Developing a “Rule for Joy!”

• What nurtures my spirit?
• What daily practices do I need to do to develop my spiritual muscles?
• What’s standing in my way?

Developing a “Rule of Life” has helped people for hundreds of years to get specific and serious—though with joy and hope and a light touch—about becoming the person they want to be.

Instead of a Rule of Life, I call it by many other names, including: “Rule for Joy,” “Guide to Inspiration,” or “Path to Transformation.” Call it whatever makes it attractive to you.

A Rule should not be dry, dull, or onerous, but something that we love to do, that inspires, transforms, and empowers!

Through examples, discussion, and time for reflection, participants will figure out what they need and what is taking priority away from that. They will begin an individual plan to have room in their life for what’s essential to their spirit—and therefore to their joy.

For the reflection portion, participants have handy a journal, art materials, or whatever helps them think about or visualize their life.

This is usually a two-session workshop, either in person or online, with each session lasting two hours. At the first session we explore what a Rule for Joy is, and participants begin to develop theirs with individual reflection and in small and large groups. The second session is one week later. Then participants share what they’ve developed, including their joys and troubles during the process. We spend time finding solutions to questions and problems.

Bubbling Springs: The Life & Writings of Margaret Fell

Margaret Fell is often called “the mother of Quakerism” because of her pivotal role in establishing the Religious Society of Friends. This workshop will give Friends an opportunity to learn about Margaret and spend time with some of her writings.

Margaret was an astonishing person. From the day she met George Fox (whom she married after the death of her first husband), she threw herself wholeheartedly into the young movement, while at the same time raising eight children and fulfilling her domestic duties as the wife of the lord of a manor. The first public Quaker meeting at her home, Swarthmoor Hall, was held just a few weeks after she met Fox, and meetings continued to be held there for almost 40 years. This was despite her being imprisoned for holding them!

Margaret wrote sixteen books and many tracts and letters. Friends wrote to her from all over the world to share their suffering and ask for her help and support. This workshop focuses on her inspirational writing, which is surprisingly relevant to the times we live in.

Each session will include stories about Margaret, readings of one or two of her letters or epistles, and time in small and large groups to consider her words. Shulamith has modernized the language, and altered references to people in general and to God to be gender-neutral.

This workshop can be a single two-hour session, or a series. It works best as an initial two-hour workshop followed by at least three more sessions, which can be weekly or monthly. These can be from 90 minutes to two hours long, according to your time constraints or what you think your participants would like.

With repeated sessions, participants become a supportive and safe community for each other, and later in the series Shulamith can choose readings that address more difficult subjects. Also, Margaret’s history is fascinating, and having more sessions allows time to tell more of her story. As examples, she was imprisoned three times (once for four years), her only son was instrumental in her second imprisonment, she invented the marriage certificate so Friends’ marriages would be legally accepted in England (while George Fox was inventing the pre-nuptial agreement), she broke new ground for women’s rights in both religious and secular fields, and her great-grandmother was a religious martyr who discovered and followed many of the same principles that early Friends did.

This is a new workshop based on Shulamith’s nearly-completed book. Shulamith was interviewed about this book and Margaret Fell for a QuakerSpeak video: “Margaret Fell: The Mother of Quakerism’s Powerful Ministry.” The video includes several readings from Shulamith’s adaptations. Watch the video at quakerspeak.com or in the player below.

Lectio Divina

Lectio divina, or “divine reading,” is a way of slowly reading a very short text or quotation, interspersing it with repetition and silence to reflect. It is designed so that the meaning of the words penetrates us deeply, going to our hearts rather than being analyzed by our brains. When done in groups, it includes responses, discussion, and worship sharing.

One workshop participant told Shulamith he felt the meaning of the reading going directly into his heart. It wasn’t thought at all—he felt it as a physical sensation in his heart. Another participant continued using lectio divina after the conclusion of the workshop series, and wrote to Shulamith several months later to say that the technique had broken open his understanding where he had been blocked for years.

