WORSHIP SHARING
Worship sharing is a form of worship that helps us to listen to each other in a deeply spiritual, loving, and prayerful way. It draws us into a sacred space in which we can speak openly from our hearts and our own experience. It helps us encounter each other in “that which is eternal.”
Worship sharing is very much like a silent Quaker meeting for worship except that we are asked to focus on a particular question or query and respond from our own experience. We find we share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversations. Our diversity invites us both to speak what we know to be true from our own lives and to learn from others.
Worship sharing is an opportunity for group meditative reflection on a query. Queries are designed to be both a challenge and an inspiration in our personal lives. In keeping with Friends’ worship, the worship sharing group enters into a direct sense of divine leading from God. We trust the Spirit to lead us in our speaking.
Friends are encouraged to listen to each other in humility and understanding, trusting in the Spirit that goes beyond our human effort and comprehension.
There are simple guidelines:
Why silence? The deeper realities of faith are beyond words. The periods of silence during our worship sharing testify to this. The silence is as much of the worship as the spoken messages. We are reminded that God’s first language is silence.
Worship sharing is a form of worship that helps us to listen to each other in a deeply spiritual, loving, and prayerful way. It draws us into a sacred space in which we can speak openly from our hearts and our own experience. It helps us encounter each other in “that which is eternal.”
Worship sharing is very much like a silent Quaker meeting for worship except that we are asked to focus on a particular question or query and respond from our own experience. We find we share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversations. Our diversity invites us both to speak what we know to be true from our own lives and to learn from others.
Worship sharing is an opportunity for group meditative reflection on a query. Queries are designed to be both a challenge and an inspiration in our personal lives. In keeping with Friends’ worship, the worship sharing group enters into a direct sense of divine leading from God. We trust the Spirit to lead us in our speaking.
Friends are encouraged to listen to each other in humility and understanding, trusting in the Spirit that goes beyond our human effort and comprehension.
There are simple guidelines:
- We begin with stillness and silence and reach as deeply as we can into the sacred center of our lives.
- We speak from our own experience, about our own experience. We concentrate on feelings and changes rather than on thoughts or theories.
- We speak out of the silence, and leave a substantial period of silence for reflection between speakers to savor what has been shared.
- We listen carefully and deeply to what is spoken. We listen attentively without judgment and without the distraction of our own thoughts.
- We do not respond to what anyone else has said, either to praise or refute.
- We expect to speak only once using as few words as possible but as many as are necessary.
- Whether one speaks out of silence or remains in silent meditation rests with each individual. We have the option to pass.
- We respect the confidentiality of what is shared.
Why silence? The deeper realities of faith are beyond words. The periods of silence during our worship sharing testify to this. The silence is as much of the worship as the spoken messages. We are reminded that God’s first language is silence.
