Page 10 - News and Views Spring 2023

Meeting for worship Rosemary Wells (New Milton Meeting)

Our Meeting for Worship is unique among all forms of worship. Even within the monastic tradition
which is based on silence there isn’t the opportunity or expectation for the personal sharing our
Meeting for Worship allows. On the whole, the prayers are liturgical and although lay people can join
in, monks and nuns are full time committed to a life of prayer. In our Meeting for Worship we are all
lay and yet the newest-comer to the longest standing committed Friend can offer spoken ministry out
of our experience, insight, knowledge, desire to share and response to God. Below are some
questions and prompts to help us think about our Meeting as a whole and our Meeting for Worship,
because if we do have a unique gift that may help others who search for deeper meaning in their
lives, 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? .
E.g.
Company ( I live alone), friendship, jobs to do, ( I like being useful ) pleasure of working together,
people to care for, creative silence.
Folk concerned with the world - so many in the world at large seem indifferent or feel there is little
cause for hope.
The gift of silence - to sit with others in silence for so long without having to talk or respond is
unimaginable until you’ve experienced it.
Becoming aware of one’s inner world in the held silence, knowing oneself better.
The relief of just being, without having to be active all the time.
A sense of the presence of God in the gathered stillness, of being part of something bigger than
one’s small self.
Feeling strengthened to face the rest of life, knowing others care about you.
Learning from the insights and experiences of others, finding one’s own life enhanced and one’s
mental outlook broadened.
Being glad to be alive, opportunity to realise thankfulness.
Opportunity to express one’s own thoughts, faith, concerns, in a gathered silence where no one will
answer back or argue but you feel accepted.

Quakers are also the only branch of the church that states categorically that we are born good, ‘there
is that of God in everyone.’ Despite the Biblical authority that we are all created in the image of God,
most Christian thinking begins with our being sinners from which Jesus came to save us. But we are
‘created in the image of God,’ and therefore fundamentally good. This is sound psychologically.
Until we know ourselves to be totally accepted in love we cannot admit our dark side, the shadow
side of life. In Christian language it is the unconditional love of God. As Quakers we may not be
good at admitting our darker side, mistakes, misunderstandings, our desire for conflict even if we try
to suppress it, anger, jealousy etc. I have been impressed, however, by the effect of the sheer force
of goodness to heal wounds, allowing life to move on. 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.

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