tional roles at work and home to interfere with such leadings.

Thus we see that Jesus owned the Love and Grace that appeared in Women and did not despise it; and by what is recorded in the Scriptures, he received as much love, kindness, compassion and tender dealing toward him from Women, as he did from many others .... Mark this, you that despise and oppose the message of the Lord God that he sends by Women: what had become of the redemption of the whole body of man-kind, if they had not believed the message that the Lord Jesus sent by these Women, of and concerning his resurrection.

-- Margaret Fell, "Womens Speaking Justified," 1666

NONVIOLENCE AND RECONCILIATION

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

-- Matthew 5.44-45 (KJV)

We are called upon to love the loveless and the unlovable, to reach out to the racists and the torturers, to all who hurt and damage, cripple and kill .... God, through us, and in many other ways, offers them healing love and divine pity and takes their hurts away.

We are called to that obedience which freely gives up self, possessions, life, beliefs, in following that vision, that greater love in which alone is life and peace. This does not mean that we lie down like doormats to be trampled on, or that we give up our freedom or our grasp of truth -- it means that we join ourselves to the risk of creation, to the venture of authentic human being, that we "stand in the Light," reveal that measure of truth that is known to us... that we face the pain of the world, and match it with forgiveness.

-- Janet Scott, "What Canst Thou Say," 1980

Nonviolence is a way of living every day, every hour, in our personal choices as well as mass struggles for justice. Through it, we affirm the divine Light in every human being and act on the belief that truth and love can overcome ignorance and hate. Nonviolence addresses the misuse and abuse of power in all spheres of life, from quarrelling to domestic violence to war.

Our faith calls for us to be fully present to the person before us. History has