A Meeting with Friends

Our Faiths with Matt Pointon
The Quakers


The Friend's Meeting House in Newcastle does not look like a religious building. Built of brick it appears positively secular and according to Harold, it is. “This is not a consecrated place, as to us everywhere is holy and besides, we bought it off the Staffordshire PFA – it used to be their headquarters.”

The Society of Friends – or ‘Quakers’ as they are commonly known – are a Protestant church formed in the 17th century under the inspiration of George Fox.
Unlike most Christian churches however, they have no creed or set worship. “On Sunday meetings people come in and if the Holy Spirit impels them, they speak. Some weeks we can have a whole hour of silence, but that silence is not a bad thing as in silence we can connect with God.”

The first Quaker group in North Stoke was formed in the 19th century and they have existed in the area ever since.

I came on a Tuesday evening when silence was not the order of the day. Then several Friends or Attenders, (those who attend but are not members of the Society), were there to discuss a recent book by the atheist writer Richard Dawkins. A variety of viewpoints were put forward, some opposing but all in a friendly spirit. As a church with no creeds or doctrines, there are no right answers in the Friends’ Meeting House, although the life of Jesus is used as inspiration for Godly living.

But who are the Quakers exactly? When I put the question to those present, Ken suggested that they are more defined by what they are not rather than what they are. One thing they all agreed on however, was their objection to war, and the Quakers have been famous as pacifists for centuries. Tom defined their belief as being an “insistence that there is an immediate relationship between people and God.”
This, Anne-Marie explained, means that within everyone there is an “Inner light” which we can all cultivate.

And with such a friendly and fascinating group, I felt that a small part of that light had perhaps flickered in me as we discussed our respective beliefs.