Quaker Quotes and Links

Quotes

Each spiritual tradition has its gifts to offer the rest ofhumankind. Even if no single feature of that tradition is utterly unique, the various spiritual practices and attitudes can combine into a distinctive whole. Many pieces of the Quaker tradition have close relatives in other spiritual communities. Still, the question remains: what does Quaker spirituality have to offer to the contemporary world?

Our era is increasingly individualistic. Many people are aware of this, and in response they long for community. They yearn for an experience akin to what Friends have called the gathered meeting, in which we meet God when we meet one another. Friends also hold up community as the place for discernment, where we can, through attentiveness to divine guidance, assist one another in guarding against self-deception. . . .

Today many people hunger for an integration of contemplation and social action. Spiritual seekers desire a commitment to social reform that is rooted in something deeper than a theory of social analysis. Quaker experience teaches that the quest for justice is best grounded in an inward transformation from fear and greed to love of God and neighbour. . . .

Quakers hope to hold up worthy ideals and spiritua lpractices that can lead the way to those ideals. With grace, may we continue to be open to conversation with all, aspiring to practice a genuine hospitality that has characterized Christianity at its best.

-- Michael L. Birkel in Silence and Witness

I expect to pass through this world but once.  Any good things, therefore, that I can do, any good kindness that I can show a fellow being, let me do it now.  Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. 

-- Stephen Grellet

What is the Quaker faith? It is not a tidy package of words which you can capture at any given time and then repeat weekly at a worship service. It is an experience of discovery which starts the discoverer on a journey which is life-long. The discovery in itself is not uniquely a property of Quakerism. It is as old as Christianity, and considerably older if you share the belief that many have known Christ who have not known His name. What is unique to the Religious Society of Friends is its insistence that the discovery must be made by each man for himself.

No one is allowed to get it second-hand by accepting a ready-made creed. Furthermore, the discovery points a path and demands a journey, and gives you the power to make the journey.

-- Elise Boulding, 1954 (quoted in PhlYM's F&P)

True godliness don't turn men out of the world, but enables them better to live in it and excites their endeavors to mend it; not hide their candle under a bushel, but set it upon a table in a candlestick.

-- William Penn, 1668 (ibid)

If God ever spoke, He is still speaking. If He has ever been in mutual and reciprocal communication with the persons He has made, He is still a communicating God as eager as ever to have listening and receptive souls. If there is something of His image and superscription in our inmost structure and being, we ought to expect a continuous revelation of His will and purpose through the ages.... He is the Great I Am, not a Great He Was.

--Rufus M. Jones, 1948 (ibid)

Live up to the light that thou hast and more will be granted thee.

-- Caroline Fox, 1841

Links 

Friends General Conference (FGC) - An organization serving Quaker meetings primarily from the liberal unprogrammed tradition.Visit fgcquaker.org.

Friends United Meeting (FUM) - An organization serving pastoral Quaker meetings and churches primarily in Africa and North America. Visit fum.org.

Evangelical Friends International (EFI) - An organization serving pastoral Friends churches around the world. Visitevangelicalfriends.org.

Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) -FWCC's mission is to "encourage fellowship" among all the branches of Quakers. Visit fwccworld.org. To receive a variety of interesting literature, check out this FWCC site: Wider Quaker Fellowship.

Yearly Meetings in Canada and the United States(*indicates FGC affiliates)
- Alaska Friends Conference*
- Alaska YM
- Baltimore YM*
- Canadian YM*
- Central YM
- EFC Eastern Region
- EFC Mid-America YM
- EFC Southwest
- Great Plains YM
- Illinois YM*
- Indiana YM
- Intermountain YM*
- Iowa YM Conservative
- Iowa YM FUM
- Lake Erie YM*
- New England YM*
- New York YM*
- North Carolina YM Conservative
- North Carolina YM FUM
- North Pacific YM
- Northern YM*
- Northwest YM of Friends Church
- Ohio YM
- Ohio Valley YM*
- Pacific YM
- Philadelphia YM*
- Rocky Mountain YM
- South Central YM *
- Southeastern YM*
- Southern Appalachian YM&A*
- Western YM
- Wilmington YM

Other Organizations
- Piedmont Friends Fellowship*
- Western Association of Friends