The silent meeting for worship is the most visible element of classical Quaker worship. Worshipers assemble without leader or program, stilling their minds and focusing their attention, waiting to sense the presence of the Spirit of God and then to respond as they are moved in their own spirits. The silent meeting for worship is but a means, however, for achieving the essential element of Quaker worship: the response of the soul to the felt presence and the moving of the Spirit of God. “Worship is the adoring response of the heart and mind to the influence of the Spirit of God,” says the Richmond Declaration of Faith (1887). “It stands neither in forms nor in the formal disuse of forms; it may be without words as well as with them, but it must be in spirit and in truth.”
Of the three broad types of worship—altar-centered, pulpit-centered, and congregation-centered—classical unprogrammed Quaker worship is the supreme example of the latter, which some call “waiting on the spirit.” For three centuries Quakerism has adhered more closely to its early practices and ideals than any other Western tradition. But today its external distinctives are blurred, especially among evangelical Quakers whose structured or programmed worship shares much in common with pulpit-centered free church worship.
Classical Quaker Worship
The Quaker movement grew out of the experiences of George Fox who, as a troubled young man, searched for years for an answer to his personal turmoil. His search led ultimately to an experience of the Inner Light—a sense of the divine and direct working of Christ in the soul. This experience brought peace with God and himself as well as a strong dissatisfaction with the worship of the Puritan-dominated Established church. At the heart of the movement he began in 1646 lies the belief that the Inner Light he experienced is accessible to all and that the purpose of worship is a common waiting in silence for evidence of the presence and power of God.
The importance placed on the Inner Light led Quakers to reject formal ministry and all set forms of worship and to substitute spiritual communion and baptism for visible sacraments. Classical Quaker worship emphasizes, first, that true worship takes place only when the Spirit of God moves the hearts of those who are gathered for worship and that silence, not planning, is one of the surest means of guaranteeing the Spirit’s freedom. “Ever since we were a people we have had a testimony against formal worship, being convinced … that the worship and prayers which God accepts are such only as are produced by the influence and assistance of his Holy Spirit” (The Rules of Discipline of the Yearly Meeting, Held on Rhode Island for New England, 1856). Secondly, the classical way emphasizes a firsthand encounter of the worshiper with God in the context of a strong corporate mysticism in which God speaks to the community through individuals to whom he has spoken.
The setting for classical Quaker worship is plain and simple. Traditional meetinghouses have rows of benches and often, facing them, a few raised benches for elders, “weighty Friends,” and those who feel they may be led to speak—though the right to speak is extended to all who attend. Other meetinghouses often have benches or other, flexible seating arranged in hollow squares.
There is no pastoral leadership; the only prearranged responsibility is the selection of an elder to close the meeting by standing and turning to greet those near him. Elders are also responsible to ensure that the meeting stays within acceptable bounds.
As worshipers come together, they assemble in disciplined silence and “holy expectancy,” waiting—without prearranged singing, Bible reading, prayers, or sermon—for the movement of God’s Spirit. Each centers down in personal prayer and meditation and worship proceeds with mystical communion and with spoken ministry as individual worshipers are led by the Spirit to speak and pray. The meeting is said to be gathered—sometimes without a word having been spoken—when, in Thomas Kelley’s words, the worshipers have become “wrapped in a sense of unity and of Presence such as quiets all words and enfolds (us) within an unspeakable calm and interknittedness within a vaster life” (The Eternal Promise [1966]).
Contemporary Quaker Worship
Today Quaker worship is more diverse than at any other time in its history. Unprogrammed worship is still found, primarily on the East Coast of the United States and in England, among Quakers who tend to hold more liberal beliefs. Most Quaker worship in America—especially among evangelical Quakers—is either partially or fully programmed or structured.
Programmed worship began to be adopted, more for pragmatic than theological reasons, by many Quaker congregations during the nineteenth-century period of revival and renewal in American Protestantism. It differs little, externally at least, from pulpit-centered, congregational, free-church worship. These congregations employ pastors, and their worship includes prearranged music, Scripture readings, prayers, preaching, and occasional brief periods of silent worship. Their meetings for worship tend to involve two distinct movements: the first, often referred to as “worship,” moves from the people toward God, consisting of singing and other music and, perhaps, Scripture reading and prayers. In the second, God speaks to the congregation through the sermon. Those congregations that practice partially programmed worship include a significant time of open or free worship based upon silent waiting, as in classical Quaker worship.
Change in contemporary Quaker worship is shaped to a degree from within as non-Quakers have become active in Quaker congregations. Such influence, understandably, has been quite diffuse.
In addition, there seems to have been two primary outside influences. The first was the free-church worship as found in the nineteenth-century period of revival and renewal that coincided largely with the opening of the American frontier. This influence brought to the Quakers a strengthened pastoral role and emphasis on biblical preaching, a reshaping of the form and content of worship, and a growing openness to the observance of Communion and baptism. Second, the recent praise-and-worship movement has given contemporary Quakers a vehicle—as silence once was—through which to sense and to respond to the Spirit of God in worship. Many churches now utilize extended periods of singing first to focus their attention and then to respond to the moving of the Spirit of God.
The Table
Changing attitudes toward the sacraments represent the most visible and for some the most troublesome recent change in Quaker worship. In classical Quaker worship, all external elements—including words—are secondary to the real experience of the presence of Christ. The sacraments, therefore, are spiritualized and their inward reality emphasized. Visible sacraments are not necessary when one can experience Christ directly in community. For them, communion with the risen Lord does not come through eating and drinking perishable items but through spiritual communion with him through the Holy Spirit. And for them, the only baptism that counts is the inward baptism of the Spirit.
Today, a growing number of Quaker congregations are observing Communion. The practice began nearly one hundred years ago on the East Coast and is spreading today, especially among evangelical Quakers, at an increasing rate. There does not seem to be a distinct, guiding theology at this point, and observance tends to be inconspicuous and infrequent—once or twice a year, apart from regularly scheduled worship services. There is at least one distinctive aspect: While most other Protestant traditions would say that Communion and baptism are not necessary for salvation, they would insist that they are, as ordinances, matters of obedience, hence an aspect of discipleship. Quakers, however, hold them to be optional and therefore not necessary for discipleship. As a result, they may speak of the “elements,” but tend to avoid reference to “sacraments” and “ordinances.”