Quaker Universalist Conversations

The empty day

Reflections on the day before Easter

Some years ago I discovered that, for me, the most important day in the Christian calendar is one not even traditionally noted, that strange, empty day between Good Friday and Easter. I go out into the wilderness by myself and sit, watching and waiting. I have never physically seen or heard Jesus. In the material realm, all I have of him is the stories I have been told. Yet when I sit alone on the empty day, he is no less with me than on any other day.

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Are Quakers Humanized? – A review of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now

Have Quakers humanized themselves since the 17th century? If there have been changes, are these changes conscious through a process of “continuing revelation”?

The new book by Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, indicates that this humanization process is indeed the case for Quakers and other religious groups.

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Sa’ed Atshan on the Quaker practice of embracing conflict

Excerpts from the Friends Journal interview

On March 31, 2018, Dr. Sa’ed Atshan will present the 54th Walton Lecture, “Quaker Response in Turbulent Times,” to the Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The December 2017 issue of Friends Journal includes Martin Kelley’s interview with Dr. Atshan, “The Challenges We Face and Community We Forge.” We are republishing excerpts with permission.

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Baltimore YM North Korea Minute & Letter from Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)-Korea Facilitators

Friends Peace Teams, Asia West Pacific Initiative

NOTE: Friends Committee on National Legislation asks all of us to write our Congress people urging to pass H.R. 4837, the NO UNCONSTITUTIONAL STRIKE AGAINST NORTH KOREA ACT.

This post reproduces the “Baltimore Yearly Meeting North Korea Minute,” during BYM’s Annual Sessions at Frederick, Maryland on 8/6/17, together with a letter from the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)–Korea Facilitators.

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Thoughts on North Korea

Reflections on Suki Kim’s Without You, There is No Us

In the book, Without You, There is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite, by Suki Kim (2015), it becomes apparent early on that the average North Korean loves their nation just as much as any patriotic resident of any other nation does. It also becomes obvious that young men in North Korea have many of the same interests, hopes, goals, and dreams as those elsewhere.

NOTE: Friends Committee on National Legislation asks all of us to write our Congress people urging to pass H.R. 4837, the NO UNCONSTITUTIONAL STRIKE AGAINST NORTH KOREA ACT.

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Page 575 and the Quaker Bible

Reading The New Cambridge History of the Bible

The New Cambridge History of the Bible is a four-volume scholarly project on the history of the use and abuse of the Bible. Volume 3 of this project primarily covers the western Christian Church during the period of 1450 to 1750, from the end of the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment.

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Quaker Bonds

Using the World Bank’s “Pandemic Bond” model

How do Quakers manage financial investments in a socially responsible way? How can Quakers translate faith into practice with their investments for the universal benefit of us all? Current careful investment wisdom provides for some social screening gestures

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