Stuart Masters
@stuartkmasters.bsky.social
Teacher and writer on Quaker and Christian history, theology and spirituality. Author of 'The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth' (T&T Clark, 2025), and 'The Rule of Christ: Themes in the Theology of James Nayler’ (Brill, 2021).
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Explore the Quaker faith with Stuart Masters | Stuart Masters: Author and Teacher
Explore the Quaker faith with Stuart Masters, who offers learning opportunities that cover the history, theology, and spirituality of Friends, through accessible and engaging teaching, speaking, and w...
www.stuartkmasters.com
This website contains information and resources relating to my writing, teaching, and speaking activities.
www.stuartkmasters.com
www.stuartkmasters.com
When you are preoccupied and distracted in meeting let wayward and disturbing thoughts give way quietly to your awareness of God’s presence among us and in the world. Receive the vocal ministry of others in a tender and creative spirit...
Advices and Queries 12 (Britain Yearly Meeting)
Advices and Queries 12 (Britain Yearly Meeting)
January 22, 2026 at 9:05 AM
When you are preoccupied and distracted in meeting let wayward and disturbing thoughts give way quietly to your awareness of God’s presence among us and in the world. Receive the vocal ministry of others in a tender and creative spirit...
Advices and Queries 12 (Britain Yearly Meeting)
Advices and Queries 12 (Britain Yearly Meeting)
A meeting for worship for church affairs is not a debate. There should be no lobbying, and decisions are not made by a majority vote. The central concern is to ensure that a spirit of worship is maintained, which allows God to lead the process.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.99.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.99.
January 21, 2026 at 10:42 AM
A meeting for worship for church affairs is not a debate. There should be no lobbying, and decisions are not made by a majority vote. The central concern is to ensure that a spirit of worship is maintained, which allows God to lead the process.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.99.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.99.
At Pentecost, ecstatic utterance means the emancipation of human beings from the bonds of nation, culture, race, language, and ethnicity.
William Stringfellow
William Stringfellow
January 21, 2026 at 9:01 AM
At Pentecost, ecstatic utterance means the emancipation of human beings from the bonds of nation, culture, race, language, and ethnicity.
William Stringfellow
William Stringfellow
“The way of Christ is characterised by surrender, meekness, self-emptying, and obedience. This is the power of God. All the evil in the world is overcome, not by fighting and killing it physically, but by “wearying it out” through patient suffering.
January 20, 2026 at 3:27 PM
“The way of Christ is characterised by surrender, meekness, self-emptying, and obedience. This is the power of God. All the evil in the world is overcome, not by fighting and killing it physically, but by “wearying it out” through patient suffering.
"We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
January 20, 2026 at 9:37 AM
"We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
The love I bear to the soul of all men makes me willing to undergo whatever can be inflicted on me.
Elizabeth Hooton
Elizabeth Hooton
January 19, 2026 at 9:23 AM
The love I bear to the soul of all men makes me willing to undergo whatever can be inflicted on me.
Elizabeth Hooton
Elizabeth Hooton
"When standing water is disturbed, it is cloudy and opaque... When this happens, it is difficult to get a clear view… However, when water becomes still, sediment falls to the bottom, and everything is clearer... A spiritual practice based on inward stillness and listening can work in a similar way."
January 18, 2026 at 3:21 PM
"When standing water is disturbed, it is cloudy and opaque... When this happens, it is difficult to get a clear view… However, when water becomes still, sediment falls to the bottom, and everything is clearer... A spiritual practice based on inward stillness and listening can work in a similar way."
Gerrard Winstanley and James Nayler on the worship of God at a distance based on human notions.
January 18, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Gerrard Winstanley and James Nayler on the worship of God at a distance based on human notions.
“We are to take the same thought for others that we would have others take for ourselves. We are to make no exceptions in our own favour. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves... This, I say, is the principle of all Christian social conduct. It is the principle of justice.”
