What Is Worship-Sharing?
Worship-Sharing is a topic-specific semi-structured period of Quaker Silent Worship. Usually a topic is chosen in advance which is believed to be both relevent to current events or to Quakerism in general and which will hopefully lead to an experience of worship. The topic is presented to the Worship-Sharing group in the form of a Query. Here is a sample Worship-Sharing query outline based on questions regarding the unfortunate event of 9-11-01:
December 30, 2001
Query for today's Worship-Sharing:
How are we as Quakers, both individually and as a meeting, called
to respond to the current climate of war and terrorism, and how
have we already responded?
Today's Format (based on suggestions from SEYM and on my own
experience of Worship Sharing at yearly meetings [SP]):
1. Gather.
2. Read the Query.
3. Settle into and speak from the Silence.
4. Speak from your own experience.
5. Speak with a respect for time, leaving time for others to
speak.
6. Leave silence between speakers.
7. Prefer to speak about your own personal experience and
feelings regarding today's Query.
8. Further Queries are always welcome too.
9. In order to encourage all to contribute, first we will
take turns going in a clockwise direction for one full
circle.
10. If your turn comes up in the circle, but you do not feel
led to speak, simply say, "pass".
11. Once the circle has gone around once, an opportunity will
be offered for anyone who has not yet spoken to speak.
12. If there is still time, next anyone who feels led to speak
(including speaking for a second time) will be welcomed to
speak, still taking care to leave silence between speakers.
13. Today the last five minutes will be spent discussing how
people felt about using this format for worship sharing,
and also how they might feel about the possibility of
using this or another format for future worship sharing
times.
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