Friends General Conference

Nurturing faith and Quaker practice

FGC Publications

Religious Education

FGC has published books, pamphlets, curricula, and sometimes other media for more than 50 years to support the spiritual lives and witness of Quakers and Quaker meetings and to serve those seeking to learn more about Friends.  Most of these publications are still available through our bookstore, QuakerBooks of FGC.  Below are some of our most recent and most popular titles.

Letters to a Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction to the Quaker Way
By Steve Chase
In seven letters to a fictional correspondent, Steve Chase describes his spiritual journey among Friends. The writer, a member of the Quaker Quest travel team, introduces the Quaker way to a newcomer in language that is personal and gentle, while offering powerful inspiration through stories. Written as an invitation to inquirers, "Letters to a Fellow Seeker" will stimulate discussion among longtime Friends about how we experience and remain true to our Quaker faith.
Philadelphia's Arch Street Meeting House: A Biography
Gregory A. Barnes
Greg Barnes has deeply researched Philadelphia's historic meeting house at the intersection of Fourth and Arch Streets in the Olde City district. Here Quaker history unfolded, Quaker characters wielded influence, and the story of William Penn's Holy Experiment unfolded from the early colonial days to the present. A delightful and informative book.
A Quaker Marriage of Philosophy and Art
Catharine Forbes with Catharine Birton Cary and Joan Brinton Erickson
This small book captures the character and wisdom of Howard Brinton and Ann Cox Brinton, who influenced a generation of Friends through their leadership as co-directors of Pendle Hill and through many publications. Anna Brinton's intricately drawn Christmas cards illustrate the story of their journey, interspersed with many quotations.
The Road That Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel
Valerie Brown
Not your average travel guidebook, this book explores some of the world's great pilgrimages, destinations, and the author's reflections on the lessons she learned from them. Read this book to discover how travel can be transformational, how to be more mindful while traveling and every day, the adventures of traveling alone, the delights of encountering new people and places, ancient pilgrimage journeys and sacred travel worldwide. Written from the perspective of a Buddhist Quaker spiritual teacher who has a knack for capturing life's wonders in words.
Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights
Edited by Hal Weaver, Paul Kriese, and Steve Angell
Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights gathers together the voices of 18 remarkable individuals who spoke and wrote as African Americans from within the Quaker community. They testify about their viewpoints on racial justice - both within the Religious Society of Friends and society at large - and they speak of their life in the Spirit. As a collection, these selections exhibit the vitality and wisdom that three centuries of African American Quakers have contributed to and on behalf of Friends.

Conversation with Christ: Quaker Meditations on the The Gospel of John
By Doug Gwyn
The Gospel of John is sometimes known among Friends as "the Quaker Gospel," because it speaks to the Quaker concern for a here-and-now experience of eternal reality in Christ. Conversation with Christ explores this theme through thirteen conversations from the Fourth Gospel in which the history and mystery of Jesus are revealed. Each of these close readings is followed by examples of ways Quakers have grappled with its message and by a guided meditation inviting readers to experience the form Christ takes in our lives.
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice
By Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye
This book documents the spiritual and practical impacts of discrimination in the Religious Society of Friends in the belief that understanding the truth of our past is vital to achieving a diverse, inclusive community in the future. There is a common misconception that most Quakers assisted fugitive slaves and involved themselves in civil rights activism because of their belief in equality. While there were Friends committed to ending enslavement and post-enslavement injustices, Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship reveals that racism has been as insidious, complex, and pervasive among Friends as it has been generally among people of European descent.
Spirit Rising - Young Quaker Voices
Edited by Angelina Conti, Cara Curtis, Wess Daniels, John Lomuria, Emma Condori, Harriet Hart, Et Al

Spirit Rising celebrates, critiques, questions, and reflects on the Quaker faith experience. Writing and visual art by teenage and young adult Quakers from around the world and across the theological and cultural spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends give readers a window on the spiritual riches and witness these Friends offer. The contributors in this volume challenge and inspire, as they witness to and celebrate Quakerism as it has been, as it is, and as it could yet be. The voices here come together in a symphony, cacophonous but also deeply resonant. Listen and you will hear that their Spirit - here called by many names - is undeniably rising.

The Quaker Way
By The Religious Education Committee of FGC

The Quaker Way was written as a faith and practice handbook for upper elementary and middle school youngsters, but has been found very useful to new attenders and seekers. Sections on history, meeting for worship, how the society works, prayer and more. Includes a Quaker glossary, bibliography, and fun illustrations from a Pulitzer Prize winning Quaker cartoonist. Just reprinted - now in a larger format 9" x 6", and with a new cream yellow cover. Same great text.

From Parsonage to Prison: Collected Poems
By Janeal Turnball Ravndal

Collected together for the first time are the selected poems of Janeal Turnbull Ravndal, who "is solidly Quaker: she sees the beauty and the power of the worship and the work. She also sees the warts. In felicitous words, rhymed or not, she tells us truth, sometimes using the sharpest of scalpels, sometimes merely gentle irony. She sees us clear." -- Margaret Lacey