investigate becoming a Quaker

It was wonderful. I’ll be going again.

I am really not sure what I believe. I was raised Catholic, turned away from that after high school, and attended a non-denominational church (charismatic/evangelical) for a while. There were a lot of things I felt were valuable in my experiences with these two REALLY different Christian groups, but there were other things that I pushed me away. From what I’ve heard/read about Quakerism so far, there is far less dogma than in most religious groups. There is no clergy nor is a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible required. I am drawn to some of the major beliefs of Quakerism (i.e. peace and simplicity).

I want to try this out because I feel like I’m stuck between having no spirituality at all or having to constantly talk myself into believing things that I strongly disagree with. I think spirituality is an important part about being human, as is the social aspect of attending religious services.

It turns out there a few meetings in my city. I don’t know any Quakers besides this one guy I dated briefly, but didn’t end well at all (totally my fault), so I am a little reluctant about just showing up to a meeting because I’m incredibly shy and awkward around strangers. This might be something I need to just get over because I really want to learn more about this faith. For now, I’m just reading…

Ive never felt connected to any type of religion in a meaningful way, and all the churches Ive been to have been quick to turn me off.
I never really knew what Quakerism was until I started researching my family history. I found out that one of my ancestors was a man named John Bowne, a Quaker who immigrated to what was then the New Netherlands in search of religious freedom. He found none there, and was arrested, jailed, and banished from the colony for holding secret Quaker meetings in his kitchen! He then went all the way to Holland to take up his case with the Dutch East India Company… and won!
So I began to read about Quakerism, and I have yet to find a single facet of that religion that disagrees with my beliefs! When I go back to school, I am going to attend a meeting… I live in a small town and there are no Quakers in it.

Since I’ve drifted away from the Catholic church, I’ve been looking into other directions…and I really like the Quakers.
So I’ll see what happens when I attend a meeting. Don’t know how my parents will react.

have been attending Quaker Meeting religiously (pun intended) since July 2007 and have applied for membership in my local meeting.

I believe I have attended enough Meetings of Liberal Quakers at this point to partially conclude my investigation. My partial conclusion is that worshipping with Quakers, and helping them to undertake work in the community at large, is a viable option for me. I am comfortable with thinking of the Spirit of God as the Inner Light, and I enjoy spending time trying to communicate with the Inner Light while I am with a group of individuals trying to achieve the same goal.

Now I must undertake a second portion of my investigation: finding out exactly what is entailed in becoming a member of the Meeting I attend; what would be required of me, and what, if anything, I would be prohibited from doing.

In correspondence with my Quaker friend regarding my cousin’s funeral, I learned that Quakers do not perform sacraments, because they hold the view that all life is a sacrament.

This makes me wonder what they do for marriage ceremonies.

I’ll report back the results of future correspondence.

Tonight the friend who came to support me at my cousin’s wake took me out to a bookstore. She found something on Lucrezia Borgia, and I bought Holy Silence, a book about Quaker spirituality. I’m looking forward to reading it, but I have to get my homework done first!

I’m very new to this whole thing, and I may be off base, but it’s my understanding from the research that I’ve done and the couple of times that I’ve gone to meeting that Quakerism is, at its heart, a mystical religion. “Mystical” in the sense that it focuses on the possibility of an intimate union with the divine. When one goes to meeting, the silence is not the same as meditation – it is a waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak.

I don’t know if I can do this without believing in an interventionist God.

And once I open myself to the idea of an interventionist God, all sorts of philosophical problems crop up for me that otherwise would not be there.

Not sure what to do or where to go from here.

Went to my second Quaker meeting this past weekend.

Some Conservative Quakers were there.

It confirmed to me that, if I do identify as a Quaker eventually, I will identify as a Liberal Quaker.