Welcome to the website: Quakers in Kent

Welcome

Welcome to the website of Quakers in Kent. You are invited to browse, search, read and comment on the material presented here.

The purposes of this website

If you are just discovering Quakers and are keen to know more, we hope that this website makes it easy for you to find answers to questions such as:

– What is a Quaker?
– What goes on in a Quaker meeting, and what kind of experience is it?
– If I want to get in touch, whom can I contact?
– Where is there a Quaker meeting near me?

… as well as anything else you want to know about Quakers in general or about Quakers in Kent specifically.

If you already attend a local Quaker meeting this website offers you an opportunity to comment on, and even discuss, material that is written in these pages. If you would like to write at greater length, there is ample opportunity to write articles for the website.

If you are a Quaker visiting Kent this website makes it easy for you to find a Meeting for Worship to attend.

How to find what you are looking for

The website is easy to use. It works on a desktop and tablet computers, and also on smart phones. The website has many pages. At the top of each page is a main menu of links to other pages:

Simply scroll over, or click, or touch the main menu and one of the links. Most pages, like this one (see below), also have further links within the text.

Examples of what you can find

You can get a feel of the atmosphere in a Quaker Meeting, by picking one of the places listed in the drop-down menu under Quaker Meetings in Kent, and then clicking the link to In Our Own Words. Here you can read what Members are saying about the Meeting.

If you are keen to know what Quakers are currently thinking, and how they are discussing some of the things that matter to them, go to the Written Word section. Here you can read thoughtful articles and book reviews by local Quakers.

Each Local Meeting has its own sub-site. If you already attend a Local Meeting, navigate to the sub-site for your Local Meeting. When you hover the mouse cursor over the name of your Local Meeting, a menu to the right displays all the ‘outward-facing’ web pages that belong to the sub-site. A second list then displays all the ‘inward-facing’ web pages that belong to the sub-site, some of them password protected.

New material is often added to the website. If you have something you would like to contribute, please contact the Web Manager.

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What are Quakers? What is the Quaker way?

What are Quakers?

Quakers began to come together several centuries ago, around the time of the English Civil War. Historically based within Christianity, for many Quakers today their faith remains a fully Christian faith. However, even from the earliest days, Quakers have also respected and embraced people of other religions and of none. Each and every Quaker is free to believe what makes sense to them. What Quakers share in common is both a sense that there is something of God, or something divine, or something sacred, within every person, no matter who they are; and of the centrality of ‘faith in action’.

What is the Quaker way?

The Quaker way tends to affect the whole of one’s life, leading each person to try to live in a simpler and more sustainable manner, and to live out their vision of a more just and peaceful world. Some Quakers, perhaps many, believe that all life is a sacrament, and many experience Quakers as their spiritual home.

Quakers take a share in responsibility for the Quaker Meeting (the congregation), and for the Meeting for Worship. During a Meeting for Worship, Quakers sit together, waiting in silence, listening for ‘that of God within’. Should anyone feel led to speak, they stand and give what is known as ‘ministry’. At the end of the Meeting, Quakers shake hands as Friends.

Introduction to ‘Faith in Action’

For Quakers, the primary currency of faith is not words but action. The action can be in how a person chooses to live their life, including the kind of work that they do, their use of leisure time, and their use of resources; or in helping other people to live their lives, perhaps by their choice of occupation, or through volunteering; or by helping to change aspects of society and the world, by means of witness (such as letter writing campaigns, vigils and participating with people of other faiths), and by charitable projects and supporting charitable organisations. Indeed, for some Quakers, it is important to try to live out all three approaches. There are many people of different faiths who live their life in this way, but there are few, if any, other faiths for which this is the defining characteristic.

In support of these ideas, Quakers have several ‘testimonies’ that relate to ‘faith in action’. It should be recognised that these Testimonies are not creeds, and are less concerned with the precise form of words used so much as the action that springs from personal spiritual experience.

Faith in Action

Meetings for Worship in Kent

Quaker Meetings for Worship are held in:

Due to UK government restrictions in response to the ongoing corona virus outbreak, in-person Quaker Meetings for Worship are currently suspended. However, online Meetings for Worship are taking place. Woodbrooke Study Centre hosts 11 online Meetings for Worship each week. Members of the public are encouraged to visit the relevant page of the Woodbrooke Study Centre website for details about how to attend.

To view information about the many Quaker Meetings in Kent, click on a link below: