Search

God is in the Flowers

• Authored by:
• Beverley Mendheim

Dear Editor: Please reprint this message from Adam Keawe Inau Manolo Camp, “God is in the Flowers: Marriage Equality and the Queen,” originally published by Peter Apo, Board of Trustees, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, PeterApo.com.

On Time (March 2014)

Charting Our Way

• Authored by:
• Tockhwock,
• Geoffrey Kaiser

Tockhwock (AKA Geoffrey Kaiser) produced “The Chart” that hangs as a poster in many Quaker meetinghouses, depicting Quaker history as a tree. Beginning in the late 1960s, he revised and updated The Chart continually until 2010. During that time, he and his husband Bruce traveled widely among Friends in North America and gave lectures about Friends’ 350 years of schisms and associations. Tockhwock is a member of Appleseed Meeting in Sebastopol, CA (PYM), grew up in Gwynedd Meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was a founding member of Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns in 1970. He spoke with Western Friend by phone on January 23, 2014. Following are edited excerpts from a transcript of that interview.

On Time (March 2014)

Time in the Real World

• Authored by:
• Larissa Keeler

In the flurry of dozens of goodbye hugs before going home, I said to one Friend, “Well, I guess it’s back to the real world now.” He answered, “Oh no, no. This is the real world. The rest of life is what’s not real.” I had to agree.

On Time (March 2014)

Simplicity and Our Complex Economy

• Authored by:
• Greg Regaignon

Simplicity runs in opposition to modern life.  Thousands of people, and potentially hundreds of companies, are involved in the production, distribution, and sale of something as simple as a pencil or a cup of coffee – to say nothing of a pair of sneakers, a movie, or a car, or providing a service like a mutual fund or a night in a hotel room. 

On Production (May 2014)

Summer Camps that Made a Difference

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

It was summer camp, but it sounded serious. Quaker Work Camp was a whole month of work and study. The camp sounded serious, but the campers made it fun.

On Production (May 2014)

To Grandchildren Everywhere

• Authored by:
• Frank Granshaw

Dear Grandchildren: I am writing this letter for you to read twenty years from now. I write it as an act of hope. By the time you read this, world will look very different. While I am concerned about the life we are leaving you, I have faith in the unexpected (reality always has a way of messing up our best forecasts). I also have faith in That-of-God residing in each of us, which gives us our capacity for compassion, sacrifice, creativity, and wisdom.

On Production (May 2014)

Call to PYM Annual Session 2014 - Unabridged

• Authored by:
• Steve Smith

Call to the Annual Gathering of Pacific Yearly Meeting, 2014 Youth and Prophecy: Awakening to a New Creation July 14 – 19, 2014; Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma California

On Production (May 2014)

Making Something of Myself

• Authored by:
• Gary Miller

Gary Miller helped found the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club in 1971 and served as its president in 1975. He was the first openly gay person to serve as the chair of the Sacramento Democratic Party and was Sacramento’s first openly gay human rights commissioner. As a staff person in the 1970s with Friends Committee on Legislation in California, Miller worked to defeat Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gays, lesbians, and their supporters from working in California public schools. Miller is a member of Sacramento Friends Meeting (PYM). He spoke to Western Friend by phone on June 18, 2014. Following are edited excerpts from a transcript of that interview.

On Pride (July 2014)

The Button Talk

• Authored by:
• Debbie Townsend,
• Paul Christiansen

Dear Friends: The Sunday before North Pacific  Yearly Meeting, we were making buttons. A few of our more popular versions are: “I’m a Quaker. No, Not Like the Oatmeal;” “Never Underestimate a Feisty Old Quaker;” and “Caution: Raised Quaker.” We sell these buttons and give half of the proceeds to Western Friend. This is something we do as a family – mother and son. Western Friend is not part of it.

On Family (September 2014)

On Reconciliation

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

Dear Friends: Through no fault of our own, through no feat of our own, we’ve all been born into this juncture in history together. So many of us. Too many of us. Things keep getting more and more crowded around here. Even so, it seems impossibly hard at times to say goodbye to people.

On Reconciliation (January 2015)