Judith Favor

Author

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Amy Tan As It Is online class Author Event Bay Area biography cbs-news-new-york Claremont Forum Claremont Public Library classes co-presenters Counseling Deborah Cadbury Democracy Discovery Ecology Foodie Stuff Friending Rosie Friends Journal generational pain Ghost Ranch history Jeanette Piccard Jen Soriano Journaling Longtermism online online class Page Publishing Poets & Writers Journal Prison Library Project prisons published Quakers Sabbath Economics seminars silent meditation Silent Voices Spirituality & Practice Stillpoint testimonial The Beacons The Edgefielders What Canst Thou Say workshops writing

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The Edgefielders

tells of a vibrant community of individuals from different cultures and faiths who were forced to live at Oregon’s state-run poor farm during the Great Depression. Judith Wright Favor, a retired pastor and Portland native, was in mid-life before she came upon a document that shed light upon the dark secret: in 1935 her great grandmother, Margaret Mary Wright, was sent to the poor farm and erased from the family lore. Judith was outraged to learn that her great grandmother died among paupers at Edgefield. She felt compelled to unravel the mystery.   READ MORE…

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<em>Silent Voices</em>

From the start, the stories of Leo James Wright and Cordelia Davis Wright were never solely their own, but continuations of lives that began long before they were born. And how did I come to discover what happened to my grandparents in events preceding my birth? Where does such information come from? A curious child, I learned to listen between the lines when the Grans spoke, guessing at what they were trying to hide. I watched the way they looked at each other, held my breath during false starts and sudden silences… READ MORE…

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About My Writing

What would you call this category of writing? The Edgefielders is my great-grandmother’s hidden story. Public records show only birth, marriage and death dates so I composed a biographical novel to knit imagination into these bare facts. I invented scenes and dialogues to illustrate what happened before and during her four years at Edgefield. How does imagination work with facts? Margaret Mary was born in 1869 in rural Ontario and erased from family lore after she died in 1938 at the Multnomah County Poor Farm. I’d not heard of her until Aunt Margo handed me a stack of genealogy documents including a death certificate. Place of Death: Multnomah County Poor Farm. What? How could this be? Who sent my elderly ancestor to an institution for paupers? Stories hold us together but hers had been deleted. I had to find out, even though it felt risky to probe into family shadows and secrets. READ MORE…

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Review of Colum McCann’s <em>Trans Atlantic</em>

TRANS ATLANTIC By Colum McCann Random House, New York, 2013 Hardback, 305 pages   $27.00 Reviewed by Judith Favor.  Published in Friends Journal, September 2014, pp 42-43 I yearn for writing that is transformational, and this beautifully crafted novel met my longing.  Colum McCann braids together the passions of publicly acclaimed men – abolitionist former slave Frederick Douglass, WW1 pilots Jack Alcock and Teddy Brown and peacemaker Senator George Mitchell—with the…

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Queries about Silence

Is silence collaborative, complicit? “You know your part in this,” Sheriff Bowen once told him, and he did. Leo had not spoken up. He should have told someone about his brother torturing dogs. Leo knew he had been a coward. from Silent Voices, Part One: Boy Is silence the space between words, a pause between heartbeats? That evening, Cordelia heard Leo’s baritone sounding the overture to an opus, one she…

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“As It Is: Spiritual Journaling”<br/>(class starting soon!)

Monday, August 8th – Friday, September 2nd, 2106 www.spiritualityandpractice.com (Sign-up Webpage) “As it is.” These three little words embedded in the lines of a prayer taught by Jesus remind us to seek the workings of the divine “on earth as it is in heaven” — that is, to approach our many challenges in union with Sacred Presence. But how? One profound and reassuringly helpful tool to foster this sense of…

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“As It Is: Spiritual Journaling”<br/>(update)

I’m pleased to say you can still enroll in AS IT IS: Spiritual Journaling! Participants from Syria, Barbados, England and the US are dealing with difficult others, blessing absent ones and befriending money in their journals today. E.courses offered by Spirituality&Practice reach across the years and around the world to help people explore spiritual life with clarity and authenticity. Course material remains in the archive, ready when you are. If…

