In-person Meetings: On Sundays you will find a Welcomer standing by the front door to greet you and show you where to go. Please say if this is your first time at a Quaker Meeting. We can offer you several helpful leaflets to read and take home with you.
Meetings on Zoom: You will be muted on entry to the Meeting and the “Chat” feature will have been disabled. Switch to “Gallery” view so that you can see the others present. If you wish, you may switch off your own video camera.
Our (mainly) silent worship starts as soon as the first person enters the room.
There is no fixed structure to the Meeting. There are no creeds, hymns, or set prayers. There is no minister in charge and no formal service. However, if someone feels compelled by the Spirit to rise and speak, pray, or read, the silence is broken. This “spoken ministry,” though not planned before worship begins, seeks to benefit and enrich the gathered worship. By tradition, a person only ministers once during the Meeting for Worship. Occasionally, a Meeting passes with no words spoken.
At the end of worship, two Friends serving as Elders that week will shake hands to signal the end of Meeting. Some Meetings are followed by a few minutes of “Afterwords” when we may share, more informally, thoughts and concerns that we’ve been holding during the time of stillness.
After worship, visitors are invited to introduce themselves, so they can be welcomed by the Meeting as a whole. We then gather for tea, coffee, and a chat.
A Quaker Meeting is a way of worship based on silence — a silence of expectancy in which we seek to come nearer to God and each other as we share the stillness of the Meeting. Participants are not expected to say or do anything other than join in this seeking.
Do not be concerned if the silence seems strange at first. We rarely experience silence in everyday life, so it is not unusual to be distracted by outside noise or roving thoughts.
No two Quaker Meetings are the same. A Meeting can embrace a wide range of experience. Some people may experience a profound sense of awe or an awareness of the presence of God. Others may have a less certain sense of an indefinable spiritual dimension. We share and respect each others’ experience.
If something is said during a ministry that doesn’t seem to make sense to you, try to reach behind the words to the Spirit which inspired them or simply allow them to be absorbed into the silence. A Meeting is not a debate, so direct responses are not appropriate. That being said, further ministry may build on what has been said before.
If you would like to find out more about Quakers in general, you might like to start with these short and very readable books:
Quaker Faith and Practice (QfP for short) is the ‘core’ Quaker text. It’s a weightier read than the other three titles and is best dipped into according to your particular interest or need. QfP describes what it means to be a Quaker in Britain through extracts from writings of many Quakers from the 17th century down to the present day. It offers thoughts, reflections and advice on the different stages of life and the challenges one may encounter; relationships; aspects of faith; service to the community; upholding peace and equality; and sharing the Earth’s resources. QfP also addresses ‘church government’: e.g. the conduct of Meetings for Worship and procedures for marriages and funerals.
QfP is available online; there are also printed copies in the Meeting House.
All the above books – and many more – can be purchased through the Quaker online bookstore or borrowed from our library.
Woodbrooke, the Quaker study centre, offers a wide variety of courses, mainly online. Topics include Quaker tradition and history, personal spiritual growth, interfaith issues, biblical studies, and working for peace and social justice.
Young adults aged 18-35 can receive a 50% discount on course fees at Woodbrooke and you can apply to Oxford Meeting to cover some or all of the remaining cost if you wish.