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Welcome to our online community of Quaker bloggers, video producers, photographers and readers reaching across our divisions and out into the world in fresh ways to talk about ministry and renewal. We hope to engage new voices and share the Quaker message far out into the world. The spirit of Christ has come to teach the people; are we ready to listen?

What's a QuakerQuaker?

The term "Quaker-Quaker" was first used in a 2003 essay by Martin Kelley called "We're All Ranters Now: On Liberal Friends and Becoming a Society of Finders":

Many people now join Friends because it's the religion without a religion, i.e., it's a community with the form of a religion but without any theology or expectations. We are a proud to be a community of seekers. Our commonality is in our form and we're big on silence and meeting process. Is it any wonder that almost everyone today seems to be a hyphenated Quaker? If we became a religious society of Finders, then we'd need to figure out what it means to be a Quaker-Quaker: someone who's theology and practice is Quaker.

QuakerQuaker.org's primary audience is those Friends and seekers from all traditions who want to explore classic Quaker understandings of theology and practice and what challenges and inspiration these pose for us both as individuals and as Spirit-led twenty-first century Friends.

Who is QuakerQuaker.org?

QuakerQuaker was founded as an independent publication by Martin Kelley as part of a 2005 grant from theClarence and Lilly Pickett Endowment for Quaker Leadership. He has a formal minute of support fromAtlantic City Area Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Martin has served on the staffs of Friends General Conference and Friends Journal and currently works with a number of major Quaker clients in hisconsulting business. He is a frequent workshop leader and has been invited to speak at events organized by Pacific Yearly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, Ohio Yearly Meeting, Quakers Uniting in Publication, Friends General Conference, Friends Council on Education, Pendle Hill, as well as multiple venues in his home yearly meeting of Philadelphia.

The QuakerQuaker editorial team currently includes Martin Kelley ("Quaker Ranter," Philadelphia YM), C Wess Daniels ("Gathering in Light," Evangelical Friends Eastern Region), Chris Mohr ("Tables, Chairs and Oaken Chests," Pacific YM), Johan Maurer ("Can You Believe?," Northwest YM), LizOpp ("The Good Raised Up," Northern YM),  Robin Mohr ("What Canst Thou Say?," Pacific YM) and Alice M Yaxley of Britain Yearly Meeting. Many of these Friends have some sort of formal support or recognition for their ministry.

What do we feature in the main feed?

The editorial team creates the main list of featured blog posts. We don't list every post by every Friend but instead focus on interesting posts that say something about the current state of our religious society or point the way toward renewal and outreach. Our editorial guidelines are threefold: posts should be explicitly Quaker; posts should be timely and contemporary; posts should be interesting. Those new to Friends should keep in mind that there are different types and branches of Quakers and that no particular post, link or website can do justice to the great diversities of our religious society.

Online Community

There are many parts of the site where people can participate directly. When posting here, remember that this site has a fairly simple and modest goal. We want to support two constituencies: 

• Friends who are curious about traditional Quaker faith and practices; 
• Religious seekers looking to understand what Friends mean by "Primitive Christianity Revived." 

There are a number of Friends in good standing with their meeting or church who don't fall into either of these categories. They like to have discussions about all sorts of topics. Sometimes these are distractions. Sometimes they're downright unhelpful, even hostile. We've seen them push away the very audiences we seek. QuakerQuaker does not seek to be a general-topic Quaker forum. 

We're less interested in the fractured and broken Religious Society of Friends as it currently exists than we are in the RSOF that God is calling us to be. There's still a "great people to be gathered" (Isaiah by way of George Fox) and the internet is bringing millions of disaffected seekers together in online forums and alt-Christian movements. We want to convert that to a revitalized Friends movement.

Conversational Tone?

As in all life, keep conversation here friendly. We want an open, curious and respectful tone here on QuakerQuaker. If you find there's someone you keep butting heads with, stop communicating with them. Respect the basic intent of any group you join. If you don't agree with a group's basic premise you probably shouldn't join it. Debate for its own sake isn't appreciated here. We're not writing epistles, fighting over finances or deciding over property and personnel issues. This is not an official Friends body; no consensus needs to be reached on any topic at all. Share your truth but don't insist on it for others.

If you are here to post controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or disrupting normal on-topic discussion, then you should leave. Now. (See: Troll in Wikipedia).

What about posts from professional Quakers?

If you are posting on behalf of a professional Quaker organization with a social media strategy that includes frequent posts with links to your site, then please stop and contact Martin Kelley for advertising rates. We're not here as a free publicity service. Helpful hint that you've gone too far: if you are working on company time and you're boss knows what you're doing or if these posts are going to be included in your report to your committee.

We've seen internal memos from big Quaker players talking about using Quaker blogs to shill their organizations. We probably like your work, but this is a human discussion site and we want people here because they want to be here and not because their boss tells them to post. If you're here to advertise then please advertise. Our rates are competitive and highly affordable to even the most cash-strapped Quaker body.

Aren't you guys a bunch of?.. A Word to Liberal Friends

Liberal Quakers sometimes express shock that this isn't a liberal Quaker website. Don't get us wrong: there's plenty of liberal Friends here. Many of the editors would identify as liberal Friends. Some of our best Friends are liberal Friends. But this site's primary audience is Christian Friends, Conservative-leaning Friends and alt-Christian independent seekers. We know liberal Friends who fit those labels but we know a lot more who don't. We're kind of tickled that it's become one of the most diverse gathering places for Friends but diversity for its own sake isn't what we're after.

If you're here to explain that "Quakerism is anything anyone wants it to be," that "It's clear to anyone who will only look that George Fox was a neo-Zoroastrian high priestess," or to berate members for "being narrowminded for looking for authentic Christian communities" etc., etc., yada yada, then please restrain yourself from become a regular poster. This is not the place to expound on non-theism or paganism. No Liberal Quaker money was harmed in the making of this website. There are plenty of other places to show off your unique religious genius. Sorry to call out Liberal Friends in particular, but they've been the ones who get their noses most bent out of shape by the idea of a "QuakerQuaker."