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12th March

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12th Nov

All sessions are on Thursdays from 7.30pm-8.30pm on Zoom, using the same link here: https://quaker.zoom.us/j/88612009327

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God with and alongside rather than above

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God with and alongside rather than above

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Pause For Thought - Rhiannon Grant: "God within and alongside rather than above" - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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"Religion is about what we experience and what we do. And we’re not going to find God or find meaning or purpose for our lives through beliefs or ideas, we’re going to find it through what we discover in our own experience."

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This is an edited transcript of a recent interview I did for BBC Radio Sheffield on the Rony Robinson show, for a day of programming on the theme of "silence":

RR: Silence is something that Quakers practice - their worship involves silence. Have you already been silent today?

Yes, I try to make a practice every day of having a time of silent prayer or meditation at home. I just find it's really important for me to keep my balance through the day.

When you're in silence as a Quaker what are you listening for? or are you thinking about God or what's going on?

I think the main thing is to be getting away from thinking. So much of the day we're up in our heads. It's a very refreshing, restful experience to be just breathing, sitting, feeling the air on your skin instead.

When you go to Quaker meeting is it just silence all the time?

No, we sit and we are still, but the silence in Quaker worship, it's not silence for its own sake. The idea of it is that we're all seeking God, meaning, purpose, and where are we going to find that? We're only going to find it if we listen for it, because it's within. We're not going to find that outside, by looking for teachers or writings or something that's out there. We have to find it in our own experience. So the idea of silent worship is that we sit, we become still, we listen for what's there, and that can mean very extended times of silence as we're sitting and becoming aware, becoming present. But in Quaker worship it could also be that anyone who feels moved to, who feels that they've encountered something in the silence which is to be shared with other people, they can stand and speak. And then you're listening to what's come from that other person's experience of the silence as well. And it's completely open, anyone can speak on the same basis, we don't have it restricted just to certain groups of people.

Are you allowed to know you're going to speak before you speak?

We're supposed to come prepared to be silent, or prepared to speak if we're led to speak. The idea of Quaker worship is aiming to make a connection with the Spirit that's within us, in our own experience. So if that Spirit leads us to speak then we have to be faithful to it and if it leads us to be silent then we're silent.

So what actually happens? Isn't that hour intolerably long?

Well, we sit in a circle and it emphasises the equality of the meeting. The thing about meeting together is there's something very supportive about it. If I was going to sit for an hour on my own at home, even though I've had a practice of silent prayer for many years, I would find that too much. But with a group, somehow it's extremely different. There's a sense in which the fact that others are there and they're all seeking the same thing supports you. When your mind wanders, as of course your mind wanders all the time, it just comes back, and then you become still again, and then it wanders again, and then it comes back, but you don't have that kind of anxious, frustrated feeling that you imagine you might do. And sometimes, you can have a whole hour go by in complete silence, it's quite rare in a large meeting, and sometimes that's absolutely wonderful.
It can be quite an extraordinary experience to sit with people, and sometimes there's a sense that the silence just sort of deepens, and it becomes almost like a palpable presence, a very, very powerful experience.

The silence itself becomes a presence?

Yes, it has a very different quality.

Quakers don't even have to believe in God these days do they?

For Quakers, religion is not about belief. I think this is the thing that's often most confusing to people. They say 'Well, what do Quakers believe?' and I always say 'Quakers believe that religion is not about belief.' Religion is about what we experience and what we do. And we're not going to find God or find meaning or purpose for our lives through beliefs or ideas, we're going to find it through what we discover in our own experience.

Is God there, going to speak to you in that silence? Do you hear him in your silence?

Well, I don't hear a kind of physical voice, but I definitely have experience of a presence, and that's the presence I call God. And I understand that's what people in different religions and in different times have also encountered and they've called that God, and that's where that idea comes from. It comes from the experience and it's only meaningful if it can speak to our experience.

What's the quietest place you've ever been?

The deepest silence I've ever known is in a Quaker meeting which becomes, we call it gathered, 'a gathered meeting', that becomes really still and centred in that way. And where everyone is experiencing it together, and it's something very, very special.

(With thanks to Rosie Carnall for transcription and editing.)

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This is an edited transcript of a recent interview I did for BBC Radio Sheffield on the Rony Robinson show, for a day of programming on th...

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A series of short Quaker videos for newcomers.

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Interested in exploring the Quaker religion? This is a great place to start! We interview Friends of all different backgrounds and ask them the core question…

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Quaker podcast on building a daily practice

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Quaker podcast on building a daily practice

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Do you have a daily spiritual practice?On today's episode, we're exploring ways that spiritual discipline has helped Quakers connect with the Spirit today and throughout history.

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‎Thee Quaker Podcast: How to Build a Daily Quaker Practice on Apple Podcasts

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Do you have a daily spiritual practice?On today's episode, we're exploring ways that spiritual discipline has helped Quakers connect with the Spirit today and throughout history.

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"Silent worship came about because George Fox and other early Quakers believed that silence and stillness would enable people to apprehend the presence of the Inward Light, which would show them the unflinching truth about their lives, including what they ought to do to align themselves with God’s will."

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What Do Quakers Mean By The Inner Light? - Beliefs Of The Quakers

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Friends believe there is “that of God in everyone.” This is thought of as an “inward light,” associated with Jesus Christ, “the light of the world.” Learn more

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"The goal of the Quaker way is so simple that it can be summed up in one sentence. It is to become completely responsive to the leadings of the Inward Guide."

