The Pacific Yearly Meeting Ministry Committee invites reflection on the following texts and queries.
If you wish to bring a leading, concern, request, or question to Ministry Committee, please contact the co-clerks Kindred Gottlieb and Jonathan Woolley at: ministryclerk@pacificyearlymeeting.org
November 2025
“The moment we choose to love, we begin to move against domination, against oppression.
The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”
— bell hooks
What are ways that I choose love on a daily basis?
Are there ways in which I do not feel free?
What might it mean to direct my love towards others regardless of how I may perceive or judge them?
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October 2025
“Early Quakers did not choose the name ‘Friends of the Truth’ randomly or because it sounded good. It is clear that this name communicated something quite vital about their experience, their spirituality, their theology and their witness in the world.
It spoke of a people who experienced a direct and intimate relationship with God, who felt that they were being taught ‘the truth’ by the Spirit and who recognised the importance of putting these teachings into practice.
This implied loyalty to the way of God rather than the ways of the world and a willingness to face persecution at the hands of the world out of love for God and neighbour.”
— Stuart Masters, 2018, former program coordinator for Woodbrooke Quaker Centre, U.K.
What does our original name, ‘Friends of the Truth,’ mean during these times?
Am I taking the time to pause and listen deeply for the truth as I interact in the world?
How do we, like the early Friends, allow Truth to speak through us even if it means facing risk of persecution?
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May 2025
“In silence, having swept dust and litter from our minds, we can detect the pulse of God’s blood in our veins, more persuasive than words, more demonstrative than a diagram.”
— Basil Bunting, on Meeting for Worship
From his poem, Briggflatts
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April 2025
Harrowing
The plow has savaged this sweet field
Misshapen clods of earth kicked up
Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view
Last year’s growth demolished by the blade.
I have plowed my life this way
Turned over a whole history
Looking for the roots of what went wrong
Until my face is ravaged, furrowed, scarred.
Enough. The job is done.
Whatever’s been uprooted, let it be
Seedbed for the growing that’s to come.
I plowed to unearth last year’s reasons—
The farmer plows to plant a greening season.
— Parker J. Palmer
Quaker author, educator, and activist
Am I able to be a Witness to all that I experience— the love, the loss, the joy, and the sorrow?
How do I cultivate dynamic resiliency so that I may be present and nimble to act when it is required of me?
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January 2025
May we be large as giant redwoods in our love and presence.
“When I dare to use my power in service of my visions, it ceases to be important whether I am afraid.”
— Audrey Lord
Sink down below the words
to the Truth of Love
revealed in Silence.
Bathe in that Silence, in that Love,
so that all thy action may spring forth–
an upwelling of that deep artesian.
— Kathryn Neale Manalo (Berkeley Meeting)