I am simultaneously both new to Quakerism and not new.  I started attending Meeting for Worship in about 2011, but I was not new even then, for I was already "convinced." That is, my view of the Divine (God, Jesus, Allah, Brahman, etc.) was concerned almost solely with inner realities. In the early 1970s I had an experience of the Divine that convinced me of God's existence, although I  believed then and still do that Brahman/Jesus is both immanent and transcendent. I dislike using these terms, but they were important to me as I grew in faith. I knew nothing about Quakerism in those days. I have learned what I know about it by reading books, primarily the writings of George Fox. I am fortunate to own a Kindle reading device and have been reading old George on my Kindle since I bought this amazing machine in 2012. I don't like either/or types of statements, such as immanent or transcendent, because they surrender to common thought pattens. God is beyond such patterns, and I desire to live free from such patterns, as much as possible in God's realms. When I sit in the Great Silence of Quaker Meetings, I seek that of God in every thought and sensation. This is where I am a newcomer, a beginner, for I find it difficult to "advance" in the silence. If I eat anything before Meeting, I have a difficult time staying awake. Most of my energy during the silence of meetings is expended in the effort to remain awake. God forgive me.