Westport Quakers Welcomes You!
About Westport Quakers
Thank you for taking a moment to learn more about Westport Quakers. We hope that you will consider joining us soon for worship, or, that you will be in touch with one of our members if you have questions, etc. Below is a thumbnail sketch of who we are, where we are located, and how our faith community functions.
Who we are
We are Quakers, and our meetinghouse and Community House are located at 938 Main Road, in Westport Massachusetts. Quakers, also known as “Friends,” have been worshipping in Westport, MA since 1699. An overview of our formation and history can be explored in further detail HERE. Our formal name is The Westport Monthly Meeting of Friends and we are members of the wider worldwide faith community known as the Religious Society of Friends. Locally, we are known simply as Westport Monthly Meeting (more on this below).
Our worship
We meet each Sunday at 10 AM for worship. We are an “unprogrammed meeting,” which means we meet and worship in silence, which begins when the first person enters the meetinghouse. We strive to leave our everyday cares behind, to “quiet” our minds and to “wait” upon how the Spirit may move in our midst, individually, and corporately as a spiritual community. Our worship is not led by a pastor or cleric the way many other Protestant congregations are structured. Instead, Friends believe that we are all called to be ministers and that leadership of our worship belongs to each person who gathers. Occasionally within our worship (we call it “meeting for worship”) a Friend, as led by the Spirit, may rise and offer a vocal message which adds to the overall worship experience of everyone present. Some of our meetings for worship are totally quiet and other times one or more Friends may feel moved to offer a spoken message.
We don’t have a choir, although we enjoy music very much. We welcome a call for a hymn from our hymn book to be sung during worship. As Quakers, we are a “peace church,” meaning that we do not support armed conflicts or wars of any kind that are sanctioned by governments, including our own. We are also an “open and affirming” spiritual community, meaning that we welcome and support persons who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ).
Today, most people seeking a new spiritual path have found their way to a Friend’s meeting after being associated with a different faith tradition. In our Quaker community at Westport, some Friends consider themselves Christians and other members do not. Visitors who join us for worship, over time, will discover that our members and attendees during worship draw spiritual guidance, strength, and sustenance from many sources which adds to the richness of our meetings for worship and our community overall. As Friends, we are able to experience within an ability to feel directly that of God, Christ, Spirit, or that which is sacred by another name for ourselves without an intermediary or predetermined structure.
Additional Video Resources from QuakerSpeak: What To Expect In a Quaker Meeting and The Difference Between Quaker Meeting and Other Services can be viewed HERE.
Our practices, outreach, and ministry
Friends have no creed or central doctrine. Instead, our actions, outreach, and ministry within our community and to the wider world are guided by a set of statements and questions that Friends call “advises” and “queries.” We strive to consider these queries for ourselves individually, and collectively as a community of faith at each level of our organization. In addition, and equally, Friends are also guided by the Spirit at work within us individually and collectively. You can review some of the queries HERE.
Many of our members and attendees are active in peace and social justice movements that support our beliefs and practices as Quakers. Other Friends may be led in areas of pastoral care, stewardship of our environment, disarmament, and human rights issues. Though our congregation (meeting) is small compared to other faith communities, many of our members and attendees are engaged and committed to addressing these and other challenging issues. A roundup of where and how Friends/Quakers are at work today can be explored further HERE.[/expand]
Our Structure
Historically and to the present day, a Friends Meeting (in some areas called a Friend’s church) is organized into “monthly meetings,” because we meet monthly to conduct our business. We belong to a regional group of Friends, called a “quarterly meeting,” because it meets quarterly to conduct its combined business from member meetings. Hundreds of Friends representing quarterly meetings, monthly meetings, and adults and children seeking spiritual come together as a “yearly meeting” annually (similar to a conference) to conduct its combined business and worship together, also. Westport Monthly Meeting (that’s us!), Sandwich Quarterly Meeting (Quakers in southeastern New England) and New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (New England-wide Quakers) each have committee structures and programs that carry out the ministries and work of Friends throughout the year.
Our organizational structure as Westport Quakers (Westport Monthly Meeting of Friends) and how we conduct business, make decisions and structure committees that carry forward our work can be explored further [Here]. As Friends, we are guided by our book of Faith and Practice, a publication in 1986 of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. A new book of Faith and Practice is currently being worked on which can be explored in more detail [Here].
Above all else, meeting for worship is the heart of every Friends’s meeting, including our own here in Westport. It is based on faith that all people can enter into direct communion with God, Spirit, Christ, or by whatever name we may hold as sacred individually. Visitors are always welcome to attend our worship and our “meetings for business” at any time. We hope that you will consider visiting us soon. [/expand]
Contact Information
Email: westportquakers@westportquakers.org
Phone: 508-636-4963