Thee Quaker

Inside a Conservative Quaker Meeting

This week on the podcast, we go inside the silence of a Conservative Quaker meeting to discover how a commitment to simplicity, integrity, and prioritizing "truth over pace" offers a powerful antidote to our modern exhaustion.

quakerpodcast.com/inside-a-con...

Photo of angry-looking groundhog with sticker of happy sun and clouds above. "When everyone's focused on whether you see your shadow, but you know it's the inner Light that matters."

“Know the shadow of the Almighty, and sit under it.” – George Fox

To see the failings of our friends, and think hard of them, without opening that which we ought to open, and still carry a face of friendship, this tends to undermine the foundation of true unity. Citation: John Woolman, 1760 Quaker preacher and abolitionist

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The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. Citation: George Fox et al., 1660 Cofounder of the Religious Society of Friends

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Did you know needlework helped the Abolitionist Movement? New York Quaker communities held sewing circles that discussed abolitionist literature and stitched samplers. These samplers would hang as art in the African Free Schools - schools that gave freed Black people the education they were denied under slavery. When New York formally abolished slavery in 1827, there were seven African Free Schools - and five of them employed Black teachers. Needlework was a regular subject taught to girls.

Made in a Quaker abolitionist sewing circle:

"A Sampler resembles an elegant mind,
Whose passions by reason subdu'd and refin'd,
Move only in lines of affection and duty,
Reflecting a picture of order and beauty."

(Quote from the first pictured sampler)

From the earliest days, Quakers were known for speaking truth as they experienced it inwardly in their meetings for worship. They didn't make a distinction between belief and action. Truth was almost more of a verb than a noun; it was something which you 'did' as you experienced it. Citation: Quaker Peace and Social Witness, 2007 Central peace and service department of British Friends

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Why are Quakers Pacifists?

In a world often governed by force, Quakers have stood apart for centuries with a radical commitment to peace. This week, we dive into the history of the Peace Testimony and explore how its living wisdom can guide us through modern conflict.

quakerpodcast.com/why-are-quak...

Exterior of Penington Friends House.

Two musicians play inside Penington Friends House.

Penington Friends House (PFH) is a collaborative Quaker residence located on 15th Street in Manhattan that has been fostering community since 1897. It offers long-term rooms, sublets, and short-term guest housing for both Quakers and “Friendly people.”
www.penington.org @15thstmeeting.org

"I found that exposing them to the spiritual insights of Friends did not simply give them another way to 'inherit' the spirituality of the past, but helped plow the ground for the seeds of their own experience to grow and flourish." Citation: Max L. Carter, 2025 Quaker educator

Today’s Daily Quaker Message. Subscribe for free: DailyQuaker.com/subscribe

Today’s Daily Quaker Message. Subscribe for free: DailyQuaker.com/subscribe

“I’d rather be jolly St. Francis, singing his canticle to the sun, than a dour, old sober-sides Quaker whose diet would appear to have been spiritual persimmons.”

Citation: Thomas Kelly, 1941
Quaker mystic and philosopher

Exterior of a wooden Quaker meetinghouse

Interior of the meeting house, present day. Chairs face each other, bookshelves in the background.

Exterior of the same meetinghouse, 1885.

The oldest Quaker meetinghouse west of Iowa is home to San Jose Friends Meeting, hidden in a cul-de-sac next to Interstate 880. Built in 1885 in just 5 weeks, the building withstood the earthquake in 1906, and was moved about 200 feet in 1958 to make room for the highway.

www.sanjosefriends.org

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“Truth for authority, not authority for truth.”

Citation: Lucretia Mott, 1871
Quaker social reformer

Quakers in the Civil Rights Movement: Stories of Peaceful Persistence We share first-hand stories of Friends whose spiritual courage led them into the heart of the movement.

Today in the US we're honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, it seems appropriate to revisit this podcast episode about the work of Quakers in the Civil Rights Movement.

quakerpodcast.com/quakers-in-t...

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"If you neither hear nor obey the Lord nor his servants, yet will he send more of his servants among you, so that your end shall be frustrated."

Citation: Mary Dyer, 1659
Quaker martyr

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"The Love I bear to the Souls of all Men makes me willing to undergo whatever can be inflicted on me."

Citation: Elizabeth Hooton
Early Quaker minister

Let’s use predictive text to see what goofiness our phones come up with to fill in the rest of the sentence.

❓How to: Using a phone or tablet, start typing “I knew I was a Quaker when” then use the middle word that your phone suggests above your keyboard to make a silly sentence 🙃!

"[The friar] called for the irons to chain Sarah, because she spake so boldly to him: She bowed her head, and said to him, “Not only my feet, but my hands and my neck also for the Testimony of Jesus.” Katherine Evans, 1662 Quaker minister

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This month our Quaker daily devotional is publishing a Quaker quote every day by and about early Quakers. Begin the new year with the beginnings of Quaker faith.

Subscribe for free!
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They went on to manage the community’s farms, households, and businesses until their parents were released months later.

(Thread 3/3)

When the magistrates heard what the children were doing, they marched to the granary to break it up.

The officials demanded to know why they were meeting, but the children simply replied that they were worshiping God as they had been taught.

Shocked to find such calm defiance from children, the magistrates beat them, threatened them with imprisonment, and tossed them into the road.

Yet the children refused to deny their faith; as soon as the magistrates left, they quietly gathered again and resumed worship. They met every first day while their parents were in prison.

(Thread 2/3)

In 1663, all the adults of Reading Meeting in England were imprisoned under the “Quaker Act,” which made it illegal to hold meeting for worship.

Their children, suddenly on their own, remembered their parents’ instructions to hold meeting for worship no matter what happened. Though they were afraid, they were determined to follow through.

Finding their meetinghouse locked, the Quaker children gathered instead in a nearby granary and settled into silent worship on bales of hay.

Time for a story from Quaker history about immense bravery and nonviolent resistance: The Children's Meeting of 1663.

Click through the images to read it! (Thread 1/3)

"Three fundamental challenges remain that will shape the way a revived Society of Friends will look to the surrounding world: -Do we put God at the center of everything we do? -Do we model a radical faithful society that is in the world but not of the world? -Do we form faithful communities that worship together in love, trust, patience, joy, and humility? I believe that when we face up to these challenges, our lives and our communities will be marked by joy." Citation: Paul Buckley, 2018 Quaker historian and theologian

Today’s Daily Quaker Message. Subscribe for free: DailyQuaker.com/subscribe

Today’s Daily Quaker Message. Subscribe for free: DailyQuaker.com/subscribe

"How were our hearts melted as wax, and our souls poured out as water before the Lord, and our spirits as oil, frankincense and myrrh, offered up unto the Lord as sweet incense..."

Citation: John Burnyeat, 1691

"Say that one more time and I'll tell my big brother to come over here and hold you in the Light!"

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"'When seized by the power, some Friends quaked, vocalized, or fell unconscious to the floor, while other Friends saw brilliant light, had visions, experienced healing…"

Citation: Scott Martin, 2001

Wow! Did not know that! I have been imagining the weather wrong when reading some historical documents.

Image of a 1974 Quaker Oats tea towel calendar.

Early Quakers avoided using names of days and months because many came from Norse or Roman gods or political figures. Instead, they used a plain-speech calendar:

January is "First Month."

Sunday is "First Day."

So today is Second Day, the 5th of First Month.

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"Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart..."

Citation: Isaac Penington, 1661
Early English Quaker

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"The Light of Christ shines still for all men in the inmost of their souls, and in obedience to its influence lies hope…"

Citation: T. Edmund Harvey, 1905
Quaker social reformer and politician

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026!