Quaker Glossary
This glossary attempts to provide clear definitions of terms central to the Religious Society of Friends, helping both newcomers and longtime members deepen their understanding of Quaker beliefs and practices.
Affirmation:
A legal declaration provided for Friends and others who conscientiously refuse to take (or swear) judicial oaths.
Breaking Meeting:
The act of bringing a meeting for worship to a close by shaking hands. Usually, an individual has been designated to initiate this process.
Centering/Centering Down:
The initial stage of worship when Friends clear their minds and settle down to achieve a spiritual focus.
Clerk:
The person responsible for the administration of a Friends body and sensitive to the guidance of the Spirit in the conduct of the business of that body. This includes preparation, leadership, and follow up of meetings for business.
Concern:
A quickening sense of the need to do something about a situation or issue in response to what is felt to be a direct intimation of God’s will.
Convinced Friend:
A person, after having an inward experience of connection with Quakerism and a Quaker spiritual perspective, decides that the Religious Society of Friends provides the most promising home for spiritual enlightenment and growth, and who becomes a member of a monthly meeting. Historically distinguished from a “birthright Friend,” i.e., a person born into a Quaker family.
Discernment:
An individual and/or group process by which clarity of purpose or understanding is achieved, proceeding from a spiritual awareness or realization. Discernment is not a form of decision-making, per se, but rather a precursor to decision-making that rests upon a willingness to patiently listen for divine leading, in oneself and in others.
First Day School:
Designation for the Sunday religious education program provided by a monthly meeting for children
Gathered Meeting:
A meeting for worship or for business in which those present feel deeply united in the divine presence.
Hold in the Light:
To desire that divine guidance and healing will be present to an individual who is in distress or faces a difficult situation; also, to give prayerful consideration to an idea.
Inner Light/The Light Within:
Terms which represent for Friends the direct, unmediated experience of the Divine. Some other equivalent terms often found in Quaker writings are: the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Divine Principle, the Seed, the Guide, the Christ Within, the Inward Teacher, that of God in every person..
Laying Over:
To postpone the discussion of an issue or the presentation of a report from one meeting for business to another.
Leading:
A sense of being called by God to undertake a specific course of action. A leading often arises from a concern.
LFM:
Acronym for Louisville Friends Meeting, the formal name of our group.
Meeting for Worship:
A gathering of individuals in quiet waiting upon the enlightening and empowering presence of the Divine; the central focus of the corporate life of the Religious Society of Friends.
Meeting for Worship for Business:
A meeting for worship during which the corporate business of the meeting is conducted—often referred to as meeting for business.
Monthly Meeting:
1. A congregation of Friends who meet regularly for worship and to conduct corporate business. 2. A monthly gathering of such a body for worship and business. In some areas with multiple worship meetings the monthly meeting may contain multiple groups that gather for worship separately. For Louisville Friends Meeting the worship group and business group entirely overlap.
Quaker:
Originally, a derogatory term applied to Friends because their excitement of spirit when led to speak in a meeting for worship was sometimes expressed in a shaking or quaking motion. Now this term is simply an alternative designation for a member of the Religious Society of Friends..
Quaker Process/Practice:
A catch-all expression often used to describe the various and collective techniques by which Quakers make decisions and go about their other business. Quaker process can include discernment, threshing, worship-sharing, sense of the Meeting, and other methodological terms described in this glossary. These constituent aspects have in common a commitment to obedience to the leading of the Spirit.
Queries:
A set of questions, based on Friends practices and testimonies, which are considered by Meetings and individuals as a way of both guiding and examining individual and corporate lives and actions. As such, they are a means of self-examination. Queries to be considered regularly are included in Faith & Practice; others may be formulated by a committee or Meeting that seeks to clarify for itself an issue it needs to address.
Recording Clerk:
The person appointed to take minutes at regular and called meetings for business of a Meeting or other Friends body.
Sense of the Meeting:
A discerned judgment or awareness by the clerk of a meeting for business—or the clerk of a particular committee, group, etc.—that the group has reached essential unity on some issue or concern. It is the clerk’s role to articulate that the group has reached a particular place of decision or shared understanding, and to test whether this sense of the meeting is in accord with the group’s faithful obedience to the leading of the Spirit.
Silent Worship:
Expectant, living silence, not merely the absence of noise. The quietude of Friends meeting for worship—and other periods of observant worship—embodies the special quiet of listeners, the special perception of seekers, the special alertness of those who wait. The silence invites the sharing of messages which arise from a stirring of the Spirit.
Standing Aside:
An action taken by an individual who has genuine reservations about a particular decision, but who also recognizes that the decision is clearly supported by the weight of the Meeting. The action of standing aside allows the Meeting to reach unity.
Testimonies:
A guiding principle of conduct that bears witness to the presence of God in the world and in our lives. Though there is no official list of such testimonies, Friends have traditionally identified peace and nonviolence, equality, simplicity, stewardship, community, and integrity as their practical principles.
Unity:
The spiritual oneness and harmony whose realization is a primary objective of a meeting for worship or a meeting for business..
Yearly Meeting:
Those Friends from a geographically extended area who gather in annual session to worship and conduct business together. This term is also used to denote the total membership of the constituent monthly meetings of a designated yearly meeting. Louisville Friends Meeting are a part of the Ohio Valley Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.