To Live Fully until Death: Lessons from the Dying

My Quakerism and my work for the past 25 years as a hospice nurse have informed and strengthened each other.…

Connie McPeak Green

Musings on Aging and Death

A recent illness has forced me not to deny the facts of my apparent mortality any longer. Culturally, through a…

Horatio C. Wood IV

My Father and the Right to Die

I used to dread my father’s annual letter in which he informed me of his desires in case he should…

Anne E. Barschall

The Ability to Choose as Death Approaches

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion, without the discomfort of thought." —John F. Kennedy In 1980 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross,…

Linda Lyman

Care of the Dying: A Spiritual Discipline

Attending the death of a loved one is a painful, sometimes disturbing experience. Frequently it has a deeply mysterious quality,…

Brad Sheeks

How Can You Do That Work?

When I spent my professional life as a full-time emergency room nurse, my friends could not get enough of my…

TylaAnn Burger

Gifts from the Closet

It’s Saturday and I’ve managed to keep it open. I’m determined to clean out the closet in my spare room…

Mary Waddington

Dear Mum

Note: This is a letter addressed to the author’s deceased mother, Virginia Hutton, shortly after her death on July 30,…

Melissa Perot

Watu Kwa Amani

Watu Kwa Amani is a Swahili phrase meaning "people of peace." It is also the name of a conference to…

Donald E. Miller

Thank You, Friends

In 2001 we conducted our most recent Readership Survey. Five hundred twenty individuals replied to the 1,000 surveys we mailed—a…

Susan Corson-Finnerty

When Jesus Visits

Most Quakers are familiar with George Fox’s spiritual epiphany. He was alone and in desperate need of spiritual nurturance. It…

Greg Moschetti

Unintentional Outreach

It was a glorious fall day, and I was excited to be in Philadelphia, intent on weaving my way through…

Cheryl Dellasega

Unbounded Compassion

On my first day at the 2003 Washington, D.C., Animal Rights Conference, I noticed a young woman pushing a teenage…

Clark Tibbits

Spirituality and Our Bodies

In meeting on a recent First Day it occurred to me that when our thoughts and minds are involved in…

Moreland Smith

Quakers, Sexuality, and Spirituality

Talking about sex in any context, even a Quaker one, can be dangerous because we don’t all use the same…

John Calvi

On Marriage and Divorce–with a Proposition Bound to Be Controversial

Friends traditionally set great store by the Testimony on Truth. So highly did early Friends prize the truth that they…

Anne E. Barschall

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…