Glossary
Advices: Ideals stated as a continuing reminder of the basic faith and principles held to be essential to the life and witness of Friends. Friends have found it useful regularly to remind each other of their nature through periodic reading and discussion along with related queries.
Affirm: A legal declaration made by Friends or others who conscientiously decline to take an oath. " I affirm such and such is so." rather than: "I swear . .. ." Swearing an oath implies having a double standard in regard to speaking the truth.
Allowed or Indulged Meeting: A worship group of Friends under the care of an organized body of Friends, usually at quarterly or monthly meeting level, but less formally organized than a preparative meeting.
Associate Member: One of several statuses of membership in the Society of Friends used by many Monthly Meetings. An Associate Member is a minor child recorded as a member at the request of parents, one or both of who are members of a Monthly Meeting. Associate Members may be transferred to full membership status at their own request, preferably in writing, after they have reached an age of decision and when they are familiar with Friends principles.
Attender: Someone who comes with some frequency to Meeting for Worship and other Meeting functions, but has not yet sought or been accepted into membership in the Society of Friends.
Birthright Member: A Friend born of Quaker parents and recorded at birth on the membership rolls of the meeting. Most meetings no longer have this category of membership, using some form of Associate status for children.
Book of Discipline: A book describing a yearly meeting's history, structures, and procedures, including advices, queries, and often quotations, or extracts, from the experience of Friends. Faith and Practice is a Book of Discipline. The word discipline comes from the root word disciple.
Breaking Meeting: Term used to designate the ending or closing of the Meeting for Worship when a designated member shakes hands with Friends nearby. Friends then greet their neighbors similarly.
Called Meeting: A meeting of the monthly, quarterly, or yearly meeting specially called by its clerk to address some concern or item of business. In a called meeting for business, decisions are recorded as in a regular meeting for business.
Center Down: An endeavor to quiet our restless thoughts and open our hearts, in order that we may hear God speak directly to us.
Christ within: That of God in everyone especially as illustrated in the teachings of Jesus. Also called the Truth, the Spirit of Guidance, the Inward Light, the Seed or the Holy Spirit.
Clearness Committee: A group of Friends appointed or selected to assist a person or the meeting to clarify a decision or concern.
Clearness: Confidence that an action is consistent with the divine will.
Clerk: The person responsible for the administration of a Friends body and sensitive to the guidance of the Spirit in the conduct of the business of that body. This includes preparation, leadership, and follow up of meetings for business.
Concern: A concern, whether of an individual or a Meeting, is a formulated interest so deep and vigorous that it motivates to action. It is often a spiritual leading to action -- task oriented; and when completed; the concern is laid down.
Conscientious objection: A principled refusal to participate in certain social or political practices; commonly applied to the refusal to undertake military service or pay war taxes.
Consensus: a secular method, involving a rational process and producing general agreement. The authority is the group. Not to be confused with ‘sense of the meeting.’
Conservative Friends: Three unaffiliated yearly meetings—Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio—call themselves Conservative. Historically, they share John Wilbur's objections to the pastoral system; at the same time they are more explicitly Christ-centered than most meetings in Friends General Conference.
Continuing revelation: A central Quaker belief that the revelation of God's will is an ongoing process.
Convener: Member of a committee, usually the first person listed, who is asked to convene the first meeting. Also the correspondent or contact person of a Worship Group.
Convinced Friend: A person who, after deciding that the Religious Society of Friends provides the most promising home for spiritual enlightenment and growth, becomes a member of a monthly meeting. Traditionally distinguished from a birthright Friend.
Corporate worship: The action of a group's seeking together the will of God for their individual and community life. The Meeting for Worship is corporate worship. The activity of the group decision process - quiet waiting and group discussion - is intended to reflect the group's corporate search for truth.
Covered Meeting: A meeting for worship or business in which the participants feel the power and inspiration of God so strongly that they are united in silence that is the reward of waiting upon God.
Discernment: The process of arriving at the right course of action through spiritual perception and clear rational thought.
Discipline: Term related to discipleship: following a particular path. Also see “Faith & Practice.”
Disownment: The practice of dismissing an individual from membership in the Society of Friends. Historically, a person could be put out of meeting (“read out”) by a monthly meeting for violating prohibitions or practices of the Society.
Elders: Historically, those appointed to foster the vocal ministry of the meeting for worship and the spiritual condition of the members.
Eldering: The act of encouraging and/or questioning an individual's behavior and/or expression. Eldering is to be done with courtesy and loving concern for the individual, even when it is offered as a correction.
Epistle: A public letter of greeting and ministry. Such letters are sent from a Friends meeting or organization to other Friends groups, to supply information, spiritual insight, and encouragement.
Facing bench: The benches or seats in the front of the meeting room, facing the body of the meeting, on which Friends' ministers and elders generally sat. In recent times, many meetings have adopted a circular or square arrangement to eliminate the facing-bench distinction.
