This page offers a set of reflections and practices for Friends to draw on–now and in the future–providing an invitation to try new ways of entering or deepening your experience of worship.

From Four Doors to Meeting for Worship, a Pendle Hill Pamphlet by William Taber:

Some people “find it” almost instantly when they attend their first Friends meeting for worship; as they settle into the silence, they feel themselves gathered into a living Presence and know they have come home at last. Others may experience their first Quaker worship as difficult and strange, but something keeps drawing them back until they gradually grow into a richer and richer experience of worship. And some people–including life-long Quakers–never seem to find it at all, sometimes turning away to other forms of worship or sometimes staying dutifully and hopefully with the traditional Quaker form.

The word worship, as it comes down to us from Anglo-Saxon, is a compound of two words meaning worth-ship, the giving of worth to that which deserves it. A modern synonym for worship is adoration, an intense and loving focus on that which is most dear and important to us. In apparent contrast to the usual stillness of a Friends meeting, worship is an active verb. Across nearly two thousand years the active public worship of most Christian churches has included vocal prayer, opportunity for private confession and repentance, scripture reading, sermons, the singing of hymns, and communion, as well as kneeling, standing, bowing and other physical activities. A key to understanding Quaker worship at its best is to remember that the culmination and focus of Christian worship has almost always been the act of communion.

The writings of George Fox and many other Friends all point to the communion as central to Quaker worship. Although there was much preaching in the early Quaker meetings, it was all to one purpose: “to take the hearers to Christ and to leave them there.” When we have once entered into that experience of communion, we realize that we did not create it through our action of worship; all we did was to enter a reality which has always been there from the beginning of time, waiting for us to join it, for “In the beginning was the Word.” Devout souls across history have experienced this reality, this Logos. It is always here within us and beside us, available to use as an invisible stream into which we can step at any time. The heart of worship is communion with this invisible but eternal stream of reality in which is the living and eternal Christ. Worship then, is something which can be entered at any time of the day or night when we are ready to step into that stream, either through the grace of God or through our own great desire (which is also the grace of God).

Practices for Deepening Your Experience of Worship

Be with nature – go outside for worship, take a walk during, or bring nature in with an object or view. Notice the gifts of creation and bring your awareness to what is there with you.

Check in with your Mind, Body, and Spirit with this meditation: In one word for each question (or three words, or a short sentence):

  • How are you feeling physically?
  • How are you feeling emotionally?
  • What is something spiritually true for you right now?

Engage with your creativity and work before worship with art materials, journaling, knitting, etc. – and bring those practices with you to worship

Explore the images and messages in picture books – they are not “just” for children! 

  • The Picture Book Theology website is a great resource for book suggestions.
  • If you don’t have access to books through your meeting or a library, there are read aloud videos on YouTube. The FGC curriculum Sparking Still has excellent lists of books, organized by topic. Books listed in Sparkling Still are also listed as a collection on LibraryThing.

Find comfort by wrapping yourself in a warm blanket, feeling yourself held.

Light a candle to keep close during worship. Perhaps use this candle prayer.

Listen to a chant by Paulette Meier, “Keep Within” on YouTube.  From time immemorial, people have sung and chanted together to lift spirits, to heal suffering, to unify souls, and to come closer to God. Sufi wisdom says that chant is the bridge between sound and silence. For Friends, chant (or repetitive, paperless singing), provides an opportunity to sing together without having to read words or notes from a hymnal. The singing is then both a more embodied practice and a contemplative practice. Let yourself sink down into the vibrations and the message of the words and then ease into the silence which enfolds us.

Chant is singing our prayers. Chant is vocal meditation. Chant is the breath made audible in tone. Chant is discovering Spirit in sound.

Robert Gass, from Chant: Discovering Spirit in Sound.

Pray with your body and try movement as a way to ground your spirit before worship: 

Scripture passages to explore through lectio divina –  

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:9-11

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10

Walk a labyrinth by finding one locally (Labyrinth Locator) or using a finger labyrinth wherever you are. You can download/print a finger labyrinth here or here, and try a finger labyrinth meditation guide. 

Watch storytelling that explores Quaker faith, practice, and witness, and stories from the Bible.

Links here to YouTube recordings on the Faith & Play Stories channel and the Godly Play channel. 

