Queries:
Do you come to meeting with heart and mind prepared for the silence?
Do you listen openly and expectantly in the silence and to vocal messages?
Do we feel the power of the community drawing us together in the meeting for worship?
Quotes
“One of the main characteristics of a Friends Meeting for Worship is silence. We usually affirm children for their words, but do we ever affirm them for their silence? Silence can be the capacity to not have the easy answer. We need to affirm the time for dreaming, for imagining, for vision-making—the time for the interior images to meet the images of the world. . . Silent time can become a centerpiece of the school’s rhythms, a way to deal with problems, to celebrate, to respond to tragedies, either in the school or in the world.? —Dorothy Flanagan, The Mystery of Meeting for Worship, Friends Council on Education “Be still and know that I am God.”Psalms 46:10
“We listened and heard the silence.
We listened and felt the silence.
We listened and tasted the silence.
We closed our eyes
And saw the great silence dwelling within.”Moses Shongo, a Seneca Elder who lived in the 1800s
“A true message from out of the silence may stick in the listener’s mind throughout the meeting, throughout the day, or throughout a lifetime.”Sidwell Friends senior