A Japanese Filmmaker’s Perspective on Filming a Quaker Blessing for the Urakami Cathedral Cross

On July 26, 2019, I met with filmmaker Koji Hayasaki after he filmed the blessing of the Urakami cross during Wilmington Yearly Meeting at Wilmington College. Here is that interview.

Pictured: the wooden cross from Urakami Cathedral in…

I had never danced in church before. I knew, of course, that some Friends dance in worship.  I had participated in worship at the Friends World Committee for Consultation Plenary in Peru in 2016, during which some African Friends danced, but I didn’t feel comfortable joining them. I had arrived in Kigali very early on that Sunday morning and settled into my room at about two a.m. Exhausted from the journey, I had not planned on attending worship that day. However, as the sun rose higher in…

Your Heart Knows What to Do

We have a traveling minister in our midst. Chuck Schobert, a member of the Traveling Ministry

Corps of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), recently visited West Richmond Monthly Meeting. An article about this visit written by Anne Hutchinson was distributed via the Madison Meeting Listserve. Here are excerpts from Anne’s article.

Chuck's message, entitled "Your Heart Knows What to Do," began with a reference to

Acts…

Everything about that phone call felt wrong, even before I answered. It had started as an ordinary evening in April. I was in an empty classroom preparing for an English as a Second Language class that I was subbing for, when my phone rang, with an unknown number showing up on the caller ID. It was my son’s stepmother, and she quickly put my son’s father on. He said starkly, without any preliminaries, “Your son is dead.” My son? Not our son? When had he…

Reflections on a sojourn in Switzerland: Time, Friendship, and Faith

It’s hard to conceive of Switzerland without thinking of chalets, cheese, chocolate, cleanliness, and clocks. There are indeed chalets with their wide roofs and elaborate exterior wood carvings. However, La Chaux-de-Fonds, the town in which I stayed, is famous for its Art Nouveau architecture and design. Cheese was plentiful, and is essential for traditional dishes including raclette and…