The following is an adaptation of a message delivered during worship at Richmond First Friends on October 23, 2016.

John 15: 9-17

​

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have…

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.-Isaiah 41:10

The above verse is enclosed more for my partner and her family than myself. My regular readers have recognized I've taken an extended break from writing. This is due to a death in…

 Lewis Benson began his lecture series Rediscovering the Teaching of George Fox at Moorestown Meeting in New Jersey in the fall of 1982. The first lecture in this series is titled "The Place of George Fox in Christian History." It is now available for reading on the New Foundation Fellowship website, and can be accessed through Ellis Hein's introduction: …

As an Ancient Briton with a deep interest in spirituality, sometime in the late 1980s I wrote an article for the little Quaker Universalist journal on why, as  Muslim, I became a Quaker.  

Since then I have grown even more ancient, and write little  - and due to a year in which I've already had three major surgical operations I am still in recovery mode.  And, unable now to drive, I cannot get to my local Quaker Meeting in Fremantle, Western Australia. But I still feel part of it, and…

Originally published on Quaker Universalist Conversations

Carol, my mom, shared one of two spoken ministries in Meeting for Worship last First Day. 

I found out about it second hand, as my job, as her chauffeur, was to obtain new triple-A batteries for her hearing device (she's 87) and pack her lunch, so she could eat a bit during Peace & Social Concerns, leaving early to make a concert downtown. I did this during worship.

Anyway, I gather she shared about the threat of WW3 breaking out, which you'll see all over Youtube as a hot,…

A year and a half ago I wrote an essay titled “The Only Antidote,” in which I argued for the need to think critically: to use natural powers of reason and conscience to honor, discern, and communicate the truth. Referring to Hannah Arendt’s understanding of the cause behind the rise of Fascism and also referring to a Bible story of John the Baptist’s execution by Herod, I pointed to the crucial and perennial role of critical thought in containing the spread of evil.

Although critical…