A circle of Friends worship together in silent contemplation.
Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)
Our mission initiatives include developing disciples to serve and promoting peace on earth. We work toward both goals as we learn about the traditions, ideas, practices, and history of diverse people throughout the world — many of whom are also neighbors in our own communities. Every week in our congregation, we ponder one of the world’s many diverse religious expressions and offer a prayer for peace for peoples of the world.
This week we
contemplate the Quakers. The people
commonly known under the nickname Quakers refer to themselves as “Friends” and
their many different denominations and expressions are collectively known as the
“Religious Society of Friends.” The movement emerged in the English Reformation
in the mid-17th century, as one of many organizations who desired to
take reform much further than the established Church of England was prepared to
go.
Quakers
stressed the importance of a direct relationship with God acquired through
reading and studying the Bible and through direct spiritual experience. They reject creeds and recognize a universal
priesthood of all believers, which meant that early on women were able to serve
as Quaker ministers. Quakers are a peace
church with a long, proud commitment to causes of social justice, including the
eradication of slavery. In this way, the
Quakers have served as a model for our own goal in Community of Christ of
becoming a peace church.
Today there
are about 359,000 adult members of Quaker congregations throughout the world. Although
the Society of Friends have always been relatively few in number, they have had
great impact in the promotion of justice and peace.
Prayer for Peace — Wallace B. Smith
Eternal God, present in all of life that is significant and holy, hear us now as we lift our voices in thanksgiving and praise, in confession, and in supplication.
We give
thanks for your word of encouragement that enables us to face each new
day. We also thank you for your word of
faithfulness that gives us hope for the future.
And we give thanks for your word of guidance that directs us as we seek
to better understand your ways.
Gracious God,
deliver us from the shallowness of our commitments, from the thousand ways our
strivings separate us from each other.
And most of all, deliver us from our fears that alienate us from you.
O God of
faith, hear our prayer as we light our flame of peace and love at this hour and
in this sacred place. May the flame here
kindled grow within each heart, that all may sense more fully your spirit in
the warmth of our concern for one another.
Refresh us when we grow weary of opposing injustice and oppression,
terrorism and war, and send us forth from this time of prayer for peace
strengthened to bind up the wounds that afflict our world. Grant us peace, O
God — not the peace of slumber, but of quiet confidence in the triumph of your
word. For the sake of all your creation,
we pray. Amen.
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