South Mountain Friends Meeting

09/12/2024

Concert coming up - local chamber music lovers, please save the date. The program will include the premiere of my new piece for solo flute, "Twelve Windows," written for Sherril Kannasto Wood and performed here by her.

04/14/2024

03/22/2024

I am once again a finalist for the American Prize in, this time in the category of vocal chamber music. I don't know how many applicants for the prize there were in this category, but there are only 17 of us who made it this far. The work is "Autumn Moon" for flute, violin, piano, and soprano. The performance that the judges have is from my 80th birthday concert at the Grizzly Peak Winery the summer of 2022: many thanks to the performers that afternoon (Sherril Wood, flute; Kathleen Strahm, violin; Cynthia Stauffer, piano; and Jennifer Matsuura, soprano). I've attached a link to the YouTube video of that performance below.

"Autumn Moon" for flute, violin, piano, and soprano voice, composed by William Ashworth and performed here by Debra Harris, flute; Kathleen Strahm, violin; C...

02/15/2024

I've been alerted that there's a fake account out there in my name. Apparently 12 friends have been fooled into friending it. You probably know who you are. Please unfriend the (*censored*).

12/03/2023

Here's how one professor holds on to the pacifism and silent meditation espoused by Quakers when the world feels like it's on fire.

08/01/2023

Happy birthday, Mary Lou Goertzen (Aug. 2, 1929 - Oct. 20, 2020).

Mennonite turned Quaker. Pacifist. Artist. Peace activist. Simple lifestyle advocate.

Born in Newton, Kansas. Graduate of Bethel College (1951). Right after graduation, Mary Lou married fellow Bethel grad Ernie Goertzen (also an MMS hero).

In 1965, Mary Lou and Ernie moved to Berkeley, California, where they became part of the local counterculture scene. They began making their own art. Mary Lou is best known for her pen-and-ink drawings. They attended Berkeley Friends Meeting.

In 1975, Mary Lou and Ernie moved into an old schoolhouse in Deadwood, Oregon. Mary Lou was buried near the schoolhouse, alongside Ernie (who died in 2004).

In 2006, the Goertzens were the subjects of a documentary entitled "Kind, True and Necessary," produced by James Knight. (Available on YouTube; search for "Kind True Necessary")

~The Marginal Mennonite Society Heroes Series

07/05/2023

The beginnings of Guilford College’s Quaker Leadership Scholars Program.

05/16/2023

He also had a great collection of jazz albums. I remember going to protests with him during my Wilmington College days in the early '70s.

Happy birthday, Larry Gara (May 16, 1922 - Nov. 23, 2019).

Quaker. Pacifist. Conscientious objector. Served three years in prison for refusing to register for the draft during World War II. Graduate of William Penn College (1947). Master's degree from Penn State (1948). PhD from the University of Wisconsin (1953).

In 1948, Larry was teaching at Bluffton College, in Bluffton, Ohio, when he was accused of counseling a student to not register for the draft. For this he was sent to prison for seven months. It was also the end of his career at Bluffton.

Larry spent most of his teaching career (1962 to 1992) as professor of history at Wilmington College, in Wilmington, Ohio.

Author of "The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad" (1961), among other works.

Born in San Antonio, Texas. Died in Wilmington, Ohio. Cremated.

~The Marginal Mennonite Society Heroes Series

04/23/2023

On this date in 1702 (April 23rd), Margaret Fell died. (Born in 1614, exact date unknown.)

Quaker. Pacifist. Feminist. Preacher. Teacher. Married to George Fox. Author of "Women's Speaking Justified" (1666), a pioneering work that advocated for women ministers.

Born in Kirkby Ireleth, Lancashire, England (now Kirkby-in-Furness, Cumbria). Probably buried in a Quaker graveyard in Sunbrick, Cumbria.

The following passage is from Gerda Lerner's 1993 book "The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to 1870":

"Margaret Fell, a close co-worker and after 1669 the wife of George Fox, had an active public career. Her books were translated into Hebrew, Latin, and Dutch. She annually made journeys through England, visiting Quaker Meetings and defending Friends who had been imprisoned.

"She and George Fox were tried in 1664 for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance and for holding Quaker meetings. Her sentence deprived her of all her property and ordered her imprisoned for life. After four years she was released on orders of the King, but she was twice more imprisoned in later life.

"While she served her first sentence, she wrote and published 'Women's Speaking Justified,' a fully developed scriptural argument justifying women's active role in biblical history and their right to participate in public religious life. She wrote a coherent theological brief; her tone is self-confident and assertive without any of the apologies present in women's writings for centuries. She cited chapter and verse in the Old and the New Testament, naming every woman who had prophesied, spoken or argued, and providing powerful ammunition for any woman who would reason against orthodox misogyny from the scriptural text.

"Margaret Fell's pamphlet, her life and her career illustrate the qualitative leap forward women were enabled to make intellectually as a result of the Protestant Reformation. The fact that Protestant women after her still had to argue, reason and persuade to win equality within church and state speaks to the negative side of the Reformation, its institutionalization of patriarchal orthodoxy, and its resistance to fundamental change."

~The MMS Quaker History Series

04/07/2023