Sylvia's Journal

I thought it would be interesting to see what an Edinburgh Quaker Meeting for worship would be like. We had looked up where the Quakers congregate and decided to set the alarm very early so we could attend the early meeting at 9:30.  We set it even earlier than necessary so we could have a coffee before retreating in silence.

The Quakers we know are, in general, not great dressers. They don’t put on a clean starched shirt or a dress, but we didn’t know and so we did. That turned out to be unnecessary. None of the women, we discovered, wore dresses or skirts, even the most grey-haired ones.

Since Quakers originated in this part of the world, in the mid 1600s,  Quaker Houses are often in the older parts of towns. The Edinburgh Meeting House is a majestic old building in the Old Town. As it so happened, the coffee we had planned to drink was being served right next door in Scotts Café. We settled into our seats on the veranda high over Victoria Street, sipping cappuccino (served again by Poles) and waiting to see who would open the door of the Meeting House. 

On the door a copper plaque said that worship services start at 11, and here we were at 9. We were already planning a second breakfast (eggs benedict with salmon) when the door was opened. As it turned out, Edinburgh Quakers are given a choice of how much of their precious Sunday they want to give up. If you worship at 9:30 you are home (assuming you live in the city) at 10:30-ish. But if you worship at 11, you probably won’t be home until 1PM because the time for worship is longer (one full hour) and soup is served afterwards leaving much more time for ‘fellowship.’

We were greeted by Mike the manager who explained everything about the two meeting times and sent us up several flights of stairs to the top floor.  There we sat in silence for 45 minutes, scattered across a very large room that could hold many more than the 10 of us. In spite of the overcast sky, light streamed in through large windows from three sides, high above the hustle and bustle of tourists making their way to Edinburgh Castle.  

At the coffee hour, in between the early and the later meeting, we met with our fellow Quakers. When we were ushered out, not willing to spend another hour in silence, Axel had practically arranged another house swap,  and we had invites to one home, a coffee in another later this week and a garden party.  The welcome was very warm and we may well return next week, now as old f(F)riends.