Conservative Quakers

Conservative Quakers are Christian members of the Religious Society of Friends who meet together to worship in silent expectant waiting upon the Lord without the need of planned sermons, prearranged music, or paid ministers. "Conservative Friends maintain most of the Quaker distinctives, including unprogrammed worship and an explicitly Christ-centered theology." from "Cheerfully Over the World - a Handbook for Isolated Friends" a publication and ministry of FWCC "A Christian is defined as 'A disciple, or follower of Christ. One whose profession and life conform to the teaching and example of Christ.'" From A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE PRINCIPLES AND TESTIMONIES OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS WITH MINUTES OF ADOPTION FROM The Yearly Meetings OF New England, Canada, Ohio, Western, Iowa, Kansas and North Carolina ADOPTED 1912

the Presence in the Midst

"... worship is a personal communion with God and a yielding of our wills to the Divine Will for which no ritual, form, service nor aid of clergy is necessary. ... Worship should not be the mere outward gathering of persons, but an inward gathering of hearts unto the Lord. Our worship is based on the eternal reality that God is Spirit and the experience of worship must be in Spirit and in Truth." From Fairhope Friends Meeting - Book of Discipline "We meet together in silence and strive to free our minds and hearts for the purpose of spiritual worship." From Ohio Yearly Meeting - Book of Discipline "Quakerism is a living faith made real through the inward light of the living Christ. This faith holds that our individual lives and the corporate life of the meeting can be guided by continuing revelation through the Holy Spirit." From Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative

Some favorite Quaker writings:

"Maybe the whole conviction of a Spiritual Reality shadowing over us all is such a hoax, a useful hoax as long as we believe it intensely, a hoax that stabilizes men and society and one that ought to be preserved and nourished and fostered for its useful social effect. Such is the almost universal argument in the mind of educated man. But there is an inner integrity in us all which rejects all programs of As If. We cannot merely act as if there were a God, while we secretly keep our fingers crossed. This inner integrity demands the real;" "Reality Of The Spiritual World" - Thomas Kelly (text file)

"I believe that classic Quaker spirituality and Quaker practice have particular relevance to the post-modern world in which we North Americans live. All around us are people whose old structures of values and meaning for life are to a greater or lesser extent inoperable. As a culture we no longer believe in absolute truth or ultimate meaning; we are suspicious of any central authority or institutional hierarchy that attempts to instruct us as to what is real or what we should believe. At the same time our hunger for God and our yearning to feel meaning and purpose in life are as strong as at any point in history." "Wrestling With Our Faith Tradition" by Lloyd Lee Wilson (text file)

"The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of all preoccupation with passing things - yes, even with the workings of our own minds; ... The possibilities of inward silence can be but distantly referred to in words. The clearness of inward vision which sometimes results from it must be experienced to be fully understood; the things revealed to that vision are rather to be lived in than uttered. " "Quaker Strongholds" A Pendle Hill Pamplet by Caroline Stephen (text file)

"... it had but one thought, and it was this-that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get still enough to hear His voice. ... there was a still, small voice in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power, and comfort. ... and I did not need to think so hard, or pray so hard, or trust so hard, ... " ... from the tract "Silence" by Martin Hope Sutton ... Read more.

Listening to Christ (My Favorite Things Jesus Said)