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...

What does it mean to carry a concern? In 2018, Angela Hopkins offered one set of answers in On Carrying a Concern , Episode 08 of the...

Max Goodman, left, and ross brubeck walk on a New Jersey trail, as part of a Quaker march from NYC to Washington to protest Trump's...

Lynette Davis, of Ujima Friends Meeting, led our first focus group for public ministers in May, 2025 and continues to be a vital...

The interior of the Blue River Monthly Meeting as it would have looked in Pricilla's time. Priscilla Hunt Cadwallader: The Courage to Be...

Joe Tolton, a Quaker pastor, being "recorded" as a minister at the 2025 annual session of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting. What does your...

George Fox, a founder of Quakerism, experiences many openings as a public minister... George Fox Was Not Boring: Lessons in Public...