Religion found me, whereas I found spirituality.

Sunday 22nd March 2026

Photo by Janmesh Shah on Unsplash

I walked as usual to ‘Meeting’. No coat today, as Spring has sprung. I got to the Meeting House a minute late, but not so late that anyone would have minded.

I took a seat in the circle and sat as I do, waiting.

I nodded off a few times.

Then I heard the voice. I guessed it came from the visitor who was sitting in the back row.

He told how he was previously in a Pentecostal church, but at a point he parted company with organised religion. In between his parting and now, he had found his way to Quakers. He came with a gift, ‘The Climate Book’ by Greta Thunberg, urging us to educate ourselves while in a climate emergency. He also believed it was God’s way of leading us to a simpler life. He believed his conscience was God within, which had cultivated a father-to-son-like relationship, the father being his conscience and he being the son.

He then returned to his seat.

Later in the Spirituality Reading Group, we discussed an excerpt from Spirit Matters by Michael Lerner.

Lerner writes of ‘levels of consciousness’, which some have experienced and others haven’t. Consciousness seems to lead us to spirituality and away from religion, although religion was part of my formation, which I believe enabled me to move from it into spirituality.

Religion provided me with a vocabulary, perhaps like a map to find my way to spirituality. The difference is that religion found me, whereas I found spirituality.

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