Silence and Expectant Waiting Archives - Friends General Conference

Overview

This topic invites you to explore the Quaker experience of worship and silent waiting for an inward encounter. Shared worship is the foundation of the Friends’ experience of life as a spiritual community. We may worship or sit in silence alone, but we believe that in worshipping together we are opening ourselves to a more powerful experience. We are a mixed gathering of people from various backgrounds, and we are at many different places on our inward journey; however, all Friends aim to experience worship as a core element in their spiritual practice.

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Credits

Brent Bill (WYM), Melinda Wenner Bradley (PhYM), and Marty Grundy (LEYM) – Content Collaborators
Anne Collins (SCYM), Sally Farneth (PhYM), Susan Hopkins (PacYM), and Erika Mittag (SCYM) — Materials for Children

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Grounding

Introduction to the Topic

Introduction

For Friends, Meeting for Worship is a center of gravity. It draws all to it. It provides a place to stand. It holds everything else in its right place. Quaker worship is a direct encounter with the Spirit of God.

Scripture

Ground your work in scripture. Quaker faith and practice can be compared and combined with a wide variety of other traditions such as Buddhism or ethical humanism. But we will find our deepest and fullest reasonaces with the biblical Christian traditions that nurtured early Friends and with the Jewish traditions that nurtured Jesus.

Friendly Voices

Ground your work in the voices of Friends. Friends from George Fox to Bayard Rustin have written about Quaker faith and practice. What have Friends shared with us across the centuries?

Videos and Podcasts

Learn from Friends near and far through video and podcasts. From informational histories, to instructional guides, to deep ministry, we can use these media to learn more and build community.

Queries and Questions for Worship Sharing and General Discussion

A query is a question for reflection. Queries can be used in worship sharing, discussions, or to prompt journaling or art activities.

Practicing

Experiential Activities

The Spiritual Process of Vocal Ministry

True vocal ministry should invite listeners closer to the heart of the Divine. We want to speak to that which is eternal, resonates in the soul, stirs to action, and leads to spiritual change

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Experiential Activities

Activities like yoga, labyrinths, and mandalas are designed to help focus and calm the mind and body. Explore what happens in your mind and your body when you try simple yoga poses or use a finger labyrinth.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

We’re Going to Meeting for Worship

This lesson uses the book We’re Going to Meeting for Worship, by Abby Hadley, which focuses on Quaker Meeting for Worship, what it means to a young child, and his feelings about quiet, silence and listening.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Preschool (ages 3-5)

Visual Expressions of Silence and Expectant Waiting

Take a visual approach to expressions of silence and expectant waiting by looking at and reflecting on images made by people exploring the topic.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

What Does It Mean to Be Present?

The book What Does It Mean to Be Present? by Rana DiOrio demonstrates what it means to be present and how being present makes life “richer, fuller and happier.”

Duration: 45 minutes
Age Range: Elementary (ages 6-11)

Body Prayers

Explore how the body can be a tool to help us pray and experience closeness with the Divine wordlessly.

Duration: 20 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Expectant Waiting for an Inward Encounter

A guide to help participants use meditation and journaling to explore their own inward silence and the openings they may experience there.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Listening

What happens when we listen with intention? This activity helps us examine this question.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Silence: Distractions & Lessons

A “tutorial” on dealing with distractions that may arise as an individual practices entering and exploring interior silence.

Duration: 10 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Finding Expectant Waiting in Unexpected Places

Hints for finding the stillness that can bring you a sense of the Divine presence in everyday places and events.

Duration: 10 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Quieting the “Monkey Mind” to find Expectant Waiting

Guidance in learning to discern between the jumping voices of distraction in your head (sometimes called “monkey mind”) and the Divine voice.

Duration: 25 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Visualizing a Loved One

Learning to recognize prompts to connect with a loved person, and from that, with the Divine.

Duration: 5 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Creating Your Own Silent Times

Learning to recognize opportunities for creating silent periods during your busy days.

Duration: 5 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Unwrapping the Parcel

Similar to a guided meditation, this exercise offers a variety of ways to use the silence of worship. After trying these methods, participants will engage in worship sharing to explore how each worked and other ways and times they have been able to listen in the silence.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Elementary (ages 6-11)

Crescendo

This exercise is a game about listening and responding. It provides practice in being sensitive to the vocal and physical movements of just one other person. Frequently, before we can listen to that still small voice of God moving in a group, we need to learn to get out of ourselves and to tune in to others.

Duration: 20 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Mindfulness Jars (“Friends Meeting in a Bottle”)

Creating "mindfulness jars" to illustrate and practice the process of centering and being open to the Spirit in worship.

Duration: 45 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Listening Game

This game is about listening. It provides practice in being sensitive to the vocal sounds of others in the room. Frequently, before we can listen to that still small voice of God moving in a group, we need to learn to get out of ourselves, to tune in to others.

Duration: 20 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Sharing

Conversation Starters

Maybe God is Like That, Too

This lesson uses the book, Maybe God is Like That Too, by Jennifer Grant, which offers simple everyday examples that children can recognize to guide them in developing a personal and direct relationship with God. It answers the question, “Where is God?”

Duration: 45 minutes
Age Range: Elementary (ages 6-11)

Queries for Silence and Expectant Waiting

Worship sharing with queries is one way for Friends to explore a topic through self-examination and in community. This exercise has worship sharing guidelines and suggested queries for Silence and Expectant Waiting.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Poetic Expressions of Silence and Expectant Waiting

Take a poetic approach to expressions of silence and expectant waiting by reading and reflecting on poems by people exploring the topic.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

Make a “Listening Mural”

Make a “listening mural” where everyone represents in words or imagery what they experience in the silence of worship.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: All Ages

Paper Quilt

Share your experience of silent worship by making a paper quilt.

Duration: 1 hour
Age Range: Elementary (ages 6-11)

Sharing Experiences of Silent Worship

Using the double-circle format, Friends will share, on a one-to-one basis, their experience in silent worship.

Duration: 30 minutes
Age Range: Middle School and Up

For Children

Silence and Expectant Waiting for Children

Even our youngest Friends can learn to sit quietly in Meeting so that we will be able to hear the small voice when it speaks to us.

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