Charles Gore
Charles Gore
January 17, 2026 at 9:55 AM
“We are to take the same thought for others that we would have others take for ourselves. We are to make no exceptions in our own favour. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves... This, I say, is the principle of all Christian social conduct. It is the principle of justice.”
Charles Gore
Charles Gore
“Although government was created for the good, it has become corrupted by the very evils it was set up to control. In exceeding the limits of its role, the fallen nature of government is revealed in its extreme use of violence, and by the pride and greed of those in power...” (p.66).
January 16, 2026 at 11:37 AM
“Although government was created for the good, it has become corrupted by the very evils it was set up to control. In exceeding the limits of its role, the fallen nature of government is revealed in its extreme use of violence, and by the pride and greed of those in power...” (p.66).
Every member of a [Quaker] Meeting, whatever his (sic) formal status... contributes to the Meeting. Sometimes this contribution is spoken; generally it is silent.
Geoffrey Hubbard
Geoffrey Hubbard
![The image includes the quotation below on a yellow background with the "Daily Quaker message" in the bottom right corner:
Every member of a [Quaker] Meeting, whatever his (sic) formal status... contributes to the Meeting. Sometimes this contribution is spoken; generally it is silent.
Geoffrey Hubbard](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kjhbn74264gl4hsar7n7imbs/bafkreiaoiwtkymyjbrg4y2b6xkmdhxsbeouax5wkhmbbtfz6kulcrf7s6i@jpeg)
January 16, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Every member of a [Quaker] Meeting, whatever his (sic) formal status... contributes to the Meeting. Sometimes this contribution is spoken; generally it is silent.
Geoffrey Hubbard
Geoffrey Hubbard
“when people live in Christ, not only do they reveal God’s love and wisdom in their lives, but they again become a “spring of love, which runs out to the whole creation of God.” What had been a dysfunctional and destructive presence in creation is now an agent of right ordering...”
January 15, 2026 at 12:03 PM
“when people live in Christ, not only do they reveal God’s love and wisdom in their lives, but they again become a “spring of love, which runs out to the whole creation of God.” What had been a dysfunctional and destructive presence in creation is now an agent of right ordering...”
Because the Quaker movement emerged out of an earlier time of profound crisis and upheaval and is in essence an end-time spirituality, it might still have something crucial to offer a humanity faced with such significant existential threats.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.172-173.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.172-173.
January 15, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Because the Quaker movement emerged out of an earlier time of profound crisis and upheaval and is in essence an end-time spirituality, it might still have something crucial to offer a humanity faced with such significant existential threats.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.172-173.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.172-173.
The great spiritual traditions suggest that the relationship with God is cultivated like other relationships: as we turn our attention toward God we open the possibility of a fuller relationship.
Patricia McBee
Patricia McBee
January 14, 2026 at 9:34 AM
The great spiritual traditions suggest that the relationship with God is cultivated like other relationships: as we turn our attention toward God we open the possibility of a fuller relationship.
Patricia McBee
Patricia McBee
“There is a radical economic vision at the heart of Nayler’s faith, which must have appeared profoundly threatening to the political and religious powers of his day. For him, greed, exploitation, poverty, and inequality were the fruits of a sinful humanity, living within a fallen world."
January 13, 2026 at 12:01 PM
“There is a radical economic vision at the heart of Nayler’s faith, which must have appeared profoundly threatening to the political and religious powers of his day. For him, greed, exploitation, poverty, and inequality were the fruits of a sinful humanity, living within a fallen world."
God is most fully revealed in Jesus' descent from a position of power and privilege to one of service and solidarity with the poor and excluded of his day.
Bob Ekblad
Bob Ekblad
January 13, 2026 at 9:21 AM
God is most fully revealed in Jesus' descent from a position of power and privilege to one of service and solidarity with the poor and excluded of his day.
Bob Ekblad
Bob Ekblad
Within worship and during personal spiritual practice, many Pluralist Liberal Friends focus on what they regard as a universal divine principle that is revealed in different ways in all the world’s faiths.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.80-81.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.80-81.
