Worship (February 2005)

Dear Friends,

The experience that led me to Friends was a deeply healing experience of the divine. After a time of deep sorrow in which I felt as though my spirit was no bigger than a pea and buried deep inside my body, I was driving to work through the flaxen-colored east Bay hills. When I reached the crest of a hill I was greeted by the red-orange light of dawn. In that moment, I felt as though my limbs were filling with the warm energy of the Spirit, I had a deep sense of well-being and knew that I was being held by God. I had known Friends and read some Quaker writings and immediately identified this experience with Quakers. When I began attending meeting for worship I found the kind of focused attentiveness to the Spirit that helped me maintain the connection that I discovered that day.

I spoke recently with a f/Friend seeking resources to help her new meeting's worship become more grounded and centered. She was surprised that Friends would frequently stand during worship and give announcements, that sometimes Friends would spend the entire hour reading and that often vocal ministry was more like a conversation than an upwelling of the Spirit. With the worship and ministry committee, she is seeking ways to lovingly nurture a deeper experience in meeting for worship and asked what print resources I would recommend. She wanted pamphlets that could be distributed to the whole ministry and worship committee and, perhaps, to an adult religious education class and that could be read in one sitting, but give a vision of a meeting gathered by the holy Spirit. Her hope is that when visitors come to her meeting they will feel the power of the living presence there, as I did when I first attended meeting.

The first book I thought of was Marcelle Martin's pamphlet INVITATION TO A DEEPER COMMUNION. She explores early Friends' experiences of sloughing off the busyness of mind and getting to a place of emptiness in which they can receive God. She then describes her own spiritual journey and transformative mystical experiences she has had in and out of meeting for worship. Out of these experiences arose a strong leading for her to help Friends experience covered meetings as she has. She then describes the gathered meetings she and others have had experimenting with extended worship with a strong intention to gather the spirit. This is a deeply felt exploration into the mystery of entering into a divine connection in the context of meeting for worship. I would commend it to every attender and member as a tool for sharing a vision of what meeting for worship can be.

Another book, more on the practical side, that I immediately thought of was THE QUALITY AND DEPTH OF WORSHIP AND MINISTRY  put together by the Britain Yearly Meeting's Committee on Eldership and Oversight. This book brings together many meetings' experiences of transforming worship and ministry and offers these experiences as advices and queries for group reflection. This is an excellent resource for adult religious education and for engaging the entire meeting in a dialogue about what constitutes a grounded meeting for worship.

Another pamphlet that is a classic resource and often handed to newcomers to meeting for worship is Bill Taber's FOUR DOORS TO MEETING FOR WORSHIP . He offers tools for entering worship and preparing for worship to readily access the inward presence. The first door is 'the door before' or "those moments when we find ourselves in a worshipful state of mind at any time during the week." He suggests taking time out for spiritual retirement or refreshment during the week so as to foster the divine connection. He speaks of many small moments throughout one's day that can be used for worship. The second door is the 'door inward' in which the attender intentionally transitions into meeting for worship. The third door is 'the door within' which is the moment when the meeting body enters into the living presence together; the author describes many possible experiences of worship once the center of worship is reached such as experiences of healing, of perceiving another attender quite differently, or exploring memories from a more conscious perspective. In this section he also explores the process of discerning when a message is intended for the whole community. The fourth door, 'the door beyond,' is the passage from meeting for worship into daily life, entering that 'normal' life with renewed energy and vision. This pamphlet offers very clear advice on entering and preparing for worship and fully answers the question that many new attenders have, "What's going on in there?"

A longer and older book that emphasizes the experience of 'qualification' which transforms vocal ministry from an outpouring of the ego or will into an outward expression of the spirit is Samuel Bownas' href="http://www.quakerbooks.org/get/0-87574-911-9">A DESCRIPTION OF THE QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY TO A GOSPEL MINISTER . Friends seeking to nurture and deepen ministry in their meetings will find remarkably clear, specific and relevant guidance in this classic work. "Qualification, as this eighteenth century Friend uses the word, implies that one has gone through a process of personal transformation which reorients the ego, the will, and the attention so that one can be trusted purely to receive and purely to give forth an inspired message" (William Taber, from the Introduction). Bownas offers advice on 'qualifying' vocal ministry and other forms of ministry. A careful reading of the book can help Friends learn to discern the difference between the ego and Divine will. For deeper exploration into the spiritual roots of vocal ministry, I heartily recommend this small, unassuming book.

A couple years ago a Friend and I experimented with planning a junior meeting for worship with young people at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. We brought together young people and gave them the goal of helping those that attended our semi-programmed worship experiences to have encounters with the divine or numinous.

We had a lively discussion of what that might feel like and one participant said that one time she often felt centered was right after she cleaned her room (an excellent suggestion for preparing for worship! I thought). In any case the young people planned worship experiences several times and learned quite a bit (I think) about what would help a roomful of people center and enter worship together. One resource we all relied on heavily was href="http://www.quakerbooks.org/get/0-9620912-6-x">OPENING DOORS TO QUAKER WORSHIP created by the Religious Education Committee of FGC. In it are numerous centering techniques and suggestions for inviting young people (and adults!) into rich worship experiences. A few of my favorites were guided mediations, watching dispersed sand settle in a jar, intentional listening, blessing one another, holding each person in the Light in turn, and centering with song. Opening Doors to Quaker Worship offers many invitations and tools for entering and extending worship for children and adults.

May your winter days be filled with the glimmer of divine Light.

In the Spirit,
Lucy

Posted by QuakerBooks on February 1, 2005 3:39 PM | Permalink