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Quaker
Meeting
Artist: Unidentified
artist
Location: Museum
of Fine Arts,Boston
Medium: Oil
Painting on Canvas
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The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.... John 3:8 NIV
What Do Quakers Believe?
It
is difficult to write a description of Friends beliefs that would be
acceptable to all the Quakers in the world today. Quakers all share
common roots in a Christian movement that arose in England in the
middle of the 17th Century. Today, it is generally true that Friends
still adhere to certain essential principles:
- a belief in the possibility of direct, unmediated communion with the Divine (historically expressed by George Fox in the statement, "Christ is come to teach his people himself"); and
- a commitment to living lives that outwardly attest to this inward experience.
With
time and experience our perspective on things can alter
significantly. The above painting of a Quaker meeting when I beheld
it as a young man gave me much amusement. I had the picture framed
(as I still do today) and then laughed at what I took to be a
combination of piety and awkwardness—especially portrayed by the
man who has risen to speak. But now I do not laugh so much, for I
identify with the man more and more. In many ways, the way I write
blogs is done in a similar vein—I wait upon the Holy Spirit then am
often confounded when trying to coherently follow its leading. So I
have come to realize that when I laugh at this painting, I am really
laughing at myself—which amusement I often have to admit comes well
deserved.
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