Uncategorized God as a Weaving Pattern | Quaker faith and Practice We may picture God as weaving a pattern with the lives of men and women. We can glimpse but small fragments of the whole design; in moments of inspiration we can see more clearly, while the saints see most of all. Through it there runs a Quaker strand. It may
Blog Entries The Quaker Value of Integrity as Practice Over the next little while, I want to reflect in short statements about what is often called, Quaker Values or testimonies. I prefer the singular “testimony,” but that is for another day. For today, here is a brief though on integrity. The practice of Integrity is about both self-awareness and
Blog Entries Truth And The Golden Age Awhile back I was studying at a well-stocked Quaker library, doing some writing for my dissertation. As I looked through the shelves I began to notice something, the overwhelming majority of the books I could find were books about the history of Quakerism, biographies of Quakers long past, journals, and
Blog Entries Mike Huber on Authority, Conflict, and Love in Quaker Contexts [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/313692885″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] I am busting at the seams wanting to share this message from Mike
Featured To Publish “Truth?” I was asked to speak at Quakers United in Publications earlier this month at the beautiful Penn Center on St. Helena’s Island in South Carolina. It was a lovely road-trip south and a nice time seeing friendly faces. I was glad for the opportunity to spend some time thinking
Blog Entries Rethinking Productivity and Vocation I am certainly a sucker for productivity blogs, podcasts, and books. I’m sure it feeds into all kinds of aspects of my identity and anxieties, not to mention being a 3 on the Enneagram. While I think that it can be good to set goals and be organized enough
Featured Make Your Own Discernment Flowchart Back in February, I had the opportunity to travel back to Portland / Camas to speak at Chris Hall’s “Way of the Spirit” spiritual apprentice retreat program. I go to talk about the Bible, talk about discernment, Quakers and be in conversation with retreat goers. Some of the kinds of
Quotations Truth as Blasphemy The whole world is crazy…The only reason we’re not locked up in an institution is that there are so many of us. So we’re crazy. We’re living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything. We’re crazy to the point,
Teaching Quakerism 101: A Very Basic Introduction with Suggested Readings Updated: 2025-04-22 Here is a short reading list with some basic background to the Quaker tradition in hopes of helping those who are getting started out and/or want to know more about the history, beliefs, and practice of the Religious Society of Friends. I hope that this list can
Blog Entries Code Switch it President Obama’s Legacy Code switch is a podcast about race in America with some really incredible hosts. It’s worth subscribing and listening to, but this last episode where the begin a three-part series of looking at President Obama’s legacy as president, especially in regards to race and how that plays into
Uncategorized Moving Into Interfaith Leadership I recently read Eboo Patel’s new book, Interfaith Leadership: A Primer (2016). I’d recommend it to any student looking to go into the field of interfaith work, or any minister or religious leader trying to find ways to reorient their spiritual work in this changing religious landscape. Patel’
The Political Rev. Barber: We Will Take Back Our Country, by Moral Means | Diane Ravitch’s blog Diane Ravitch recently posted excerpts from an article Rev. Dr. William Barber wrote for Think Progress on December 15, 2016. If you do not know who Rev. Barber is, you should find out. He is the president of the NAACP in NC and a pastor of a church in Goldsboro,
Uncategorized Mary: Revolutionary for Our Time It is advent, a critical moment in the church calendar. It is post-election, a critical moment in the life of the United States. Advent is marked as a time of quiet, expectant waiting. There is hope in birth narratives of Jesus, but it is hope tempered by loss, defeat, and
Blog Entries Trello Love In a Tweet I love trello.com and that’s not news to folks who know me. I use it for personal work and work work and everything in between. So I was happy to get Michael Chapman’s tweet and respond: Hey @cwdaniels, tweet me the product pitch/rationale/added-value of using
Blog Entries (Untitled) In preparation for a Bob Dylan-themed birthday party we’re throwing next weekend, I made a little Dylan “mixtape.” This is based on this post and some of the tracks my friends and I shared there. Listen to the mixtape here.
Uncategorized Poverty, Empire and The Bible: Reading the Bible Off-Center (an online study) Last night about 35 people from around the Greensboro area gathered at First Friends Meeting to begin a conversation around how we can read and re-read the Bible in ways that not only pays attention to our own privileges and biases we take to the text but the lenses and
Blog Entries Revelation and Angelic Troublemaking Over the last century, the book of Revelation has lost its edge in the West. What was understood as a letter written to small faith communities surviving the threat of Roman empire, propped up by its imperial religion, economics and violence, has largely become a book underwriting what some have
Featured Empire & The Multitude (Rev 7) Here is the message I shared at College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC on July 31, 2016. Cross posted from my medium blog. The Rally Thank you for inviting me here this morning [my name is Wess Daniels and I’m a Quaker minister and teacher at Guilford College]
Uncategorized Being bilingual in Quaker Outreach (Guest Post Robin Mohr) This is a guest post from my good friend and General Secretary of FWCC Section of the Americas, Robin Mohr, following up on a talk she gave at the Emerging Practices in Quaker Outreach from NEYM. How many of you speak another language? Meaning, raise your hand if you speak
Uncategorized Brother’s K, Liturgy and Broken People “But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.” (Revelation 12:11) The work of the People One of the signs of a true artist is a willingness
Blog Entries Blocking and Quakerism as a “No” Tradition The Quaker movement began like other Radical Reformation traditions, rejecting the basic Christian creeds. This wasn’t because they weren’t Christian, but because they believed that creeds created a consumptive rather than participative faith. Quakers believe that creedal Christianity led to folks to professing rather than possessing authentic Christian
Blog Entries Renewal and Outreach I had the opportunity to spend time with a number of Friends in New England this past weekend to discuss the importance of Quakers practicing outreach. I am still processing what I heard and what I learned from that very rich and deep time. Here is one thought that arises.
Featured The Lamb That Was Slain and the Politics of Scapegoating (Rev. 5:11-15) This is the message I brought to Deep River Friends Church on April 11, 2016. A Revelation about Revelation I wanted to speak to you this morning from the book of Revelation, but as with anytime I talk on this subject, I want to give you a little disclaimer. A
Featured A Concise Sermon on the Mount by Peggy Morrison We currently have this up on the white board at Friends Center and we’ve been discussing it in various groups. It has generated a lot of good conversation and it seemed right to share it here with all of you. It is from my good friend, Peggy Morrison. A
Quotations A Listening That is So Alive Douglas Steere speaks of listening to one another with a depth that might change the speaker, and also the listener. He uses Kierkegaard’s image of vocal ministry in describing this listening which is ‘so alive that judgment is withheld…To listen correctly, we must radically shift the roles. Now
