Sunday, March 22, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
soc.religion.quaker
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Texts
A Letter on Plain Speech — On Thee, Thou, and the Testimony of EqualityA Greek Quaker living in Italy explains the testimony of plain speech — why Friends use 'thee' and 'thou' and refuse honorific titles — as a witness against flattery and a recognition that all people stand equally before God.A Library for Friends — Books on Quaker History, Faith, and PeacemakingMarshall Massey's annotated bibliography assembled for a memorial library at Orange County Friends Meeting, covering Quaker History, Faith and Practice, History and Faith combined, and Peace and Social Concerns — one of the most comprehensive reading lists in the Quaker online archive.An Annotated Reading List for Quakers and SeekersMarshall Massey's carefully annotated bibliography for those coming to Quakerism, organized by topic from primary sources to modern practice.Books on Quakerism — An Annotated Reading GuideMarshall Massey's curated annotated bibliography of essential Quaker texts, organized by category: early Friends' writings, historical scholarship, modern introductions, and texts on discernment and social order.Community — On the Transformative Power of Covenant in Quaker LifeMarshall Massey returns from Iowa Conservative Yearly Meeting's Midyear gathering and reflects on what makes Conservative Friends a genuine community rather than a collection of individuals — drawing on encounters with a Minneapolis seeker and a message in meeting for worship.Eldering and Oversight — A History of Quaker DisciplineMarshall Massey's detailed history of the distinct Quaker offices of elder and overseer, tracing their evolution from the first generation of Friends through the 19th-century reforms that changed both roles.Introduction to soc.religion.quakerA scholarly introduction to the Usenet newsgroup soc.religion.quaker — its history, community, principal contributors, and the archive of Quaker theological writing it produced between 2003 and 2014.My Struggles with Arrogance — A Quaker Account of the Inner Light and SinElizabeth Crownfield reflects on how the Quaker Inner Light reveals and releases sin — and on the spiritual vanity of feeling superior to others in a Q101 class, even while trying to explain the very Light that exposes such vanity.Not Tolerance But Community — An Anthology of Quaker and Ecumenical VoicesMarshall Massey assembles an anthology of Quaker and non-Quaker voices on the difference between tolerating one's neighbors and genuinely caring for them — arguing that tolerance, as mere non-judgment, is the antithesis of community, and that the Quaker testimony of community demands something deeper.On the Quaker Testimonies — A Scholarly ExcursusMarshall Massey's examination of the Quaker testimonies, arguing that no standard list exists across Friends communities and that all specific testimonies are branches of a single central Christian Testimony.Pharaoh's Economics, Moses's Economics — On Covenantal Property and the Free MarketMarshall Massey compares Pharaoh's grain monopoly in Genesis (which reduced Egypt to slavery) with Moses's covenantal economics — mandatory lending, sabbatical debt cancellation, jubilee land restoration — to argue that biblical property is not the absolute claim libertarians assume.Plainness Is Not Ecology — The Quaker Environmental Track RecordMarshall Massey's honest historical accounting of early Quakers' ecological failures — Nantucket whale hunting, frontier clear-cutting, passenger pigeon hunting — arguing that the testimony of simplicity did not produce ecological consciousness.Quaking — On the Trembling of Early FriendsMarshall Massey's theological explanation of why early Quakers trembled in worship — the name-giving practice, its spiritual source, and what its disappearance reveals about modern Friends.Soc.Religion.Quaker — Frequently Asked QuestionsThe official community FAQ for the Usenet group soc.religion.quaker, covering Quaker history, beliefs, worship practices, organizational structure, and terminology.The Coming New Order in Farmington — A Prophetic OpeningA prophetic document from Licia Kuenning, operator of Quaker Heritage Press, announcing a coming divine transformation in Farmington, Maine on June 6, 2006 — written in the classical Quaker tradition of continuing revelation.The Gathered Meeting — Testimonies of God's Presence in Quaker WorshipMarshall Massey assembles five first-hand accounts spanning 1653 to 1890, each describing the overpowering presence of God felt during gathered Quaker meetings — a primary-source anthology of the defining Quaker religious experience.The Light Within — Early Quakers on the Central Message of FriendsMarshall Massey responds to a question about what makes Quakerism distinctive with five primary-source quotations from 1653 to 1692, each expressing the Quaker emphasis on the transformative inward presence of Christ as the beating heart of the path of life.The Religious Society of Friends — A Frequently Asked Questions GuideThe official soc.religion.quaker newsgroup FAQ, covering Quaker history, beliefs, worship practices, organizational structure, language, and bibliography. Posted monthly to Usenet from 1993 onward.The Shifting Geography of Quakerism — On Decline in the West and Growth in the Global SouthMarshall Massey marshals FWCC statistics from 1960-2002 to show that while North American and British Quakerism has lost a quarter of its membership in a generation, Quakerism in Africa and Latin America has exploded — and that the majority of Friends now live in the Global South.Why Friends Cannot — Isaac Penington on the Roots of Quaker RefusalIsaac Penington's 1660s defense of Quaker nonconformity, laying out the scriptural and theological reasons behind nine core Quaker refusals: paying tithes, swearing oaths, attending church, and more. One of the clearest primary statements of 17th-century Quaker theology.