From a mystical revelation during the English Civil War, George Fox founded Quakerism on one radical idea: that every person has direct access to the Divine Light within.

After Meeting for Worship, Poughkeepsie Friends gathered for a traditional Quaker Simple Meal, raising more than $1,000 for Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank and AFSC’s Gaza Emergency Relief efforts.

Long before women could vote, Lucretia Mott was preaching equality, sheltering freedom seekers, and helping launch the women’s rights movement — all grounded in her radical Quaker belief that there is “that of God” in everyone.

After more than 40 years in prison, Yohannes “Knowledge” Johnson found transformation through the Quaker faith—an inspiring story of prison ministry, redemption, and spiritual renewal.

Bayard Rustin, Quaker pacifist and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, shaped the Civil Rights Movement through nonviolence, racial justice, and LGBTQ advocacy.

In a time of political division, Quakers reflect on peace, integrity, and equality—offering a nonpartisan faith-based response rooted in the Inner Light.

I have heard often about the importance of the women’s rights convention of 1848 in Seneca Falls, so beautifully articulated above by the first woman to run for vice president of our country. But it was not until I went there in August 2016 as a member of the newly formed New York Women’s Suffrage Commission that I discovered that the people who dropped that “stone” were almost all Quakers!

During Gun Violence Awareness Month, Quakers wear orange for gun violence prevention and reaffirm the Quaker Peace Testimony, standing for nonviolence today.