Friends meeting house

[citation needed] When Quakers speak of a "church," it generally refers to the persons of the worshipping community, rather than the building itself.

In the late 17th century, Welsh Quaker Richard Davies (1635–1708) described his experience meeting Friends outdoors:I went to visit [four] young men, my former companions in profession of religion.

We were not free to go into any neighbours' enclosures, for they were so blind, dark, and ignorant, that they looked upon us as witches, and would go away from us, some crossing themselves with their hands about their foreheads and faces.

[4]In 1662, John Bowne was arrested by Peter Stuyvesant for holding Quaker worship at his 1661 house in Flushing, Queens, then part of New Netherland.

While meetinghouse design evolved over time to a standardization of the double-cell structure without explicit guidelines for building, the meeting house's reflective architecture revealed a deeper meaning.

The meeting house design manifested and enhanced Quaker Testimonies and the cultivation of the Inner Light that was essential to Friends.

[citation needed] Quaker meeting houses generally lack spires, steeples, and other architectural decorations to embrace simplicity.

Colonial American Quakers built meeting houses that resembled residential homes to display the building's role in the community, avoiding "churchly" ornamentation.

[13] The meeting house/church distinction is shared by a number of other non-conformist Christian denominations, including Unitarians, Christadelphians, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Mennonites.

The windows are set sufficiently high that worshippers will not be distracted by the activities of the world's people outside, or in some cases they provide a view into the meeting house garden.