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What Happens in Meeting for Worship?

Our Meeting for Worship is an "unprogrammed" service.

We enter the meeting room silently.  Our first task when worship begins is to center down, to still the clamor of the world, to turn our attention to the inner voice. This process may take 20 minutes or even longer.

You will find that there is no program, no prepared prayers, sermons, or readings and no one “in charge” to tell us what to do next.  Instead we listen as attentively as we can for leadings of the Spirit. If a leading comes, we speak the message into the silence.

One way to know if you have had a leading of the Spirit is to query any message you may have an urge to deliver. Is it meant for you alone?  Is it better kept until announcements at the close of meeting?  Should it be seasoned just a little longer?  If it passes those tests, speak; if not, remain centered in the silence.

After each message we return to the silence.  It is essential to allow a space to open up between messages.  Re-centering after each message maintains the spirit of worship and allows each message an unhurried, thoughtful hearing.

Meeting ends when the Clerk signals that the hour is accomplished.  Then we share handshakes, names, and announcements.  The rise of meeting is a time for brief socializing before we head home to face another week.

Worship is a special time in the midst of our worldly concerns to seek together, often in unbroken silence, for God’s will and guidance.  Each meeting is an adventure.  We hope you will find with us a deeper awareness of what Friends for three hundred years have called the Inner Light, the Light of Christ, the Seed, and that of God in everyone.

 
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Meeting for Worship

We welcome everyone to join us at 11:00 a.m. each First Day (Sunday) for silent worship at our new meeting house.

Memphis Friends Meeting is a member of the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association, Religious Society of Friends, Friends General Conference

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