Messages

  • The Quaker alternative to war

    “The task of the Christian in this world is the establishment of the kingdom of God, of the supremacy of love. The natural and obviously rational way to achieve this aim is for each to practice love to all. It has always been the Quaker conviction that this practice of love is incompatible with warfare and that, if persisted in, it will in the long run achieve every right result that a war in the interests of justice has been held to achieve, and without the fatal drawbacks of war.”

  • Ye are called to peace

    “Ye are called to peace, therefore follow it; that peace is in Christ…. All that pretend to fight for Christ are deceived; for his kingdom is not of this world, therefore his servants do not fight.”

  • If governments invested in peace

    “The world isn’t suffering from too many peacemakers. When people say, ‘but if pacifists were in charge, then x, y, z,’ I say pacifists aren’t in charge, have never been in charge, largely only even get a say in the media if they are there to be ostracised, and are not the people who have caused the wars currently tearing the world apart.”

  • With language we construct our worlds

    “Jiwasa is a fundamental principle and linguistic code in the Aymara language that means ‘communal we.’ In many ways, it relates with Quaker testimonies: community, integrity, peace, and harmony with nature….”

  • Refusal to use weapons is not surrender

    “We totally oppose all wars, all preparation for war, all use of weapons and coercion by force, and all military alliances: no end could ever justify such means.

    We equally and actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations, and violence to other species and to our planet.

    Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, the unjust.”

  • Peacemaking is asking the hard questions

    “‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ does not mean greeting each other and shaking hands. It means looking one another in the eye and asking: how have we historically marginalised? How have we justified violence against women? How have we pretended to make peace by giving handouts without asking why people are in need?”

  • World Quaker Day 2026: Let Peace Be Among Us (with Guest Editor Friends World Committee for Consultation)

    September 28-October 4, 2026: This Week’s messages are guest edited by Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) who are planning a global online meeting for worship on October 4th (World Quaker Day). The theme is Let Peace Be Among Us. The plan is to reach across many time zones from the Americas to Aotearoa/New Zealand.

    Each hour of worship will be dedicated to, and hosted by, a different part of the world where prayers for peace are particularly needed. We’d love for you to join us. Register here to get involved.

  • What my cells remember about September

    “I have been out of formal education for a long time, but for me there is something biologically rhythmic about the month of September. Some cells from my childhood remember that this is a time of newness, of resettling, of intellectual excitement, though my life doesn’t follow that pattern anymore. The messages we read on Teaching & Learning this month told us we should strive to feel this way all the time, always seeking, as lifelong students of truth.”

  • The objective of Quaker education

    “The objective of education is to make desirable changes in the way of living; the Quaker objective is a new way of life arrived at through spiritual experiences. The child’s creative urge is the precious stuff to release and to rely on: The best schoolmasters seem to be saying, as clearly as Quakers when they invoke the inner light, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.'”

  • William Penn on public schools

    “The prosperity and welfare of any people depend, in great measure, upon the good education of youth, and their early instruction in the principles of true religion and virtue, and qualifying them to serve their country and themselves, by breeding them in reading, writing and learning of languages, and useful arts and sciences… which cannot be effected in any manner so well as by erecting public schools for the purposes aforesaid.”

End of content

End of content