Quaker Meeting

This past Sunday my friend Lindsay and I attended a Quaker meeting for Sunday morning service. Quaker services are usually unstructured. This means there is no formal opening, no hymns, sermon, liturgy etc. They believe all people are ministers if they allow the Holy Spirit to speak to and through them. So when we arrived, we walked into a square room with pews all facing in towards each other. They had cushions but then they had these cute little pillows sitting in the pews. In a sense, when you walk into the worship space you enter into your silent service. So we sat down and entered into silence. For about 30 minutes we sat in silence, then people began speaking. It was one at a time. According to the brochure we received as vistors, you are supposed to allow time for contemplating after each time someone speaks. The first lady spoke about a conversation she had with a Lutheran friend. The Lutheran was talking about how his church was in the process of looking for a new pastor and how they hoped they would have good sermons. She asked him, Why do you go the service? Is it for the sermons? She said, I began thinking about the question she asked him and was thankful he didn't ask her the same. She didn't think she could have given an answer at the time. She at first felt there were many differences between a Lutheran (or other structured service) and the Quaker service because of the sermons. She began to realize the pastor giving the sermon hopefully has done the same thing each person within a Quaker service has done and that is wait for the Spirit to provide direction and words to speak.



I know this is very judgmental but as I sat in silence I would listen to those who were speaking and I couldn't help but feel that several were very led and directed by the Spirit and that others seemed to be talking to hear themselves talk!