Paul Buckley (2) (1949–)

Buckley addresses freshly and clearly a perennial theme for Friends, from Fox and Naylor to the present: that Quaker testimony is our behavioral witness to our Quaker spiritual life, to what the Inward Light has revealed to us. Further, he reviews Quaker history up to the present to show us how our understanding of testimony can apparently easily slip into a list of testimonies, that amount to rules or expectations or values. Such a list can come to define us, to ourselves and to others, and show more can become a sort of creed for Quakers. Our present use of SPICES (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Sustainability) as "the testimonies," while it has its uses, is such a case. This is a secularized distortion of testimony.
Thus Buckley challenges us to revise our understandings and discussions of "the testimonies" by recognizing that all our specific testimonies arise from the one testimony for Friends, which is that God shows, guides, and empowers us in how to live. And surely we have many testimonies that we are led to from the one testimony, like love, joy, justice, mercy, generosity, as well as the six in our usual list. He closes with challenging each of us to discern what we are led to by the Light.
Buckley's pamphlet is clearly written and organized, interesting, and challenging.
Illustration of the spiritual source and "first motion" of a ministry or leading can be found in many of the autobiographical PHPs about the spiritual journey of a Friend. Also, let us note that the issue is perennial as seen in religions everywhere, where many of us humans drift into observing our religion as a "purity system," with observance of rules and rituals coming to define participation and membership in the religion. show less

In Luke 11:1, a disciple says to Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” Jesus’s response, usually called the Lord’s Prayer, is perhaps Christianity’s most frequently repeated set of words. But rather than teaching the disciples what they should pray, Jesus provided a guide to how they should pray. This pamphlet examines Jesus’s words, petition by petition, and invites readers to do the same. It encourages readers to enter the world of a first-century listener and allow Jesus’s response to show more teach them to pray in words that are true to the original meaning and true to each supplicant’s heart. show less

Buckley presents a compelling understanding of prayer, as an exploration and expression of yourself and your relationship with God. Prayer is not just repetition of a set of given words, but rather what your heart and soul have to say to God right now. To be faithful to that, the words you say will need to express your true feeling and state now, and what you say tomorrow many well be different.
To illustrate this approach, Buckley presents an exercise of writing your own version of a show more familiar prayer, by feeling out and expressing what each section of it means to you. He works through the example of the Lord's Prayer, from Matthew ch.6 and Luke ch.11 in the Bible, explaining what each phrase in the prayer meant to him at the time he wrote it, thus writing his own prayer. It's an exercise that challenges us to discern our own state and bring it humbly to the Divine Presence, seeking guidance and strength.
This kind of prayer, Buckley says, us a way to look at the various parts of our lives and recognize and acknowledge our dependence on Divine sustenance. In this way, we deepen our relationship with God. show less

Thank you, Paul Buckley. Nearly 23 years ago, I was in a class you taught in New Haven, Connecticut where you write in large letters on the board, “They are not OUR testimonies, they are God’s testimonies. It is nice to hear your voice once again.

We so often try to push the genie back into the bottle. Try to reduce God to some small thing. It cannot work. Buckley reminds us that “we” are written with a lower case letter; God is not. We need to get beyond ourselves. Or, better put, show more look within ourselves, to discover that Inner Light that is there, in each and every one of us.

SPICES? We use them to cook, to create something WE have thought up. We don’t live by recipes. We search ourselves for God’s love within. show less