Chapter 8 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and also attached in a PDF file below.  For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "What’s something you have created in response to the Light within?” For this chapter, we received 10 responses – some stories, some images, and one cartoon strip!   The main image on our website for this chapter is of a beautiful stained glass piece created by a woman in our…

Greetings, Friends!

Chapter 7 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and also attached in a PDF file below.  For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "When has following the Light led you to a change of heart, despite initial resistance?"    We received 10 responses to the query.   

Minding the Light is a bimonthly publication of West Hills Friends, a Quaker meeting in Portland, Oregon.  Using the guidelines of…

Greetings, Friends!

Chapter 6 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and also attached in a PDF file below.  For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "What experience comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘sacred space’?"    

This query arose in the context of discussions about remodeling our meetinghouse to better reflect our values as a community.  As part of this process, we chose the theme…

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…

Greetings, Friends!

Chapter 4 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and in PDF format.

For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "When have you encountered God’s Presence through a stranger?"  We received seventeen personal stories, a photo essay, and three original still photos.  Many of the strangers who appear in these stories are poor. Some are children. Some are ordinary people who act in unexpected ways,…

Greetings, Friends!



Chapter 3 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online. For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "How have you experienced God's presence in nature?" We received sixteen personal stories and some gorgeous original photographs.



Minding the Light is published bimonthly by West Hills Friends, a Quaker meeting in Portland, Oregon. Using the guidelines of "worship sharing," we invite members…

Greetings, Friends! 

Thirteen responses to the query "When has your longing for God's Presence been unfulfilled" are included in Chapter 2 of Minding the Light (attached). 

Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is a bimonthly collection of personal stories from the lives of members and attenders of West Hills Friends.   Each issue is organized around a query.  The query for Chapter 1 was "When did you first recognize the…

Greetings, Friends,

I’m very pleased to introduce Chapter 1 of MINDING THE LIGHT: Our Collective Journal, a new publication from West Hills Friends in Portland, Oregon.  

Journals were once the most characteristic form of Quaker writing, and we hope through this publication to carry on that tradition, less formally.  We envision the journal as an ever-growing collection of “God stories” from the lives of members and attenders of West Hills Friends in Portland,…