West Hills Friends

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

"Seeing the New Thing God Is Doing," by Faith Marsalli

June 23, 2025 • 17 mins
Faith Marsalli shared a message about how God has been with West Hills Friends from the beginning and is already doing something new. She encouraged us to be open to change, to let go of old ways that no longer work, and to trust that we already have what we need to move forward as a healing and welcoming community. Queries were: What new thing has God already begun at WHF that you need to see and name? What are some ways of “doing...
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"Losing the script," by Gíl George

June 16, 2025 • 17 mins
Gíl George shares a message about how when we start looking at the world through the lens of self-importance rather than through the lens of self-compassion we lose the script like so many before us.
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"Openings through which we see God," by Mica Coffin

May 26, 2025 • 11 mins
Mica Coffin shares a message about seeing a little girl reach out to a houseless man on the boardwalk after Mica offered a prayer to him. “Doesn't seeing the God in each other make us angels to one another.”
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"Let's focus on the apples," by Stephen Deatherage

May 19, 2025 • 13 mins
Stephen Deatherage shares a message on how, in the midst of life’s hardships and uncertainties, we can choose to find sweetness, meaning, and resilience. He used the symbols of apples to speak about how we turn our experiences into nourishment for ourselves and others.
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"Loving Others Helps Me Too," by Kay Ellison

May 12, 2025 • 11 mins
Kay Ellison shares a message about how small acts of love toward her mother, her neighbor, and strangers brought unexpected joy and connection, showing that loving others also nurtures ourselves.
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Mark's Last Sunday at West Hills Friends

April 28, 2025 • 22 mins
On Mark’s final Sunday at West Hills Friends, we took time to reflect on the impact of his ministry among us. Gíl George, Peg Edera, Mike Huber, and Mark Pratt-Russum each prepared messages to share, and many others offered spontaneous ministry throughout the gathering. Below are the prepared messages from that day.
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"Being fully human together," by Mark Pratt-Russum

April 24, 2025 • 17 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about forming community around being fully human together from March 9, 2025.
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Easter Radio Drama - “The Case of the Missing Miracle Man" by April Vanderwal and Mark Pratt-Russum

April 21, 2025 • 16 mins
April Vanderwal and Mark Pratt-Russum join forces to create a special Easter Radio Drama called “The Case of the Missing Miracle Man.” Voice actors with Mark and April included Jayne Calkins, Craig Strong, Lynsley Rollins, Lucia Pratt-Russum, and Katherine Spinner, and Joel Rubicam as foley artist.
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"You Are Deeply Loved" by Mark Pratt-Russum

April 14, 2025 • 18 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares his last message at WHF. He recalled his first message in May 2010 when he was interviewing for the position, and he read Mary Oliver’s poem, “5 A.M. in the Pine Woods.” Here are the queries Mark offered: You are sitting at the base of a tree early in the morning in a forest. After an hour or so, you notice a wild, yet gentle animal making its way through the trees. In the hopes of catching a glimpse of i...
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"The Fruits of Our Attention," by Mark Pratt-Russum

April 5, 2025 • 12 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about alternative imagination and attention practiced by communities like ours. Queries: What kind of presence am I bringing to this circle? What are my real hopes for this community? Where might I still be holding back-or holding on to something that keeps me from deeper connection?
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"These Are the Ember Days," by Bethany Lee

March 29, 2025 • 15 mins
Bethany reads poems from her book of poetry, Etude for Belonging, and spoke about learning to live at the end of the world, like so many others before, here at the edge of the shore. Hope reminds us that it matters how we navigate those endings, and make beauty on the way.
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"New Expressions of Community" by Mark Pratt-Russum

March 22, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about our hearts orientation towards change. How are you trying to form and foster new ways of being in community with people? How does a community like West Hills Friends contribute to that experimentation? What does your internal resistance about new expressions of community reveal about what you care about? Are there ways to transform that resistance by using what you care about in new ways?
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"The Next Chapter" by Mark Pratt-Russum

March 15, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about looking at your life as if it’s a book you couldn't put down. What if we trusted that the next chapter will be as riveting as the last? How does such a perspective shift reorient your thinking about the future? How does nostalgia reveal what you care about? What skills have you learned from these passions? How can those skills be used in crafting the future. Photo by: Matias North
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"Rituals for times of turmoil" by Mark Pratt-Russum

February 22, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about our disenchantment with religious rituals since the Enlightenment and offered the queries: Considering the growing disconnect of the sacred/spiritual from everyday life, how are you engaging in ritual to keep yourself connected and grounded? In this time of turmoil, what do you need to tend to your heart/mind/body/soul? How might crafting daily rituals assist in that tending?
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"Reclaiming what was lost," by Mark Pratt-Russum

February 8, 2025 • 14 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about holding hands with a girl in youth group and the prodigal son. Mark offered these queries: How has it been carrying around the narrative that you are lost? How much longer must you carry it? What would happen if you were freed from it? Has anyone ever called you lost for something you knew was guiding you home to yourself? How are you reclaiming what another once thought was lost about you?
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"Painting our peaceable kin-dom," by Mark Pratt-Russum

February 1, 2025 • 14 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about painter and minister Edward Hicks and the Hicksite/Orthodox split in Quaker history. When asked about your vision for the Kin-dom, what do you say? What do you paint? What do you write? What do you imagine? How do our "Kin-dom" visions sustain us in times when we feel furthest from it's potential? Friends calling us into movements of liberation may be encouraging us to add to, or expand our ...
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"Gems in the crown," by Mark Pratt-Russum

January 25, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about speaking truth to power and offered these queries: In what areas of your life could you use more plain, clear, and honest communication? How might God be moving us to speak Truth to power?
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"Surviving the Mesocosm," by Mark Pratt-Russum

January 18, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shared about surviving the mesocosm, the chaotic middle of the universe called Earth. How does the microcosm inform your spiritual practice? How about the macrocosm? If we are children of the chaotic middle, what emotional and spiritual strategies are you practicing to survive and thrive in the mesocosm?
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"Spiritual reverence for the forces that surround," by Mark Pratt-Russum

January 11, 2025 • 14 mins
Mark Pratt-Russum shared about maintaining holy wonder about your place in the natural world. How does a return of spiritual reverence for the forces that surround us lead us into a more wholesome relationship with them?
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"The importance of our believing," by Kaleen Deatherage

December 28, 2024 • 13 mins
Kaleen Deatherage shares the story of Virginia O’Hanlon and Francis Church. The famous line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," comes from an editorial written by Church in response to a letter from eight-year-old Virginia, who asked if Santa Claus was real. This editorial was first published in The Sun, a New York newspaper, on September 21, 1897. How do you reconcile your hopes and your fears in this skeptical age? How migh...
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