The image includes the Bible passage below along with a picture of the apostle Paul (an older man with a dark beard): Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are. 1 Corinthians 1:26-28

...God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are.

1 Corinthians 1:26-28

We don't read for the letter but for the Spirit behind the text, the Spirit who birthed the Scriptures. The same Spirit who penned the Scriptures we now have is the one whom we have access to as the resurrection community.

C. Wess Daniels

The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education, and restoration are nowhere to be found.

Pope Leo XIV

Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Three YouTube video by Woodbrooke

The last of three short interviews about the 2026 Swarthmore lecture with Woodbrooke’s Senior Communications Officer, Aled Vernon-Rees.

The image includes the quotation below on a light green background along with a picture of "The Quaker Faith" book cover: The spiritual heritage of Quakers is both distinctive and intriguing. Friends are not easily categorized, as they express a diverse range of beliefs and practices, from Evangelical Christians to Buddhists, Pagans, and Non-theists. Their origin within English Puritanism suggests a Reformed Protestant orientation, but some aspects of their faith look more Catholic. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.2.

The spiritual heritage of Quakers is both distinctive and intriguing...they express a diverse range of beliefs and practices, from Evangelical Christians to Buddhists, Pagans, and Non-theists. Their origin...suggests a Reformed orientation, but some aspects of their faith look more Catholic.

The catch is, we can't love God without loving our neighbor: whoever is next to us at this moment in time. We have to love, really love, with that same love we feel pouring into and loving us.

Carol Reilley Urner

Friends, Babylon is within you, the mother of harlots is within you...the beast which all the world wanders after, is your wills, that makes war against the Lamb of God in you, which is the light that makes manifest the evil of your hearts.

William Dewsbury (1621-1688).

How can we love our brother and kill him? How can we fulfill the Gospel precept to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect; how can we follow the precept to love God when we kill our fellow man? How can war be compatible with such love?

Dorothy Day

"To know the Deity only as power and not as goodness, is idolatry, and it matters little then whether there is one God or several."

Simone Weil.

The image includes the quotation below on a light green background, along with a picture of "The Quaker Faith" book cover: [The clearness Meeting is] a small group practice that aims to uphold and support a Friend seeking clearness about an issue. The purpose is not for the committee to try and come up with a solution. Instead, they seek to enable the individual to think more deeply about the matter under divine guidance. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.105.

[The clearness Meeting is] a small group practice that aims to uphold and support a Friend seeking clearness about an issue. The purpose is not for the committee to try and come up with a solution. Instead, they seek to enable the individual to think more deeply about the matter...

Even in the wicked, God has a witness which is pure, which checks them often, though they do not regard it.

Francis Howgill (1660)

"No one can truly know Christ unless he follows him in life."

Hans Denck.

The image includes the quotation below with a black and white picture of Walt Whitman (an older white man with a white beard, wearing a wide brimmed hat): "If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders." Walt Whitman

"If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders."

Walt Whitman

“Violence can never stop violence because its very success leads others to imitate it. Ironically, violence is most dangerous when it succeeds.”

Walter Wink – The Powers That Be

Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Two YouTube video by Woodbrooke

The second of three short interviews about the 2026 Swarthmore Lecture with Woodbrooke's Senior Communications Officer, Aled Vernon-Rees.

If our spirituality can reach the depths of authentic prayer, our lives will become an authentic witness for justice, peace and the integrity of creation, a witness which becomes the context for our prayer.

Gordon Matthews

"God does not will evil. And if this evil exists, God is the first victim of it. Evil exists because his love is not accepted: his love is misunderstood, rejected, and resisted."

Robert Cardinal Sarah

"...you may manifestly declare your selves to be the Epistles of Christ, to be seen and read of all men, you that are in union and fellowship with him."

