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Nov 11, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Peterson Toscano |Alla Podolsky
Since his appointment as Penn Spring’s Building and Grounds Committee clerk, Terry and the Quaker meetinghouse were adrift in a sea of troubles. In addition to a mysterious damp patch on the wall inside the worship room, there was the book crisis. Without warning, the library committee had stripped the shelves bare. Terry stepped into the building early the following Sunday to discover 20 tables wall-to-wall in the multi-purpose room, each covered with piles of books.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Jean Martin |Alla Podolsky
Robert Tompkins prayed for wisdom. As a magistrate in the colony of Pennsylvania, he devoted most of his time to mediating boundary disputes or arguments over the custody of pigs, cows, and on one memorable occasion, a flock of geese. The criminals who came before him were inebriates, brawlers, and Sabbath breakers, who would be sentenced to reflect on their misdeeds and seek God’s grace. But today, he would be trying a woman accused of witchcraft.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Alla Podolsky
This needed to be said (“Resisting the Fake News about Jesus” by Christopher E. Stern, FJ Oct.). For me it started with my mother saying that my best guide in life would be that “still, small voice within me,” and my experience has not proved her wrong.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Alla Podolsky
“I really appreciated, when I discovered a silent Quaker meeting, that all I need to do is listen,” says singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer. “Something lovely happens when I quiet myself and . . .
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Alla Podolsky
Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA), based in Brussels, Belgium, brings Quaker concerns about migration, climate, and peace to Europe. In the 2024 European Parliament election in June, more than 450 million citizens across 27 member states elected 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Facing a polarized European political landscape, QCEA undertook a project to promote compassion, integrity, and respect among MEPs and incoming EU Commissioners.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Martin Kelley |Alla Podolsky
This month’s lead article by Christopher E. Stern reminds us that one of the simple commandments in the New Testament is to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s a hard commandment to follow.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Andy Stanton-Henry |Alla Podolsky
One of the biggest challenges to Quaker outreach (aside from oatmeal associations and our phobia of evangelism) is the challenge of explaining our faith and practice in a clear and concise way. Our “elevator speech” often requires a many-floored skyscraper or a very slow elevator. It’s the beauty and burden of a non-creedal tradition. Yet with all of our theological diversity and ethical complexity, there are some things we are clear about: sometimes even fundamentalist about.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Joe McHugh |Alla Podolsky
Not long ago, I needed to sneak out of a Quaker meeting early and, I hoped, unnoticed. Just as I slipped out the front door, I ran into somebody trying to sneak in late. Since I’d heard him speak during meetings, I knew he was a retired college professor, passionate about social justice. He had the look of a prophet: large and tall, a booming voice, and a long, unkempt white beard.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Christopher Stern |Alla Podolsky
Jesus’s role and ministry was centered on teaching us that we are all one family of God and that God is calling us to care for and love one another. When he was asked in Matthew 22, “What is the greatest commandment?” he replied, “To love God with all your heart, soul, and mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” When asked, “Who is my neighbor?” he insisted that this love is required to go beyond religious, national, cultural, racial, and economic divisions.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
friendsjournal.org | Alla Podolsky
Messages in meeting for worship almost always originate with a source outside myself. An event, person, or something someone else says touches a place deep inside me and brings forth a thought, an insight, a message to be shared. It seems that the external influence sends off vibrations that produce a complimentary vibration within me that occurs without conscious effort on my part, much like two tuning forks vibrating in harmony with one another.
