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On Prayer

Authored by:
Mary Klein

The Religious Society of Friends is a religion, not a political project.

On Prayer (March 2024)

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)

On Politics

Authored by:
Mary Klein

Dear Friends: We exist as finite creatures embraced by Something Infinite. Spiritual teachers throughout the ages have shown how love and joy can shine from these electrified lumps of clay that are our bodies – how love and joy can shine from this substance of darkness and pain. That is the mystery of incarnation. Our task is not to extinguish the impulses of our flesh, but to devote them to that Infinite Something all around us – to love it with all our hearts, all our souls, all our might; and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

On Politics (July 2017)

Quaker Culture: Understanding

Authored by:
Isaac Penington

Oh, that men could . . . not lean to their own understandings, nor idolize their own apprehensions and conceivings, but wait to receive understanding from God, who giveth liberally of the true wisdom to those that ask and wait aright! . . . He that will be truly wise must first become a fool, that he may be wise; that is, he must not strive to learn in the comprehensive way of man’s wisdom and prudence the things of God’s kingdom; but feel the begettings of life in his heart, and in that receive somewhat of the new and heavenly understanding . . .

On Secrets (July 2020)

Zoom Fog

Authored by:
Nichoe Lichen

Friends who had yearned for the quiet, human-centered, mystical experience from before the pandemic had to tolerate audiovisual equipment.

On Tech (July 2024)

Weighty Friends and Quaker Pharisees

Authored by:
Steve Smith

Wouldst thou be a prophet, or perhaps a saint? Alas, he who thinks he is, most likely aint. William Bacon Evans (1875-1964), Quaker writer and weighty Friend.

On Power (March 2013)

Creating Real Security

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) recently published a pamphlet titled, Shared Security: Reimagining U.S. Foreign Policy (April 2013). At Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting in Berkeley, California, a small group considered this pamphlet and then organized a larger meeting to talk about this topic after Meeting for Worship on September 29, 2013. Twenty-eight people attended. For the meeting, we prepared a one-page handout with some quotes from the AFSC/FCNL pamphlet. The text of that handout is included at the end of this article. [The pamphlet is also reviewed on page 32 of this magazine. – Editor]

On Patriotism (January 2014)

Playing Violent Games in Peace

Authored by:
David Wampler

In his recent article, “ISIS’s Call of Duty,” Jay Caspian Kang describes similarities between ISIS recruitment films and first-person-shooter games – similarities that are likely intentional (The New Yorker, September 18, 2014). Kang’s article is one of many that play into a larger debate about the role of violent videogames and other violent media in our culture. This debate has continued unresolved for decades, and both sides often succumb to strong emotions and hyperbolic statements. I feel this leads to a shutdown in communication between groups, and that is the issue I would like to address in this article.

On Temptation (November 2014)

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)