Research Grantees 2025
At Reedwood, we value learning as a way to deepen understanding and serve the common good. Each year we offer scholarships and research grants to help young scholars pursue meaningful work.
In the past year, four students received support for their research. Below are the papers that grew out of their studies—signs of thoughtful inquiry and hope for the future.
Johnny Protiva: A God Beyond Language: The Restless Metaphors for Quaker Theology (Reed College)
Rowan Soeiro: The Unwanted, the Unhoused, the Criminal (Reed College)
Elsie Bailey: The Friends of Feminism: Quaker Women in the Movement for Equality (George Fox University)
Lauryn Stanfield: A Quanglican Sacramentology: Signs, Signified, and a Solution (George Fox University)
Afghan Refugees Supported
Among those who gather at Reedwood are several whose callings take them far beyond our neighborhood. They serve in international development, relief, and aid work. Through their efforts, we came to know the stories of young Afghans whose lives were upended when the Taliban returned to power. These students and advocates for democracy and women’s education suddenly found themselves in danger for having hoped too openly.
With a history of welcoming refugees, Reedwood felt compelled to respond. A small circle of Friends formed a committee, not out of grand ambition, but out of the simple conviction that love must take form in action. Together, we have helped one family find safety and new beginnings in Australia, their path now secure. Three young people remain in our care, and we continue to support them with daily needs. We are happy to report that two are now back in universities outside Afghanistan. We support them in their studies and hold hope for the futures they are still striving to build.
In such work, we are reminded that faith is not a set of beliefs to be guarded, but a way of being in the world—one that listens for the cries of others and answers, as best it can, with compassion.
Faith Communities
At Reedwood, we seek to nurture that spirit of belonging not only within our own congregation, but across the many paths that people walk in faith and meaning. We are grateful to partner with a variety of groups who gather under our roof. Each has its own way of prayer, reflection, and celebration. In sharing our space, we hope to share something deeper as well: the conviction that community grows not from sameness, but from hospitality, respect, and the simple grace of being together.
Community Support
As part of the Reed neighborhood, Reedwood seeks to live as a good neighbor. We are open to what can grow when people gather with purpose, as a result, our rooms are used by many: a Tai Chi circle greeting the morning with gentle motion, 12 Step groups finding strength in shared struggle, musicians and listeners joined in the joy of song through our partnership with the Portland Folk Music Society. Each autumn, the laughter and color of the neighborhood festival fill our grounds, reminding us that community is not something we build once, but something we tend together.
We also offer gatherings and classes that invite both neighbors and friends to explore the deep connections between life and spirit. In recent years, we’ve welcomed voices like Dr. Cornel West, who called us to courage and compassion. We’ve explored creativity as a path of spiritual growth, and embodied spirituality through simple experiences—walking a forest trail, listening to the healing tones of a sound bath, attending to the sacred that lives in our own breath and bodies.
In all these ways, we seek to live our faith as a practice open to all who hunger for meaning, connection, and renewal.
Quaker Organizations
Reedwood is part of a wider Quaker family, and we are grateful to support the many organizations that carry forward the Quaker witness in the world. Each plays a part in expressing our shared values—peace, justice, simplicity, and care for all people.
Some focus on education and spiritual nurture, such as Barclay Press and the Friends World Committee for Consultation, which help share Quaker voices and connect Friends across traditions and around the globe. Others work directly for peace and justice—organizations like the American Friends Service Committee, Friends Peace Teams, and the Quaker United Nations Office, which bring a spirit of compassion and nonviolence into places of conflict and need, and Friends Committee on National Legislation, which carries a Quaker voice into the public square, advocating for peace, equity, and the common good in national policy and lawmaking. In addition to these large organizations we support the work of our friend Grace Kuto and the work of her Harambee Centre in Kenya, co-founded by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, the Centre focuses on education and development, primarily in Kenya.
Through our support of many of these and other Friends organizations, Reedwood joins a larger story of Quakers seeking to live faithfully in the world—turning belief into practice, and hope into action.