Quakers threw out everything they saw as “empty forms” in the church of their day, including communion and baptism.
Further Resources:
Read Friends Journal to see how other Friends describe the substance of Quaker spirituality
Find Quakers near you on QuakerFinder and Friends Journal’s meeting listings
Quaker Voluntary Service has opportunities for young women and men interested in social and personal transformation through service work and living in Quaker community.
Discussion Questions:
- Have you felt that some church rituals—whether official or cultural—felt empty or wrong? If you have felt the Spirit, what rituals do work for you to tap into it?
- It could be said that humans have a natural inclination to focus on form, even once the substance that form sought to achieve is missing. What would it look like for us to solely focus on the substance of being “filled by the Holy Spirit”? How might we set up a legacy of achieving that substance without becoming overly attached to forms?
Transcript:
There’s a phrase that goes through both the gospel of Luke and its sequel, the Book of the Acts, and that phrase is, “being filled with the Spirit.” “Filled with the Holy Spirit.”
There are moments in stories in that book where they say, “and so-and-so, being filled with the Spirit, goes off and does something wonderful.” And Early Quakers I think felt that they themselves were filled with that same Spirit. So it was really that experience. Some of it was structure and so forth – or lack thereof – but I think the fundamental thing was that experience of being filled and led by the Holy Spirit.
Early Quakers yearned for a revival of primitive Christianity because – in their experience – the life of the established church around them was one of form without substance. You could have a ritual, you could have a program, you could have a structure, but it could be there with no electricity running through the wires.
So imagine going to a church service. Ok, you’re supposed to say some prayers whether those prayers speak what you’re feeling at that moment or not. You’re supposed to recite a creed that contains someone else’s theological reflections that you may or may not agree with. You’re supposed to sing some hymns. You know, there’s the old joke, “why aren’t Quaker good at singing hymns?” “Because they’re always looking ahead to see whether or not they agree with the words.” Well that’s where that comes from.
You know, you can force someone in a sense – in that circumstance – to sing something that is dishonest for them. And then you listen to a sermon and a good puritan sermon has been crafted for days by the preacher who has given a lot of thought to it. But if it’s all up in your head but not in your heart – if it’s all in your book but it’s not led by an immediate sense of Divine presence, it’s form without substance.
The same thing for the sacraments – there was a lot of debate going on about communion and about baptism – what they ought to look like, how such rituals should be performed, what the theological and spiritual meaning of these experiences ought to be. If communion meant union with God, you can have the formal elements of communion but no real unity, no sense of union with God happening.
And so form without substance was their experience of the organized churches and they said, “we’re going to get together and let the Spirit guide us, and that may lead us in radical directions.” Like, even women ministering, which was shocking. Perhaps one of the most shocking parts of their message to those around them.
As Quakers, we must always remember that for many people in the liturgical church there is “form with substance”. We must be careful to remember that Spirit can guide a preacher while they prepare a sermon to be read later. We must be careful not to judge other faiths for a lack of Spirit, when for many practicing those faiths in the context of liturgy they are filled with Spirit. Quakers can also lack Spirit in the silence.
I completely agree with Steve Bougie. I personally have been moved to tears during Catholic Mass – at the moment of the Eucharist. O.K., it hasn’t happened often – but it’s happened.
I know an order of Protestant nuns, here in France, whose practice of singing (Psalms, mostly) is so deep, so beautiful, so refined – that it is impossible to say that it is not a profound spiritual practice.
And I have sometimes felt very uncomfortable during ‘perfect’ Quaker meetings – absolutely silent, not a child’s noise within miles – feeling that I am living something very sterile…
I think the point of liturgy can be that it is not for each of us to chose whether we are in the mood or not, whether it corresponds today or not – but to do. I have spent much time during liturgical services, ripping each little bit open, saying ‘I like this, I don’t like this’, and nothing much has come of it. I have occasionally just given up and flowed within – and been overwhelmed.
Steve Bougie and Eric Callcut comments earlier than this provide a good view from differing forms of liturgy. They are in a defensive stance of the value of liturgy in alternative forms of religion. My years of experience, involved with several sects of the Christian Religion has what led me to the Religious Society of Friends, actually the Quaker Universalist Fellowship. Each of us has a right to reach God, a global consciousness, in our own way or by the inward light. If you feel a need to join in certain rites or ceremonies, please understand, some others’ spirits lead in alternate directions. People of this world on earth have many ways of reaching the global consciousness, through different methods by varying names. Michael Birkel has an excellent presentation of “being filled with the spirit” in this “form without substance”. Even what he mentions near the end, female ministry, was not accepted by Christian Churches, 50-100 years ago. The greater point of interest is joining through our global consciousness or just going through rites or ceremonies.
As a birthright Quaker now a member of the Episcopal church (though retaining an association with my childhood meeting), I find richness in all these forms. It’s obvious that Quaker practice solidified into rituals of its own, and one breaks those traditions with trepidation. In both denominations one way to accommodate the movement of the Holy Spirit is often to create an alternative service. Whether the Spirit is present, regardless of denomination, becomes quickly apparent, even to newcomers. It’s most often shown in the spirit of hospitality. See how these Christians love one another!
My family background growing up included Roman Catholics (twelve years in Catholic schools), Episcopalian, Anglican and Appalachian Congregationalists with deep belief in the Bible and daily attempts to adhere to its precepts. Somehow, on top of all this I was fortunate to add Quakerism to this panoply of experience. As I grew in understanding of each, I was able find and recognize the beauty that people have found in each practice over many hundreds of years.
Each has forms, but each also has substance. I think this is all wrapped very nicely in the Quaker idea of being held in the Light. Such simplicity, which such profound depth.
Bob Fonow, Herndon Friends, residing in Beijing, July 2014
What is wonderful about many Friends is that they accept the beauty and joy of other religions, so long as they are experiential. I think I’m not far off the track in saying that what one wants, surely what I want in Quakerism, is a direct experience of unity with the Light that is the heart of all things.
This can be glimpsed in other religions— I’ve often been moved by some Catholic rituals. Mahayana Buddhism is my closest “other” philosophy… as long as we ourselves are IN it and experiencing it, not being led through it by rote and by some other person. The flowering of women in ministry of all sorts in Quakerism is one of the things that attracted me to it. I met wonderful people, many women, such as the great Fay Honey Knopp, who ministered to men in prison who had even committed the crime of sex with children. She was a great being and I think that wherever we see a glimpse of that kind of openness and inclusion, we can go.
I agree with Steve Bougie, we must be wary not to judge other faiths for form without substance. If I visit a Christian church, which in Finland is typically a Lutheran one, I feel entitled to give substance or not to give, to any forms of the Church service. I usually attend holy communion, because Jesus engouraged us “…to do this in remembrance of me”. I indeed want do it in remembrance of him, as he so asked. If a person next to me has another motive, or relies on a doctrine, it is not my business to judge.