What I can do is use the particular abilities I have to possibly inspire others – through both writing and through music.
I have been a musician all my life, and for almost 20 years I have also been a Quaker pastor. As a pastor I have the weekly opportunity to share what insights I may have and to encourage others to live into the vision of a better world. I have found more and more that I am also led to minister through music.
Two years ago, while on Sabbatical, I started a project writing musical settings to scriptures. For this first project I focused on the psalms but I am now working on some settings to other scriptures. During this time there were events that affected both my physical and emotional health. However interestingly, it was the music I was writing that helped me get through those challenges as well as the time spent in such intimate contact with the psalms -- that speak so powerfully to varieties of the human condition. Together, the words and the music spoke to my spirit and I feel blessed by that grace.
My hope is that the music I have created will speak to others as it does to me with healing, with longing for closer communion with God and with our beautiful planet, for just and compassionate relationships with one another, and with assurance and strength for what we are called to do in this world.
I have a website for my work “teahouserecordings.com” and am learning how to distribute my first creation – A 2 CD set of psalm settings called “The Shadow of Thy Wings.”
Maggie Edmondson is a Quaker pastor and musician. Originally from the UK she now lives in Maine.