"Friends have always been very active in addressing our government and its rule," Marge Abbott said in this 2016 interview. "[They] have always had this sense that the Kingdom of God can be realized here on earth... that we can all share this earth together if we treat each other with respect."

Imagine: your photo was taken many years ago when you were a political prisoner in South Vietnam. Years later, a journalist comes to your village with some photos and asks you if you can identify anyone in them. Your eyes fill with tears as your own face stares back at you from one of the pictures.

"Rarely does one find so much wisdom packed into a book of about 130 pages in length," Stephen W. Angell says of Nothing Can Separate Us, a new anthology of writings by the twentieth-century African American theologian Howard Thurman. "This is one to read slowly and savor."

🎧 Quakers Today co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez reflect on what they've learned over the last six episodes about Friends' relationship with finances—and focus on concrete, practical next steps to align our money with our values. Listen now wherever you find your favorite podcasts!

"That is the challenge Randy Woodley sees for Western Christianity today," John Andrew Gallery writes in his review of How Western Christianity Got It Wrong: "to rid itself of the accretions that have distorted Jesus’s teachings over the centuries and return to a focus on his actual message."

The life of Mary Shadd Cary (1823–1893) offers a master class in the values of self-reliance and humanitarianism that are associated with the grit and spirit of independence that are being celebrated during America250, the semiquincentennial of the founding of the United States.

In the fall of 2020, Quaker peace activist George Lakey started talking with friends and colleagues about the possibility that Donald Trump might reject the results of the upcoming presidential election if he lost the electoral college count. Subsequent events proved those concerns were warranted.

"God’s work is to bring in the Light and open the spaces up, not build more walls!" says Christopher Stern. "We need our hearts opened and renovated in our meetings and communities of faith so we can learn God’s way of love and find the strength to walk in it and live in it together, here and now."

One important element of “the quest for the historical Jesus” lies in the search for independent evidence about the places & events recounted in the gospels. Archaeology, Jesus, and the Gospel of John reports on what recent archaeological research reveals about specific details in John’s narrative.

Bayard Rustin played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement, but was an equally passionate advocate for economic justice throughout his life. In every struggle against the principalities and powers of his time, Rustin was guided by his commitment to nonviolence, grounded in his Quaker upbringing.

How shall we live as people of faith in this era of accelerating ecological, social, and political crises? This is the urgent question Brian Drayton seeks to answer in The Gospel in the Anthropocene, a beautifully written, profoundly thoughtful, and prophetic book.

"Acting contrary to present outward interest, from a motive of Divine love and in regard to truth and righteousness, and thereby incurring the resentments of people, opens the way to a treasure better than silver, and to a friendship exceeding the friendship of men."—Michelle Downey

We hope everyone has had a wonderful World Quaker Day! Take some time to contemplate this year's theme, "Let Peace Be Among Us," in silent worship and discernment. How can we foster peace within our communities, and among our neighbors, in the year ahead?

"Everyone who has ever pruned a forgotten fruit tree to spur its growth understands the power of restoration... All of us who have sewn a button back on, repaired a torn seam, or sanded down and repainted a beloved piece of furniture know experientially the satisfaction of restorative work."

In November 2023, three former classmates at Ramallah Friends School were when they were shot in the street in Burlington, Vermont, leaving one of the young men paralyzed from the waist down. Last week, a jury found their shooter, Jason Eaton, guilty of attempted murder.

"When I read early Friends," says Joan Gunn Broadfield, "I see their practice includes both the inward seeking and the outward practices: they are not only against war but also work with families in prison and also go out into the streets to bring Truth."

"Quakerism is understood as a way of life in which the blessed light of the Spirit guides us to do and think about the common good and to continually seek peace in a holistic way," says Báalam Sáas, "[motivating] us to think and act with a greater sensibility and humanity."