Today I went to my first "programmed" Quaker Meeting for Worship, at the Berkeley Friends Church.
There are many strains of Quakerism, only some fraction of which I am familiar with. One of the largest divisions among Quakers are between the "programmed" and "unprogrammed" Meetings for Worship.
"Programmed" for Quakers refers to the kind of structure employed during the Meeting for Worship. For many who are from more traditional Christian traditions, a "programmed" Meeting for Worship will have many of the elements you are familiar with: hymn-singing, readings from the Bible and a sermon.
In contrast, an "unprogrammed" Meeting for Worship has none of those elements. They are essentially an hour (or more) of silence, broken only by "vocal ministry" — typically short prayers, queries, observations, or other forms of expression that the speaker believes is inspired or originates from the divine.
As a Quaker who has only attended "unprogrammed" Meetings, the idea of sermon, hymn-singing and Bible readings has always seemed unappealing and off-putting. For me, the ideal Worship is one hour of nearly complete silence, punctuated by a handful of vocal ministry.
And then there's all the Jesus talk. I'm more of what we call a Light-centric rather than a Christocentric Quaker. That is, I don't see the Bible or the Gospels as being the center of my religion, but only a part of a larger spiritual landscape. Other Quakers, particularly Programmed Quakers, place Jesus Christ and the Bible at the center of their faith.
So I didn't really know how I would react to the programmed Meeting at the Berkeley Friends Church this morning.
The Quaker Church is a lovely, 1960s era building in North Berkeley. It looks vaguely "church-y" without many outward symbols, icons or statuary. There's a small cross next to the main sign. Otherwise, a fairly nondescript building.
The Meetingroom has pews that could seat maybe a couple of hundred worshippers. About 20 people were in attendance when I was there, spread out around the room.
The Meeting began with a short prayer from a "presider" speaking from the pulpit. Then we sang a hymn ("God of Grace and God of Glory"), which I mumbled through. This was followed by about 10 minutes of "praises and petitions" during which anyone could mention either a request for prayer or give thanks.
Afterwards, a couple of verses from the Gospels was read out by the Pastor Brian Young, who then proceeded to give a sermon on the subject of "The Kingdom of God." I must confess that my mind wandered during the sermon, which is pretty common for me in most church services. It's what I find least appealing about most churches. That said, he spoke plainly and humbly, without any preachiness or condemnation.
Finally we closed for another long period of silence, perhaps 15 minutes or more, that felt very deep and gathered to me. And then , a little over an hour later, the Meeting was finished. We retired to the common room for refreshments and conversation.
Overall, I thought it was a pleasant, inoffensive experience. While I don't get much out of the hymn singing or having a planned sermon, I can see how others might appreciate those things. And I really enjoyed the silent worship periods.
Most importantly, it felt like I was among my people. We adhere to the same testimonies of peace, simplicity, and truth. We seek to do good in the world and to be kind to each other. And we appreciate the value of expectant silence.
While I don't think I will make a home at the Berkeley Friends Church, or any other Programmed Meeting, I will happily visit and participate in the future.
The Berkeley Friends Church is at 1600 Sacramento Street, Berkeley, CA 94702. Meeting for Worship services start at 11am every Sunday. See their website for more info.
More about Programmed Quaker Worship at this link.
sounds awful !!
Why oh why did they deaprt from the unprogrammed original silent, Waiting type meetings ?!
I didn’t find it awful. I thought it was a nice variation on Quaker worship.
It sounds as if “humility” and focus on sharing was helpful while significant time for “silent worship” was included. Many “programmed” Meetings have much more focus on “the minister” with essentially no time of silence.
A quote from a “History of Kansas Yearly Meeting” regarding the “approval” of “hireling ministers” in the late 1800’s may respond to Laurence’s question: “It was easier to give them what they wanted than to teach them to be Friends.” The reference was to the people coming to Friends Meetings on the frontier from Protestant denominations since many frontier communities did not have a church since that would require a minister, et. al., while Friends established Meetings and Meetinghouses without any “fuss.” Their Meetinghouses became the center for “circuit rider preachers” who tended to settle down once the early communities became more established and the Quaker Meetinghouse seemed the logical “settling” plae.
Lovely!
Thank you. I’m going to share these reflections with a class I will be teaching in August on Friends Theology.
Hello, Rik and other Friends.
While I, too, prefer “unprogrammed” worship I think our Friend Laurence is being a bit parochial when he asks “Why oh why did they deaprt from the unprogrammed original silent, Waiting type meetings ?!” The truth is that unprogrammed worship as we practice it today is at least as different from original Friends woship as the worship at Berkeley Friends Church as described by Rik. Early Friends did have recorded ministers who were much more likely to give messages than other Friends. These ministers were not paid, but they did have a huge role in the Quaker community. Worship itself usually involved a lot of spoken prayer and messages definitely drew on Biblical language and Biblical themes.
Today’s “Conservative” Meetings are probably more like the pre-split 18th and 19th century Meetings than either of the major branches of Quakerism today. And they, too, are quite different from the early dynamic, prophetic and radical meetings of George Fox’s day.
Thanks for your insights , Richard. Always good to hear from you, old friend.
Are Buddhists or humanists welcomed at programmed Meetings, as they are welcomed in unprogrammed Meetings?
I am not qualified to answer, but I have put your question to the Berkeley Friends Church folks themselves.
Other Friends of the programmed tradition may wish to respond as well.
I enjoyed your interpretation of the programmed worship. As a birthright Friend in Southeastern Virginia raised in a programmed meeting I found your experience to be much like my own meeting. We do enjoy our hymns, mostly old music from generations back, we also have a period of “prayers and concerns” where we share the needs of people in our lives. As far as Agnikan’s question about people of different religions or beliefs being welcome, our meeting has never turned away any one. We feel that there is that of God in every person and we welcome His spirit at all times. I enjoy visiting unprogrammed meetings. I have a feeling of coming home whenever I attend.
I haven’t attended even one programmed worship meetings/services of the evangelical Friends’ church here. I’m open to the idea of attending some day, though. Some of its members are Ffriends of mine. In the Philippines, there are less than 7 official members in the unprogrammed tradition. In my island, Bohol, there’s just one (my father) but there are four of us who meet regularly for silent worship and two of us have already applied.
I sent my application to become n member of the Quakers (unprogrammed) a couple of days ago. It’s just been forwarded to Harry Albright (yay!) and the membership committee will read it on October 29th. I pray I get accepted.
Majority of Friends in the country are evangelicals who are former baptists/calvinists. I met them during the Asia West Pacific Section gathering of the FWCC where I also met unprogrammed Quakers from Australia and New Zealand. They were some of the most wonderful people on Earth!
I wish there were more unprogrammed Quakers here.