Thee Quaker

@theequaker.bsky.social

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Quaker Media for the 21st Century

Text: Get to know a Quaker organization: Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts Image: Watercolor painting of a sun streaming over bare trees by Zan Lombardo
[The Lamb] puts spiritual weapons into [his subjects’] hearts and hands: their armor is the light, their sword the Spirit of the Father and the Son; their shield is faith and patience; their paths are prepared with the gospel of peace and good will towards all the creation of God. …All that are faithful have their armor on, ready day and night to follow the Lamb, as he moves, counting nothing hard to undergo…. And this is love indeed to lay down all for such as are yet enemies. Citation: James Nayler, 1657 Early English Quaker leader
Screenshot of a Jeopardy clue. Text: Today it's used as a verb on social media; in previous centuries its meanings included an enemy & not a Quaker
A Friend sits at the piano in the meeting room.
Caretaker couple welcomed with leis at Honolulu Friends Meeting.
Our need is to accept ourselves as a whole, and offer that whole to God, leaving it to God ‘unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid’ to evaluate the good and bad in us. The glorious miracle is that, if we can do this, God can still use us, with all our faults and weaknesses, if we are willing to be used. The knowledge that I am usable, and sometimes used, is to me a source of love and gratitude and strength far deeper even than joy and happiness. Citation: Anna Bidder, 1978 Quaker zoologist and academic
Screenshot of a post from missscaseyface: As a Quaker, I'm all about pacifism, equality, equity, community, and simplicity. As a feral bog goblin princess, I'm all about chaos, weird earrings, self-isolation, and sparkly things.
Text: What should I wear to Quaker meeting? Image: A woman in Quaker plain dress with a black bonnet, blue long-sleeve dress, and white apron sits on the grass.
Most persons are awakened and set on their new track of life through the quickening and kindling power of some person who becomes for them the instrument of inspiration and of the creation of faith and the vision of a nobler way of life. Persons are set on fire by someone who is already aflame. It is a trumpet call to high adventure that starts the forward movements away from old forms. That is one of the greatest stories in the long history of religion. It was through a long and wonderful circuit of souls, in a succession of forerunners, that the kindling idea of “Something of God in the soul of man” came to George Fox. Citation: Rufus Jones, 1944 Quaker historian, theologian, and philosopher
Text: Kidnapped by Congress The Quaker exiles of the Revolution Image of Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia
Text: Have a great summer! Illustration: On the beach, a woman in 18th-century Quaker garb holds a beach ball and wears red sunglasses. A man similarly dressed eats a tall, colorful ice cream cone.
Painting of a young Betsy Ross in a yellow dress sewing the first American flag. Text: Betsy Ross: Fighting Quaker
Thee Quaker Project, the organization that produces the Daily Quaker Message, has a tagline: “Quaker media for the 21st century.” We’re always thinking about how to bring Quakerism into the digital age, and when I’m not editing the Daily Quaker, I’m managing Thee Quaker’s social media. So I’m invested in the idea that technology can be a conduit for meaningful spiritual experiences, and from conversations I’ve had with people who engage with our projects, I know that it often is. But like many people, my relationship with technology isn’t simple. I resent the time I waste scrolling, and notice myself reflexively reaching for my phone when I’m anxious or bored. My screen is filling up the spaces that used to be empty. Citation: Maeve Sutherland, 2026 Editor of the Daily Quaker Message
Can we still listen to the Inward Teacher when we impulsively check our smartphones throughout the day? I think that we can. God’s truth isn’t locked in a book or in a specific moment in history; that truth is also not locked out of our modern technologies. Citation: A.J. Mendoza, 2014 Quaker activist
Drawing of two women in Regency period clothes, sitting on a wooden bench indoors. One woman leans over and whispers in the other's ear. They both smile. Text: You and me during announcements at the end of Quaker meeting
Magic doesn't exist in something that's created, it exists in something that… happens to you, not that you make happen. I'm getting rid of technology so I can let things happen to me. Citation: Madeline Schaefer, 2011 Quaker therapist, writer, and podcaster
Drawing of a Quaker woman in a bonnet and apron speaking to an American soldier on horseback. Text: The Quaker spy who saved lives during the Revolutionary War
A photo of Richard Nixon grinning. He wears a cartoon graphic tie that says "The best dad ever!!!"
Worship is our response to an awareness of God. We can worship alone, but when we join with others in expectant waiting we may discover a deeper sense of God’s presence. We seek a gathered stillness in our meetings for worship so that all may feel the power of God’s love drawing us together and leading us. Citation: Robin Davis, 2020 Scottish Quaker
Black and white photograph of Sarah Mapps Douglass. Text: "Sarah Mapps Douglass: Quaker Abolitionist Heroine"
Over Zoom, there is a new intimacy to the gatherings. Faces and expressions are on full display. “I really see that they are deep in worship,” Joan Malin said of her fellow Brooklyn Friends. “There’s a vulnerability when someone is doing that, and here they are putting it onscreen for us to witness,” she said. “It helps me get there, too.” Citation: Bianca Giaever, 2020 Journalist
Graphic silhouette of a Quaker woman in a bonnet looking at her phone. Positive emojis float in the air over the phone. "Get to know a Quaker organization: Thee Quaker Project."
