Hicksite History
Hicksite Meetings became affiliated through the United States with Friends General Conference (FGC), which arose in the early 1900s. FGC meetings continued the 350 year tradition of silent worship, there being no presiding pastor, priest, or minister. Friends believe that within each human being there is a divine spark or "Inner Light," and that every person is a vehicle of God. There is no creed, no prepared order of worship, or sermon. This simple Christian form of worship seeks for direct communion with the Divine without an intermediary. The sense of worship may be experienced in the awe that is felt in attentive silence on the awareness of our profound connectedness to nature and its power. In worship can be found repentance and forgiveness in the acknowledgement of God as the ultimate source of our being and the serenity of accepting God's will. Each experience of worship is different. There is no right way to prepare for spiritual communion, no set practice to follow when worship grows from an expectant waiting in the Spirit. Worship depends far more on a deeply-felt longing for God than upon any particular practice.
While we have no formal creed or dogma, we do have Queries and Advices (Queries are questions that help us to reflect on the fundamental nature of our lives and beliefs, Advices relate to and provide guidance to the Queries. We seek to live by certain broad principles of faith and practice (e.g., the testimonies of peace, integrity, and peace) that afford us an essential basis for unity: a belief that there is "that of God in every person."
"Ask and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)