John 4:23 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
When Friends come together to worship God, they do so in obedience to these passages. To a newcomer, the meeting may seem "silent" but in reality it is an experience of intense listening. We gather, in a meeting house, in a private home, in a park, to strengthen each other and to wait, as did the disciples on the day of Pentecost. The Word of God, Christ, is there among us and speaks to us by his spirit, in our hearts. Sometimes no audible word is said, but we are together refreshed and washed clean by the fountain of living waters. Sometimes one Friend may deliver an inspiring sermon. Sometimes several Friends, as the Spirit leads each one, will give a series of brief messages which joined by God's plan from a complete revelation. Sometimes a Friend will be compelled by the Spirit to speak something that seems to make no sense, only to learn later that it was a divine answer to some one else's need.
The common names of days of the week and months of the year,such as "Sunday" and "January", were adopted in honor of pagan deities. Friends have traditionally rejected such vocabulary and have called the days of the week and the months of the year by their numbers, thus:
First Day (sunday)
First Month (january)
Seventh Month (july)
Second Day (monday)
Second Month (february)
Eighth Month (august)
Third Day (tuesday)
Third Month (march)
Ninth Month (september)
Fourth Day (wednesday)
Fourth Month (april)
Tenth Month (october)
Fifth Day (thursday)
Fifth Month (may)
Eleventh Month (november)
Sixth Day (friday)
Sixth Month (june)
Twelfth Month (december)
Seventh Day (saturday)
It is interesting that, earlier in this century, Friends began accepting
use of the common date names, feeling that any pagan meaning has been forgotten,
while as the 20th comes to a close, most of us write (or type) dates using
their number designations. Perhaps the Quaker usage will catch
on in common speech as well.
Conscientious Objector
Any man may claim to be a conscientious objector. (Women don't have the opportunity because they are not subject to
the draft.) Membership in any particular religion is not necessary nor sufficient to qualify. What is required is for the
man to state religious beliefs that categorically forbid war/killing, and to provide evidence that these beliefs are sincere.
During the Vietnam war (my generation), it was even established that the process of training for war/killing, in a man
already in the armed forces, could awaken, or make apparent to someone who had not pondered the issue before, such
beliefs.
Christian churches which have from their origins obeyed Christ's command that we love our enemies have included
Quakers, Church of the Brethren, and Amish/Mennonites. The right for consientious objection, in this country, has been
won over the centuries by countless young men of these churches who have refused to "serve" in the armed forces even
when the consequeces were severe - jail, ostracism, etc. By their patient, loving Christ-like obedience to God's law,
even to the point of suffering, these men won the respect of their persecutors and laws have been changed to recognize
that freedom of religion includes conscientious objection to war.
T