Getting to Know Friends
If you are new to Friends, by now you have learned at least enough about Quakers to think about deepening your participation to Mountain View Friends Meeting. But there might be some things which are less obvious to the newcomer.We Are a Religious Society
Many people learn about Quakers through their activities in society; outspokenness against war, non-violence dialog in prisons, peace-related actions, anti-slavery history, or any other work as activists. It is always good to find those who subscribe to the same political views as we do ourselves. Quakers do not have a written creed. However, Friends are first and foremost a religious community. Its roots are Christian, and while not everyone in Mountain View Friends Meeting is Christian, we share the belief that God will move us and guide our actions, individually and collectively.
For Quakers, personal experience of the divine is the source of our Truth. We experience God in our individual practice and also in worshiping together. Every one of us can have a direct, unmediated relationship with God. This relationship is unique to each person, and each of us must learn for ourselves how best to live in the Spirit. At the very least, that takes practice, silence, and listening.
The Meeting welcomes those who wish to work energetically for their causes when that work is Spirit-driven and nourished by our joint worship. Attend meetings for worship as regularly as you can. Corporate worship is a hallmark of our practice and the source of our strength. From it, we each gain and share spiritual wisdom as we are led by God. We also experience each other and learn to love and trust each other as we worship together.
Our Testimonies Guide Our Actions
Mountain View Friends Meeting lists five guiding "testimonies" with which we try to align our actions in our lives: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality. Each of us must examine these and identify how those apply to us individually. For example, simplicity for some means consuming as few of the earth's resources as possible, while to another it might mean examining the way they spend their time to reduce a hectic schedule. The expression of the testimonies in our lives might change over time.
Quakers Have a History
Quakers have a 350-year history that we refer to often in calling ourselves back to our procedures and practices. It will be important to learn about the history of Friends and the people who have shaped it from its inception forward into our lives as Quakers today. There are many wonderful writers whose works continue to inspire and guide us. Explore our library.
We Are Organized... sort of. Monthly, Regional, and Yearly Meeting
Friends aren't much on hierarchy. (You've probably figured that out already.) However, there is a larger organization of which Mountain View is a part. Mountain View is a "monthly meeting," so called because it has business meetings once a month. Monthly meetings belong to Regional (or sometimes Quarterly) Meetings. Mountain View is part of Colorado Regional Meeting, which conducts its business meetings every six months as a combined meeting of all the Colorado monthly meetings. Colorado Regional is in turn part of Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM) which meets annually.
There are also many Quaker organizations outside of IMYM with which we have relationships and contribute time, money, or both. Learn about these by asking, attending meeting for business, reading our newsletter, and looking through our announcements.
We Don't Make Decisions or Do Business Like Most Groups
Quakers make decisions differently than most groups because we don't vote or have paid staff. We go about the regular business of making decisions, getting married, approving membership, taking care of our building, and so forth. We make decisions by coming to unity in a meeting for worship at which the focus is business; this is very different from voting or consensus or other forms of decision-making. It can be slow, but it is very powerful. Attend meetings for business to learn how this happens. Keep in mind that attending meetings for worship increases the depth of our experience of meetings for business, and vice versa. Read the Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM) Faith and Practice to get an idea of Quaker process in taking care of business.
Queries - Prodding the Mind Open
Quakers are seekers. We are a society of people seeking what it means to live a life rooted in Spirit without a creed to tell us what to believe or what the rules are. But that doesn't mean "anything goes." Queries are one tool used often by Quakers to help focus our attention, guide our explorations, open our minds, and invite us to examine our thoughts and motivations. They are formed as open-ended questions around a topic, and often used in clearness processes (for marriage, membership, etc.), worship sharing, consideration of almost any topic, and times when we need to or are struggling to make a decision. A good portion of the IMYM Faith and Practice is queries; explore those to see where they take you.
Opening our Hearts through Worship Sharing
Worship Sharing is a way Friends share at a heartfelt depth, typically in response to queries about some subject. The name is confusing - it would imply that we are sharing as though in meeting for worship, from divine inspiration, but instead, it is a time for each of us to share from our own experience.
Worship Sharing deepens the sense of connection among friends. Sometimes it is used when people are struggling with a difficult subject, and it is used at any time Friends wish to explore a subject in depth in a safe, loving setting. At Mountain View, we use it at retreats, in many of our workshops and Quaker Studies classes, and even at business meetings or specially called meetings when we need to take the time to clarify our thoughts together.
Worship sharing can be done in large groups, but often large groups are divided into groups of 6 to 8 people. There is a leader in each group who explains the sharing format, helps watch the time, and guides the group through the queries. Everything spoken is confidential. There is no discussion or response to each person's sharing. A person shares his or her response to the query with the group, whose sole action is to listen. There is not usually an order to speaking - each person speaks when she or he feels ready. A period of silence follows before the next person speaks. This time allows everyone to truly hear what that person has said. People do not speak more than once before everyone has had an opportunity to share, and nobody is required to share if they choose not to.
The richness of worship sharing comes from the safety of knowing nobody is going to refute or discuss what you said, give you advice (unless asked), or tell others outside the group. The container of silence allows the speaker to feel truly heard, and the gift of the story he or she tells enriches the others in the group. While sharing is never required, most people share, allowing the group to know each other better at a deeper level than casual conversation brings.
Financial Contributions
Do I have to give money? Of course not. Do we expect you to contribute when and what you can? Of course. Quaker gatherings are enriched by every person who attends them, and money should never be a barrier to your participation in any Friends' meeting or events. That said, Mountain View has a building to maintain, membership assessments to pay, activities to fund, and organizations we like to support. Because of that, we hope that everyone will find a way to contribute financially to the meeting in any amount, even five dollars a month if they can. It helps us meet our financial obligations, and it expresses commitment and involvement on the part of the member. You can enroll in automatic contributions, write checks, or give cash, whichever is easiest for you.
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