Richard Farnsworth

The image includes the quotation below on a light green background, along with a picture of "The Quaker Faith" book cover: The earliest Friends took the reality of evil very seriously, but they also believed that God could liberate them from sin in this life. This created a dynamic tension between human fallibility and the possibility of perfection. In Quaker spirituality, holiness and perfection are regarded as divine characteristics which can be revealed in the lives of faithful people. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.155

The earliest Friends took the reality of evil very seriously, but they also believed that God could liberate them from sin in this life. This created a dynamic tension between human fallibility and the possibility of perfection.

The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.155

The image includes the reflection below, along with a picture of an early Quaker woman, preaching: The early Quaker experience of convincement can be compared to an inward participation in Holy Week. First, they suffered the traumatic experience of purging and cleaning that involved a crucifixion of their old lives (Good Friday). Then, they waited patiently (in worship) in the darkness of their inward tomb (Holy Saturday). Finally, they were raised up into a new life of liberation and great joy (Easter Sunday). This was an essential aspect of a wider process in which they felt they were participating in the drama of the Incarnation event. SKM.

The early Quaker experience of convincement can be compared to an inward participation in Holy Week... This was an essential aspect of a wider process in which they felt they were participating in the drama of the Incarnation event.

The image includes the quotation below along with a picture of Nadia Bolz-Weber (a middle aged woman wearing glasses, a dog collar and a cross): It happens to all of us, I concluded that Easter Sunday morning, God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig for ourselves through violence, our lies, our selfishness, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over. Nadia Bolz-Weber

...I concluded that Easter Sunday morning, God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig for ourselves through violence, our lies, our selfishness, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over.

Remember that each of us has our own cross. The Golgotha of this cross is our heart: it is being lifted or implanted through a zealous determination to live according to the Spirit of God. Just as salvation of the world is by the Cross of God, so our salvation is by our crucifixion on our own cross. St, Theophan the Recluse

Remember that each of us has our own cross. The Golgotha of this cross is our heart: it is being lifted or implanted through a zealous determination to live according to the Spirit of God. Just as salvation of the world is by the Cross of God, so our salvation is by our crucifixion on our own cross.

…for the cross is to the carnal, wild, heady, brutish nature in you, which lies above the seed of God in you, and oppresses the pure. Now giving this up to be crucified makes way for that which is pure to arise and guide your minds up to God…

James Nayler – A Discovery of the First Wisdom (1653)

The image includes the quotation below on a picture of the three crucifixions on Golgotha: "The crucifixion is God's refusal to abandon the crucified peoples of the world." Kelly Brown Douglas

"The crucifixion is God's refusal to abandon the crucified peoples of the world."

Kelly Brown Douglas

The prophet speaks for God, and God is always on the side of the powerless, the suffering, the oppressed.

Richard Rohr

Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part One YouTube video by Woodbrooke

The first of three interviews about the upcoming Swarthmore Lecture with Woodbrooke's Senior Communications Officer, Aled Vernon-Rees.

The image includes the quotation below along with a picture of Barbara Brown Taylor ( a middle-aged white woman with white hair): The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it. Barbara Brown Taylor

The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.

The image includes the quotation below surrounded by gree palm leaves: "Praise that does not lead us to justice is not praise at all." Kaitlin Curtice

"Praise that does not lead us to justice is not praise at all."

Kaitlin Curtice

The image includes the quotation below on a light green background along with a picture of "The Quaker Faith" book cover: Through their yearly meeting structures, male Friends maintained control of decision-making on matters of discipline, doctrine, and political engagement, and it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that women began to enjoy equal participation in this work. Women were sometimes excluded from public campaigning on social issues, such as the abolition of enslavement, and Friends were divided on the issue of women’s suffrage. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.163.

Through their yearly meeting structures, male Friends maintained control of decision-making on matters of discipline, doctrine, and political engagement, and it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that women began to enjoy equal participation in this work.

The Quaker Faith, p.163.

The Radical Comfort of Not Being in Control Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube Based on a conversation with Stuart Masters and Philipp Kobald Most modern spirituality is basically project management with incense. Track your habits. Optimize you...

In this podcast, I talk with Philipp Kobald about some of the key features of Quaker spirituality.