You are welcomed to join us for worship. The following is from a pamphlet called "Welcome to worship" at our meeting house. More information about Friends can be found at the New England Yearly Meeting web site: www.neym.org

TO THOSE ATTENDING MEETING

 

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

- George Fox

We invite you to share the hospitality of our Meeting House and join us in our unprogrammed Meeting. The Meeting asks that you listen attentively, both to the remarkable harmony of the silent waiting and to the ministry that may arise from the silence. We ask you to wait with patience and openness for an understanding of the Friends Meeting.

Meeting really begins only when we are all joined in the silent waiting upon God that is known among Quakers as Centering Down.

Quaker silence is not an emptiness crying out to be filled, but a disciplined and contemplative openness to the spirit of God.

Speaking, when there is any, arises from a deep religious experience and is preceded by the conviction that this experience must be shared. This is sometimes sensed as an upwelling of the spirit, sometimes as an insight following study, meditation, and prayer. It is always humble, always a result of most earnest seeking. It is not casual or argumentative and seldom is humorous. Spoken ministry is meant to be a seed for other's meditation and does not require a response. It is usually brief and phrased simply.

Courtesy, Quaker custom, and respect for others suggest that there be a period of silence following each speaker so the message that has come through his or her ministry may be incorporated and understood by each of us present.

The Meeting is a special time, away from our worldly concerns, in which we seek together, often in silence, for the strength and light to meet our problems and responsibilities.

In Meeting, we sit down in silence, rest our wills, still the mind and body, and attend to the presence of God.

OUR MESSAGE

Friends in this meeting feel the desire to share with those to whom our message may be meaningful. We offer the following statements with which we believe most Quakers would concur.

• There is "that of God" in every human being.
• Direct communication with God is possible as one opens oneself to it.
• There is truth yet to be discovered and revelation of it is continuing both to diligent seekers and to those whom God takes unawares.
• Simplicity, Equality, and Peace are ideals toward which we strive both in our own lives and in our outreach to the world.
• A peacemaking lifestyle require a positive, creative love and respect for the integrity of each person, especially in situation of conflict and confrontation.
• The witness for peace is an affirmation of the divine light in every human being. Warfare and other violence deny the sanctity of human life.

Quakers have no dogma, but have collected thoughts and beliefs over the years in Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. Friends sometimes find reading from Faith and Practice, the Bible, or other devotional works helpful in centering down during meeting.

And so I find it well to come

For deeper rest to this still room

For here the habit of the soul

Feels less the outer world's control

The strength of mutual purpose pleads

More earnestly our common needs;

And from the silence multiplied

By these still forms on either side,

The world that time and sense have known

Falls off and leaves us God alone.

- John Greenleaf Whittier

Practical considerations for those attending meeting for the first time.  Please come a bit early and settle in.  We are not being unfriendly if we don't greet you at the start, once in the meeting it is our practice to begin to settle into worshipful silence even if it is before 9:30. We have a member whose ministry is musical pieces to start the meeting but sung ministry is rare.  We have coffee and snacks after worships and announcements in the community hall after worship.

We do not "dress up" for meeting but wear what we would typically wear in public.  As a first time attender you may be inspired to speak, be patient and look for guidance in the "Faith and Practice" book and pamphlets in the pews.  This is not to suggest that you will not have a ministry to share with us.  it is our practice to sit with a message for some time and discern if the message is meant to be shared now with others.  If you feel clear to share the message they are generally brief and usually only one message is shared at each first day.