Guide to Quaker Blogs
This is QQ publisher Martin Kelley's personal guide to some of the most interesting Quaker blogs and online ministries. Here he tackles the "Why Blog" question, points you to cool blogs, and gives you resources for finding Friends near you.
Why blog? While there are plenty of places to go to learn more than you ever wanted to know about Quaker history and Quakers belief, blogs give us a unique way of sharing our lives--how our Quakerism intersects with the day-to-day decisions that make up faithful living. Quaker blogs give us a chance to get to know like-minded Friends that are separated by geography or artificial theological boundaries and they give us a way of talking to and with the institutions that make up our faith community. Finally, they're great ways to share our faith with curious outsiders!
Want to start blogging? You can begin by writing posts to the <a href="QuakerQuaker Discussion Board--it only takes a few moments to sign up and you'll be blogging instantly!
The Quakerquaker guide:
QuakerQuaker.org is a service that lists the week's most interesting Quaker articles--at least as judged by its half dozen or so editors! You can subscribe to a daily email or directly to its subscription feed. As you start to follow the entries you'll find Quaker bloggers you like and can start subscribing and reading them directly.
Blogs:
I've reorganized the this listing to be a leisurely tour that starts off in the US Pacific Northwest. Johan Maurer is a Evangelical Friend who's been involved with almost all of the branches of American Quakerism and has a curiousity and faithfulness that makes for inspiring reading. Gregg Koskela is a pastor at Newburg Friends Church in Portland who writes a great blog. AJ Schwanz is a thirty-something Friend, also from Newburg, who worries about our "missing generation" of Friends while nudging her Evangelical yearly meeting toward a more organic, missional model. Peggy Parsons, pastor at Salem Oregon's Freedom Friends Church (motto: "Radically Quaker, Radically Inclusive and Radically Christ Center") has a great down-to-earth blog called A Silly Poor Gospel.
There are liberals Friends in Oregon, as proved by Mitch Santine Gould, whose posts dig into Walt Whitman and his coterie of nineteenth century Progressive Friends and the gay subculture that helped shape their theology. Timothy has long been a fixture on the Quaker groups and is a welcome addition to the blogosphere.
The bay area has San Francisco Meeting's Robin M is out of San Francisco and most notorious in the Quakosphere for coining the very useful concept of Convergent Friends. Don't miss hubby Chris M's excellent blog. Carl M is the wild-eyed EarthQuaker prophet our times demand but I find his most interesting posts are the ones where he goes self-reflexive to examine the snares of ego in our Quaker ministry. Across the bay, Berkeley Friends Church's Max Hanson blogs. Lynn was one of the pioneering Quaker bloggers, and she continues with thoughtful discussions about Biblical themes, Christian sexuality and current events.
Skip down the California coast and you'll find convinced Ohio Evangelical Friend C Wess Daniels studying at Pasadena's Fuller Theological Seminary. He's teamed up with Chris Frazier to relaunch Quaker 2.0, a site for those "tired of having to choose an either-or Quakerism."
Hopping aboard an an airplane, the Twin Cities area is full of Quaker blogs. LizOpp is a liberal Friend exploring Conservative Quakerism in her blog The Good Raised Up. Paul L is another thoughtful blogger from the area. Earthfreak Pam is a "dyke vegetarian Quaker" who always surprises me and the area's James Riemermann is very involved in the Nontheist Friends movement. Don't get back on the plane before heading down to Iowa and checking out Iowa Conservative Friend Marshall Massey; his comments on everyone else's blogs have been a true treasure and his list of recommended blogs is as fine an intro to Quaker blogs as ministry as anything on this site. Indiana pastor and author Brent Bill blogs as Holy Ordinary and has dreams of an open Friends Fellowship. Nancy A has had some great posts on addressing the growing pains at her Ontario meeting and on a new emergent church plant she's organized.
Boston is another Quaker blogging stronghold. Amanda G writes passionately about her spiritual promptings, while Rob describes himself as "twenty-something gay Mid-western expatriate living in Boston" and Zach A is the "green anarchist Quaker. North Carolina's Claire R has moved up to Massachusetts for school and is an excellent read. Sarah is another great blog that I only wish were more active (grin!). Will T is a New England Friend who's understanding of Quakerism is deeply embued with his understanding of classic Quaker theologian Robert Barclay.
Rich the Brooklyn Quaker is another well-grounded student of Quakerism, who often gives very nuanced and interesting readings of historical texts. Moving down the east coast, Cherice is a Northwest Friend studying at Princeton. Then there's me, Martin Kelley, a former professional Quaker whose QuakerRanter blog helped get this craziness going.
Mark W is an Atlanta Friend who's spending a lot of time hanging around southern Conservatives and posting about it. Heading way South, Kody is a Miami Friend who's chronicling his coming into the ministry.
The Quaker blogging world is not all American and I apologize for the skimpiness of international representatives. I'm not sure how much of this is my own bias and how much might be the lack of a strong Quaker blogger culture outside North America. Under the Hill Simon, Quaker Street Jez are two blogging British Friends.
Missionary Anna is a young British Friend living among New Zealand Quakers. Kaimosi Connection follows the work of the Nugent/Rehard family at the Friends Theological College in Kenya.
