Matt Boswell
@mattboswellpnw.bsky.social
Quaker pastor at Camas Friends Church | Adjunct at UofPortland | PhD in Christian Spirituality (GTU) | Author of *The Way to Love* | PNW trail hiker | Mariners, sigh | he/him | Love mystic | mattboswellpnw.com
A nice piece on Quakers. Arch Street Friends Meeting is unprogrammed (Camas Friends is “semi-programmed”) but this article captures the spirit of our community.
Young adults turn to Quakers' silent worship to offset — and cope with — a noisy world
There’s been an unprecedented surge in the numbers of attendees at Sunday worship at the Quaker Arch Street Meeting House in Old City Philadelphia.
apnews.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM
A nice piece on Quakers. Arch Street Friends Meeting is unprogrammed (Camas Friends is “semi-programmed”) but this article captures the spirit of our community.
How about “No *Shame* November”? A daily practice of rejecting any religion-informed messaging that tells us or others that we’re bad, impure, illegal, inadequate, unacceptable, or undeserving. A daily opportunity to undo any harm we’ve caused others by sustaining ministries built on toxic shame.
November 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
How about “No *Shame* November”? A daily practice of rejecting any religion-informed messaging that tells us or others that we’re bad, impure, illegal, inadequate, unacceptable, or undeserving. A daily opportunity to undo any harm we’ve caused others by sustaining ministries built on toxic shame.
“When we’re hungry, love will keep us alive.”
~The Eagles, correctly
~The Eagles, correctly
October 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
“When we’re hungry, love will keep us alive.”
~The Eagles, correctly
~The Eagles, correctly
Love is creating a world where it’s easy to get food, care, and connection and difficult to go hungry, not get the care you need, or be excluded.
October 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Love is creating a world where it’s easy to get food, care, and connection and difficult to go hungry, not get the care you need, or be excluded.
Self-love is not selfishness. It’s not a personal flaw to need something. It’s not naughty to want something. Impulses can be trustworthy. Desires can be holy. Fears can be clarifying. Tears can be healing. Doubts can spark needed change.
October 28, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Self-love is not selfishness. It’s not a personal flaw to need something. It’s not naughty to want something. Impulses can be trustworthy. Desires can be holy. Fears can be clarifying. Tears can be healing. Doubts can spark needed change.
Seeing lots of people voicing their needs and/or offering support to others, in this fraught time. This is community. This is what it’s all about.
October 28, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Seeing lots of people voicing their needs and/or offering support to others, in this fraught time. This is community. This is what it’s all about.
The seeds of Love are planted within every person. How can we nurture these seeds, in one another? How can we create more fertile conditions so that the Love in each can grow and thrive?
October 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
The seeds of Love are planted within every person. How can we nurture these seeds, in one another? How can we create more fertile conditions so that the Love in each can grow and thrive?
The way we’ll survive this is Love: crowd-feeding, foot-washing, table-flipping, truth-telling, nap-taking, stranger-welcoming, wound-tending, community-building, laugh-inducing, risk-taking Love.
October 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The way we’ll survive this is Love: crowd-feeding, foot-washing, table-flipping, truth-telling, nap-taking, stranger-welcoming, wound-tending, community-building, laugh-inducing, risk-taking Love.
Peaceful protest with Quakers at the Portland ICE facility this morning. As my Friends’ signs say: stop the inhumanity. Love your neighbor.
October 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Peaceful protest with Quakers at the Portland ICE facility this morning. As my Friends’ signs say: stop the inhumanity. Love your neighbor.
Speaking of frogs and unicorns let me tell you about a time Jesus used whimsy to oppose fascism, it all started with a donkey and a few palm branches…
October 13, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Speaking of frogs and unicorns let me tell you about a time Jesus used whimsy to oppose fascism, it all started with a donkey and a few palm branches…
White nostalgia and stubbornness won’t save us. A more reverent connection to the land and to each other might. Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
October 13, 2025 at 1:42 PM
White nostalgia and stubbornness won’t save us. A more reverent connection to the land and to each other might. Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
There are many ways to be violent and to be complicit in violence. It’s a good day to ask whether the theology that soothes you is actually making you more violent.
October 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
There are many ways to be violent and to be complicit in violence. It’s a good day to ask whether the theology that soothes you is actually making you more violent.
My autistic friends and family do not need to be fixed! What needs to be fixed are hearts, communities, practices, and structures that make it needlessly difficult for autistic folks to fully participate and be cherished as their beautiful, authentic selves.
October 6, 2025 at 10:26 PM
My autistic friends and family do not need to be fixed! What needs to be fixed are hearts, communities, practices, and structures that make it needlessly difficult for autistic folks to fully participate and be cherished as their beautiful, authentic selves.
Reverence for every person and the Love within them is the beginning of wisdom.
October 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reverence for every person and the Love within them is the beginning of wisdom.
Happy World Quaker Day! Where are my fellow Friends? Or, where are those listening deeply, speaking truth to power, nurturing the love within yourself and others, resisting authoritarianism, responding to needs of vulnerable neighbors, and remembering to breathe? That’s the Quaker way at its best.
October 5, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Happy World Quaker Day! Where are my fellow Friends? Or, where are those listening deeply, speaking truth to power, nurturing the love within yourself and others, resisting authoritarianism, responding to needs of vulnerable neighbors, and remembering to breathe? That’s the Quaker way at its best.
”Love your neighbor” is not just something that happens in your heart but something tangible we do, together.
September 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
”Love your neighbor” is not just something that happens in your heart but something tangible we do, together.
“Faith without works is dead.” Christianity without compassion and liberation is deadly.
September 19, 2025 at 10:49 PM
“Faith without works is dead.” Christianity without compassion and liberation is deadly.
It’s going to be wild when Bible publishers are told to remove all the calls for peace and justice and liberation made by Jesus and the prophets because they make our president feel picked on, and when many Christians are fine with that.
September 17, 2025 at 11:11 PM
It’s going to be wild when Bible publishers are told to remove all the calls for peace and justice and liberation made by Jesus and the prophets because they make our president feel picked on, and when many Christians are fine with that.
It is special when people work together to address a real, urgent need. That’s an exciting kind of unity! Not the unity of “hey look, we’ve stopped criticizing each other” but the unity that arises when people bring their resources to the table to do good and create positive change, with others.
September 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
It is special when people work together to address a real, urgent need. That’s an exciting kind of unity! Not the unity of “hey look, we’ve stopped criticizing each other” but the unity that arises when people bring their resources to the table to do good and create positive change, with others.
