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Spiritual Reconstruction The following text is an abridged version of a longer article found at westernfriend.org/media/spiritual-reconstruction-unabridged.

On Politics (July 2017)

Spiritual Accompaniment - Review Spiritual accompaniment can be a very physical process. Shaking, sweating, rocking, and buzzing are just a few manifestations of the Spirit experienced by Cathy Walling and Elaine Emily as Elaine offered Eldering workshops and ministry with Australia Yearly Meeting in 2007-2008. Cathy’s call to this particular form of eldership took root many years earlier. She longed to know what Quaker elders experienced in previous centuries, but found their voices missing from historical journals.

On Needs (May 2015)

A Spiritual Home I have noticed that more young adults have been coming to our meetings for worship since we reopened our meetinghouse after COVID. Perhaps the pandemic gave them time to reflect. Young adulthood is naturally a time of choosing the values one will live by. I think the young people who visit our meeting are looking for ways to practice their values with other people.

On Place (May 2022)

News as Spiritual Exercise It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the torrents that flow from TV, radio, social media, and the occasional print publication. Vast arrays of information, persuasion, entertainment, and junk threaten our sanity. They can also condition our attitudes and perceptions in ways that we are not even aware of. As Friends, we want to engage with news media in ways that reflect our deepest values. But how?

On Cliques (September 2021)

Quaker Culture: Spiritual Weapons [We] have been enabled to see a splendid vision of what human unity is, and of what human fellowship may be, and have of necessity been filled with a profound sense of the evil of violating this fellowship. This vision has brought us a renewed faith in the power of spiritual forces to build the structure of humanity, and to redeem it from error and wrong. . . Backed by these convictions, we hold the moral law of gentleness and forgiveness and love to be unconditionally binding upon us now. It seems a poor and pitiful thing to believe in principles except when they may have to be applied, in forgiveness only when there is nothing to forgive, in love only for those who love us. . .  May we be faithful to the vision! It bears with it a grave but splendid responsibility.

On Weapons (January 2019)