May 13, 2025 • 32 mins
the word “home” mean to you? From a laundry ministry on the streets of San Francisco to a Quaker refuge during World War II, Friends are reimagining what it means to offer shelter, connection, and belonging. Our episode gets its inspiration from the May 2025 issue of Friends Journal.
Peterson: Gabe Ehri writes in the opening editorial, “In a world as profoundly abundant as ours, it is a societal failure of monumental proportions that anyone go without safe and comfortable housing.”
Sweet Miche: And he ends with this reminder from scripture and Woolman: “Think on these things and do them.” That’s what we’re exploring today—what it means to actually do something.
In This Episode:Zae Illo, an Earlham School of Religion graduate and a longtime public theologian, shares how his lived experience of homelessness informs his ministry among unhoused neighbors in San Francisco. Outside the Friends meetinghouse, his laundry ministry provides more than clean clothes—it offers presence, listening, and dignity. Read his article: Laundry Chaplaincy for Unsheltered Souls
Sharlee DiMenichi, staff writer at Friends Journal, highlights how Quaker meetings across North America care for unhoused neighbors. From shelter partnerships in Arizona to memorials for unhoused Friends in California, her reporting centers spiritual practice and community action. Read her article: Solidarity with Our Unhoused Neighbors
Michael Luick-Thrams reflects on Scattergood Hostel, the Iowa Quaker school that transformed into a refuge for Jewish children fleeing the Holocaust. Watch the QuakerSpeak video: Scattergood: A Quaker Response to the Holocaust Read the book: Scattergood by H.M. Bouwman
Book Review We feature Bird, Bee, and Bug Homes and Habitats for Garden Wildlife, a vibrant guide for helping our smallest neighbors. It is recommended for ages 6–12 and curious adults. Read the review: Bird, Bee and Bug Homes
Monthly QuestionWe asked listeners: Beyond a roof and four walls, what does the word “home” mean to you? Thank you to Mario, Sonia, Erin, and Ben for sharing heartfelt reflections. From childhood memories to chosen neighborhoods, your answers grounded this episode in personal truth.
Next question: What is your favorite Quaker term—one common among Friends but strange to outsiders? Leave a voicemail at 317-QUAKERS or comment on our socials.
Credits & Links- Quakers Today is a podcast from Friends Publishing Corporation
- Hosted by Peterson Toscano and Sweet Miche
- QuakerSpeak Video recorded by Layla Cuthrell
- Season 4 is sponsored by Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends Service Committee
- Music comes from Epidemic Sound. Closing song: Weather Any Storm by Cody Francis.
- Visit QuakersToday.org for a full transcript and more.
- Learn more about Zae Illo at ZaeIllo.com
Contact us: podcast@friendsjournal.org
Season Four of Quakers Today is Sponsored by:
Friends Fiduciary
Since 1898, Friends Fiduciary has provided values-aligned investment services for Quaker organizations, consistently achieving str
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Peterson Toscano (00:00):
In this episode of Quakers Today, we ask, what does
home mean to you?
>> Sweet Miche (00:04):
Zae Illo is a graduate of Earlham School of
Religion and a public theologian. He has
created a unique ministry for the unhoused people
who gather outside the San Francisco Friends meeting.
He shares his own experience of living without shelter
and the challenges his meeting faces as they
seek to truly welcome unhoused neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (00:26):
Sharlee DiMenichi brings us stories of how Friends
meetings across the US Are sharing their time
and resources to meet the growing needs of people
without housing.
>> Sweet Miche (00:36):
And Michael Luick-Thrams Trans, takes us back to World
War II, when Scattergood friends School became a
refuge for Jewish families fleeing
genocide. I'm, um, Sweet Miche.
>> Peterson Toscano (00:47):
I'm Peterson Toscano. This is Season four,
Episode six of Quakers Today,
a podcast from Friends Publishing Corporation.
This season is made possible thanks to the support of
Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends
Service Committee. Thank you for
joining us today. Our episode gets its
(01:07):
Inspiration from the May 2025 issue
of Friends Journal.
>> Sweet Miche (01:12):
Yeah, this issue lifts up stories of
Friends who aren't content to just look away from
the crisis of homelessness, but who instead follow
Spirit's lead to care for their neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (01:23):
As Gabe writes in the opening editorial,
in a world as profoundly abundant as
ours, it is a societal failure of
monumental proportions that anyone go without
safe and comfortable housing.
>> Sweet Miche (01:37):
And he ends with this reminder from Scripture and
think on these things and do them. That's what
we're exploring today, what it means to actually do
something. When we talk about urban
ministry, some people think of soup kitchens,
shelters, or donations. But for Zae
Illo ministry is something different. It's
(01:58):
about listening, showing up, and letting Spirit lead him
to places that are uncomfortable and deeply
needed.
>> Peterson Toscano (02:05):
Drawing from his own lived experience of
homelessness, Ze brings a powerful witness
to San Francisco's streets and to Friends.