Lectio divina can be adapted for individual, family, and Meeting use.

Shulamith can use readings by Quakers, or she can include some from farther afield, depending on your preference. One or two readings will fill one session. This can be a one-time, two-hour event or a series. Her preference is for a series of four to six weekly sessions, the first being two hours long and the rest 90 minutes long. This is because with repeated meetings, the practice becomes habitual, and people can easily remember it and do it on their own. Also, during that amount of time the group becomes a community of support, sustenance, and growth for each other. When that happens, Shulamith can choose texts that address more difficult subjects.

Experiment with Light

The Experiment with Light is a practice that can help people deepen their spiritual lives by exploring what it means to “wait in the Light” as early Quakers did. Quaker scholar Rex Ambler studied how early Quakers worshipped at home, as compared with group meetings. He discovered their practice, then adapted and developed it to respond to contemporary needs.

It is is remarkably effective: it brings the mysticism of early Friends into a practical application for personal awareness, growth and renewal. The technique is so successful that there are now “Light Groups” meeting on a regular basis all over the world.

Experiment with Light is a meditation that uses prompts and meditative silence to open the way for Spirit to illuminate a situation or aspect of an individual or their life. We then have a rich means for reflection. Accepting what has been shown to us brings transformation: we become more peaceful, joyful, compassionate, and loving.

Shulamith adds:

We will listen to the prompted meditation, spend individual time in contemplation of messages received (which can include journaling or drawing), and share our thoughts in small groups and then all together.

This can be a one-time, two-hour event or a series. Shulamith's preference is for a series of four weekly sessions, each 90 minutes to two hours long, because in that amount of time the practice becomes habitual. People will then remember that they have it as a resource and be easily able to do it on their own.

Also, during a month of sessions we become a spiritual support and exploration group for each other. Embraced by that, people are able to go even deeper.

The quotations above are from Experiment-With-Light.org.uk.

Living in the Divine Flow: Resistance & Obedience to God

We offer a deep exploration into how we experience God and divine guidance. Discussion, worship-sharing, and queries based on Resistance and Obedience to God—Memoirs of David Ferris (1707-1779) are the foundation for a rich examination and sharing of how God reaches us and how we respond, deny, resist, struggle with, change, accept, follow, and live in the divine flow.

We will see how the experience of Friends in the past may help us today to trust God to be present with us as with earlier Friends, to trust that we receive guidance today, and to know that we are worthy of, and able to follow, guidance from Spirit.

Course objectives include:

• Help Friends perceive the flow of the Divine in their daily lives and trust that it can always be there for them;
• See how the experience of Friends in the past can connect to and inform our own spiritual experience;
• Help enable Friends to let go of their fears about receiving guidance and obeying God in all aspects of our daily lives;
• Sustain the effort and stay on track over time.

Note: David Ferris was a Christian, as were all early Quakers. Course leaders will make sure that those from non-Christian backgrounds (as is course co-leader Shulamith) will find the material accessible and relevant.

Sessions will contain worship, large group presentations, discussions, exercises, and small group work. Small group work will be for deep sharing of personal experiences, for spacious exploration of queries, and so every participant has ample time to speak and to be heard.

There will be handouts with supporting materials from many faiths and from secular sources, including music and humor.

This course can be designed into a number of possible formats:

• An eight- to nine-day Intensive (for in‐person groups only)
• A long weekend: Friday evening through Sunday noon 
• Weekly or bi-weekly three-hour meetings for two to three months

The shorter formats may be followed after their conclusion by one or more single day or weekend follow‐ups.

Co-leader: Because this is a longer program, Joel Cook will join Shulamith as co-facilitator.

_{Joel Cook is a member of Palm Beach Monthly Friends Meeting. He has led retreats and workshops for Monthly, Regional, and Yearly Meetings. He has presented the Bible Half-Hour and workshops at past Friends General Conference Gatherings. Joel gave the 2024 Michener Lecture at Southeastern Yearly Meeting.}