Knowing and Sharing Our Faith and Its Historical Influence

Why isn’t there a cross?" asks a young boy, visiting with his 5th grade class from North Carolina. "Where does…

Paulette Meier

The Friends of Truth: A Case for Reclaiming Our Earlier Name

Though most Friends have forgotten it (or never heard it in the first place), the Friends of Truth was our…

Robert Griswold

A Spiritual Journey

The term "Earthcare" gained general acceptance beginning in the late 1980s to distinguish Spirit-led concern for living in right relationship…

Louis Cox

Thinking About Women

The New Year has barely begun as I sit to write this column. I am still flush with the blessings…

Susan Corson-Finnerty

A Perspective on the Quaker Sweat Lodge

I am responding to Chuck Fager’s recent letter on Friends General Conference and the Quaker Sweat Lodge ("Finding a Way…

Bruce Birchard

On Sexism as a Spiritual Disaster

I have been a feminist for 35 years. It has been, in effect, my religion. For me, feminism is a…

Judith Fetterley

Remembering Patricia

I met her at work, answered when she called our hotline and, later that day, welcomed her at our shelter…

Janeal Ravndal

Whose DNA Is It Anyway?

What if your girlfriend asked you to take a DNA test before you got engaged? Or your employer wanted a…

Margery Post Abbott

The Aspirations of Andean Quakers

Yes, there are Quakers in the Andes—lots of them. And, yes, they have aspirations. Working with them, as a Quaker…

Newton Garver

On the Significance of Benches

In the final worship at a recent session of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), I found myself reflecting on the keynote…

Liz Oppenheimer

The Wandering Leadings of the Spirit

A great swoop over my head, and a steady beat of wings. Suddenly a dark shape banks, turns, and disappears…

Lynn Martin

QUNO: Supporting Multilateralism

The Quaker United Nations Office, located in New York and Geneva, represents Quakers at the United Nations and other intergovernmental…

Laurel Townhead

Moses and the Tantrum

If everything worked perfectly, we would be only five minutes late, I told myself as I hurried my two-year-old daughter…

Elizabeth O'Sullivan

The Civil War Swords

They came to us, my husband and me, in 1977, after my mother-in-law died. Long ago she had laid them…

Mary Dimon Riley

A Time of Renewal

At the time of this writing, Susan Corson-Finnerty is off getting some vacation and supporting far-flung family members, and she…

Robert Dockhorn

Misunderstanding Quaker Faith and Practice

You’ve probably heard a conversation like this between members and attenders of the modern, unprogrammed Religious Society of Friends: “What…

Terry Wallace

Tom Louderback on Quakers and Capitalism

Capitalism is supposed to be an economic system with checks and balances, like democracy, and we…
Steven Davison on Speaking with Spiritual Authority

Thank you, Peter, for this ministry. I share your concern. In fact, Pendle Hill just published…
Ron Braithwaite on Hoopes Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Prison for Assaulting an ICE Agent

At the actual sentencing, Jacob was sentenced to 30 months at the Sheridan, Oregon Federal Minimum…
Kevin Johnson on Hoopes Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Prison for Assaulting an ICE Agent

I would have hoped that Friends would refrain from violent protests in these difficult days. Friends…