Today he shares what he's learned from offering
spiritual care in a most unlikely
laundry.
>> Zae Illo (02:24):
More than a decade ago, when I moved to San Francisco
from Chicago, I lived at one of the largest shelters
in the city. This first required spending
many nights sleeping while sitting upright in
a chair. Not everyone in
shelter necessarily receives a bed.
Every day we had to queue in order to check in,
(02:45):
praying that not too many people in front of us signed
up for laundry, since there were only so
many total washes available per day.
I keenly recall feeling exposed while in my
bunk bed, sleeping next to people who were
sometimes in the midst of mental episodes.
Yet for all of the challenges, I recall
(03:05):
staff who were close, clearly gifted in managing
conflict and creating rapport with shelter guests.
Their ability to exert influence and speak
with the culture, not at the
culture was fascinating to me. I also
recall the conversations with George, an
elderly African american with whom I'd often
(03:26):
eat dinner at the common dining room. He is
an ancestor, an angel whispering a
word for me to carry on in this
sometimes spiritually perilous work.
>> Sweet Miche (03:37):
Those early experiences shaped z's
understanding of dignity and community.
Later, while finishing seminary at Earlham school of
religion, he lived and worked at a tiny house
shelter in Oakland. A
Quaker founded this transitional housing community. It
was a different model of care. Private
(03:58):
space, personal keys, the
freedom to do simple things like wash, laundry
whenever needed. Through that, Ze's idea
of housing and ministry was transformed.
>> Zae Illo (04:11):
On January 28th, uh, 2024, I began
sitting outside the meeting house on Sundays
during meeting for worship to
extend spiritual care in the form of laundry.
The laundry is just the outer shell, the
spiritual tortilla per se,
that hides what's really the center of the experience,
Active listening and spiritual care to persons
(04:33):
usually excluded,
absent from worship.
>> Peterson Toscano (04:38):
What Ze offers isn't flashya,
simple folding table, a handwritten
sign, an invitation to relationship.
But his presence reveals something many
urban dwellers and worship communities prefer
not to see.
>> Zae Illo (04:54):
It means that you might have someone in the fellowship hall who's literally
falling asleep in a plate of food. It means that you
might have someone that is so exhausted and so tired,
they're not able to sit up in meeting for
worship. And then it makes people uncomfortable because they
don't know what to do. Because if we're being
really honest, it collides into the
(05:14):
discipline of an urban context where we are,
um, trained to some degree to ignore people and pretend we don't
see them. It invites discomfort because you're called to
respond in a different way than you might if you were just
walking down the street.
>> Sweet Miche (05:27):
Welcoming spirit doesn't always look orderly.
It sometimes looks like exhaustion, hunger,
grief. And it challenges our
expectations, especially when race and
power dynamics are involved.
>> Zae Illo (05:43):
It is unfortunately, a reminder that no
matter how long I sit in the chair
on Sundays, no matter how much I serve in committees,
no matter how much I show up
at the end of the day, I still am an African American
in the tradition. And if
the assumption of other people is that all of that
(06:05):
time that I've spent there will somehow
totally assimilate me into their culture,
they are surprised to learn that that is not
true, that the concerns that
I will hold will be
of populations that they might.
It might not register in their world the
(06:27):
same way, because as someone within
the African American population that is disproportionately
sleeping outside of our meeting house, it makes
perfect sense why Spirit might nudge
me in a certain direction and not others.
>> Peterson Toscano (06:42):
For Zay, Spirit's call doesn't erase his
identity. It deepens it.
Revelation. Is it magic? It's an
unveiling, showing us the ways we have disciplined
ourselves, not to see suffering or injustice.
>> Zae Illo (06:56):
Spirit's not magic. It does not entail
a personality displacement. But
Spirit is not a Star wars laser
that's going to magically teleport you to be something that you
never were to begin with. Um,
it helps you to live the life that you already live
at greater depth, a, ah, greater understanding of yourself. And
(07:18):
so then when you hit that spiritual realization that, oh,
I've been doing this thing, ignoring these people, et
cetera, that's very uncomfortable. And so for some
people, it would be much easier if those people weren't
there to remind them and to serve
as that point of collision.
>> Sweet Miche (07:34):
Ze sees in the Quaker tradition a way
forward, a chance to meet people not with
judgment, but with listening and love.
>> Zae Illo (07:43):
And so I'm very hopeful about the potential of our
tradition, uh, to meet those people.
Um, I fall perhaps much more on the line of
Paul in the Quaker sense than James.
You know, the mission call is to go
and find those people, um, versus
to stay secluded inside of the
(08:05):
meeting house, hoping again that other forces beyond
myself will fix these issues.
>> Peterson Toscano (08:12):
Zey reminds us Spirit's work
often begins where our comfort ends.
When we show up with open hearts, we find a
different kind of worship, one built not on
silence alone, but on presence, on
dignity, on love in action.
>> Sweet Miche (08:28):
What does faithfulness look like on the streets where you live?
Where is Spirit calling you to see more clearly and
to love more deeply?