New Media Ministries
There are plenty of individual Quakers that go beyond blogging to create what I call "New Media Mininstries." While they sometimes use blogging technology, they don't tend to have the personal ephemera of a blog. They differ from the official websites of larger Quaker institutions in that they often have a strong viewpoint and focus( they also tend to be more web saavy; see my post How Insiders and Seekers Use the Quaker Net for more about this).
For all practical purposes Russ Nelson started the Quaker web with Quaker.org, the first and still most comprehensive listing of Quaker organizations; he's recently started Planet Quaker, a compilation of posts from a number of prominent Quaker bloggers. Bill Samuel's Quakerinfo.Com has lots of good material (don't miss his renewal links). Kirk Wattles' Street Corner Society has lots of material about early Friends and many of the other greats English misfits of the time--Puritans, Independents, and Seekers, as Diggers and Ranters. The New Foundation Fellowship US promotes Christian Quaker renewal. The UK NFF is much more interesting--don't miss their short articles. NCYM-C's Journal publishes twice a year or so and is always well worth reading. Johan Mauer has put together a discussion board on Evangelism and the Friends Testimonies.
Other Useful Resources
The Quaker Information Center gives a great introduction to Friends. Many of the regional editions of our books of Faith and Practice are now online. Outsiders have also written interesting introductions: here's our Religious Movement entry. Here's Quakers on Wikipedia. Religious Tolerance has a good section on Quakers. Be aware that there are inaccuracies and biases in all of these resources.
A Short History of Conservative Friends is the best online introduction to this branch of Quakers. Jerry Frost's "Three Twentieth Century Revolutions" is the most thorough guide to the Liberal Quaker.
Finding Quakers
If you're just reading about Quakers on the net and you've found your way to this page it's probably a good time to find a local Quaker meeting or church and meet us live and in-person. To find unprogrammed meetings in the U.S. and Canada try FGC's Quakerfinder or the larger but less-frequently updated list on Quaker.org. If these doesn't work I've found that looking up "Quaker Meeting" or "Quaker Church" into the Yahoo Yellow Pages yields surprisingly good results (see box).
Yahoo Search (type city & state or zip):
Quakers come together in regional organizations called yearly meetings: here's a worldwide list. Be aware: Quakers come in a lot of different forms and you will probably be counfounded by any preconception you have of us and our worship style and theology. If you're in an area with a choice of Quaker types, you might try different meetings to see the differences.
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This is QQ publisher Martin Kelley's personal guide to some of the most interesting Quaker blogs and online ministries. Here he tackles the "Why Blog" question, points you to cool blogs, and gives you resources for finding Friends near you.
Why blog? While there are plenty of places to go to learn more than you ever wanted to know about Quaker history and Quakers belief, blogs give us a unique way of sharing our lives--how our Quakerism intersects with the day-to-day decisions that make up faithful living. Quaker blogs give us a chance to get to know like-minded Friends that are separated by geography or artificial theological boundaries and they give us a way of talking to and with the institutions that make up our faith community. Finally, they're great ways to share our faith with curious outsiders!
Want to start blogging? You can begin by writing posts to the <a href="QuakerQuaker Discussion Board--it only takes a few moments to sign up and you'll be blogging instantly!
The Quakerquaker guide:
|
|
QuakerQuaker.org is a service that lists the week's most interesting Quaker articles--at least as judged by its half dozen or so editors! You can subscribe to a daily email or directly to its subscription feed. As you start to follow the entries you'll find Quaker bloggers you like and can start subscribing and reading them directly.
Blogs:
I've reorganized the this listing to be a leisurely tour that starts off in the US Pacific Northwest. Johan Maurer is a Evangelical Friend who's been involved with almost all of the branches of American Quakerism and has a curiousity and faithfulness that makes for inspiring reading. Gregg Koskela is a pastor at Newburg Friends Church in Portland who writes a great blog. AJ Schwanz is a thirty-something Friend, also from Newburg, who worries about our "missing generation" of Friends while nudging her Evangelical yearly meeting toward a more organic, missional model. Peggy Parsons, pastor at Salem Oregon's Freedom Friends Church (motto: "Radically Quaker, Radically Inclusive and Radically Christ Center") has a great down-to-earth blog called A Silly Poor Gospel.
There are liberals Friends in Oregon, as proved by Mitch Santine Gould, whose posts dig into Walt Whitman and his coterie of nineteenth century Progressive Friends and the gay subculture that helped shape their theology. Timothy has long been a fixture on the Quaker groups and is a welcome addition to the blogosphere.
The bay area has San Francisco Meeting's Robin M is out of San Francisco and most notorious in the Quakosphere for coining the very useful concept of Convergent Friends. Don't miss hubby Chris M's excellent blog. Carl M is the wild-eyed EarthQuaker prophet our times demand but I find his most interesting posts are the ones where he goes self-reflexive to examine the snares of ego in our Quaker ministry. Across the bay, Berkeley Friends Church's Max Hanson blogs. Lynn was one of the pioneering Quaker bloggers, and she continues with thoughtful discussions about Biblical themes, Christian sexuality and current events.
