From: michael@gibbs.oit.unc.edu (Michael George Williams)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: "Quakers" ? what are they ?
Date: 17 Dec 92 04:54:11 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina

In article <Dec.16.03.19.36.1992.8837@farside.rutgers.edu> s37755c@taltta.hut.fi (Jochen Grandell) writes:
>	Could someone give me a brief description over Quakers or
>	members of "Society of friends" ? 
>	Outsiders could comment on whether they consider Quakers
>	christians or not, and why.

I don't know very much about the Quakers themselves, only what my minister
has said about them.  If my memory serves me right, I think I remember
her saying that their services are held in silence (please correct me if
I'm wrong).  She did comment that they held some of the most spiritual
services she had ever heard of, and it left me with the impression that Lynda
(my minister) by all means considers them Christians.  I don't know
anything about them, though, because I'm a United Methodist and I've never
been to a Quaker service.

Trying to help,

Michael

[I've been reluctant to say anything, since we surely must have Quaker
readers who can speak for themselves.  If you're interested in
information, may I suggest soc.religion.quaker.  Your description of
Quaker worship agrees with my experience.  (I attended a Friends
meeting for a year or so in college.)  However in the mid-West and
West there are Friends meetings with somewhat more programmed
services.  In Cincinnati (where I attended a couple of meetings),
there was still a good deal of silence, but there was also a message
from their pastor, and hymns (which were not pre-planned, but
requested by worshippers).  In Haverford (where I went to college),
the service was the more traditional kind, based on silence.  Note
that it's not entirely silent -- people do get up and speak.  The term
isn't so much silent as non-programmed, i.e. no one comes planning to
give a sermon, etc.  The purpose of the service is to open yourself to
the Inner Light, i.e. the Holy Spirit.  Messages come out of a sort
of shared meditation -- it's hard to believe how silence can speak.

There's actually disagreement among Friends as to whether they are
Christian.  There's a range.  There are certainly evangelical Friends,
whose beliefs are completely orthodox.  There are also quite liberal
Friends, whose beliefs are probably similar to Unitarians.  Many of
the latter are reluctant to call themselves Christians, because it
suggests a somewhat more narrow commitment to a specific creed than
they feel comfortable making.  (The Friends at Haverford were almost
pathologically opposed to creeds.  One got the impression that
Christians were required to sign the Westminster Confession in blood.)
They certainly admire Christ, and I'd say are in some sense his
disciples.  I got the impression that in at least some cases the
unwillingness to be called Christian came from a misunderstanding of
what that would mean.  There have been a few well-known Christian
writers from the Friends.  Elton Trueblood is probably the best-known.
If you're into science fiction, you might enjoy the novel "Still Forms
on Foxfield", if you can find it.

--clh]