>> Peterson Toscano (08:36):
Ze has a lot more to share about his experiences with
unhoused people in San Francisco. You can
read his article Laundry Chaplaincy for
Unsheltered Souls in the May
2025 issue of Friends Journal.
It is also available for free@friendsjournal.org
learn more about Zay Ello at
his website zillow.com
(08:58):
Zeh is spelled Z
A E Z and Elo
is I L L O
zilo.com
we began with Ze's story of urban ministry in
(09:19):
San Francisco. Personal spirit led
and grounded in relationship.
>> Sweet Miche (09:24):
And now we hear from journalist Charlie
Domenicki, who reports on how Quaker meetings across
North America are responding to homelessness in
their communities.
>> Sharlee DiMenichi (09:34):
My name is Sharlee DiMenichi a
volunteer at a cat shelter and a
volunteer at a homeless shelter. I also
have worked, uh, with children who
live with autism as well as as a preschool
teacher. Solidarity with
our unhoused neighbors. You can
find it@friendsjournal.org
(09:57):
One that really touched my heart
was the effort by Bruce
Folsom, um, of San Francisco Meeting,
who took a big emotional risk
by just standing outside the
meeting house two days a week
developing relationships with people facing
(10:17):
homelessness. He developed a really close
friendship with an unhoused person named
Yolanda. Yolanda introduced him
to many people in the homeless community
who he otherwise probably would not have met because
they would not have trusted him enough without
Yolanda's connection.
Unfortunately, Yolanda passed away
(10:39):
after many years of friendship
with Folsom, and Folsom was really
grieved by her death. He met her mother and
sister and asked the San
Francisco meeting to have a memorial for her.
Although she was not a member or an attender, they did have a
memorial. Folsom spoke to me of
allowing one's heart to be broken
(11:01):
repeatedly by the
difficulties that some folks face when they're
unhoused. He also spoke of the need for
spiritually grounding practices, which for
him are prayer and plain song.
The Tempe Meeting in Tempe,
Arizona, offers a dinner for
people facing homelessness.
(11:23):
They also have partnered with other
congregations to offer
a stayover shelter in a
house of worship downtown.
One of the members lives at a local
retirement community. She had
arranged for the bedding from the
(11:43):
overnight shelter to be washed at the retirement community
and then taken back before they had laundry facilities
at the shelter. Folks really came
together around serving people facing
homelessness in that meeting. Some
people prepared dinner, some people served dinner.
People would also go to the overnight
(12:04):
shelter and talk with folks and
see what other needs could be met.
>> Sweet Miche (12:11):
That's just one of many stories Sharlee
DiMenichi shares in the May 2025
issue of Friends Journal.
>> Peterson Toscano (12:19):
To read her full article, solidarity with Our
Unhoused Neighbors, and to explore more
about how friends are taking action, uh, visit
friendsjournal.org.
>> Michael Luick-Thrams (12:34):
What were we doing in a time of danger
and peril and the rising clouds of war? This
is America's largest grassroots response to the
Holocaust.
I'm Michael Luig Trams. I live in Turing in the middle of
Germany, where I'm a professor of social history at the Universitade
Airport.
(12:54):
The way that Scattergood Hustle was created itself is
sort of, uh, a miracle. Young Iowa Quakers met in
Clearlake, Iowa in 1938 and said the
situation Nazi Germany is insufferable.
The Jews are being abused, they're being threatened.
They probably imagine some are being killed.
And so the Iowa Young Quakers wrote to the
(13:15):
AFSC and said, you know, we could imagine bringing some of these
refugees to Iowa in the summer
and doing projects. We could use the
closed school Scattergood.
The letter arrived at Clarence Pickett's desk here in
Philadelphia at the ABSC just as he
was going on the Speckling delegation in Germany.
(13:36):
Clarence Pickett returns, hands his report into
the AFSC proper and the report is
filed, stamped and dated November
8. On November 9, the next day was
Kristallnacht. Clarence Pickett has
just gotten this letter from his Iowa Quakers and he's just returned himself
and he's seeing these Jews were desperate to get out of the
(13:56):
Nazi morass. So he grabs the young
Iowa Quakers offer and says, great, but
we're not just going to send people to you in the summer, we'll send to you
around the Iowa
Quakers take over this abandoned school
and make it a hostel. And when you think of these
Iowa Quaker kids, they came up with the idea, well,
let's bring these refugees to Iowa. It's the most
(14:18):
improbable, ridiculous idea there is.
But when Germany took over the Sudetenland and then only
a couple months later, they were bringing the synagogues, you, you had
to do something. Those who care and
are able could literally live with those who need
to find a new life. And that's what sky could really help
them do. These people were untrained and
(14:38):
yet they gave them what they had. It was 30 refugees
at any given time to a ratio of
15American staff. And certainly that could be
a model for today.
