Forum, October 2026

We can sing if we want to

I love John Helding’s new terminology for worship (“How Can I Keep from Singing?,” FJ Aug.). It’s the relaxing of forms that were fitting in their time; a softening of healing hard edges; a time of deeper listening to newly found common ground hidden beneath habits that hurt. Singing and humming are so good for our health. They connect the brain through the vagus nerve to all the organs for energy flow and vitality. Group singing is especially good, intergenerational even better.

Regina St Clare
Lincroft, N.J.

I find that the Spirit moves me to sing. Helding lets me know that there’s nothing wrong with this. Music touches my soul in a way words alone might not.

Michele Delehanty
Ruther Glen, Va.

There is so much depth of Spirit in music and song. Are we inclusive or exclusive in our time together in worship? I love this quote from George Fox: “Sing and rejoice, you children of the day and of the Light.”

Nancy Alleman
Camp Hill, Pa.

Hope for overcoming warmaking

Scotty Utz’s work with Guns to Gardens is a beautiful initiative, but as long as his country continues a philosophy based on weapons, nothing can change deeply (“Forging Peace and Disarming Hearts,” FJ Sept).

Peace must be cultivated not only in each heart but also politically and socially. It’s important to drive out the merchants of weapons and to educate children in peace and understanding.

Pierre
France

Thanks for letting me know about a movement I’d never heard of and discovering that there was a branch right here in my backyard in Philadelphia. It is an inspiring article, serious and thoughtful as well as humorous. While he may not be in the circus any more, he has at least retained a sense of humor about life.

Pierre’s comments above are well taken. Our government right now thinks only of violence at home and abroad. It seems impossible to imagine that we could overcome the gun/military culture that dominates our political leaders and so much of our country. But efforts like Guns to Gardens give hope.

John Andew Gallery
Philadelphia, Pa.

Online: Scotty Utz discusses his article in a Quaker Talk video interview with FJ senior editor Martin Kelley at Friendsjournal.org/scotty-utz.

Meeting people where they are

As Dewi Heald seems to suggest (“It’s Not Just About War,” FJ Sept.), we might be more effective at spreading peace if we focus on the ineffectiveness of war more than defending pacifism against the critics who characterize it as ineffective. To begin with, he advises us to make pacifism active rather than passive. Some will take Heald’s advice to mean that we need more public demonstrations. Probably so. Still, I see some more suggestions there, one being that we engage in peace education and spread what we have learned with others. I’m thinking this would be more effective than more demonstrations because, hopefully at least, we’d meet more people where they are.

Tom Louderback
Louisville, Ky.

Finding our people

Thank you for Steven Davison’s “What Can We Say?” (FJ Aug.). I feel there is great value in trying to describe our positive characteristics, even though a great advantage of Quakerism is its openness. I have experienced a steady inner draw toward the Society of Friends in the past two years, but it is only this week that I have taken the step from being a “Quaker without a meeting” (my own term) to being an “attender.” It’s not going to be easy, since the nearest meeting that I can find is 70 miles from my very rural area. But I experienced an instant, strong connection to the meeting I attended. I feel like I have “found my people.” I’m very eager to formally join the Friends, but I am trying to be patient and honor the process!

Mark Lama
Quincy, Mich.

It’s a commonplace observation that when any person begins to experience communication/communion with God, that experience will usually begin with what that person has come to understand from their life so far. God can potentially show them more, but that’s where they start. So there will necessarily be wide disagreement, at first, on what Quakers do or believe.

Do we tend to converge, over time, on a particular interpretation of what we basically agree on? There may well remain strong preferences for one way or another of expressing what it is we find ourselves agreeing on. Do these matter all that much?

Forrest Curo
San Diego, Calif.

Thank you for sharing this. A very useful summation of our Quaker approach to the Divine that speaks to my condition.

Riki Panganiban
San Francisco, Calif.

Thank you for putting it so succinctly. One of many reasons I was drawn to the Society of Friends was how inclusive it is in honoring individuals’ spiritual walk.

Vicki Stagg
Via Facebook

The waves of outside noises

Martin Kelley’s “The Noises of Our Silences” (FJ Aug.) prompted me to think of the various forms of silence that have accompanied my meeting for worship experience since starting attending meeting for worship almost 20 years ago.

I was fortunate to start my Quaker adventure at Abington Meeting in Jenkintown, Pa., where we have a large, circa 1700 stone meetinghouse for worship when it’s cold or inclement, as well as a huge, beautiful maple tree in our meeting graveyard under which we hold meeting for worship in the warmer seasons. The silence in those worshipful moments are very different and wonderful each.

In the summers recently, I’ve had the chance to attend worship at Yarmouth (Mass.) Meeting. This is a smaller, wooden meetinghouse from 1809 and it has been wonderfully maintained. The Yarmouth meetinghouse is literally on the town’s Main Street so even on Sunday mornings, cars, trucks, and motorcycles drive right by the meetinghouse. It was initially an annoying distraction to me, making my worship difficult. But then I started to hear the noise of the various vehicles and their tires washing up the street as if they were waves from the nearby Atlantic Ocean. And with that, the distraction of the cars and trucks driving by instead became a natural flow to help with my worship.

For me, these were lessons that I can have a meaningful worship, regardless of the kind of silence or a lack of it.

Jeffrey Plaut
Elkins Park, Pa.