Quakers

==Worship for specific tasks==
===Memorial services===
[[File:George Fox marker Bunhill Fields.jpg|alt=|thumb|The Quaker testimony of simplicity extends to memorialisation. Founder [[George Fox]] is remembered with a simple grave marker at [[Quaker Gardens, Islington]], London.]]
Traditional Quaker memorial services are held as a form of worship and known as memorial meetings. Friends gather for worship and offer remembrances of the deceased. In some Quaker traditions, the coffin or ashes are not present. Memorial meetings may be held many weeks after the death, which can enable wider attendance, replacement of grief with spiritual reflection, and celebration of life to dominate. Memorial meetings can last over an hour, particularly if many people attend. Memorial services give all a chance to remember the lost individual in their own way, comforting those present and re-affirming the love of the people in the wider community.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}

===Marriage===
{{Main|Quaker wedding}}
A meeting for worship for the solemnisation of marriage in an unprogrammed Friends meeting is similar to any other unprogrammed meeting for worship.<ref name=QinGB/> The pair exchange promises before God and gathered witnesses, and the meeting returns to open worship. At the rise of meeting, the witnesses, including the youngest children, are asked to sign the wedding certificate as a record. In Britain, Quakers keep a separate record of the union and notify the [[General Register Office for England and Wales|General Register Office]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Handbook for registering officers for marriage in Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) |url=https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/2022-06-registering-officer-handbook |access-date=14 May 2023 |website=Quakers.org}}</ref>

In the early days of the United States, there was doubt whether a marriage solemnised in that way was entitled to legal recognition. Over the years, each state has set rules for the procedure. Most states expect the marriage document to be signed by a single officiant (a priest, rabbi, minister, Justice of the Peace, etc.) Quakers routinely modify the document to allow three or four Friends to sign as officiant. Often these are the members of a committee of ministry and oversight, who have helped the couple to plan their marriage. Usually, a separate document containing the vows and signatures of all present is kept by the couple and often displayed prominently in their home.

In many Friends meetings, the couple meet with a [[clearness committee]] before the wedding. Its purpose is to discuss with the couple the many aspects of marriage and life as a couple. If the couple seem ready, the marriage is recommended to the meeting.

As in wider society, there is a diversity of views among Friends on the issue of [[same-sex marriage]]. Various Friends meetings around the world have voiced support for and recognised same-sex marriages. In 1986, Hartford Friends Meeting in Connecticut reached a decision that "the Meeting recognised a committed union in a celebration of marriage, under the care of the Meeting. The same loving care and consideration should be given to both homosexual and heterosexual applicants as outlined in Faith and Practice."<ref name="religioustolerance.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_quak.htm |title=The Society of Friends (Quakers) and Homosexuality |access-date=5 May 2015}}</ref> Since then, other meetings of liberal and progressive Friends from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, parts of North America, and other countries have recognised marriage between partners of the same sex. In jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is not recognised by civil authorities, some meetings follow the practice of early Quakers in overseeing the union without reference to the state. There are also Friends who do not support same-sex marriage. Some Evangelical and Pastoral yearly meetings in the United States have issued public statements stating that homosexuality is a sin.<ref name="religioustolerance.org"/>