What Happens in Silence
by Kara Newell
Executive Director of American Friends Service Committee and
Member of Reedwood Friends Church in Oregon
Unity Magazine and Friends Journal: Quaker Thought and Life Today
April 1998As I have traveled and worshiped among Friends, I have often been startled to hear someone say that they don't understand what the silence is about, saying that they come to meeting "for an hour of quiet," "to escape from the world," "because it feels good," and other reasons. Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of those reasons for attending meeting. They demonstrate that we Friends have a wonderful opportunity to add to those reasons by teaching clearly the depth and breadth of the worship experience and then allowing, even encouraging, the practice in our meetings.
I am keenly aware that this outline, including the number of minutes for each section (to make an hour-long worship experience), is far too rigid. However, I would be quite comfortable in defending the various elements as fairly essential to a holistic worship experience
Centering-Eight Minutes
Acknowledge and set aside for the period of worship all of the cares, concerns, and distractions that you bring with you whether debts, children's problems, outside noises, health, pain, disagreements, conflict, future responsibilities. Take the time to set them aside mentally for the next hour. Empty yourself, creating a space for God, the Holy Spirit, to work within
Presence-Eight Minutes
Acknowledge God's presence in the space and in your heart. Welcome God there and give thanks for the love and care that you are experiencing from God in the moment. Acknowledge your co-worshipers, being intensely aware of and thankful for the faith community with whom you are worshiping and of which you are a part, if only for the period of worship in which you find yourself.
Experiencing -- Eight Minutes
Allow your co-worshipers to be spiritually close to you and to each other, becoming sisters and brothers in faith and worship.
Cleansing-Deep Emptying-Eight Minutes
This is a time for confessions, for putting hurts and longing before God, for making petition, for expressing thanks to God, for preparation to be filled and made whole.
Filling -- Eight Minutes
Experience the Holy Spirit's work of filling you with peace, joy, and courage.. It is the experience of being made whole once again. Often what comes with this filling is a desire to smile or play, to sing or even shout. It can also' engender a deep peace that is quite calm and happy simply to be silent.
Listening -- Fifteen Minutes
Invite God to speak to you, exercising the discipline of listening. Visualize hearing God's voice, seeing God's face, knowing God's truth and call for you personally. Be ready to risk being obedient to God's leading, whether to remain silent (A personal word from God) or to bring a spoken message to your faith community.
Blessing -- Two minutes
Conclude the time of worship (whether privately or publicly) by acknowledging and experiencing God's blessings -- of peace, joy, love, comfort-as a basis for going forth into the dailiness of life as a renewed person and witness.
Handshake
Offer the open hand of trust and unity to your co-worshipers.
Over the years that I have worshipped among Friends, I have become convinced that this very personal form of worship, which is, as well, very corporate, includes all of the elements of worship that one finds in the traditional liturgies, and even in worship traditions beyond Christianity and Quaker practice. I often have said that Quakers practice the "highest" liturgy,- in that we come to it and practice it ourselves, without an intermediary, and therefore we are exposed directly to the power that We are promised in God's presence. I find it an exceedingly demanding discipline, personally, yet the rewards of renewal and strengthening are always worth the effort.
The other observation I think is important is that each one of us comes to the experience of worship utterly equal with all other worshipers present. While we may have "done" this kind of worship before, perhaps hundreds of times, we come to each such experience anew, just as does the person who is coming to it for the first time. In approaching God in true worship, there can be no hierarchy, whether of age, wisdom, intellect, or experience. Worship as experience is truly dynamic and therefore equalizing in the best sense.
That is not to say. that experience avails us nothing; rather, it is to say that each experience is its own and therefore fresh and new. For example, through practice, I am often, though not always, able to center more quickly than the first time I experienced unprogrammed worship. But it is always true that if I try to skip centering, it takes me longer to settle into and begin to learn and grow from the other elements of worship. I've learned from experience, but what I've learned is that the process of worship is a discipline and a practice that no one else can do for me and that I must do each time for myself.
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