Skip down the California coast and you'll find convinced Ohio Evangelical Friend C Wess Daniels studying at Pasadena's Fuller Theological Seminary. He's teamed up with Chris Frazier to relaunch Quaker 2.0, a site for those "tired of having to choose an either-or Quakerism."
Hopping aboard an an airplane, the Twin Cities area is full of Quaker blogs. LizOpp is a liberal Friend exploring Conservative Quakerism in her blog The Good Raised Up. Paul L is another thoughtful blogger from the area. Earthfreak Pam is a "dyke vegetarian Quaker" who always surprises me and the area's James Riemermann is very involved in the Nontheist Friends movement. Don't get back on the plane before heading down to Iowa and checking out Iowa Conservative Friend Marshall Massey; his comments on everyone else's blogs have been a true treasure and his list of recommended blogs is as fine an intro to Quaker blogs as ministry as anything on this site. Indiana pastor and author Brent Bill blogs as Holy Ordinary and has dreams of an open Friends Fellowship. Nancy A has had some great posts on addressing the growing pains at her Ontario meeting and on a new emergent church plant she's organized.
Boston is another Quaker blogging stronghold. Amanda G writes passionately about her spiritual promptings, while Rob describes himself as "twenty-something gay Mid-western expatriate living in Boston" and Zach A is the "green anarchist Quaker. North Carolina's Claire R has moved up to Massachusetts for school and is an excellent read. Sarah is another great blog that I only wish were more active (grin!). Will T is a New England Friend who's understanding of Quakerism is deeply embued with his understanding of classic Quaker theologian Robert Barclay.
Rich the Brooklyn Quaker is another well-grounded student of Quakerism, who often gives very nuanced and interesting readings of historical texts. Moving down the east coast, Cherice is a Northwest Friend studying at Princeton. Then there's me, Martin Kelley, a former professional Quaker whose QuakerRanter blog helped get this craziness going.
Mark W is an Atlanta Friend who's spending a lot of time hanging around southern Conservatives and posting about it. Heading way South, Kody is a Miami Friend who's chronicling his coming into the ministry.
The Quaker blogging world is not all American and I apologize for the skimpiness of international representatives. I'm not sure how much of this is my own bias and how much might be the lack of a strong Quaker blogger culture outside North America. Under the Hill Simon, Quaker Street Jez are two blogging British Friends.
Missionary Anna is a young British Friend living among New Zealand Quakers. Kaimosi Connection follows the work of the Nugent/Rehard family at the Friends Theological College in Kenya.
New Media Ministries
There are plenty of individual Quakers that go beyond blogging to create what I call "New Media Mininstries." While they sometimes use blogging technology, they don't tend to have the personal ephemera of a blog. They differ from the official websites of larger Quaker institutions in that they often have a strong viewpoint and focus( they also tend to be more web saavy; see my post How Insiders and Seekers Use the Quaker Net for more about this).
For all practical purposes Russ Nelson started the Quaker web with Quaker.org, the first and still most comprehensive listing of Quaker organizations; he's recently started Planet Quaker, a compilation of posts from a number of prominent Quaker bloggers. Bill Samuel's Quakerinfo.Com has lots of good material (don't miss his renewal links). Kirk Wattles' Street Corner Society has lots of material about early Friends and many of the other greats English misfits of the time--Puritans, Independents, and Seekers, as Diggers and Ranters. The New Foundation Fellowship US promotes Christian Quaker renewal. The UK NFF is much more interesting--don't miss their short articles. NCYM-C's Journal publishes twice a year or so and is always well worth reading. Johan Mauer has put together a discussion board on Evangelism and the Friends Testimonies.
Other Useful Resources
The Quaker Information Center gives a great introduction to Friends. Many of the regional editions of our books of Faith and Practice are now online. Outsiders have also written interesting introductions: here's our Religious Movement entry. Here's Quakers on Wikipedia. Religious Tolerance has a good section on Quakers. Be aware that there are inaccuracies and biases in all of these resources.
A Short History of Conservative Friends is the best online introduction to this branch of Quakers. Jerry Frost's "Three Twentieth Century Revolutions" is the most thorough guide to the Liberal Quaker.
Finding Quakers
If you're just reading about Quakers on the net and you've found your way to this page it's probably a good time to find a local Quaker meeting or church and meet us live and in-person. To find unprogrammed meetings in the U.S. and Canada try FGC's Quakerfinder or the larger but less-frequently updated list on Quaker.org. If these doesn't work I've found that looking up "Quaker Meeting" or "Quaker Church" into the Yahoo Yellow Pages yields surprisingly good results (see box).
| Yahoo Search (type city & state or zip): |
|
|
Quakers come together in regional organizations called yearly meetings: here's a worldwide list. Be aware: Quakers come in a lot of different forms and you will probably be counfounded by any preconception you have of us and our worship style and theology. If you're in an area with a choice of Quaker types, you might try different meetings to see the differences.
Experimental Search:About this page:
Bookmark posts as "quaker." in Del.icio.us or your blog's tagging system and they should show up here. More.
Popular Categories
QuackQuack Community | |
