torsie24
Mummy to a perfect princess.
- Joined
- May 14, 2008
- Messages
- 13,224
Wow! Cool. Sounds really intruiging!Quakerism is officially a branch of Christianity, but it's very different from "traditional" christianity.
Officially, it's called "The Religious Society of Friends" and a Quaker can also be called a Friend (note the capital F), which is why I often talk about Ffriends - they're friends of mine who are Friends.
Quakers in Britain carry out what is called "unprogrammed worship", where as some countries (e.g. the US) carry out "programmed worship", which is much closer to standard Christianity.
Unprogrammed Quakers mainly worship on a Sunday for an hour at a "Meeting for Worship" and gather in a Meeting House. they sit somewhere in the Meeting room, where there are (usually) a number of chairs arranged in a circle or similar shape. There are no rules about where you can sit and nobody is more or less "important" than anybody else - everybody plays the same role.
During the Meeting for Worship, Quakers sit in silence until somebody (could be anybody) feels that they have something important to offer to the Meeting. At that point, they will stand up and say / sing etc whatever they wish to offer. When they are finished, the person sits down again and the Meeting goes back into silence again. Officially, a single person can only do this once in any one Meeting, although very occasionally somebody may stand twice. This cycle repeats itself until the end of the hour, when 2 people will shake hands to show the end of the Meeting.
The exact definition of what Quakers believe in is a little fuzzy. Some believe in a God quite similar to the Anglican / Catholic God and believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Others (such as myself) believe in a much more spiritual God - the term "light" is often used to talk about this type of God.
There's an awful lot more than I could write in one thread, but that's the basics.
The business Meetings that I will be going to in Germany work in a very similar way - there is a business topic, people sit in silence until somebody is moved to offer their thoughts on the topic, at which point they stand, offer their thoughts and then sit down. Two clerks kind of chair the Meeting and gather what they feel is the "sense" of the Meeting (i.e. the majority consensus) and they then write a minute which the Meeting agrees on.
Any questions?
DO you ever go ages with silence?
Can you say anything you like or does it have to be worship themed?
