Gathering In Light

Blog Entries

Wisdom from Richard Foster on Focus

Shawn Blanc shared a great short post yesterday titled: Six Principles for Focus and Simplicity. Those post shares wisdom from the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, a Quaker and well-known spiritual teacher and author. It’s worth re-sharing here: In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster lists

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Margaret Fell – Founder and Leader of the Early Quaker Movement

When discussing early Quakers, too often you will hear the history start with something like “George Fox is the founder of Quakerism.” While George Fox is an essential leader in the early movement, to focus in on and center Fox’s role not only misses out on the necessary roles

Blog Entries

A Little Blog Nostalgia

I just got the site up and running on its own server again (went with DreamHost this time around). I’ve been hosting this site wordpress.com for probably 8 years or so? I moved it there – away from running it on my own server – because I just didn’t

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We Are Fireweed

This was the message I shared at our first “All Community Worship” at Guilford College since before the pandemic. I am grateful for this opportunity to building multifaith community on Campus. The Quaker roots of Guilford College allows for and nourishes this rich tapestry of religious identities to thrive at

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2022 Fandoms

I’m someone who loves being a fan and loves fandom. If you know me, you know that when I get into something, I am really into it. I love sharing my love with others. I don’t typically do a review on my fandoms over the year but thought

Teaching

Remaking a Quaker Studies Syllabus Using The Quaker World

With the publication of our new book Quaker World, I am having fun remaking my syllabus for my Introduction to Quakerism class this time around. Unfortunately, while the hardback version of The Quaker World is too expensive for students to purchase, faculty interested in teaching subjects related to the Quaker

Blog Entries

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by William E. Stafford

I love William Stafford‘s poetry. I came across him when we were still living in the Pacific Northwest where he is from. The first poem of his I heard from Parker Palmer when I participated in a renewal retreat with him years ago. It’s a poem I have

technology

Rebuilding (Social) Presence

Reposted from Nurselog Notes January 19, 2019 I quite Facebook. I threatened to do it, mostly just to myself, years before, but then the Cambridge Analytics stuff came out, and there was so much going on with Trump, fake ads, and Facebook profiting off of their own corruption that I

Blog Entries

Testimony as Consequence, Not Value by Pink Dandelion Reading Notes

Here are my reading notes of Pink Dandelion’s “Testimony as Consequence, Not Value” from Friends Quarterly Vol 35. No 5 2007. It has been progressively summarized for you. The full article can be found below. This article has been informative for me framing the problems of reducing Quaker principles

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Transitions, Clean Breaks, and The Work of Becoming a People – Ex. 14

This was the sermon I preached at First Friends Meeting Greensboro, NC on October 9, 2022. It is from Exodus 14. Trauma and the Red Sea This morning I want to speak on the subject of the Red Sea, trauma, and the importance of transitions in growth. I think the

Blog Entries

When the Wine Gives Out (John 2:1-11)

The Wine Gave Out? A number of years ago, when I was working on my dissertation, I spent three months in England reading and writing in one of their lovely Quaker libraries there. One day, early on, while I was in the library there, I noticed that almost all of

Blog Entries

Quaker Exceptionalism, Jesus, and Movement Building (Mark 9:33-41)

Mark 9:33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”  34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  35 He sat down, called

resisting-empire

When We Need Bread (John 6)

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of preaching for College Park Baptist just up the street on chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. “I am the bread of life.” -Jesus At Guilford College where I work as a staff member and part-time faculty, I have been co-teaching teaching

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What is Born of God? 1 John 5 – A Mother’s Day Sermon

This is a message I gave to First Friends Meeting. I also shared a version of it for Freedom Church of the Poor. > 1 John 5:1-5   Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.

Blog Entries

Planning to Leave Hey Due to Policy Changes

Here is an Email I wrote today to the support team at hey.com. I sent this and post it here because I have been a very outspoke supporter of this company, paid for their books and products, have their stickers on my computers, moved teams on to their platforms,

The Theological

Becoming Co-Workers With The Truth

When George Fox was initially on his spiritual quest to understand the true nature of faith and Christianity, he was living in the midst of full-on Christendom, that is state-sponsored Christianity or Christianity twisted to become comfortable acting as “the religion of empire.” Fox, and then Margaret Fell, among the

Blog Entries

Systems of Death and the Subversive Seed (John 12:24)

Watercolor from John Jay Alvaro Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/arGhrrsFTxc The Subversive Seed This week, we saw the shooting of 8 individuals, 6 were Asian-Americans reminding us again of the ongoing and increased racism Asian-Americans and other communities of color have faced in the last year.

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A Summary of The 5 Interlocking Evils

Reposting this to my blog for safekeeping. Originally published via my “Resisting Empire” newsletter on Oct 30, 2020. How do you name immorality? Do the words sin and evil find their way into your vocabulary or have they been shunned long ago because of the overuse of these words by

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The Problem with (Quaker) Values

Originally published on my “Resisting Empire, Remixing Faith” Newsletter. As you may have seen, there is another flair up in the news about another Quaker school being caught in a debate around Quaker values. This time it is Brooklyn Friends School when the head of school sought to decertify the

Blog Entries

Western Friend Review of Resisting Empire

There’s a really great review of my book Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance in this month’s copy of the Western Friend by David Tucker. After reading resisting empire – or more accurately, while reading it – I found myself delving into the text of Revelation, the literature

Blog Entries

Love as A Model For Change

Before Covid19, and certainly even more now, the systems that were meant to take care of us, protect our most vulnerable, and be focused on the best interest of the people rather than for those in power have all failed and can no longer be trusted or relied upon. We

Blog Entries

A New Newsletter is Coming

Hi Friends, I wanted to let you know that I am launching a new newsletter soon called “Remixing Faith.” It will pull together writings and research dealing with faith, resistance, cultural change, and collective intelligence. I am doing this to continue to develop my own writing, as well as create

resisting-empire

Unmasking Liturgies of Empire

One of the things I am currently focused on and really hungry to know more about is the concept of liturgies of resistance. A concept I originally discovered when studying the Book of Revelation. I think this is one of the keys to our ability to resist and survive empire

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Hope in a time of Empire: The Lynching of Ahmaud Arbery & the Vision of Jesus in Revelation 1

This is a message I prepared for First Friends Meeting where my family and I attend. Rev. 1:12   Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw

Blog Entries

Join The Online Study of Poverty, Empire, and the Book of Revelation in the Time of Covid19

Friends, I am hosting an online study of my new book, “Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance,” and the Book of Revelation in the time of Covid19 and I want to invite you to consider participating. I am interested in these three questions with this course: how does