Wonder about images in art or nature with Visio divina

Quotes and Resources about Worship from Friends

In worship we have our neighbours 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

“Building the Life of the Meeting” 1994 Michener Lecture by William & Frances Taber

But these wonderful experiences [of meeting for worship] are not entirely within our control. Sometimes meeting may be so difficult that a person may ask, “What am I doing wrong?”  Actually these difficulties may be a sign that such a person is really on the right path, and simply entering a new phase of the journey. For example, there may be a sudden increase of distractions after weeks of peaceful meetings; now there are endless distractions which seem to keep the person from ever centering down and just resting in the Presence. This may actually be an opportunity for great spiritual progress as the person practices the art of watching each distraction emerge on the screen of the mind–and then, instead of fighting it, gently turning the attention to the Divine Center again and again and again, as often as necessary. Even though a meeting spent in this way may not seem very productive, experienced Friends tend to leave such a meeting with a sense that they have been nourished and fed on some deep level. At other times a person may find the peacefulness of meeting being invaded by old and painful memories, or by an awareness of unpleasant aspects of oneself or one’s situation. This, too, is actually a natural process, and a sign of progress, for as the mind grows peaceful and relaxed, suppressed or forgotten things may emerge into awareness so that we may make peace with them also. In addition, as we persist in the practice of being open before God, the Light almost always begins to reveal things in us, like previously unnoticed pride and selfishness which need to be changed if we are to continue to grow. Early Friends called this, “the Inward Work of Christ,” a continuing transformation which may go on for as long as we live.

From Mysticism and the Experience of Love by Howard Thurman, Pendle Hill #115

When I was a theological student in Rochester, New York, very late one night I was returning to the Seminary by way of Main Street, the central artery of traffic for the city.  The hour was so late that streetcars ran only infrequently and there was almost no traffic. As I walked along, I became aware of what seemed to be the sound of rushing water. I realized that I had been hearing this rumbling for quite some time, but had only suddenly become aware of it. The next day I was talking about this with one of my professors who told me that for a certain distance under Main Street there was a part of the old Erie Canal. This was the sound of water that I had heard. The sound itself was continuous, but when there was the normal traffic in the daytime, the sound could not be heard. It was only when the surface noises had stopped that the sound came through. This is analogous to the mystic’s witness of God within, whose Presence may not become manifest until the traffic of the surface life is somehow stilled. This is what is meant by the experience of centering down.

From Sit Thee Here by Marty Grundy, Friends Journal, July 2003

Our meetings often serve as gateways for refugees from other churches where perhaps there has been a misuse of Biblical or religious authority. Refugees tend to bring their emotional and theological wounds and ideas with them. Our meetings provide a safe haven, where no demands are made. Folks can creep into the silence and in time begin (perhaps again) to pay attention to divine nudges and whispers. This is the function of the meeting as gateway.  

From The Meaning of Silent Worship by Mariellen O. Gilpin, Friends Journal, October 2005

I have come to believe that meeting for worship is about change, transformation, coming to wholeness. If I truly make an opportunity for God in worship, I will be changed. Sometimes change happens through grace. Sometimes it happens because I work very hard. But if I work hard, it’s because God first gave me the grace of wanting to change so I would work hard.

If worship is about change, it is also true that God takes me where I am. If I am caught up in an unsatisfying relationship, God will speak to me about my part in that relationship. If I am doing harm to another, I may reflect during worship on the damage I am doing. If I am caught up in the laundry lists of life, I may find myself yearning to choose meaning. If I come to worship to mull over a problem, I may learn my own responsibility for the existence of the problem. If I come to worship in mourning, I may find deep gratitude for what has been given. God takes me where I am.

Caroline Fox (1819–1871) wrote in her journal at the age of 21, of ‘the struggle through which a spark of true faith was lighted in my soul’:

The first gleam of light, ‘the first cold light of morning’ which gave promise of day with its noontide glories, dawned on me one day at meeting, when I had been meditating on my state in great depression. I seemed to hear the words articulated in my spirit, ‘Live up to the light thou hast, and more will be granted thee.’ Then I believed that God speaks to man by His Spirit. I strove to lead a more Christian life, in unison with what I knew to be right, and looked for brighter days, not forgetting the blessings that are granted to prayer.

From Exploring the Unwritten Rules of Meeting for Worship by Debbie Humphries, Friends Journal, August 2014

My experience is that Quaker worship, and particularly waiting worship, is a skill we are building both individually and corporately. That skill is fundamentally about listening to and being obedient to the Spirit, which for me are the core rules. I try to practice listening and obedience on a daily basis, and I fall short all the time. I am often not quite on the right channel; it feels like my dial is just a little bit off. When we gather in worship with others, we’re also practicing that tuning. And sometimes the learning process may involve allowing ourselves and others to get it wrong. When we think others have gotten it wrong, it requires careful listening for whether it is our place to tell them they misheard, to invite them to hold the question of whether they misheard, or perhaps to hold them in love and have faith that the Spirit, the Inward Teacher, is also at work in their lives. 

QuakerSpeak video: Why Do Quakers Worship In Silence? interview with Lloyd Lee Wilson, 2018

QuakerSpeak video: Niyonu Spann singing Live Up To The Light That Thou Hast, 2014

Compiled by Mary Linda McKinney, from the Faithful Meetings program of School of the Spirit, and Melinda Wenner Bradley, from Faith & Play Stories and the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative

Prepared for FGC’s Online Gathering 2025

Last updated December 18, 2025.

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