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Review of <em>Wolf Hollow</em> By Lauren Wolk

Reviewed by Judith Favor December 1, 2016, in Friends Journal “The year I turned twelve, I learned how to lie. I don’t mean the small fibs that children tell. I mean real lies fed by real fears––things I said and did that took me out of the life I’d always known and put me down hard into a new one.” In Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk introduces a girl who becomes…

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Spiritual Direction

is rooted in trust that Sacred Presence infuses every aspect of life. God is present in doubt and despair, fear and frustration: God is present in joy and peace, certainty and gratitude. Holy guidance arises in times of love and loss, work and rest, praying and playing. Sometimes it is difficult to discern the movement of the Spirit: sometimes it is challenging to follow the call. Holy Source is the true Director but an experienced companion can assist in hearing and heeding “the still, small voice.” Spiritual direction is an ancient ministry,
a unique one-to-one relationship in which
a trained person assists another person
in the search for an ever-closer union
of love with God.   READ MORE . . .

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ASKING WRITERS about <em>The Beacons of Larkin Street</em>

Reading connects people; so does writing. Writing helps clarify ideas, keep track of details and discover hidden meanings. Expressing our truths with love connects us—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually—to our readers and to our deepest selves. The Beacons of Larkin Street is a Nineteen-Seventies historical novel written by a contemplative feminist great-grandmother, an ordained minister who once pastored a church in San Francisco. READ MORE …

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READERS’ GROUPS: Some Open-Ended Questions

  Pick those that spark a strong response in you…     The GATE: ENTRY POINTS What pulled you into the story; conflict, collaboration or something else? Which character made you care? What about her sparked your interest? Which themes kept your attention?     Say more… Have you ever served on a pastoral search committee? Any regrets? Have you ever made a life-changing decision, only to wind up doubting your…

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<em>The Beacons</em>

There’s a lot to love about the women of Saint Lydia’s in San Francisco. Head Beacon Beka and her sidekick Dot turned out to be very good at getting rid of a predatory male pastor. Female church leaders were rare in 1976, but they found an ordained woman to shepherd their flock. The five Beacons, their prickly minister and a young Mexican prostitute all took risks, made mistakes and followed their hearts to set a wild new course for their historic interracial, interdenominational congregation in “The City.” The Beacons reveals the souls of lay leaders, how they sought spiritual guidance, earned the respect… READ MORE…

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The Art of Spiritual Direction

This experience nurtures openness to the many ways God enlivens both participants and their companions on life’s spiritual journey. Rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition, we draw on and study the wisdom from many traditions. An experienced staff of distinguished spiritual directors facilitates sessions using role-plays, presentations, discussions, spiritual practices, demonstrations, contemplative exercises and prayer.

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Lenten Writing

STILLPOINT PRESENTS Lenten Writing: Befriending Spiritual Fitness with Rev. Judith Favor “The spiritually fit person knits back together the separateness of work and play, reunites being and doing, has a spirit place in nature, never eats without thanking somebody and refuses to let all time be the same.” — Donna Schaper, Sabbath Sense Saturday, March 4, 2017 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 1221 Wass Street, Tustin,…

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Review: <em>The Sun Does Shine: <br/>How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row</em>

By Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin St. Martin’s Press, 2018. 272 pages. $26.99/hardcover; $16.99/paperback (available June 2019); $13.99/eBook. Reviewed by Judith Favor on October 1, 2018 in Friends Journal The Sun Does Shine is the true story of an innocent black man’s unjust conviction, his despair on Alabama’s death row, and his practice of peacemaking behind bars. In “The Death Squad” chapter, Anthony Ray Hinton’s anguish is palpable as…

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Lives That Speak: William Dolphin

QUAKER CARES AND CONCERNS: WILLIAM DOLPHIN in conversation with Judith Favor As we settled into expectant silence, I noticed attentiveness written into the muscles of Williamʼs body. Cyclist, writer and teacher, his ineffable sense of alignment with Spirit was palpable to me, but hard to name. Words came later. William Dolphinʼs presence reminds me of William Wordsworthʼs definition of Light, “a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused.” Tell us…

