To “do the right thing” really means to seek and do God’s will in every situation.
— TABER
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Author Archives ⇒ Martin Kelley
New York Friends on Climate Change
March 20, 2018
The March issue of New York Yearly Meeting’s Spark now seems to be online, a good dozen articles on the topic of “Earthcare Now.” From the introduction by guest editor Pamela Boyce Simms:
The NYYM Friends who have shared their stories herein are farmers, chaplains, hydrogeologists, shepherds, mystics, homesteaders, local government officials, naturalists, professors, and Master Gardeners. They till the soil, herd the sheep, insulate walls, minister unto many, commune with nature, educate, and model resilience in Ithaca, Brooklyn, Clinton, East Chatham, and Seneca Castle in New York, and in Highland Park and Montclair in New Jersey.
I still have to go through them myself. Some that look particularly interesting are Susanna Mattingly’s Quakers and Climate Change:
This is a spiritual call as well as a material one, to act not out of fear or through accusation, but with hope and love. We recognize sustainability and care for the earth are integral to our faith and our Quaker testimonies as we strive to live in right relationship with all creation. As a community, we can make a meaningful contribution to stabilizing the climate and building resilience.
Christopher Sammond’s “Our Generation’s ‘Lamb’s War’ “:
As I have held questions about how to respond to the divisiveness, the fear mongering, the racism, and the tsunami of lies and half-truths characterizing our nation’s political life at this time, I have been clearly and deeply called to go deep, and to join the many, many people of faith who are seeking to bring about the necessary shift in culture, a shift in spiritual consciousness, which is necessary if we are to survive as a species. And, like my Quaker forebears, I know that work to begin within myself.
March 20, 2018
Have you known the kingdom & the power in which it stands like a little leaven hid? Hinder not its working
— SHEWEN
Hye Sung Francis on life and Friendly Fire
March 19, 2018
Hye Sung Francis on life and Friendly Fire
Friendly Fire doesn’t exist to build our own brand. We are not a church-planting movement. We are a bunch of poor kids who love God and people. As a collective, we hope to nurture the emerging Religious/Christian Left.
March 19, 2018
We are called to bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another, and never judge or accuse one another.
— Isaac Penington
Mixing Quakers & Politics
March 19, 2018
Greg Woods is the primary mover behind this Thursday’s live panel of Quaker congressional candidates. He’s written a new post about it, Quakers & Politics Do Mix (in the 2018 Midterms)
This year’s election feel different than previous years. People are ready to do something besides just voting. Many are running for office in record numbers, for example: Scientists and Women.Another population that is running in, perhaps, record numbers in 2018: Quakers!
He’s added a lot of interesting contextual links to articles about the new types of candidates we’re seeing in the 2018 election.
To make sure you get the latest information on the live panel, sign up for the live web panel’s Facebook event. And join us at 3pm ET for our live web panel. We’ll also be continuing to update the Friends Journal announcement page.
Early Quaker “Yearly meetings”
March 18, 2018
Brian Drayton is looking at an early form of public Quaker worship, who’s various names (including “yearly meetings”) have perhaps hidden them from modern Quaker consciousness: From the Quaker toolbox: “Yearly meetings” and related
These meetings often included gatherings of ministers, and of elders (and sometimes the two together), and meetings mostly for Friends. But the public worship was carefully prepared for — usually more than one session, often over more than one day, with lots of publicity ahead of time. Temporary meeting places were erected for large crowds (the word “booth” is used, these clearly held hundreds of people.
Brian’s story reminds me of when I was a tourist in the “1652 Country” where Quakerism was born. One of the stops is Firbank Fell, where George Fox preached to thousands. Most histories call that sermon the official start of the Quaker movement.
But Firbank Fell itself is a desolate hillside miles from anywhere. There was a small ancient church there and then nothing but grazing fields off to the horizon. A thousand people in such a remote spot would have the feel of a music festival. And that’s kind of what was happening the week the unknown George Fox walked into that part of England. There was a organized movement that held independent religious preaching festivals. Fox was no doubt very moving and he might have given the seekers there a new way of thinking about their spiritual condition, but the movement was already there. I wonder if the general meetings of public worship that Drayton is tracking down is an echo of those earlier public festivals.
One of my Firbank Fell photos:

Painting for Worship
March 16, 2018
I didn’t know of Adrian Martinez before I was introduced to him in this QuakerSpeak video. He seems like quite a character (“art attack!”) but I’m intrigued at how his paintings have brought primal Quaker values into unexpected spaces like the White House (not the occupant you might guess!) and corporate America. His story of a very specifically Quaker picture being bought for a boardroom hints at messages Friends might still have for the world:
The painting I did, Meeting for Worship, I just knew was not something that was going to get sold. It was not an economic decision. It was a necessity to do, nonetheless. When I did it, I had this big show and it was immediately purchased. First one. And it’s interesting: where it went went was the boardroom of an insurance agency. The man that owned the company bought the painting because he said, “The reason I need this painting, and I need it in the boardroom, is because we need more of that in our business.”
http://quakerspeak.com/painting-for-worship/