Posted: January 3, 2025   •   Posted in: Faith, Reflections

Two types of Meetings for Worship – similar and yet different?

Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Worship for Church Affairs

At a recent Quaker Area Meeting* we were asked to discuss and think about our business meetings, also known as Meetings for Worship for Church Affairs. That set me thinking about the two meetings and how different they are. The obvious difference is that the ‘Meeting for Worship’ has no agenda whereas the second often has a long agenda. Let’s look at the two separately.

The Meeting for Worship

We hope that each member comes to the meeting with heart and mind prepared, and with no fore thought agenda. We come to sit in silence together seeking a deep stillness that will bring us to a spiritual place.

In 1657 George Fox put it like this:

Friends, meet together and know one another in that which is eternal, which was before the world was. Quaker faith & practice 2.35

In a conference in 1986 ‘Exploring the fundamental elements of Quakerism’, this was said:

In a gathered meeting there may be few spoken words, but there is rich ministry. An hour passes quickly. Other meetings are lifeless. They are full of words, but there is little ministry, little that is of service. Time drags and people feel the need to fill the silence. Quaker faith & practice 2.38

I’m sure we have all experienced both of these kinds of meetings.

My experience of Meeting for Worship now covers some 30 odd years. Coming from an Anglican background I have found I am free to follow my own spirituality in the company of others. I have found that reading something, usually from Quaker faith & practice, gives me a starting point. It settles me for the hour, and one sentence read can keep me company for the entire hour. I have experienced those times when the hour has disappeared before it seems to have started. But I have also had times when my brain or spirit will not settle and time drags. The presence of others in the room pursuing a spiritual path is of real benefit. The fact that there are those in the room who will give vocal ministry from time to time is of great value but so are those who contribute through their silence.

I should make it clear that as I have no concept of a God I have problems with the word ‘Worship’, preferring the words silence or stillness. But that’s my problem.

Meeting for Worship for Church Affairs

A Meeting for Worship that sometimes has a long agenda. One in which it is vital that we have not made up our minds, on individual items, before the meeting starts.

In the 1928 ‘Queries’ Quakers were asked:

Are your meetings for church affairs held in loving dependence upon the spirit of God, and are they vigilant in the discharge of their duties? Do you individually take your right share in the attendance and service of these meetings so that the burden may not rest upon a few? Quaker faith & practice 3.08

Meetings for Worship for Church Affairs are part of our responsibility as Friends. To attend means commitment. But how does the worship fit in? We listen to the views of friends, we may even express our own view. It then becomes the responsibility of the clerks to write a minute. At this point friends should, and are, silent and still, upholding the clerks. With amendments the meeting accepts the minute and moves on to the next item.

This is very different from our one-hour Meeting for Worship on a Sunday. It is busy – constantly interrupted. If our Sunday morning meeting had so many people speaking one after another, many of us would be upset. When we hold one type of meeting up against another there is no comparison. Our Meeting for Worship is totally and utterly different to our Meeting for Worship for Church Affairs.

The two meetings have different aims and outcomes. One the deepening of the spiritual life of each of us, the other the furtherance of the business of our meeting. We seek to find the right way forward by listening to one another. From my experience among friends, it works. It isn’t always smooth and we have at times grappled with a problem that seems impossible to solve. However if we are patient, and give it time, we shall find the answer.

I’ll leave the last word to John Punshon in 1987:

The meeting for business cannot be understood in isolation, it is part of a spiritual discipline. Quaker faith & practice 2.85

Mike (Beccles Quaker Meeting)

*Beccles Quaker Meeting is part of Norfolk & Waveney Area Meeting  Within our Area Meeting there are ten Local Meetings, one of which is ours.