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Embodied Writing through Contemplative Inquiry<br/>with Rev. Judith Favor

https://stillpointca.org/calendar/2019-writing Saturday, January 5, 2019 9:00 AM 4:00 PM Pilgrim Place at the Napier Center — 625 Mayflower Road, Claremont, CA, 91711 United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Description “Embodied writing supports the fruitful discipline of finding and asking ever keener and more beautiful questions. Writing in contemplative community helps us become larger, more generous and more courageous, equal to the fierce invitations extended to us as we grow and…

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<em>When Poets Pray</em> by Marilyn McEntyre

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2019 140 pages “In prayer, as in many other areas of life, we ‘learn by going where we have to go.’” I was delighted to see a line from Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking” as Marilyn McEntyre’s opening words in When Poets Pray because this was the first poem I ever memorized. The author’s writing captivated me from beginning to end: “Pray in…

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Steady & Clear

  Trouble called me by name one Sunday afternoon at California CentralWomen’s Facility. I had just finished co-leading a weekend Alternativesto Violence Project workshop with three Quaker volunteers and hadwalked with them from the cellblock to the exit gate. The moment Ipassed through the Xray detector into the visitor’s room, the watchsergeant called my name. His tone was stern. When I turned, an evensterner voice added, “Miz Favor, I need…

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A Mother’s Heartlines

Early-morning pages, written before my responsible self comes on duty, take me into deep, dark places and a few bright, clear ones. My fifty-four-year-old son is dying of cancer, complicated by meth addiction. Mary’s question to the angel echoes within me: How can this be? The answer, according to the Beatles: Mother Mary said to me, Let it be. Let it be. “What are you seeing?” Ray’s last words were…

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Big-Hearted Democracy

(Original Post on Spirituality & Practice Website) This post has been contributed by Judith L. Favor, who is rooted and grounded in Quaker tradition and contemplative practice. She is retired from pastoral UCC ministry in San Francisco and teaching at the Claremont School of Theology. She created the “As It Is: Spiritual Journaling” e-course for S&P. This year I’ve found myself reflecting in my journal about the meaning of democracy…

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WRITING FOR CHANGE IN CHALLENGING TIMES

Presence and Practices of JERRY MAY, ROSE MARY DOUGHERTY and TILDEN EDWARDS-Infused Writing for Change in Challenging Times An Online Day-Retreat sponsored by: Spirituality & Practice July 25, 2020   Although Shalem’s founders could not have envisioned 104 seekers gathered in one virtual Zoom room, they would have recognized the underlying spirit of unity, love and group spiritual direction that anchored the event. Some folks signed in early: I asked…

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Epiphany Writing Retreat

A One-Day Retreat on Epiphany Writing Saturday, January 22, 2022 9:00 AM 4:00 PM In-Person in Los Angeles (map) and Livestream Google Calendar ICS What to expect in a One-Day Retreat 9:00am – 12:00pm PT – Session One 12:00pm – 1:00pm PT – Lunch 1:00pm – 4:00pm PT – Session Two This one-day retreat will be held in-person and also accessible through livestream.   About the Presenter: Rev. Judith Favor…

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52 Weeks of Love & Money: The Companion Journal for Sabbath Economics — PUBLISHED!

  Got enough money? Enough love? Facing an uncertain future? Sabbath Economics is the spiritual guide for you. Loving and being loved makes everyone happier. Looking at money matters from a spiritual perspective makes everything better. Author Judith Favor helps each of us explore how much is enough as we move forward, individually and collectively, into an uncertain future. Inland Empire member and author Judith Favor will be the… Guest…

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Friending Rosie: Page Publishing

In alternating voices, Judith Wright Favor and Rosie Alfaro take the reader on a frank, frustrating, and unforgettable journey. Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row bridges the chasm between souls consigned to life behind bars, and souls enjoying the privileges of freedom. Rosie’s letters from Central California Women’s Facility, interwoven with Judith’s reflections and questions, highlight perspectives from authors of different races, religions, and languages. Marginalized people stifle their stories…

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Composing Your Spiritual Memoir

