West Hills Friends
West Hills Friends is a Quaker meeting in Portland, Oregon. You can find more about us at www.westhillsfriends.org. Included on this page are words of people in our community, and visitors.
Episodes
May 20, 2024 • 19 mins
How can we become more attentive to Divine leading, trusting that we may find our way out and forward by a reorientation towards Spirit's presence in the natural structures and systems surrounding us?
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May 13, 2024 • 13 mins
"Communion with God" by Gil George by West Hills Friends
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April 29, 2024 • 13 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about paying attention to your heart and preparing for the situations of life. How has heart/mind/spirit attention prepared you to enter into situations differently? What possibilities emerge, in your imagination, if the process of heart/mind/spirit re-orientation were more widely practiced?
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April 29, 2024 • 8 mins
Jill Townley shares a First Word about an encounter with a young woman on a recent bus trip on her morning commute.
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April 22, 2024 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about feeling comfortable with being completely you. How have you become aware of the "normative" narratives that have influenced the way you interact with others? How does your spirituality challenge you to deepen the grace and understanding you extend to others?
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April 16, 2024 • 16 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about eclipses and epiphanies and shares the poem “Spellbound” by Bethany Lee. What are the epiphanies you've had in your life? When have things come together, or connected in such a way to bring you Into a profound sense of a world filled with light? Are you hoping for an epiphany? What remains disconnected, or unsettled in your life? How are you actively inviting wonder into your spiritual life?
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April 16, 2024 • 7 mins
Leanne Benner shares a First Word about asking the question what difference does Jesus’ resurrection mean for us?
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April 8, 2024 • 14 mins
Mica Coffin shares a message about how metaphors help us understand God. At the end of the message Mica speaks about a song called "God is a River," copyright Peter Mayer, that can be downloaded at petermayer.net.
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April 1, 2024 • 10 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a short story about George Fox. Later we were invited to weave a message on a canvas.
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March 26, 2024 • 14 mins
Stephen Deatherage shares an original short story with Latin dialogue about how the cross has given way to life.
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March 18, 2024 • 13 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about sourdough starters and leavened bread. What metaphors describe what it feels like to be present in the world right now? Whether it be a stone crying out, mustard seeds, or hidden leaven, how does carrying the Light of the Divine disrupt the darkness for you right now?
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March 11, 2024 • 18 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about the story behind the song, "We Are The World."
Queries were:
1. How does holding the unknowns of another's story and experience give you more capacity for grace in your relationship?
2. When have you experienced another holding the knowledge of your past challenges in a way that created more space for you to be yourself?
3. How do we create a community where we hold the challenge of learnin...
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February 26, 2024 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum offered a message about becoming aware of the influence of principalities and powers and the way they shape our thinking and motivations. How does your relationship with the Divine challenge you to act with integrity and conviction in the world?
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February 5, 2024 • 10 mins
Kevin Melvin offers a message about knowledge of God and the search for meaning. What if knowing the nature of God is not material to the exploration?
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January 2, 2024 • 11 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares about the feeling of always being in trouble. Queries were how much does worry about being in trouble dominate your inner dialogue? How have you received or offered grace? How did it change your heart?
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December 26, 2023 • 13 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares the message for the morning. Queries were how does the soil under your feet, the watershed in which you live, the light within your own heart, call you back to yourself? In what ways can a community like West Hills Friends be of service to people experiencing the turmoil of our times?
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December 12, 2023 • 14 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about the imaginal cells of the butterfly within the caterpillar. What "imaginal cells" are within you? What possibility of transformation might you already be carrying? Where are you in your current process of transformation? What are the voices within you saying about where you are?
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December 4, 2023 • 10 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum asks us to consider holy days as being invitations to wholeness days. When have you experienced something in the routines of normal life that awakened you to an alternative way of being in the world? How do you stay in touch with what makes you whole?
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November 27, 2023 • 10 mins
Mica Coffin shares a message about pet peeves and pet delights. Are there pet peeves--cherished annoyances or irritations--that you have been coddling? Have you covered up deeper concerns by focusing on annoyances? What are your pet delights? How do you broaden your perspective to bring more of the goodness of life in? What does it mean to you to choose between life and death, blessings and curses?
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November 20, 2023 • 14 mins
Stephen Deatherage shares a message about timshel, the Hebrew word for “Thou Mayest.” The word Timshel is referred to in the John Steinbeck novel East of Eden. Timshel means we have a choice on how to live our lives, and the power to choose our own path.
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