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This page is a part of the web site of the West Knoxville Friends Meeting (Quakers)
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| Who we are Early in the history of Quakerism, Friends across England began to congregate in large gatherings that eventually became known as the yearly meeting; smaller groups met quarterly, and the local meetings became known as monthly meetings. These basic organizational units are still in use. Friends in our Quaker organization gather for worship and other purposes at least once a week, yet we are a monthly meeting because we discuss the meeting's business every month. The monthly meeting is analogous to a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque in other religious traditions. The complete name of our organization is: The West Knoxville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Sometimes we use the initials, WKFM. WKFM has been in existence since the 1950's. We celebrated our fiftieth birthday recently. We have been gathering in today's meetinghouse, in a wooded lot in West Knoxville, since its construction in the early 1960's. Like many Quaker organizations, WKFM has no pastor. The meeting's business is conducted by members and attenders. The clerk, and people with other responsibilities, are chosen when we conduct our business meetings. Unprogrammed Quaker worship We gather at least once a week on Sunday mornings. Sunday is called First Day in Quaker tradition. According to the traditional practice of Friends, worship begins in reverent silence. There is no ritual, but we are united in a conscious effort to know God, to understand divine purposes, and to bring ourselves into harmony with Spirit in our daily lives. Silence is not an end to itself. It is an opportunity to be used. If we would know its power, we must bring to it an attitude of inner listening, an eagerness, a desire to feel our oneness with God and with each other. Worship should begin as soon as the group settles into silence. Out of this silence may come the individual urge to speak, to share with the group some insight or some questioning. Such words are not an interruption to the silent contemplation: often related concerns are in the thoughts of different worshippers. Since we believe there is "that of God in everyone" we feel that God may speak to the group through anyone sharing in the Meeting. There is no single minister, but each is charged with that responsibility. |
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