British Friends Discuss Quaker Beliefs

(bright upbeat music)

• Quakerism is a cool place to come

and ask things and not
get a straight answer.

They say, “ask one
question to four Quakers

and you’ll get five different answers.”

• Quakers, as a whole
  believe that there is

that of God in everyone.

And that means to say
that every human being

is unique, is precious.

• Because God can speak through anyone,

then we’re all just as important,

just as equal as each other.

And for me, that’s something that I try

to live throughout my daily life,

• You could replace God
  with good or goodness.

So everyone has this
potential of goodness.

• So we have our various testimonies,

including that of peace,
equality, integrity,

simplicity, sustainability.

So I’m constantly questioning am I living

in a way that is in
line with these values.

• Quakers generally find that
  they explore faith through

searching through themselves,

which they often refer
to as, “The Inner Light.”

• I don’t necessarily have faith,

I have had experiences
and feeling of things.

To me, God is the feeling and
the connection between people.

• I feel that God is energy and a feeling

rather than actually a person.

• For me, it’s the unknown
  or something that which

we can’t understand.

• You can experience it
  when you’re in nature,

that interconnectedness of
everything on this planet,

it’s a living presence.

• Virtually what appeals
  to me to Quakerism

as opposed to other other faith groups is

it’s propensity to accept change

and to accept that things
may not be necessarily

what they thought before.

• It evolves over time as society evolves,

and looks at changing society

and how we can reflect
that in our practice.

• It’s not uncommon

for someone to be a
Quaker and something else.

I know people who are Quakers and Hindus,

or Quakers and Buddhists,

or Quakers and Christians,

• It’s reasonably open and
  reasonably free of…

several hundred year old
thousand year old rhetoric

that gets repeated continuously
and I quite like that.

• Obviously, Quaker Oats
  has had a lot to do with

the perception of Quakers,
old people wearing hats.

There are lots of old Quakers,

some of us wear hats.

But I would say that Quakers are much more

vibrant community of people
than a lot of people perceive.

• The Quakers don’t subscribe
  to a Creed like a list

of things that everyone has to agree on.

The essential thing is your experience,

and your experience is valid.

• Your faith is more than what
  you do on a Sunday morning.

It’s going out and living it.

(bright upbeat music)