The Quaker Meeting House is very plain and simple. Inside there are no decorations. A table is placed in the middle of the room. On the table there are usually flowers. The windows are very high so you don’t look out when you are worshipping. The Quakers don’t believe in showieness and so they don’t have many things in the Meeting House. Here is a list of what they don’t have and what they don’t do.

They don’t have stained glass windows
They don’t have an altar
They don’t have decoration
They are not baptised
They don’t drink too much (and some don ‘t drink at all)
They don’t wear fancy clothes
They don’t have a Vicar
They don’t have a sermon
They don’t fight wars

When you go to a Quaker Meeting everybody just walks in and sits down. Nobody speaks except if somebody reads from the Bible or says something they want everybody to hear. When the Meeting is over, the Elders shake hands and everyone can go.

The Quakers, or Society of Friends as they are now called, were started in the 1650’s by George Fox. He started off as Church of England but didn’t agree with the showieness. The Quakers got their name because, when they first started, when they were speaking they used to get excited and start shaking, and so people teased them and called them Quakers. In the olden days you were not supposed to be a Quaker and if you were, you would be put in prison. The Quaker Meeting House is the oldest place of worship in Sibford.

Rebecca Key
(Pupil at the primary school)