an online program with Barbara Birch
Thursdays in January 2026
(Jan 8, 15, 22 & 29)
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

How can a deeply rooted inner life sustain courageous action for justice? In this online program we’ll explore Howard Thurman’s 1944 prose-poem The Great Incarnate Word using the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina—prayerful, unhurried reading and reflection of short passages.

Thurman was a pastor, mystic, and theologian whose writings had an effect on the spirituality of civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin. Together, we’ll look at how Thurman’s spirituality helped shaped nonviolent civil rights witness, and how his focus on the disinherited, the poor, and the marginalized can ground our own lives of faith and action today. No experience necessary.

Barbara has just written a book about the practice of Lectio Divina! It is part of the Quaker Quicks series from John Hunt Publishing, titled Lectio Divina: Revelation and Prophecy. You can order it from Pendle Hill and other booksellers (it is not necessary to read the book in order to attend this program).

Click here to register!

About the facilitator.

Barbara Birch has been a Quaker for over 35 years and she is a member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, California. She is a retired professor of Applied Linguistics specializing in reading and writing. Identifying as both liberal and Christocentric, she is passionate about understanding early Quaker embodied spirituality and its relevance to modern Friends. Barbara is a member of the board of the Ben Lomond Quaker Center, where she has offered several online programs, book groups and more. She has written articles for Friends Journal and Western Friend. Barbara is also a wife, a mother of three daughters, and a grandmother of two.