A meeting for worship is a practice of the Religious Society of Friends (or "Quakers") in many ways comparable to a church service. These services have a wide variety of forms, creating a spectrum from typical Protestant liturgy (one extreme of programmed worship) to silent waiting for the Spirit (called unprogrammed worship).
A Meeting for Worship may start with a query; something to think about during Meeting. The query is most of the time based on one of the Quaker testimonies. Meeting will then sit in silence for 20 minutes to an hour and a half. If an attendee is provoked to share, they can stand up and speak their mind. Attendees are encouraged to speak once "the Spirit finds you", thus meaning you should only speak if the message is good for the community and beneficial to the meeting. A traditional Quaker belief is everyone has "that of God" inside, and everyone's inner light and spirit can be shown. At a few meetings, some people will stand up and sing songs or recite poetry.
Read more about Meeting For Worship: In Britain, In U.S.
Famous quotes containing the words meeting and/or worship:
“No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us,—something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.”
—William Golding (b. 1911)