What does the Beloved Community mean to Quakers?

 “Within Friends’ spiritual community, the collective search for truth, undertaken in the Meeting for Worship, is the foundation for the beloved community to which Friends aspire.”

When I was asked by the editor of our Quaker newsletter to write about the Beloved Community, the first thing that came to my mind was the work that Jill and I are doing in the city of Pasadena to promote housing justice—a decent, safe and affordable home for everyone, especially those who are unhoused. Using a faith-rooted approach similar to that of FCNL, our nonprofit Making Housing and Community Happen (MHCH) started in the office of the American Friends Committee in the mid 1990s. It has since grown into a powerful coalition of churches, homeless service providers, former city officials, experts on affordable housing, and concerned citizens. Our efforts have significantly influenced our elected officials and made real progress. While the homeless count has increased throughout LA County, it has decreased by 54% in the last decade here in Pasadena,  in part because of our advocacy. The City Council has approved nearly 250 units of affordable housing in the last two years, increased the affordable housing set aside for all new market rate developments from 15% to 20%, and is on track to allow churches to build affordable housing on their underutilized land. During the pandemic we have lobbied for an eviction moratorium and for emergency housing for the unhoused. We are one of the most racially and ethnically diverse groups in our city, committed to loving kindness and respect for each other and everyone we encounter. We seek to work and live in the spirit that inspired Dr. King.

According to the King Center, “Dr. Martin Luther King popularized the notion of the “Beloved Community”…. as a society based on justice, equal opportunity, and of one’s fellow human beings.”

"It is also a society where economic justice prevails: “Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.”

When I think of the Beloved Community, I also think of the work of our Quaker organizations, AFSC and FCNL. I have worked with both organizations and have seen first-hand how they embody the values espoused by Dr. King. For the past decade I have served on the General Board of FCNL and am deeply impressed with how FCNL uses Quaker process to achieve goals worthy of Dr. King: “We seek a world free of war and the threat of war. We seek a society with equity and justice for all. We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled. We seek an earth restored.”

At FCNL we meet together in Quaker worship and seek input from and work with Quakers across the theological spectrum: Evangelical, pastoral, unprogrammed, universalist. We also work in coalition with other faith-based advocacy groups. We are inclusive and non-partisan.

The Beloved Community is bigger than the Quaker community,  just as God is too big to fit into one denomination or religion. I also have experienced the Beloved Community in the interfaith peace and justice work that I have been called to do, and which I have written about in my book, Quakers and the Interfaith Movement (Quaker Universalist Fellowship, 2013).

Over the fifteen years I have been involved with groups like Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP) and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.  ICUJP started in Los Angeles right after 9/11 when Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders came together and decided to form an organization devoted to peace and justice, with the slogan: “Religious communities must stop blessing war and violence.” We meet every Friday morning to listen to peace and justice activists, we organize educational forums and vigils, and from time to time, we engage in civil disobedience. One of the high points of my life was getting arrested and going to jail at a demonstration sponsored by ICUJP. (I have also been arrested at demonstrations sponsored by Quakers.) Civil disobedience is one of the nonviolent methods used by the Beloved Community.

The Beloved Community is not only local, but world-wide, as I discovered when I became part of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Started in 1the 1990s, the Parliament organizes world-wide gatherings of 5,000-10,000 religious leaders from around the world, dedicated to building understanding and promoting peace and justice. I attended the Parliament in Melbourne, Australia (and used that opportunity to visit Quaker meetings and attend Australia YM). I also attended the Parliament in Salt Lake City, where I had the opportunity to hear Rev. William Barber, whom many consider the spiritual heir of Dr. King.

A pastor from North Carolina, Barber is committed to the Beloved Community and organized religious leaders to demonstrate every Monday at the state capitol (we followed his example and organized “moral Mondays” here in Pasadena to advocate for affordable housing at the Civic Center). Barber also revitalized the “Poor People’s Campaign,” which was started by Dr. King to advocate for economic justice.

Barber is a powerful preacher and his message about doing justice in the spirit of Jesus touched my heart. I heard him preach in Salt Lake City with two of my dearest activist Quaker friends: David Hartsough and Eisha Mason. David is a life-long Quaker activist and marched with Dr. King when he was a teenager. Eisha Mason, who is African American, is a former regional director of the AFSC and one of the most deeply spiritual people I know. At one point, Rev. Barber did an “altar call for justice,” and invited us to recommit our lives to the Beloved Community. Deeply moved, David, Eisha and I along with many others walked up to the podium as he prayed over us and we felt the spirit that inspired Dr. King stirring in our hearts. Looking in the eyes of my friends, I felt God’s presence among us.

It was more than just a feeling. A few months later, I found myself in Sacramento at a demonstration organized by the Poor People’s Campaign, and there was David Hartsough among those being arrested. Since then, I have learned that David has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness but that hasn’t stopped him from doing what he can for peace and justice. As an old Jewish saying goes,  "It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it either "(Rabbi Tarfon, Pirke Avot 2:21).

How do we do the work of embodying the Beloved Community in Orange Grove Meeting? It starts with honoring each other gifts and callings and showing loving kindness and respect towards one another.  In our Meeting we have doctors, nurses, therapists, writers, artists, actors, teachers, academics, lawyers, gardeners, parents, grand parents, children, and much more. Each of us has different gifts:  for hospitality, for clerking, for teaching, for organizing, for compassionate listening.  Some of us have gifts we aren’t even aware of. We become the Beloved Community when we use our gifts to benefit not only our Meeting community, but the world around us.

Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice reminds us that we have a responsibility to the larger community. “Living by faith is not a private matter. It calls us outward to the needs of the community at large.” We are also called to a higher purpose: “Following the Spirit’s leadings together, we hope to overcome the causes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and the neglect or disrespect of children, the poor, and the socially marginalized, in the world and in ourselves.”

At Orange Grove Meeting, we have done much to advance and embody the Beloved Community. We’ve not only approved minutes on social justice and peace, some of us have also signed petitions, gone to City Council meetings and met with elected officials, taken part in protests, volunteered to serve those in need, put solar panels on our buildings and on our homes, reduced our consumption of fossil fuel, practiced vegetarianism and veganism. And much more!

Creating the Beloved Community is not only a noble aspiration, it is also a labor of love. I thank God that we are part of this loving and beloved community.