Jay Thatcher

A Guide to Faithfulness Groups (review)

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

I notice a steady growth of intentional spiritual practice among independent Friends. In the past two decades, programs such as “Way of the Spirit” and “Experiment with Light” have been established and started to thrive. More independent Friends are venturing into chaplaincy or other ministries that were once considered unsuitable for unprogrammed Quakers. Guidance for daily devotional practice and prayer is now offered in recent editions of our books of discipline. I’ve found my spiritual life benefitting from some of this shift in culture that’s developed in our local meeting and around our yearly meeting.

Issue: On Normality (July 2022)

Membership is Important

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

Quaker membership is important. Mutual commitment matters. Membership is a relationship, not an achievement.

Issue: On Freedom (January 2022)

Prophets on the Field of Play

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

Competition has a bleak reputation among Friends. It brings out extremes in people, and Friends are inclined toward moderation. For some competitors, the demands of adversity arouse a vile nature in them, and Friends would rather ignore our shadow sides. However, for most of us, particularly most children and youth, our most extreme selves also express the best in us.

Issue: On Competition (January 2017)

Focus and Immersion in Present Experience

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

Waiting for sunrise on a desert morning this March, my focus came to the inward Truth only. I had walked in darkness with a quiet dog to a saddle between two hills in the middle of the Mojave Desert Preserve. In wild lands, especially in dry lands, I find less cumber between God and me. I can feel a presence in my middle. With Light arriving, I reflect on my feelings and what I’m led to do. Guidance from the Holy is clearer in these times of presence.

Issue: On Play (September 2015)

Some Words on Wordless Prayer

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

Issue: On Prayer (March 2024)

The Light Within, Then And Now - Review

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

Rex Ambler is a British theologian, teacher, and writer. In several previous small volumes, he has made major contributions to Friends’ theology (for example, The End of Words) and spirituality (Light To Live By). The Light Within: Then and Now (Pendle Hill Pamphlet 425, 2013) extends that precedent.

Issue: On Difference (July 2015)

On the Christian Calendar and Epiphany

• Author(s):
• Jay Thatcher

We can learn from and happily follow Jesus’s teaching. We experience a Light or a Word from beyond ourselves that is a guide to our lives. The lesson of Epiphany is that those two are identical; Jesus is Light.

Issue: On Epiphany (February 2025)