Sunday, March 11, 2007

Buckingham Friends Meeting House

Buckingham, PA

Grade: B

I’m not sure what it takes to be a Quaker, but I do know what it takes to be a visitor at a Quaker service.  Be prepared to sit still, without making any sounds for about an hour.  If this way of worshiping seems a little different, you are right.

Rustic with modern accents describes the Friends Meeting House sanctuary.  No fancy altars, pulpits, stained glass windows, or signs of the cross in the room where the service takes place.

All the pews – benches are set up in a square.  The room is about the size of a large four car garage.  As you enter the sanctuary, the pews are on the right side of the room, arranged stadium style, the rest of the pews are on the floor.

The floors are made of wood.  The ceiling is wood in one section and modern recessed with lighting in another section.  Two large windows are on each side of the room.  The back wall has an entrance that goes into another room.

Before you can get to the sanctuary, you need to find it.  If you are not careful you will miss it, I did.  The driveway is on Rte 202.  Look for Peddlers Village – Lahaska or Rte 202 – 263 on the map.

The driveway is within an outfields throw of this intersection.  Here’s where it’s confusing.  As you turn into the driveway the natural reaction is to follow the circle to the left.  (The circle driveway will take you back on Rte 202.  If this happens, just try again.)

Go straight up the driveway, stay to the right, you will see a parking lot near a group of buildings.  The sanctuary is to the left as you enter the parking lot.  Look for visitors parking.

The parking lot is on an incline.  Follow the parking lot down to the sanctuary.  Odds are there will be someone in front of the building greeting guests.

Katherine Kay is a well dressed – attractive - friendly - middle aged – lady,  who greeted me with a firm shake and a warm smile.

I’ll confess, I thought Quakers were frumpy – tree huggers – void of style – fashion – humor – dull – bland – boring.  I was wrong.

The people in this group could blend into any congregation, when it comes to appearance.  Some of the men – women wore standard business dress casual attire, some wore dress jeans.  Everyone in attendance was well groomed and polite.  This was not what I was expecting.  Most of the folks were white, some version of middle class, different ages, with a few families.  I’d guess about thirty folks were in attendance. 

For you car buffs, do not be surprised to see all kinds of cars in the parking lot.

Everything from mid-size domestics to luxury models like Mercedes Benz.

As I entered the sanctuary, traditional hymns were being sung without music, but with plenty of gusto.

10:30 - The singing stopped.  No announcements were made, everyone in the room sat in complete silence.  No one whispers to their seat mates, no one said anything.

Some folks bowed their heads, some folks shut their eyes, some folks looked into space, some folks looked at their fingernails, shoes, wrist watch, but no one said anything.  You could hear the faint sounds of traffic outside, but that was about it when it came to sounds.

 “Silence has its own answers”, sort of summarizes the experience of just sitting in a room with your own thoughts.  No cell phones, no ipods, no one reading, no one preaching, no communicating with anyone in the room.  Just you and the things you think about.  A service like this can be a way to cleanse the soul, and or a way to fall asleep.  Yes, I came close to falling asleep, but I did not dose off, caught myself nodding several times, but I did not fall asleep.

Rituals are part of the faith experience for most of us who attend services.  Silence has a tremendous amount of value.  Fifteen minutes of quite, versus fifteen minutes of hymns can be a wonderful thing.  Please no nasty emails from church music directors – choir members – soloist – anyone in a church band.

This Quaker Service had about 1 hour of silence, with several short interruptions by members who wanted to share an experience they had or were thinking about.

One woman talked about feeding the homeless with her students.  Another woman talked about Martin Luther King, and a third man talked about something that had deep meaning to him.  All three, stood up and sat down, within three minutes.  I learned something from all three people.  A few simple words can have more impact then a long winded speech.  Standing up seemed to be done spontaneously.

At the risk of full disclosure a few individuals walked out of the room during the service and came back several minutes later.  This was the sum total of interruptions.

11:30 – Katherine Kay, breaks the silence in the room, when she asked for “After Thoughts”.

11:35 - Announcements are made, and then Katherine Kay asked us to introduce ourselves.  What would I do?  What would I say?  I’m not a public speaker.  No need to worry.

Katherine pointed to everyone in the room, and we all just gave our first – last name, nothing more or less.  No one asked me any questions.  No one asked me to join anything.  No one asked for money and or to belong to anything.  A few more remarks are made and the service is over.

11:45 - We are all invited into the next room for refreshments – food.  I’m not sure what they were cooking, but it sure did smell good.  Oh, and we were asked to sign the guest book.  Katherine Kay shook my hand and said goodbye, as I left the building.

If you’re looking for preaching, Christian symbols – biblical teachings – fancy buildings – pomp and ceremony, this service is not going to be for you.

We all have different thresholds when it comes to sitting still.  One more hour, make that a few more minutes, and I may have imploded. 

Going to this service is a reminder that sometimes we need to sit still in complete silence to hear the message. 

I liked this service.  I liked the people.  Would I want to go every Sunday?  Would I join this organization, or any religious organization?  Some questions in life, have no answers?  Please look at the Quaker website.

www.buckinghamfriendsmeeting.org