Pop the question: our worship is distinctive, says Rosemary Wells

‘Perhaps some will just feel glad to be alive.’

by Rosemary Wells 16th June 2023

Quaker Meeting for Worship is unique among all forms of worship. Even within the monastic tradition of silence, there isn’t the opportunity for, or expectation of, the personal sharing our worship allows. There, the prayers are liturgical, and, although lay people can join in, monks and nuns are committed full time. But in Quaker worship anyone from the newest-comer to the longest-standing Friend can offer spoken ministry, given out of experience, insight, knowledge, desire to share, and response to God.

I have some questions that might help us think about our Meetings. If we do have a unique gift that could help people in their search for deeper meaning, we
should be actively seeking ways to offer it more widely.

So: ‘What prompted you to come?’; ‘Why have you stayed?’; ‘What did you find here that made you want to stay?’; ‘Is there anything lacking that almost made you give up?’; ‘Were you looking for anything in particular?’; ‘Did you find it or something else that you hadn’t thought of but was worth having?’.

Answers might be as simple as ‘the company’ (‘I live alone’); friendship; finding a job to do (‘I like being useful’); having people to care for; or the creative silence. Others will be glad to meet people concerned with the world, when so many seem indifferent or feel there is little cause for hope. Some will enjoy the gift of silence – sitting with others without having to talk or respond is unimaginable until you’ve experienced it. In the silence we become aware of our inner worlds, knowing ourselves better. Some will feel the relief of just being, without having to be constantly active. Others will feel a sense of the presence of God in the gathered stillness, part of something bigger than one’s small self. Perhaps some will feel strengthened to face the rest of life, knowing that others care. Other answers might include learning from the insights and experiences of others, finding one’s own life enhanced, and one’s outlook broadened. Perhaps some will just feel glad to be alive, taking the opportunity to realise thankfulness, or to express one’s own thoughts, faith, concerns, in a gathered silence where no one will answer back or argue. Some will find acceptance.

Quakers are perhaps the only branch of the church that states categorically that we are born good: ‘there is that of God in everyone’. Most Christian thinking begins with our being sinners. But we are ‘created in the image of God’, fundamentally good. This is sound psychologically. Until we know ourselves to be totally accepted in love, we cannot admit our dark side. In Christian language this is the unconditional love of God.

Quakers may not be good at admitting our darker side – our mistakes, misunderstandings, or desire for conflict – but I have been impressed by the willingness to heal wounds. George Fox famously said of worship: ‘I felt the evil weakened in me and the good raised up.’ There is something unique in our way of worship.

Comments

Thanks ever so much for writing this article. It’s wonderful reminders of our inherent goodness and embodied ‘closeness’ to God are just what I needed today! They’re some of the things I appreciate most about our Quaker approach to Christianity.

By markrdibben@gmail.com on 15th June 2023 - 13:30

It is recorded that it was Robert Barclay who said ‘I felt the evil weakening in me and the good raised up.’ (QF&P 19.21).
Rosemary’s article and that by Sylvia Clare in the same issue ‘Is Quaker silence unique?’ are posited as contrary views but are they? Rosemary claims Quaker practice in Meeting for worship is unique - perhaps it is, whereas Sylvia says Quaker Silence is not unique - and perhaps the silence isn’t.
Perhaps it’s just how Quakers use that silence (or communion?) in allowing for spoken ministry that is unique. The silence, or stillness, itself isn’t.
That silence is a meditative experience, shared with Benedictines and Trappists, with Buddhists (especially Zen), Sufis, Hindus and others.
What James Finley describes as ‘Experiencing the presence of God’ or Sufis as the ‘divine presence’. Some Quaker universalists and more so Quaker nontheists might see it (express it) differently but just perhaps it is the same experience? As a nontheist Quaker (I think) I prefer the Hindu way of seeing it as a universal awareness or ‘higher state’ - perhaps of the kind George Fox did speak of. Allowing ‘ministry’ to flow from this is almost unique - but I’m sure others, not Quaker, in different contexts have called out in a similar way.

By trevorb on 21st June 2023 - 21:36

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