Faith and Practice: An official edited book of Friends' testimonies, beliefs, and practices compiled by a Yearly Meeting body of Friends. The book is meant to provide guidance (queries and advices) for individuals and organizational groupings of the religious body. The structure and membership of the group, the procedures of well ordered business, the legalities of marriage, and stewardship of group property are explained. These are sources of tradition and not dogma. They are periodically updated to respond to current needs. Sometimes called “A Book of Discipline.”
First Day: Sunday. Quakers have traditionally referred to the days of the week by number, avoiding the days named for pagan gods. This is not a firm Quaker custom today but more a familiar usage. We would tend to refer to First Day school, rather than Sunday school for the children.
Friends: Members of the Religious Society of Friends; also called Quakers. The term, Friends, or “Friends in the Truth,” was used as early as 1
Gathered Meeting: A phrase used to describe those special occasions when the Meeting for Worship attains a generally felt sense of divine Presence, touching the hearts of all worshipers and unites them in a common experience of holy fellowship. A Covered Meeting is synonymous.
Good Order: Those procedures for the conduct of Friends business and witness that encourage a meeting to carry out its corporate activities under divine leading. The term rightly ordered is also used in this sense.
Gospel Order: A term used by George Fox and others to describe the new covenant order of the church under the headship of Christ. It concerns how we live faithfully in relationship with God and with each other.
Gurneyites: Orthodox Friends, who, in the 19th Century, agreed with Joseph John Gurney concerning the importance of studying the Holy Scriptures and proclaiming the Quaker faith and practice in strong programs of evangelical outreach.
Hold in the Light: To ask for God's presence to illumine a person. situation, or problem, whether in concern or thanksgiving.
Inner Light: the presence of God in our hearts and lives, a reality, which guides and directs us, which gives us strength to act on this guidance, and thus brings us into unity with the Spirit of God. Also called the Truth, the Spirit of Guidance, the Inward Light, the Christ Within or the Holy Spirit.
Integrity: One of the basic practical principles or testimonies of Friends. It involves both a wholeness and harmony of the various aspects of one's life, and truthfulness in whatever one says and does.
Interim Meeting: a broadly representative body meeting to conduct the business of the yearly meeting between its annual sessions. (Formerly called Representative Meeting.)
Lay Down: A decision to discontinue a committee when its work is complete; occasionally, a decision to discontinue a Meeting or other Friends organization when it is no longer viable.
Lay Over: In Quaker business process, to postpone a significant decision to allow time for further reflection and discussion.
Leading: An inner conviction that impels one to follow a certain course under a sense of divine guidance. A Friend may submit a leading to the meeting for testing by corporate wisdom.
Letter of Introduction: A Friend who is traveling socially or otherwise may request a “Letter of Introduction” from her or his monthly meeting to affirm association with Friends.
Liberal Friends: Liberal Friends hold that belief must be verified by religious experience. Religious experience derives from the direct revelation of God through the Light of Christ within. For Liberals, Jesus’s life, teachings and death are a supreme example of love. Historically, Liberal Friends have reconciled science and religion, incorporating freedom of thought, tolerance and humanitarian service in their expression of religious faith and practice maintaining a balance between individual liberty and community.
Marrying out: Marrying someone who is not a member of the Society of Friends. Until 1859, many were disowned for marrying those who were not Quakers.
Meeting for Business: The gathering of members and attenders where the business of the Society of Friends takes place. For a particular local grouping of Friends, this is on a monthly basis, thus the name Monthly Meeting. Business follows the traditional practices of Friends; there is no voting. Agreement for group action is reach by arriving at "a sense of the meeting," a process similar to but not the same as consensus.
Meeting for Worship: The gathering of Friends for the purpose of worshiping God. Traditionally, Friends met in silent, expectant waiting for leadings of the Spirit, which might inspire anyone of the group to offer a message or prayer.
Meeting House: The building in which Friends meet. The name is used in place of ‘church’.
Message: a spoken message or ministry by an individual inspired by Divine leading in a Meeting for Worship. A message may come to an individual that is personal or not for the group, and it is a matter of discernment whether or not to stand and deliver the message to a gathering.
Mind the Light: An expression used to remind us that there is an “Inward Light” in each of us that can reveal God’s will and direction.
Ministry: Sharing or acting upon one's gifts, whether in service to individuals, to the meeting, or to the larger community.
Minute: A record of an agreement reached in Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business formalizing the “sense of the meeting.”
Minute of Exercise: An expression of a clerk's insights and concerns at the close of a meeting for business. Historically, a closing summary of vocal ministry and spiritual concerns expressed during yearly meeting sessions.
Minutes: A record of the proceedings of a meeting.
Monthly Meeting: A local community of Friends who meet together at regular intervals to wait upon God in Meeting for Worship.
Moved: Led or prompted by the Spirit.
Notion: An approach to religiously important matters that is not based on first-hand spiritual experience.
Opening: A moment of unexpected enlightenment or inspiration from God.
Overseers: A term traditionally used for the members of a committee which gives pastoral care and nurture to all members and attenders.
