Letters - 23 February 2024
From Our daily worship to Ecocide and related matters
Our daily worship
I was sad to read Mavis and Roger Iredale’s letter in the Friend (9 February) telling us of a Friend considering absence from Sunday worship because they were so disturbed by all that is happening in the world at the moment.
In troubled times I have discovered that is when I need our silent worship most. When John and I lived in Northern Ireland, during the years of violence, I don’t know how we would have coped without our daily worship, which helped us face it all and respond as led.
Diana Lampen
Worship in terrifying times
I was sad to read, in a letter published on 9 February, that some Friends are ‘considering absence from Sunday worship for the foreseeable future because the present state of affairs makes calm and collected reflection impossible’.
I often find worship difficult myself, but we sometimes receive help which enables us to continue both lovingly and effectively. The Sunday after the ‘coalition’ started bombing Iraq, I was sitting in Meeting feeling distressed and very angry, when someone ministered, on a quite unconnected topic, about balance. It spoke to me, both then and since.
We do indeed live in terrifying times, but surely it is at such times that we most need our religion. We need help from God (however you conceive that) and from each other. I hope Friends will re-read Advices & queries 10 and some of the other writings about Meeting for Worship.
Dilys Cluer
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