I saw this sign in front of the Brooklyn Quaker Meetinghouse when I was coming back from the gym today. Apparently Brooklyn Quakers have finally gotten around to putting up a more visible sign on the Adams Street side of the meetinghouse.
I love how plain and unadorned the sign is, with no logo or colors, telephone number, or web address. Just a simple message saying who we are in black and white.
Believe it or not, among Quakers this kind of "blatant advertising" has been the subject of much debate among Friends at different meetings that I have attended. We’re so loath to do anything that might smack of "evangelism" or "self-promotion" that we go largely unnoticed, even by our neighbors.
While other faiths put up large billboards on busy streets, accost you in the subway station, and put up flashy multimedia websites, Quakers seek to be known for our deeds not our catchy slogans. Which is perhaps a counter-intuitive strategy in a world ruled by marketing. But it’s one of the things that I love about being a Friend.
If we advertise, we might not be so elite, we might have different people interested. We might get minorities. Or working class. OR people with blue collar jobs. Or people with a high school education. We might have some diversity if we actually did some outreach, and let people know we were there.
I am pretty sure that sign was there when I last saw that Meetinghouse, in the early 90s.
Yay!
No it seems to be a brand new sign. Maybe they had an old one and this one replaced it?
They always had a sign on the Adams St. side (I lived nearby and attended BMM for over 10 years). It was down lower, on the fencing, though. My guess? The Meeting may have had to get permission to post the sign on the building itself because the building is landmarked.
Actually, I like it! To me, there’s a world of difference between letting the world know you exist and forcing religion down someone else’s throat unwillingly.
There is a bushy plant *directly in front*
of my Meeting’s modest gray sign, and it
periodically grows up to obscure it.
Whenever I’m there on an outdoor maintenance day, I cut it back, but the one time I suggested to someone that we could actually rip out that bush, I got funny looks.