Western Friend logo

Search

Ministry Imagine the Dalai Lama comes to your part of the world and decides to visit your Meeting for Worship. This may be his first visit to an unprogrammed Friend’s meeting. After worship, during fellowship, he approaches you.

On Knowing (March 2015)

The Media of Ministry A familiar scene: Bright morning sunlight streams in through the glass of paint-chipped windows of a Friends’ meetinghouse, a simple room filled with wooden benches and quiet people. Someone rises to speak, trembling under the weight of God’s message, embodying our long-standing nickname, “Quaker.” Then the speaker’s words set off a wave of smirking and eye-rolling: “I read in the New York Times this morning . . .” And we wonder, did this Friend really receive a message from the Inner Light about the opinion pages? Are they maybe a bit too fond of their own voice? A bit too fixated on their favorite world issue?

On Media (September 2016)

Musical Ministry an interview with Anna Fritz by Natalie Ramsland

On Music (March 2018)

Quaker Culture: Vocal Ministry All vocal ministry comes from a divine source, and we cannot judge who will benefit nor how this will happen. Thus Friends do not rise and respond to spoken ministry in a Meeting for Worship. Friends may be inspired to follow a direction initiated in the meeting by a previous message, but this is never directed as a response to the previous speaker or to contradict or object to the message. If a message seems objectionable, consult with members of the Worship and Ministry Committee afterwards.  

On Love (September 2013)

On Media Immersed in stories as humans are – print, radio, television, internet, social media, interactive gaming, virtual reality – we can easily lose sight of truth. Especially when a story fills our imagination with images we dearly want to believe in, we can feel reluctant to break the story’s spell.

On Media (September 2016)

Visual Ministry Something about the process of capturing, editing, printing, and viewing images often leads me to think beyond the subject itself, to search what other meanings might be suggested by the subject matter, the lighting, the mood, or arrangement of items in the composition. When the process is internal, I think of it as offering visual queries. Sometimes, when I hang prints in the meetinghouse for others to see, I imagine the process as being visual ministry.

On Art (March 2020)