Forum, June-July 2025

From the labor of many

The Friday Food Share in San Francisco, Calif., referenced in Sharlee DiMenichi’s “Solidarity with Our Unhoused Neighbors” (FJ May) was organized by others at San Francisco Meeting in collaboration with the organization Food Not Bombs. When my kids take part, sometimes they do so in person and sometimes they make sandwiches at home for distribution, a practice we began during the pandemic. I offer these details so that others know that my family is lucky to take part in a program born from the labor of many others, including Friends and their friends!

Gail Cornwall-Feeley
San Francisco, Calif.

Just by being alive we belong

“From Roman Catholic to Quaker” is a wonderful interview with Joseph Izzo (QuakerSpeak.com, Apr.). I too was Catholic, for over 50 years. After strong disagreement over women’s ordination and birth control, I joined an Episcopal parish for several years. My beliefs and values were evolving, and I found a Quaker worship group started by a friend in the parish. This became home over 30 years ago! I was especially amazed by the variety of members when I attended the Friends General Gathering Gathering in 1995: nontheists, Jews, pagans, LGBTQs, together with the more traditional majority type. My mind, heart, and soul align with Quakerism. This is what I chose before I came to earth! Blessed be!

Rita R. Voors
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Joe is such a thoughtful presence at Friends Meeting of Washington (D.C.). I love how Joe has communicated with my children as equals from toddler-hood into adulthood. Joe’s journey reminds me of my mother’s: a liberal Catholic from a very religious Polish family who was uncomfortable with the non-inclusiveness of the church in the 1970s.

Jenifer Moss Morris
Springfield, Va.

I was really struck by the end where Izzo said that as a Catholic a lot of their spirituality was wrapped up in anger and disagreements regarding Church doctrine and dogma on sexuality, etc., but that once they became a Quaker that anger dissipated. This was absolutely my experience as well. I was told by our parish priest at the age of 16 that there was no place for me in the Catholic Church the moment I came out as gay, so I left. Once I started attending Quaker meetings on a regular basis, I found I didn’t have to prove that I belonged: I was worthy of community and fellowship. Just by being alive and present I automatically belonged, and the anger I had carried my whole life was gone. 

Matthew Wettlaufer
Palm Desert, Calif.

Corrections

“A Friendly Woman Reunion” (by Sharlee DiMenichi, FJ Apr.) inverted the institutional affiliations of Kara Cole and Marty Walton in the mid-1980s. Cole was with Friends United Meeting and Walton with Friends General Conference.

We have learned that the poem “Legacy” by Bill Shay, from our February 2025 issue, is plagiarized. The true author is Susan Comninos; it was published under the title “Bequeathal” in the Winter 2020 edition of Ninth Letter. We have contacted both author and publisher and removed it from our website. We will expand our plagiarism detection systems for future issues.