Urban WWOOFer: Quaker Community in Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington, Indiana
Time:  EST (That's right, East Coasters, all the way out here.)  

Population: 80,000

University  Population:  40,000

Bloomington is a (relatively) progressive city (mainly due to the atmosphere of thought brought by having Indiana University) in the center of Illinois, an hour South of the capital, Indianapolis.  My first destination upon arrival was the Saturday market to find farmers who may need a hand.  I found plenty!  Between volunteering on farms, exploring Bloomington has uncovered many interesting niches and unexpected personalities. 

Quaker Meeting:  

Quakerism--Quakerism was born out of a Protestant history, branching out much further from Protestantism or even Christianity than did Puritans, but carrying much of the same cultural baggage that Puritans carried.  They did not believe in having an intermediary between the individual and God--neither priest nor book--so they worship without sacraments, liturgy or clergy.  They sought to strip away the religious infusions into our language and culture, changing the way they referred to time (as, of course, in English days and months are based on pagan gods) and they stripped life down even more to the bare essentials than did Puritans.  Interestingly, Quakerism has a very modern infusion of followers today of people who have moved back to the land and away from unsustainable lifestyles and unnecessary technologies.  One even explained to me that many Quakers are non-religious; they are drawn in by the focus on community and lifestyle.  Because there is no intermediary between individuals and God, the only real reason (that I have understood) to have weekly service is to build community.  Thus, in our Quaker service, we joined in community to sit for exactly one hour in silence.  We sat on pews that faced a center (hard wood-Ahhh!) with no one in charge.  Everyone gathers in silence and in their own prayer, waiting until someone feels that Christ has given them a message to share with the group, at which point individuals stand up and share the message:  a sermon, a song, a Bible reading, a prayer, or anything else.  Our service was pretty tame;  about five in total stood during the hour, and nobody seemed to be particularly out-of-body.  God speaks to everyone--all are ministers and none are elevated above others-- so everyone is welcome to speak out of the silence as they feel inspired.  Quakers have traditionally challenged social norms, been marginalized, but have continued to thrive in small communities.  All of the Quakers that I have met have been very active in creating sustainable communities in all aspects of their lifestyles:  food production, purchasing, intentional tool use, community building...essentially hippies + God.  

As there is no leader, each Quaker community is maintained and managed by the collective community.  They use concensus decision making and encourage all community members to participate on interest groups.

After our Sunday service, they had a shared meal and thn more meeting time.  I am interested in seeing a diveristy of Quaker communities:  from what I understand, this is only one in a very diverse grouping.

From an anthropological perspective, it was intriguing to watch, understand and dissect.   I can compare this form of worship to any other, whether Catholic, Presbytarian, or Buddhist, but I am very drawn to compare it to Vodun, a Haitian spiritual practice.  Typical to Vodun, during ceremony of song and movement, spirits will visit the ceremony, possess a person, and speak or act through them.  In each, there is a steady rise until people feel themselves “taken by the spirit”.  For the Quakers—who came on a cultural trajectory out of Europe through Puritan North America—they sit absolutely still to arrive there.  For the Haitians—who came largely out of a West African tradition—a crescendo of music and movement allows them to arrive.  Same ends with a very different means of arrival!  I lament profoundly that my cultural heritage aligns with that of the Quakers.  Movement and music is far more spiritual (for me) than sitting still and silent for an hour on a hard wooden pew.