Monthly Overview

June 2026: This month we explore how Friends season what technology to use, how technology can further our witness, the pros and cons of online worship, and what to do when your attention is commodified.

May 2026: Quaker community is intergenerational, and welcoming children of all ages into our spiritual community is a joy. This month has messages for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, members of worshipping communities – anyone who spends time with children. We read about the joy children bring, caregiving through hard times, how children experience spirituality, and knowing when to step back to allow children to grow into their wholeness.

April 20-26, 2026: This week’s messages are guest edited by Zack Jackson, a podcaster, pastor, and professor. He lifts up stories of spiritual courage as the producer and co-host of Thee Quaker Podcast. Along with his wife Nichole, he is the co-founder of Open Table United Church of Christ in Pottstown, PA.

April 2026: Prophetic Witness is how our Quaker faith translates into action: how we listen to the still, small voice and follow our leadings in our daily lives. From the beginnings of Quakerism, Friends have seen the intimate connection between a rich prayer life and taking action against injustice and inequity. This is how Quakers “let our lives speak.”

March 2026: Friends share their experiences aging with intention. We read about older people living life in wholeness and joy, embracing quiet years, finding the spiritual dimension of illness and pain, grappling with their fear of death, and finding satisfying ways to share their wisdom.

February 2026: For the first time, our monthly theme is based on one quote: “Truth will not lose ground by being tried.” Isaac Penington wrote these words in a letter to a friend in 1670, encouraging her that truth will always prevail, saying, “Darkness is afraid of the light, because it has a secret sense that it cannot stand before it.” In this moment when the truth seems under attack, we explore what it means to live truthfully, to seek Divine truth, and to share it with others.

Jan 19-25, 2026: This week’s messages are guest edited by Max L. Carter. He is a member of New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, N.C. He retired in 2015 after 45 years in Quaker education, the last 25 at Guilford College as the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies.

January 2026: Quakerism was born out of the tumult of the English Civil War, when it felt as if the world was “turned upside down.” Out of this chaotic time came radical new ideas, rooted in primitive Christianity. This month focuses on messages from early Friends, with modern analysis about early Quaker ideas. These messages give insight into the fervent spirit of early Friends, and the theology of our spiritual ancestors.

December 2025: Each of us deserves rest, not because we’ve “earned” it, or because we are preparing ourselves for productivity, but because we have divine light within us, inherent value. These messages explore the relationship between rest and spirituality, the idea that we can be outwardly busy but inwardly resting and prayerful, and the Quaker concept of retirement, routinely setting aside time for a devotional practice.

November 2025: This theme of Gratitude was chosen in acknowledgment of the Thanksgiving season here in the United States. In early Quaker texts, this sentiment is more often communicated as “awe,” and we explore these roots as well as more modern practices that build spiritual resilience in good times and bad.