Dallas Willard didn't see our relationship with God as that of master & servant, nor patron & beneficiary: “A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind, and thoughtful, is not the same thing as a friend," he wrote, "[and] Jesus says, ‘I have called you friends.’” quaker.org/2026/02/09/n...

"She asks why I do it. What’s to be gained From the daily grind— One step at a time— The climb impossible, Or so it often seems. Most days I respond, Even a smile or two, An ever patient grin— Determination at its core. However, not this morning..." —from "Work" by Bart Edelman

Patricia Dallmann's close reading, inspired by Quaker faith, of the Gospel according to Mark "challenges readers to wake up to clarity and insight and live a more truthful existence," suggests Barbara Birch.

"In times of growing social distress, it is important to find practices that help us receive spiritual strength," says Marcelle Martin. "The gathered meeting is a divine gift that [centers] Friends in the Spirit, helping them find the strength, guidance, and courage needed to live faithful lives."

Leticia Garcia Tiwari lost her voice to a neurological disorder; doctors said she would need regular injections or surgery to (MAYBE) get it back. "In that moment," she says, "I turned away from the power and authority of medicalization and jumped naked into the fire with only my faith in God."

Sacred Resistance brings us the stories of five environmental campaigns and the spiritual traditions that anchored them—in the words of their spiritual leaders, most of whom are women. It includes the voices of Indigenous activists, Catholic nuns, and members of Earth Quaker Action Team.

"We can’t build the blessed community with thoughts and prayers," Ron Hogan writes. "God wants more from us than just our love and attention; God also wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves—and expects us to put some backbone into it." quaker.org/2026/02/02/t...

"I just repaired the seagrass shade that was stuck in place dimming the light from my living room window. It was an easy fix once I isolated the underpinnings that had become undone over time..." —from "In Need of Repair" by Jennie Sherwin

"What is within the power of each one of us is to focus, over and over, on smaller areas within our reach rather than on the entirety of our society."

People who have encountered Emily Provance as a traveling minister have likely observed her keen listening and her plain speaking. Her message in Before the Resurrection about dealing with the reality of dying Quaker meetings may be difficult to encounter in its directness—but it's also vital.

In our February issue, we touch upon conditions in the U.S., as communities everywhere are under attack by the shock troops of a tyrannical government. Might compassion for our neighbors be the weapon we are called, as Friends, to wield against empire? If so, let’s roll up our sleeves together.

"Quakers say we are to see that of God in everyone. This is not an automatic behavior for most people but instead must be a consciously made choice, even when it is a hard move to make," says Michelle Downey. "When I truly pursue this, it influences every interaction I have with others."

"What would happen if we doggedly rubbed away at the grime covering the glory of the kingdom of God?" asks Rae Watson. "Would those who hunger for righteousness find it? Would those who mourn be comforted? Would the meek rise to positions of leadership if empathy were seen as a strength?"

This story is wild. Can't tell what the outcome is or what he's pleading to, but the Reed College administrator who shared his information with ICE was fired and the entire story is about a Quaker who was, allegedly, mad enough to throw rocks at ICE agents.

To me, “that of God in everyone” suggests a radical equality among all people.

A change of plea hearing has been scheduled for Quaker activist Robert "Jacob" Hoopes, who had pled not guilty to charges of aggravated assault of an ICE officer and damaging federal property stemming from a protest in Oregon last year. According to court staff, the hearing is set for February 18.

Like many in the eastern half of the US, we felt the effects of the winter storm earlier this week. It reminded us of a video from the very first season of QuakerSpeak about a Quaker school's snow day announcement ("School Is Closed") set to the tune of a certain song from Disney's Frozen.

"I see listening for the Spirit or inner voice as similar to listening to a person in crisis," says Star Ford, recalling experiences on the listening end of a hotline. "And I believe we can encounter Spirit whenever we listen long enough to anyone or anything with full attention."

In 1960 longtime Friend Keith Helmuth chose taking a job at a bookstore in the college town of Iowa City over pursuing a graduate degree, and he has never looked back. After reading Helmuth's memoir, says Pamela Haines, "I’m not sure I’ve ever come across anyone who takes books so seriously."

Every "low and despised" person rejected by the elites has that of God in them. Every outcast has a home in the blessed community. And when they come together in love and solidarity, it can be, as George Fox urged us to be, "a terror to all the adversaries of God." quaker.org/2026/01/26/w...

After Kristallnacht in November 1938, British Quakers committed to helping Jewish children flee Poland, Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The Kinderstransport program was able to bring thousands out of Nazi-occupied Europe in just under a year, before Britain and Germany went to war.

There's often an implied us-them dichotomy when Quakers talk about Indigenous Peoples so I'm fascinated by communities that are both.

Time spent in nature is not necessarily akin to mindfulness, and cellphones easily follow us outdoors, distracting us from the work of the Spirit. To truly embrace mindfulness or prayer in nature, Phap Xa and Phap Luu suggest leaving our phones behind or limiting their use to safety and navigation.

George Fox called on people to “be a terror to all the adversaries of God,” not through violence, but by “awakening the witness, confounding deceit, gathering up out of transgression into the life, the covenant of light and peace with God.” It’s happening in Minneapolis. quaker.org/2026/01/26/w...

Many Indigenous Friends do not see embracing Christ-centered Quakerism as a loss of their ancestral culture. Some Native Americans, pointing to similarities between Quakerism and traditional Indigenous religions, aim to preserve their cultures while embracing a decidedly Christian spiritual path.

"For a while," Tenaja Henson told QuakerSpeak, "my activism looked like showing up and holding space, and I think that is just as powerful as when Spirit-led activism has looked like me showing up at protests and yelling at folks or getting rowdy."

