“God alone is able to strengthen us to dig deep, to remove all which lies between us and the safe foundation…”
OVERVIEW
In earlier times Friends would often worship for hours fully expectant and deeply patient for the Living Presence to do its work in the gathered body of Friends. These gathered experiences were core to Quaker convincement, personal transformation, and prophetic challenges to the cultural behaviors in the places where Quakers lived.
Modeled on a twenty-five-year practice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we have begun these opportunities for NEYM Friends to experience a full day of Quaker worship. In March we will be holding our fourteenth such meeting, this time at Friends Meeting at Cambridge. We hope you will join us.
We will gather in the Cambridge Meetinghouse at 9:30 a.m. for three hours of expectant waiting worship. Three hours may sound like a long time, but Friends who have been practicing this kind of extended worship have often been surprised how quickly it seems to go by. Friends are free to get up and move around, to lie down on the benches, to use the bathroom, even to take a walk outside and rejoin the worship as led. Following the worship, we each eat our own brown bag lunch. After lunch, we will return to the meeting room for some worship-sharing about our experiences of the morning. We will close by 2:30 p.m. Friends are welcome to come for the morning only, to stay for lunch, or to stay for the whole day.
Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep callings that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place. It is God’s work to awaken people to God‘s wisdom, guidance, and love. These extended meetings for worship can provide a seedbed, a crucible, for God to do that awakening. You can also read Marcelle Martin’s Pendle Hill Pamphlet (#366), An Invitation to a Deeper Communion, which describes the beginnings of these extended worship experiences in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Click image below to view/download the schedule
