Category Issues

Issue 61 is in development and should be in the summer of 2026. Signup on the Subscribe page to be notified when articles are posted. See the “About TCF” page for information on submissions

Second Month 20, 2026 This issue contains the usual collection of newly written items, items written in the recent past, and historic items from early Friends. Included in issue 60 are: new writings on free Gospel ministry, artificial intelligence, and Christ as king; two contemporary Friends writings on the phrase “that of God” and on God’s old and new covenants with humanity; and a historic Friend’s writing on morality not to be relied upon. A print quality PDF/print version of Issue 60 is available for viewing and download. Link to view/download PDF

After a few years on hiatus The Conservative Friend has return to print in a hybrid format. The goal is to publish two issues a year which will be post on this site. Then these two issue will be printed together on paper as an annual volume.

Each year, when we answer the query, “Do we maintain a … free gospel ministry?,” we are quick to answer in the affirmative. We do not charge anyone to join us in worship to hear whatever message may be given, and we do not pay anyone to give messages. It’s free. Yet seldom do we consider the true meaning of ministry, let alone open the question of what the gospel is.

For me, Artificial intelligence (AI) poses challenges to Faith and Truth. AI suddenly seems everywhere—and seems posed as inevitable. Perhaps AI is inevitable. I know in my own work, some AI can help. However, the apparent fait accompli does not obviate serious inquiry into how AI affects Faith and Truth; and, I pose, how Faith and Truth should affect AI.

Many people pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” routinely, without much thought as to what it means. It means, first of all, “Be my King,” which means, “Tell me what to do, make it possible for me to obey, and I’ll do it.” And then, “From now on, whenever my will conflicts with Yours, let Yours, not mine, be done.”

My mind having thus gone astray from the Lord, it displeased him, and caused him to withdraw from me. So I did not enjoy the sweetness and comfort of his Holy Spirit as I had done before. Yet for loving those things that offended him, he took it not from me but it became my judge and condemner and so the terrors of the Lord often seized me. I could well remember, from the strength of my natural memory, how it had been with me when I was in favor with the Lord. By his holy Light I saw how I had lost the living sense of the sweetness I had formerly enjoyed. This made me sorely lament my present condition.

For the past century some Friends have been using the phrase “That of God” in reference to the Peace Testimony and other facets of Quaker theology. George Fox first used that expression in his epistles and some other writings. Shortly after Fox's passing, Friends seemed to abandon that phrase until Rufus Jones revived it towards the end of the Nineteenth Century. Needless to say, Jones' interpretation and use of this concept was much different from Fox's understanding.

In the Christian understanding, there have been two outward gatherings of God’s people. The first gathering was that of the Old Covenant, while the second is that of the New Covenant. These covenants express an intentional relationship between God and groups of people, not merely individuals. Throughout the Old Testament, there are stories of individuals who were obedient to God's Spirit but who were not part of God’s Old Covenant people. God’s physical gathering of a people does not deny God’s activity in the lives of individuals outside the group. Rather, it illustrates that what God intends to convey to humanity is a message and a Spirit too great to be contained within individual lives. God’s message requires the shared life of a gathered people. A gathered people can show forth more divine power than a collection of individuals, and being part of a gathered people provides clarity, power, and community to the individual.