About Us

We are the Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group, a part of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. We gather each week in worship, seeking God's will for our individual and corporate life in careful, listening silence and through the vocal ministry we are sometimes inspired to share with those assembled. We invite you to join us.

We meet each Sunday from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. at the United Methodist Campus Ministry at UTPA, 123 N. Sugar Road, Edinburg.  Visitors are welcome!

First Time at a Quaker Meeting?

Newcomers to Quaker worship find it a different experience from traditional church services. We have no priest or pastor, and there is no formal program of events. We are what is called an "unprogrammed" meeting.

Instead of a program, we sit, mostly in silence, in chairs formed in an open circle. Attenders enter, find a seat and settle in to worship. For the first 15 minutes or so, children join their parents. At the quarter hour (10:45) children are dismissed to a nearby classroom in the care of a volunteer for the remainder of the hour. After worship ends at 11:30, we share quietly our afterthoughts from worship, and our joys and concerns.

Are you a Friend in Disguise?

A popular web site called BeliefNet sponsors a 20 question multiple choice quiz that helps categorize your religious beliefs. According to the August 13, 2001 issue of Newsweek magazine, a "disproportionate number" of those who had taken the quiz identified themselves as "liberal Quakers" by the answers they gave. The article notes that the page on the BeliefNet web site devoted to Quakers has become one of their top 50 links.

What do Quakers Believe?

George Fox (1624-1691), principal founder of the denomination, experienced a period of disillusionment and despair with regard to the established religion of his day as a young man. When he had given up all hope and come to the conclusion that there was no earthly authority to help overcome his crisis of faith, the awareness came to him that "There is one, even Christ Jesus" that could speak to him in his lost condition, and he understood why there was none upon the earth that could, so "... that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power."

350 years later, modern Friends attend in worship and everyday life to the same principle that comforted and challenged Fox and inspired him to preach, teach and witness. The primary source of our inspiration and our central belief is that every person is endowed with a respondent spark, sometimes called the 'Inner Light' or 'that of God' which, properly tended, can enable them to know and understand God's will in their lives without clergy, creed or doctrine.

(Thank you Lubbock Friends Meeting for letting us use your words.)

Read more about Quakers:

A People Called Quakers by Elton Trueblood McAllen Public Library Call Number: 289.6 Tru