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In the last month, so many things that once seemed impossible have suddenly become imaginable. That’s certainly true for Quakers, also known as the Religious Society of Friends.

Up until March, my Quaker meeting in Philadelphia, like many around the world, would have said firmly: “No photography in meetings for worship. Not even during your wedding.” But on March 15, 2020, we held our first worship meeting for via Zoom, with everyone participating via webcam. Since then, thousands of Quaker meetings have been held on Zoom and other video conferencing platforms.

We have found it to be a sacred space together. Whether in our meetinghouse or on my couch, I have the same experience of settling my body and opening my mind; of feeling the divine love gathering us together; and waiting for the movement of the Holy Spirit to direct my words, my actions, my decisions.

For Quakers, the location is not an important element of our worship. In the last 25 years, I have been to Quaker meetings on the beach, on a bus, on classroom floors, and in the lobby of a health clinic.

Quakers in Philadelphia, and around the world, worship in different ways, with widely ranging amounts of prepared content. But the opportunity to be together is always precious. To see each other’s faces, and hear each other’s voices as we seek divine guidance, has now been made possible for many via the internet.

We are wrestling with how to make this accessible for Friends who don’t have smartphones, laptops or internet service at home, either for financial or for ethical reasons. Some people have not been able to attend, and this is one of the sad consequences of the stay-at-home order. Meeting online is not a perfect solution, but neither was meeting in person.

People who have basic internet connectivity, and Friends who were previously isolated for health reasons, are now able to participate in worship. Friends who had moved away are coming back to visit. People who once didn’t have time for worship are showing up on Sunday mornings. The opportunity to visit with long-lost friends, or to visit Quaker meetings in faraway places, just got much easier. New people are finding their way to our meetings via Facebook and Instagram.

Pendle Hill, the retreat center just outside Philadelphia, is closed to conferences and guests during Governor Tom Wolf’s stay at home order, which was recently extended until May 8. But the resident Friends are still hosting a daily meeting for worship. For 90 years, there has been worship in the Barn, with whoever was on campus. They met for half-an-hour every morning at 8:30 with long-time residents, as well as with teachers at Pendle Hill and even people who are just curious. This is still occurring, even during the quarantine.

And new groups are meeting. Over the course of one day, I was able to join three online events (I’m kind of a fanatic for this stuff, but this was extraordinary even for me): my home meeting here in Philadelphia at 10:30 am; a 1:30pm with Friends in Chico, California; and then at 7:30pm, a Friend from the Iglesia de los Amigos in Indianapolis hosted a gathering for Spanish-speaking Friends, which was joined by folks in El Salvador, Honduras, Peru and Bolivia, as well as California, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania.