Quaker Faith

Overview

Quaker faith is a search for truth, not an arrival.

We don’t offer neat creeds or doctrine. Instead, we try to help each other work out how we should live. All people are welcome and accepted at a Quaker meeting.

Quakerism is almost 400 years old. It’s the common name for the Religious Society of Friends. It grew out of Christianity and today we also find meaning and value in other faiths and traditions. We recognise that there’s something transcendent and precious in every person. Different Quakers use different words to describe this, but we all believe we can be in contact with it and encounter something beyond our individual selves.
Quakers don’t use traditional religious structures or paid ministers. We share responsibility for what we do because everyone has a valuable contribution to make.

How we act as Quakers goes together with what we believe. 

We don’t have a fixed creed because we have found that the search for truth can lead us to new expressions of values as well as confirming existing ones. We call these values ‘testimonies’. Today we focus on equality, peace, truth, justice and simplicity, and how they relate to one another.

Our testimonies encourage us to work for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world. It’s not always easy to live this way, but as Quakers we try to encourage each other to keep trying.

Equality and justice

Quakers believe everyone is equal. This inspires us to try to change the systems that cause injustice and that stop us being genuine communities. It also means working with people who suffer injustice, such as prisoners of conscience and asylum seekers. We were campaigning for independent juries in the 17th-century, for marriage equality in the 21st and for a range of things in between.

Peace

Quakers are perhaps best known for our peace testimony. It comes from our belief that love is at the centre of existence and that all human life is of equal worth. It has led Quakers to refuse military service and work creatively for peace. This has ranged from practical work in areas affected by violent conflict to developing alternatives to violence at all levels. This could be personal or international.

Truth and integrity

Quakers try to live according to the deepest truth we know, and we connect most deeply to this in the stillness of worship. This means speaking the truth at all times, including to people in positions of power. As we are guided by integrity, so we expect to see it in public life.

Quaker Meetings in Calderdale:

HALIFAX QUAKER MEETING
Local Meeting in Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting.
Meets: Friends Meeting House, Clare Road, Halifax HX1 2HX
Tel: 01422 351 242
Email: halifax@quaker.org.uk
Meetings for worship: Sundays 10.30 am No children’s meeting
Disabled access: Meeting not accessible to wheel-chair users. No hearing loop.
Directions: Bus station – 10 mins walk. Railways station – 10 mins walk uphill.

HEBDEN BRIDGE QUAKER MEETING
Local Meeting in Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting.
Meets: Royd Square Centre, Bond Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 7DE
Tel: 01422 842 748
Email: hebdenbridge@quaker.org.uk
Meetings for worship: Sunday 10.30 am with Children’s meeting.
Disabled access: Accessible to wheel-chair users, including toilet and car parking space. Hearing loop.
Directions: Royd Square is a day-care centre at the end of cobbled Bond Street, off Hangingroyd Lane. From pedestrianised St.George’s Square in town centre, cross St.George’s Bridge, continue past Town Hall, bear right into Hangingroyd Lane. Bond Street is first turning on left. Parking available near centre.

Events