VISITING FRIENDS

When we had a small meeting at our house in Ocala, we had a bolg named Quakers in Ocala. In January 2016 I posted this to our blog. Until folks start sending me items for Quakers in Gainesville I'll try to pass on other material which may interest Friends.

1906 SE 8TH ST, 

Attending Friends Meeting of Ocala yesterday were were ten worshipers: five regulars and five visitors. Among the visitors was one from Minnesota who was visiting his grandmother's home in Ocala. This was his second visit in two years. He is our only attender who arrives by foot after having run two and a half miles to get here.

Two visitors were attending a Quaker meeting for the first time. Like many first-timers they were very interested in Quaker history and practice. They went home with a copy of Friends for Three Hundred Years and hope to return next First Day. They moved recently to Ocala from Alaska.

Two visitors were from northern New York spending a month in Homosassa. Although seasoned Quakers they attend a Unitarian group in New York because of the distance to the nearest Quaker Meeting. Visiting Florida gives them an opportunity to visit a variety of Quaker Meetings and taste the diversity of Quaker worship. The man of this couple is a birthright Quaker who grew up in the over 300 year old London Grove Meeting in Pennsylvania.

Even the regulars in our group have their Quaker origins in distant groups. It makes for a rich fellowship to bring together folks of different backgrounds and experience from several regions of our country. We get a sense that recognizing the spirit within each of us binds us together, cementing our unity with the God who is in everyone