Quaker Spiritual Practice

[Doug Hamilton]

Meeting for Worship, 17th Century. Entering into this form of
worship.

“… the first that enters into the place of your meeting, be not
careless, nor wander up and down either in body or mind, but
innocently sit down in some place and turn in thy mind to the Light,
and wait upon God simply, as if none were present but the Lord, and
here thou art strong. When the next that come in, let them in
simplicity and heart sit down and turn to the same Light, and wait in
the Spirit, and so all the rest coming in fear of the Lord sit down in
pure stillness and silence of all flesh, and wait in the Light. A few
that are thus gathered by the arm of the Lord into the unity of the
Spirit, this is a sweet and precious meeting in which all are met with
the Lord…. Those who are brought to a pure, still waiting on God in
the Spirit are come nearer to God than words are… though not a word be
spoken to the hearing of the ear. In such a meeting where the
presence and power of God is felt, there will be an unwillingness to
part asunder, being ready to say in yourselves, it is good to be here,
and this is the end of all words and writings, to bring people to the
eternal living word.” -1660

-Alexander Parker, Letters of Early Friends, ed. A.R. Barclay (London;
Darton and Harvey, 1841), pp. 365-66. Alexander Parker was a close
companion of George Fox.

[Doug Hamilton]

Advices by Early Friends

Douglas Gwyn writes that: In the heady days of Quakerism's first
growth, particularly as many former Ranters joined the ranks, meetings
were troubled by chaotic messages from minds not yet established upon
the foundation of Christ's teachings.  For this reason, many of Fox's
epistles to Friends include large buckets of cold water for fevered
brows.  Nevertheless, his commitment to the free ministry is
unwavering.  In 1656, Fox wrote a general epistle to Friends advising
meetings on how to handle unhelpful ministry.  His counsel is to avoid
judging any openly during the meeting, unless they be “openly profane,
rebellious”:

“But such as are tender, if they should be moved to bubble forth a few
words...suffer and bear that, that is, the tender.  And if they should
go beyond their measure, bear it in the meeting for peace and order's
sake, and that the spirits of the world be not moved against you.  But
when the meeting is done, then if anything should be moved of anyone
to speak to them between yourselves or one or two of you that feel it
in the life, do it in love and wisdom that is pure and gentle from
above.  For love is that which edifies.””

-excerpted from, Dealing with Difficult Behavior in Meeting for
Worship
Meeting the Needs of the Many while Responding to the Needs of the Few

[Doug Hamilton]

The local Quaker Meeting I attend in Iowa is a 'slow to rise' kind of
old-style silent meeting vs. what might be characterized as 'quick to
rise' or 'popcorn' Meetings with more people rising out or speaking
out or even going on in the meeting.  These are just two directions in
the culture of  'un-programed' Quaker Meetings for Worship free from
formal clergy preaching providing a program church service.  The
silent Quaker practice commonly can go on for an hour or more.  People
may say something in Meeting but frequently it can be just a solemn
silence and maybe nothing will be said until the end.  It is very nice
in its way as a corporate experience.  I was down in Florida recently
and attended a Meeting for Worship there.  It was mostly silent
throughout with people sitting up attending to their own silence for
the length of the meeting.  It was very nice.


Recently we were joined by a Friend coming from other 'quick to rise'
meetings elsewhere who after visiting and attending our local meeting
a few times came again informing us at the start of our Meeting for
Worship just as we were beginning that we were not speaking out enough
in meeting and therefore something was likely not right about our
Quaker practice. Inward experience v doctrine?  Evidently this is age-
old. We went on and had a nice mostly silent Quaker Meeting.
-Doug in Iowa

[Doug Hamilton]

This was sent around later in response to someone asserting we would
be
more correct if we should speak out more in Meeting.

the Inner Light of our quaker meeting


Dearest Friends

I did not enter into the Society of Friends with much understanding of
it at all.  But with a few important guidelines from Fox, Parker and
others I have slowly but surely grown in my appreciation and
dedication to this 'mystical union' that is at the core of Society and
what the early quakers so clearly experienced and understood.  For
me, the journey into the mystery of meeting for worship has been a
very important one in my life the past few years...it is pivotal in my
ongoing evolutionary process.  And i feel i would like to briefly
share some of the revelations that have naturally unfolded for me
these past seven or so years we have been meeting together regularly
in the way we have been.

For me....the quality of the experience in our group worship is the
direct enlivenment of the quality of the Inner Light so often spoken
of by the early Friends.  This is an embodied, radiant 'Corpus
Christi' that we share.  As Lord Jesus said, "when two or more of you
are gathered in my name"  there He is...it feels like That. 
We experience this together...it is palpable, nourishing and so so
silent.  It is as simple as that.  I feel inadequate to express this
as speaking to this experience does not do it justice...and truly
speaking out of this experience rarely improves on the silence.  Not
that inspired revelations can't happen or hasn't happened. 
However, it seems to be a rare phenomenon....and really precious when
it truly happens.  The Holy, Silent, Fullness in the simplicity of our
group worship is healing, non-mental and Self revelatory.  For me it
has nothing to do with mantra practise.....although I can't speak for
others in this regard.

I would be very concerned if people came to meeting feeling that they
must or are expected to say something....this pressure to share or to
speak is when the meetings can de-evolve into mental ramblings or
personal exposition that can be rather 'ego-ic'.  This has been my
experience in the few other unprogrammed meetings where the silence is
routinely broken by mental discourse.  Again....this is not to say
that when truly inspired by Spirit to speak that the person shouldn't
share.  However we have our fellowship time afterwards that often
provides a time for sharing and reflection that is quite interesting
and often useful.  This post meeting opportunity for fellowship has
served us very well over the years.  And by doing so preserves the
profound nature of our meeting for worship as Quakers.  There is a
discipline in this that is definitely aligned with the practise of the
primitive Society of Friends.

