Goshen Friends Meeting - Quaker

09/05/2026

08/24/2026

Friends Community Fair
800 East Lancaster Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335
October 10,2026
9-4 pm

🤗 Good things last! Come and celebrate ✨ the 50th Anniversary of Downingtown Quaker Meeting’s Friends Community Fair 🎪. It’s fun for all ages; there's no admission fee, and it is an all-weather event. Come and see why this fall festival is so popular! You’ll be glad you did 👍

🥘 Food Booth with Homemade Food
👧🏽 Kids Games and Crafts
🎸 Live Local Music
🪴 Plant Sale Curated by Internationally Renowned Lecturer
📋 Silent Auction
🥮 Baked Goods
🛍️ Friendly Thrift
🚜 Hayride
🫟 Face Painting
🧑🏻‍🎨 Artisans and Crafters
👀 Historic Meetinghouse Tours
🐝 Beekeeping Presentation
🌳 Restore our Roots Tour of Historical “Hershey Trees”

Learn more at ↪️ https://www.downingtownfriendsmeeting.org/friends-fall-festival

60% of proceeds benefit charities.

Please share and tell your friends 😘

08/21/2026

The 1795 home of Quakers William and Deborah Parrish Wright in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was a key property in a chain of safe houses that formed along Pennsylvania’s southeastern border counties during later 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Wrights were among the first families in the Susquehanna River Valley to regularly assist freedom seekers. Their network began with William’s sister Susanna and his brother-in-law, Jonathan Mifflin, who lived on their farm west across the river in York County, settling there in 1800. The Wrights harbored the formerly enslaved in their Columbia home. They organized escapes by disguising freedom seekers at their home and they took action in court to challenge enslavers in their community.

The Wright Family also opened their nearby croplands and orchards to settlement by waves of freedom seekers, circa 1820, establishing the core of Columbia’s free Black population and a place of refuge for later arrivals. The Wrights also worked secretly with William Whipper and Stephen Smith, Columbia’s wealthy Black lumber merchants who used their private railroad cars to transport freedom seekers. These actions and alliances became part of a multi-state system of support that emerged spontaneously as the enslaved liberated themselves in adjacent Southern States, with many finding their way to the Wright’s in Columbia and their fellow Quakers across the region and beyond.

Image: William and Deborah Wright House, Front Facade

08/19/2026

Appeals Court Leaves in Place Injunction Blocking Trump-Vance Administration’s Unlawful Intrusion into the Sanctity of Houses of Worship

08/16/2026

This week, our friends at the American Friends Service Committee sued the Trump administration over its efforts to punish and intimidate human rights defenders seeking justice for Palestinians.

The lawsuit is challenging President Trump’s executive order that authorizes sanctions against officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and others supporting its work to hold Israeli officials accountable for the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

We applaud AFSC, and all the other groups who joined this lawsuit, for courageously challenging these unjust, immoral, and deeply harmful sanctions against the ICC.

“This executive order seeks to intimidate human rights defenders and deter people of conscience from advocating for the rights and dignity of others,” said AFSC General Secretary Joyce Ajlouny.

“We are joining this lawsuit because we refuse to stay silent when the pursuit of justice is criminalized.”

In the face of continued, grave assaults against the rights, dignity, and lives of Palestinians, our government should use its leverage to hold Israel accountable – not punish others for seeking justice.

Read more: https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2026-08/week-world-quakers-sue-trump-over-attacks-human-rights-defenders

08/14/2026

08/14/2026

Join the Friends Journal email list for weekly reflections, essay previews, book-review excerpts, podcast alerts, and a free digital issue as our welcome gift.

08/04/2026

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) was an abolitionist, poet, and writer whose life was shaped deeply by his Quaker faith.

Raised on a struggling farm in Massachusetts, Whittier was only able to attend school during the winter when his labor wasn’t needed. Whittier’s family traveled nine miles each way to attend meeting for worship on Sundays.

His fortunes changed at the age of 19 when his sister submitted his poetry to the Newburyport Free Press for publication. The editor there was abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, who took Whittier under his wing.

Working alongside Garrison, Whittier went on to become one of the nation’s leading abolitionist voices. In 1833 he published his antislavery pamphlet, “Justice and Expediency,” which catapulted him to prominence. He was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society that same year, and became a Massachusetts legislator two years later.

His activism placed him in danger more than once, including a narrow escape from a mob that set fire to an abolitionist hall where he was attending a meeting. He was able to get out unscathed when he hastily assembled a disguise and blended in with the pro-slavery crowd by shouting, “Hang Whittier!”

The Civil War was a complicated turning point for Whittier. His Quaker pacifism led him to oppose it, but he ultimately thought that it was the only way to end slavery. President Lincoln said that Whittier’s ‘Luther’s Hymn’ had influenced him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and that it was the kind of song he wanted all the soldiers to hear:

O North and South,
Its victims both,
Can you not cry,
‘Let Slavery die!’
And union find in freedom?

After the war, Whittier returned to primarily writing poems about the natural world, Quakerism, rural life, and New England. By the end of his life he was one of the most widely-read poets of his time and a household name in the US and England. At his death, thousands came to his wake and packed into his Amesbury backyard for his funeral.

07/29/2026

Registration is open for the 2026 Outreach Conference on September 25-27! Explore ways to create an authentic connection with newcomers by moving beyond a basic invitation. Learn about how themes such as equity, beloved community, belonging, and multi-age inclusion connect to outreach. Hear insights about partnering with BIPOC community organizations and offering a faithful witness in your neighborhood. The Outreach Conference is held online.

The Outreach Conference is made up of workshops, plenaries, and teaching sessions. There is one registration fee for weekend attendance. Presenters include people who are activists, scholars, educators, and artists. Mark your calendars for September 25-27 and register today!

https://www.fgcquaker.org/event/outreach-conference/