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The goal of the Quaker way is so simple that it can be summed up in one sentence. It is t o become completely responsive to the leadings of the Inward Guide. In the beautiful words of Francis Howgill:

" Return, return to Him that is the first Love, and the first-born of every creature, who is the Light of the world... Return home to within, sweep your houses all, the groat is there, the little leaven is there, the grain of mustard-seed you will see, which the Kingdom of God is like; ... and here you will see your Teacher not removed into a corner, but present when you are upon your beds and about your labour , convincing, instructing, leading, correcting, judging and giving peace to all that love and follow Him."

This is all that is needed for our healing and happiness, for the reconciliation of the world and the flourishing of our relationship with the earth . If each person simply bec a me fully responsive to the 'promptings of love and truth' in their hearts, then war, economic exploitation and environmental destruction would be impossible, and the Beloved Community would flourish. This is what all of our Quaker practices, culture and organisation exist for, and the sole test of their validity is whether they are useful for guiding people into this capacity for spiritual attention and responsiveness to the Inward Light.

This way of attentiveness and faithfulness to the Spirit doesn't d e pend on any specific beliefs, but it can be inhibited by our own actions, our unconscious resistance any belief system that r e quires us to ignore crucial aspects of our own experience, or to close our hearts to people defined as 'other'. These can include dogmatic rationalism just as much as some religious or political ideologies .

Unfortunately, by the time that we come to a dulthood each of us is already to a greater or lesser extent opposed to the Light within us; somehow we have all against the inbreaking of the light. The religious path is simply the process of dissolving these defences , becoming more aware, sensitive and open to the inner guidance that is always available. T o anyone who has seriously tried to follow a religious path it is obvious that this is far easier said than done, but t here are many prac t ices t hat can be helpful in this process . I would like to share some of the practices that have been most important for me, and invite you to reflect on your own.

Above all, perhaps, we need to decide not to despair of ourselves; to accept that we are not perfect and never will be, and to forgive ourselves for our failures and inner resistance. The religious path is not a self-improvement project. We do not need to labour to perfect ourselves, only to return to ourselves, to our capacity to listen and respond to the inward Guide.

All of us have a tendency to become trapped by our own identity, habits and opinions. Many of us carry a burden of hardened attitudes and accumulated habits that seems to weigh us down. Very often, it is only the suffering caused by our own failures that finally breaks through our defences, wakes us up and enables us to turn around. It is the moment when we become conscious of our distance from God, our refusal of the Light, that is the critical opportunity, the blessed season. Perhaps it is only this that will enable us to take our life seriously, to that it is bigger than our own small stories about ourselves, and begin to sense the great mystery of our own life . For the Sufi poet Rumi, it is through failure that we learn to become attentive to the Guide within:

"You know how it is. Sometimes we plan a trip to one place, but something takes us to another.

When a horse is being broken, the trainer pulls it in many different directions, so the horse will come to know what it is to be ridden.

The most beautiful and alert horse is one completely attuned to the rider.

God fixes a passionate desire in you, and then disappoints you. God does that a hundred times!

God breaks the wings of one intention and then gives you another, cuts the rope of contriving, so you'll remember your dependence.

That's because, if you were always failing, you might give up. But remember, it is by failures that lovers stay aware of how they are loved.

B e ing release d from our habit-formed carapace of behaviours, attitudes and obsessions opens up the possibility of spontaneity in how we respond to the world. This quality of spontaneity is often noticeable among people who are on a path of opening to the Spirit. As a fairly new attender at our Meeting once observed , "the thing about the Quakers I've met is you never know what they are going to say next".

We also need great patience with ourselves (and others), recognising that the habits of inner resistance are often loosened only with the passage of many years. The e arly Friend Luke Cock could be a model for us of this quality of patience, testif ying that:

"I said to my Guide, 'Nay, I doubt I never can follow up here: but don't leave me: take my pace, I pray Thee, for I mun rest me.' So I tarried here a great while, till my wife cried, ' We'se all be ruined: what is thee ganging stark mad to follow t'silly Quakers?' Here I struggled and cried, and begged of my Guide to stay and take my pace: and presently my wife was convinced. 'Well,' says she, 'now follow thy Guide, let come what will. The Lord hath done abundance for us: we will trust in Him.' Nay, now, I thought, I'll to my Guide again, now go on, I'll follow Thee truly; so I got to the end of this lane cheerfully...

My Guide led me up another lane, more difficult than any of the former, which was to bear testimony to that Hand that had done all this for me. This was a hard one: I thought I must never have seen the end of it. I was eleven years all but one month in it."

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The goal of the Quaker way is so simple that it can be summed up in one sentence. It is t o become completely responsive to the leadin...

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Woodbrooke is a Quaker learning organisation that offers online and in-person courses and retreats. Many of them are 'pay as led' (ie you can decide what to pay).

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Our Courses FILTER COURSES BY TYPE All Course Types Blended In-person Online Residential FILTER COURSES BY CATEGORY Climate Crisis(19) Exploring

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Collection of Quaker videos from the UK

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Hello, welcome to Quake It Up! My name is Ollie. Quake It Up is a new channel posting videos about the history, faith and practice of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.
This channel is focussed mainly on liberal Quakerism in the UK.
The aim of the channel is to introduce Quakerism to people who are wanting to know more about it and to encourage discussion amongst Quakers about the tradition. I will be reviewing Quaker books, discussing major areas of Quaker history, important aspects of Quaker theology and how Quakers are active in the world. You can follow me on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/quakeitup.bsky.social Or email me (I don’t check this email too often so let me know if you have sent an email there!)
quakeitupuk@gmail.com