Have you seen consensus used for secular organizations? how did it work if so?

How about CLEARNESS? have you seen it used in secular organizations--if so, how did it work or not work?

Deuteronomy 29 – In this chapter, Moses emphasizes the great importance of the narrative the people take from all that has happened to them. They may not “get it” always, but they must tell and retell the story so those who can hear will never forget all that God did to bring them out of the slavery they were in. And he also seems to look forward in time to a time when the Jews too will be sent into exile – that the reason for that exile will be discernible in the narrative of their…

May I spark thee Friends?

Quaker Writers & Writings is the theme of the current Jan 2012 issue of the NYYM SPARK. Please visit http://nyym.org and click on SPARK. (Volume 43 #1 ) in care, Francis O'Hara Central Fingerlakes Mtg.

Deuteronomy 28 – If you obey the voice of God by observing the law, you will prosper.  Disobedience will bring destruction (28:45). The big word in this chapter, as in others, is if or “provided” or “so long as.”  This is the great condition that hangs over the redemption people.  The word does not disappear under the new covenant either as we sometimes like to think.  “You are my friends if you do as I command you.” (John 15:14).  The…

Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/whereministrymeets.mp3

Yesterday was sandwiched between a traditional Bible study and a new women's group on astrology and archetypes. Could I have chosen anything more different? One is an ongoing study of Luke that my mother initiated…

“The only thing that truly defines Friends as a distinct group and not just a bunch of Unitarians or Christians or a secular social club is that all True Quakers are committed to the process of gettin’ naked as a step in the longer path of being clothed in righteousness, which means a return to right order, or the Gospel Order, or the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Garden or Eden, or total Liberation, or WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT.” Maggie Harrison…

Greetings, Friends!   

Chapter 5 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and also attached as a PDF file below.

For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "When has God made you laugh?"  We received 8 personal stories, an original painting from Melanie Weidner (on loan), a photo essay and several original still photos.

Minding the Light is a bimonthly publication of West Hills…

The world often views people who advocate for peace as being weak and vacillating. However, in reality, bringing about peace requires strength and conviction. Peace makes demands on us that are not easily met. If it were otherwise, lasting peace would not be so elusive.

One element of bringing about peace is to know what the word means to us. Peace requires a clear definition that is open to frequent examination. This is not merely an academic…

Deuteronomy 27 – They are instructed inscribe all these laws on tall (or large) stones, coated with lime (or plaster in another translation). These stones then are to be placed on Mount Ebal and there too they should build an altar “made of stones that have had no iron tools used on them, because any altar you build for the Lord your God must be made of uncut stones” (27:5-6). At this altar, they are to offer a peace offering.  Moses proclaims to the people, “Today you…

A good friend of mine posted a blog a couple of days ago in which he floated the idea that to achieve an afterlife you have to "nurture and exercise your potential immortal soul to enable it to survive the death of your body," in much the same way that you have to make the effort to learn algebra in order to solve quadratic equations. (…

Deuteronomy 25 – Flogging may be imposed on a person found guilty of an infraction, but not more than 40 strokes – “more than that would humiliate him publicly” (25:3). Do not muzzle ox treading out grain—even animals have a right to a reward for their labor. If brothers live on the same property, and one of them dies with no son, the surviving should take a deceased brother’s wife as his own so that children may be brought forth for that brother’s line. Now…

Paul Anderson gave this message on equality as the second-to-last in North Valley Friends' Peace Month 2012 series on "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies." (We're doing them out of order!) Friends around Northwest Yearly Meeting participated in Peace Month this January.…

Paul Anderson gave this message on equality as the second-to-last in North Valley Friends' Peace Month 2012 series on "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies." (We're doing them out of order!) Friends around Northwest Yearly Meeting participated in Peace Month this January.…

Deuteronomy 23 – Rules on who can and cannot be considered “among the Lord’s people”: not a man whose private parts have been removed, or born out of wedlock. The latter would have to wait 10 generations to have descendants considered “in.” Ammonite and Moabites who failed to permit the Jews to eat or drink while traveling from Egypt through their lands are “out” but the Edomites are “in” (after the 3^rd generation). Other rules involve keeping military camps clean…

Deuteronomy 21 – The laws we are reading about in this section of Deuteronomy are among the 613 that make up the full “Law of Moses” – the “mitzvoth.” Some very odd laws are put into place in this code, none stranger than the few here described: the concerns are understandable but the methods of dealing with them are hard to understand. If a dead body is found – a murdered person – you need to go to the leaders of the town nearest to where it’s found, get a young cow (under a year)…