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Quakers attend a Sunday worship in the historic West Room of the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia on Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

PHILADELPHIA – At the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia's Old City , more and more young people are seeking respite from a clamorous technological age in the silent worship of a centuries-old faith.

Like other Quaker houses of worship, it follows values of simplicity and equality. There’s no clergy, pulpit or altar. No statues of saints, no stained-glass windows. No one sings or chants, burns incense or lights candles. They simply sit in silence in 200-year-old wooden pews — and wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak.

“This feels different in that it’s so simple. It’s set up in a way that ma

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