Corporate Worship

Illustration of Matthew 18:20 -- For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. ArtistHeartlight

INSPIRATIONS: Corporate Worship

(The information on this page does not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of all Friends of Humboldt Friends Meeting. All resources are taken from Quaker Sources.). Quaker worship, at least in unprogrammed Meetings, is unique in that a group meets in silence but also in community. Often someone is led to offer vocal ministry (check out INSPIRATIONS: Vocal Ministry) but not always. But worshippers are not engaged in private silent meditation;

They are connected to each other in Spirit. Quakers don't offer instruction in these practices because they recognize that Spirit speaks to each person in unique ways. But Quakers do share their experiences with one another through journals and other writing. The sources below represent some union of people bonded together in spirit." mtk

of those sharings about the sometimes difficulty of maintaining focus in Meeting for Worship or individual meditation. One that seems to capture the ineffable experience is George F. Gorman in The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship: "People who have entered the room as individuals sooner or later become aware that they are encountering others present at a level deeper than normal conscious communication. While they remain fully themselves they also become, in a real sense, one group; a comm

Bible and Classic Writing

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. KJV. Matthew 18:20

Friends, meet together and know one another in that which is eternal, which was before the world was. George Fox, 1657

MUSIC: "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir": Songwriter Bill Staines.

https://youtu.be/7IuUHD2Iqjg

Selected Video that includes information on corporate worship

Poetry

First-Day Thoughts by John Greenleaf Whittier (1852)

In calm and cool and silence, once again

I find my old accustomed place among

My brethren, where, perchance, no human tongue

Shall utter words; where never hymn is sung,

Nor deep-toned organ blown, nor censer swung,

Nor dim light falling through the pictured pane!

There, syllabled by silence, let me hear

The still small voice which reached the prophet’s ear;

Read in my heart a still diviner law

Than Israel’s leader on his tablets saw!

There let me strive with each besetting sin,

Recall my wandering fancies, and restrain

The sore disquiet of a restless brain;

And, as the path of duty is made plain,

May grace be given that I may walk therein,

Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain,

With backward glances and reluctant tread,

Making a merit of his coward dread,

But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown,

Walking as one to pleasant service led;

Doing God’s will as if it were my own,

Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone!

Selected Quaker Writing on Meeting for Worship

PAC YM F&P: Meeting for Worship is different from solitary prayer. The strength and focus of the community draw one who is distracted back toward the center. . . During Meeting for Worship, Friends seek connection to one another and to God dwelling among them. Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice pp 26- 27

PENN: When you come to your meetings . . . what do you do? Do you then gather together bodily only, and kindle a fire compassing yourselves about with the sparks of your own kindling, and so please yourselves, and walk in the "Light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindle: . . Or rather do you sit down in True Silence resting from your own Will and Workings and waiting up the Lord, with your minds fixed in the Light wherewith Christ has enlightened you, until the Lord breathes life in you and refresheth you and prepares you and your spirit and souls to make you fit for his service that you may offer unto him a pure and spiritual sacrifice. by William Penn, "A Tender Visitation". Works. p441. (1771)

BRINTON: In the vast sum of Quaker literature there is very little which can be used as a guide in silent worship. This is to be expected. The true Guide is the Spirit which like the wind, bloweth where it listeth. . . Friends have hesitated to analyze or even to put into words the ineffable experience of worship. Nevertheless, much which is helpful in the meeting can be learned from books of devotion by Howard H. Brinton Friends for 300 Years. p72

PARKER: The first that enters into the place of your meeting … turn in thy mind to the light, and wait upon God singly, as if none were present but the Lord; and here thou art strong. Then the next that comes in, let them in simplicity of heart sit down and turn in to the same light, and wait in the Spirit; and so all the rest coming in, in the fear of the Lord, sit down in pure stillness and silence of all flesh, and wait in the light. Those who are brought to a pure still waiting upon God in the Spirit are come nearer to the Lord than words are; for God is spirit and in the spirit He is worshipped. Alexander Parker (1660

PENINGTON: . . .but we wait, in silence of the fleshly part, to hear with the new ear what God shall please to speak inwardly in our own hearts, or outwardly through others, who speak with the new tongue which he unlooseth and teacheth to speak; and we pray in the spirit, and with the new understanding, as God pleaseth to quicken, draw forth, and open our hearts towards himself. quoted in ibid. Issac Penington. The inward Journey of Isaac Penington An Abbreviation of Penington's works. ed. Robert Leach, Pendle Hill Historical Series No. 6. p 27

PUNSHON: Friends have never regarded [worship] as an individual activity. People who regard Friends’ meetings as opportunities for meditation have failed to appreciate this corporate aspect. The waiting and listening are activities in which everybody is engaged and produce spoken ministry which helps to articulate the common guidance which the Holy Spirit is believed to give the group as a whole. So the waiting and listening is corporate also. This is why Friends emphasis the ‘ministry of silence’ and the importance of coming to meeting regularly and with heart and mind prepared. John Punshon (1987)

