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On Neighbors

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

A lamb in a green pasture is like a kid in a candy shop, or a Friend in bookshop, or a teen at the mall, or a trader at the stock exchange. You’ll see agribusiness associates hectoring the lambs: “You’re so thin! You deserve more! Eat! Eat!” Then all the lambs will gambol around the pastures, nibbling on everything, hither and yon. But my shepherd makes me to lie down. So I lie in the grass and realize I don’t want anything.

On Neighbors (September 2019)

On the Side of the Rebel Jesus

• Authored by:
• K. T. Glusac

During my year of spiritual service with Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS), Jesus’s teachings became much more relevant to my life. I began to notice how his message relates to facets of my life that once seemed separate from my spirituality – in particular, my activism. Being introduced to the topic of liberation theology during my time in this program opened up a new window through which I could look at the world.

On Wealth (May 2020)

A Shift in Our Priorities

• Authored by:
• Mary Ann Percy

Dear Friends: In March, when the 2020 Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference was postponed, the planning committee was originally going to ask the plenary speakers, of whom I was one, to write something about how the topic of their plenary related to the COVID-19 pandemic. I'd been nearly constantly thinking about that –Earthcare in a time of COVID-19 – anyway.

On Wealth (May 2020)

The Messy Ethics of Giving

• Authored by:
• Joe Morris

Why do Quakers soft-pedal the importance of financial giving?  It’s true, our unprogrammed meetings don’t need as much as conventional churches since they typically lack paid staff and large buildings.  But beyond those differences, we seem to be quite uneasy in even bringing up the topic.

On Wealth (May 2020)

Building Bridges (abridged)

• Authored by:
• Kenya Casanova-Sales

[The following text was excerpted from Kenya Casanova-Sales’s complete keynote talk, which is published at: https://westernfriend.org/media/building-bridges]

On Teachers (September 2020)

Practicing Radical Inclusivity (abridged)

• Authored by:
• Mica Estrada

[The following text was excerpted from Mica Estrada’s complete keynote talk, which is published at: https://westernfriend.org/media/practicing-radical-inclusivity]

On Teachers (September 2020)

A Psalm

• Authored by:
• Charlene Krueger

The Lord is my Prodder I want way more than I need. E pushes me down to lie in the mud. E drags me beside still waters and dunks my head. E drags me down the paths of righteousness griping and complaining for E’s sake. I cower and whimper as I walk near death. I remember with fear the evil I have done. Eu prod me with your pointy stick. Eu prepare a table where I watch my enemies eat the food I crave. Eu pour oil on me, ruining my shoes. My life will probably continue to suck. Until I say yes.

On Teachers (September 2020)

On Rules

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

At the level of an individual family, an abused person can walk away from their abuser; they can start a new life elsewhere. That is also possible in a Quaker meeting or even in the Society of Friends – abused members of our Quaker family can leave, and they do. But it is not possible for abused members of the human family to leave the human family, even when humanity is twisted into morbid cycles of cruelty.

On Rules (November 2020)

Evolution of The Peace Testimony

• Authored by:
• Sharon Doyle

[The following article is abridged from a more complete original text, which is available at: westernfriend.org/media/evolution-testimony.]

On Rules (November 2020)

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)