>> Sweet Miche (14:51):
That was Michael Luick-Thrams a member of Des
Moines Valley Friends Meeting, in an excerpt from the
quakerspeak video entitled
Scattergood A Quaker Response to
the Holocaust. You can hear more Quakerspeak
videos filmed and edited by Layla
Cuthril on YouTube.
>> Peterson Toscano (15:09):
Or@Quakerspeak.Com
if you or a young person in your life wants to learn
more about this time in Scattergood's history,
pick up the book Scattergood by
H.M. m. Bauman. This historical
novel, recommended for 9 to 12 year olds,
centers around Peggy, a 12 year old farm
(15:29):
girl Gunter, a young refugee
and Camilla, a young Quaker volunteer.
It's a story of friendship, resilience and finding light
even in the shadows of a world on the brink of
war.
Just like us non human creatures need a
place to call home.
Which brings us to a delightful little book that has
(15:52):
landed on the Friends Journal Review desk.
Bird, Bee and Bug
Homes and Habitats for Garden Wildlife by
Susie Behar and illustrated by Esther Combs.
>> Sweet Miche (16:04):
The book is packed with vibrant illustrations of our
smallest neighbors and the gardens they thrive
in. Bahar stresses how the local
habitat right outside our doors is often
our first and most direct interaction with the
natural world.
>> Peterson Toscano (16:19):
It's brimming with easy to follow instructions for
building all sorts of wildlife homes,
birdhouses of different shapes and sizes,
cozy owl and bat boxes, even bug
hotels. There are also recipes for
bird cake. Yum. And
even ideas for creating mini ponds for our
amphibian Friends.
>> Sweet Miche (16:41):
It sounds like a fantastic resource, Peterson A
beautiful and practical guide to making our little patch
of earth a little more welcoming for all of our
wild neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (16:51):
Bird, Bee and Bug Homes and
Habitats for Garden Wildlife is by Susie
Bahar and illustrated by Esther Combs.
It's recommended for ages 6 through 12,
but I think I'm going to totally dip into it.
>> Sweet Miche (17:05):
To read the full review of this book by Sheila Baumgarner
and the review of Scattergood by Aileen Reddin, visit
Friends journal
online@friendsjournal.org.
>> Peterson Toscano (17:17):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Quakers
Today. If you like what you heard today and you
listen on Apple Podcasts, please rate and
review our show. Many thanks to everyone
sharing Quakers Today with Friends and on social media.
Quakers Today is written and produced by me,
Peterson, Toscano and me Sweet
(17:38):
Miche.
>> Sweet Miche (17:39):
Music on uh, Today's show comes from Epidemic Sound.
>> Peterson Toscano (17:42):
Season four of Quakers Today is sponsored by American
Friends Service Committee. Vulnerable
communities and the planet are counting on Quakers
to take action for a more just,
sustainable and peaceful world.
The American Friends Service Committee, or
AFSC works at the forefront
of many social change movements to meet
(18:04):
urgent humanitarian needs,
challenge injustice and build peace.
Find out more about how you can get involved in their programs
to protect migrant communities, establish an
enduring peace in Palestine, demilitarize
police forces around the world, assert the right to
food for all, and
more@afsc.org
(18:26):
that's afsc.org
this season is.
>> Sweet Miche (18:31):
Also brought to you by friends Fiduciary.
Since 1898, friends uh, fiduciary has
provide values aligned investment services for
fellow Quaker organizations. Friends
Fiduciary consistently achieves strong financial
returns while witnessing the Quaker
testimonies. They also help individuals
support organizations they hold dear the through giving
(18:53):
strategies including donor advised funds,
charitable gift annuities and stock gifts.
Learn more about FFC's services at
Friends fiduciary.org.
>> Peterson Toscano (19:07):
Visit quakerstoday.org to see our show notes
and a full transcript of this episode.
And if you stick around after the closing, you will hear
listeners responses to the question
Beyond a roof and four walls, what does the
word home mean to you? Thank
you friend for listening.
>> Sweet Miche (19:26):
In a second you'll hear listeners ideas of
home.
But first we need to tell you what our question will be for
our next season.
>> Peterson Toscano (19:35):
Yeah, we begin season five in
September, but in the meantime we will bring
you special interim, um, episodes. Some of
these will share audio from previous episodes.
We'll also air content from other podcasts
and create original content.
>> Sweet Miche (19:53):
Here's the question for September. What is your
favorite Quaker term that is common among Friends
but strange to outsiders?
>> Peterson Toscano (20:01):
Oh, uh, my goodness, there are so many
we take for granted. I'm not going to give any away,
but I'm curious to hear what people have
to say. There is a couple ways you can answer
this question. You can leave a voice memo, which is
basically a voicemail with your name and the town
where you live. And here's the number to call
(20:22):
317-QUAKERS.
That's 317-782-537-7317
quakers
+1. If you're calling from
outside the USA, you can also send us an email
podcastriendsjournal.org we have
these contact details in our show notes
over@quakerstoday.org oh,
(20:43):
and you could also leave a comment on our
many social media platforms.
Now we hear answers to the question, beyond a roof
and four walls, what does the word home
mean to you?
