The Octo­ber Friends Jour­nal is out. A lit­tle teas­er from my open­ing col­umn:

Are we all just bad Quak­ers? I don’t think so. I had so many con­ver­sa­tions with Friends over the years in which they judged them­selves against semi-mythical “real Quak­ers.” I sus­pect we often find our great­est Quak­er authen­tic­i­ty in the messi­ness that fol­lows faith­ful­ness. Some of the most fas­ci­nat­ing Friends in the past, fig­ures such as Ben­jamin Lay and Pub­lic Uni­ver­sal Friend, were so far ahead of their time that they couldn’t fit into the Quak­er main­stream of their day.

The Good Samar­i­tan who stopped to help a wound­ed trav­el­er was prob­a­bly made late for what­ev­er appoint­ment he was rush­ing to. He might have lost busi­ness with his detour; he cer­tain­ly lost mon­ey on the sup­plies he used to treat the wounds and on the mon­ey he gave the innkeep­er. But he was clear-sighted enough to know that the inward com­mand­ment to help his neigh­bor was more impor­tant than any of these world­ly concerns.

And Who Are Our Friends? 

How can Quak­ers find authen­tic­i­ty in a divid­ed world? Explore the call to love our neigh­bors amid global…

Friends Journal