A Call to Friends: Faithful Living in Desperate Times

Marty Grundy was born into a Quaker family with roots going back to the 1650s. As a teenager Marty Grundy loved reading about early Friends. The thing that amazed her was that they seemed so alive and on fire; that they willingly risked and endured small and large deprivations and sufferings for Something so much bigger than themselves that was obviously filling them with joy and courage. Thus, Marty began a long and meandering journey to learn more about her spiritual ancestors. This involved learning to read seventeenth-century handwriting in order to decipher old meeting minutes. She became able to translate old grammar and syntax. Then it became necessary to learn their language of metaphor, which was based on the Bible. So, she read and studied the Bible. She read the writings of more recent Friends as well as earlier ones. Marty has written for both scholarly and religious publications. In particular, she has written a number of articles and more than sixty book reviews for Friends Journal. Marty is a member of Wellesley Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting. She is married to Ken Grundy, and they have three grown children and a pair of grandtwins.