A first time visitor to our Friends Meeting might wonder, “What’s up with no church building?” Or, having read a bit about Friends Meetings in Boston or Philadelphia, might expect to find us in a sturdy old building with character, one with hardwood pews loved smooth by generations of Quakers like those seen in many of the videos on Quakerspeak.
Here at Detroit Friends Meeting on the cusp of spring of 2020, we find ourselves sharing a space in Cass Community Social Services. Even as we speak, our meetinghouse committee busies itself with lease agreement meetings and visits to potential future locations, bringing photos and recommendations back to the Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business once a month.
In our peculiarly Quakerly way, we as a group attempt to discern where we are meant to go should we be unable to remain on Cass Avenue. But you might be surprised if you sat in on such a process and heard what is and isn’t important to us as we consider the possibilities before us. For Quakers, it’s not about the external things like stained glass windows or altars or chairs, though comfortable seating sure is a nice to have. No, in fact, George Fox, one of the founders of the Religious Society of Friends, was fond of gathering with others on a hilltop or under a tree for worship.
As Friends Journal senior editor Martin Kelly points out in his introduction to the August 2016 issue exploring Quaker Spaces, “…Quaker worship can … happen anywhere: in homes, in protest camps, in meetinghouses. And, yes, under trees.”
Though never under a tree, Detroit Friends Meeting has had many homes over the decades, from the old YMCA (since torn down) to Wayne State’s student centre where heat was cut off during student breaks and parking was problematic. In the 1980s we met for a while in the choir practice room at Central United Methodist on Woodward but again faced challenges such as noise and the difficulty newcomers had in trying to find us in that labyrinthine old church. In the late 80s we purchased a building on Fort Street and began renovations, moving in around 1989. There is something to be said for being able to dedicate space to the children’s program (First Day School) and to bookcases for the library.
With our Fort Street location being in the path of an international bridge, we moved in the summer of 2017 to our current location, leasing space one day a week from Cass Community Social Services–a good fit in terms of shared values. With that organization’s plans for the building in flux, we are once again tasked with exploring other options.
But no matter where we are, no matter how fancy or humble the surroundings, one thing remains the same: all are welcome.