Gathering In Light

AskAFriend

Ask a Friend: Quaker Glossary and Terms

An email I received recently asked about finding a Quaker glossary of terms online. This individual was looking specifically for an explanation of the Quaker use of the phrase “First Day” (what early Quakers, and some Quakers today still call “Sunday” so as to not call it by its Pagan

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Bless this Mess: Beatitudes For Today

What would be a local list of the beatitudes for your community look like if you were to make one? Lia Scholl, pastor of First Friends Meeting here in Greensboro, recently preached on Mt 5 and the Beatitudes. The message was great and she pointed out that in her reading

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Confronting Beastly Economics – An Anti-Imperial Look at Revelation 13

I have a chapter called “Beastly Economics” in the book, We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible With the Poor People’s Campaign. In the chapter, I discuss the concept of the “Mark of the Beast” not as some mark on a person or group in the future, but as a

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Learn as we Lead: Victims of Empire and The Great Multitude in Revelation 7

I was asked to share a little during the season of “Learn as We Lead,” for the Freedom Church of the Poor on the abuses and misuses of the Book of the Revelation.  On Sunday I shared a little on Chapter 7 of Revelation (link to a live video of

Blog Entries

David Whyte on Friendship

My friend, Maia Dery is responsible for me finding and reading David Whyte. Here are a few quotes from Whyte’s lovely chapter called Friendship in his book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words Friendship not only helps us see ourselves through another’s eyes, but

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“I Know That I am a thought in God” – Sermon for Advent

This is the message I gave at Deep River Friends Meeting December 16, 2022 based on Luke 1: 46-55: 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

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Grief is Disconnection

A repost from November 16, 2022 Today, I was approached by a member of my workplace about hosting a space for grieving for folks who continue to struggle after painful decisions made in 2019-2020. The desire for this person was to process grief with the hope that we could find

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An Interview About the Quaker World

Robert Bell, from Guilford College, interviewed me and did a really nice write up about the new book Rhiannon Grant and I co-edited. The book is unique in its approach to Quaker Studies for a variety of reasons, including those we invited to write, the chapters covered, and some of

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The Internet is Fun Again (Some of it anyway)

For some reason, as much as I loved Twitter, it began to feel like a chore. Probably in part because: – I follow way too many people there – All the ads and sifting you have to do mentally – How much the algorithm controls what you see and who you interact with

Blog Entries

Wisdom from Richard Foster on Focus

Shawn Blanc shared a great short post yesterday titled: Six Principles for Focus and Simplicity. Those post shares wisdom from the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, a Quaker and well-known spiritual teacher and author. It’s worth re-sharing here: In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster lists

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Margaret Fell – Founder and Leader of the Early Quaker Movement

When discussing early Quakers, too often you will hear the history start with something like “George Fox is the founder of Quakerism.” While George Fox is an essential leader in the early movement, to focus in on and center Fox’s role not only misses out on the necessary roles

Blog Entries

A Little Blog Nostalgia

I just got the site up and running on its own server again (went with DreamHost this time around). I’ve been hosting this site wordpress.com for probably 8 years or so? I moved it there – away from running it on my own server – because I just didn’t

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We Are Fireweed

This was the message I shared at our first “All Community Worship” at Guilford College since before the pandemic. I am grateful for this opportunity to building multifaith community on Campus. The Quaker roots of Guilford College allows for and nourishes this rich tapestry of religious identities to thrive at

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2022 Fandoms

I’m someone who loves being a fan and loves fandom. If you know me, you know that when I get into something, I am really into it. I love sharing my love with others. I don’t typically do a review on my fandoms over the year but thought

Teaching

Remaking a Quaker Studies Syllabus Using The Quaker World

With the publication of our new book Quaker World, I am having fun remaking my syllabus for my Introduction to Quakerism class this time around. Unfortunately, while the hardback version of The Quaker World is too expensive for students to purchase, faculty interested in teaching subjects related to the Quaker

Blog Entries

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by William E. Stafford

I love William Stafford‘s poetry. I came across him when we were still living in the Pacific Northwest where he is from. The first poem of his I heard from Parker Palmer when I participated in a renewal retreat with him years ago. It’s a poem I have

technology

Rebuilding (Social) Presence

Reposted from Nurselog Notes January 19, 2019 I quite Facebook. I threatened to do it, mostly just to myself, years before, but then the Cambridge Analytics stuff came out, and there was so much going on with Trump, fake ads, and Facebook profiting off of their own corruption that I

Blog Entries

Testimony as Consequence, Not Value by Pink Dandelion Reading Notes

Here are my reading notes of Pink Dandelion’s “Testimony as Consequence, Not Value” from Friends Quarterly Vol 35. No 5 2007. It has been progressively summarized for you. The full article can be found below. This article has been informative for me framing the problems of reducing Quaker principles

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Transitions, Clean Breaks, and The Work of Becoming a People – Ex. 14

This was the sermon I preached at First Friends Meeting Greensboro, NC on October 9, 2022. It is from Exodus 14. Trauma and the Red Sea This morning I want to speak on the subject of the Red Sea, trauma, and the importance of transitions in growth. I think the

Blog Entries

When the Wine Gives Out (John 2:1-11)

The Wine Gave Out? A number of years ago, when I was working on my dissertation, I spent three months in England reading and writing in one of their lovely Quaker libraries there. One day, early on, while I was in the library there, I noticed that almost all of

Blog Entries

Quaker Exceptionalism, Jesus, and Movement Building (Mark 9:33-41)

Mark 9:33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”  34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  35 He sat down, called

resisting-empire

When We Need Bread (John 6)

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of preaching for College Park Baptist just up the street on chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. “I am the bread of life.” -Jesus At Guilford College where I work as a staff member and part-time faculty, I have been co-teaching teaching

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What is Born of God? 1 John 5 – A Mother’s Day Sermon

This is a message I gave to First Friends Meeting. I also shared a version of it for Freedom Church of the Poor. > 1 John 5:1-5   Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.

Blog Entries

Planning to Leave Hey Due to Policy Changes

Here is an Email I wrote today to the support team at hey.com. I sent this and post it here because I have been a very outspoke supporter of this company, paid for their books and products, have their stickers on my computers, moved teams on to their platforms,

The Theological

Becoming Co-Workers With The Truth

When George Fox was initially on his spiritual quest to understand the true nature of faith and Christianity, he was living in the midst of full-on Christendom, that is state-sponsored Christianity or Christianity twisted to become comfortable acting as “the religion of empire.” Fox, and then Margaret Fell, among the