The weekly discussion group meets at 8:50 AM. We discuss a variety of materials that embody Quaker thought, faith, action, and history, and we consider the guidance they offer in our individual and group spiritual development. We are presently discussing, “Revisiting Quaker Values” by Professor Rufus Jones, in which he briefly outlines the choice before each individual and meeting in determining what type of faith we are to have, an open or a closed type of faith.

"Open religion has faith in the spiritual capacity of the soul and confidence that God and man are akin and essentially belong together. Open religion, therefore, is expectant, forward looking. It prizes the past, but believing profoundly that God is a living God, it sees more yet of love and truth and goodness before us. Its ultimate assurances are not in books or creeds or formulations or arguments, but in the soul’s experience of the reality and Christlikeness of God. It dares to leave religion free to grow with the growing world and growing mind, and to sail the uncharted seas with God. Open religion means a type that is uncongealed, fresh, free, formative and in vital contact with the creative stream of divine life."

"Closed religion, on the other hand, stands for the finality of the formulations of the past. The returns are assumed to be all in. Truth has been fully revealed “by them of old time.” The function of religion of this type is to interpret the sacred deposit from the past, the truth once and for all time delivered."

Previous discussions have focused on the life of John Woolman, who quietly convinced Quakers to eliminate ownership of slaves in the 1700s, Lucretia Mott, a leader in the abolition and equal rights movement in the 1800s, the thinking of Elias Hicks, and numerous articles from The Quaker Reader.