An invitation to Quaker Quest

Tuesday September 1st 2009

A Quaker meeting in Belfast. After 350 years of quiet existence in Ireland, Quakers have decided to make themselves better known through a series of informal gatherings in Belfast.

Quaker Quest will be run on four successive Wednesday evenings, starting on September 30. The gatherings will be held in South Belfast Meeting House at 22 Marlborough Park North, off the Lisburn Road.

Quakers is a nickname – the Quakers’ correct name is Friends and collectively they are the Religious Society of Friends.

While they don’t try to convert others to their beliefs, Quakers in Belfast feel they have much to offer, and the series of evenings will give anyone who may be interested an opportunity to find out what makes Friends tick.

Quaker Quest will be fairly informal but the evenings are designed to provide information about Quaker beliefs, way of worship and how their values underlie their attitudes to their fellow men and women.

During the last 40 years of the Troubles, Quakers have been working quietly but effectively in Belfast in a number of areas. These include conflict resolution (Quaker House), work inside the prison system with prisoners and their families (Quaker Care) and in ameliorating the effects of the Troubles on families from both communities without distinction, particularly in those places where community divisions have had the worst effects (Quaker Cottage).

Quaker Quest will begin each Wednesday evening at 7pm, but soup and rolls and the opportunity to socialise will be available from 6.15pm. There will be a different theme to each evening with topics as follows: Quakers and the Spiritual Path (September 30); Quakers and Worship (October 7); Quaker Faith in Action (October 14) and Quaker Values (October 21). Anyone interested is welcome to come to all four evenings. There will be three guest speakers each evening.