Jiwasa is a fundamental principle and linguistic code in the Aymara language that means “communal we.” In many ways, Ruben Hilari Quispe reflects, it relates with Quaker testimonies such as community, integrity, peace, and harmony with nature.

Hilary Giovale's Becoming a Good Relative "is a book for learning to know your ancestors beyond DNA," Michele Sands writes. "It is a book for people struggling with their whiteness, for those who want to be better philanthropists, and for those who like a good story."

“How can we be made in the image of God and not be built for care, solidarity, and love?” History may show human societies choosing supremacy over love time and time again, but we don't HAVE to live that way. We don't have to give in to the ideology of Empire. quaker.org/2026/01/19/d...

New on Quakers Today: Moving from "I" to "We." 🤝 Featuring: ✨ Rubén Hilari Quispe on Jiwasa ✨ Renzo Carranza on Liberation Theology ✨ Rachel Overstreet on healing boarding school history A journey into radical belonging. 🎧 Listen now: www.friendsjournal.org/podcast/quak... @friendsjournal.org

"...we decided instead of an hour of unprogrammed 'worship' or 'expectant waiting,' or whatever you want to call it—decided to have the first half hour be music. And one of us who is an excellent pianist was asked to choose whatever she would like to play..." —from "Music & Silence," Howard Nelson

What might happen to our faith if we start living from the “We” instead of the “I”? 🎙️ In this month's Quakers Today podcast, Sweet Miche is joined by special guest host Diana Yáñez for an exploration of the concept of belonging, not just to each other, but to all of existence. 🎧

Christopher E. Stern describes his "modern Quaker memoir," Who Turned On the Light?, as a story about “losing my own agenda so that God could rebuild my life" by sending angels disguised as fellow travelers to nudge him along unexpected and challenging paths of spiritual growth.

In 2022, New England Yearly Meeting took up a request by Indigenous advocates that all religious denominations examine their roles in the Indian boarding schools. Mary Zwirner & Gordon Bugbee were led to visit the sites of 11 of those schools—and to meet with descendants of the tribes held there.

When members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together last October to bury the remains of children who had died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania more than a century earlier, two Quakers—Paula Palmer and Paula Keeth—were there to bear witness and mourn with them.

Alone with God offers a quarter-century of John Andrew Gallery's thought-provoking spiritual insights, drawn from the pages of Friends Journal and other Quaker publications.

From the moment an ICE agent shot and killed her, the U.S. government has attempted to brand Renee Good as a “domestic terrorist.” Those who knew her best, though, say her celebration of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love for the world shone through her actions daily. quaker.org/2026/01/12/y...

Arturo is preaching now. The Aymara gutturals and rasps pour out and fill this small adobe building with admonitions from your word. Staccato rain fists beat their rhythm on the tin roof. It doesn’t seem to bother the preacher at all...

The religious right's "individualistic, nationalistic, and racial interpretation of religion—leading to the prosperity gospel, the embracing of military power, the white ethnocentricity, and pride of nation—all directly conflict with Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God," Jim Wallis warns.

At the first county board meeting Kat Griffith ever attended, she was intrigued to hear a request from the Brothertown Indian Nation asking the board to support their petition for federal recognition. "Until that night," she says, "I did not know there was a tribe based in our county!"

"When our models of successful church growth are fundamentally corporate, we shouldn’t be surprised when our theology sounds more like the language of Washington, D.C., or Wall Street than the language of the Scriptures and the Great Tradition." Something for Quaker meetings to consider, as well!

We were saddened earlier this week to hear of the death of Carter Nash, a member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting who had been living with cancer for many years. In 2018, Carter talked with QuakerSpeak about "walking a path of love."

As a Native person, Rachel Overstreet's knowledge of Indian boarding schools isn’t just an observation about a shameful moment in history. "The memory lives within me," she writes. "These schools were and are a part of my community’s history, an imprint so painful many people can’t acknowledge it."

Comparing the Greco-Roman assumptions about religion and the gods with what early Christians said and did, as Nijay Gupta details in Strange Religion, presents a stark contrast that illuminates why Christians were considered weird, strange, and perhaps compelling.

"I’ve never seen frost on sand. I’ve never seen waves withdraw so far out at low tide, leaving the beach more absence than presence. I’ve never seen mountains stumble down into the sea, the pines on its profile both mass and distinct..." —from "Never Seen" by Morrow Dowdle

Care for the poor features prominently in the 72nd Psalm's vision of good governance. It celebrates a ruler who acts in accordance with a divine sense of justice and righteousness, assuming power not for himself, not for a small inner circle, but for the benefit of all. quaker.org/2026/01/05/h...

The attempted cultural genocide carried out through Indian Boarding Schools is one most shameful yet little-known chapters of US history. But as FCNL's Rachel Overstreet writes in @friendsjournal.org, we must not allow "shame to cloud our judgment or slow our feet" in acting to address its legacy.

Mary Watkins's White Work and Reparative Genealogy "is the manual I’ve been longing for," writes Lucy Duncan. "It is a map, a spiritual provocation, and an invitation to the deepest level of working toward racial repair and healing."

In 2025, we learned a lot about how Friends in the United States are confronting the authoritarian excesses of their current government. But we’ve also learned about what it took to spur previous generations to action... and about the spiritual resources upon which we can draw in the struggle ahead.

In our January issue, we look at the historical and contemporary relationships between Friends and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, with an emphasis on Native perspectives—taking the time to listen, to own our collective past, and to work to right the ongoing legacies of past injustices.