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While most who know me would have been surprised the Baptist preacher would one day be an aspiring Quaker, and rather than attending preaching meetings be attending meetings in Silence, what is written in the following words, by J. Brent Bill, in his Quaker Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality, seems to sum up the gift I have received among the Friends in Meeting. It sums up, for me, why I cherish those times together in worship, in quiet, and, yes, in speech, but mostly in discovering belonging together when in quiet and when not...
Corporate Quaker worship is not a time of individual meditation. Communal silence is not a time to relax or gather one’s thoughts. It is important that the waiting and the listening in silence are done as a group. The people who gather, do so with the hope of becoming something more than just a collection of individuals meeting in the same room.
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So, after these years of not feeling blessed with spiritual community, possibly I have received it again. In another shape, yes, but one I think I am ready for, for it feels like home. And home is where you go, not because you should, but because you know you belong among others who belong too.
*Move cursor over photographs for photographer and title.
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2019
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