Quakers (or Friends) are members of a group of religious Christian movements which is known as the Religious Society of Friends in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North America; and known as the Friends Church in Africa, Asia, South America and parts of the US. The movements were originally, and are still predominantly based on Christianity. Members of the movements profess the priesthood of all believers, a doctrine derived from the First Epistle of Peter. They include those with evangelical, holiness, liberal, and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity. To differing extents, the different movements that make up the Religious Society of Friends/Friends Church avoid creeds and hierarchical structures. In 2007, there were approximately 359,000 adult Quakers.
Around 79% of Quakers worldwide belong to the 'evangelical' and 'programmed' branches of Quakerism – these Quakers worship in services with singing and a prepared message from the Bible, coordinated by a pastor. Around 11% of Friends practice waiting worship, or unprogrammed worship (more commonly known today as Meeting for Worship), where the order of service is not planned in advance, is predominantly silent, and may include unprepared vocal ministry from those present. Some meetings of both types have Recorded Ministers in their meetings—Friends recognised for their gift of vocal ministry.
Quaker is a reference to the Religious Society of Friends, a faith-based community.
Quaker could also refer to:
Quakers are a hip-hop supergroup consisting of three producers; Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow), 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst. Their debut album, Quakers, was released in March 2012 and features a host of guest rappers, many of whom the band discovered using MySpace. The group is signed to the Stones Throw Records label.
The Quakers album has met with some favourable reviews, scoring 91/100 on Okay Player. The album has been listed as number 41 in Amazon UK’s top 100 albums of 2012, while iTunes UK named it Best New Hip Hop Album Of The Year and Best New Hip Hop Artist 2012. It also made Gilles Peterson's BBC Radio Best of 2012.
Quakers music first appeared in Banksy’s 2011 film Exit Through The Gift Shop.
Work has begun on a second album.
The group has no known affiliation with the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.
He draws near the periphery
In disbelief on delivery
Came child from the deep inferno
Crusty head of dead volcano
Heartless crow with brittle beak
Wooden leg too schocked to speak
Lilac dust of a woman's hair
A wooden cross a paper prayer
A stone where her body lay
A stack of feathers a pile of hay
A mushroom for an eye ball
A mustache from the snow fall
Worms weave a ring where fairies square dance
Queens and kings fairies weave wigs with eyelash
Trance music makes the fairies dance
From the caves of snail shells
Echoes the mutter medieval spells
Mystery flows her wicked river
Of thorn and blade and silver sliver
Bending 'round the clover fields
Their sapling stems don't break but yield
Her pain inflicts no arguments
Must learn to sway and un-arrange
As earth she makes her final passage
After humans long have ravaged
Vanished with all maps for motion
Upward angels last devotion
One by one escort us home
To leave the elementals free to roam
To bathe in the last of ocean's foam
To beach comb the nuclear debris
Our plastic toys and our metal trees
On the perfect day you'll find the breeze
Once blew the pollen the feet of bees
Now cry the stars when upon the earth
Their gaze might rest a nostalgic burst
A lament be heard through all the cosmos