There is some confusion about who Quakers are and who we aren’t. If you’ve heard we don’t have electricity, that we dress in black, or that we are some sort of cult, that is not true! We hope the following information will clear things up a bit.
We are neither Amish nor Mennonite. There may be some Quakers who don’t have electricity, but the vast majority of us cook, surf the internet, light our homes and watch TV the same way non-Quakers do. “Are Quakers Amish” is a 5-minute You Tube video, that explains both historical and present differences between the Amish and Quakers.
Among the Amish, women have no positions of leadership and hold no authority in the church. From the very beginning, Quakers have viewed men and women as equals. In fact, because women were reluctant to speak up back in the 1600’s, men and women met separately both for worship and for business. Once women found their voices, the dual meetings were reunited.
The man on the Quaker Oats box lived a whole long time ago. Back then a lot of people dressed that way. In Quaker circles folks hung on to that style longer than most, but now, we each choose our own style. That runs the gamut from T-shirts to suits. We do tend to lean toward the casual side of dress. It’s simpler and simplicity is one of our testimonies. Many Quakers dress more for comfort than for style. And some of us have a style all our own. We accept everyone in whatever clothing suits their personality, their budget, and their comfort. In meeting, there’s room for all types. You might want to leave any noisy jewelry and your favorite scent at home, however. We won’t ask you to leave but you will notice immediately how distracting it is as we become quiet in worship.
As for children, now that’s the kind of distraction we all! Noises and outbursts from babies and small children are signs of life. As they grow, children learn to listen to spirit as the adults do. Quakers are not ageists. We believe that Spirit speaks to people of every age and a child who feels spirit-led to speak is listened to with reverence. Each family makes its own decisions about their children. We provide childcare and a form of Sunday school for those who want it for their children.
Quakers are certainly not a cult! A cult has a charismatic leader who must be obeyed and a hierarchical structure; cult decisions are made at the top and are imposed on the rank and file; members are also told who they may associate with.
We call the person who facilitates our meetings a clerk. The position of clerk comes with no power whatsoever, and the clerk is not compensated financially; the clerk is a servant to the meeting who volunteers for the post because s/he is respected enough to be asked or because no one else will take the job. Chattanooga Friend Meeting is Unprogrammed; as such, we have no hired minister. Instead, we are all charged with ministering, not only to each other but to the wider world as well. Our whole system is non-hierarchical. Each person is as important and empowered as every other person in meeting.
Each local Meeting (called a Monthly Meeting because we handle business matters once a month) makes its own decisions as a group. In making decisions, everyone’s point of view is heard; if there is an issue or disagreement, we find a solution that works for everyone; at times this is challenging, but this is our way. We do not put things to a vote; our process is one of finding a certain unity among those present. If we sense that such unity has not been reached, we become quiet and turn the process over to Spirit, looking for divine help.
We do have larger groups called Yearly Meetings (guess how often they meet) that handle business matters for the group of Monthly Meetings they serve. But there is no mechanism for the Yearly Meetings to impose any decision on the smaller groups. The only way any change can be considered by the Yearly Meeting is for it to be presented by one or more Monthly Meetings. Even then, the Yearly Meeting cannot act until every Monthly Meeting has had the opportunity to consider and decide for themselves; it’s very grassroots. This approach can be frustrating and time consuming, but when we arrive at a decision, no one’s views have been pushed aside.
We value family highly and work to promote harmony. We do not impose a definition of family or tell anybody who to love. We have no process of shunning, in fact we work on reconciliation between individuals, families, communities and nations. William Penn said, “Let us then try what love will do”, and we attempt to follow his advice.