Silence and Ministry

Recently, someone again told me that they prefer silent meetings. I think this person may have been offering a kind of challenge to what I had written on our ‘blog’ in June last year in ‘Reflections of an Attender’. At the risk of being boring, I feel drawn to return to the issue. I wish to say at the outset that I don’t deny anyone the right to personal choice. I have my preferences and you have yours and that’s fine, but isn’t there more to our Meeting for Worship, (just as there is more to life), than ‘my preferences’ or yours?

There’s a story - One day the Buddha was sitting with his disciples when an angel appeared to him and asked: ‘how long would you like to live? You can ask for a 1000 years if you like’. Without hesitation the Buddha answered; ‘80 years’. When the angel had gone his disciples admonished the Buddha, and said, ‘think of all the good you could have done if you had asked to live for a 1000 years. The Buddha replied, ‘If I lived for 1000 years, others would be interested only in how to prolong life. I am far more concerned that they focus on how to enrich the life they are called to live.

I wonder if there could be something of a parallel in the area I address. We are Friends. We are community. We have so much to give and so much to learn from one another. We are all interested in silence, as a way to prayer, and to Life. However do we sometimes settle for the length of silence, rather than the quality and what arises from the silence? Could we discover more from the silence and from each other about how to enrich the lives we live if we shared more generously what it is that comes to us from the silence. Quakers lay claim especially to what is called the priesthood of all believers. This, to me, is ‘a reality’ that calls for action, for us to be more for each other. It is not ‘an ideal’ in our heads, or just a thought to be cherished; no matter how much attachment we have to our personal preferences.

I rejoice when our meeting has a balance of silence and ministry; especially when the ministry emanates a) from a deep silence and b) from the breath of membership, by this I mean from more members or attenders who are willing to take the risk of moving out of a ‘comfort zone’ and responding in ministry to what we can simply call the ‘little voice’ within.

Is it perhaps that some just do not have the sense of an inner voice? If this is so then of course to such people I would say do feel comfortable to sit in the silence and enjoy this Quaker space. However to those who do have a sense of an ‘inner voice’ the issue is about whether we ‘trust the promptings as the leadings of God’, (A & Q, 1). If we do this then surely the sharing of what emanates from within is for the building up of our Religious Society and the enriching of all our lives.

As a consequence we might all go out into Sheffield and beyond, more inspired and committed to the endeavour of building a more just and loving society. Surely this is what Jesus meant by what he called ‘the kingdom of God’ on earth! My plea is, please respond to the leadings of God, that come to you in the silence, your ministry is for the building up of the Meeting.