Blog Entries

A collection of 838 posts

The Cultural

The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani (A Review)

I’m way late to be posting about this book, but I still operate under the “better really late, than even later than that” motto. I was sent “The Divine Commodity” by Skye Jethani, editor of leadership journal, [Powell’s affiliate link embedded] shortly before we packed up all our

Blog Entries

New Quaker Blogger Book: Writing Cheerfully on the Web

Liz Oppenheimer has recently edited a volume of online conversations from a rich variety of Quaker authors and brought them together in “Writing Cheerfully on the Web,” a play on the George Fox’s famous line, “Walking Cheerfully Over the Earth.” Here’s what Quaker Books has to say about

Blog Entries

Learning Poetry Like Eugene Peterson

A favorite blogger of mine, Fernando Gros, linked to a post of Eugene Peterson quotes the other day that are well worth reading. Peterson is a hero pastor theologian to many of us. Here are three I particularly enjoyed: “Children are the best poets up until they get it bred

Blog Entries

Twitter Will Kill You Video

Found this today, and it’s pretty hilarious, especially considering that I use twitter frequently myself. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZWLMdGqu8g&hl=en&fs=1&&w=480&h=295]

Blog Entries

Adult Second Hour (Worship) Resource On Luke 1

A fellow reader of “gathering in light,” Paul, emailed and asked me if he could the sermon notes and queries from last week for their Adult Second Hour in his meeting and I said, “Of course, that’s why it’s there.” Well, he went the extra mile and abbreviated

Blog Entries

The (Real) Pursuit of Happiness

Came across this today and it reminded me that true happiness is not what we’re told it is: Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, who also

Blog Entries

Luke 1:1-4 Storyboards: Narration as Intervention (Sermon Notes)

This past Sunday we reflected on Luke 1:1-4, Luke’s introduction to his wonderful Gospel. “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were

Green

Quakerism and Sustainability: Camas Friends Practice A New “Plainness”

I’ve posted about this already on Twitter and Facebook so excuse the repetition, but it seems like it should be here on my blog as well. Plus, I’m really pleased with our church. Camas Friends are doing some pretty cool stuff, and it’s all stuff I cannot

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Plane activities

Plane activities Originally uploaded by C. Wess Daniels. I just checked my blog and saw that I accidentally posted this picture with no text on my site via flickr. So, here’s a little update. We just arrived home (Camas, WA) last night after being gone for almost two weeks.

Featured

Off and Traveling the Quaker-World-Wide

Tomorrow morning I leave for North Carolina to attend the Friends Association for Higher Education. FAHE is for all Quakers working in the field of education and so I will be attending largely as one interested in teaching Quaker theology and history. This year I am presenting with two other

Featured

Lectio Divina and Acts 2:41-47

This past Sunday we finished up our discussions around Acts 2. For worship, we had a more meditative tempo. The host for Sunday’s worship led the congregation in a simple prayer, shortly after one of the women in the congregation shared about her growing concern for child trafficking in

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Karl Barth on Acts 2:41-47

This Sunday our meeting for worship will be focusing on the last portion of Acts 2: “So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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Baby Daniels #2 Is On the Way

Emily has been feeling a little “different” these last few months and seemed to be growing a bit in the tummy so I suggested she find out what’s going on. Apparently, there’s a baby growing inside her! Who would have known? I’d like to introduce Baby Daniels

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Are We Still A Dangerous People? (PDX Quaker gathering)

My friends Peggy Parsons and Marge Abbott are giving what I might call a “dramatic presentation” of Quaker history at Multnomah Meetinghouse this Saturday. These two women are well-versed in all-things-Quaker, lively, provocative and will surely make it an enjoyable time for any who wish to attend. I plan to

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Oscar Romero on The Protagonists of History

I’ve been reading through excerpts of Oscar Romero’s prayers and writings and many  strike me but this one really stood out to me this morning as one we need to hear today: The true protagonists of history are those who are most united with God, because with God’

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The Community of the Holy Spirit: The Birth of a Diverse Church (Sermon)

This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and for someone who spent his high school years in a Charismatic church, I know the day fairly well. It proved to play another significant role in my spiritual autobiography as it was also the day of my first sermon as pastor of Camas

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First Sunday At Camas Friends

Last Tuesday we landed at our new house in Camas Washington.  I came by car with our good friend James LaCroix, and Emily and L arrived by airplane. Fortunately enough, all our things transported by ABF U-Pack It also arrived on Tuesday mostly undamaged.  We spent the week unpacking, getting

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GiL Video: Road Trip To Camas Memoir #1

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4708818&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Road Trip Memoir #1 from wess on Vimeo. I’m on the way to Camas Washington with our good friends

The Cultural

(Untitled)

My friend Rhett Smith asked me on twitter yesterday where he should start if he wanted to get into some of Žižek’s writings. There are a few different places to start because he has such a huge corpus and covers a variety of topics. For instance the different

Green

GiL Video: Resistance and Simplicity: Reflections On Swimming Upstream

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4468240&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Resistance and Simplicity from wess on Vimeo. In this video I discuss some of the questions I have around using

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Mind the Fire, Fan the Flame: A Message of Hope for Quakers

I’m currently digging through my research on Freedom Friends Church and found a blog post Liz Opp wrote awhile back that got my attention. In the post Liz talks about hearing Peggy (FFC’s pastor) and Alivia (Clerk of the meeting) present on their church. She makes some useful

Church in Mission

Immigration and May Day

The May Marches are just about to take place and I just received an email with an image seeking to raise awareness around the complex social issues and injustices surrounding immigration in this country. There are a number of pictures by Shepard Fairey dealing with this issue of “Immigration Reform

Featured

GIL Video: A Few Thoughts On Forms of Worship

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4311899&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Here are a few thoughts I decided to video record instead of write about given the lack of time I

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The House Hunt and other Adventures

Last Saturday we flew up to Portland Airport and picked up our rental car and traveled down to Salem Oregon. We celebrated resurrection Sunday with our friends at Freedom Friends Church. Freedom Friends is the semi-programmed meeting I am doing ethnographic research on for my fifth tutorial. It have been

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A Good Friday Parable

Brother Maynard posted this the other day and I wanted to follow suite. This is a parable of the last super written by Peter Rollins and is found is his new book due to come out in a couple weeks. It is evening, and you are gathered together with the