What's this?

A rightwing Quaker is hard to find.

"Conservative" Quaker means normally that you are a traditionalist in all matters of religion and personal conduct, but not politically. To their honor, a lot of Quakers have been "Libertarians" when this kind of political ideology was fashionable, but where have they gone?

So let's speak about the Left and the Right. These are the names of conflict parties, not of general concepts, and conflict parties can change their…

[ originally posted on Medium ]

Do you know the etymology of “grok”? To the best of my knowledge, it comes from Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein.

You’d think I’d have talked a lot more about…

Please join Quaker Universalist Fellowship

in our new experiment with live online Quaker worship.

Global Meeting for Worship

via Zoom web conferencing

Beginning Wednesday, March 6, 2019

and each Wednesday thereafter.…

The following paragraph is an excerpt from a new essay of mine at…

A walk through time out of Time. Manifesting those Quakers out of all Appearances.

Thirty years ago, I had an experience of seeing a different way of being, conscience and consciousness. It was a glimpse of a glimpse that held fast and true in the far periphery of Life; kissing consciousness. In that moment, I became Quaker. However, Quaker of a different sort.

For twenty years I have attended Quaker Assemblies of various sorts. There was a time I almost sought membership in…

Originally published on The Empty Path: Nonaligned faith and practice in the present

American culture has been fixated from the start on two principles inherited from the 17th century English society that established the colonies: the mandate to cure physical, social, and moral ills, and the primacy of ownership.

Whether Puritan, Catholic, or…

The following paragraph is an excerpt from a new post titled "Opening the…

Republished on Quaker Universalist Conversations

by permission of Mary Klein, editor of Western Friend…

BYO"E" Bring Your Own Experience

What makes the Way of the Spirit program so profound for participants? In part, it's the experiential approach I describe in post linked above. 2019 retreat cycle begins February 15-18 in Mt. Angel, OR. Details: …

The following is an excerpt from a new post at Abiding Quaker , titled "His Seed Remaineth."…

Hello,

Imagine this happened to you:

You are reading a book on a park bench and someone walks up to you and punches your arm then yells at you saying, “Hey you hit me.” 

Can anyone come up with a word for this behavior? I’m struggling to find a word that is right on target. Hypocrisy doesn’t seem to fit.

Thank you, Keith

Many Quakers mistakenly assume that the modern liberal Quaker movement is not akin to the movement first began by the very earliest Quakers from the 1640’s into the 1670’s. Yet, three characteristics of these very earliest Quakers remain essential characteristics of liberal Quakers in modern times: Spiritual freedom, egalitarianism, and mysticism.

As with many spiritual movements at their beginning, Quakerism began as a free-flowing spiritual society. Highly influenced by Jesus’ own…

In 1673 a letter from an anonymous Quaker was published. This letter expressed the writer’s concern that those who were establishing outward structure to guide and inform the gathering were usurping the prerogative of the inshining Spirit itself in itself to rule and guide the gathering in and through the conscience and consciousness of people by forcing people in the gathering to follow their rule. He accused those establishment forces, who were admonishing or contending for submission to…

The Quaker Universalist Reader Number 1: A Collection of Essays, Addresses and Lectures, edited by Quaker Universalist Fellowship Editors (1986; republished in eBook Format, 2017).

NOTE: This is the first of three Quaker Universalist Readers now republished in eBook format. All three volumes are…

[ EXHIBIT 1: Recent posting to npym-it-discuss, a listserv for those in NPYM interesting in yakking about matters IT ]

In the year 1680, William Rogers published “The Christian Quaker Distinguished from the Apostate & Innovator, in Five Parts” as a response to what many Quakers at the time understood to be an introduction of a peremptory spirit into the gathering led by George Fox. This categorical process was manifested by George Fox’s establishment of outward institutional forms and prescriptions, the adherence to which, was enforced through ridicule and demonization and other activities over against…

And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast…

Our experience of the presence of God is our entire experience, including all internal and external senses and our awareness of experiencing.

We can't say that some subset of our experience is the presence of God.

Some aspect of our experience may come to symbolize or represent or indicate the presence of God to a person, but that's an agreed 'codeword' between God and that person: "When I feel ___ then I know You are here & open for business." God is always here and open…