>> Sweet Miche (21:03):
We put our question out to our listeners on Instagram
and the responses received were so thoughtful and,
well, homey. Our first
response was from Mario. Having moved around so much
as a child and as an adult, it really just means a place
where I'll be missed if I suddenly stopped showing up.
>> Peterson Toscano (21:21):
Home is not just about the space, but the
connections we forge within it. Our next
response from Sonia really resonated with me.
Sonia writes, I remember visiting my
elementary school in sixth grade and being wowed by
how much I still felt enveloped and surrounded
by all the love there, even when it was no
longer my daily place.
>> Sweet Miche (21:43):
And this sweet answer from Erin. She wrote,
my husband, neither Brooklyn nor
Upstate woods feels like home without him. I know
it's cheesy, but it's true.
>> Peterson Toscano (21:54):
Our last answer is from Ben. My
family is so diasporic that
anytime there's a wear your flag day at the
school I teach at. I don't participate,
but being in North Brooklyn since 2010
makes it feel like home. Biking the streets without
a map is so grounding.
(22:14):
Yeah. That feeling of finally finding
roots, of navigating a place with such
familiarity, that's a beautiful aspect of home,
too, Miche. Thank you, Mario,
Sonja, Erin, and Ben for those answers.
>> Sweet Miche (22:28):
Keep an eye out on our home the podcast feed.
Before next season, we'll be releasing a few interim
episodes. Thank you for listening, friend.
See you soon.
In this episode of Quakers Today, we ask, what does
home mean to you?
>> Sweet Miche (00:04):
Zae Illo is a graduate of Earlham School of
Religion and a public theologian. He has
created a unique ministry for the unhoused people
who gather outside the San Francisco Friends meeting.
He shares his own experience of living without shelter
and the challenges his meeting faces as they
seek to truly welcome unhoused neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (00:26):
Sharlee DiMenichi brings us stories of how Friends
meetings across the US Are sharing their time
and resources to meet the growing needs of people
without housing.
>> Sweet Miche (00:36):
And Michael Luick-Thrams Trans, takes us back to World
War II, when Scattergood friends School became a
refuge for Jewish families fleeing
genocide. I'm, um, Sweet Miche.
>> Peterson Toscano (00:47):
I'm Peterson Toscano. This is Season four,
Episode six of Quakers Today,
a podcast from Friends Publishing Corporation.
This season is made possible thanks to the support of
Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends
Service Committee. Thank you for
joining us today. Our episode gets its
(01:07):
Inspiration from the May 2025 issue
of Friends Journal.
>> Sweet Miche (01:12):
Yeah, this issue lifts up stories of
Friends who aren't content to just look away from
the crisis of homelessness, but who instead follow
Spirit's lead to care for their neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (01:23):
As Gabe writes in the opening editorial,
in a world as profoundly abundant as
ours, it is a societal failure of
monumental proportions that anyone go without
safe and comfortable housing.
>> Sweet Miche (01:37):
And he ends with this reminder from Scripture and
think on these things and do them. That's what
we're exploring today, what it means to actually do
something. When we talk about urban
ministry, some people think of soup kitchens,
shelters, or donations. But for Zae
Illo ministry is something different. It's
(01:58):
about listening, showing up, and letting Spirit lead him
to places that are uncomfortable and deeply
needed.
>> Peterson Toscano (02:05):
Drawing from his own lived experience of
homelessness, Ze brings a powerful witness
to San Francisco's streets and to Friends.
Today he shares what he's learned from offering
spiritual care in a most unlikely
laundry.
>> Zae Illo (02:24):
More than a decade ago, when I moved to San Francisco
from Chicago, I lived at one of the largest shelters
in the city. This first required spending
many nights sleeping while sitting upright in
a chair. Not everyone in
shelter necessarily receives a bed.
Every day we had to queue in order to check in,
(02:45):
praying that not too many people in front of us signed
up for laundry, since there were only so
many total washes available per day.
I keenly recall feeling exposed while in my
bunk bed, sleeping next to people who were
sometimes in the midst of mental episodes.
Yet for all of the challenges, I recall
(03:05):
staff who were close, clearly gifted in managing
conflict and creating rapport with shelter guests.
Their ability to exert influence and speak
with the culture, not at the
culture was fascinating to me. I also
recall the conversations with George, an
elderly African american with whom I'd often
(03:26):
eat dinner at the common dining room. He is
an ancestor, an angel whispering a
word for me to carry on in this
sometimes spiritually perilous work.
>> Sweet Miche (03:37):
Those early experiences shaped z's
understanding of dignity and community.
Later, while finishing seminary at Earlham school of
religion, he lived and worked at a tiny house
shelter in Oakland. A
Quaker founded this transitional housing community. It
was a different model of care. Private
(03:58):
space, personal keys, the
freedom to do simple things like wash, laundry
whenever needed. Through that, Ze's idea
of housing and ministry was transformed.
