I suffer from chronic pain from several sources internal and muscular/skeletal. Yet, I am hopeful.   Sometimes that hope comes into doubt, as when you feel the impact of an automobile with the rear of the one in which you are travelling. It was our blessing that it occurred in front of our meetinghouse. Our pastor, Alivia Biko, helped me pray back through the new pains as I waas prepared for transport to the hospital. Beside my physical pain, I also was greiving the total loss of my…

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I try to write myself a query, each week, usually addressing something I am peeved about.  I tried to write one on my Quakerquaker profile and discovered I am limited to 143 characters.  As a Friend, somewhat long in the tooth, I find it hard to write a query in less than 143 words, much less characters.

Take for instance the following query:  Do Friends just tolerate or do they welcome and embrace seekers and members that are functionally challenged by disability, developmental…

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As a Quaker who walks in the way of Christ, I find the whole defense of

marriage concept as wrong headed and internally conflicted. The

Constitution of the United States, neither confirms nor denies the

institution of marriage. Since marriage is defined severally by

religious bodies, and not consistently, we must fall on the First

Amendment, for the authority to even have marriage at all. What was the

Constitutional basis for the United States to attack the Church… Continue

To Friends, every day is a day of worship and a day of thanksgiving. Once a year we, Americans, come together as a country and try to see some way to be thankful for our state of life. Not everyone in this country sees this the same way. Some can relate to a universal ultimate, some find their own state of consciousness about as fleetingly ultimate as they can imagine. We all try to express our gratefulness, if not to a spiritual personage, at least to one another. Then there is the rest of the… Continue

Marcus Borg speaks of faith coming from three attitudes: fear, acceptance and dynamics. From what I understand fear says your faith outlook is rather paranoid that everything is bad until it is magically fixed by God, but you still spend most of your life looking over your shoulder and preparing for the worst. Acceptance is the "Que sera, sera" attitude, "what will be, will be." Like God created the universe and left, for the most part. This idea came out of the Newtonian physics idea of a… Continue

I try to follow the Quaker testimony on ordinances and being educated in Catholic schools, I bear witness that the Catholics, Roman and Orthodox, have a lot of pageantry. I think the only health plan they had was the mandatory eating of fish on Friday. I still wonder what the fast was supposed to be in parts of the world where the only animal food is fish. Those days are long over.



I have looked over Kosher rules in the Torah and Talmud and Kosher products at the store, there is… Continue

Why are Friends different from other Christians? The answer to that finds itself in two words, obscure in context to most, but essential to being a Friend - “Gospel Order.” What is that - Gospel Order? George Fox seemed to have coined the term, but what does it mean to the Friend of today? I hope when I am done you can answer these two questions or at least ponder them and find your place in the Gospel Order.



Lloyd Lee Wilson, in his book, Quaker Vision of Gospel Order, makes… Continue

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:8



I often wonder if the concept of “free speech” is worth all the trouble. Certainly, I believe in the free flow of constructive speech, informed speech and well researched empirically factual speech. I think I understand the concept of speech in a civilized context, I have two… Continue

I recall my first clearness committee for membership twenty-three years ago. Six months earlier, I had attended my first Quaker meeting, "Unprogrammed," and that was a parenthetical part of the title on the nondescript sign in front of the meeting house. Having read various writings by George Fox, Howard Brinton, John Punshon, Elton Trueblood, and Robert Barclay's Apology in addition to many early Pendle Hill Pamphlets, I embraced the basic theology that existed among early Friends.…

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