I share this only in Love and Gratitude for all of you who have come
to sit together in this manner and are likewise enriched and uplifted
in the Light of the Divine.  I treasure our time together....it is the
HighLight of my week.

Love and All Blessings,
jennifer

[Doug Hamilton]

These are two descriptive accounts of Quaker Meeting practiced during
early Iowa history.  At a time there were thousands of Quakers living
in Iowa and the landscape was dotted with Quaker Meeting houses.
 Quakers at a time were very much part of the settlement fabric of the
West.

http://www.icelandichorse.info/quakemeetingmott1898.html

http://iagenweb.org/history/qoi/QOIPt5Chp2.htm

-Doug

[Doug Hamilton]

Ostensibly the earlier Society of Friends in America seems quite fair-
game in the study of communal societies.  At the hamlet level Quaker
Meetings certainly provided important social organization for groups
of people that while not formally a share-goods membership, the
Society membership offered entitlement in social service support and
educational opportunity that was quite communal on a scale.  The
Friends were not casual about this at all for quite a long period of
American settlement.  Many customs of our American culture of
committee work, constitutional and legislative process are rooted in
Quaker democracy as such.  So these reflections about the spiritual
practices of Quakers I am sharing here as part of a consideration
about American communal studies that can stand alongside other
possibly more celebrated communal groups.  They (the Quakers) are an
interesting communal life-cycle history by comparison.

[Doug Hamilton]

In Iowa after the separations of old style Friends from Evangelical
Friends in the 19th Century many of the assets of the Society of
Friends to that point ended up going with the Evangelicals in to
pastoral Friends Churches.  A map was subsequently drawn by the Iowa
Yearly Meeting, without a number of the old style Quaker Meetings who
were then becoming known as the 'conservative' or un-programmed
Meetings.  It is an interesting map to see from towards the end of the
pioneer era of Iowa to find how infused the old Quaker settlement and
practice had once been.  This map is from a high-water time of
Quakerism as a sect in America.

http://www.icelandichorse.info/salemfugitiveslaves/friendsmeetingsiowa1870.jpg

[Doug Hamilton]

This description of practice goes back to the East Coast and the 18th
Century
Quaker
Society of Friends
Delaware Valley Religious Ways

          “Members of the Society of Friends met in meetings,
sometimes once a week, or even several times a week.  These meetings
for worship normally went through a strict sequence of ritual
stages.  First was the gathering.  Quakers quietly arrived, either as
individuals or in small family groups.  They were urged to cultivate a
gravity of demeanor on their journey to meeting.  “Frivolous”
conversation was condemned, as was laughter, smoking, spitting and
chewing.  Men and women entered the meeting by different doors, and
were expected to take seats nearest the front in order of their
arrival, and not by rank or wealth or age, except for the special
honor done to elders…

Then the second stage began- a time of expectant silence called
“turning the mind to the light.”  …

Sometimes no words were ever spoken, and yet the meeting was thought
to have been highly successful.  Many Quakers believed that the best
meetings happened when no outward words needed saying.
          But most meetings passed to another stage when people began
to rise and speak, either in the form of preaching (if the words were
addressed to one another) or prayer (if to the Lord).  Usually, the
elders spoke first, and others followed.  The manner of speaking was
different from ordinary discourse.  Visitors in the eighteenth century
remarked upon its strange cadence and accent….
Anyone could speak in meeting-  Friends and strangers, elders and
youngsters, men and women.  One diarist recorded every speaker in
meetings he attended; both men and women spoke frequently, but a small
number of individuals accounted for most contributions.  Elders were
responsible for dealing with disturbed or disruptive speakers.  The
meeting itself sometimes responded to unwelcome remarks by standing
silently in protest.
          The last stage of the meeting was often a return to
silence.  Then worship would end when one member, usually an elder,
rose and shook hands with another, and everyone departed in quiet
dignity.  A Quaker meeting for worship was thus conducted in a manner
very different from an Anglican liturgical service and the Puritans
lecture day.
Excerpted, Albion’s Seed, Fischer 1989
The Quaker Meeting

On Mar 2, 4:26 pm, Doug Hamilton <dougham...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In Iowa after the separations of old style Friends from Evangelical
> Friends in the 19th Century many of the assets of the Society of
> Friends to that point ended up going with the Evangelicals in to
> pastoral Friends Churches.  A map was subsequently drawn by the Iowa
> Yearly Meeting, without a number of the old style Quaker Meetings who
> were then becoming known as the 'conservative' or un-programmed
> Meetings.  It is an interesting map to see from towards the end of the
> pioneer era of Iowa to find how infused the old Quaker settlement and
> practice had once been.  This map is from a high-water time of
> Quakerism as a sect in America.
>

> http://www.icelandichorse.info/salemfugitiveslaves/friendsmeetingsiow...

> ...
>
> read more »

[Doug Hamilton]

Quaker Meditation Instruction

Of a practice here is a remarkable quote that reads like a lecture from George Fox where he is explaining in 17th Century terminology how to meditate in the way he understands it as process of technique.

https://sites.google.com/view/quaker-meditation-instruction/home
https://sites.google.com/view/quaker-meditation-instruction/home