News

Dann Pell will be sharing his music ministry, Songs to Ground and Uplift, at Memphis Quaker Meeting on Saturday, March 1 at 5:00 PM. This special gathering is open to the public and free to attend. Donations to support the artist (cash or virtual) are warmly welcomed. Dann Pell is a musician and member of Exeter Quaker Meeting in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. He will be traveling in March, sharing his music ministry under the care of Exeter Monthly Meeting of Friends. His...

By Ron (reprinted from January 1999 newsletter) A Quaker clearness committee is a unique method of seeking discernment. The name expresses its purpose. Clearness committees help Friends find clarity. Friend Parker Palmer writes, “Behind the clearness committee is a simple but crucial conviction: each of us has an inner teacher, a voice of truth, that offers the guidance and power we need to deal with the problem.” Memphis Friends Meeting uses this process for Friends who want worshipful support for membership or...

Love as Action, the first of a series of worshipful protests, was held on Saturday January 17 in the front yard of our meetinghouse. The 25 Friends and neighbors In Memphis were joining Friends in a dozen or more cities to build a collective presence against the rising authoritarianism. The day was cold, but hope was high, and hot tea, cocoa and fellowship after the gathering warmed our spirits. At least two more Love as Action events are being scheduled...

By Carol When someone wants a broader understanding of Quakerism, we often suggest looking at the videos online called Quaker Speak without even noticing the oxymoron. If our worship is silent, what are we doing talking about speech? In fact, Friends are called to speak on many occasions -- messages in worship and in Joys & Concerns, discernment in business meeting, and sharing in meeting for learning. In each case there is a Quaker way to do it. To begin with,...

By Robert The article in November Memphis Friends News about launching a new meeting combined with my own recent Quaker experience has led me to reflect on how Quaker meetings begin and end. My wife and I are now spending about six months a year in Nelson Co, Virginia near our older daughter's family. Surprisingly, I met a man there who had been a Quaker in Colorado and we decided to try to establish an unprogrammed worship group. Finding a regular...

By Anne R. The six rosetteson the mason jar feederlooked identical to me,but apparently notto the – I want to say“persnickety” –ruby-throated hummerrounding the jar –idling on airbefore each oneuntil he found the one,and uncoiling his tonguesipped the blurof his scintillant selfin the sugar water,his turbo-charged wingschurning the leavesof the potted plant below,like freak gustsin otherwise calmweather -- until suddenly(incensed by my grin?)he backed upfrom the feederin that decisive waya copter does,zipped overto hover inchesfrom my face, andwith a no-nonsense look,cut...

October 5 is World Quaker Day. Consider joining us for worship at 11:00 and potluck at the rise of meeting (around 12:15). All are welcome!

By Alyson The festival draws a lot of creative and open-minded folks who enjoy the safe place to be themselves and their energy is contagious. Our team worked very smoothly together. We had time to get to know each other while we were setting up and doing the outreach. Jace was an amazing help getting the shade awning in place and then getting things loaded for the return trip to the meeting house. The free cold water and canned drinks were...

By Kelly Little was understood about mental illness in the Middle Ages. Sufferers were viewed either as eccentric or possessed by demons. The high point of abuse, however, actually came in the 1600s and it was just then that early Quakers began to counter the conventional wisdom. Perhaps it was Friends’ experience with prisons that led them to carry a concern for the mentally ill locked up in poor houses, asylums, churches, or even private homes. George Fox was jailed eight times...

By Adrian I’ve been thinking a lot about what creates an authentic community. At Illinois Yearly Meeting last June, I had the chance to talk with Windy Cooler whom I had met at a Pendle Hill retreat a few years ago. As she talked about her many experiences with both healthy and unhealthy communities, I realized that Quaker meetings can sometimes get into the habit of relying too much on rubber-stamping Quaker process, forgetting the importance of relationships, of the exchange...