January 12, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Within worship and during personal spiritual practice, many Pluralist Liberal Friends focus on what they regard as a universal divine principle that is revealed in different ways in all the world’s faiths.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.80-81.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, pp.80-81.
If we claim to be Christian, we must constantly ask ourselves - Am I worshipping Jesus or Herod? Is my ultimate loyalty to the kingdom of God or to the empires of this world?
January 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM
If we claim to be Christian, we must constantly ask ourselves - Am I worshipping Jesus or Herod? Is my ultimate loyalty to the kingdom of God or to the empires of this world?
How were our hearts melted as wax, and our souls poured out as water before the Lord, and our spirits as oil, frankincense and myrrh, offered up unto the Lord as sweet incense, when not a word outwardly in all our assemblies had been uttered!
John Burnyeat (1691)
John Burnyeat (1691)
January 11, 2026 at 8:53 AM
How were our hearts melted as wax, and our souls poured out as water before the Lord, and our spirits as oil, frankincense and myrrh, offered up unto the Lord as sweet incense, when not a word outwardly in all our assemblies had been uttered!
John Burnyeat (1691)
John Burnyeat (1691)
“As we see more clearly the ways in which society perpetuates ignorance and oppression, it becomes painful to continue conforming in the ways we have done before. We see everything in a new light. We see what allows love and truth to flourish and what does not.”
Marcelle Martin – our Life is Love
Marcelle Martin – our Life is Love
January 10, 2026 at 10:23 AM
“As we see more clearly the ways in which society perpetuates ignorance and oppression, it becomes painful to continue conforming in the ways we have done before. We see everything in a new light. We see what allows love and truth to flourish and what does not.”
Marcelle Martin – our Life is Love
Marcelle Martin – our Life is Love
“ICE is a federal agency shaped by white nationalist thinking, built to police brown bodies, and shielded from accountability.”
Chris Scott, Mennonite Pastor
Chris Scott, Mennonite Pastor
January 9, 2026 at 9:02 AM
“ICE is a federal agency shaped by white nationalist thinking, built to police brown bodies, and shielded from accountability.”
Chris Scott, Mennonite Pastor
Chris Scott, Mennonite Pastor
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.
Prov 6.
Prov 6.
January 8, 2026 at 4:35 PM
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.
Prov 6.
Prov 6.
In her tract, The Just and Equal Balance Discovered (1660), Sarah Blackborow suggested that “Christ was one in the male and in the female; and as he arises in both”. Any attempt to stop a woman from preaching meant silencing Christ who was speaking through her.
The Quaker Faith, p.116.
The Quaker Faith, p.116.
![The image includes the quotation below on a light green background, along with a picture of "The Quaker Faith" book cover:
[Early] Friends affirmed the spiritual equality of women living in the new birth, where such divisions are overcome and “all are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In her tract, The Just and Equal Balance Discovered (1660), Sarah Blackborow suggested that “Christ was one in the male and in the female; and as he arises in both”. Any attempt to stop a woman from preaching meant silencing Christ who was speaking through her.
The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth, p.116.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kjhbn74264gl4hsar7n7imbs/bafkreicjrhkbdblidyqc23alkij475rc2labmssvuavmr72fof52gkbfeu@jpeg)
January 8, 2026 at 9:37 AM
In her tract, The Just and Equal Balance Discovered (1660), Sarah Blackborow suggested that “Christ was one in the male and in the female; and as he arises in both”. Any attempt to stop a woman from preaching meant silencing Christ who was speaking through her.
The Quaker Faith, p.116.
The Quaker Faith, p.116.
One of the insistent teaching of early Friends is that we cannot simply appropriate the death of Jesus to our own salvation. We take up our own cross and follow him. To participate in his life is to share in his death.
Doug Gwyn
Doug Gwyn
January 7, 2026 at 9:30 AM
One of the insistent teaching of early Friends is that we cannot simply appropriate the death of Jesus to our own salvation. We take up our own cross and follow him. To participate in his life is to share in his death.
Doug Gwyn
Doug Gwyn
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
January 6, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King