Walk Humbly, Serve Boldly: Modern Quakers as Everyday Prophets
by Marjory Post Abbott
reviewed by David Tucker
Friend Marjory Post Abbott wants modern Quakers to embrace their prophetic voices. While such a call to action might sound like a daunting challenge – the word “prophetic” does tend to imply something grand and anachronistic to our time – instead, Abbott’s 2018... Read more.
We are sometimes told that the only way to change society is to change its members individually. But this is not only unduly pessimistic; it involves a disregard of man’s nature as a social being and what is implied by our membership one of another. Because man is a social being, the spiritual level of a whole society can be lifted permanently by a few dedicated individuals, and a great reform such as the abolition of slavery can be brought about even though in other respects the ethical... Read more.
Dear Editor: I loved the article by Julie Harlow in the March/April issue of Western Friend. She really touched my heart with her honesty, commitment, and vision for authentic Quakerism. Like Julie, I was deeply involved in Soviet-American reconciliation work in the 1980s. I got to know Julie when she was taking groups of Friends from PacYM to the Soviet Union to build friendships and get to know our “enemy” as part of the citizen diplomacy movement. I felt our citizen diplomacy work helped... Read more.
Dear Editor: In the published version of my letter in your March/April 2021 issue, there was something you edited out that I consider essential.
My original submission contained the acknowledgement that I do not know Friend Mike Clarke’s racial identity, and that in conversations like this, I think it’s essential to include such an acknowledgement. I don’t want Western Friend readers to get the impression that I assumed Mike to be White.
– Karie Firoozmand, Timonium, MD... Read more.
In March 2020, I was crying in frustration and disappointment. The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS) had just recommended to the US Congress that the Selective Service System (SSS), mandatory registration for a military draft, be expanded to include women. Was I angry because women were going to be in line to be drafted? That was part of it. But my disappointment, my sadness, was more about the missed opportunity the commission hadn’t taken - to eliminate... Read more.
I have been a Friend for forty-five years. I started attending a few years after returning to the U.S. from a tour in Vietnam. It was a stressful time. We had two young children. At the encouragement of Charles and Mary Minor, we visited Flagstaff Friends Meeting on South Beaver Street, just off the campus of Northern Arizona University.
Within just a few meetings, I felt At Home. The “silence” especially appealed to my condition. It has done so ever since. I was a Vietnamese... Read more.
~
one has to take sides
sometimes, and it’s always right
to side with the hurt
the poor, the widow,
the orphan, the captives and
the huddled masses
always
new allegory
of the peaceable kingdom:
hawks lie down with doves
Jean Semrau is a member of South Mountain Friends Meeting in Ashland, Oregon.
