Artifact: Powerpoint Presentation on the Quaker Church

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• Artifact Powerpoint Presentation on the Quaker
  Church
• Date Fall 2006
• Context Oral Communication class
• This Powerpoint presentation displays my ability
  to use a variety of media and technology to
  enhance learning. Powerpoint allows a teacher to
  merge visual, aural, and textual aids to a
  classroom. To increase the effectiveness of the
  visual aid, I used bold contrasts, and simple,
  iconic images that would not draw interest away
  from the material I was presenting. This
  technology is useful for keeping on topic and
  organizing information into easily digestible and
  effectively organized chunks. I would probably
  use this technology when presenting long
  lectures, but reliance on Powerpoint can create a
  dry, uninteractive classroom.

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The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers

• History and definition
• of the Quaker sect.

3
Quaker History

• Founded by George Fox in 1648 in response to the
  English Puritan Church values
• Also known as the Religious Society of Friends
• Persecuted for years
• William Penn establishes Pennsylvania in 1681 as
  a state that encourages freedom of religion

4
Quaker Beliefs

• God is experiential
• Mystical faith centered more on divine
  experiences than reasoned theology.
• Bible is authoritative, but not more valid than a
  holy experience.
• Testimonies, not doctrines-- Reflective of
  actions.

5
Peace Testimony

• Along with the Mennonites and the Brethren, the
  Friends have maintained a historical opposition
  to war and violence.
• Like Mennonites, this belief in peace is focused
  in symbolic acts, such as refusing to pay war
  taxes or register for the draft.

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Testimony of Equality

• All people have the spark of the divine, so all
  people must be treated equally
• One of the first churches to allow female
  preachers
• Non-hierarchical
• Make community decisions only with a consensus

A woman addressing an English Quaker meeting in
the 18th century
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Testimony of Integrity

• Fulfilling oaths is important in Quaker society.
• Placing Christ in the center of life is the only
  way to maintain your promise of faith
• This testimony has given Quakers a reputation for
  honesty in business
• Early Quaker business people did away with
  haggling in favor of fixed prices, since they
  felt it unethical to ask for more than they
  expected to receive

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Testimony of Simplicity

• Quakers believe that simple dress and language is
  the only way to honor the testimony of equality.
• Recently has been applied to ecology. Quakers
  should not use more than their share of
  resources.

9
The Quaker Meeting

• Either programmed or unprogrammed.
• Unprogrammed meetings involve extended and silent
  meditation, about half an hour in the meetings I
  attended.
• People are encouraged to speak when the spirit
  moves them to.
• A slow paced discussion.

10
Quaker Jargon

• Inner light That of God inside everyone
• Notion An unfounded, unspiritual decision, not
  backed by experience.
• Weighty friend A Friend distinguished by his/her
  longstanding membership and involvement in the
  community
• Concern A divine calling to service.

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The Quaker Meeting

• "A Friend's meeting, however silent, is at the
  very lowest a witness that worship is something
  other and deeper than words, and that it is to
  the unseen and eternal things that we desire to
  give the first place in our lives. And when the
  meeting...is awake and looking upwards, there is
  much more in it than this. In the united
  stillness of a truly 'gathered' meeting, there is
  a power known only by experience, and mysterious
  even when most familiar." Caroline Stephen,
  (1908).