News

By Ron Hayes

    The Religious Society of Friends was born in 1650 on a hill in Lancashire, England, when a young man named George Fox had a revelation.
    Christ could be known directly, by anyone, anywhere, any time, without the intercession of ordained clergy.
    “Tremble at the word of God,” Fox admonished the growing number of followers who embraced his message, but when he was hauled into court to be charged with blasphemy, a magistrate named Gervase Bennet ridiculed their trembling with a single word.
    “Quakers.”
    Most of us know of them, but few of us know much about them.
    This month, the Palm Beach Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends hopes to change that by welcoming curious people to a series of Meetings for Learning before the regular Sunday worship at their Lake Worth meeting house.
    “We’re a spiritual community much more than we’re a religion,” explains John Palozzi, a retired social worker with the Palm Beach County School District who first came to a meeting eight years ago. “We have no dogma, so we don’t tell anybody what they have to believe.”
    The closest Quakers have to dogma is a simple affirmation from George Fox: “There is that of God in everyone.”
    While some Quaker services resemble more conventional Sunday practices with hymns, a preacher and a sermon, the congregation of about 50 Friends who have gathered in Lake Worth each week since 1955 seek God not in quaking, but in silence.
     “We simply sit for an hour together in silence,” Palozzi explains, “listening for the teacher within us to guide us. It’s the spirit within that’s the guiding force, and you need to adjust your own behavior and decide your own morality.”
    While they embrace no detailed theology, Quakers do have common convictions, called testimonies: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship of the Earth.
    Historically, those testimonies have put American Quakers at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement in the 19th century and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the 20th. They welcomed women as equals from their beginnings, and have a long record of nonviolence and conscientious objection to America’s wars.
    “George Fox refused to hold the sword or be involved in military service,” says Palozzi, a conscientious objector himself during the Vietnam War.
    “There are a lot of people out there who don’t want to be told what they have to believe,” Palozzi notes. “They want to be involved with a group that’s more concerned with spirituality than dogma. A lot are turning to Buddhism or various metaphysical groups, but we’ve been on this track for 350 years.”
    Topics in the weekly Meetings for Learning this month include:
    • “Quakerism and Social Activism: How Quakerism Speaks Truth to Power,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 8.
    • “Modern Quakerism and How Quakerism Compares With Other Religions,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 15.
    • “Quakerism and War: The Quaker Peace Testimony,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 22.
    • “Are Quakers Really Christian?” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 29.
    The Quaker Month events will conclude at 1 p.m. Jan. 29 with a presentation of questions and answers about what it means to live a Quaker life in the 21st century.
    “We want people to know we’re inviting them just to come and learn about us and try us out if they’re interested in pursuing spirituality instead of religion,” Palozzi says.
    “Those are the people we’re trying to reach.”

The Palm Beach Religious Society of Friends Meeting House is at 823 N. A St. in Lake Worth. For more information, visit www.palmbeachquakers.org or email pbquakers@gmail.com