E-Course with Judith Favor January 14 – June 11, 2022 Are you ready to write a spiritual memoir? How can you sincerely convey your deepest faith, values, and practices? What sort of remembrances to you want to give to the people who matter most to you? Are you ready to see your life through a new lens and reveal to yourself and a caring community the hidden parts of your…

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Friending Rosie Book Review by Jon M. Sweeney

“Building relationships with people who are behind bars.” Friending Rosie Respect on Death Row By Judith Wright Favor, Rosie Alfaro Building relationships with people who are behind bars. Book Review by Jon M. Sweeney Twitter Facebook Link Print Judith Wright Favor is a Quaker volunteer in prison ministry and a former UCC pastor and seminary professor. She has authored other books and has led programs on spiritual journaling, contemplative writing…

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Interfaithfully Speaking: Connecting Interfaithfully with People in Prison (Claremont Courier Article)

March 3rd, 2022 by Judith Favor, member of Claremont Friends Meeting (Quakers) I’ll tell you four stories about Claremont people who connect interfaithfully with people in prison. But first, a note about the word religion. It originally meant “that which binds together,” but religious words can also be used to tear people apart. In Claremont, we commune freely in interfaith gatherings. We move safely between churches, mosques, meeting houses, meditation…

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Writing Your Ethical Will

Thursday, August 04 – Friday, August 26 Link to Spirituality & Practice page What do you want your legacy to be? What are the foundations of your life choices? What do you need to produce an effective set of documents?   This new program, designed by Judith Favor, a Discovery Writing guide for more than 50 years — will consist of Zoom meetings bookending every emailed session, before and after.…

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Rosie Review by Judy Lumb in <em>What Canst Thou Say?</em>

Friending Rosie: A Review by Judy Lumb (Set to be published in the upcoming August 2022 issue.) Judith Favor is an author and frequent contributor to What Canst Thou Say? You may have seen recent practical books on Sabbath Economics, or her novel, The Beacons of Larkin Street. Friending Rosie is about finding truth on death row. It first appeared as a book, alternating writings by Friend Judith and the…

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RESTING IN LOVE — <br/>The Healing Balm of Silence: (in-person) Silent Retreat

September 30 – October 2, 2022 Experience a weekend of quiet in the beauty of the Redwoods. Silence can soothe our bodies and minds in order to better attend to the longings of our souls. To nurture the silence, optional activities will be offered including meditative writing, soul collage, walking meditation in nature, and healing meditation. There will also be opening and closing worship sharing and Meetings for Worship. This…

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Review of Friending Rosie Pamphlet in Friends Journal

READ MORE: https://www.friendsjournal.org/book/friending-rosie-on-death-row/ FULL TEXT: The Pendle Hill pamphlet Friending Rosie on Death Row documents a 20-year friendship between a non-incarcerated Quaker and a formerly Catholic woman who was condemned to die for murder. (There is also a longer book with a similar name, Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row, available from Page Publishing. It includes more of Rosie’s first-person views and is targeted to a general audience.) Author Judith Favor draws on…

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Book Review: “Living Fellowship Needs Fresh Forms” <br/>by Daphne Clement

During the pandemic, Daphne Clement, retired hospice chaplain and coordinator of spiritual care, began each day in worship on Zoom. For 19 months, waiting worship transformed COVID-19 lockdown into a life-sustaining spiritual retreat for Friends who gathered in collective connectedness. “We are witness to the formation of an amazing technological society that has risen to meet the need for communion among Friends during the past year and a half of…

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The Spirituality of Waiting<br/>— An Advent Retreat led by Stillpoint

December 3, 2022 9:30am – 2:30pm PT This retreat will be held online. All sessions will be recorded for later viewing. When the external light lessens, creation takes its deep breath and enters a season of waiting. In her darkest hours creation waits, restoring herself and preparing for a new season of life and growth. But we are not good at waiting, we prefer to keep getting things done. The…

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Meet the Author: Jan 14th/4pm at The Claremont Forum

CLAREMONT FORUM BOOKSHOP | PRISON LIBRARY PROJECT MEET THE AUTHOR Who are the people in prison or on death row? Those of us who are “free” don’t often think of those who are incarcerated but friendship and communication have the power to heal and enrich lives on both sides of the prison bars. This special event sheds insight on those who are incarcerated and on death row – exploring themes…

