“Although data can transform how we live, work and think, its usage doesn’t happen in a vacuum — it relies on a model. In one sense, that model is a statistical approach. But in a deeper sense, it is a mental model: a way of looking at the world. So using one ‘frame,’ a rainforest is worth more when it’s cut for timber than when it’s acting as the lungs of the planet.”
“Peace Trolls respond to violent language with genuine connection. The vision of the Peace Troll Movement is simple: social media platforms will become interconnected webs of good-natured connection, stretching between every home across the globe. Threads where verbal aggression lurks will be ‘infected’ with nonviolence, not by agreeing with the other person or keeping silent, instead by choosing to honour the common humanity of each person they respond to whatever their belief. A reminder that collaboration is a practical principle to live by.”
“I find that Quakerism and research science fit together very, very well. In Quakerism you’re expected to develop your own understanding of God from your experience in the world… [and] you keep redeveloping your understanding as you get more experience. It seems to me that’s very like what goes on in the scientific method. You have a model of a star – it’s an understanding – and you develop that model in the light of experiments and observations. And so in both you’re expected to evolve your thinking. Nothing is static, nothing is final, everything is held provisionally.”
“Just as early Quakers adapted their faith to meet changing conditions, today’s Quakers will also…. As all of us rely on our traditional practices of seeking unity among ourselves, we can rely on our more technologically comfortable Friends to help the rest of us find ways to participate in this new environment.”
“In place of a process which trusts technology and mistrusts humanity, we must learn and live out a process that builds trust between people and their institutions… From the earliest days of Friends, we have known that safety cannot be defended in our own strength, but only in God’s… And we don’t have to do it with tools of our own fashioning, ever more elaborate technological juggling acts, ever more devastatingly destructive bombs… [We can] learn to lay down carnal weapons, practising with weapons of the spirit: love, truthsaying, nonviolence, the good news of God’s birth and rebirth among us, imagination, vision, and laughter.”
“The problem of fear cannot be solved by any scientific technology nor by any political organisation. For it is a problem in personal relations, and such problems are religious problems, and can only be solved by religious means. More than ever, in today’s world of turmoil and tribulation, we need courage and trust – a living manifestation of our faith in the power of love….”
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.
“I might be too immersed in parenthood to have room to reflect much on the spirituality of it right now. Recently I went to a talk at my meeting where several parents spoke about their experiences of parenting faithfully. Like me, they had a difficult time articulating what is uniquely Quaker about their parenting. One thing they agreed on is that parenting is continuing revelation.”
“We cannot hope to transfer more than a little of our wisdom to our young people – if wisdom it is. We have increasingly to stand back as they grow older, knowing that the problem is passing out of our hands. They go off to college – or to live in a flat of their own, that aim and delight of so many young people. At last they have privacy, freedom from supervision and criticism, independence – but they are now fully exposed to all that we fear….”
“Our children are given to us for a time to cherish, to protect, to nurture, and then to salute as they go their separate ways. They too have the light of God within, and a family should be a learning community in which children not only learn skills and values from parents, but in which adults learn new ways of experiencing things and seeing things through young eyes. From their birth on, let us cultivate the habit of dialogue and receptive listening. We should respect their right to grow into their own wholeness, not just the wholeness we may wish for them.”
End of content
End of content