This morning during worship, I felt led to sing a few quiet rounds of Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace)

"#Quakers seem more open-minded, believing they can make a difference in this world," Nichole Nettleton observes. "This seems to attract a lot of neurodiverse individuals: people who long for a fairer world. However, even in meeting, the predominant mindset is still neurotypical."

https://www.friendsjournal.org/shifting-system-paradigms-together/

"I want our meetings to get better at seeing and understanding neurodiversity," says Katy MacRae, "because those among the neurodiverse are an oppressed group, and we as #Quakers have committed to advocating for other oppressed populations."

https://www.friendsjournal.org/finding-what-works-for-us/

“Pink Pony Club” got a shoutout in open worship this morning at Burlington Friends Meeting (VT). #Quakers

"Like many autistic individuals, I like rules that are black and white, and I dislike the 'fluff' that surrounds and fills life and many of the religious spaces I had experienced," says Cassie J. Hardee.

"When researching #Quakers, I saw a group of people that didn’t just live their faith out only on Sundays... the 'fluff' was not 'fluff' at all; it was reality, a refreshing and welcoming experience for someone who likes the black and white."

https://www.friendsjournal.org/i-found-the-quaker-sasquatch/

"Taking care to enlarge our circles, to make room for more in what we think of as our Quaker family, is a task to which Spirit is calling us," Gabriel Ehri writes in his introduction to this month's issue dedicated to neurodiversity among #Quakers.

https://www.friendsjournal.org/issue-category/2025/neurodiversity/

Slave labor was the economic foundation of the early United States, yet #Quakers took up the cause of abolition—although, Daquanna Harrison reminds us, Friends like Benjamin Lay and John Woolman were often not embraced because of their testimonies.

Daquanna invites us to consider whether we have stood beside Lay and Woolman at that time—and then brings the challenge to the present day: Who are our radical Friends now, and what can we do to show solidarity with them?

https://quakerspeak.com/video/living-up-to-our-radical-past/

Daniel Hunter has been doing a lot of interviews since his "10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now that Trump Has Won" article went viral late last year. During one of them, he suddenly realized that he was no longer just working for justice alongside #Quakers... he had become one himself.

https://www.friendsjournal.org/these-times-are-spiritual-doorways/

“For decades, the government has recognized that everyone — no matter their immigration status — should be able to attend houses of worship without fear of a warrantless government raid.” cc: @friendsjournal
#Quakers #PhiladelphiaInquirer #Refugees #Immigration #USPol https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/immigration-raids-quakers-houses-worship-lawsuit-20250224.html

Quakers are kicking ass in court! It's just a TRO, but I'll take it.

"Judge blocks ICE enforcement actions at churches, other houses of worship"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/24/judge-blocks-immigration-enforcement-churches/80043880007

"U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered the Department of Homeland Security and its subdivision, ICE, not to conduct immigration enforcement actions "in or near any place of worship" associated with the case brought by Quakers, Baptists and Sikhs."

Respect to US #Quakers and others who have sucessfully won a case that blocks immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship. Resistance matters.

“I am not saying that despair should be encouraged, wallowed in, or fed daily tidbits of hopelessness and gloom. I am saying that despair, like any emotion, must be felt as fully as one can on any given day, acknowledged, given room to crescendo, and only then pointed toward action.” #Quakers #Religion #Spirituality #SelfCare cc: @friendsjournal https://www.friendsjournal.org/on-the-use-of-despair/

The former Quaker Burial Ground on Keith Street in Partick. Glasgow's smallest graveyard, it was donated to the Quakers by the local land owner John Purdon in 1711, and his wife, Margaret Simspon (known better known as Quaker Meg), was said to have been the first person buried in it. There are no headstones in it, not because they have been lost over time, but because historically Quaker burials were not marked in this way.

Cont./

More frequent and severe natural disasters that result from climate change take human lives, cause homelessness, and threaten people’s health, both physical and mental. #Quakers around the world are drawing on their spiritual resources to respond to climate-related calamities.

https://www.friendsjournal.org/emblems-of-change/

_The Evening Post_, 15 February 1924:
OBITUARY
DR. ERNEST RIGG
A private cable reports the death in #England of Dr. Ernest Thompson #Rigg, the eldest son of John and Hannah Rigg, of Seatoun….
… dux of Wellington College in 1901, he entered Victoria University College the following year…. Three years later he graduated as Bachelor of Science. He then went to London University, where he … obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. In 1911 Dr. Rigg visited New Zealand, and held the position of medical superintendent at the Gisborne Hospital. In 1912 he returned to London and entered Brompton Hospital,… specialising in tubercular diseases. In 1913 he became Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and Member of the Royal College of #Surgeons. Dr. Rigg then settled at Brigg, Lincolnshire,… as medical officer in the detection and prevention of tubercular diseases… until his death.
His many friends in Wellington, [who esteemed him] as much on his unassuming goodness as on his brilliant scholarship, will very much regret his [death at] only forty years of age. Dr. Rigg was an active member of the Society of Friends, and a broad-minded, big-hearted man…
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19240215.2.79

Quaker Meeting House, Come-to-Good, Cornwall, c.1950s - Sweetman RP Postcard

https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/quaker-meeting-house-come-to-good-cornwall-c-1950s-sweetman-rp-postcard-221391788.htm

People in the United States and Canada recently have become more aware of evils carried out within Indigenous boarding schools run by federal governments and religious institutions, including #Quakers.

Alaska Friends Conference, an unprogrammed yearly meeting, has taken some important steps in the past several years toward healing and repair. Jan Bronson reports on how that journey has progressed.

https://www.friendsjournal.org/learning-our-true-history/

“Return, [and] I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful,” God promises through Jeremiah. “I will not be angry forever.”

The earliest #Quakers took comfort in that promise. So can we.

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Friends church (Quaker), Dead Ox Flat, Malheur County, Oregon. The entire family after Sunday morning services. Preacher is a young farmer. Man at left holding baby. See general caption number 67-II

#Quaker #DeadOxFlat #MalheurCounty #Oregon #Quakers #DorotheaLanges #theNationalArchives #undefined #photography #DorotheaLange

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017773864/