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Showing Up to Serve

• Authored by:
• Steve Finger

Do the Editor:

On Debt (July 2021)

The Gadfly

• Authored by:
• Robin DuRant,
• Gail Thomas

Dear Editor:

On Debt (July 2021)

Quakers for Abolition Network

• Authored by:
• Jed Walsh,
• Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge,
• Jeff Kisling,
• Fatema Jaffer,
• Elliotte Enochs,
• Megan Wilson

by Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge and Jed Walsh

On Cliques (September 2021)

The Ground from which Miracles Spring

• Authored by:
• Anna Fritz

I didn’t want to join the committee. As a “released Friend,” my role is to follow the leadings of my music ministry out in the world, freed from responsibility for the business of Multnomah Monthly Meeting. But I have found myself reckoning lately with a firehose of Spirit blasting a message through me that has nothing to do with songs or cello. In September 2021, this message came out in an epistle, which was published October 30 in Western Friend’s weekly email newsletter. This epistle, “Returning to the Body,” arose from my experience serving on Multnomah’s ad-hoc committee concerned with the question of how to worship in this age of pandemic. [See: https://westernfriend.org/returning-body]

On Freedom (January 2022)

More Evidence is Needed

• Authored by:
• Kate McClellan

Dear Editor:

On Freedom (January 2022)

Calls to the Annual Sessions 2022

• Authored by:
• Gale Toko-Ross,
• Valerie Ireland,
• Jana Ostrom

[The following texts were abridged from the originals, which are available at: https://westernfriend.org/calls-annual-sessions-2022 ]

On Alternatives (March 2022)

Hybrid and/or Embodied Worship (4)

• Authored by:
• Rebecca Morris

[This letter was abridged from a longer original, which you can find at: https://westernfriend.org/letters-marchapril-2022]

On Alternatives (March 2022)

Two Quakers Living with the Military

• Authored by:
• Lucretia Humphrey,
• Molly Wingate

We are two Quaker women who raised our families in towns dominated by the U.S. military. Rather than shun the military and look away, we have lived our witness amidst strong military presences. One thing about being in a military town is that you can’t look away from how big a machine the military is. Each of us found that it was hard to raise a Quaker family in a community with a tiny Quaker presence and a huge military presence. It was hard for our children to find peer support with so few Friends in town. [pullquote]The military has certainly created plenty of occasions for us to talk about our testimonies and our practices in the face of headwinds.[/pullquote] Both of us have found that our situations have actually helped strengthen our faith, since we often have to live our witness when sustained by faith alone.

On Place (May 2022)

Presence and Place

• Authored by:
• Rick Seifert

When I tell people I was on Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980, the day before the massive eruption that left fifty-seven dead, the first question they ask is, “Why?”

On Place (May 2022)

On Place

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

A person can be nice to someone in order to cheat them, but they cannot be kind to them to cheat them; that would not be kind. When Micah taught, “Do justice; love kindness; walk humbly with your God,” the lesson was not to love persons, but to love an attitude towards persons. An attitude that honors the self-respect of every creature and accepts indebtedness to the common good (and hence, indebtedness to the particular creature one is facing) – this is kindness. When engaging in acts of healing, kindness is not over-cautious about insult or injury. The hard truth and the surgeon’s scalpel both cut when they are needed. Recovery is hard work, but healing is only possible when corruption is excised. Also, to enter into another’s healing is always an act of reciprocity.

On Place (May 2022)