Category: Quaker Testimonies

If you’ve walked through Idlewild Park in Reno on a recent Sunday, you might have noticed a group of people sitting in a circle, in camp chairs, in silence. If you looked closely, you would see a sign saying that we are Reno Friends and that everyone is welcome to join us.

Whenever I hear the current President talk about sending the military into American cities, I wonder what the men and women of our armed services think of that idea. It’s one thing to volunteer to fight in foreign wars to defend our nation; it’s quite another to be sent into the streets of America. And it makes me think about the Quaker Peace Testimony, and what Quakers can do to support American service men and women who may want to resist taking military action against our own citizens.

A Reno group called Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace has been holding a monthly Peace Presence Vigil in downtown Reno since the United States started bombing Afghanistan in 2001.

Georgia Dalto, an attender of Reno Friends, is currently studying and working in Kosovo to become a reconciliation facilitator.

I woke up at 7am, without an alarm clock. I looked out through my sleepy eyes, seeing the old wooden dresser with the broken handle. I never noticed before, but it’s splintered as if a bullet struck it a few decades ago when there was war in this village. Dust floated through the ray of sun slanting in through the high window, and I was grateful to the farmer who let me stay in the old house his grandparents built, and in which his father was born. This farmer, like so many others here, has since built a modern house for his own growing family, using a government grant that we helped him secure. But he left the old house standing, out of respect for his forebears.

By Kristin Winford and the Reno Friends First Day School Students 

Please join the First Day School and Reno Friends to march together in the Northern Nevada Pride Parade, Sat. Sept. 6. We will gather at the Meeting House at 8:00 a.m.; the parade starts at 10 am at California Avenue between Arlington Avenue and Virginia Street.

As 2025 began, like many of us, I pondered my New Year’s intentions. I’d read that polls show people are feeling more stressed, anxious and depressed in recent years. I’d noticed the same trend. I decided what the world needs most right now is more peace, kindness and hope, not more anxiety, anger and despair. So, I resolved to commit to lasting inner peace.

Everywhere I turn today, I encounter the issue of integrity. Our political climate and deep divisions keep raising questions about integrity: who has it and who doesn’t, whether journalists have integrity or are manipulating the truth, and whether candidates are lying or obfuscating. Integrity, it turns out, may be one of the most compelling issues of our day, and an important topic to consider as we head into the next national election.

I walk through what was once a lively forest, now reduced to charred standing skeletons devoid of branches, needles, shade. This was once a welcoming vibrant forest retreat, but now I am hypervigilant, watching for a strong wind as swaying snags threaten my head. There is life here—beetles furiously chewing in the snags, woodpeckers hammering to pry them out—but it is hard to focus on these small signs. Surrounded by these visual reminders of forest trauma, I am overwhelmed by the grief and shock of this rapid change to the forest ecosystem—not just the loss of our forest community, but also of homes burned, towns burned. It stirs my memories of people living in tents on the roadside because they had nowhere else to go.

Reno Friends recently gathered on Zoom for a spiritual discussion about the Quaker “testimonies,” shared truths that Quakers have distilled from their spiritual experience down through the last 350 years. The most common Quaker testimonies spell out the acronym SPICES – Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality/Equity and Stewardship. We use the term “testimonies” because each person’s experience illuminates different aspects of these shared truths.