Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
I have long ruminated about the challenge of living in a digital society where we no longer seem to have a common culture that roots us. It feels like, in generations past, Americans had a more universal experience where we did the same things (e.g. bowling) and consumed the same media (the Bible, the three…
I’ve been a Quaker for 26 years and only now learned about the Public Universal Friend. The Public Universal Friend is hard to describe. They are considered by some to be the first transgender evangelist, by others the first American-born woman to lead a religious movement, by others a controversal non-binary preacher during the Revolutionary…
This weekend I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time: hosted a silent Quaker Meeting for Worship in my home for my non-Quaker friends. It was a small group of just five of us, which was the right number because I would have been nervous hosting a larger gathering. Also…
I was pleased I got to share on KQED’s Bay Curious blog in March a bit of how the pandemic has changed my life: getting back to my Quaker roots. Here’s what I shared: My name is Rik Panganiban and I work for KQED education. Like a lot of people, everything changed in the pandemic,…
I’ve been attending a virtual Quaker Meeting for Worship (what we call our services) for about a year. For those interested in experiencing this unique form of religious gathering, there is no better time, with hundreds of them happening each week. My home church, the Brooklyn Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, holds…
Today was the first time in years that I have given a message at Quaker Meeting for Worship. It was during Brooklyn Monthly Meeting’s virtual meeting, which I have been to a few times since the pandemic. Here’s what I shared: Friends, I have been thinking about this new structure for our Meeting. I think…
The New York Times has an inspired write up about Quaker activist Benjamin Lay, “You’ll Never Be as Radical as This 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf.” It really speaks to my condition, as Friends say: “Lay, a hunchback as well as a dwarf, was the world’s first revolutionary abolitionist. Against the common sense of the day, when slavery…
Here is the message that was communicated from New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to President-elect Donald Trump a few days ago. Although I have not attended Quaker Meeting for a very long time, I am still formally a member of the New York Yearly Meeting and the Brooklyn Monthly…
This video has all of the awesome: Spot on parody of the already excellent "The Fox" music video Interesting content about the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and our founder, George Fox Great production values, from music to cinematography, for a volunteer production Hilarious Quaker references: giving vocal ministry, the bonnets and hats, sitting…
Today I went to my first "programmed" Quaker Meeting for Worship, at the Berkeley Friends Church. There are many strains of Quakerism, only some fraction of which I am familiar with. One of the largest divisions among Quakers are between the "programmed" and "unprogrammed" Meetings for Worship. "Programmed" for Quakers refers to the kind of…