Birmingham Friends Meeting

10/24/2026

10/24/2026

Today is International Talk Like a Quaker Day. What is thy favorite Quaker quote?

10/24/2026

Today is United Nations Day, the day the UN charter was ratified. The UN's ratification coincided with the birthday of Quaker William Penn, whose influential "Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace in Europe" described the prototype for a league of nations promoting peace through diplomacy. This essay would eventually inspire the United Nations.

Learn more about William Penn and his legacy on the QuakerBooks website: https://buff.ly/2yYip7X

10/19/2026

Salem Quaker Thomas Maule wrote in 1695, "It were better that one hundred witches should live, than that one person be put to death for a witch, which is not a witch.” (A noble sentiment, but yes, he believed in witches.)

Maule was held in prison for a year for the pamphlet he wrote against the Salem witch trials. In it he argued that the methods and evidence of the witch trials were flawed, and that the executions were part of a bloody pattern of the Puritan religious establishment; just as they had persecuted innocent Quakers for their religious beliefs, so they persecuted innocent people at the witch trials.

Maule knew what it felt like to be targeted. He was 16 years old when the last Quaker was martyred in the colony, and he spent his life challenging Salem's Puritan authorities: publicly denouncing ministers, refusing to observe government-mandated religious fasts, and repeatedly suffering fines, imprisonment, and the whip.

But those familiar with the history may have noticed that his pamphlet was published three years AFTER the Salem witch trials. So what was Maule doing during the trials? Ironically, he was a witness for the prosecution. He and his wife, Naomi, testified against Bridget Bishop, who became the first person executed. But as the trials unfolded, his conscience was changed and Maule was willing to put his body on the line to speak out.

10/18/2026

Greg Williams talks about the power you feel when you walk into a room of worshipping Quakers.

WATCH ➡️ http://fdsj.nl/holding-the-peace