Dear reader,
2024 has been an eventful year for me. On the one had I’ve had several great speaking and teaching engagements, and my academic work continues to be fruitful and enjoyable. On the other, there have been moments during this year when I nearly lost my faith. I was part of a queer-majority church that collapsed earlier in the year in traumatic circumstance, so traumatic that I questioned whether God truly loved queer people. Although this situation is still ongoing and horribly painful, I’ve ended the year in a stronger place. It’s too soon to tell the full story, but one thing I’ve (re)learned is that prayer is essential for spiritual survival. These events have complexified my faith life and identity, and I now find myself worshipping with at least four different communities. So far, this is working because the God who is Love is in it all. Thank you for journeying with me this year by reading my work. Here’s a summary of my 2024 as a reader and writer.
Reading and writing
I read some great books in 2024. Selina Stone’s Tarry Awhile (2024) is a wonderfully rich account of various aspects of Black spirituality. Marika Rose’s Theology for the End of the World (2023) shifted my understanding of hope. Lin Tonstad’s Queer Theology (2018) is a great introduction to the topic and prompted me to read Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender (2010). I’ve also gotten a lot from Adrian Thatcher’s Vile Bodies (2023) and Graham Adam’s Holy Anarchy (2022), and Willie James Jenning’s theological commentary on Acts (2017) is one of the best Bible commentaries I’ve ever read.
The high-point of my writing year has to be the publication of my second book The Spirit of Freedom: Quaker-Shaped Christian Theology. I’m very proud of it. I was recently interviewed about the book for the excellent Quake It Up! YouTube channel, which should be ready to view in the new year. I’m also running an online book group in January, reading through The Spirit of Freedom over six weeks.
My first book Quaker Shaped Christianity continues to do well, and has sold almost 1200 copies. I’ve received a number of invitations from Quaker groups to speak on the book’s themes, and had a really fun interview about it on The God Cast.
In my academic work, I’ve had a book review of R. Melvin Keiser’s Seeds of Silence published in Modern Believing. The paper I gave at the Quaker Theology Discussion Group in December 2023 was published in Quaker Religious Thought as ‘Whiteness and Quaker Universalism in Britain.’ Sadly, this won’t be freely available to read online for another year or so. I also presented a paper at the Society for the Study of Theology called White Silence and Quakerism in Britain. I haven’t published this paper anywhere yet, as I think the material needs more thought.
I’ve expanded my portfolio this year by presenting several Pause for Thought’s on BBC Radio 2. I really enjoy putting together these pithy three-minute reflections, and I hope the future holds more of these opportunities.
On jollyquaker.com my posts in 2024 fall into one of two camps. The first began as talks and sermons for various groups:
- God doesn’t require suffering: a message for St Patrick’s Day
- The good news of sin
- Quaker approaches to hope
- Reflections for the four Sundays of Advent
The second camp documents my own personal theological struggles. Dirty Religion is perhaps my favourite post of the year, as it most accurately represents where I currently am theologically. Reflections on Britain Yearly Meeting 2024 is a statement on my complicated relationship with Quakerism. I end my thoughts on Dirty Religion with the metaphor of pilgrimage, and this metaphor still feels like the best description of my approach to spirituality at the moment. Thicc places: a Quaker on pilgrimage develops this theme and is the sort of theology I want to do more of in the future.
The top three most viewed jollyquaker posts in 2024 were What does ‘Quaker Faith and Practice’ say about sin and evil? (2021), James Cone’s ‘A Black Theology of Liberation’ and white liberal Quakerism (2020) and Celtic Spirituality and Whiteness (2023). It’s reassuring to see the popularity of these posts, as it suggests a hunger for the sort of thing I’m writing about in my PhD. These posts may eventually feed into a book I have in mind on white liberal spirituality, going beyond Quakerism to include Celtic Christianity, neo-paganism and Buddhism as practised in the ‘West.’
The blog ends the year with 277 subscribers, down from 280 in 2023, and 10663 visits, up from 9355 in 2023.
What next?
2026 is my final full year of PhD study, so anything I get done outside of finishing my thesis will be a bonus! Even so, I’ve a half-finished manuscript called The Bible: A Quaker Approach, being an introduction to the Bible and Bible study for Quakers and Quaker groups, and it would be good to make progress with this over the next 12 months. I hope requests for speaking engagements keep coming in, and now that I’ve purchased a rather pricey microphone for my BBC work, I’m also thinking about starting a podcast.
I wouldn’t be able to live out my ministry as a theologian without people willing to listen to my work. Thank you for reading and listening, and for all the ways you let me know I’m writing good stuff. Your support frees me to follow the Spirit’s call, and for that I am forever grateful.
Thank you, dear readers! Wherever your own pilgrimage of Spirit takes you in 2025, may you know the faithful companionship of Divine Love, the embrace of the God who mothers us all, and the enlivening fire of the Spirit of Life who gives us the courage to take the next step.
Love
Mark
[Featured image photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash]
Jolly Quaker 