“Let us then try what love will do…” William Penn February 2007 I was surprised some years back when Margaret Wentworth, then the Clerk of Durham Monthly Meeting in Maine, eldered me after I had brought a message in meeting...
Sitting in silent worship is a way of praying. That's what the Bible says. That's what Jesus was doing on the mountainside in the night; waiting for God, waiting with God. Waiting is a spiritual and religious practice that is...
Sometimes in my wild imaginings I dream that there is a Prayer book in my heart. Some of the pages are bent and torn. A few are missing. Some of the words are faded and there are pages that are...
Some of us grew up with the understanding that prophecy meant foretelling the future. In some cultural corners it still means that. However, in the several thousand year old Judaeo-Christian tradition prophecy means interpreting the ways that God is involved...
For early friends life and learning was rooted in the Bible. They sought to discern the spirit in which it was written rather than read it literally. They took Jesus' teaching of Eternal Life seriously. However, they saw it as...
Walking in the Light does not mean doing things the way we always have. The Christian Church has sailed into the future like a majestic Galleon - backwards. There is a tension involved with walking in the Light between our...
Oh, God, Thou has searched me and known me...where can I flee from Thy presence? If I take flight to the frontiers of the morning or dwell at the limit of the western sea, even there thy hand will meet...
Openings, leadings, discernment, nudges, hints, promptings - ah...the words we use to describe the subtle voice of God. The motions of love, perceptions from the deep, the hunger of the heart, being prayed through - ah...the words we use to...
By 1660 early Quakers began talking about the Peace Testimony. In brief, in a declaration to Charles II, George Fox wrote, "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons, for any end or under any...
Community is a place where the connections felt in the heart make themselves known in bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening up our hearts. Parker Palmer (quoted from a pamphlet for new...
The parable is an interesting way of communicating - unique in fact. A parable is a written piece much like a documentary film that allows the observer to find their way in, in an array of ways. In the Prodigal...
Ah…. Advent the season of hope Bright star at the darkest time of the year. Advent is the prayer of expectant waiting In the shadows when often all seems lost. Advent...God is about to do a new thing In our...
Quaker scholar Douglas Steere taught Religion and Philosophy at Haverford College near Philadelphia for many years. In one of his books, this one entitled, The Very Thought of Thee, he quotes Evelyn Underhill, the English writer on Spirituality as...
And all Friends take heed of jars and strife, for that is it, which will eat out the Seed in you; therefore let not that harbour in your bosoms, lest it eat out the good in you, and ye come...
Ah, the Peace Testimony -- a part of the Quaker tradition that is difficult for many of us. A few years back I cut out a large paper circle and pasted it up on the wall near the picture above...