On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2020, the Washington Post ran an engaging story of two independent-minded women who faced down the CIA and won. That’s our first story: The two women were Florence Thorne and Margaret Scattergood. The Post: Five thousand square feet, wide windows, a grand staircase, a front porch with a panoramic view … Continue reading Two Stories of Quaker Women: One True, One (Maybe) Fiction
The little church challenging the huge California Quaker megachurch (described in the blog post, David vs. Goliath, the “Friendly” Version, of January 30), won a round in court on January 31; but its reward was only a reprieve. The struggle over an aborted effort to help the homeless continues. Orange County superior court judge Thomas … Continue reading Midway City Update: Quaker David, Goliath & the Two Witnesses
A bulletin from southern California: The biggest Quaker church in the world wants to shut down one of the smallest. The small church sued in late 2018 to stop the shutdown. But a hearing in Orange County Superior Court on January 31 could lock their doors & make the
Ken Bradstock had something valuable to say. A lot, actually. Enough to fill a book. I hope he got it down, on paper or on disk, whatever, before he died on January 22. If I remember right, I first noticed Ken during the bad days of turmoil among North Carolina pastoral Quakers. Ken had been … Continue reading Ken Bradstock, Edward Hicks & Me
Cambridge, Massachusetts, late 1970s “Heads up!” called the voice from the basement. “Here come the bags!” When they heard the cry a hundred men and women straightened up, like ragtag soldiers jerking to attention. Spaced about three feet apart, they stood in a line that ran from the open end of a big tractor-trailer truck … Continue reading A Between-the-Holidays Quaker Holiday Story: Beethoven in the Basement