>> Zae Illo (04:11):
On January 28th, uh, 2024, I began
sitting outside the meeting house on Sundays
during meeting for worship to
extend spiritual care in the form of laundry.
The laundry is just the outer shell, the
spiritual tortilla per se,
that hides what's really the center of the experience,
Active listening and spiritual care to persons
(04:33):
usually excluded,
absent from worship.
>> Peterson Toscano (04:38):
What Ze offers isn't flashya,
simple folding table, a handwritten
sign, an invitation to relationship.
But his presence reveals something many
urban dwellers and worship communities prefer
not to see.
>> Zae Illo (04:54):
It means that you might have someone in the fellowship hall who's literally
falling asleep in a plate of food. It means that you
might have someone that is so exhausted and so tired,
they're not able to sit up in meeting for
worship. And then it makes people uncomfortable because they
don't know what to do. Because if we're being
really honest, it collides into the
(05:14):
discipline of an urban context where we are,
um, trained to some degree to ignore people and pretend we don't
see them. It invites discomfort because you're called to
respond in a different way than you might if you were just
walking down the street.
>> Sweet Miche (05:27):
Welcoming spirit doesn't always look orderly.
It sometimes looks like exhaustion, hunger,
grief. And it challenges our
expectations, especially when race and
power dynamics are involved.
>> Zae Illo (05:43):
It is unfortunately, a reminder that no
matter how long I sit in the chair
on Sundays, no matter how much I serve in committees,
no matter how much I show up
at the end of the day, I still am an African American
in the tradition. And if
the assumption of other people is that all of that
(06:05):
time that I've spent there will somehow
totally assimilate me into their culture,
they are surprised to learn that that is not
true, that the concerns that
I will hold will be
of populations that they might.
It might not register in their world the
(06:27):
same way, because as someone within
the African American population that is disproportionately
sleeping outside of our meeting house, it makes
perfect sense why Spirit might nudge
me in a certain direction and not others.
>> Peterson Toscano (06:42):
For Zay, Spirit's call doesn't erase his
identity. It deepens it.
Revelation. Is it magic? It's an
unveiling, showing us the ways we have disciplined
ourselves, not to see suffering or injustice.
>> Zae Illo (06:56):
Spirit's not magic. It does not entail
a personality displacement. But
Spirit is not a Star wars laser
that's going to magically teleport you to be something that you
never were to begin with. Um,
it helps you to live the life that you already live
at greater depth, a, ah, greater understanding of yourself. And
(07:18):
so then when you hit that spiritual realization that, oh,
I've been doing this thing, ignoring these people, et
cetera, that's very uncomfortable. And so for some
people, it would be much easier if those people weren't
there to remind them and to serve
as that point of collision.
>> Sweet Miche (07:34):
Ze sees in the Quaker tradition a way
forward, a chance to meet people not with
judgment, but with listening and love.
>> Zae Illo (07:43):
And so I'm very hopeful about the potential of our
tradition, uh, to meet those people.
Um, I fall perhaps much more on the line of
Paul in the Quaker sense than James.
You know, the mission call is to go
and find those people, um, versus
to stay secluded inside of the
(08:05):
meeting house, hoping again that other forces beyond
myself will fix these issues.
>> Peterson Toscano (08:12):
Zey reminds us Spirit's work
often begins where our comfort ends.
When we show up with open hearts, we find a
different kind of worship, one built not on
silence alone, but on presence, on
dignity, on love in action.
>> Sweet Miche (08:28):
What does faithfulness look like on the streets where you live?
Where is Spirit calling you to see more clearly and
to love more deeply?
>> Peterson Toscano (08:36):
Ze has a lot more to share about his experiences with
unhoused people in San Francisco. You can
read his article Laundry Chaplaincy for
Unsheltered Souls in the May
2025 issue of Friends Journal.
It is also available for free@friendsjournal.org
learn more about Zay Ello at
his website zillow.com
(08:58):
Zeh is spelled Z
A E Z and Elo
is I L L O
zilo.com
we began with Ze's story of urban ministry in
(09:19):
San Francisco. Personal spirit led
and grounded in relationship.
>> Sweet Miche (09:24):
And now we hear from journalist Charlie
Domenicki, who reports on how Quaker meetings across
North America are responding to homelessness in
their communities.
>> Sharlee DiMenichi (09:34):
My name is Sharlee DiMenichi a
volunteer at a cat shelter and a
volunteer at a homeless shelter. I also
have worked, uh, with children who
live with autism as well as as a preschool
teacher. Solidarity with
our unhoused neighbors. You can
find it@friendsjournal.org
(09:57):
One that really touched my heart
was the effort by Bruce
Folsom, um, of San Francisco Meeting,
who took a big emotional risk
by just standing outside the
meeting house two days a week
developing relationships with people facing
(10:17):
homelessness. He developed a really close
friendship with an unhoused person named
Yolanda. Yolanda introduced him
to many people in the homeless community
who he otherwise probably would not have met because
they would not have trusted him enough without
Yolanda's connection.
