SEEDS e-Newsletter
The First Day
By Emily Provance I THINK OF WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, as the beginning. For me, two things happened that day. First, I received a barrage of communications: emails, phone calls, text messages, social media contacts. “Who has a plan? What’s the Center for Disease Control...
A Sturdy Faith
By Jan Wood THERE IS A REFRAIN FROM AN OLD HYMN, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” that rings in my ears these days: On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is shifting sand. All other ground is shifting sand. We are in the midst of a massive national — and...
Dolls of hope, dolls of peace
By Nancy McCormick IN 2010, under the leadership of former Curator Ruth Brindle, the Quaker Heritage Center of Wilmington College created an exhibit that celebrated a doll exchange program that occurred in 1927 between Japan and America to help build relationships...
Listening in Tongues
By Christine Hall IF WE CARE ABOUT vibrant, transformative faith communities, how do we help it happen? That’s the ideal we foster in Way of the Spirit—an 18 month program for learning and spiritual growth from Quaker spirituality. Over the years, we’ve taken up the...
Announcing Way of the Spirit 2020-21 Program
The Courage to See
By Jan Wood I HAVE HAD GOD OPEN MY EYES to new awareness that led to change many times. In fact, I count on that grace in my life! Perhaps the most iconic opening came years ago… My sense of myself at that time was that I was a generous, happy, nice person. I...
Empty Nest
By Julie Peyton IT IS STILL THERE IN THE RECTANGULAR PLANTER on my 9th-floor balcony, the now-empty nest that today has no mother bird flitting about chittering at my presence, no babies trustingly opening those impossibly wide beaks at the approach of my camera. For...
“The Same Spirit”— Bridging Theological Divides
By Christine Hall RECENT TRAVELS BROUGHT ME FACE TO FACE with people who think and talk about God very differently than me or my little Quaker meeting on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. There were different expressions, songs, and theological emphases, yet I...
Surprised by Happiness
By Johan Maurer I LOVED THE ADVERTISED THEME of the April 2019 edition of the Pacific Northwest Quaker Men's Conference — "Identifying, Sharing and Living into Spiritual Gifts." I was especially looking forward to hearing Friends historian Ralph Beebe's story of...
Chesed by Pizza
By Emily Provance "The obligations of normal human kindness — chesed, as the Hebrew has it — that, we all owe." Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light EACH MODE OF TRAVEL — bus, train, plane, automobile — has its own character. I find buses to be the most strange....