Quakers, also called Friends, practice a religion of experience; a contemporary, simple, and radical faith.
The Religious Society of Friends began in the 17th century in England. Today, over 81,000 Quakers live and worship in the United States and Canada. We believe that every person is loved by the Divine Spirit. Quakers are of all ages, education backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and classes. Everyone is welcome among Friends.
Beliefs
Every person is known by God and can know God in a direct relationship.
The Quaker faith has deep Christian roots. Many Quakers consider themselves Christians, and some do not. Many Quakers find meaning and value in the teachings of many faiths.
Quakers strive to live lives that are guided by a direct encounter with the Divine, more than by teachings about the Divine. Quaker terms for the Holy include God, the Seed, the Light Within, and the Inward Teacher, among others.
Testimonies are ways that Quakers have found to express our experience of the Divine in our lives. Some of the best recognized testimonies include simplicity, integrity, equality, community, and peace.
Worship
Quakers gather in the silence and wait expectantly to come into the presence of the Divine and to be guided by the still, small voice by which God speaks to us from within. During the silence, anyone may feel moved to offer a simple spoken message (vocal ministry) that is inspired by this holy encounter. Following the message, the silence resumes. A period of worship may include several messages or none.
Inclusion
There are Quakers of all ages, religious backgrounds, races and ethnicities, education, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and classes. You can find Quakers on all of the world’s continents. Approximately one-third live in the United States and Canada.
Read Frequently Asked Questions About Quakerism
-Friends General Council
Our Meetings for Worship have no formalized order of worship and no human leader in keeping with our testimony of simplicity. They are based on expectant waiting in silence. During Meeting for Worship, a member of the group may be moved to speak out of the silence, to share a leading from God, or a prayer, a passage of Scripture, or even words of an inspirational poem of hymn. Fellow worshippers are called to listen with openness of heart and mind. Messages may be meant for a member of the gather meeting or for all in attendance. These messages are spontaneous usually brief, and are followed by silence allowing all to reflect inwaredly on their meaning. Sometimes the silence remains unbroken. The unprogrammed form of worship is our way of saying that God works through all of us. After a suitable time, usually not longer than an hour, Meeting is concluded by two worshippers shaking hands followed by handshakes by all those in attendance.
There is no creed, no prepared order of worship, and no sermon. Worship is guided by the Holy Spirit. This simple Christian form of worship seeks for direct communication and communion with the Divine without intermediary. The sense of worship may be expressed in the awe that is felt in attentive silence, on the awareness of our profound connectedness to one another, and connectedness to nature and its power. In worship can be found repentance and forgiveness in the acknowledgement of God as the ultimate source of our being and the serenity of accepting God's will. Each experience in worship is different as God reaches to us as individuals in our current situation and circumstance. There is no right way to prepare for spiritual communion, no set practice to follow when worship grows out of expectant waiting in the Spirit. Worship depends far more on a deeply-felt longing for God than upon a specific practice or format.
-Miami (Ohio) Monthly Meeting
See Living Our Faith
Quakers find compatibility in our longing for spiritual understanding and in our desire to understand the workings of the natural world.
Many Quakers have been leaders in science, including some who have won the Nobel Prize in a variety of fields.
We understand that people evolved over millennia, and we stand in awe of the creation.
Many Quakers feel called to help protect and heal the world that we are blessed to inhabit.
Quaker experience of the Divine affects what we do in our personal lives, what we believe and how we work for changes in the wider world. “Testimonies” are what Quakers call the ways we have found to live and act based on our beliefs. As a group, we find that listening to and following God leads to:
Equality – treating everyone, everywhere, as equally precious to God; recognizing that everyone has gifts to share.
Peace & Social Justice – seeking justice and healing for all people; taking away the causes of war in the ways we live.
Integrity – living as whole people who act on what we believe, tell the truth and do what we say we will do.
Simplicity – focusing on what is truly important and letting other things fall away.
Community – supporting one another in our faith journeys and in times of joy and sorrow; sharing with and caring for each other.
Care for the earth – valuing and respecting all of God’s creation; using only our fair share of the earth’s resources; working for policies that protect the planet.
Being in community with other Quakers helps us to be faithful to one another and these testimonies.
-Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Some of the terms used among contemporary Quakers can sound a little odd to the modern ear. Many of them date back to the mid 1600’s when the Religious Society of Friends was first founded. We don’t usually say thee, thy, or thine anymore, but it might be helpful to understand the meaning of some of our quainter expressions.
Days & Months: The early Quakers recognized that the names used for the months and days of the week reflected their pagan roots. They chose, instead, to refer to the months and days in a numeric fashion. January, then, becomes the First Month. December is the Twelfth Month. Sunday is First Day, and so on.
Most Quakers today do not retain that same aversion and typically use the generally accepted names in their day-to-day activities. However, those traditional customs are frequently honored within the internal activities. Instead of meeting on Sunday, we gather on First Day. We do not offer Sunday school. Instead, children attend First Day School.
Meetings: In the early days of Quakerism, the members did not have church buildings. Instead they often gathered in homes wooded areas, or open fields. Thus, their gatherings were referred to as meetings. When they did begin constructing buildings, they continued this tradition and simply referred to them as meeting houses, not churches. Consequently, we do not go to church on Sunday. Instead, we go to meeting on First Day.
Initially there was a limited organizational hierarchy. Local members gathered periodically and called their assembly a “Monthly Meeting”. Every three months or so, several of these smaller groups would gather together for a “Quarterly Meeting”. On an annual basis, the members of the various Monthly Meetings would assemble at a single location for a “Yearly Meeting”.
Today many Quaker groups still honor this traditional form of organization. Our meeting is Clearwater Friends Meeting, but it is also known as Clearwater Monthly Meeting. We are affiliated with the Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM) which is comprised of Monthly Meetings throughout Florida and southern Georgia. It, in turn, is associated with the national organization, Friends General Conference (FGC).
Other assemblies are also considered a meeting for worship because we attempt to maintain a worshipful attitude in most of our gatherings. This may refer to a business meeting, a wedding, or even committee meetings.
Glossary of Quaker Terms: From "After the Manner of Friends" to "Yearly Meeting" here's what they mean. https://quaker.org/glossary/
We wish to affirm our belief that Quakerism is God’s “big tent,” politically. We welcome people with all sorts of political beliefs—Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, socialists, Libertarians, and Independents—to the Religious Society of Friends. The Religious Society of Friends is a religious organization, not a political one, though many Quakers join together in common political pursuits. Nor is the Society of Friends affiliated with any political party or position. Individual Quakers may and often do disagree with various political and foreign policy positions taken by Quaker-related organizations, and with individuals who express their views in various Friends publications.
Many Friends are politically involved and active which we believe is the right and duty of all of us living in a democracy. The Religious Society of Friends and our individual Friends meetings extend a warm welcome to all regardless of political interests and/or party affiliation.
-Philadelphia Yearly Meeting