3.1 Traditional/Unprogrammed/Silent Meetings
Description
This article is from the The Religious Society of Friends FAQ, by Marc Mengel mengel.nospam@users.sourceforge.net with numerous contributions by others.
3.1 Traditional/Unprogrammed/Silent Meetings
Silent Meetings for Worship are quite a bit different from most
organized religious services. Basically those attending the meeting
sit silently, trying to listen to the (Holy) Spirit , until someone
is moved by the Spirit to speak. The person so moved generally
stands, says what they have to say, and sits down. Meetings like
this generally run for about an hour, and it is not out of the
ordinary for a meeting to be silent the whole hour.
It is customary to wait a few minutes between speakers to allow
time for consideration of what they have said.
It is considered bad form to "debate" a topic or otherwise
argue a point at Meeting for Worship. More subtle forms of
disagreement, such as telling a related story and how it made
you feel bad, etc. are occasionally employed.
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