Clement writes of the tension and potential conflict between the authority and stability of tradition, and the authority, freedom, and change of continuing revelation. For Friends, both call us with compelling wisdom. She queries, How can we balance the benefits of tradition with the changes required by continuing revelation in our meetings and Quaker institutions? She starts with this question, but then goes deeper, to connect the potential for conflict and division in these tensions with our living separated from our true Selves, and in division from each other.
Clement refers to several examples of this kind of tension among Friends. There are so many situations in our culture today that this illuminates. So she queries again, What is it that divides us? How can we heal the divisions among us? How can we heal human resistance to God's creative diversity? Her answer is the, or at least a, Quaker answer: Let us try and try again what Love can do. Let us worship together. Let us go deep and open to the Light and the Living Water, that brings us into community, to heal the divisions within the self and in the world. Let us hold all our differences and all our agendas in the Light, which will guide us.
Clement's essay can be read both as a single discourse and as short devotional pieces. This is classic and modern Quaker wisdom. It is valuable and renewing reading. ( )