The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume options and ways forward They can be held, for example: to prepare a couple for a marriage under the care of the meeting; to make decisions about an application for membership; or to seek guidance at times of change or difficulty Meetings for clearness can also be of help and comfort to Friends who are confronted with difficult choices at turning points in their lives and to the dying.14 Infant Baptism or Blessing Baptism means an inward or spiritual experience, not a ritual act Communion is also of the spirit and entails no outward act, being considered a conscious openness to all divine intimations Because Friends believe so ardently in the possibility of direct communion, they have no need of elaborate ecclesiastical establishments, organizations, or rituals They are individualists, as well as group-seekers, and in their individual lives, they assume the obligation of searching out and following the will of God as it applies to them personally Initiation, Baptism, or Confirmation Not applicable Marriage The requirement of a license to marry was first brought into England by the ͳͷ͵, but Quaker principles totally denied the authority of the parish priest or any civil laws Quakers consider marriage a religious matter rather than a civil one For this reason, they set up their own marriage procedure to demonstrate to the entire world that their marriages were real ones Within a very short time, the Anglican Church questioned the validity of Quaker marriages Later laws were made, which regulated Quaker marriages, but these only permitted one Quaker to marry another Quaker If a Quaker wanted to marry someone of a different religious group, this was only valid in the parish church, and as Quakers denied the authority of the priest, all of their members who married in a church were disowned 20