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New Hope for Quaker Action

Dear Friends: The yearning to re-enliven and coalesce the forces within Quakerism to meet the challenges of our time has become a central theme of my life’s work.

On Seeds (November 2023)

Deep Hope in Optimystical Times (abridged)

For decades, I’ve been talking publicly about the gathering catastrophes of climate change and social injustice, and about the decline of the Society of Friends. Sounds pretty gloomy, I know. My day job as a palliative care chaplain at a large urban hospital entails sitting at the feet of those very powerful teachers named in Buddhist tradition: old age, sickness, and death.

On Cooperation (September 2022)

Beautiful Article about Minding the Earth

Dear Editor: “A New Story for Earth” by Mary Ann Percy, in the November/December issue, is one of the best articles that I have ever read. I happened to read it right after our meeting held our second-hour discussion one First Day, concerning what each of us can do to be more mindful of the earth (and promised to try). I think we might discuss this article in another second hour soon. It ties a lot of big questions and big concepts together really well, and it is beautifully written.

On Mediation (January 2020)

Hope? Abyss, Faith, Kinship (abridged)

I want to start with an inglorious story of protests gone by. During the lead-up to the Iraq war in 2002-2003, I was a student at Earlham College. Weekend after weekend, I traveled from Indiana to Washington, DC, for marches and protests. It seemed to be a ritual intended for building up and projecting our own sense of power as a people. I don’t remember how many weekends I made that trip. We marched through the empty corridors of large granite buildings with nobody in them, seemingly hundreds of thousands of people, yelling to the ether.

On Neighbors (September 2019)

Israel-Palestine

On Tech (July 2024)

Report on Israel-Palestine Visit

Have Hope, Choose Love, Be Kind

Dear Friends: This year, Gila Friends Meeting designed and produced a yard sign that we have been selling to Friends at yearly meetings. It reads, “Have hope / Choose love / Be kind.”

On Science (November 2022)

Palestine-Israel Quaker Study 2017

Hope? Abyss, Faith, Kinship

Hope for Racial Justice Despite U.S. History

Dear Friends: I am so excited that Taylor Stewart of the Oregon Remembrance Project will present “Finding Justice for Historical Injustice” in a Zoom webinar at 7:00 PM Pacific on May 6, 2022. Save the date! This presentation offers a blueprint for communities throughout the West who want to reckon with racial injustice in their histories. We can write new endings to the tragic stories of the past. Watch Extra, Extra Western Friend for details to come!

On Alternatives (March 2022)

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