Unfortunately, Yolanda passed away
(10:39):
after many years of friendship
with Folsom, and Folsom was really
grieved by her death. He met her mother and
sister and asked the San
Francisco meeting to have a memorial for her.
Although she was not a member or an attender, they did have a
memorial. Folsom spoke to me of
allowing one's heart to be broken
(11:01):
repeatedly by the
difficulties that some folks face when they're
unhoused. He also spoke of the need for
spiritually grounding practices, which for
him are prayer and plain song.
The Tempe Meeting in Tempe,
Arizona, offers a dinner for
people facing homelessness.
(11:23):
They also have partnered with other
congregations to offer
a stayover shelter in a
house of worship downtown.
One of the members lives at a local
retirement community. She had
arranged for the bedding from the
(11:43):
overnight shelter to be washed at the retirement community
and then taken back before they had laundry facilities
at the shelter. Folks really came
together around serving people facing
homelessness in that meeting. Some
people prepared dinner, some people served dinner.
People would also go to the overnight
(12:04):
shelter and talk with folks and
see what other needs could be met.
>> Sweet Miche (12:11):
That's just one of many stories Sharlee
DiMenichi shares in the May 2025
issue of Friends Journal.
>> Peterson Toscano (12:19):
To read her full article, solidarity with Our
Unhoused Neighbors, and to explore more
about how friends are taking action, uh, visit
friendsjournal.org.
>> Michael Luick-Thrams (12:34):
What were we doing in a time of danger
and peril and the rising clouds of war? This
is America's largest grassroots response to the
Holocaust.
I'm Michael Luig Trams. I live in Turing in the middle of
Germany, where I'm a professor of social history at the Universitade
Airport.
(12:54):
The way that Scattergood Hustle was created itself is
sort of, uh, a miracle. Young Iowa Quakers met in
Clearlake, Iowa in 1938 and said the
situation Nazi Germany is insufferable.
The Jews are being abused, they're being threatened.
They probably imagine some are being killed.
And so the Iowa Young Quakers wrote to the
(13:15):
AFSC and said, you know, we could imagine bringing some of these
refugees to Iowa in the summer
and doing projects. We could use the
closed school Scattergood.
The letter arrived at Clarence Pickett's desk here in
Philadelphia at the ABSC just as he
was going on the Speckling delegation in Germany.
(13:36):
Clarence Pickett returns, hands his report into
the AFSC proper and the report is
filed, stamped and dated November
8. On November 9, the next day was
Kristallnacht. Clarence Pickett has
just gotten this letter from his Iowa Quakers and he's just returned himself
and he's seeing these Jews were desperate to get out of the
(13:56):
Nazi morass. So he grabs the young
Iowa Quakers offer and says, great, but
we're not just going to send people to you in the summer, we'll send to you
around the Iowa
Quakers take over this abandoned school
and make it a hostel. And when you think of these
Iowa Quaker kids, they came up with the idea, well,
let's bring these refugees to Iowa. It's the most
(14:18):
improbable, ridiculous idea there is.
But when Germany took over the Sudetenland and then only
a couple months later, they were bringing the synagogues, you, you had
to do something. Those who care and
are able could literally live with those who need
to find a new life. And that's what sky could really help
them do. These people were untrained and
(14:38):
yet they gave them what they had. It was 30 refugees
at any given time to a ratio of
15American staff. And certainly that could be
a model for today.
>> Sweet Miche (14:51):
That was Michael Luick-Thrams a member of Des
Moines Valley Friends Meeting, in an excerpt from the
quakerspeak video entitled
Scattergood A Quaker Response to
the Holocaust. You can hear more Quakerspeak
videos filmed and edited by Layla
Cuthril on YouTube.
>> Peterson Toscano (15:09):
Or@Quakerspeak.Com
if you or a young person in your life wants to learn
more about this time in Scattergood's history,
pick up the book Scattergood by
H.M. m. Bauman. This historical
novel, recommended for 9 to 12 year olds,
centers around Peggy, a 12 year old farm
(15:29):
girl Gunter, a young refugee
and Camilla, a young Quaker volunteer.
It's a story of friendship, resilience and finding light
even in the shadows of a world on the brink of
war.
Just like us non human creatures need a
place to call home.
Which brings us to a delightful little book that has
(15:52):
landed on the Friends Journal Review desk.
Bird, Bee and Bug
Homes and Habitats for Garden Wildlife by
Susie Behar and illustrated by Esther Combs.
>> Sweet Miche (16:04):
The book is packed with vibrant illustrations of our
smallest neighbors and the gardens they thrive
in. Bahar stresses how the local
habitat right outside our doors is often
our first and most direct interaction with the
natural world.
>> Peterson Toscano (16:19):
It's brimming with easy to follow instructions for
building all sorts of wildlife homes,
birdhouses of different shapes and sizes,
cozy owl and bat boxes, even bug
hotels. There are also recipes for
bird cake. Yum. And
even ideas for creating mini ponds for our
amphibian Friends.
