![]() |
| by Smudge | | posted on 25th January 2023 in Quakers in 50 Objects | | views 1127 | |
Representing a Meeting for Worship, ‘A Quaker Meeting’ Sculpture is a small bronze made by the artist Peter Laszlo Peri.
A Meeting for Worship (MfW) is a gathering of Quakers who come and sit together in stilllness for a period of time. With no ministers delivering a sermon or creed to be spoken, Friends settle into the silence and let The Spirit guide them into new insights and revelations.
These new insights and revelations come from the sense of connection with the other Friends present in the meeting. Often Friends experience both going deeper within themselves and having a heightened sense of closeness to the wonder of creation.
Those Friends that believe in God, often feel a MfW brings them closer to Him.
MfW is possibly the space between prayer and meditation.
Sometimes The Spirit moves a Friend to speak. This is called Ministry and is in accordance to the Priesthood of All Believers, where anyone present let their voice be heard.
Traditionally, MfW lasts for around an hour and takes place on a Sunday morning. In addition, there are also some mid-week MfWs and these are usually between 30 – 45 minutes.
A MfW doesn’t necessarily have to take place in a formal setting or for a fixed time. MfWs can take place anywhere or anytime when three or more Friends gather.
MfWs where Friends gather in stillness with no words is called an Unprogrammed Meeting. Some MfWs do have prepared speech and/or hyms. These meetings are therefore called programmed and typically include a period of worship in the stillness. Programmed Meetings are predominately found in most African meetings as well as some meetings in the United States.
Image(s) from blipfoto.com/foxfollower
214,189