QuakerSpeak

11/29/2025

"Making a knife for me is sort of like meeting for worship," Henry Freeman told us last year.

Once you get settled in, he elaborated, "there are parts of making that knife that are very routine that you can visually see: the forging of the steel, the shaping of the handle. I’ve gotten to the point that I can do that almost without thinking. The place that I really get to feel centered is when I get to the part of making the knife that really matters."

As I started making knives, a real transformational moment was when I looked over in a corner and I had my dad’s old walking stick that I had inherited when he passed away. But then there was this other walking stick that he had that had broken, and I just kept it in the corner for several years. ...

11/21/2025

What does the Quaker practice of listening for Spirit look like in our day-to-day lives? How does it shape our relationship to the prophetic wisdom of the Hebrew Bible & the New Testament?

Over the last few months, we’ve asked several Friends to discuss their understanding of continuing revelation.

What does the Quaker practice of listening for Spirit look like in our day-to-day lives? How does it shape our…

11/14/2025

In 2021, we asked Johanna Jackson and JT Dorr-Bremme to share some of their thoughts after spending 18 months talking to Friends about what makes for healthy spiritual communities. What did they see for the future of the Religious Society of Friends?

"I envision a network of really vibrant, interesting people who have the time to be with one another and... the courage to name gifts in themselves..."

11/07/2025

“As long as I’ve been a Quaker,” Windy Cooler admits, “I’ve been a little unclear about what ‘holding in the Light’ means.” Is it just an expression Friends use instead of saying they’re going to pray for someone? Or does it show an intense kind of care and concern for that person? Maybe even a unique form of communion with each other and the divine?

Windy and several other Friends share their thoughts in this new video.

“As long as I’ve been a Quaker,” Windy Cooler admits, “I’ve been a little unclear about what ‘holding in the…

10/31/2025

“The role of pastoring is a controversial topic for some, especially depending on where you reside in the movement of Quakerism," Derek Brown acknowledged back in 2020. The Religious Society of Friends began without pastors or clergy of any kind, after all—but, Derek said, "it was not the pastor itself that George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, and the early Quakers were rebelling against; it’s what the system represented."

So what role do pastors play in a modern Quaker meeting?

"I do think there is a role and value of having a chaplain, a spiritual guide, a pastoral care role."

10/24/2025

"Our mission at Beacon Hill Friends House," executive director Jennifer Newman explains, "is to embody the Quaker values... in order to nurture and call forth the Light in all of us."

Brent Walsh describes Beacon Hill, a group home in the center of Boston, as a place where residents can arrive "in their lowest moments of need and isolation [and] find a community that helps them push through those layers of dirt and reach for the sky, and become someone they didn't even know existed."

“Our mission at Beacon Hill Friends House,” executive director Jennifer Newman explains, “is to embody the Quaker values… in order…

10/17/2025

When you look at the data concerning "spiritual but not religious" people in the United States, Rashid Darden explained to us in 2023, you find many leaving Christianity entirely. It's a trend with which he's intimately familiar: "The Quaker faith was the last stop before I decided to not be religious at all."

Having found Friends, though, Rashid now spends much of his time as associate secretary for communications and outreach at Friends General Conference reflecting on how to connect with seekers outside the usual White, middle class Quaker demographic.

“George Fox, the Valiant Sixty… Whoever your favorite Quaker hero is, [they] did not do this work so it could…

10/11/2025

Kat Griffith tells us about some of her most personal experiences creating connections with others across political divides.

It’s easy to say there is that of God in everyone, she suggests, “but how often do we really believe it?” When she opens herself to really listen to other people, her understanding of this simple Quaker truth deepens.

Kat Griffith tells us about some of her most personal experiences creating connections with others across political divides. “There have…

10/08/2025

A new Quakers Today podcast is coming—Peterson and Sweet Miche are very excited to share environmental activist Eileen Flanagan's new book, Common Ground, with listeners! Keep an ear out for this episode debuting next week!

10/03/2025

"There’s this possible constitutional crisis coming down the pike," George Lakey said in the fall of 2020, when many in the United States feared Donald Trump might reject the results of the upcoming presidential election if he were not declared the winner.

Five years later, Lakey's Choose Democracy organization is still active, offering "practical actions and lessons from around the globe to fight authoritarians."

"There's this possible constitutional crisis coming down the pike," warns Quaker peace activist George Lakey.

09/30/2025

“Quaker faith to me is not just about doing good,” says Brent Bill, “it’s about being good so you can do good. And it’s hard to be an outward advocate of peace if we don’t have inward peace, if we’re not spiritually centered… it’s hard to project peace as a positive force on those we’d like to touch.”

“Quaker faith to me is not just about doing good,” says Brent Bill, “it’s about being good so you can do good. And it’s…

09/21/2025

"Violence is always a bad choice," John Calvi told QuakerSpeak back in 2014. "It just is. It not only makes a horrible mess at the time that it’s happening, but it leaves an even bigger mess after it’s been done... and it has reverberations for a long time. So a lot of compassionate work in the world is undoing the damage that has been done by violence."

Quakers aren’t just anti-violence. Much of our work is pro-healing. John Calvi, a renowned Quaker healer, on why healing work is so incredibly essential.