Any Friends here?

[rodeosweetheart]

Are there any Quakers here on the new board?

I just found out from sleuthing on Ancestry.com that some of my grand parents (back before time of Revolutionary War) were Quakers, who left England to Ireland because of persecution as Quakers and then went over to Pennsylvania from there. It was kind of cool.

All my life I have known Quakers and been involved peripherally with some of the social justice stuff. I did not realize I had any family connection, so that was interesting. I have been to a few meetings, unprogrammed, and am interested in learning more. When I take that religion quiz online it always tells me that I am a traditional Quaker--that those are the beliefs that match up to my own idiosyncratic belief system.

If one wanted to be a Quaker, how would one go about doing this? Obviously, go to meetings, although there are none in this area--about an hour and half away. If we move, we would be closer to a meeting. But if down the road, one wanted to be a Quaker, how does that work?

Thanks for any information you can throw my way!

[BayouGirl]

I am Quaker and have been for years. I was raised Catholic (which is popular is Louisiana) and also Baptist and as an adult I found that the Quaker faith was much more inline with my own beliefs and converted many years ago. I was greatly influenced by working with a teacher who was Quaker and had been all of her life. She shared a lot with me and I found that Quakers still exist, are all over the world and are a very diverse group and very tolerant and accepting of others views and beliefs.

But I live in an extremely rural area and there are no meetings or churches anywhere near me so I have contact with other Friends on the internet and in Quaker forums and such. There are quite a few people in my situation who have no access to meeting or services. I wish there was more I could tell you but going online is the best way to find out what is in your area and to meet others who live all over the country.

[Zoebird]

My husband and I attended quaker meeting for a couple of years before getting too busy to attend services.

I would definitely do it again if we could go to a weekly meeting with DS. Here in NZ, there's only meetings once a quarter -- if that -- and it's adults only (so much of that here). It's a very secular nation, really.

Had we stayed in PA, I would definitely have taken DS back to meeting. He would have LOVED it. :)

[rodeosweetheart]

Thank you, Bayou and Zoebird. I had not thought of the Internet, Bayou, to rach out to others. I will definitely do that.
Zoe, that is interesting about the children--they were welcome in New York state and they had a little First day school for them, too. It was most definitely child friendly.

[Zoebird]

the one in PA did, too. first day school, kids were in meeting for 10-15 minutes either at the beginning or end of meeting. it was great.

here, there's no weekly meeting (just quarterly and annual gatherings), and there isn't a first day school or anything similar for those gatherings (taht I can tell).

[larknm]

I began going to meetings in 1997 or so and have stayed a member of that meeting even though I moved far away, so I get their info via internet and am personally in touch with four of them consistently since then. There are meetings where I live now, but they seem more like social clubs, not spiritual growth, so I stick with my first meeting (upstate NY) and am grateful. I also read books they recommend.

[KayLR]

Rodeosweetheart, I just wanted to share that I found that out about my ancestors a few years ago, too. In fact, last summer I went back to Ohio and looked for their gravesites. It was one of the most poignant events in my life. Something about being back where they lived in southeastern Ohio (beautiful pastoral landscape) struck a chord within me and it was very, very moving. I did find several of their gravesites and greeted them for their descendants who mostly live in the Pac NW now.

In my genealogical research I found that many of the men of my father's family who were Quakers here in the U.S. were shunned from the meeting because their wives were pregnant when they got married.