SEEDS banner

Seeds eNewsletter

Shiphrah, Puah, and Pluralism

Shiphrah, Puah, and Pluralism

SHIPHRAH AND PUAH BROKE THE LAW. When Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill the male Hebrew newborns, they conspired instead to lie to him. "Hebrew women are not like Egyptians. They give birth too quickly, before we arrive." This implies that Pharaoh wanted the deaths...

read more
Nurturing the Witness of God-Between

Nurturing the Witness of God-Between

INCREASINGLY I AM SEEING ARTICLES AND DISCUSSIONS about the urgent need to rebuild the structures of community that have been shredded in our American life. Recently The Atlantic published an insightful essay by David Brooks called, Why are Americans so Mean? This was...

read more
Remembering

Remembering

Sunbrick field, in Cumbria, where Margaret Fell and a host of 17th century Friends are buried.UNLIKE SOME FAMILIES, mine never had the tradition of visiting cemeteries to put flowers on graves. My father was not one to discuss the afterlife — or any faith issues. My...

read more
A Daily Dose of Wonder

A Daily Dose of Wonder

THIS WEEK I WATCHED AN EPISODE of “The Nature of Things” called the “Intelligence of Trees.” It was a fascinating account of how academic studies are finding that trees—through their root systems—are communicating with one another. They are sending out messages of...

read more
The State of Society

The State of Society

MANY QUAKER MEETINGS write annual "state of" reports. How we do it differs a lot. My own yearly meeting asks each local meeting to write a "state of the meeting" report, and then these reports are read by a yearly meeting committee and conglomerated into a "state of...

read more
Intentionality of Joy

Intentionality of Joy

"These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" —John 15:11 EARLY IN THIS SEASON OF ADVENT, my daughter brought home a new addition to our Christmas decorations. It was a cheerful wooden plank that proclaimed: JOY to the...

read more
The joy of reciprocity

The joy of reciprocity

The track leading to Colthouse Meeting VISITING AMONG FRIENDS RECENTLY felt like oxygen to me, after COVID lock-downs and the forced cancelation of earlier travel plans. With Sophie’s hospitality of lunch and driving guidance (see below), and the welcomes we received...

read more