Everyone is welcome at Quaker Worship
Meeting for Worship is central to our practice as Quakers. It is where we find spiritual nourishment individually and also as a community of Friends. It is where we reset ourselves and aim to realign with what is really important. We find the best way to do this is through stillness so our worship is basically silent and unplanned.
Most meetings for worship in the UK will be similar in format though two meetings will never be identical. They will generally last about an hour and then there will often be refreshments and fellowship afterwards.
As we have no clergy, everyone in a Quaker meeting is equal and anyone may minister if they feel called to do so. This may be a spontaneous offering, a reading from the bible or our Quaker handbook "Quaker Faith & Practice"; it may be a prayer or even a song. Whatever is offered should be of help to the whole meeting in their worship together and should be as succinct as possible. The silent waiting then returns as Ministry is not an invitation for discussion.
Silent Worship
Silent worship underpins Quakerism and makes it profoundly different from other religious practices. It is true many Faiths recognise silence as part of their worship, but for Friends it is right at the heart of the matter.
It is the belief that to truly sense the Divine, we feel the need to go to beyond words. What ever you chose to call this universal force – God, Light, the Spirit, oneness – no words can ultimately sum up the experience. It is a feeling that uses the whole body, not just the brain or intellect.
It is not a feeling you can learn about from someone else or from the words of a book (though these may be a helpful way in). You need to experience it for yourself and learn to trust that personal experience. Quakers in their silent worship seek to listen for a divine prompting.
Centering
We aim to quieten both body and mind so we can access a deeper place within ourselves where we may find the Light.
Some of the tools we may use might sound familiar to those who meditate, but it is important to point out that a silent Quaker Meeting for Worship is not a meditation. It is is very much a communal activity where the Light within each individual can uphold, and be upheld by, others.
If you consider a candle, one candle on its own sheds a little light, but when we come together the light is far brighter. We seek to find the tranquil centre within and so the stillness of each person meets the stillness of others. That of God within each of us is encountering the Divine.