Why Quakers blog

A few months ago a Yahoo search stumbled across this gem: Using Weblogs for Spiritual Journaling (Rich Text Format), a paper written by Ruth Mason for a British conference of Friends. This really gets at one of the reasons I publish Quaker Ranter:

“Weblogs offer the opportunity for Quakers to publish to the web from their personal perspectives, rather than institutionally or corporately as on, for example, a yearly meeting website. By showing how Quakerism sits within our individual lives – as well as showing all the other ‘hats’ we wear in being our selves – weblogs may provide a unique outreach tool. As the wealth of existing weblogs attest, the weblog journal is about recording the everyday, the detail of our lives: an alternative and a supplement to the generic monolithic identities as pacifists or social campaigners which may be the main images those outside of Quakerism have of us.”

See also: Friends use of the Internet , a list of resources from the British Quaker techie brigade, led by John Wragg (the contact for the site). I was lucky enough to meet John at last year’s British Yearly Meeting sessions though I wasn’t lucky enough time to read the volumes of material he had prepared on Quaker IT use. My impression was that British Friends have engaged in more thoughtful deliberation of internet use and have a certain fondness for high-concept sites (online meeting for morship anyone?), while we Americans have the edge on the practical “beating Amazon at their own game” sites, like Quakerbooks.org. Maybe this is just me stereotyping, but the different mindset is part of the reason I like listening in on the British internet discussions.

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Don’t miss my own Subject Guide to Quaker Websites and Blogs