What is Quaker Quest?
In short, Quaker Quest is perhaps the longest-running Friends outreach movement in modern times, having occurred weekly in London since January 2002. It began there then as a celebration of 350 years of Quakerism, and we felt very ambitious indeed in attempting a yearlong series of weekly sessions open to the general public. At the monthly meeting where the idea was presented, wise heads shook in cautionary gloom: we shouldn't attempt that which we were unlikely to be able to sustain. A whole year? How would we ever manage?
Well, we opened our doors, in Friends House in central London, with great trepidation in January 2002. Would anyone come? Why would they come? Would they want to hear what we had to say? What would they be seeking after? Well, they did in fact come, and kept coming the following weeks and months, so much so that when our core group of 12 London Friends met towards the end of the year to lay the project down, we discovered that we couldn't. We found ourselves unable to stop "publishing our truth" to the many seekers who had come to us; we felt truly called to continue for another year, and then another, and another.
We realized that we had discovered a method of holding public meetings that really worked. We continued to refine the method by responding to the needs of the seekers who came to us, and then revising our sessions in our monthly core group meetings. Here are what we have learned are the essential elements of a Quaker Quest:
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Session topics that speak to the seekers' condition. Seekers are eager to learn about Quaker spirituality; they are looking for a context in which to realize their own sense of the Divine. People tend not to be seeking a deeper understanding of Quaker history, or the intricacies of our business method. For example, after a few months, we realized that we would have to have an entire session on our understanding of God. It's been a part of our program in London ever since.
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Presentations that are simple, concise, and brief. There is always a panel of three presenters, all of whom speak from their own experience and from the heart. We are delivering ministry, not lectures. Having three allows a variety of approaches, and illustrates the diversity within the Quaker way—and our acceptance of diversity. No one is to speak for longer than six or seven minutes at a time. Finding a way to speak about the deepest aspects of our faith with clarity, openness, and sincerity in such a short time is not easy, but it concentrates the mind marvelously and is forceful in a way that can be lost in a longer discourse.
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A repeating cycle of sessions. Repetition is vital. Quaker Quest takes place in a planned succession of regular weekly meetings in one meetinghouse. Repeating the sessions allows those who have missed one to catch it later and—very importantly—allows those presenting it to become better at it. Seekers become comfortable with coming into the meetinghouse, and they are reassured by meeting the same Friends regularly.
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Advertising as widely as funding will allow. The program will be open to everyone, on the principle that anyone might be seeking. But people can only come if they know it's happening. It is important to advertise widely and persistently. The methods to use will depend upon financial resources and locale. But don't be tight! This is a good cause on which to spend money, a real investment in the future.
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Listening to the seekers. We do this both in informal conversations before and after the session and in small discussion groups and a question-and-answer period within the session. We learn from them, they feel valued, and the evening becomes more of a conversation than a presentation. Long-term feedback from questers has led us to hone Quaker Quest, both in method and in content. We need to answer their needs, not tell them what we think they might need to know.
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A meeting for worship. We always end with a half-hour one, and we've been amazed at how well received this has been by members of the general public, many of whom have come to an evening session with no knowledge whatsoever of Quakerism and no previous experience of worshiping in stillness. We have been privileged to hear very powerful ministry from these seemingly unlikely sources, and have been greatly enriched by it.
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Stressing what we are today. We speak about ourselves as 21st-century Quakers, about what our faith means to us in our everyday lives, and why it is important to us. We avoid not only Quaker history, but also all Quaker jargon and all reference to our structures and organization. Those who are drawn to us will discover all this in time; it is not what they are seeking after in exploring a new religion. They want to know why we ourselves are Quakers, what it means to us, what we believe, and what we get out of meeting for worship.
In all, in London we've held over 250 sessions, with an average of 18 seekers every week. In 2003 the first cycle out of London was held in Bristol. May 2005 saw the establishment of Traveling Quaker Quest, a group of Friends teaching the method to meetings around Britain. In the autumn of 2007 we knew of about 30 Quaker Quests taking place in towns and cities in Britain. They are also beginning in Australia, South Africa and, we expect, in the United States and Canada.
Friends often ask how many people have joined the Religious Society of Friends or become attenders because of Quaker Quest. We don't know. We don't follow up our questers. To do so, we think, would be intrusive, and would also miss the point: our purpose is not to proselytize or convert, but rather to share our message.
We do, however, have anecdotal evidence of a strengthening of the Religious Society in numbers as well as the definite internal revitalisation we've all experienced. Some questers from our early sessions are now speakers at Quaker Quest. One is clerk of one of the London area meetings, and others are active in other meetings. Questers from London have been spotted elsewhere in the world, notably Australia and the United States.
Sixty people turned up for the scheduled afternoon outreach event and 30 for a repeat session; we ran out of leaflets and other literature. In addition to the 100-plus people who were involved in the various Quaker Quest sessions, there were many more who took Quest literature, bought the 12 Quakers and . . . booklets, and engaged in informal conversations about outreach. In all, the number of North American Friends now in the know about the movement is in the hundreds, and many of them are very keen.
Excerpt from February 2008 issue of Friends Journal by By Mary Jo Clogg, Britain Yearly Meeting, Full article at http://www.friendsjournal.org/quaker-quest
