The Prophetic Stream

by William Taber

Overview

"The term prophetic indicates in a single word the basic theory of Quaker ministry . . . . a ministry which waits until it becomes a vocal expression of the Divine Word spoken immediately in the heart." When Howard Brinton wrote this in Prophetic Ministry, Pendle Hill Pamphlet 54, 1950 (pp.3, 5), he started me on a path of exploration and reflection which has led to this pamphlet.

The Prophets and the Quaker Connection is the title of courses taught at Pendle Hill and Willistown Meeting, and of a series of five talks given at New England Yearly Meeting. This pamphlet is an edited version of the 1983 New England Yearly Meeting talks, which explored the connection between Old and New Testament prophets, Jesus, and Quaker religious experience. Since the focus is on connections, the text moves back and forth across time, and is not intended to be a systematic or scholarly survey either of the prophets or of Quakerism.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940151498814
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #256
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	147 KB

About the Author

William Taber’s roots and life-long membership arc among the Conservative (unprogrammed) Friends of Eastern Ohio, but he has also been nurtured by two other styles of Quakerism. As a youth and young man he was active in the Pittsburgh (Friends General Conference) Meeting; and after graduating from Olney Friends School at Barnesville, Ohio, he received a B.A. from William Penn College and an M.A. from Earlham School of Religion, thus becoming acquainted with pastoral Friends (Friends United Meeting) in Iowa and Indiana. He was also a T. Wistar Brown Fellow at Haverford College in 1965-1966, doing research and writing on the history of Conservative Friends.
He taught at Moses Brown School and spent twenty years as teacher or administrator at Olney Friends School. For six years he served Ohio Yearly Meeting as a “Released Friend,” which allowed him to reach out to wider Quakerism and ecumenical projects as well as to his own yearly meeting. In 1966 he was recorded as a minister by his meeting at Barnesville, Ohio, which follows the traditional Quaker practice of recording individuals who have a “gift” of ministry in their unprogrammed meetings.
William Taber is entering his fourth year as a teacher at Pendle Hill where he specializes in Quaker Studies and the Prophets, with an interest in prayer, spiritual healing, and in psychic phenomena as related to valid spiritual experience. He is the author of Be Gentle, Be Plain, A History of Olney and several articles on Conservative Friends or the Quietist tradition, and he is an occasional speaker or retreat leader on various aspects of Quakerism, prayer, and the spiritual journey.
This pamphlet is an expression of his concern to revive the prophetic element in Quaker worship and ministry as well as in the wider Christian community.