Many Quaker meetings are changing. A lot of our numbers are smaller. What are some of the ways we might adjust? What does it look like to have faith and cherish our communities while also recognizing that our energy levels are getting low? Since summer 2021, Emily Provance (New York Yearly Meeting) has been working with a group of Friends from multiple yearly meetings, countries, and theological branches of Quakerism. The group has been exploring…
Waseem Shahzad and Hena Aimaq and their four children are the most recent (and ninth!) family under New Garden’s care. In Afghanistan, Waseem and Hena worked toward a free economy and social democracy. When this dream collapsed, the lives of the family suddenly were endangered. They fled to Pakistan. Two years later they were allowed to emigrate to the U.S. The children are learning English, adapting to our culture, and taking advantage of educational opportunities.…
Tuesday, March 14th, 7pm Eastern/ 4pm Pacific / Join Quaker ecotheologian, Cherice Bock in sharing about her newest book, A Quaker Ecology: Meditations on the Future of Friends. In our best moments, Friends have been in the middle of the action around the social justice issues of each time period, discerning to the best of their abilities the direction the Inward Light leads and speaking truth to power. In our own time, climate justice can…
Dear Friends, I have had so much fun connecting with people at Guilford College over the past week! On Wednesday, my class met in the meetinghouse (we are halfway through the semester!). Then on Thursday, I joined QLSP for Taize worship in the New Garden meeting room. Afterward, we had a wonderful dinner with Friends from the meeting, provided by Caring Friends. Five students stayed for our pastoral visitation training, along with many people from…
NCFF will hold its Spring meeting on Saturday, March 4 from 9am-12pm. It will be in person at First Friends, 2100 W Friendly Ave, Greensboro, NC. Breakfast will be provided. You do not need to register or RSVP. However, if you would like to attend virtually, First Friends has set up a Zoom meeting for the day, and Richard Wilcox at [email protected] will need RSVP’s for virtual attenders so that he can forward the link…
There was a book in our Little Free Antiracist Library entitled, “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” by Thomas Sowell. I’d never heard of Thomas Sowell and there was no picture of him on the book jacket. There was, however, a short review, praising the book, by a Fox News commentator, so I suspected it was probably not conducive to our antiracist purposes. Before recycling it at McKays though, I did my homework and was, yet…
Southern states, including North Carolina, largely ignored their responsibility to provide an education for rural Black children in the early 20th century. But then a plan hatched by a famous black educator and a Jewish philanthropist broke Jim Crow’s grip on funding for black schools. The resulting schools helped change the South and the nation, one student at a time. Tom Lassiter produced and wrote “Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity / The Rosenwald Schools of…
Spring Break at Guilford College will be from March 4th-March 12th–there will be a handful of mostly international students staying on campus who are feeling nervous about food security over the break. Our wonderful Global and Off Campus Initiatives (GOCI) Director, Cathryn Bennett, is hoping to organize some opportunities for students to have occasional meals with local Friends, or to invite local Friends to make meals we can leave in the Friends Center fridge that…
Dear Friends, We had a lovely time together on Sunday during Intergenerational First Day School. We all listened to a powerful Faith and Play story, and smaller Friends did their “work” in response. When I look back and see how our children respond to the stories, I am reminded of their wisdom, Light, and ministry. I’ve included a picture of one Friend’s art work. You can find it, and more on the Religious Education bulletin…
We are taking action to challenge Vanguard on its stewardship hypocrisy, highlighting the ways it has failed to act on its own stated values. Vanguard says it considers climate change a “fundamental risk to companies and their shareholders’ long-term financial success,” and that they have a fiduciary duty to encourage the companies they invest in to mitigate climate risk. Unfortunately, Vanguard is not doing enough to push companies like Exxon and Chevron in the right…