What Friends Believe

Faith and Practice

Friends emphasize one belief over all: That God calls us all to intimate communion through the Inner Light. Faith is based on this direct experience of the Divine. As Friends we do not focus on sin. The Light does not discriminate and is in everyone. In the Light we are all one. We try to share the the good news of transformation and peace wherever we go by being patterns and examples. As the Book of James states: "Faith without works is dead" (JAMES 2:14-26).

jeSUS and THE LIGHT

At our worship group, Jesus is at the center of our corporate faith. We use a variety of metaphors to describe our experience of him: Friend, Inward Teacher, Prophet, Guide, Christ, the Light. He embodied the Way, the Truth and the Life. Our understanding of the Manner of Friends, or the Quaker Way, is one of living our experience of the Divine in our lives. It is not a matter of belief in doctrine. The vast majority of Friends world-wide believe that Jesus is the begotten (not made) Son of God and Messiah. In Baltimore Friends vary in their understanding of Jesus and God. We are clear, however, that creeds and doctrines about the nature of God or Jesus do not bring us peace and transformation. Rather, first-hand experience of Divine Love and learning to trust this Guide in our hearts, yielding faithfully to it. Key to this harmony is a willingness to allow the Light to reveal areas that need change and forgiveness. It requires complete honesty and openness. When we are in harmony with the Light, we find our lives to become more simple. Ours become lives of simplicity, non-violence, stewardship of the earth, and understanding of the inherent equality of persons in Christ. None of this is achieved in complete solitude. Community is central to this life.

tHE bible

The Bible is our central religious text. We find much of the human experience contained therein. While there appear to be errors of various sorts in the 3000 years of history contained therein, if we read the Scriptures grounded in the Holy Spirit, God can reveal God's Truth to us. The pastoral letters, laws, literature and stories contained therein give us many ways to understand how God has worked through history, and how people have succeeded and failed in their faithfulness. God's revelation to us does not stop in the Bible; it continues to be revealed to us today. With continued studies in anthropology, sociology, archeology, astrophysics and the like, we find that science opens up mysteries. Science and the Scriptures are complimentary in the Quaker faith.

WORSHIP

Our fellowship is one where we seek to realize the Kingdom of God as an inward reality first which leads us into the "Kin-dom" of God as a community. We believe that Christ has come to teach us now. Worship is the central part of our faith community. The disciplines of prayer, meditation, study and service (among others) are central to our preparation for worship. We have been blessed to experienced God's love first hand in worship and prayer with one another and we feel ourselves drawing closer to God as we serve each other, pray with and for each other, confess to and forgive each other. Jesus sent his disciples to teach of God's love and to heal. This is exactly what we have felt God doing through us. We welcome you to experience God's love and healing, transformative power. When we come together as a group or when we sit alone at home, we wait for God. Worship is our response to the movement of God's love in our hearts. We wait and we attempt to go deeply within where the Light can shine on the Love. We wait, we expect, and often we are shaken to our core by the awesome power of Love that reigns in our souls. Focus on that love with us, Friends. You are invited.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Quaker meetings are open to the public. Anyone is invited to worship with us, we do not ask you about your beliefs when you visit. We welcome people of all religions and none, who acknowledge a Creator-Force and those who do not to sit with us and wrestle with the Knowledge that can come from being still and waiting.

We encourage you to read the the Books of Discipline / Faith and Practices at the bottom of this page to see how larger bodies of Friends express themselves today. Both of these books are used at our fellowship.