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Quaker Quest, the new and exciting inreach/outreach program developed in England, has captured the attention of monthly and quarterly meetings throughout Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The Yearly Meeting has enthusiastically taken up the task to spread this message of good news and to help meetings reach out to seekers.
Following a very successful Consultation Day last fall, attended by more 100 Friends representing 40 monthly meetings and all 13 quarters, many meetings were inspired to inquire further and requests for visits by the QQ team continue to come in.
One of the most appealing aspects of Quakerism to some Friends is its quiet comfort. It is based on individual responsibility; it is highly personal; it doesn’t impose a prescribed set of beliefs or actions; and, it is private.
Then, why should we, as Quakers, consider “going public?”
Haverford Friends Meeting Pioneers Quaker Quest
Haverford Friends Meeting embarked on Quaker Quest in April 2008 after months of preparation and thus, has pioneered the effort successfully in PYM. The Haverford experience is an invaluable model for other meetings.
Ben Lloyd, a member of his Meeting’s Quaker Quest Core Group, described the experience: “We intentionally set out not to promote our own meeting, but rather to speak truthfully about the ways our Quaker faith had influenced our lives through the topics we were presenting.”
(Or, how British Friends brought a new revolution to America)
“There is a remarkable change of heart in the Society.”
British Friends wrote those words a few years ago at a gathering in Manchester, England, where they were struggling with the same problem that confronts American Friends––a troublesome and persistent depletion of membership.
“For more than a century,” they declared, “we have been reluctant to speak of our faith and to dialogue with our neighbors. Rightly shunning proselytizing, we have wrongly failed to offer even an informed choice. We have been more comfortable at traveling incognito, helping to serve society’s social and peace-making needs. So the Society has diminished.”