What's a Quakerpalian?

I've known a number of people who are what you might call "religious hybrids" of one kind or another.  They either attend more than one denomination's church (sometimes alternating Sundays), or they grew up in one church but ended up in another as an adult. 

 

One "church" that seems particularly prone to this phenomenon is Quakerism.  I was born into an Episcopalian family (tho' my father had grown up Catholic), but by the time I reached my teens, my family was no longer attending church, and somehow or other I had begun attending Quaker meeting at the beach.  My parents were exceedingly fond of a Quaker man named Sam Levering for many years, so if I was going to defect from Episcopalianism, they could give the nod to the Quakers without too much upset.

Many Quakers I know are not "birthright" Quakers (born into the faith), but "convinced" Quakers (joined from some other faith).  And many of those come from Catholicism and Anglicanism in America (or Episcopalianism.)  I myself have drifted back and forth between the two. My history is with the Episcopal church, but my heart is with the Quakers.  At the moment the Quakers are still winning. I am, as another person told me he was, a Quakerpalian.

At first it would seem Quakers (or Friends) are the polar opposites of Catholics and Episcopalians (or Catholic Lite as I've sometimes heard Episcopalians called).  The two latter churches are closely linked in worship style and background and both have hierarchical structures and highly developed liturgies and rituals. 

 

Quakers, on the other hand, are as simple as it gets.  Silent worship on simple benches, without pastors, priests, choirs or music. Quakers are more a type of Christian mysticism than anything else. (And no, they're not Amish.) Although it appears they did away with the ministry, that really isn't so - they did away with the laity. At silent meeting for worship, the most traditional Quaker style (as opposed to "programmed" Friends churches which are more like Protestant services), anyone can get up and speak during a service, even children. 

 

Many of us stuck between two faiths feel a deep ambivalence about this situation, feeling that it is somehow unfair to either faith that we don't "commit".  Some of us Quakerpalians like the beautiful music and liturgy of the Episcopal church, but equally love the simplicity and meditation of the Quakers.  

 

Most people don't know much about the Quakers.  What do Quakers do?  Do we really sit around and eat oatmeal like one of my funny friends asked?  Quakers were actually one of the most progressive religious movements of the 1700's, at that time proclaiming the equality of men and women, as well as commoner and those bearing titles.  In fact they refused to doff their hats to those in a higher societal position or greet them with anything but the standard commoner's greeting "thee" and "thy".  In court today, people can "affirm" to tell the truth, rather than swear, because Quakers refused to "swear oaths", implying it meant they lied the rest of the time. They govern themselves and make decisions not by voting but by concensus (a process that sometimes means it takes forever to get a mailbox put up!)

 

They, like the Amish, are one of the historic peace churches, though their members can perform non-arms bearing work in war, such as driving ambulances.  They educated slaves and began prison ministries. And in the most egalitarian step of all, they believed everyone had the right to their own personal experience of God, without need for intermediaries, and that no dogma or creed should be imposed upon any of their members.  In the place of creed, they simply had a set of questions (the Queries) a person could ask themselves about how they lived their life.  (In the truest Quaker tradition, those members who felt called to bear arms in war would do so.)  Quaker Universalists can adhere to Christian beliefs as well as Buddhist or any other.  A Quaker meeting is very similar to a group of Buddhists sitting in meditation, except for the "messages" that one might hear if someone stands to speak.

 

I think it is a fallacy to believe we must choose one faith if two are calling us in the same way that you can eat chocolate cake and vanilla too.  To be comfortable with religious ambivalence is not the easiest thing, and in time a person may decide to plant both feet firmly on one side of the fence or the other.  In the meantime, as the Quakers say, both faith traditions may "speak to thy condition."

 

 

 

 

 

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