Yesterday morning, I dragged my tired butt over to the Quaker Cemetery in Prospect Park for one of our rare cleanup days. These cemetery cleanups are nice ways for the NYC Quaker community to come together and do something practical together in a beautiful natural setting. I was one of the first ones there, as…
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“Q is for Quaker”: Awesome Arty Keyboard Stickers!
I don't think this aligns well with the Quaker value of simplicity, but I kind of have to have these keyboard stickers created by designer Christopher Monro Delorenzo! Not only are they mad cute (B is for Bowie, P is for Pirate, G is for Geisha) but they have an adorable little Quaker icon for…
Fall cleanup at the Brooklyn Quaker Cemetery
I spent a couple of hours today in the lovely Quaker Cemetery in the middle of Prospect Park, helping rake leaves and fix the gravestones. Lots of kids from the Brooklyn Friends School were there, which was really sweet. What kid doesn't like jumping onto a pile of fall leaves? It was a drizzly, chilly…
Finding balance with the Brooklyn Quakers at the Powell House Retreat Center
I just got back from the Powell House retreat center in upstate New York, joining 40-some Quakers from the Brooklyn Friends Meeting. It was a relaxing and spiritually recharging weekend among some very deep souls. I'm fairly new to Brooklyn Meeting, having only started attending a couple of years ago. So going on a weekend…
Quaking and Swinging: Teaching Quakers how to social dance
This weekend I am up in Old Chatham, New York at the Powell House retreat center for the annual retreat of my spiritual community, the Friends Meeting of Brooklyn. Tonight I taught a small group of Quakers the basics of social dance both as a fun activity and to deepen their understanding about the concept…
Quaker artist James Turrell’s new hologram show opens September 10
I've been a big fan of the work of Quaker artist James Turrell after seeing him lecture in 2007, and then visiting his "Meeting" installation in 2008. Mr. Turrell has a new show opening on September 10 featuring his large holographic work that looks amazing. From the press release: In this new work James Turrell…
Quaker Service erupts into dance party! (video)
Here's a really cute music video that has been flying around the Quaker online community, directed by Ben Schiller featuring Quaker musician Jon Watts. Who says Quakers don't dance? I want to go to THAT Meeting for Worship. That said, I wish the content were a bit more accessible to non-Quakers. Rapping about our internal…
The Digital Quaker: What it means to be a Friend in the Information Society
This morning at Meeting for Worship at the Friends Meeting of Brooklyn, I was thinking about how analog our worship services are. There's almost no modern technology involved at all except for electric lights and maybe an oscillating fan in the summer. There's no amplifier, microphones, television or computer monitors, or other digital technology found…
Balancing spoken messages and silence in Quaker Meeting for Worship
"Unprogrammed" Quaker Meetings for Worship, for those that have never been, can be briefly described as 60 minutes of corporate silent meditation interspersed with occasional spoken "messages" from someone in the congregation. It's the most "crowd-sourced" church service there is. Every Friend has their own personal sense of what is the best balance of spoken…
How I center down during Quaker Meeting for Worship
It is always useful for me to learn how other Quakers get themselves into the meditative state that we call “centering down.” When Quakers gather during our Meetings for Worship, we are seeking to be in a calm, quiet, reflective, receptive state. In our rushed, complicated lives, achieving this state of “expectant waiting” is not…