Post by funnel101 on Nov 3, 2008 13:51:22 GMT -4
Some of you have expressed interest in Quakerism. This is from a pm I sent SG68 a few weeks ago:
Please feel free to ask me any questions about Quakerism in general (though I am not an expert and shouldn't be treated as such) or my faith in particular.
what drew me to quakerism first was their style of worship. we sit in silence for an hour and so, with expectant waiting upon God. ideally, this hour is a chance to commune with the Divine (not all quakers are christian, so we often speak of the Divine or the Spirit or the Light instead of more theologically-specific terms). during this hour, if the Divine moves one to speak, that person (ideally after a period of discernment to discover whether it is the Divine leading or the ego) stands up and delivers the message. i have never felt God's presence as strongly as i do in Meeting for Worship.
about what we believe, this is where it gets a little complicated. i need to preface this with there are 4 different branches of quakers, plus individual meetings that have no affiliation with other meetings (quaker houses for worship are traditionally called meetings, or monthly meetings, though other, more evangelical branches call them churches). the branch i'm a part of is the unprogrammed, more liberal branch. this means that we worship the whole hour in silence and tend to be more involved with community service than the evangelical branch, but we do not always give the bible the respect it deserves. the most evangelical branch is not very different from other evangelical christian churches. the only difference is history and a 10-20 minute period of silent worship.
so, with that long preface out of the way, most quakers believe there is "that of God" in everyone. what this means to me specifically is that i believe every person is capable of direct communion with the Divine. i don't believe people can be all evil, because God created us all (note that i do believe in evolution, but believe that God created all the scientific laws that govern our universe) and thus, we must all have some goodness in us. this is the belief that leads to our form of worship. we also believe in 4 testimonies: integrity, equality, simplicity, and peace. wikipedia actually has a great article about the testimonies if you're interested. and, because we believe everyone has the ability for direct communion with God, we also believe in continuing revelation. we don't believe God stopped speaking at the end of the bible, but that He (or She, etc.) is still trying to speak with us today. that's why we worship in silence: to try to listen for God. this also means that we don't believe in creeds.
and here's where things get tricky, and you can kind of see how the split happened. when george fox, who was first led to start quakerism, was around, all quakers were strong christians. in fact, an argument can be made that fox took the bible literally at a time when almost no one else did. they worshipped in silence, waiting upon God to move them, and they stirred up a lot of trouble in england at the time by doing things like refusing to address nobility by "your lordship" and things like that (because of the testimony of equality and integrity). many early quakers were jailed for years; fox in particular was jailed for something like 20 years on and off for following God's leading.
anyways, 200 years later, the split happened because some quakers were concerned about the lack of overt christianity in quakerism at the time and were also excited by the new holiness movement. they were unable to reconcile their differences with other quakers, who were, in effect, more attached to the form of worship than to specific christian doctrine. thus, the first split happened between what we would now call evangelical and liberal quakers.
about what we believe, this is where it gets a little complicated. i need to preface this with there are 4 different branches of quakers, plus individual meetings that have no affiliation with other meetings (quaker houses for worship are traditionally called meetings, or monthly meetings, though other, more evangelical branches call them churches). the branch i'm a part of is the unprogrammed, more liberal branch. this means that we worship the whole hour in silence and tend to be more involved with community service than the evangelical branch, but we do not always give the bible the respect it deserves. the most evangelical branch is not very different from other evangelical christian churches. the only difference is history and a 10-20 minute period of silent worship.
so, with that long preface out of the way, most quakers believe there is "that of God" in everyone. what this means to me specifically is that i believe every person is capable of direct communion with the Divine. i don't believe people can be all evil, because God created us all (note that i do believe in evolution, but believe that God created all the scientific laws that govern our universe) and thus, we must all have some goodness in us. this is the belief that leads to our form of worship. we also believe in 4 testimonies: integrity, equality, simplicity, and peace. wikipedia actually has a great article about the testimonies if you're interested. and, because we believe everyone has the ability for direct communion with God, we also believe in continuing revelation. we don't believe God stopped speaking at the end of the bible, but that He (or She, etc.) is still trying to speak with us today. that's why we worship in silence: to try to listen for God. this also means that we don't believe in creeds.
and here's where things get tricky, and you can kind of see how the split happened. when george fox, who was first led to start quakerism, was around, all quakers were strong christians. in fact, an argument can be made that fox took the bible literally at a time when almost no one else did. they worshipped in silence, waiting upon God to move them, and they stirred up a lot of trouble in england at the time by doing things like refusing to address nobility by "your lordship" and things like that (because of the testimony of equality and integrity). many early quakers were jailed for years; fox in particular was jailed for something like 20 years on and off for following God's leading.
anyways, 200 years later, the split happened because some quakers were concerned about the lack of overt christianity in quakerism at the time and were also excited by the new holiness movement. they were unable to reconcile their differences with other quakers, who were, in effect, more attached to the form of worship than to specific christian doctrine. thus, the first split happened between what we would now call evangelical and liberal quakers.
Please feel free to ask me any questions about Quakerism in general (though I am not an expert and shouldn't be treated as such) or my faith in particular.