Religious education has always been public ministry. Following Pentecost, Jesus’s disciples became apostles, students became teachers — the foremost religious educators of the early church. 17th century Friends traveled in the ministry sharing an emergent faith and developing practices. The 19th century invention of “First Day School” moved formation outside the home and family and placed religious education in the public community of the meeting. If Quaker public ministry is

Mary Crauderueff is the Curator of Quaker Collections in Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. She’s an archivist, a teacher, and a fierce advocate for access. She doesn’t just preserve Quaker history in the basement of the library. She helps people meet  it. The beautiful parts. The damning parts. The parts we quote at each other like scripture. And the parts we try to slide past, hoping nobody notices. Public ministers from left to right: Christy Randazzo, Windy C

The Friends Incubator for Public Ministry is grateful to announce our first cohort of Fellows! This cohort represents a shared commitment to reclaiming public ministry as a communal practice rooted in worship, sustained by relationship, and accountable to the body. It includes the participation of five-yearly meetings on the East Coast of the United States. Baltimore, New England, New York, Philadelphia and Southeastern Yearly Meetings are represented in this cohort of fello

Over the past several months, as we have walked with Tom Hamm on the blog through the long, uneven landscape of Quaker public ministry, something surprising has taken shape. Taken together, these ministers George Fox , Priscilla Hunt Cadwallader , John Woolman , Lucretia Mott , Joseph Hoag , Elias Hicks , Joseph John Gurney , J ohn Wilbur , and David B Updegraff do not simply offer a string of biographies. They create a living field of tension and possibility, a kind of sp

Tom Hamm’s Thanksgiving Series on Public Ministers, Part Four of Four… well, let’s just say we are getting there in our own good time. If Monday’s post left you both grateful and slightly overwhelmed by the 19th-century Quaker world... Today Tom introduces us to David B. Updegraff (1830–1894), the man who helped turn one of the new branches of American Quakerism inside out again. Updegraff’s story is fiery, dramatic, and almost unbelievable to Friends formed in the quiet rh

Tom Hamm’s Thanksgiving Series on Public Ministers (Part 3… and yes, we promise Part 4 is coming) Remember back at Thanksgiving when we boldly announced a four-part series on nineteenth-century public ministers? And then we only managed to publish two? Well, Friends, welcome to the other half. Consider this our late-season act of faithfulness. Ministry happens on its own timetable, after all. We are indebted to the Quaker Faith and Podcast for this chart, which can be found:

If Monday’s post left you feeling grateful that you weren’t living through the early 19th-century Quaker schism, buckle up. Today’s entry might make you downright thankful for modern meeting life. Really, no one is threatening to call you a “dangerous moonlight Christian” because of your reading habits. We’re doing fine. Today we turn to Joseph John Gurney, one of the most consequential Friends of the era and the figure whose influence you can still feel in Quaker communities

Day One of Our Thanksgiving (Thank God I'm Not a 19th-Century Public Minister) Four-Day Dive into 19th-Century Public Ministers Welcome to day one of our four-day journey into the dramatic, inspiring, and sometimes exasperating world of 19th-century Quaker public ministers. This week we are walking alongside historian Tom Hamm to explore the people whose ministries shaped the major splits in American Quakerism. These are the ministers whose sermons, travels, personalities, an

I want to share something tender and important that has been unfolding in my life and in the life of the Incubator. It has to do with friendship, accompaniment, and the kind of spiritual companionship that changes how you move in the world. It has to do with my relationship with my friends and elders, like Deborah Shaw. Deborah's recent recorded conversation with me about the Gift of Eldership is the gift I want to share with you today. That and her book list. :) Deborah and

We do many public events at the Friends Incubator for Public Ministry. When I recently gathered with a group of seekers for the conversation with my dear friend and fellow public minister Lynette Davis, Grief and Creativity in Public Ministr y , I could sense immediately that people were arriving with their own tender stories. We were a room full of people who knew something about sorrow and about longing. And as soon as Lynette and I began talking, it became clear that what

There are a few people in this world who can make you laugh while they are quietly rearranging the furniture in your spiritual life. Jay Marshall  is one of them. I first met Jay years ago when he was dean at the Earlham School of Religion, and I was a student who thought I had a lot to prove. I was a little afraid of him back then. He had that dry wit that made you wonder if he was joking or teaching you something you would not realize until three days later. Over the years,

Every so often we invite a Quaker public minister or elder to take over our weekly blog. This is one such week! We're so happy to be welcoming Marcelle Martin as this week's guest blogger in anticipation of her workshop for us on January 7th, Listening Together: The Role of Discernment in Ministry . Among Friends, we have always sought ways to listen together for the motion of the Spirit. Our tradition offers many names for this shared listening—clearness committees, anchor g

Joseph Hoag (1762–1846) was a remarkable Quaker minister whose life was filled with faith, courage, and a deep sense of divine calling....

An escaped cow in Adam-ondi-Ahman This season has been full of travel, conversation, and discovery. Our Wednesday evening course on...

Cover image by AccordionBruce . When Kody and I made an appointment to talk this last time, our original plan was to discuss writing as a...

Sitting with Tom Hamm to talk about Lucretia Mott feels a bit like opening a window. Fresh air rushes in—plain speech, clear-eyed...

Tall Poppies , a Zentangle by Lynne Piersol, August 2025 It's been two months since our last "Too Long; Didn't Read" update on our blog...

Last week, Friends gathered for the very first session of our new seminar series on Walter Brueggemann’s work, led by Friend Jim Webner....

From Cai Quirk's Queer Temple . In late July, Public Minister Kody Hersh joined me in a Zoom interview we had planned for a while. He's...

“It’s sort of with fear and trembling I take up John Woolman... If ever an American Quaker qualified as a saint, it would be...