Still life: David L Saunders on a foundational element

'Silence is an acoustic condition; stillness is about our state of being.’

by David L Saunders 12th March 2021

I’m always disappointed when I hear the emphasis in descriptions of our worship put on ‘silence’; I am always encouraged when I hear the emphasis put on ‘stillness’. The one is essentially negative: the absence of words. The other is positive: it is about presence and being. Silence is the easy bit, it’s about what isn’t there. Stillness is the hard bit, it’s about what is there. Silence is an acoustic condition; stillness is about our state of being. The former is the means but the latter is the end.