Quakerism allows us to remove ourselves from the cycle of quicker work: making more work for the sake of more work, with productivity as king. What I've learned working in a Quaker environment is the real power of reflection, of silence, of taking time to discern. I feel like when I do so, decisions are more thought-through, more grounded in reality, and more inclusive of the voices of others. Citation: Adena Dershowitz, 2026 Director of the Fourth Century Center at Abington Friends School
I fear a world in which the business models behind them run on our attention or profit off our anger. But other worlds and other models are possible…. The answer suggested by Rex Ambler… is silence. Citation: Ezra Klein, 2022 New York Times opinion columnist
Old etching of three people using a printing press. Text: Quakers and Technology
Brigflatts Meeting House, interior. Dark wood floors, wall paneling, benches, and beams, with a white ceiling. Some benches are on a mezzanine level.
Date stone on Brigflatts Meeting House. "Anno Do. 1675"
A sheep stands on a rocky crag, Fox's Pulpit, which is marked with a blue historical marker sign.
Looking out a window of Brigflatts Meeting House from the inside. There is a deep wooden windowsill and greenery outside.
Countryside surrounding Fox's Pulpit, with rolling green hills and pasture where sheep graze. There are sparse trees and houses far in the distance.
Brigflatts Meeting House, exterior. It is made of stone, some of it lime washed, with small, deep-set windows and an inviting stone path up to the door. Flowers bloom in the lovely landscaping.
The future always belongs to us. It is neither the working of nature, nor that of fate. It comes by our resolution. Only a person who resolves not to be enslaved enjoys freedom. Only a person who resolves not to assert his own enjoys freedom. Only the person who resolves to love even at the cost of his own life can win love. The first ingredient of life is courage. Citation: Ham Sok-Hon, 1965 Korean Quaker peace activist
Although data can transform how we live, work and think, its usage doesn’t happen in a vacuum — it relies on a model. In one sense, that model is a statistical approach. But in a deeper sense, it is a mental model: a way of looking at the world. So using one “frame,” a rainforest is worth more when it’s cut for timber than when it’s acting as the lungs of the planet. How we look at the world is essential, to apply AI in useful ways…. We can do things machines cannot because of our capacity for the transcendent…. AI uses information: humans, at our best, find answers in the still, small voice within. Citation: Kenneth Cukier, 2024 Quaker journalist
Just as early Quakers adapted their faith to meet changing conditions, today’s Quakers will also…. As all of us rely on our traditional practices of seeking unity among ourselves, we can rely on our more technologically comfortable Friends to help the rest of us find ways to participate in this new environment. As we navigate the current liminal period – between the “technology stage” and “artificial intelligence stage,” Quakers can expect additional challenges. Even so, I am confident that our process of discernment and our seeking of spiritual unity will continue to provide us with the answers we need to meet the challenges we face. Citation: Bob Barnard, 2024 Quaker writer
Black and white photograph of marchers on the street in New York City. Two hold a large banner over their heads that reads, "Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day 1970." Graphic of a rainbow. Text: Quakers & Pride
If we recognise children's capacity and need for spirituality, it is part of our responsibility as parents and as Quaker communities to nourish our children's spiritual lives, just as much as we are responsible for feeding, clothing and educating them. Just as children need healthy food, they also need opportunities to experience the inward place of gathered, prayerful stillness, and to encounter people whose lives express forgiveness, integrity and compassion. Citation: Craig Barnett, 2013 Local development worker for Britain Yearly Meeting
Our children are given to us for a time to cherish, to protect, to nurture, and then to salute as they go their separate ways. They too have the light of God within, and a family should be a learning community in which children not only learn skills and values from parents, but in which adults learn new ways of experiencing things and seeing things through young eyes. From their birth on, let us cultivate the habit of dialogue and receptive listening. We should respect their right to grow into their own wholeness, not just the wholeness we may wish for them. Citation: Elizabeth Watson, 1980 Quaker feminist theologian
Text: How did Quakerism begin? Wrong answers only! Image: An upside-down drawing of George Fox
Denying the power of one man to determine the religious life of another, it also denies to a parent the power to determine the religious life of his child, and asserts in its place the duty of a parent to awaken his child’s own response to reality. There is thus a need for instruction and nurture, but with the emphasis laid on understanding and not on passive acceptance. The child will be shown, not told. Citation: Harold Loukes, 1958 Quaker academic
Two African children sit on chairs, looking at each other and having an engaging conversation. Text reads, "Get to know a Quaker Organization: African Great Lakes Initiative"
Loving children is a form of prayer, making your love for your children visible is a way to help the world, and even Elizabeth Fry couldn’t do everything all at once, and she considered motherhood her most important ministry. Citation: Maeve Sutherland, 2026 Editor of the Daily Quaker Message
We have increasingly to stand back as our children grow older, knowing that the problem is passing out of our hands. Parents cannot help being anxious, but they must bear that in themselves, not project it. It is also the moment for parents to tell themselves that their children are not alone. They are in the hands of God. Citation: Kenneth C. Barnes, 1960 Quaker educator and founder of the Wennington School
A painting of a Quaker woman in the 1800s. She wears a bonnet and glasses and looks at the viewer. Text: Quakerism is just a scam by Big Simplicity to sell more less.
