One of our favorite TV comedies has been Little Mosque on the Prairie, a Canadian series about a small, struggling Muslim community the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan. I’ll let those of you in other faith traditions weigh in on the parallels, but I suspect you’ll find each of the show’s characters already existing in your own congregation.
You’ll also see many of the same dividing lines and tensions. Traditionalists versus modernists, for instance, or those bred to the faith versus converts. There are even the basic questions of identity and self-identity or motivation and discipline.
As I look at my own Quaker circles, I sometimes see a line between those drawn to the hour of worship itself and those drawn to the peace-and-justice witness, such as gender and racial equality, global non-violence and fair trade, prison reform, environmental concerns, and the like. Sometimes the difference shows up most sharply in the announcements that come at the end of our period of silence – those who want to leave quietly, savoring the calm, and those who instead urge us to attend all kinds of lectures, discussions, demonstrations, fundraisers, and other gatherings in the coming weeks.
Sometimes the lines even cross.
Jnana's Red Barn 
The opening line made me think of something I saw on BBC yesterday – a Scottish church has opened its doors for members of the little Mosque next door to come and pray as the Mosque is so full that some of the members were praying outside in the cold. Now there’s an interesting line to cross 🙂
Oh, I like that show. I could never get Tim to watch, but now that it’s just me I think I may look into whether or not it’s on DVD yet. I really love the mix of faith, the characters are fantastic, and generally having it set in such a place as Saskatchewan 🙂
We had a set of DVDs. Now, if we could just remember who borrowed them last.