On O'ahu Avenue in Manoa an ordinary house sits on the mauka side of the street. A sign leaning against a tree announces: "Friends Center/Quaker Meetinghouse."

Inside, newcomers find seats in a plain room without any religious symbols, and people sitting in silence. To an untrained eye, there doesn't seem to be anything religious about it. Soon the children get up and leave. After a few minutes, a woman rises without any ceremony and speaks. She talks briefly of her experience of the spirit, and sits down, again without ceremony.

In a few minutes another person stands and talks about a relative who is ill, and asks others to hold him in the light. They don't read from or refer to any writing of others such as scripture; they don't deliver a sermon. What guides them? There was no recitation of a creed.

After about an hour, at some unspoken signal, people shake hands with each other. A man stands and invites people to add any comments which did not "rise to the level of worship."

Some Sundays, a discussion is planned. The discussion is about a pamphlet which some have read in advance.

A woman might simply suggest some guidelines to discussion. There is a brief silence, and then someone else speaks. He doesn't talk about the topic of the pamphlet, but about its impact on him personally. Others speak similarly but in no particular order. After about an hour the person in charge calls for a period of silence, after which people shake hands with the neighbors, and the session is over.

The newcomer now has some clues about the tenets of the Religious Society of Friends. This is equality.

The person in charge (known as the clerk of meeting) sits in the circle of chairs with everyone else, and wasn't a person of authority delivering a sermon. You have observed inwardness, a belief that God is to be found "in the still center of your being."

There was no scripture or creed to guide them and people seemed to speak from their inner experience, presumably having found God there.

There was mention of "spirit" and "light." Where do Friends find these?

"There is that of God in every person, and each person has a measure of the light."

Some of a newcomer's curiosity has been satisfied, but others may want to know more and may be back. They'll have to ask God for a "measure of light" about that.

Tom Huff holds a master's of divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion. He has been a university YMCA director, a boarding school and college admissions director, and a college instructor. He is a member of the committee on worship and ministry of Honolulu Friends Meeting. Expressions of Faith is a column that welcomes submissions from pastors, priests, lay workers and other leaders in faith and spirituality. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.