WINTER 2007Sondra Ball
Mickleton MMThose of you who attend the business section of quarterly meeting know I begin it with a 20- to 30-minute period of silent worship. Most people have not told me anything at all about what they think of this time of silence. A few people have told me they are glad I open this way, that it sets the tone for the rest of meeting. And one person has asked me to stop hav-ing a period of silence in the beginning of meeting for business, feeling we would get out of meeting 20 to 30 minutes sooner if there was no opening silence.
I figure the one person who spoke to me is probably voicing something others, who have not spoken, are thinking. So I want to explain to you why I feel that we need that period of silent worship in the be-ginning. And I would love to hear from more of you about what you think about that time.
As some of you “regulars” to Salem Quarter’s meeting for business know, we have a long history of meetings that go well over the recommended limit of two hours. I personally, when I became clerk, had never yet seen that “two-hour” meeting.
Rumor has it that Bill Waddington, when he was clerk, did in fact keep his sessions to two hours or less. That would have been over 35 years ago, however, and not many current Quakers would have any first-hand experience with his clerking.
I decided two things when I accepted the role of Salem Quarter clerk:
- I would keep the meetings to two hours or less.
- I would take seriously the fact that the full name for a Quaker business meeting is “meeting for worship for business.”
The purpose of a business meeting is not to decide what we, the members at hand for the meeting, want, but what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. Although discussion does help us clarify this (for each of us has only a measure of the Truth, and we need to share our truths to see the route we need to take), discussion without listening to the Spirit becomes merely humans talking, one to another.
That opening worship sets a pattern of our listening to the Spirit, and not just to our own thoughts and desires. And, having begun to listen to the Spirit, it is easier for us to keep listening, even as we deal with the mundane issues at hand. This listening actually shortens the time we need to reach decisions, for our hearts have already been tuned by the Light within us. It makes it easier for us to keep the sessions to two hours or less in real time.
I would love to learn from all of you about your feelings and thoughts on opening worship. Perhaps some of you could write poems or articles for the Spring or Summer 2008 Salem Quarter News on this topic. If you choose to accept this invitation, please keep your submissions to about one page—about 270 words for prose in our new format, or 25 to 30 lines for a poem. We’ll publish as many as we can.
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