>> Sweet Miche (16:41):
It sounds like a fantastic resource, Peterson A
beautiful and practical guide to making our little patch
of earth a little more welcoming for all of our
wild neighbors.
>> Peterson Toscano (16:51):
Bird, Bee and Bug Homes and
Habitats for Garden Wildlife is by Susie
Bahar and illustrated by Esther Combs.
It's recommended for ages 6 through 12,
but I think I'm going to totally dip into it.
>> Sweet Miche (17:05):
To read the full review of this book by Sheila Baumgarner
and the review of Scattergood by Aileen Reddin, visit
Friends journal
online@friendsjournal.org.
>> Peterson Toscano (17:17):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Quakers
Today. If you like what you heard today and you
listen on Apple Podcasts, please rate and
review our show. Many thanks to everyone
sharing Quakers Today with Friends and on social media.
Quakers Today is written and produced by me,
Peterson, Toscano and me Sweet
(17:38):
Miche.
>> Sweet Miche (17:39):
Music on uh, Today's show comes from Epidemic Sound.
>> Peterson Toscano (17:42):
Season four of Quakers Today is sponsored by American
Friends Service Committee. Vulnerable
communities and the planet are counting on Quakers
to take action for a more just,
sustainable and peaceful world.
The American Friends Service Committee, or
AFSC works at the forefront
of many social change movements to meet
(18:04):
urgent humanitarian needs,
challenge injustice and build peace.
Find out more about how you can get involved in their programs
to protect migrant communities, establish an
enduring peace in Palestine, demilitarize
police forces around the world, assert the right to
food for all, and
more@afsc.org
(18:26):
that's afsc.org
this season is.
>> Sweet Miche (18:31):
Also brought to you by friends Fiduciary.
Since 1898, friends uh, fiduciary has
provide values aligned investment services for
fellow Quaker organizations. Friends
Fiduciary consistently achieves strong financial
returns while witnessing the Quaker
testimonies. They also help individuals
support organizations they hold dear the through giving
(18:53):
strategies including donor advised funds,
charitable gift annuities and stock gifts.
Learn more about FFC's services at
Friends fiduciary.org.
>> Peterson Toscano (19:07):
Visit quakerstoday.org to see our show notes
and a full transcript of this episode.
And if you stick around after the closing, you will hear
listeners responses to the question
Beyond a roof and four walls, what does the
word home mean to you? Thank
you friend for listening.
>> Sweet Miche (19:26):
In a second you'll hear listeners ideas of
home.
But first we need to tell you what our question will be for
our next season.
>> Peterson Toscano (19:35):
Yeah, we begin season five in
September, but in the meantime we will bring
you special interim, um, episodes. Some of
these will share audio from previous episodes.
We'll also air content from other podcasts
and create original content.
>> Sweet Miche (19:53):
Here's the question for September. What is your
favorite Quaker term that is common among Friends
but strange to outsiders?
>> Peterson Toscano (20:01):
Oh, uh, my goodness, there are so many
we take for granted. I'm not going to give any away,
but I'm curious to hear what people have
to say. There is a couple ways you can answer
this question. You can leave a voice memo, which is
basically a voicemail with your name and the town
where you live. And here's the number to call
(20:22):
317-QUAKERS.
That's 317-782-537-7317
quakers
+1. If you're calling from
outside the USA, you can also send us an email
podcastriendsjournal.org we have
these contact details in our show notes
over@quakerstoday.org oh,
(20:43):
and you could also leave a comment on our
many social media platforms.
Now we hear answers to the question, beyond a roof
and four walls, what does the word home
mean to you?
>> Sweet Miche (21:03):
We put our question out to our listeners on Instagram
and the responses received were so thoughtful and,
well, homey. Our first
response was from Mario. Having moved around so much
as a child and as an adult, it really just means a place
where I'll be missed if I suddenly stopped showing up.
>> Peterson Toscano (21:21):
Home is not just about the space, but the
connections we forge within it. Our next
response from Sonia really resonated with me.
Sonia writes, I remember visiting my
elementary school in sixth grade and being wowed by
how much I still felt enveloped and surrounded
by all the love there, even when it was no
longer my daily place.
>> Sweet Miche (21:43):
And this sweet answer from Erin. She wrote,
my husband, neither Brooklyn nor
Upstate woods feels like home without him. I know
it's cheesy, but it's true.
>> Peterson Toscano (21:54):
Our last answer is from Ben. My
family is so diasporic that
anytime there's a wear your flag day at the
school I teach at. I don't participate,
but being in North Brooklyn since 2010
makes it feel like home. Biking the streets without
a map is so grounding.
(22:14):
Yeah. That feeling of finally finding
roots, of navigating a place with such
familiarity, that's a beautiful aspect of home,
too, Miche. Thank you, Mario,
Sonja, Erin, and Ben for those answers.
>> Sweet Miche (22:28):
Keep an eye out on our home the podcast feed.
Before next season, we'll be releasing a few interim
episodes. Thank you for listening, friend.
See you soon.
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