Gathering In Light

Blog Entries

A Call to Work Outside Our Circles – Friends Journal Article

In this month’s Friends Journal, I have a little piece in response to the NY Times article from Teresa M. Bejan, “What Quakers Can Teach Us About the Politics of Pronouns.” That article is useful and made its rounds on the Quaker Internet pretty thoroughly. If you haven’t

Featured

Sermon: The Birth of a New, Contrast Community

This is a message I gave at First Friends Meeting in Greensboro on December 22, 2019 following Revelation 12 and Matthew 1:18ff. Here is the recorded version of the message. Rev. 12:1   And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman eclothed with fthe sun, with fthe moon

Living Well

Are You Ready to Do Your Annual Review? Here Are Some Tips and Resources

As we round out the end of 2019 and the last of this decade, there’s no better time than now to reflect on the past and think about goals and priorities you want to have for the coming year(s). When I think about the connection between work and

Blog Entries

2019 – Year in Photos

Photo Descriptions From Left to Right, Top to Bottom 1. Living in Greensboro means that we are closer to family and we get to see cousins a lot more. This year we got to celebrate Halloween with my sister Steffanie’s family. 2. Went to Philadelphia a couple times this

Featured

The Birth of an Alternative Community

I’m preaching this Sunday at First Friends Meeting here in Greensboro, the meeting my family and I attend. I don’t get to preach all that much any more, so I find it exciting to get the opportunity from time to time. This week is advent but I’ve

Uncategorized

A Reading for Advent – Oscar Romero

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God – for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to

Blog Entries

An Open Letter to Fuller Seminary Expressing My Sadness and Disappointment For The Expulsion of a Lesbian Student

Image from Guilford College when Westboro Baptist Church came and protested our school. Seen here, Parasol Patrol and individuals from the community who came out to create a “barrier of love,” between our campus and WBC. Recently, I learned with a deep sadness, after reading the LA Times article, that

Blog Entries

More on the Coffee Front

As you know, I’m a big coffee fan. I have been for a long time but then it became a much bigger part of our lives when I started up a small coffee roasting business. I have been doing that for over a year now and am loving the

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More Than Half

I turned 41 in October. My wife, Emily, who celebrated her birthday today (11/17) is right behind me. While we were at dinner this afternoon, it occurred to us that we’ve celebrated more birthdays together than we celebrated apart. We’ve finally tipped the scale and have spent

Bag of Tricks

Using Evernote to Find A Good Everyday Carry Backpack

Goruck 0 – An Amazing Durable and Flexible Bag and My Favorite Choice If you know me well, you know I like bags. Backpacks, briefcases, canvas bags, “hip sacks,” you name it. I’ve been known to hunt for a good sale, or clearance item to fill a bag need. For

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A Refreshed Site!

I’ve been blogging on WordPress.org since 2004 and blogging since at least 2001 (a Xanga site for those of you keeping track). Recently, I came across my old blogroll (a set of links of blogs you followed, supported, wanted to give props to), and 8 out of 10

Revelation

Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance

Order your copy of “Resisting Empire” on BarclayPress or Amazon. Purchase Your Copy Here Purchase Directly from PublisherPurchase Book/eBook from Amazon Note from Wess: Dear  readers of Gathering In Light, my second book, “Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance,” is now published as a paperback. This edition

Featured

Origin Stories: Celebrating Barberton Friends Church

Recently, Barberton Evangelical Friends Church in Barberton, Ohio – the first church I ever worked in – celebrated their 75th anniversary. As a token of my own love and appreciation for this community and their investment in me, I wanted to share some of my fond memories and role this community played

Quotations

Howard Thurman on the Act of Creation

“The simplest definition of art is that it is the activity by which people realize their ideals…We are all artists in the sense that we are all engaged in some kind of activity by which we are realizing our ideals. What kind of ideas are you realizing? There is

Featured

Pre-Order the Print Version of “Resisting Empire”

Hi Friends, many of you has asked about a print version of “Resisting Empire” and it is almost here. You can now pre-order it: ORDER RESISTING EMPIRE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION AS RESISTANCE The print version, proudly published by Quaker independent publisher Barclay Press, also has new material that is

Quotations

(Untitled)

“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on

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The Banality of Evil

Recently, I was listening to a podcast from OnBeing about Hannah Arendt who spoke about what she called “the banality of evil.” (“The Banality of Evil” is covered in her 1963 book about the Jerusalem trial of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann). The Ardent scholar on the podcast, Lyndsey Stonebridge,  explains

Poetry

A Spiritual Journey by Wendell Berry

A Spiritual Journey And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at

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Revelation and Resisting Empire Event Next Week

I was invited to speak on the subject of “Revelation and Empire” at Providence Baptist Church of Greensboro by my good friend, Rev. Darryl Aaron on 6:30pm on September 9-10. These are themes covered in my recent book “Resisting Empire” from Barclay Presshttps://amzn.to/2YhSxio. Following these presentations

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Have Your Lamps Lit: The Practice of Growing in Awareness

I’ve been reflecting on the passage from the Gospel of Luke 12:35ff this week where Jesus says the words, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may

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Thinking Core Stories

Core Stories To state the obvious: all organizations have life cycles. That is true whether we are thinking about faith communities, businesses, non-profits, schools, etc. We could think of organizations as a collected and sustained series of stories over time. It might be easier to think about the role of

Bag of Tricks

Using DuckDuckGo for Search

If you have used an Internet browser (ever) and searched something through google.com you’re not alone, many of us are so accustomed to Google search that the word Google has become a verb. But why stick with something just because it’s habit when there is something way

Blog Entries

Dress Down Friday for 2019-07-26

Here are some of the things I’ve been enjoying this past week. Like most everyone, I’m a huge Stranger Things fan. While we were in Atlanta last week for a visit with family we stopped by to see Starcourt Mall. 😉 The Adapt podcast is a new tech podcast

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It Is Closer Than You Think

Is faith always a long reach out of hand? I wonder when I see people searching, struggling to find God if the thought is the more distant the revelation, the greater the conversion? One of the underlying practices in certain parts of the Christian Church is to praise those who

Poetry

Does the heart have a narrow door? by Carol Bialock

Eric Muhr from Barclay Press shared this poem around earlier this week from a new book of poetry Barclay Press recently published from Carol Bialock, which is really good: Does the heart have a narrow door?  Will it allow in just one more  of every beast and flower and bird