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

Using the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina, this online program will explore Howard Thurman’s 1944 prose poem The Great Incarnate Word. This powerful text was a precursor to Thurman’s landmark book Jesus and the Disinherited. Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) – a method of reading together in a worshipful, contemplative setting – is a way for a group to enter more deeply into a text than when using lectures or conversation. 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.