My Quaker Talk interview with S.E.W. Smith, in which we talk about living with the eternal now and 200-year present. His article, Restore the Time, appears in the October issue of Friends Journal.
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Tag Archives ⇒ journal
How Do We Talk About Quaker Worship? Balancing Belief and Practice
October 14, 2026
I talked with Jack Tripp, who teaches ninth and eleventh grade English at the same Quaker school he himself attended a decade or so ago. With a religious tradition as fiercely anti-creedal as ours — and one that has morphed and evolved into various contradictory forms — how do we describe ourselves? The problem is heightened in a Quaker school settings, where only a fraction of students will be Quaker themselves. Jack’s article, Toward a Quaker Pedigree, is in the online edition of this month’s Friends Journal.
Also, I don’t think I ever shared last month’s Quaker Talk podcast interview with Michelle Downey, “How a Quaker Meeting Welcomes Military Families.” I also wrote the introduction to the October issue, “Restoring Our Parts of the World.”
Turning Weapons into Peace: My Interview with Scotty Utz
September 14, 2026
I interviewed September FJ author Scotty Utz about Guns-to-Garden Movement. Fascinating witness and some heartbreaking stories. From my intro:
One of the most profound and oft quoted statements from probably the entire Bible is from Isaiah, and it goes And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plough shares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. And this may seem like a wonderful lyrical kind of statement. But what if we actually took it seriously and actually started taking our instruments of war and turning them into pruning hooks?
Tim Gee tracks down Ann Lee’s Quaker connection
March 17, 2026
I always love a little sleuthing and all the better if it argues against some poorly researched report that made its way to Wikipedia.
The claim is that Shaker leader Ann Lee was born a Quaker. The Wikipedia entry says: “Her parents were members of a distinct branch of the Society of Friends (a sect of Quakers) and too poor to afford their children even the rudiments of education.” The source of this is given in the citation: a 1879 encyclopedia article, a copy of which is hosted on Wikisource: “Her parents were members of a distinct branch of the society of Friends, and too poor to afford their children even the rudiments of education.” A source for this claim was never given in the encyclopedia, though later on it does reference Frederick William Evans, a much later Shaker figure.
That is the Tim Gee compiles five pieces of evidence that together feel very convincing.
There are of course influences but that’s to be expected. Every religious movement of the Second Great Awakening had some relationship to Quakers. The Methodists, Mormons, Holiness, Adventists all have some connections. When you tour the “1652 Country” area of England, where George Fox first brought Quakers together, you’ll keep running into signs about John Wesley doing the same for Methodists a century later, and here in South Jersey where I live a whole slew of Quakers became Methodists in the early 1800s. At least one early Mormon evangelist in Ohio essentially went from Quaker town to Quaker town trying to recruit people. The Quaker defense of female leadership and the principle that women can preach obviously rubbed off on the Shakers and other movements.
The idea that the British colonies in America were some pure land where we could reinvent a primitive Christianity was a powerful meme (if you will) at the time and certainly drew Ann Lee to cross over and plant a religious movement here. But Ann Lee picked one of the least Quaker areas to plant her community and drew early members from New England millennialist revivalists. She definitely wanted to build something distinct from Friends.
March 29: A Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering
March 10, 2026
Ten authors featured in the March 2026 Friends Journal special issue on gender and sexual identities join trans and nonbinary moderators for facilitated conversation. Free and both online at at Swarthmore College. Learn more here.
I wrote the introductory column for this issue. Here’s a taste:
am grateful that both our religious society and wider culture have developed a greater understanding of the diversity of gender expressions. I appreciate an expanded vocabulary with which to include people. (Only ten years ago the singular “they” was still cautioned against in the Friends Journal style guide!) Change can be confusing and bewildering, but open conversations between Friends one-on-one and in settings like a clearness committee can help us understand one another in our longing to be known and loved.
You can read the whole issue on Friends Journal.
A Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering: A free online & in person event for Friends Indigenous and Quaker Both
January 27, 2026
There’s often an implied us-them dichotomy when Quakers talk about Indigenous Peoples so I’m fascinated by communities that are both. My colleague Sharlee DiMenichi wrote about the handful of monthly meetings — and an entire yearly meeting — in the U.S. that are majority Indigenous.
I love complicated identities like this. There’s a lot of discernment that goes on about how to incorporate Indigenous and Quaker elements into life. For many, it seems a surprisingly natural fit. This is true elsewhere, in parts of Africa and South America, where missionary Quakers’ beliefs meshed with the belief systems of pre-colonial ethnic groups, allowing an easy transition.
Also of interest is that these meetings are all Christian, which demographers tell us is the norm for Native Americans today.1 Decolonialism means something very different for those who are committed to hold on to Christianity.
Becky Jones: Connecting Spirit to Spirit
December 19, 2025
I talked today with December Friends Journal author Becky Jones. Her article “The Intimacy of Prayer” appears in the current issue. I really appreciated talking about how we hold people in love, in the light, in prayer. One of my own methods is just to keep a prayer list on my phone but in prepping this interview I realized I hadn’t contributed to it in a year. Wow! If for nothing else, I’m grateful to be reminded that I should use that list more, as it keeps me more mindful of loved ones and acquaintances in my life.
What Do Quakers Believe?
December 1, 2025
How’s the old joke go? Ask five Quakers what they believe and you’ll get ten answers. Undaunted, December’s Friends Journal tries to give some answers to the question anyway. I very much hope that individual Friends will find viewpoints they really like as well as ones they really don’t like, or at least don’t agree with. That there are no pat answers is itself part of the answer to the question.
Bonus: we’ve been working on expanding our international inclusion in the magazine and an article from Salvadoran Jasson Arevalo on the role of Quaker pastors is the first fruits of our new Latin American correspondent’s outreach efforts.