Windy Cooler

For over a decade, Windy Cooler's public ministry has been in pursuit of what 18th century Quaker public minister John Woolman called "right relationship." For many Friends today, right relationship refers to our simplified material relationship with the natural world and our just economic relationship with one another. In Windy's ministry call, right relationship includes these things and is grounded in the Quaker theology of continuing revelation, that through our relationships with one another, the divine in each of us is in an infinite conversation that recreates the world anew each day, year, and generation. Our spiritual and intimate relationships in our our homes, neighborhoods, and local worshipping communities is at the core of Windy's call to right relationship. Her lectures, courses, workshops, and essays have inspired creative new imaginings of the prophetic call to a healing justice across diverse Quaker communities.

Windy sometimes calls herself a "good Quaker pirate," and says her call is to "provoke unto love."

She is currently raising money to support the Friends Incubator for Public Ministry project, which is a project under the fiscal sponsorship and care of Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting.

The Incubator for Public Ministry seeks to revitalize the practice of public ministry within the Religious Society of Friends by nurturing emerging leaders and empowering local meetings. Through education, collaboration, and spiritual formation, Windy aims to inspire and equip public ministers and their supporting elders to co-create a vibrant, modern Quakerism that responds courageously to the needs of today. Rooted in the historic tradition of Quaker public ministry, the Incubator fosters collaboration between local meetings and larger Quaker institutions, building a network of leaders dedicated to growing and sustaining the Quaker community. It is fitting that this effort is not a stand alone non-profit but itself a project of a monthly meeting. Participants find themselves engaged in the prophetic imagination while also serving as facilitators for this conversation.

You can read some of Windy's work on the topic of public ministry with the Friends General Conference here: Public Ministry Within Liberal Friends Traditions.

And with Powell House and Quaker Leadership Center here: Public Ministry Three Part Series.

Windy has served as an organizer for other public ministers and this has included creating events in which those called or those curious can be heard. This has included the Strong and Courageous panel on public ministry in which you can hear the lived experiences of more than a dozen Friends engaged in full time public calls. It is provocative work.

The Incubator will use funds raised here to support the administration of this project and provide scholarships to emerging public ministers, their elders, and their local worshipping communities to participate in this vision of our future as vibrant Friends.

To financially support the Friends Incubator for Public Ministry, donate through their website.

Windy is the recent convener of the Life and Power: Quaker Discernment on Abuse project (from 2022-24), during which she led a listening process with survivors of abuse and interpersonal violence in Quaker meetings. The results of this work, a common testimony on abuse in Quaker communities, including instructions for an accompanying discernment process Windy co-created and has used since 2021 with communities in crisis can be found here: Coming Together for Continuing Revelation: Abuse in Quaker Communities.

You can learn more about the Life and Power project from institutions within Quakerism including from QuakerSpeak and the Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting newsletter.

To read Windy’s most recent travel minute, click here.