QuakerInfo.com Forum

[John s]

Could you please tell me what it was like when you went to your first Quaker meeting.
John s

[Little Nell]

John

I am new to this and also in England, just to give you some perspective.

I have been to three meetings - I am recovering from a heavy cold, so missed the last 2 Sundays.

The first meeting I was greeted at the door. I went into a plain room with chairs arranged in a circle with a round table in the middle, which had some books including a Bible and Advices & Queries on it. There were about 10 people at the meeting, all women, and they were at pains to tell me that this was unusual. This meeting was just after the Brazilian man had been shot by British police in London as a suspected terrorist. Three women spoke, one about this incident and two about what we can do if we are involved in bomb attacks.

The meeting lasted an hour and we had coffee later.

The second meeting there were about 20 people, including some men and no one spoke. I gathered from comments afterwards that this was rather unusual. About 10 minutes before the end of the meeting we were joined by some children.

Third meeting someone had returned from Yearly Meeting and reported back with a letter from that meeting to all Quakers in Britain. There were other speakers responding to the letter.

I have found the meetings peaceful and inspiring and am looking forward to going next Sunday.

I hope this is of some use to you.

nell

[LloydLee]

The first several times I came to meeting (Cambridge, Massachusetts) I arrived too late to get a seat indoors, so sat outside on the grass, under a window, with some other newcomers. We couldn't hear everything that went on, but I could feel that something very powerful was happening inside. I eventually got to the meetinghouse early enough one week to get a seat on the balcony steps, and that morning had what my Methodist background called "an Aldersgate experience": my heart was strangely warmed, and I heard a voice inside me saying that my spiritual seeking was ended, that this would be my spiritual home from now on. I have been committed to Friends since that morning over 35 years ago, making the Quaker faith tradition my own as experience leads me.

--llw

[Shay]

The first time I went to a Meeting, I came in about 5 minutes late and so took a seat far in the back. I was very distracted because my daughter (The only child I saw) kept squirming on my lap and I couldn't concentrate on what was going on. A couple people spoke, but I was so embarrassed that she was fidgeting I got nothing out of it. About 45 minutes into the Meeting, a whole bunch of kids came in and sat down.

After the Meeting, a couple came over to me and told me there was daycare and First Day school available if I wanted it, and invited me for coffee and introduced me to a couple other moms so the kids could run and play.

What I remember most is really my third or fourth meeting, when I felt the urge to speak. I couldn't tell you know exactly what I said, but I remember it was about, of all things, additive design theory and how the smallest patterns of one's life mirror the largest ones. I felt a real 'live' connection then, and have ever since, to this faith.

[john rumbold]

Is there much variation in how Quaker meetings are conducted? I understand some meetings have some organisation, is that right? I'm not sure if I would find a "silent" meeting useful or not. Do people prepare things for the meeting?

[Jenny]

I believe (but I'm not sure) that most UK meetings are silent unless somebody is led to speak. People don't prepare things to say, but you are supposed to go 'with heart and mind prepared', which I take to mean without day to day concerns grinding around your head. Impossible sometimes!

[wsamuel]

The tradition is that one prepares for meeting by seeking to be more centered in Christ, and not by preparing a specific message. It is said one should not come either determined to speak or determined not to speak, but rather open to how the Spirit leads. The goal is not for the worship to be entirely silent (although that sometimes happens, and may be right sometimes) but not to use the silence as a means of getting away from distractions that interfere with listening to God.

In Great Britain, the meetings are "unprogrammed" meaning there is not a pre-planned sermon. A very few meetings have Sunday evening gatherings which are essentially more programmed worship but which are not called worship due to a 19th century compromise between those who held to just one form of Quaker worship and those who wanted to offer a different form. In addition, an Evangelical Friends Mission fellowship has recently begun in Bath, and there are house fellowships connected with EFM in various parts of Britain mainly of an immigrant people group from a land where Christianity is suppressed. There was one semi-programmed independent meeting in Britain, although I'm not sure whether that is still going.
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Bill Samuel, Webservant, QuakerInfo.com