Quaker Quest Blog

The Quaker Quest blog is an opportunity for folks experienced with QQ, for anyone in any Quaker meeting, and for newcomers, to consider our vibrant journey along the Quaker way.

All the Right Reasons: Chel Avery on Quakers and the Extraordinary Ordinary

Quaker Quest Blog

Author with hefty Quaker readingI think I came to Quakerism for all the wrong reasons; I hope I’ve stayed for the right ones.

As an adolescent, I had an active spiritual life. I didn’t have words for it, but I felt the presence of Holiness in the natural world, in art and poetry, and sometimes in my inner being. But church life as I knew it didn’t seem to have anything to do with how I experienced God – formal prayers, sermons, and rituals left me uninspired.

When I first read about modern Quakers, I was delighted. I was attracted to all the things that Quakers were not―not creedal, not ritualistic, not hierarchical―a religion empty of all the things I rejected about religion!

I spent about six years reading about Quakers before I worked up the courage to attend a Friends meeting for worship.

Quaker Meeting by Accident: Peter Meredith's Journey to Friends

Quaker Quest Blog

Author Peter MeredithI know now that Quakers refer to people who walk in the door as “Seekers.” I’m not sure that always fits.

I stumbled into my first Meeting almost by accident.

One Wednesday morning I was helping a friend who teaches with the outdoors program at the Delaware Valley Friends School.

We were at Camp Onas, in Bucks County, Pa. A Quaker Meeting was part of the schedule for the day. So I went.

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Adventuresome Quiet: Majorie Van Buren's Journey to Friends

Quaker Quest Blog

Marjorie Van BurenWhen I first came to Quakerism about 25 years ago, I was looking for a spiritual community that would accept, if not welcome, the theology I had grown into and the glimpses I had experienced of the Beyond.

I was curious about the “sitting in silence” piece. Although I had a little practice with both individual and group meditation, the idea of sitting for an hour in silence seemed a bit adventuresome. To my surprise, at my first Meeting for Worship, I experienced what I have since learned is a quite frequent response—I felt I had come home.

I found a great relief in not having someone up front preaching, in not having to cope with words of (often well-beloved) hymns that no longer fit my beliefs, and in finding my experience of a very real Greater-Than-I not only taken seriously but actually fitting into historic and present-day “orthodoxy.”