A Quaker Model Of Worship

The worship of the Friends is rooted in silence. The people wait upon the Holy Spirit, who in the silence moves them in worship, where they meet God.

Introduction In calm and cool and silence once again I find my old accustomed place among My brethren, where, perchance no human tongue Shall utter words; where never hymn is sung, Nor deep-toned organ blown, nor censer swung. Nor dim light falling through the pictured pane! There, syllabled by silence, let me hear The still small voice which reached the prophet's ear; Read in my heart a still diviner law Than Israel's leader on his tables saw … (John Greenleaf Whittier, "First-Day Thoughts")   Quaker writers like John Greenleaf Whittier have left us vivid descriptions of the traditional Quaker meeting for worship in which worshipers assemble in disciplined silence and holy expectancy, to wait—without prearranged singing, Bible reading, prayers or sermon—for the movement of God's spirit. And as they wait, they pray— Recall my wandering fancies, and restrain The sore disquiet of a restless brain.… (Whittier, ibid.)   As the silence of the gathered meeting deepens, it draws a profound response from the worshiper:

… when I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the good raised up, and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the increase of this power and life.…

(Robert Barclay, quoted in Eleanore Price Mather, Barclay in Brief [Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill Pamphlet, 1948]).

There is no pastoral leadership in Quaker worship. Each worshiper centers down in personal prayer and meditation. Worship proceeds with mystical communion and spoken ministry as individual worshipers are led by the Spirit to speak or pray.

Lowly before the Unseen Presence knelt

Each waiting heart, til haply, some one felt On his moved lips the seal of silence melt. Or, without spoken words, low breathings stole Of a diviner life from soul to soul, Baptizing in one tender thought the whole.

The spirit of God moves, and worshipers are wrapped in a sense of unity and of Presence such as quiets all words and enfolds [them] within an unspeakable calm and interknittedness within a vaster life.

(Thomas Kelly, The Eternal Promise [New York: Harper & Row, 1966]).

Worship continues undirected and uninterrupted—"for silence and words have been of one texture, one piece" (Kelley)—until an elder quietly stands and turns to greet those near him.

When shaken hands announced the meeting o'er.

The friendly group still lingered near the door, Greeting, inquiring, sharing all the store Of weekly tidings.… And solemn meeting, summer sky and wood, Old, kindly faces, youth and maidenhood, Seemed, like God's new creation, very good. And greeting all with quiet smile and word, Pastorius went his way. The unscared bird Sang at his side; scarcely the squirrel stirred At his hushed footstep on the mossy sod; And wheresoe'er the good man looked or trod, He felt the peace of Nature and of God. (John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Quaker Meeting," 1868, in Joseph Walton, Incidents Illustrating the Doctrine and History of the Society of Friends [Philadelphia: Wm. H. Pile's Sons, 1897]).