Search

Invitation to FWCC in Sacramento

Authored by:
FWCC Sacramento 2014 Planning Committee

To Friends everywhere: What will be the future of Friends in the 21st Century? What must we do and be to truly undo the blockages that keep the Living Water from flowing in us and through us individually and corporately? Do we know what purposes God would have us serve? How do we communicate across cultural and language lines? Who will lead and how will we lead?

On Patriotism (January 2014)

Taking Time to Ask, “Why?”

Authored by:
Sarah Tarver-Wahlquist

My family does a lot at our meeting. I currently serve as clerk of our First Day School Committee, co-clerk of our Kitchen Committee, and I also sit on our half-yearly meeting’s Continuing and Nominating Committees. My husband fills the arduous and time-consuming role of clerk for our meeting’s House Committee, which cares for the physical home of our meeting, a 100-year-old house that requires near constant upkeep, and he is a regular teacher in our First Day School rotation. Many nights each week, we compete for the computer after our kids are in bed, each of us trying to coordinate committee meetings or write reports or request quotes for purchases needed by the meeting. And we spend most First Days scurrying around the meetinghouse, preparing coffee, and chatting with people about committee work.

On Time (March 2014)

the tree thing, experiencing connectedness

Authored by:
eric maya joy

during the 2013 gathering of friends general conference in greeley, colorado, a few of us met for three hours each day, all five days, to see what would emerge if we applied friends’ faith and practice towards seeking deeper unity with nature. mark helpsmeet from “northern spirit radio” often attends this annual gathering; he interviews friends there and edits those interviews into segments for his radio show. he arranged to interview three of us exploring unity with nature on thursday afternoon.

On Time (March 2014)

A Simple Quaker Business

Authored by:
Rick Seifert

The rain has swept in from the Pacific, drenching bike-crazy Portland’s inner eastside industrial district. A rainbow arches over the airy Islabikes warehouse, where twenty-six-year-old Tim Goodall assembles and sells children’s bikes. It’s the British company’s only outlet in the United States.

On Production (May 2014)

Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation in Alaska

Authored by:
Lindianne Sarno

About three years ago, a group of my Alaskan friends were talking about abuses suffered by citizens from unconstitutional police acts. One of us said that we need a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission like the one that Desmond Tutu used to help South Africa recover from apartheid. I thought, “What a great idea!” Rather than wait until after America’s burgeoning police state has harmed millions of people, let’s provide a way for people to tell the truth, clear the air, put the police on notice that citizens are observing their unconstitutional acts, and send them a message that we expect the police to act within the bounds of the constitution.

On Reconciliation (January 2015)

237 Acres of God

It’s lizard season. Driving down the Rough and Ready Highway, the air is hot and dry, a tangible manifestation of the California drought. But here, everything is alive. The Woolman Semester School sits on 237 acres in historic gold country, but more immediately, it’s my favorite place in the world. I’ve been coming to Woolman for various reasons as long as I can remember – College Park Quarterly Meeting sessions, summer camp, family work camp, visiting Friends – but today, March 30th, 2015, I’m returning to visit for the first time since graduating from the Fall 2014 high school semester. Driving past the orchard, it already feels like home.

On Needs (May 2015)

Quakers in the Arts

Authored by:
Bettina Raphael

The constructive, healing, and expressive qualities of play can be experienced through artistic ventures. This is one principle behind the Quakers in the Arts program offered for the past five years at the annual gathering of Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM) at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. The program has evolved spontaneously, almost like an improvisational game, thanks to the efforts of several Yearly Meeting attenders and the encouraging responses of participants after each session.

On Play (September 2015)

What is the Light?

Authored by:
Todd Swanson

George Fox described himself during his early adulthood as “a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me.” Shortly later, he stated, “After this did a pure fire appear in me, a spiritual discerning came into me.” By the following year, while he was 24, a major transformation had occurred, “In the year 1648, as I was sitting in a Friend’s house . . . I saw there was a great crack to go throughout the earth, and a great smoke to go as the crack went, and that after the crack, there should be a great shaking. This was the earth in people’s hearts which was to be shaken before the Seed of God was to be raised out of the earth . . . and great meetings we began to have.” He discerned the reason for this change was because “the Lord God had opened to me by his invisible power how every man was enlightened by the divine Light of Christ; and I saw it shine through all.”

On Heritage (July 2016)

The Seventh Person

Authored by:
Desmond Kamas

According to philosopher William James, “Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.” This elegantly describes the nature of our relationships with others. Through our biases and subjectivities, we create views of the world that may not actually exist. These become even more difficult to untangle when social media is added to the mix.

On Media (September 2016)

On Media

Authored by:
Mary Klein

Immersed in stories as humans are – print, radio, television, internet, social media, interactive gaming, virtual reality – we can easily lose sight of truth. Especially when a story fills our imagination with images we dearly want to believe in, we can feel reluctant to break the story’s spell.

On Media (September 2016)