Meeting for worship

A Quaker meeting creates a space of gathered stillness. We come together where we can listen to the promptings of truth and love in our hearts, which we understand as arising from God. Our meetings are based on silence. There may be silence for quite some time, perhaps half an hour or more.

A silence of waiting and listening.

But that does not mean nothing is happening. We are caught up in the still spirit of the meeting, and all of us are trying to come nearer to each other and to God, without reciting creeds, singing hymns or repeating set prayers. We do not worship in isolation: we try to hold ourselves aware of all those gathered with us, uniting in a common purpose, so that the waiting and listening become an act of sharing.

You may find it easy to relax in the silence and enter into the spirit of the meeting, or you may be disturbed by the strangeness of the silence, by distractions outside or by your own thoughts. Don’t worry about this. We all find it difficult to settle at times. When we return again and again to the still centre of our being, we can sense divine presence. Try, if only for brief periods, to be quiet in mind, body and spirit. Offer whatever may be pressing on your mind to the silence in the hope that the stillness will resolve the pressure and lead you to calmness.

It can be a time of insight, revelation, healing or calm.

The silence may be broken if someone present feels called to say something which will deepen and enrich the meeting. Anyone is free to speak, pray or read aloud, as long as it is done in response to a prompting of the spirit which comes in the course of the meeting. This breaks the silence for the moment, but does not interrupt it. Listen with an open mind to what is said. Each contribution may help somebody, but our needs are different and can be met in different ways. If something does not speak to your condition or need, try to reach the spirit behind the words. The speaker wants to help the meeting, so take care not to reject the offering by negative criticism.

"A deep and powerful spirit of love and truth, transcending ordinary experience"

Each of us brings our own life experience to meeting. Some people will have a profound sense of awe and wonder because they sense divine presence. Others will be far less certain. They may only be ready to hold an awareness that their experiences in life point beyond themselves to a greater whole. In the quietness of a Quaker meeting we can become aware of a deep and powerful spirit of love and truth, transcending our ordinary experience. We seek to become united in love and strengthened in truth, so we enter a new level of living, despite the different ways we may account for this life-expanding experience.

We hold Meeting For Worship every Friday and Sunday from 10:15am

Sundays meetings are 'blended',  with the option of joining online, please ask for the zoom link