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BOOK REVIEW: <em>The School That Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler</em><br/>by Deborah Cadbury

Reviewed by Judith Favor by Deborah Cadbury | Public Affairs, 2022 | 464 pages | $30/hardcover | $17.99/eBook The School That Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler shows what love can do in wartime. Deborah Cadbury takes readers on an emotional journey with head teacher Anna Essinger, who smuggled 70 students out of Nazi Germany—“a feat that no other teacher managed to pull off”—and…

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Touchstones: “Discovery Writing”

Dear Friends Who Read, “Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It is a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone,” wrote Amy Tan. In her new film, Unintended Memoirs, the author ‘speaks with remarkable frankness about traumas she has faced in her life and how writing has helped her heal.” In Where the Past Begins (2017) she wrote, “As long…

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BOOK REVIEW: <em>What We Owe the Future</em>

Reviewed by Judith Wright Favor in Friends Journal — August 2023 Issue What We Owe the Future introduced me to “longtermism”: “the idea that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time.” And each of us has a part to play. In his concluding message, as he does throughout the book, author William MacAskill addresses the reader directly in reflecting on the previous ten chapters: We’ve…

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Claremont Authors Event on 9/30/2023

Judith Wright Favor Saturday, September 30, 2023 10:00AM to 12:00NOON Claremont Helen Renwick Library Meeting Room Sponsored by Friends of the Claremont Library   Judith Favor has published six books in three genres. Her writings draw upon work experience as a babysitter, berry-picker, library page, mail clerk, typist, commercial hot air balloonist, college counselor, teacher, pastor, retreat leader and spiritual companion. Judith composed her newest book, Friending Rosie: Respect on…

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Touchstones: “Hush”

Dear Friends Who Read, Hush and I have a long relationship. When I was very young, we met in Grandma’s lap. “Hush now, hush” she would whisper, warm breath tickling my tiny ear. “Hush, little one, hush.” Eventually I learned to hush myself into a receptive state of stillness. Over time, meditation and prayerfulness deepened my practice. Be still and know. When Hush is good, it is very good. And…

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Touchstones: “Generational Pain”

Dear Readers Who Write, Generational pain prompted my first two books, The Edgefielders: Poor Farm Tales of a Great-Grandmother and Silent Voices. The discipline of discovery writing gave me tools to explore the mysterious forces that tear families apart and the ties that bind families together. Novels by contemporary authors are reminders that you and I do need not bear generational pain alone. Current fictional favorites include: The Other Americans…

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My Last Great Adventure

“Dying is the last Great Adventure,” the Rev Dr Jeannette Ridlon Piccard told me as she lay dying with Congestive Heart Failure. The courageous high-altitude balloonist and first woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood has inspired me for 50 years. Now her mighty soul accompanies mine on the Journey to Infinity. My Congestive Heart Failure was diagnosed in May and has progressed rapidly from acute to fatal. Blessedly, I am…

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Obituary: Judith Wright Favor

Great-Grandmother, Author, Pastor, Teacher Judith Lee Wright Favor, a resident of Pilgrim Place in Claremont, died December 8, 2023 at the age of 83 after being treated briefly for congestive heart failure. She was surrounded by her loving family. Born on February 25, 1940, in Portland, Oregon, Judith’s life was marked by resilience, spirituality, and a profound commitment to service. She married David Favor, with whom she shared the joy…

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TAG CLOUD

Amy Tan As It Is online class Author Event Bay Area biography cbs-news-new-york Claremont Forum Claremont Public Library classes co-presenters Counseling Deborah Cadbury Democracy Discovery Ecology Foodie Stuff Friending Rosie Friends Journal generational pain Ghost Ranch history Jeanette Piccard Jen Soriano Journaling Longtermism online online class Page Publishing Poets & Writers Journal Prison Library Project prisons published Quakers Sabbath Economics seminars silent meditation Silent Voices Spirituality & Practice Stillpoint testimonial The Beacons The Edgefielders What Canst Thou Say workshops writing

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