KELLY: In worship we have our neighbors to right and left, before and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all one life, within whom we live and move and have our being. Thomas Kelly (1941)

GORMAN: In a good meeting. individuals present become growingly quietened in their bodies and minds as they sit in the stillness. People who have entered the room as individuals sooner or later become aware that they are encountering others present at a level deeper than normal conscious communication. While they remain fully themselves they also become, in a real sense, one group; a communion of people bonded together in spirit. by George H. Gorman The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship p10 That meeting [where several Friends present were reading books] never became a gathered one -- how could it? For the majority of worshippers were only concerned with their private thoughts stimulated by their reading, and were clearly making no attempt to share in the life of the meeting with their fellow. . . .This is not to say that from time to time an individual worshipper may not find it helpful to read privately a brief passage in order to recollect his (sic) attention , so that he may the more effectively share in the communion of the meeting. Gorman ibid 95

WILSON: Waiting worship is an act of corporate listening to God. It is a corporate contemplative prayer; a prayer without words or images. . . .Corporate worship is not merely individual worship or meditation at the same place and time as others are worshiping or meditating, but a truly corporate experience, where we enter into a communion with other worshipping souls that enables all of us to enter into the divine presence more fully, and hear the divine Word more clearly, than we could alone. by Lloyd Lee Wilson Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order p32

CROSNO and BILL: Although our personal direct experience of the Divine is central to our individual spiritual lives, it is in communal worship that we gather together to hear the Voice that has spoken through the generations and still speaks today. We gather not only as individuals but we also gather as a community in a particular place and at a particular time to listen to God speaking to us through each other. We do this to gain strength for the living of our days and to find power to be faithful witnesses to the Light in an often dark world. by Barry Crossno and J. Brent Bill On Vocal Ministry. Nurturing the Community through Listening and Faithfulness. PHP 460 p4 Worship is also about faithfulness to that which is larger than ourselves. While much of our time is centered on daily living and its concerns when we come to worship we are reminded that there is so much more than our individuals lives. We come in humble recognition that our lives are not ours along. Our lives are a part of a community of faith that is rooted in a long spiritual tradition but that is also growing and evolving today and into the future. Crossno and Bill ibid 4-5

NEW ENGLAND FRIENDS: In some meetings there are designated people holding the meeting in prayer during worship. They are said to have “care of the meeting.” They settle into worship early, hold the Center consciously during worship, prayerfully anchor those who are ministering vocally, spiritually gather up the whole body of the worshipping community, and discern when it is time to close worship. New England Quakers Website. https://neym.org/faith-and-practice/worship

BRINTON: The living power of a meeting for worship depends not only on the sincere dedication of heart and thought on the part of each individual member, but also on united communion in the presence of God wherein each one overpasses the bounds of his individual self and knows a union of spirit with spirit bringing him to a larger life than that which is known in spiritual separateness. Howard Brinton: Christian Faith and Practice in the Experience of the Society of Friends, 1973 paragraph 236. In common with our fellow Christians we realise the need for a deep individual devotion finding expression in life and action. We believe that the power for its exercise is most fully given through the faithful practice of a corporate devotional life under the immediate guidance of the spirit. ibid 234

PITTSBURGH FM: Please try to find a place where you will be physically comfortable for the hour of Meeting, and where you are unlikely to be distracted. If you become distracted, notice and re-center to help us all stay together in worshipful energy. Pittburgh Friends Meeting website. https://www.pittsburghquakers.org/where-when CROSNO and BILL: Although our personal direct experience of the Divine is central to our individual spiritual lives, it is in communal worship that we gather together to hear the Voice that has spoken through the generations and still speaks today. We gather not only as individuals but we also gather as a community in a particular place and at a particular time to listen to God speaking to us through each other. We do this to gain strength for the living of our days and to find power to be faithful witnesses to the Light in an often dark world. by Barry Crossno and J. Brent Bill On Vocal Ministry. Nurturing the Community through Listening and Faithfulness. PHP 460 p4 Worship is also about faithfulness to that which is larger than ourselves. While much of our time is centered on daily living and its concerns when we come to worship we are reminded that there is so much more than our individuals lives. We come in humble recognition that our lives are not ours along. Our lives are a part of a community of faith that is rooted in a long spiritual tradition but that is also growing and evolving today and into the future. Crossno and Bill ibid 4-5

MARTIN: The experience of being brought into profound, loving union with God, and one another still persists in our meetings for worship today. {Thomas Kelly states his belief that for such an experience to occur,). "kindled" individuals must be present who are uplighting the whole group with prayer. by Marcelle Martin. Invitation to a Deeper Communion by Marcelle Martin PHP366. p11