Quakers: The Light Within

On Easter Sunday, a dozen adults and half that many children gathered at the Perry City Friends Meeting an hour before their usual worship time. They came, bringing plates of food for a time of fellowship before worship. The children had an Easter egg hunt, while the adults visited over coffee and snacks. After a while, the group moved to the meeting room for a time of singing. The meeting room, a plain room with a stage at one end and a few small tables holding brochures along the wall, has simple benches arranged in a circle around a central space. Someone had put a small table with a vase of fresh picked daffodils in the middle. Music is not a part of the worship at this meeting which is unprogrammed, so this time of singing together was special for the Easter holiday. One person played the piano, while people looked through the hymnal for their favorite hymns. Anyone was free to suggest a hymn, as no one is in charge of planning a worship service. When worship time approached, the hymnals were gathered up and put away, and one adult led the children downstairs for First Day School. Without announcement, everyone lapsed into silence. The silence at Meeting for Worship is not a passive silence; it is the deep, comfortable silence of people accustomed to joining together this way. It was not broken when a few more people entered the sanctuary to join the group. The silence continued for about an hour with each worshiper communing with the Holy Spirit in his or her own way, not interrupted when the children reentered to join in the silent worship. One man broke the silence to say a few words about the simplicity of Jesus’ teachings, and then the silence returned. At the end of the hour, without announcement, one woman turned to gr...

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