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Balancing spoken messages and silence in Quaker Meeting for Worship

Posted on March 29, 2009 by

Vox Humana
"Unprogrammed" Quaker Meetings for Worship, for those that have never been, can be briefly described as 60 minutes of corporate silent meditation interspersed with occasional spoken "messages" from someone in the congregation. It's the most "crowd-sourced" church service there is. 

Every Friend has their own personal sense of what is the best balance of spoken messages to silence. Some prefer a Meeting with lots of spoken messages (what we call "popcorn Meetings" because of all the people popping up to speak), others preferring very few to none. 

For most of my life as a Quaker, I have been on the "more messages" side, drawing inspiration and enjoyment from hearing from the inspired prayers, musings and questions shared by other Friends.  But as I have gotten older, (now in my 10+ years as a Quaker) I find that I prefer less and less messages and more and more silence.  I am discovering that I need that long quiet time to settle myself down and get into a deep, contemplative state.  Sometimes 60 minutes is just not enough.

That said, when I find my mind wandering, or I start to feel sleep coming on, a really powerful message can help focus me and lead me to a deeper place.  That's what happened this morning at Meeting.  YMMV.

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