Mark D Russ
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markdruss.bsky.social
Mark D Russ
@markdruss.bsky.social
940 followers 480 following 600 posts
Theologian. Queer Quaker ✝️ /|\. PhD student at University of Nottingham constructing a critical White theology of Quaker worship. Author of "Quaker Shaped Christianity" (2022). (He/him) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ jollyquaker.com
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markdruss.bsky.social
Mark D Russ @markdruss.bsky.social · Nov 26
Happy publication day to me! 🥳 My book is finally out there. Do give it a read. I think it's rather good! www.collectiveinkbooks.com/christian-al... #quaker #theology
Spirit of Freedom, The from Christian Alternative Books
The Spirit of Freedom offers accessible, useful, and life-affirming theology rooted in Quaker spirituality and Biblical wisdom. Collecting ...
www.collectiveinkbooks.com
Reposted by Mark D Russ
cosmichope.bsky.social
Whether life has a Deep Inside, whether existence has a Meaning we did not create & cannot control, is a first order issue, which goes to the very heart of our coherence as a community. Quakerism cannot be itself and be anything someone might want.
markdruss.bsky.social Mark D Russ @markdruss.bsky.social · 1d
Liberal Quakers tend to frame their internal theological diversity as a jolly potluck: "our diversity is our strength." But at Meeting yesterday I experienced it as a crisis. Whether God exists or not makes a huge difference to our ability to be a community of hope. #Quaker #theology
November 10, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
stuartkmasters.bsky.social
Friends have always practiced an experiential and Spirit-led faith based on continuing revelation, making them suspicious of the traditions of the Church. But since the seventeenth century, all Quakers have inherited a pre-existing tradition of their own.

The Quaker Faith, p.151.
The image includes the quotation below on a light green background with a picture of 'The Quaker Faith' book cover: Friends have always practiced an experiential and Spirit-led faith based on continuing revelation, making them suspicious of the traditions of the Church. But since the seventeenth century, all Quakers have inherited a pre-existing tradition of their own. This has engendered a dynamic tension between the spiritual guidance they receive in the present, and the tradition they have inherited from the past. The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.151.
November 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM
markdruss.bsky.social
Liberal Quakers tend to frame their internal theological diversity as a jolly potluck: "our diversity is our strength." But at Meeting yesterday I experienced it as a crisis. Whether God exists or not makes a huge difference to our ability to be a community of hope. #Quaker #theology
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
edmondsscanner.bsky.social
Where do you seek advice?

1. friends & family
2. forbidden books
3. witches of the wildlands
4. deep wisdom of the Muppets
November 10, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
naomijacobs.bsky.social
I’m honoured to be a guest on the fantastic Dr Selina Stone’s #podcast ‘Sunday School for Misfits’ this week. This season of the podcast is on power, and we had a lot to talk about when it comes to #disability, #neurodivergence and power in churches and #theology.

open.spotify.com/episode/3DM2...
S7E5 Power, Disability and Neurodiversity ft Dr Naomi Lawson Jacobs
open.spotify.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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stuartkmasters.bsky.social
Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?

Avices & Queries 31, BYM
The image includes the text below in black letters on a white background, along with Picasso's drawing of a dove: Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations? Avices & Queries 31, BYM
November 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
nome.bsky.social
It was liberation theology priests in Latin America that let me let go of my anger at Christianity after my apostasy - that let me see that there were people who followed the example of the Christ I still respected, even if I did not call him God.

I'm always glad to see the tradition maintained.
murphtracks.bsky.social Murph @murphtracks.bsky.social · 3d
Remember Rev. David Black, the Chicago pastor who was shot in the head with pepper balls? If you haven't heard him speak yet, listen to this.

To ICE: "You can repent"
November 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
quakeitup.bsky.social
📣 New Video! How Christian are Quakers? As a Christian Quaker, I have views on this one… let’s discuss!

#quakers #quakerism #britishquakers #christianity

youtu.be/X4TFTBc4YmQ
A Different Kind of Christianity? Christian Quakerism Explained.
YouTube video by Quake It Up
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 6:04 PM
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crookedfootball.bsky.social
It seems pretty risky to tell people they won't see the change they want if they vote Green, given that they already voted Labour and didn't see the change they wanted.
Greens’ ‘undeliverable’ promises will let voters down, says Labour minister
Exclusive: Darren Jones says Labour has to convince young people it is ‘modern party of the future’
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
There is still so much work to do in making slavery and the slave trade a widely known and acknowledged part of the history of places that have minimized those links in the past.
November 7, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
torchoxford2013.bsky.social
Join us today at 1pm, as we welcome Prof Anthony G. Reddie for a special presentation of his thought-provoking new book, Living Black Theology: Decolonizing Knowledge. Details: tinyurl.com/mr2jty7e @raceresistance.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
zoejardiniere.bsky.social
Dear GOD if you want to save money in the asylum system

1. LET ASYLUM SEEKERS WORK

2. FAST TRACK STATUS FOR EVERYONE FROM CLEARLY UNDAFE COUNTRIES like Sudan, Syria, etc

3. Run an asylum accommodation system that is NOT FOR PROFIT #r4today
November 7, 2025 at 7:35 AM
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quakeitup.bsky.social
📣 New Video! I was SO excited to be joined by the absolute LEGEND that is Ben Pink Dandelion to talk Quaker History. We talk all things 18th Century today. Quietism, Plain dressing and transatlantic Quakerism. Plus my overreaction to one of Ben’s answers…

