Although forever connected with Karl Marx, these words were commonly used in socialist movements before he wrote them in 1875. It is a challenge to describe an entire socio-economic system in ten words. Our economy seems to be based on "to and from each according to wealth." Anyone I’ve ever talked to who’s traveled to Cuba comes back to say their cab driver or their beach…

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For the record, this is true. Rotting fruit produces ethylene which can speed the ripening process in other fruits. English preacher and writer, John Northebrooke put these words to paper in 1577 but credits Chrysostom, a 4th century theologian. Rarely are people talking about apples. It is bad people, so the quote implies, that have a negative influence on others.  

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Although conflict is not foreign to Quaker meetings, there are many reminders within Quaker  life to live with respect in community.  Quakers are “cautioned against any harshness of tone or manner when administering counsel or reproof.”[i]

This advice is not limited to simple congeniality.  True cooperation requires true engagement.  Quakers are to…

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[Thanks to C. Wess Daniels for the nudge!]

People have come to think of a concern for ideas as pathological.

When ideas come to matter more to us than our love for each other, it is pathological.

But people die when the ideas they love and the truths they live under fail to match; bad ideas can kill people as surely as intentional violence.

We have got to resolve our differences; we have truly got to resolve our differences — not smooth them over, not crush them…

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Secret Story of Love

So many beautiful people have

walked through my life, and vanished...

Only to reappeared in my stories, my memories, my day dreams.

I am old with a weight of

remembering.

I will go alone when I die, happily into a new unknown,

but alone,

saving only a secret note that I will hide in my shoe

to remind me of a few things that I must remember,

As

my childhood family of nine around an oval country table

three times…

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Secret Story of Love

So many beautiful people have

walked through my life, and vanished...

Only to reappeared in my stories, my memories, my day dreams.

I am old with a weight of

remembering.

I will go alone when I die, happily into a new unknown,

but alone,

saving only a secret note that I will hide in my shoe

to remind…

Continue

Once we form a relationship with the other members of our Body and learn to respect them for their individual abilities and spiritual walk we have to take RESPONSIBILITY for being true to our own spiritual walk.  We have to be open to hearing from the Spirit and following the Light wheresoever it may lead us.  We have the responsibility of trusting our relationship with God enough to let go of our personal fears, desires, plans and any cultural or family ties that stand in the way of…

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In this essay I present some ideas that are basic to understanding Quaker faith by discussing passages taken from John’s Gospel. First, I examine the natural condition in which we are obstructed, a state from which we can be fully released only by Christ’s inwardly experienced return. Second, I focus on the particular work of two of Jesus’s disciples: Peter and John. In…

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Many attempts at unity fail because they are based on tolerance instead of respect.  There are bound to be differences of opinion amongst a community of what that community is being called to do.  We can't expect someone to just accept our opinion and change theirs without divine intervention.  Furthermore it's not enough to just tolerate another's opinion.  Though we are often admonished to be tolerant of others who at not like us in one way or the other, it is my contention that tolerance…

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That faith we own and witness, is that which stands in Jesus Christ, the everlasting covenant of light, who is the light of the world, and this light we believe and follow; and by this we are led out of all the ways, works and worships of this dark world, and the effect of this light we witness by faith; and by this faith we deny all who say this light is not sufficient, without the teaching of man to guide in all the ways of God, and all such we deny, for those are they who know not the voice… Continue