These weekly wrap-ups of QuakerQuaker and the online conversation have been very sporadic but I’m going to try to get more regular about them. Today’s starts with a nice letter that I received after January’s fundraising appeal. As I’ve written before, QQ supporters were very generous (though the project could still use a half-dozen more regularly monthly supporters to help cover bills and allow more experimentation).

–Martin Kelley of QQ

A QQ Supporter’s Story

We haven’t met, but I have been following QuakerQuaker since it was a much smaller enterprise. However, I don’t recall if I have ever donated before, so this is long overdue.

QuakerQuaker has meant a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to the future of Quakerism in general.  Friends have always been about reflective writing, correspondence and visitation, and this site helps facilitate all of those.  On this site, we are seeing 21st century Quakerism – for good or ill – shaped.   

I especially have appreciated the way that Friends of all varieties have managed to find each other through QuakerQuaker and learn from each other.   I myself knew little outside of my own monthly meeting before I discovered the site; it is where I first heard voices – like Robin Mohr & LizOpp & Wess Daniels & Cat Chapin-Bishop (and countless others) – from other places and traditions within Quakerism that really made me think about my faith in a fuller way.  

What I learned on QuakerQuaker prompted me to move out more into the wider Quaker world (e.g., I’ve taken a class with Robin at the FGC Gathering and I’m active in my Yearly Meeting; my daughter has traveled among young Friends all along the East coast, some of whom I knew of through QQ connections) and given me ideas and a vocabulary for better understanding my own faith and that of others.  The voices I hear there still manage to inspire and challenge me (when I let them!).

Thank you for providing this crucial ministry.  I can’t say enough about how important it is, and I’m sorry if I haven’t shared this with you sooner!

–Name withheld by request

Editors’ Picks This Week

• Doug Bennett: The Bible As Inspired Work
• News: Vintage Books, with its large Quaker collection, to close
• Bruce Arnold: Growth and the Society of Friends
• Johan Maurer on religious titles and religious addiciton
• John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope in 2013
• Liz Wine: Hope Springs Eternal
• Josh Brown: What Does Your Yearly Meeting Website Say?
• Philly Inquirer: Artspotting: The Quaker House

Top On-site Discussion

• “Amo” or “Credo” from L. Willard Reynolds (1968) by Doug Bennett
• The Bible As Inspired Work also by Bennett
• An Oxford Story by Susann
• Eldering in Practice by Kevin Camp
• Making Myself Weak by Brent Walsh on the ESR blog

For more, check out the Top 20 Content Leaderboard

About QuakerQuaker

QuakerQuaker is a community of Quakers exploring Primitive Christianity Revived. Support this work by signing up for the $10/month donation plan or by giving a one-time donation. You can follow us on Twitter andFacebook.