Stephen G. Cary Memorial Lecture 2025: Earthquake, Wind, and Fire: Seeking the Calm Center

“Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still small voice of calm!” —John Greenleaf Whittier

We are living in a time of “earthquake, wind, and fire.” Many of us are searching for “still, small voice of calm,” a Living Center, where we can hear the voice of the Divine and find the strength to carry on.

What lessons can we learn from the work of those living through war and catastrophe in Palestine and Israel, as they speak truth to power in the cause of a just peace? How might their experience inform us as we seek a calm Center in the eye of the storm?

This lecture takes its inspiration from the last line of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “The Brewing of Soma,” familiar to many in the last verse of the hymn “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.” The poem references 1 Kings 19:11-12, in which the prophet Elijah is confronted by God in the wilderness. Elijah faced tumultuous times in his prophetic task of speaking truth to power. Whittier, a Quaker abolitionist, similarly dealt with seismic issues in his commitment to the cause of anti-slavery and social reform. This lecture will invite the audience to listen to the resonances of these words in our times.

If you would like to join to a meal before or after the program, please sign up using the link in your confirmation email, no later than 11:59 pm the Tuesday before your program begins.       

This and our other First Monday Lectures are streamed live and available as recordings on our YouTube channel. 

Thanks to the generous support of the Friends Foundation for the Aging, we’re able to make this and other free, online programs accessible to f/Friends of all ages.

The Stephen G. Cary Memorial Lecture was endowed by Norval and Ann Reece and established in 2004 in concert with Pendle Hill’s publication of Steve Cary’s memoir, The Intrepid Quaker: One Man’s Quest for Peace.

Leader(s)

Max L. Carter is the retired William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College. Raised on a dairy farm in the “Quaker belt” of north central Indiana, he was active in Western Yearly Meeting of Friends prior to his undergraduate studies at Ball State University and seminary work at Earlham School of Religion, where he was involved with Indiana Yearly Meeting. During his PhD studies in American religious history at Temple University, he was active in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and taught at Friends Select School and Friends’ Central School in Philadelphia. Since 1990, he has lived in Greensboro, NC, where he and his wife Jane are members of New Garden Friends Meeting (North Carolina Fellowship of Friends).

A Vietnam-era conscientious objector, Max did alternative service teaching at the Ramallah Friends School in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and has maintained a close relationship with that area ever since. He and Jane co-lead annual service-learning trips to Palestine and Israel to acquaint participants with the situation and accompany the Palestinians and Israelis working for a just peace. Three of Max’s books – Palestine and Israel: A Personal Encounter, Palestine and Israel: Understanding Encounters, and Annice Carter’s Life of Quaker Service in Palestine and Kenya – deal with issues in that region.

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