QuakerQuaker Blog Carnival

Note: Post updated and dead links moved to text, 3/2023.

I am pleased to announce the debut of the QuakerQuaker Blog Carnival! This page will link to posts that people write about the QuakerQuaker website, or about the Wider Quaker Blogosphere (WQB) generally. (The acronym is a joke. Just to be clear.)

If you'd like to participate, write a brief post about your experience: How did you find QQ, or Quaker blogs generally? What was a post you found through QQ or Quaker blogs that really moved you, spoke to your condition? Or, what was one of the most engaging conversations you've found?

Posts through the end of April 2007 were included for this carnival. It was a bit extended, but it needed time to ripple out through the Quakersphere and for posts to germinate. I updated this page as new posts emerged. (I'd never hosted a blog carnival before, so asked if there were any conventions I should be observing, to please let me know.)

If you use del.icio.us to bookmark websites, please tag your own or others' posts with "quaker.qqcarnival" [old link: del.icio.us/tag/quaker.qqcarnival] I'm certain that will be a unique identifier.

Finally, by way of explanation, this is meant to lift up and honor the work of QQ's webmaster, Martin Kelley, the Quaker Ranter. Thank you, Martin, for your gift of service, behind-the-scenes technical ministry, and constant tweaks. Think of this as your very own FestSchrift|2.0.

(Update: P.S.: Martin covers the costs of QQ himself. QuakerQuaker has a PayPal account by which you can donate; think of it in comparison to a magazine subscription. I encourage you to subscribe to the various Quaker print magazines if you can afford to.)

Let the carnival begin!

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CHERICE: quaker blog carnival!
I really appreciate QuakerQuaker because it helps us to see that we're not alone in our questions for the Society of Friends, as well as our passion for our shared history and our desire to follow the Spirit into the future as we are led.

ROBIN M.: How the Quaker blogosphere changed my life
Quaker blogs opened my eyes to a much wider world of Friends. I had been to Quaker meeting in a few places before that, but Quaker blogs opened windows through walls I didn’t even know I wanted to see through.

GREGG: Thanks, Martin
The biggest surprise to me has been the gift of being a part of a community of Quaker bloggers, a community that I know would not be as connected as we are without the work of Martin Kelley and the linking project he has created at QuakerQuaker.

MARK: Thanks to QuakerQuaker.org
For me, QuakerQuaker.org is the hub of the Quaker blogosphere.

NANCY: QuakerQuaker & me
(old link: nancysapology.blogspot.com/2007/04/quakerquaker-me.html)
This blog community has pulled at me in a way that regular meeting hasn't in a long time. It's prompted me to read books that people have recommended, follow links to articles that crystalize new ideas.

LYNN: The Quaker blogosphere
When I first started blogging, I was the only Quaker blogger that I knew about... In blogs, you can more easily come and go from the topics you want, and so you don’t worry as much about the whole discussion being dominated by one difference (whether about theology or practice).

HEATHER: QuakerQuaker: Challenges and Community
I have a new appreciation for the variety of Quaker faith and practice in the world. These different viewpoints challenge me to examine and deepen my own ideas. You're helping me grow in many ways, Friends, and I thank you for that.

RICHARD M: One Hot Summer's Day
(old link: quakerphilosopher.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-hot-summers-day.html)
The best result of blogging is that it has given me a new sense of how good the larger Quaker community is. We have our differences of course but where else will you find people laboring with each other with so much cooperation, good-will and patience.

SIMON STL: Quaker Ranters and QuakerQuaker
By giving people a central but diverse point where they can find all kinds of writings, QuakerQuaker both inspires us to write and lets us know that not everyone writes in the same kind of way.

WILL T: Quaker Quaker blog carnival
Even though we do not meet face to face, I have found refreshment and encouragement in the writings I have found on these blogs. I have also been helped by those people I disagree with because I have had to learn to listen (and read) better and to feel down beneath other people's words.

JOHAN: Quaker Blog Carnival!
Nothing can replace being together in person, but short of that, the advent of Friendly weblogs has provided a whole new dimension of fellowship and consultation to the Quaker world.

SCOT: Celebrating Connections: QuakerQuaker Blog Carnival
Several months ago, Rik [Panganiban] wrote about a Friends meeting for worship in Second Life. I was intrigued and have been attending, when I can, ever since. As a result, I met other Friends who blog and are hooked into QuakerQuaker. I have become hooked in, as well, and greatly appreciate you all!

MARTIN aka THE QUAKER RANTER: Blushing
(Old link: https://www.quakerranter.org/blushing.php)
It’s mostly just nice to hear how people have come together these last few years via blogs to talk about what they believe, what they experience and what they dream about for this little religious society of ours.

LIZ OPP: QuakerQuaker helps connect Quakers with Quakers
When we give caring, thoughtful attention to the people with whom we interact, we will wish to provide a system that will nurture and nourish those relationships long into the future.

AJ: The First Quaker Carnival
(old link: ajschwanz.com/2007/04/19/the-first-quaker-carnival)
Martin is one of the first Quaker bloggers I found online; not only that, but his passions and concerns mirrored mine: the lack of young adults in meetings, the sadness of the divided state of Quakerdom, being a parent and a minister.

WESS: Quaker-Ranter: Martin Kelley Puts a New Face on an Old Tradition
He’s helped to point the way toward something of a common purpose and goal for a number of Friends. Later this would be dubbed “convergent Friends,” a growing conversation of Quakers mashing up emerging church ideas, postmodern culture and classic Quakerism to find ways of progressing our tradition.

SHELLEY: Rooted
I depend on my Quaker community –– still predominantly that of my Meeting, but widening now to include Quakers to whom I am connected only through cyber space –– to help keep me rooted, committed to a life that is increasingly Spirit-led.

ROB: The Quaker Ranter
(old link: consider-the-lilies.blogspot.com/2007/04/quaker-ranter.html)
I think it's safe to say that I wouldn't have met a whole heap of people who have had profound and positive influences on my life had I not first got looped in through Martin's ministry.

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Updates! 4/25/07

JOHN., A Tentative Quaker: You take a leap and ....
Ironically 2-3 weeks ago I had no knowledge about Blogs or live feeds and now have key feeds set up and 2 blogs. Its too early to say where the interesting conversations will lead and who I will have them with. But I can and I will.

LINDA: QuakerQuaker Celebration
Over time I’ve found ways to have deeper conversations with folks in my meeting. But the Quaker blogosphere provides the opportunity to have more such conversations, and to feel connected to other Quakers in a variety of meetings.

CAT: The Sincerest Form of Flattery
I now have a higher standard for myself. I at least attempt to write in my blog and in my comments on others' blogs with the same open-heartedness I see in so many Quaker blogs. In a very real sense, blogging and reading blogs has become a major part of my weekly preparation for worship....
   QuakerQuaker has been so important, not just in the world of the Quaker blogosphere, but of the religious blogosphere in general... QuakerQuaker has a new little sister, just about a week old now, in The Pagan Portal.

JOE G., still blogless (*sniff*), came out of retirement to leave a comment.

T.: QuakerQuaker and the Quaker Blogosphere
(old link: thefriendlyfunnel.quakerism.net/?p=61)
the best gift having a blog as part of the Quaker blogosphere has given me is the ability to be part of a group that has no physical presence. I don’t have to worry about finding a ride, or if I feel up to going out.