QuakerSpeak | Catholic to Quaker: Encountering a Holy Silence @Quakerspeak | Uploaded April 2021 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
QuakerSpeak is a bi-weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!
A special thanks to Buffalo Friends Meeting, Sue Tannehill, and Jesse Deganis-Librera for this footage.
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WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
___
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Filming by Jesse Deganis-Librera
Editing by Rebecca Hamilton-Levi
Music: "We are Home" by Four Trees
___
Transcript:
I like feeling the silence, and one time when I was still at 72 North Parade (I probably was there for two or three years), it was-- I had the strangest feeling during meeting, and I went up to my friend Ester after meeting and I said, "Ester, this is like all of a sudden, like everything was united. It was like a spider's web where everything is united in the web," and she said, "that's called a gathered meeting." And I don't know if I hadn't read about it or what, but it was magical to me.
Catholic to Quaker: Encountering a Holy Silence
My name is Roberta Bothwell. I belong to the Buffalo Religious Society of Friends for over 30 years, but I don't know - I feel as if I've always belonged to them, and they to me.
An Early Relationship with the Catholic Church
I was born into a Catholic family and I had been in a convent when I was 24 -- I went into the convent for 15 months studying to be a Catholic nun: Congrégation de Notre-Dame, and I spoke no French, so I had to learn how to pray in French. I was the oldest one in both classes, and then mother had a heart attack and I came out to take care of her. So I was out, I lived with my sister and her CIA husband and family in German for four months and tried to figure out "am I going back to the convent?" and I thought, "no, I'm going to stay out and I'm going to get my masters and I'll teach, and I'll get married." And so then when I got married I married a man who was an instructor-- very Catholic! World Religions was what he was working on-- and I was so happy to learn all about Buddhism and Daoism and everything, and we moved and I started to then think differently about the Catholic Church.
From Catholicism to Quakerism
So I talked to another friend and she said to me, "You know I left the Catholic church, Roberta?" and I said, "Oh? Ok" and she said, "But you know, I found something else-- I found the Quakers! And they're in a house on 72 North Parade Street!" I said, "A house?" You know, I had only been to churches, and she said to me, "You know, why don't you come sometime?" and I said, "Well, fine, I'll come - yeah, sure."
So I walked in; I didn't know a soul. It was a regular house I walked in. Some people were in another room talking. I didn't want to interrupt them; I felt very nervous, shy, and there was a little holder with literature right there in the lobby. And I went over to it and I saw a card-- it was like a light blue card (my favorite color), and it said, "Welcome to the Quakers. We sit in silence. If the Spirit moves you to speak, please speak. If the Spirit moves you to remain silent, please remain silent." That was an aha moment. I had been in a convent for 15 months; nobody had ever told me, including mother mistress or the priests who would come and talk to us, nobody ever ever said that silence was as holy as talking. Nobody in my whole life. So, I was just blown away just by that. I mean, I would have stayed just for that.
I sat in the back row of this double living room and looked around at people and everything, and they were very nice. They came up afterwards and greeted me, and I thought, "you know, the whole time I've been a Catholic and I've gone to 17 different Catholic churches in my lifetime, nobody is as friendly as these people, so there feels like it's a community here. It was a whole new world. I was so happy-- I was confounded, you know, because I was dropping little by little all of those preconceived notions of what makes up a religious community.
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
QuakerSpeak is a bi-weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!
A special thanks to Buffalo Friends Meeting, Sue Tannehill, and Jesse Deganis-Librera for this footage.
SUBSCRIBE for a new video every week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
___
Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe
Filming by Jesse Deganis-Librera
Editing by Rebecca Hamilton-Levi
Music: "We are Home" by Four Trees
___
Transcript:
I like feeling the silence, and one time when I was still at 72 North Parade (I probably was there for two or three years), it was-- I had the strangest feeling during meeting, and I went up to my friend Ester after meeting and I said, "Ester, this is like all of a sudden, like everything was united. It was like a spider's web where everything is united in the web," and she said, "that's called a gathered meeting." And I don't know if I hadn't read about it or what, but it was magical to me.
Catholic to Quaker: Encountering a Holy Silence
My name is Roberta Bothwell. I belong to the Buffalo Religious Society of Friends for over 30 years, but I don't know - I feel as if I've always belonged to them, and they to me.
An Early Relationship with the Catholic Church
I was born into a Catholic family and I had been in a convent when I was 24 -- I went into the convent for 15 months studying to be a Catholic nun: Congrégation de Notre-Dame, and I spoke no French, so I had to learn how to pray in French. I was the oldest one in both classes, and then mother had a heart attack and I came out to take care of her. So I was out, I lived with my sister and her CIA husband and family in German for four months and tried to figure out "am I going back to the convent?" and I thought, "no, I'm going to stay out and I'm going to get my masters and I'll teach, and I'll get married." And so then when I got married I married a man who was an instructor-- very Catholic! World Religions was what he was working on-- and I was so happy to learn all about Buddhism and Daoism and everything, and we moved and I started to then think differently about the Catholic Church.
From Catholicism to Quakerism
So I talked to another friend and she said to me, "You know I left the Catholic church, Roberta?" and I said, "Oh? Ok" and she said, "But you know, I found something else-- I found the Quakers! And they're in a house on 72 North Parade Street!" I said, "A house?" You know, I had only been to churches, and she said to me, "You know, why don't you come sometime?" and I said, "Well, fine, I'll come - yeah, sure."
So I walked in; I didn't know a soul. It was a regular house I walked in. Some people were in another room talking. I didn't want to interrupt them; I felt very nervous, shy, and there was a little holder with literature right there in the lobby. And I went over to it and I saw a card-- it was like a light blue card (my favorite color), and it said, "Welcome to the Quakers. We sit in silence. If the Spirit moves you to speak, please speak. If the Spirit moves you to remain silent, please remain silent." That was an aha moment. I had been in a convent for 15 months; nobody had ever told me, including mother mistress or the priests who would come and talk to us, nobody ever ever said that silence was as holy as talking. Nobody in my whole life. So, I was just blown away just by that. I mean, I would have stayed just for that.
I sat in the back row of this double living room and looked around at people and everything, and they were very nice. They came up afterwards and greeted me, and I thought, "you know, the whole time I've been a Catholic and I've gone to 17 different Catholic churches in my lifetime, nobody is as friendly as these people, so there feels like it's a community here. It was a whole new world. I was so happy-- I was confounded, you know, because I was dropping little by little all of those preconceived notions of what makes up a religious community.
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
