STRATFORD-UPON-AVON QUAKER MEETING FOR WORSHIP
At the Friends Meeting House, 37, Maidenhead Road, between St Gregory’s Road and Rowley Crescent.
2. May I visit ?
Yes, our Meetings for Worship are open to the public. Anyone may attend.
3. What will I find ?
Geraldine Cadbury gave her bungalow, where we met in her sitting room for some 25 years, to become Stratford’s official Friends Meeting House. It was cleverly converted to give us a large meeting room to seat forty people, a kitchen, a library and a children’s room that can seat fifteen and the usual toilet facilities.
Our Sunday Meeting for Worship starts at 10.30 a.m. so try to arrive at least ten minutes earlier.
On entering the front door you will probably be welcomed by an Overseer, but if not you will see, in the lobby, a notice directing you to the Meeting for Worship in the large room.
You may walk straight in and sit down anywhere. There are no reserved or special seats even for the two Elders who will end the Meeting for Worship by shaking hands at about 11.30 a.m.
4. What is happening in the Meeting. ?
Our Meeting for Worship is an hour’s silent break in the hurly-burly of life. Very occasionally that hour’s silence is not broken until the Elders shake hands. Usually, though, one or more Friends, Attenders or Visitors will rise to speak or to read. The elderly or infirm may speak while seated, but may not be so well heard.
While we are silent we are actively listening to the voice of God within ourselves. Here you will find no symbols to aid your concentration on God’s presence other than a few flowers and books including the bible and Quaker Faith and Practice. You will find no recognisable priest to guide you to God for you are in the company of the priesthood of all believers. You are free in your own silence, privately to lay your soul open to God’s healing presence. You could, of course, do this on your own, but Friends find that doing so together can be infinitely more rewarding as we respond to the needs and spiritual gifts of others. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I also."
5. How do I take part in the Meeting. ?
For the first fifteen to twenty minutes nothing appears to happen. Friends are centring down and reaching unity in the spirit. Start by clearing your mind. As each outward thought arrives rather than dwell upon it lay it aside and try to detect the inner light.
A tramp wandered into Tunbrigde Wells Meeting to rest his feet. After sitting a while he got up and left with the words, "It’s beds you want here not chairs!". He had not detected the spiritual discipline that was going on in the silence. Once you feel part of the gathered silence you may find words welling up inside you "still moist and glistening from the sea of experience"(1), an inward urge to rise and speak these God-given words and you will find yourself a listener as much as when someone else is speaking.
6. How does the Meeting respond to other faiths. ?
Because Friends believe there is something of God in every person we are open to the truth in all its forms and from whatever source it may come. My personal opinion is that the purpose of religion is to unify the family of man. Because people have so misinterpreted the teachings of the prophets and of Jesus this unification has hardly begun. We must all learn to share our revelations, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists. It wasn’t until I was teaching in the Middle East that the divisions in the Christian church seemed so petty and ridiculous.
7. How does the Meeting respond to local needs ?
We are only a tiny group with, presently, ten members half of whom are beyond active participation locally, so our outreach is limited and we are unable to find a representative for Stratford Churches Together. We have organised an occasional Quaker Meeting in the Guild Chapel. We are represented at the Local Agenda 21 Forum and the Stratford Society. We host Amnesty International monthly. You may find our members on such stalls in the town as the Greener Living stall; the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and we contribute to the needs of local disabled children and our hospital.
8. Does the Meeting work with other churches locally ?
To answer this I would like to read two short extracts from our Advices and Queries. The second is from our current version the first from the one it replaced.
Reading:- From the 1968 version, Church Government, part of Advice IV:
As members of the world-wide church of Christ, try to strengthen its witness at home and abroad. The basis of Christian unity lies in a common commitment to the leadings of his spirit. While remaining faithful to our Quaker insights, seek to understand the contributions to Christian thought and action made by other branches of the church. In your own localities, seek to enter into fellowship, prayer and work with your fellow-Christians.
Reading:- From Quaker Faith and Practice 1.02/6 :
Do you work gladly with other religious groups in the pursuit of common goals? While remaining faithful to Quaker insights, try to enter imaginatively into the life and witness of other communities of faith, creating together the bonds of friendship.
Comment:- These may tell you something about our evolving Religious Society of Friends.
Note 1. Quotation from Douglas V. Steere's Swarthmore Lecture "Where Words Come From".
12.IX.2000 J. Philip Morris (Elder) Queries by e-mail to philipmorris@bigfoot.com
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