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Calls to The Annual Sessions 2014 - Abridged

• Authored by:
• Sara Keeney,
• Tom Rawson,
• Steve Smith

What do we have to offer as Quakers in these challenging times? Intermountain Yearly Meeting June 8 -15, 2014; Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico

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)

Ego, Imagination, Condition, and Light

• Authored by:
• Robert Griswold

Friends use the word Light a lot.  They use it as a metaphor to point towards an experience.  But Friends use this basic expression so casually that I fear it has become conventional and trivial. We don’t much think about what the Light (as experience) means or where it comes from or why we need it. Nor are we aware of how we got into the dark in the first place. Like many metaphors, Light is better understood when it is placed in a context. My experience is that ego, imagination, and condition are factors that provide a helpful context for considering the Light.

On Pride (July 2014)

Love Always Protects

• Authored by:
• Alvaro Alvarado,
• Donna Higgins Smith,
• Lynnette Arnold

Friends who gathered at Pacific Yearly Meeting (PYM) in July 2014 were moved by a refugee crisis unfolding on the US-Mexico border. Thousands of children continue to escape violence in Central America and seek reunification with family members working in the US. The crisis has many causes that require thoughtful analysis to discern long-term solutions, but for us the causes do not matter. As members of PYM’s Latin American Concerns Committee, we seek not to ascribe blame, but rather to follow God’s will. We are led to show love to these children.

On Family (September 2014)

What Can Quakers Offer in These Times? – Diane Randall

• Authored by:
• Diane Randall

Excerpts from a presentation to Intermountain Yearly Meeting; June 12, 2014; Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, New Mexico

On Family (September 2014)

Who is this “We”?

• Authored by:
• Kate McClellan

Dear Editor: Robert Griswold’s article in the July/August 2014 issue of Western Friend discusses ego development without any references and starts off all about “we.” Since he is not referring to any research or current psychological literature, I assume he is sharing his opinion of how ego development worked in his own life.

On Family (September 2014)

From Problems to Perfection

• Authored by:
• Josh Von Kuster

Our problems exist because we are all complicit, each and every one of us. We value our own convenience over the livability of our planet. We value our own convenience over the legacy we leave for our children and grandchildren. If there is such a thing as sin, this is it.

On Reconciliation (January 2015)

Never Too Early

• Authored by:
• Martin Cobin

We’re tolerant of behavior by a two-year-old that would disturb us greatly if it were displayed by an adult. The behavior of the two-year-old is something we’d normally accept as natural to the condition of a two-year-old. The same behavior in an adult would challenge us to reconcile our ideas about what is natural in adult behavior with the disruptive behavior we see before us. It follows from this that reconciliation among adults might be easier if we learned to see a wider range of behaviors as normal to the human condition, rather than perceiving disruptive behaviors as a sign of moral deficiency or moral misconduct. (Please note that adults who’ve had little contact with very young children might not find it easy to adjust to the behavior of two-year-olds.)

On Reconciliation (January 2015)

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)

Yearly Meeting, What is it Good For?

• Authored by:
• Tim Telep

Matters of budget and finance during our annual Quaker gatherings can often lead us from questions about numbers into existential conversations about why we even have yearly meetings. During one such business meeting this summer, which considered the 2016 budget of Intermountain Yearly Meeting, I found myself thinking of Edwin Starr’s Motown classic, “War.” Except the lyrics I heard in my inner ear were: “Yearly Meeting! What is it good for? Absolutely everything!”

On Play (September 2015)