ESR Dean Jay Marshall delivered the following message during Earlham School of Religion Worship on April 29, 2015:

I consider blessing to be a subversive act. The disposition that chooses to encounter the other with affirmation and hope, instilling courage, is, in its own way, asubversive act. It challenges and interrupts an established system of inauthenticity, of detachment, of greed, and numerous other manifestations of a broken world in need of redemption. It intentionally seeks to inject goodwill, kindness, and hospitality into daily encounters. It doesn’t pretend that nothing is wrong; it maintains that what is doesn’t have to continue unchanged. That may sound minor, but it is a significant deviation from the norm that so many routinely experience. That disposition is a gift of blessing and it is one that you and I can offer to each other and to the world.

You can read more from Jay here: http://esrquaker.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-gift-of-blessing.html