“In the stillness and silence of the power of the Almighty dwell, which never varies, alters, nor changes, but preserveth over and out of, and above all the changeable worships, religions, ministers, churches, teachings, principalities, and powers, with the power of God, which keepeth over all this, to the kingdom of Christ, that is everlasting, in which there is no changing, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
“The use of silence or solitude as a doorway to the Divine has a long history in the Christian tradition. Jesus often went away to pray alone. (Mark 1:35; Matthew 14:23; Luke 5:16). Early Christian monastics went to live alone in the desert in the fourth century AD to find and love God. This type of spirituality remains important in the Orthodox Christian Church under the term Hesychasm (quietness, rest, inner peace). It continues in the Catholic monastic tradition under the term ‘contemplation.’ Since the seventeenth century, Quakers have often used ‘silent worship’ as a part of their corporate worship. Quakers have more accurately termed this practice ‘expectant waiting.'”
“Some Friends are able to recall with clarity the first occasion on which they attended a Quaker meeting. While I cannot remember when or where I did so, I do have a vivid recollection of the meeting which I began to attend regularly.
It was held in a rather hideous building: the meeting room was dingy. We sat on rickety chairs that creaked at the slightest movement. The whole place gave little hope that those who worshipped there might catch a glimpse of the vision of God. It was in stark contrast to the splendour of the Anglican churches to which I had been accustomed, where through dignified ritual the beauty of holiness was vividly portrayed. However, it was in this unlikely setting that I came to know what I can only describe as the amazing fact of Quaker worship.”
“Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.”
“The one cornerstone of belief upon which the Society of Friends is built is the conviction that God does indeed communicate with each one of the spirits He has made, in a direct and living inbreathing of some measure of the breath of His own Life; that He never leaves Himself without a witness in the heart as well as in the surroundings of man; that the measure of light, life, or grace thus given increases by obedience; and that in order clearly to hear the Divine voice speaking within us we need to be still; to be alone with Him, in the secret place of His Presence; that all flesh should keep silence before Him.”
“One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him. Silence is intimately related to trust.”
“For the last 350 years, gathered silence has been the foundation of Quaker worship. The silence of Quaker worship, however, is not an end in itself, but an opportunity for seeking communion with the Sacred.”
September 2025: One of the most distinctive things about Quaker worship is that it incorporates silence. Whether it is a full hour of silence, or part of a program, Quakers believe that our relationship to the spirit begins with leaving space. This month we’ll explore why that is, and what comes from it.
“There are imperial liturgies today. An example is something like the Nuremberg rallies in Nazi Germany on a massive scale. Lynchings of African-Americans functioned very much like a liturgy of empire and white supremacy. More recently, the White Supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, and the spectacle around the last Presidential election and the subsequent rallies, are all examples of this kind of building up into a frenzy against ‘wicked’ others that we see in liturgies of empire.”
“The new man worships a God at hand, where he dwells in his holy temple, and he knows him by his own word and from his dwelling place, and not by relation of others. And thus the holy men of God always knew him; for Abraham did not know him by what he had spoken to Noah […]; but he that believeth hath the witness within himself, and thereby sets to his seal that God is true.”
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