IMYM Faith & Practice, 2009, pp 30-34
Silence is the bowl in which ministry is served.
LESLIE STEPHENS, 2005
Friends find the center of their life together in the meeting for worship.
Although Friends worship any time the Spirit moves them to, they set aside specific times and places to gather for worship as a community. Meeting for worship is a public act. “Bearing an outward testimony for God” has not always been legal, but Friends have never held meeting for worship in secret. All present may participate fully, as the breath of God blows where God wills. Even when Friends disowned people4, the disowned were not excluded from worship.
Meeting for worship begins the moment someone—anyone— begins to “center down.” Gradually the silence enfolds all present in communion with the Spirit and each other. In the silence, we journey into that inward stillness where even our thoughts are gone, and we wait. When successful in ridding ourselves of distracting thoughts, we become open to hearing the stirrings of a message. We need, then, to discern whether it is our ego wanting to share news or to lecture; or whether it is the divine within seeking to be known without, and whether the message is for us alone or to be shared with others. This process of discernment is solitary. Some Friends, responding to the movement of the Spirit, may be led to speak out of the silence. The meeting ends when someone, usually pre-selected, determines that the meeting has ended and greets his or her neighbors by shaking hands. In our busy times, this generally happens about one hour after the start of the meeting for worship, although those who are sensitive to the movement of the Spirit do more than simply check the clock when bringing the meeting to its official end.
In Silence …
The earliest Friends waited because they believed that the only worship that counted was worship that God actively inspired—the inward and unmediated moving and drawing of God’s own Spirit of which Barclay speaks. Although Friends today understand that there is merit in different forms of worship, our unprogrammed5 practice teaches us to be open and vulnerable in the face of the Spirit.
In worship we have our neighbors to right and left, before and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all one life, within whom we live and move and have our being.
THOMAS R. KELLY, 1938 6
Friends have never regarded [worship] as an individual activity. People who regard Friends Meetings as opportunities for meditation have failed to appreciate this corporate aspect. The waiting and listening are activities in which everybody is engaged and produce spoken ministry which helps to articulate the common guidance which the Holy Spirit is believed to give the group as a whole. So the waiting and listening is corporate also. This is why Friends emphasize the ‘ministry of silence’ and the importance of coming to meeting regularly and with heart and mind prepared.
John Punshon, 1987 7
Out of the Silence . . .
In the stillness of the meeting, the Spirit brings us messages. Sometimes these messages are for us alone; sometimes they are meant to be spoken. A spoken message may be meant for the community. It may be intended to reach the heart of a single person. It may be the seed for further ministry, or it may stand alone.
People who give vocal ministry seldom know the precise purpose of their message—they only know they must speak. Conversation among Friends about vocal ministry often turns quickly to the signs one follows in making a decision about speaking and to the inadequacy of any signs to confer certainty. In the first years, Quakers “trembled before the Lord,” and many still tremble today. Some feel a specific kind of anxiety, a jab in the ribs. Others know it is time to speak when the message arrives with perfect calmness. For some, there is an analytical cast to their final decision, whereas others say, “If I have to ask, the message isn’t for sharing.” Waiting is often involved; if the meeting ends before the right moment comes, perhaps the message was not meant to be given. The message may come again and again with greater insistence each time. Some Friends have bottled up the urge to speak only to have someone else in the meeting give the same message.
As the message is spoken, the experience continues. One’s voice may change. The body may feel different. Friends have stood up to speak having no idea what they were meant to say. Others have begun with a carefully worked out plan and ended with words coming from somewhere else. Sometimes the command also comes to stop. Ministers often speak of the sense of peace that descends on them when they feel their ministry has been given according to the Spirit. They also speak of the discomfort that comes when they have outrun their guide.8 Sometimes ministers hear from others that they were touched by the words they spoke; it is well to remember then that the ministry was the Spirit’s—not theirs.9
Vocal ministry requires practice. Recognizing the signs is a matter of discernment. According to Patricia Loring, “Discernment is the faculty we use to distinguish the true movement of the Spirit to speak in meeting for worship from the wholly human urge to share, to instruct, or to straighten people out.”10 Be ready to be flexible! Writing of his own growth as a minister, Lloyd Lee Wilson11 recalled a time when he moved from being a rock in meeting (“Here I am, Lord, but you are going to have to blow me away before I speak today”) to trusting God and his own relationship with the Spirit enough to become something like a fruit tree (“My Master has planted me in good soil, pruned me, and sent the sun and rain in order than I might bear fruit—here it is”).
After someone speaks, the meeting returns to silence, waiting for further movement of the Spirit. Without the active support of prayerful silence, speech in meeting is disconnected from the Spirit and not rooted in the community.
Inappropriate ministry is another topic that comes up in conversation among Friends about vocal ministry. Each Friend seems to have his or her own example, so we remind ourselves that the Spirit does not always tell us what we want to hear, speak to us in pleasing tones, use correct grammar, or speak through people we like. As
John Punshon says,
. . . we have to train ourselves to overcome our personal likes and dislikes and treat everything said in meeting with uniform seriousness and consideration. That is part of Friends’ spiritual discipline and cannot be compromised with. It is not at all easy, but it is unavoidable. We need time and calmness to reflect on what we have heard. Only when we have taken it into ourselves shall we be in a position to decide whether or not it is from God.12
Children in meeting for worship bring special joys and distractions. Within Intermountain Yearly Meeting, there are various ways of fostering their participation. The most common approach splits the children’s time between attendance in meeting for worship and a children’s program of religious education: some meetings start with the children present in meeting whereas others bring the children in towards the end of meeting. However it is arranged, participation in meeting for worship is just as important for children as it is for adults.
Meeting for worship can be a time for healing. It must be a place of safety, a place where one can grow and take chances and where everyone’s life is nurtured, for the Spirit is not always a comfortable companion. The Light brings risks and challenges as well as balm for the soul. Although it is the special charge of the Committee on Ministry (variously named Ministry and Oversight, Ministry and Counsel, Worship and Ministry, and so on) to foster, support, and provide guidance for those who speak in meeting for worship, the care and responsibility for the health of the meeting belongs to the whole community. One cannot learn to walk if laughter and scorn follow any misplaced step.
