisters, we also forgive our own past failures. In doing so we can begin life anew understanding that our hearts need not be troubled or afraid for God is present with us.   

John 14
[25] These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
[26] But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
[27] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  

 

HAP TAYLOR

A military vehicle makes it way through a mountainous region of the Jiangsu province, 1946

 By 1945, the Qing dynasty had collapsed and China had experienced communist revolution, civil war and global conflagration. War between the nationalists and Communists would resume in 1946, and a final image of a military truck, tiny against the rolling hills, provides a portent of the strife to come.

---

  Harriett 'Hap' Taylor 

Nov 10, 1930 - Nov 2, 2020 

She died on Nov 2nd a few days before her 90th birthday Nov 10, 2020.

Hap was born in China where her parents were missionaries. She fondly remembered the Chinese Nursemaid who cared for her when she was young and taught her to speak Chinese. When the Chinese Communists took over the government after 1949 religion was suppressed. Hap's father was imprisoned and the family was expelled.  When they left China the family probably returned to Massachusetts and her father rejoined them after his release. Hap later graduated from Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts women's college in Hadley, Massachusetts. 

Hap came to Florida more than 50 years ago to work as a volunteer for AmeriCorps VISTA. Volunteers In Service To America was the brainchild of President Kennedy and initiated by President Johnson in the effort to alleviate poverty in America. Hap became involved with obtaining services for migrant workers. She was active in providing medical care for migrants by helping to found  ACORN Clinic in Brooker, FL. In addition she did substitute teaching.

During the time that I knew Hap she was active in the Meeting. She liked to participate in everything that was going on. She was a vital part of the Bible Study group when Larry was leading it. When she learned of our interest in Blake, she found among the books she had been saving a small copy of Blake's Songs of Innocence which she gave to us.  

Most of us would agree that Hap Taylor liked being independent. That's why she clung so tenaciously to living in a dilapidated trailer when we would have liked for her to be nearer the Meetinghouse. Walter and Mona did their best to make the trailer more livable by repairing, rewiring and making what improvements that they could, but they couldn't convince Hap that she should get rid of the accumulation of clutter which she treasured. Hap was far away from her family so the meeting was the family who loved and supported her.

In an email from Hap's niece we read of Hap's last year when she resided in Cross City Nursing Home: "I’ve been relieved to know that, in this last year, she’s been comfortable, well fed, and surrounded by kind faces.  She was up and in her wheel chair pretty much every day until her last decline at the end of October.  The staff was fond of her, and laughed about the fact that, even though she was very hard of hearing of late, she seemed to be able to correct people’s grammar.  And they all heard her stories of China.  Her spirit shone through to the end." 

Writing this post depended on memories of Hap from various people who knew her. If you remember an incident or story from Hap's life please leave a comment on the post or send an email to eachone@earthlink.net. 

 

GATHERED MEETING

Thomas Kelly, 1914

Friends Journal

Courtesy of Haverford College

Thomas Kelly, a Quaker mystic, wrote this passage which was published in a tract available on the internet. Thomas Kelly, a birthright Quaker, lived from 1893 until 1941. He is best know as an author and professor of philosophy at Haverford College. 

The Gathered Meeting 

By Thomas Kelly

"The crux of religious living lies in the will, not in transient and variable states. Utter dedication of will to God is open to all, for every man can will. Where such a will is present, there is a child of God. When there are graciously given to us such glimpses of glory as aid us in softening our will, then we may be humbly grateful. But glad willing away of self, that the will of God, so far as it can be discerned, may become our own—that is the basic condition. In that steadiness of spirit one walks serene and unperturbed praying only “Thy will be done.” Confident that we are in His hands, and that He educates us in ways we do not expect by means of dryness as well as by means of glory, we walk in gratitude if His sun shines upon us, and in serenity if He leads us in valleys and dry places.

And as individual mystics who are led deep into the heart of devotion learn to be weaned away from reliance upon special times of vision, learn not to clamor perpetually for the heights but to walk in shadows and valleys and dry places for months and years together, so must group worshippers learn that worship is fully valid when there are no thrills, no special sense of covering. The disciplined soul and the disciplined group have learned to cling to the reality of God's presence, whether the feeling of presence is great or faint. If the wind of the Spirit, blowing whither He wills, warms the group into an inexpressible sense of unity, then the worshippers are profoundly grateful. If no blanket of divine covering is warmly felt, and if the wills have been offered together in the silent work of worship, worshippers may still go home content and nourished and say, “It was a good meeting.” In the venture of group worship, souls must learn to accept spiritual weather without dismay and go deeper in will into Him who makes all things beautiful in their time."

This is a hymn as sung by Mennonites. 'Where He leads he I will follow' expresses the sentiment of one who wills to take whatever path which is lain before one. As Kelly says praying only 'that the will of God, so far as it can be discerned, may become our own.' The conservative Mennonites use music as integral to their worship. Their only instrument of music is the human voice. The whole congregation joins in song in accordance with New Testament methods of worship in Spirit.

John 4
[24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Matthew 26
[30] And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. 

Colossians 3
[16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

I Will Follow