After experiencing the intensity of a gathering of caricature artists secondhand during my husband's recent convention, I returned home a little deflated. Jealous even. Missing something. Not feeling connected. To the point of posting so on Facebook.…

Ezekiel 37 – The Dry Bones – The hand of the Lord carries Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of bones. He makes him walk up and down among them.

“He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord Yahweh’. He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you. I shall make flesh…

Sorry for the two days without posts. I am on Long Island and we have been without power because of Hurricane Sandy. We are fortunate to have power back now; many are still without.

Ezekiel 19 – There follows here a poetic “dirge” lamenting the fall of Israel – King Jehoahaz is depicted as a young lion who learned to be a “man-eater” (19:3). “The nations combines against him; he was caught in their pit; they dragged him off with hooks to the land of…

Amos 9 – In another vision, the prophet sees the Lord standing by the altar asking that the building be reduced to rubble so that no one can escape. God has led not only the Jews. He has led the Philistines and the Aramaeans too. The Israelites cannot just rest on their laurels, thinking God will always be by them. But his anger will not strike all. There will be a remnant, “For now I will issue orders and shake the House of Israel among all the nations, as you shake a sieve so…

For a long while, I’ve been contemplating the notion of Meeting discipline and how it has evolved over time. What form does it take today? Around a century and a half ago, Friends were read out of Meeting for simply daring to marry non-Friends. Punishment had a very…

This post began as an open letter to my Meeting's listserve. I usually write one a week.

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A question has been on my mind recently. How do we best honor the memory of the Quaker martyrs? Many suffered persecution, time in jail, torture, and even death to worship as they wished. Even with greater societal tolerance that arrived with the passage of time, Friends were prohibited from pursuing certain educational…

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

 Jesus replied, "You don't understand now what I am…

We Friends are often perceived as a negative lot. Asked what we believe, we tend to reply with a string of negatives. We are against credal formulations, against doctrinal dogmas as conditions of membership, against priestly hierarchy, against…

Before I write another word, I feel like a disclaimer is in order. I knew many Friends who participated in the Occupy movement, back in its heyday. While I came to eventually lose patience with the movement, even to disagree openly with its stated priorities, I still maintain a respect for those who put their full weight behind the cause. I feel that these heavily committed Friends never left Occupy behind, but that extenuating circumstances beyond anyone's control eventually dissolved the…

Nontheism among Friends

Conference of the Nontheist Friends Network at Woodbrooke, March 9-11 2012

MINUTE AND EPISTLE

One year after its formation, 95 members and supporters of the Nontheist Friends Network from all over Britain met as Friends together at Woodbrooke for the Network’s inaugural conference and first annual general meeting.

In plenary sessions, break-out groups, workshops and worship we reflected on what it means to live…

Dear Friends:

In the latest issue of Friends' Journal there is an article, featured on the cover, called 'Quaker Communion' by Bruce Neumann.  The author writes, 'for many years, I harbored a rather untypical Quaker longing.  Occasional oblique comments to other Friends didn't seem to engender interest, so I held the longing to myself . . . the longing was to share communion with a small group of other Quakers, after the fashion of Friends.'

Eventually the…

Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/whereministrymeets.mp3

Yesterday was sandwiched between a traditional Bible study and a new women's group on astrology and archetypes. Could I have chosen anything more different? One is an ongoing study of Luke that my mother initiated…

As I examine the whole of my religious past, I can say without equivocation that I observed one essential constant. Even from a very young age, I recall the active presence of women in positions of leadership and authority. Women have long been a majority in the congregations of the average Christian or…

I wrote this specifically for my Meeting, but I've recognized it may be applicable beyond that setting.  Apologies in advance for typos. I think I've found and corrected most of them.

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Hello Friends,



Over the past couple of weeks I've been reading the book Seekers Found: Atonement in Early Quaker Experience. The work is written by Douglas Gwyn and published by Pendle Hill Press. My desire to take on this task was motivated…

Listen!

With Occupy movements sweeping the country and rocking the city of Philadelphia to its core, I set out to investigate how…

Quakers made the front page of the New York Times last Friday.

“There are nontheist Friends... Friends who might be called agnostics, atheists, sceptics, but would nevertheless describe themselves as reverent seekers.”   So began the report of the first formal workshop for nontheist Friends, held in New York State in 1976. A generation later, nontheist Friends are a widely accepted strand in the multi-coloured fabric of theologically…