Why I Cried the First Time I Went to Quaker Meeting HD

A.J. found Quakers as a young adult. He describes the powerful mystical experience that had him crying in the Meetinghouse, and kept him coming back. Quaker Speak is a weekly video series. Subscribe: http://QuakerSpeak.com/subscribe _ Go Deeper with Friends Journal: http://FriendsJournal.org Lobby with Quakers on Capitol Hill: http://www.fcnl.org Work for peace with justice with AFSC: http://www.afsc.org/friends Directed by Jon Watts http://www.JonWatts.com _ Transcript: So the first time that I went to Quaker Meeting, to visit West Hills, I pulled up—I was running a little bit late actually and so I was planning on just sneaking in the back—but I get up to the door and, probably one of the most mystical experiences of my life: I just started crying. I hadn’t heard anyone talk, I hadn’t had my hand shaken yet. I was just crying. How I Found Friends My name is A.J. Mendoza. I’m part of West Hills Friends Church in Portland, OR. I went to George Fox University, which is an evangelical Quaker school just outside of Portland. I started working a lot of with the LGBTQ students there, and while the school only has about a 3% Quaker student population, overwhelmingly the straight allies who would show up were Quaker, so that left me with a really big question mark: why are these the people that are showing up? I think the first time I realized there were so many Quakers in the club was we had to make some sort of a decision and I don’t remember what it was at the time, but somebody said, “Why don’t we take a vote on that?” and there was kind of a wash of uncomfortability, and I was like, “What is that all about?” My friend leans over and was like, “Uh, a lot of the people in this room are Quaker and we tend to not vote.” I was like, “Oh. News to me!” So that was kind of my initial introduction to Quakers. Finding a Meeting I sent an email to a guy at my Yearly Meeting, asked if I could have coffee with him and he said that there’s actually one monthly meeting in Northwest Yearly Meeting that has minuted being welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ people, and I was like, “Woah. Welcoming and affirming? Northwest Yearly Meeting? I know George Fox University as a school… not so generally an accepting place.” And so I had to see this. I had to see this and it was going to be very academic. I was going to walk in, sit politely through the service because I hadn’t been to church in like, 4 years. After the service was over, find the pastor, shake his hand and say, “Well thank you for being welcoming, and good day to you.” So that was my intention. And I pulled up there on a Sunday morning and started walking towards the meeting house. Before I even got in the door or heard a single person talk, just started crying. Just tears. It felt like my soul coming home after a really long time being away. Then I sat through that meeting just, “guuuuhhh” in the back, and came back the next Sunday and the Sunday after that, and now I’m a member. God is