...the metaphors of a temple of living stones and a body with many parts points in the direction of an ecological perspective... Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers, p.47.

"The prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus in the Gospels... denounce the use of religion to sacralize unjust privilege and to ignore the needs of the people." Rosemary Radford Ruether - Prophetic Tradition and the Liberation of Women

"No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.“ Paulo Freire – Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor. Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children” Martin Luther King Jr.

The faith and practice of the first generation of Friends combined a complex mix of characteristics that presented future generations with a set of creative tensions to be negotiated and interpreted. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.28

"Action is the antidote to despair." Joan Baez

“Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.” Peter Kropotkin

"Your 'yes' to God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and poor..." Dietrich Bonhoffer

Anabaptists and Quakers have been united in their opposition to the entire Christendom system and their desire to return to the vital and simple faith of Jesus, the apostles, and the earliest Church as this was described in the New Testament. The Historic Peace Church Contribution

All the diverse expressions of the Quaker faith in the world today look back to the founding mothers and fathers of the Quaker movement for inspiration... they each interpret this received tradition in quite different ways, emphasising some characteristics at the expense of others.

To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing. Raymond Williams

"Empathy may be the single most important quality that must be nurtured to give peace a fighting chance.“ Arundhati Roy

“Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot.” Emma Goldman

The earliest Friends took the reality of evil very seriously, but they also believed that God could liberate them from sin in this life. This created a dynamic tension between human fallibility and the possibility of perfection... The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.155

Social justice is love applied to systems, policies, and government practice. Now why wouldn't people who profess belief in God, who is love, want that? Bernice A. King

To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true. Bayard Rustin

“My goal is to work toward reimagining a nonwhite and a non-gendered God – a God who can help us build a more just society, faith community, and loving church.” Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White

Recognition that God's Light is in every person helps us to overcome our apparent separation and differences from others; it leads to a sympathetic awareness of their needs and a sense of responsibility towards them... Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets. Philip Berrigan

"My own faith does not rely on escaping to a purely spiritual heaven but is founded instead on the promise that the whole physical creation will be transformed. The necessary power that can achieve this may be spiritual and only known inwardly, but its effects are wonderfully earthy and embodied."

History has almost always been written from the viewpoint of those who build cities and conquer empires, but in...the early Christian tradition we...catch a rare glimpse at the hopes, dreams, and utopian visions of those who suddenly find themselves at the bottom of a new civilization’s social heap.

“The rich and the poor will be liberated. Us poor people are going to be liberated from the rich. The rich are going to be liberated from themselves, that is, from their wealth. Because they're more slaves than we are.” Olivia in 'The Gospel in Solentiname' by Ernesto Cardenal

The truth of this world is dictated by wealth and power. The Truth of God’s kingdom is revealed in service and self-giving.

[The clearness meeting] is a small group practice that aims to uphold and support a Friend seeking clearness about an issue. The purpose is not for the committee to try and come up with a solution... [but] to enable the individual to think more deeply about the matter under divine guidance.

Is it possible that the unquestioned power of earlier Quakerism lay in its ability to stay with the dancing, living Spirit in a place above the limitations of linear thinking, in a wideness of heart above the limitations of words and ideologies and systems? William Tabor

All of us make mistake. Sometimes we can confess our errors to the one or ones we have wronged and ask forgiveness. Other times the best we can do is turn remorse into fuel to do better. As we hold up to the light all that we are and all that we do, God's love keeps integrating us... Doug Gwyn

As a result of their physical shaking, ecstatic prophesying, dramatic signs, healings, and public preaching, opponents condemned Friends for their religious enthusiasm, and those in power regarded them as a threat to social order... Tangled Roots, p.74.

Do we know our neighbor, do we know what they suffer? How is God calling us to love our neighbor, when they are in need, when it is not easy or safe? How is God preparing us to truly be a loving neighbor? Ohio Yearly Meeting

The Beatitudes are not weak. They are quiet rebellion against every empire that teaches us to worship power.

If you want to know where God is, find the space in your heart that is open to all humankind. Joan Chittister