10.01 Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with
another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one
against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another
up with a tender hand.  Isaac Pennington 1667

   1030 Opening worship, introduction to Worship Sharing as a way of
        being in a group

   Topic 1: What does Quakerism mean to me
            In this session we'll have an opportunity to introduce
               ourselves and our experience of Quakerism

            As part of this, you're invited to bring a favourite
             passage to share from Quaker Faith and Practice, or any
             other source which has inspired you, *if you feel
             comfortable to do so*.

    direct encounter with the divine

      As I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate
      preachers also, and those called the most experienced people;
      for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my
      condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were
      gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell
      what to do, then, oh then, I heard a voice which said, "There is
      one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition", and
      when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. ... And this I knew
      experimentally.  Fox 1647 19.02

    form of worship which fosters that experience:

      For, when I came into the silent assemblies of God�\200\231s people, I
      felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart; and as I
      gave way unto it I found the evil weakening in me and the good
      raised up; and so I became thus knit and united unto them,
      hungering more and more after the increase of this power and
      life whereby I might feel myself perfectly redeemed; and indeed
      this is the surest way to b...

    check understanding with discernment



   Topic 2: Structure of a Quaker Meeting
             Roles and Responsibility
             Nominations and finding our gifts

   1300 Lunch

   1400 Resume

   Topic 3: At the core of Quakerism: What makes Quakers different?

   Topic 4: At the core of Quakerism: Living a Quaker life

Learn from me, says the Lord, I am gentle and lowly of heart

Oh Lord my heart is not proud, nor haughty my eyes
I have not gone after things too great, nor marvels beyond me
Truly I have set my soul, in silence and peace
Like a weaned child in its mother's arms, even so is my soul
Oh Israel hope in the Lord, both now and for ever

References to send out

People's passages:

  [1] Advices and Queries 1: "Take heed dear Friends..."
                         17: "Do you respect that of God in everyone..."
                         41: "Try to live simply. ..."
  [2] Quaker Faith & Practice
                      20.01: "I ask for daily bread, but not for wealth,
                              lest I forget the poor
  [3] Unitarian Universalist
                Principle 7: "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence
		              of which we are a part."

  [4] Christian Old
       Testament, Psalm 131: "My heart is not proud..."

Readings from organisers

  Advices and Queries
                     42: "We do not own the world..."

  Quaker Faith & Practice
		  10.01: "Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness..."
                  19.02: "As I had forsaken all the priests...speak to
                          my condition..."
                  19.21: "For, when I came into the silent assemblies
                          of God’s people..."
                  19.47: [Fox and Penn and his sword]

Further to questions about our relations with Christianity, I think
this
   _To Lima with love_ [5],
produced by Britain Yearly Meeting's Committee on Christian
Relationships in 1987, is excellent, not just on that specific topic,
but on what it means to be Quaker more generally.

A short piece on my own understanding of being Quaker can be found in
  _But a way..._ [6].

[1] https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/
[2] https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/1/
[3] https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles
[4] http://hst.name/RSoF/psalm131.txt
[5] http://hst.name/RSoF/tlwl.pdf
[6] http://hst.name/RSoF/but_a_way.html