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Advent Reflections Week 2 – The Prophets

Mark Russ2 Comments
Dark green holy with red berries in the centre.

Part of a series of four Advent reflections centred on Mary and her song in Luke 1:46-55. "She has shown strength with her arm;she has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.She has brought down the powerful from their thrones,and lifted up the lowly;she has filled the hungry with good things,and sent the… Continue reading Advent Reflections Week 2 – The Prophets

Advent Reflections Week 1 – The Ancestors

Mark Russ3 Comments

Part of a series of four Advent reflections centred on Mary and her song in Luke 1:46-55. "Her mercy is for those who fear herfrom generation to generation…She has helped her servant Israel,in remembrance of her mercy,according to the promise she made to our ancestors,to Sarah and Abraham and to their descendants for ever." I… Continue reading Advent Reflections Week 1 – The Ancestors

Two weeks until the “The Spirit of Freedom” book launch

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There's still time to register for my online book launch on Tuesday 26 November 2024, 19:30-20:30 (UK time). Book your free place at https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/book-launch-the-spirit-of-freedom-mark-russ/ This free event will include a conversation between myself and fellow Quaker author Rhiannon Grant, a short reading, and the opportunity to ask me questions about the book. You can find out how to… Continue reading Two weeks until the “The Spirit of Freedom” book launch

Thicc places: a Quaker on pilgrimage

Mark Russ6 Comments
Two legs covered from toe to mid-shin in thick blue-black mud, standing on scrubby grass.

On the Pembrokeshire coast is the holy well of St Gwyndaf, nestled in a ferny grove on the route to St David’s Cathedral. It’s listed in Guy Hayward and Nick Mayhew-Smith’s Britain’s Pilgrim Places (2020), and I was on holiday in the area trying to see as many sacred sites as possible. On my visit to St Gwyndaf’s, I found a collection of seashells surrounding the well opening with an invitation to take one. After pocketing the shell, I felt a bit of a fraud. I was a tourist, not a pilgrim. Despite spending a week in such a beautiful corner of Wales filled with wells, churches and standing stones, I was missing the special pilgrimage ingredient, whatever that is. Inspired by this sense of lack I booked myself on to a pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, following the St Cuthbert’s Way.

Quaker approaches to hope

Mark Russ1 Comment
Small votive candles in the darkness of a cathedral.

Ask a room of Quakers what hope means to them and you’ll get a variety of answers. Ask these same Friends to describe the shared Quaker hope and it might take a while. You won’t find a section on hope in Quaker faith & practice. The most recent collective statement on hope made by Quakers in Britain, to my knowledge, is from 2009 in the context of climate change: ‘our faith in common humanity gives hope; love, rather than fear, can still lead us through this crisis.’[1] What does it mean to have faith in common humanity? Isn’t common humanity why we’re in this mess? Hope is something that Quakers today aren’t well practiced at talking about, even as situations like the climate crisis compel us to articulate what hope means.

Reflections on Britain Yearly Meeting 2024

Mark Russ10 Comments
Five dolphins underwater in the pale blue sea.

Should I keep my membership of the Religious Society of Friends? This was the question I anticipated bringing with me to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) at Friends House in London on a sunny July weekend. I stopped attending a local Quaker Meeting 18 months ago, and I no longer give financially to my Area Meeting. What does this mean for my status as a member? If membership means being part of the ship’s crew instead of a passenger (Qf&p 10.34) what am I now? It turns out I didn’t have to wait until BYM for an answer.