#quakers #history

youtu.be/rBGiCacHgis
Exploring Quakerism's Forgotten Century w/ Ben Pink Dandelion
YouTube video by Quake It Up
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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pendlehillusa.bsky.social
Join us for next month's First Monday Lecture on "A Radical Side of the Early Quakers" with Dr. Erica Canela on December 1. Register for this free, hybrid event at pendlehill.org/calendar/a-r...
November 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
markdruss.bsky.social
My PhD thesis submission date is less than 6 months away and the combined anxiety ("but it's not finished") and excited anticipation ("I can't wait for this thing to be finished") are exhausting. #PhDsky
November 5, 2025 at 12:11 PM
markdruss.bsky.social
I'm taking a course in spiritual direction, and today we're talking about consolation and desolation. I'm interested in how consolation is different to happiness, how spiritual freedom is different to "going with the flow," and how desolation is different to depression. #spirituality
November 4, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
jayhulmepoet.bsky.social
Tonight!
jayhulmepoet.bsky.social Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 8d
Join me on BBC Radio Three at 9:45pm this Tuesday, as I take you on a journey to the cave of St Robert of Knaresborough, to explore if a place of faith such as this can ever, truly, be abandoned.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
The interior of St Roberts Cave, with rough hewn greening limestone walls and a mud floor Nobody lives here, few people visit, fewer pray, but this site is still holy. The moths clinging to the roof of the cave, don't know it's abandoned, the spiders pray their own prayers in their scuttling tongue. God cannot abandon a place, as much as we cannot abandon ourselves. What is created cannot be uncreated. What is carved from the cliff cannot be put back. This cave became a hermitage, the hermitage became a chapel, the chapel becamea shrine, the shrine became a ruin, the ruin became a crimescene, the crimescene became a tourist attraction, the tourist attraction became forgotten, and still the cave opens onto the river, the trees turn green and gold and drop their leaves, and the leaves become mud and layer onto the stone, and fill in the open grave, and carpet the cave floor, and feed the trees, that continue the cycle they began long before Robert arrived. There is something here, in this cave, that opens outwards. A span wider than the cave walls and the space between the water and the cliff. We walk here in the footsteps of the past and the future, witnessing the promise of all we could be. Medieval Theologians spoke of the possibility that it was in the nothingness that we could discover the infinite, that it was our preoccupation with all that there is, that got in the way of all we could be. Robert shed the world like a cloak, and created, in this sliver of land, something else. Every time I come I try to step closer to that something. To the truths that he found here in this fragment of space. I sit in the dark of the cave and hope that I see it, that I glimpse the wonder he saw, placed just an inch out of reach. Jay kneels before st Roberts gave, scattered around him are the low walls the the ruined chapel, and behind him the mouth of the cave opens up in the ivy-covered cliff
November 4, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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slyprofessor.bsky.social
🧵[CW Sexual violence] William Yoo's book on Presbyterian history doesn't beat around the bush, but explains that most white Presbyterians in 18th-19th cent were ghoulishly immoral and tried to turn the brutalizing and rape of enslaved humans into an issue of Biblical interpretation #AwesomeWork 1/10
November 2, 2025 at 8:13 PM
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revrachelmann.bsky.social
I’m back on BBC Radio 4 Extra this morning presenting this service focussed on All Souls … Tune in at 9.45am or on BBC Sounds afterwards.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Daily Service, From Saints to Souls - Words of comfort
Christian worship with a Bible reading, prayer and music led by Doctor Rachel Mann.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
quakeitup.bsky.social
If you were to deliver the Swarthmore Lecture, what would your topic be?
The inside of Friends House London
October 30, 2025 at 10:11 AM
markdruss.bsky.social
Reading through some old diaries, and I'm struck by how I used to confuse being earnest with being wise.
October 30, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
markdruss.bsky.social
What's a Quaker take on saints? I'd say being a saint is all about putting your trust in God on a daily basis, rather than being an especially good person. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @quaker.org.uk #quaker #spirituality
Pause For Thought - Mark Russ: "Trusting in a source of divine power" - BBC Sounds
Mark Russ on this week's theme 'My Everyday Saint'.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
markdruss.bsky.social
What's a Quaker take on saints? I'd say being a saint is all about putting your trust in God on a daily basis, rather than being an especially good person. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @quaker.org.uk #quaker #spirituality
Pause For Thought - Mark Russ: "Trusting in a source of divine power" - BBC Sounds
Mark Russ on this week's theme 'My Everyday Saint'.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Mark D Russ
carladenyer.bsky.social
Solidarity with my colleague Mothin, who experiences frequent and appalling racist abuse.

Out and out racism is alive and well in this country. And its perpetrators are emboldened every day that politicians and journalists describe immigrants as an invasion, a swarm, or a flood.
mothinali.bsky.social Mothin Ali @mothinali.bsky.social · 12d
A memorable night ruined by a racist thug.

I was invited to speak at the EuroAsia Curry Awards on Monday night, it should have been an exciting opportunity. But on my way there, outside Earl’s Court station, I was subjected to an Islamophobic hate crime. I have now reported it to the police
October 29, 2025 at 8:13 PM
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feministtheology.bsky.social
Next up on the FTN calendar... yes, we know we are spoiling you with such excellent speakers: this week it was Dr Holly Morse and next month we have Dr Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones. Make sure Wednesday 19th November goes in your diary!
Poster for Feminist Theology Network online event. Birth in the Time of Death: Black Madonnas and the Initiation of Possibility. Dr Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones. Wed 19th Nov 7pm GMT. Background picture depicts a brown-skinned woman in a red dress, patterned with large flower petals. She is looking to the right and wearing a black mask. Her curly hair is pulled tight into a top ponytail, which stands straight up on her head, wound with braid.
October 29, 2025 at 7:47 PM