Messages

  • Isaac Penington on why we are here

    “We are here but awhile in this world, for the Lord to make use of us, and serve himself by us…. Now, feel the child’s nature, which chooseth nothing, but desires the fulfilling of the Father’s will.”

  • God makes us into the people we need to be

    “I really do believe that when we are called to do something, God will then make us into the people we need to be to do what we have been called to do.”

  • George Lakey: The Quaker visionary impulse

    “Not since the 1960s have I seen within the U.S. a greater need for, and opportunity to serve with, the Quaker visionary impulse. The seventeenth century was another such time. William Penn was one of the most famous visionaries, proposing a parliament of nations for Europe, while Germantown Quakers proposed the abolition of slavery. The visionary impulse shows up again and again, famously with Lucretia Mott’s feminism in the tumultuous mid-nineteenth century and the AFSC’s Speak Truth to Power in the midst of mid-twentieth century Cold War fears.”

  • The perpetual Now

    “Growth is the test of healthy life, and that which it behooves us to promote in our spiritual being. To this end, the soul should be in a state of perpetual progress. Never therefore, stop to gaze either backwards or forwards…. Our business is to unite ourselves with the great I AM—the perpetual Now; and with Nature, as renewed and advanced every moment by his hand. Let us yield ourselves to him and his working as the plants and flowers of the field do.”

  • It is not what you were, but what you are

    “Time past is none of yours: it is not what you were, but what you are; God will be daily looked unto. Did you eat yesterday? That feeds you not today: therefore, Jesus taught his disciples, and us in them, to pray for our daily bread, for the present sustenance; and to look no further, but depend upon the Lord….”

  • Navigating the conflicts that come from truth

    “If we want to be a people who can speak to the brokenness of the world and the people caught in that brokenness, it is important for us to speak the truth and to be able to navigate the conflicts that inevitably come from the truth.”

  • Are Quakers guarding our treasure too closely?

    “I believe that Quakers have a beautiful gem to offer. There are times when we are so busy protecting the box that holds the gem, we can forget that other people might want to see it. I wonder about this. I think that in order to live into a strong Quaker future, we need to do a better job of inviting people in.”

  • Imagining a future Quaker universe

    “Imagine the Quaker universe of hyper-local monthly meetings, residential and educational institutions, Yearly Meetings, national and international organizations imitating the seamless integration of natural living systems. Imagine their having the unified capacity to look out over regional, national, and international landscapes and identify ‘pressure points’ where Friends could make strategic interventions and offer Quaker approaches to shift critical discourse.”

  • How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?

    “[Butterflies] have these incredible emergent cells called ‘imaginal cells’. While a caterpillar has little to no structural resemblance to a butterfly, the imaginal cells hold the important future information needed for complete transformation. These cells move from working alone to working together to unleashing a butterfly in its new form. I find it deeply beautiful that the transformation in these cells invites the butterfly into what would be called joyful rest. It is something that I hope for personally and for so many others.”

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