The world is depending on us
“I am called into this moment, and I don’t know what I’m called to do, but the notion that there is a great need and the world is depending on us is something I feel in my bones.”
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What to do when you’re uncomfortable with conflict
“I know that a lot of Friends feel uncomfortable with conflict, so it’s a question of being willing to take the risk. And one of the great things about taking the risk is that you will inspire others to take a risk, and they, in turn, will inspire others to take a risk.”
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The transformation we so desperately need
“I choose to believe God is calling us to intimacy these days, to be intimate and provocative. In a way, we are reaching for the soil of each other’s souls. And when we reach for that soil, how are we tilling the field of the soul in order to awaken the seeds of […] a better world than the one we’re living in? But [we must] also be able to hold the pain and the sorrow and the sadness and the grief that we’re not there yet. We’re not there yet.”
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How to have hope in spite of the odds
“Hope has nothing to do with what you think is going to happen, and everything to do with where you point your life, sometimes in spite of the odds, rather than because of them.”
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Quaker anger can lead us to do uncomfortable things
“Quaker anger, that’s discomforting for a lot of people. We are a religion that believes in continuing revelation… that the messages are there if you simply listen. And sometimes, when you listen to the messages, they’re telling you very uncomfortable things. They’re telling you to get off your ass and do something. They’re telling you to not just sit there and pontificate or feel stricken…. I feel stricken a lot, but I don’t want to sit. I want to do something, and that doing something usually means writing or speaking to people. And if you simply sit back in your pew and feel stricken, it’s not good enough. It really isn’t.”
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What prophetic witness means to Quakers
“Prophetic witness means… that there’s another possibility that is equally real and perhaps more real, and we’re choosing to live in allegiance to that. That becomes an opposition to all that is contrary to human flourishing and to justice and to wholeness and to healing.
So my hope and my prayer is that each of us will be faithful to what we’re given, and to trust that there is a greater love at work, even in these dark times, and especially, in fact, in these times.”
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Prophetic Witness (with guest editor Zack Jackson)
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.
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Let love be the first motion
“Love was the first motion, and thence a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the Spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of Truth amongst them.”
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We must do what seems impossible
“Our witness tells us that we need not wait for nuclear warfare to strike us before we strip our lives of… superfluities; we need not wait for events to bend our wills to unison…. We must simplify our daily routine without waiting for legislation; we must take our political and public responsibilities without having to take the negative action of being ‘against’ nuclear testing, the death-use of science, the military-moulding of education.”
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Leadings proceed from a common ground
“Quakers view truth as something that happens, it occurs…. Truth is not a dead fact which is known: It is a living occurrence in which we participate, the guiding concern of people bearing witness is to live rightly, in ways that are exemplary…. Quakers are convinced that genuine leadings all proceed from a common ground, spring from a unity which we seek and find.”
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