Pacifist: A person who renounces war and any use of violence and seeks to resolve conflicts peacefully.
Plain Dress: The simple and unadorned garments worn by early Friends.
Plain Language: Friends’ use of “thee,” “thy,” “thine,” and both names with no titles as an expression of equality. Because the months and days were named for heathen gods, goddesses, and emperors, many Friends preferred to use “First day,” “Second day,” and “First Month,” “Second Month,” etc.
Popcorn Meeting: As implied, numerous speakers “pop up” to “minister” to the meeting leaving very little “silence” between speakers.
Preparative Meeting: (1) A body of Friends, generally under the care and guidance of an established Monthly Meeting; (2.) Originally, and still in some Yearly Meetings, one of a group of Meetings that meet for worship and to “prepare” business to be brought before their Monthly Meeting.
Proceed as way opens: Taking one step at a time (prayerfully), so as to become clear what to do.
Quaker: Unofficial name of a member of the Religious Society of Friends.
Quarterly Meeting: A regional gathering of members of constituent monthly meetings, traditionally on four occasions each year.
Queries: A set of questions, based on Friends' practices and testimonies, which are considered by Meetings and individuals as a way of both guiding and examining individual and corporate lives and actions. As such, they are a means of self examination. Queries to be considered regularly are included in Faith and Practice; others may be formulated by a committee or Meeting that seeks to clarify for itself an issue it needs to address.
Recorder: The person appointed by a Meeting to maintain statistics of the members and attenders of that Meeting.
Recording Clerk: The person who records the actions of a Friends’ meeting for business.
Released Friend: A Friend whose leading to carry out a particular course of action has met with approval from a Meeting which then promises to provide such support as would enable the Friend to follow that leading.
Religious Society of Friends: Official name for Quakers.
Rise of meeting: A term used to indicate the end of a meeting for worship or business. Meetings for worship are “broken” (are sensed complete) by the clerk or other designated person, often indicated by the shaking of hands to signify the meeting is over. Also called the “close of meeting.”
Seasoning: Taking the time to seek the Light rather than moving into a matter hastily.
Sense of the Meeting: A collective understanding of God’s will emerging from a Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, gathered and explained by the clerk for the approval of the Meeting.
Settled: All together under the leading of the Spirit.
Silence: Meditation, and solemn waiting, quiet time in meetings.
Simplicity: Simplicity is cutting away all that is extraneous. Sincerity is being without sham. Integrity is being all of a piece. See testimony on simplicity.
Sojourning Friend: A Friend temporarily residing in the area of another Monthly Meeting and accepted by that Meeting as a participating member.
Speak to One’s Condition: The experience of receiving a message directly from God, or through another person, which touches one at the deepest level or helps one solve a problem or make a right decision.
Standing Aside: An action taken by an individual who has genuine reservations about a particular decision, but who also recognizes that the decision is clearly supported by the weight of the Meeting. The action of standing aside frees the Meeting to reach unity. A person may ask to be recorded as standing aside.
Standing in the Way: A person who feels a spirit led objection to a decision or proposed action of the meeting may stand in the way, thus preventing further action.
Stop in the Mind: An expression used by Friends when they feel uneasy and cannot follow a course of action.
Stewardship: Directing the use of resources in accord with God’s will. See also Advices and Queries.
Testimonies: Public statements or witness based on beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends that give direction to our lives.
That of God in everyone: A Quaker belief that all humans have a divine spirit enabling them to hear, be aware of and respond to the movement of the spirit of God in the heart.
Threshing Session: A meeting to consider in depth a controversial issue, but in a way that is free from the necessity of reaching a decision.
Traveling Ministry: A term for a Friend, traveling with a concern and under the care of their meeting.
Travel Minute: The endorsement a Meeting gives to one of its members who is traveling under weight of a concern.
Unity: A recognition of the truth emerging from a group’s corporate search and yielding to the Holy Spirit in its decision-making.
Universalism: The belief that there is a universal spiritual truth to be found a base of all religious traditions.
Visitation: Formal visiting among Friends for any one of several purposes.
Vocal Ministry: The sharing of a message from God during Meeting for Worship. See Advices.
Waiting upon God: Actively seeking and attending to God’s will in expectant worship.
Weighty Friend: A Friend who is respected for spiritual depth, wisdom, and long service to the Religious Society of Friends.
Witness: To let one’s life speak. To stand up for a truth or deeply held belief.
Worship Group: A meeting for worship that has not applied for any formal meeting status.
Worship sharing: Sharing personal and spiritual experiences, thoughts, and feelings, in a worshipful setting, often in response to a query or theme and in a manner that acknowledges the presence of God.
Yearly Meeting: Those Friends from a geographically extended area who gather in Annual Session to worship and conduct business together. Yearly Meeting has an advisory and supportive role to the Monthly Meetings.
The Faith & Practice Revision Committee used several sources to
prompt our work on this glossary. Among the most useful references are:
Revised 12/2008
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