Waiting on the Lord rests on the realization that our understanding is a continuing process of learning more about Truth, of gaining new glimpses of the Light, of coming closer to God. We believe in continuing revelation. Parenting is certainly an ongoing experience of continuing revelation! Our children show us new facets of themselves continually. As they grow, they present new challenges that compel us to rethink our beliefs and how we understand them, beliefs about the world and about ourselves. That questioning can be about our very relationship to God. Citation: Harriet Heath, 2009 Psychologist and member of Friends Counseling Service
Children are fully spiritual beings. They often see and sense the sacred in everyday life more readily than adults do! If we listen to them carefully and bring this awareness to their art projects and other forms of expression, we may detect a transcendent quality to their experiences. Lack of a sophisticated vocabulary can obscure this reality, but if we listen carefully, we can often perceive evidence of early encounters with Spirit. Looking through a less complicated and less cluttered life lens, children seem to have more immediate encounters with the Divine Presence and they receive stirrings of the heart at face value. All of this makes childhood the perfect time to begin sharing about prayer and worship. Citation: Beth Collea, 2020 Quaker religious educator
There is no better rule to act by in this important task, than perfect submission to the Spirit of Truth, who is promised to lead us into all truth. If we mind this, we shall not indulge our children in anything which the Spirit testifies against in ourselves. And we shall be far from pleading that because they are young, some greater liberties may be allowed them in this or that thing. Rather, we shall feel that as they are a part of ourselves, the same divine law should be a rule for both them and us. Citation: John Griffith, 1764 Quaker writer
Screenshot of a tweet by Annalee @LeeFlower: "I just uttered the phrase 'the Friend is struggling to exercise good discernment regarding sharing his opinions," so if you're ever wondering what 'that jack*** needs to shut the f*** up" sounds like in Quaker, now you know."
A child and their stuffed bunny worship on a wooden bench in a meeting house, surrounded by a community of other worshippers. Each person's inner light is represented by a different object glowing in their chest (a star, a candle, a rainbow...). This is a picture book-style illustration. Text: Children & Quakerism
"What to expect at a Quaker wedding" A bride and groom sit in worship on a wooden bench with their eyes closed, holding hands.
I’ve been to quite a few discussions about how different people spend their time in meeting for worship, been given suggestions and things to try, but those ten minutes I have twice a month are different every time.... Watching the younger children in the meeting as they wriggle and whisper, I’m reminded of how far I’ve come . . . and how far I have to go. Citation: Keava McKeogh, 2010 (age 16) Young Friend in Waikato-Hauraki Meeting, Yearly Meeting of Aotearoa/New Zealand
Text: Elizabeth Hooton "The love I bear to the souls of all men makes me willing to undergo whatever can be inflicted on me." Image is an engraving of an English woman in clothing appropriate to the 1650s, when Hooten was first active as a Quaker minister.
Daughter Abigail, ...Though there was then a great trial that came upon me, the Lord kept my heart in uprightness unto Him and gave me much patience. And though the earth had been removed into the sea, and all outward things had run into confusion, and nature had changed its course, yet the Lord gave me a resolution and strength not to be troubled or offended, because He did support me. At that time you were born; and therefore I called your name Abigail, which means the father’s joy or delight; for in you I was comforted, and my present trouble was mitigated. Your dear father, Francis Howgill Citation: Francis Howgill, 1666 Early Quaker minister
Two images from Star Wars movie posters. Text (in Star Wars font, with a Quaker star incorporated): Wait, is Star Wars Quaker?
I think parents need to be aware of how vital it is to leave everything to answer a young child’s reaching out to you to ‘come quickly’: to share a sunset, the beauty of a discovered wild flower, the trick of the pet dog, or to listen with full attention–no matter what seems prior on your agenda–when children burst into the house from school eager to have you listen to a tale of woe or a triumph they have experienced during the day…. Learning to listen to each other in families can help to make us better listeners to others and to the Inner Guide. Citation: Dorothy Steere, 1984 Quaker activist