What is Worship?

Meeting for worship is the heart and center of a Quaker meeting and of being Quaker, but what do Quakers…

Marti Matthews

Singing among FGC Friends

Quaker disciplines in the mid-19th century criticized instrumental and choral music as frivolous, "worldly" recreation that led Friends away from…

Peter Blood-Patterson

The Friendly Gangstaz Committee

Ladies and Gentlemen, brothers and sisters, Quakaz and Gangstaz: You are witnessing a revolution in the Religious Society of Friends.…

Asa Fager

You Are My Sunshine

You Are My Sunshine"—we belt it out every Thursday evening, along with "The Sidewalks of New York," "A Bicycle Built…

Yvonne Boeger

The Coffee Crisis and Fair Trade

As economic globalization has accelerated in recent years, and its negative impacts have become more apparent, Friends have been called…

Erbin Crowell

Knitting in Gratitude

My recent prayers have been colorful and, frankly, rather woolly. They are relatively quiet, except for the clickety clack of…

Lisa Rand

It's Time to Witness to Truth

It is no secret that Saddam Hussein has stayed in power for many years with the tacit approval of our…

Susan Corson-Finnerty

Justice and Respect for People with Mental Illnesses

Lying in an emergency room in 1983, I entered into a hospital stay for mental illness that respected neither my…

Blake Yohe

A Perspective on the Peace Testimony

When I applied for membership in the Religious Society of Friends ten years ago, it was easy to tell my…

John Andrew Gallery

Humility: The Lamb that Roars

Humility may be one of the toughest virtues to comprehend in our present society. In spite of incomparable prosperity and…

Keith R. Maddock

Random Glimpses from a Gathering First-timer

Arrived exhausted after preparations—not a good way to begin. Not difficult, though, to regain a sense of direction. Good to…

James Arnold Baker

The High School Gathering

It was a gathering of Friends, and of young Friends, from throughout the nation. This was my third gathering, all…

Andrew Esser-Haines

A View from the Junior Gathering

Everyone is here, people who we know and treasure. I have to remind myself: this is FGC, the thing we…

Melaura Homan-Smith

The Healing Center

The Healing Center is a place to be just as we are—with our talents and strengths, our ills and wounds—on…

Jan Stansel and Jim Palmer

The Black Cats Taught Me Mindfulness

All-Gathering decentralized worship designed by younger Friends was scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday. I hadn’t resisted a single…

JoAnn Seaver

A Glimpse of FLGC in Transition

A hundred people wait in worship while the FLGC co-clerks confer in whispers at a table in the front of…

Wendy Sanford

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…