“The Quaker understanding of marriage is consistent with both the wild idealism and grounded pragmatism of Quaker faith. It’s the simple, radical idea that marriage relationships are created by God, not by other people. Neither a church nor an officiant, a judge, or a legislator—no human being or organization—can perform a marriage; we can only witness that God has married people, and agree (or not) to help care for their marriage.”
“Sexuality, looked at dispassionately, is neither good nor evil – it is a fact of nature and a force of immeasurable power. But looking at it as Christians we have felt impelled to state without reservation that it is a glorious gift of God. Throughout the whole of living nature it makes possible an endless and fascinating variety of creatures, a lavishness, a beauty of form and colour surpassing all that could be imagined as necessary to survival.”
“All that dwell in the light, their habitation is in God, and they know a hiding place in the day of storm; and those who dwell in the light, are built upon the rock, and cannot be moved, for who are moved or shaken, goes from the light, and so goes from their strength, and from the power of God, and loses the peace and the enjoyment of the presence of God.”
July-August 2025: These messages are from the summer break, when the Daily Quaker Message delivered one powerful message each week.
“Our lives are busy and chaotic and full, but our goals can be simple: make time for the work Spirit has given us and make time for each other. For me, and I suspect for many of you, those are often the same thing. If I don’t let my life breathe, how can I expect to let it speak?”
“Simplicity begins with a leap of faith – faith in oneself and, for many, faith in their creator. Simplicity will enable you to leap lightly. Increasingly you will find yourself living in a state of grace, finding […] the sacred in the ordinary, the mystical in the mundane. Shedding regret for the past and concern for the future, you will begin to live fully in the present moment, which is the closest thing on earth to eternity.”
“If any should think, that we placed religion barely in outward conformity and plainness, such are greatly mistaken; so far from it, that if we should outwardly conform in every thing, in which the Holy Scriptures direct us unto, or that godly elders are moved of the Lord to advise; yet, if our hearts are not right in His sight, and we do not witness a growth in His holy Truth, all the external conformity and plainness in the world, though good in itself, will avail us nothing as to Divine acceptance.”
“Advertising often offers us a material product, technique or device to achieve a limited, outward expression of the very desire for human solidarity, intimacy, closeness and love that we are called into in our most profound spiritual experiences. The right clothing, cosmetics, beverages, accoutrements are portrayed as necessary to our entering into a warm, happy life with others that holds no grief, anger or fear.”
“Voluntary Simplicity is a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living. This way of life is not a static condition to be achieved, but an ever-changing balance that must be continuously and consciously made real.”
“Living on a reduced income is related to our refusal [to pay war taxes] only as a progression of awareness, that our entire economic life is tied into violence. It seemed logical that the less we participated, the less we’d be giving to that system.”
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