“Friend, can I speak to you outside about something?”



He was amiable enough to that. Worship had concluded with the traditional shaking of hands. I’d deliberately chosen a seat next to him at a new location across the…

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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.…

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           “Set off” is the phrase used in the recently released proposal to carry through a schism in Indiana Yearly Meeting.  “IYM (the organization) will remain intact and those meetings choosing option B will continue to be part of this body.” … Meetings choosing option A “will be set off from IYM into a newly created ‘yearly meeting’ or equivalent association.”  So reads the proposal.  (You can read the proposal…

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I hope Friends everywhere are paying a little attention to what is happening in Indiana Yearly Meeting, a Quaker schism in the making.  And as the ground trembles in Indiana, I hope Friends everywhere are praying for us to find God’s way through this.

Nearly every North American yearly meeting has some schism in its past, some episode of disagreement, laced with bitterness perhaps, then separation into separate, smaller bodies.  Some of these successor groups thrive more than others. …

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People think of Quakers as loving, peaceful, friendly types (our full name is, after all, the Religious Society of Friends).  And we are all of those things. We’re also human—full of imperfections, confusion, and fear. We don’t all see things in the same way, and our history shows that sometimes those differing views…

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2 Samuel 18 – David organizes his men into three groups: one under Joab, one under Abishai (Joab’s brother) and one under Ittai the Gittite (Gath was a city in Philistia on the Mediterranean).  David wants to go out with them, but they prevail upon him to remain in the city to send help if they need it.  As they go out David says to them, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.  And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom”…

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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…

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Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. (Lev 9:23)

     Reflecting on my practice of the spiritual disciplines for my Spiritual Formation class at Earlham School of Religion, I recalled a very special…

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I appreciate Quakerism’s absence of rituals—an appreciation born from many years in the Lutheran Church, kneeling on command, singing hymns someone else chose, reciting a creed I didn’t understand, and daydreaming through mumbled invitations to communion.  We unprogrammed…

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In the Law it is written: "Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," says the Lord.  So the gift of speaking in other languages is a sign for unbelievers, not for believers. The gift of speaking what…

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I for one do not find the cuts in staffing to be in the best interests of thelocal meetings and their members. This what I thought made up a Yearly Meeting, When I came from the Midwest, Ohio, I was surprised to hear the yearly meeting staff at 1515 Cherry being referred to as the yearly meeting. There are at least three different things called Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, staff, Annual Session, and Members of local meetings affiliated as PYM. The staff has grown beyond what is necessary for… Continue

At my Monthly Meeting, a Faith and Practice from Baltimore Yearly Meeting is regularly read before worship. "The experienced speaker should be careful not to speak too often, or at undo length." Curiously, no mention of an inexperienced speaker is mentioned at all. As constructed, or at least presented in isolation from other qualifying statements, the sentence implies that only experienced messages… Continue

The Illinois Yearly Meeting High School Friends Cordially Invite all

Quaker High School friends (and their parents) to join us for the…

The Quake That Rocked the Midwest!

January 15-18, 2010

1010 Greanleaf, Evanston Ill, 60202

Folks will be arriving Friday afternoon and evening, and typically fend for themselves for

Friday's dinner. Meals will be provided for Saturday breakfast through Monday lunch.

We will be staying… Continue

My contribution to the Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices anthology was entitled, "Reviving the Slumbering Light". I was responding to a particularly unfortunate experience I experienced a couple years ago at a monthly meeting. The title could also easily apply to Baltimore Yearly Meeting's annual gathering. What I mean by this will soon be as clear as I can manage.



Before I begin, I want… Continue

Seven years ago, I was a devout Catholic. I had been raised Catholic by parents who didn't actually believe in God or Catholicism, and by the time I finished high school I didn't believe either. But then, years later at a difficult time in my life, a friend invited me to attend a local Catholic church with her, and it felt like coming home. I was more comfortable there than I had been anywhere else I had tried to go. I still disagreed with all the things I had always disagreed with, but I loved… Continue