Thanks to all who helped make Quaker Heritage Day 2015 a great event! Stay tuned for information about Quaker Heritage Day 2016.
Quaker Heritage Day 2015
“My faith, in spite of everything, keeps straining up to God”: Reading Helen Morgan Brooks and Howard Thurman after Ferguson
with Stephen Angell, Professor of Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion
Saturday, February 21, 2015 (9am-3:30pm)
Helen Morgan Brooks (1904-1989) was a poet, home economist and dietician, a convinced Friend, a member of the board of Pendle Hill and of many other Quaker organizations; Howard Thurman (1899-1981), a member of the Wider Quaker Fellowship, was pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples in San Francisco, a noted author, professor, and university chaplain and a frequent speaker at Quaker conferences. Both were intensely interested in movements for justice in the United States and worldwide.
On this occasion, we will have an opportunity to read from their poetry and prose, as anthologized in Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights. In Steve Angell’s talk and in our workshops, we will consider these questions: How did Thurman and Brooks minister to people in their time, especially on issues of justice? In the aftermath of Ferguson, what can Brooks and Thurman teach us or remind Friends, as we seek to engage with the current struggle for justice? What lessons might we draw from them that can assist us in strengthening, building, and healing our communities?