One of the interesting things about a Sabbatical is the challenge of worshipping in other places and in other ways. It is the reason that I always encourage people who go away on vacation or business to find a local place to worship. Sometimes it can make you grateful for your own church! Sometimes it can challenge you in a way your own church never will.
I fulfilled a long-standing intention on this Sabbatical by going to a Quaker Meeting. It seemed that I had been in Buckinghamshire, with its strong Quaker history, far too long without making the effort to attend a Meeting. I thought I knew what to expect. Mostly silence, maybe a few words by one or two present, and a handshake to signal it was all over. I knew that coming from the wordy world of Baptists this might not be easy, or feel very useful or even very Christian.
It was impressively simple to be a visitor (as long as you knew not to speak!). With no music and no interaction, no clergy and no platform, no special clothes and no standing or kneeling it was impossible to get it wrong. How much easier to be a visitor at a Quaker Meeting than your average Christian Church! On the other hand, you left with what you brought. Apart from a two-minute 'Query' (challenging question) read from the Quaker Faith and Practice Book (read after 15 minutes) and 30 minutes later four minutes' comment by a non-Quaker visitor (not me!) applying the Query to the Middle East we sat there, in true Quaker fashion, dependent on our Inner Light. Which would be rough if you visited because you felt in the dark.
To my surprise I discovered that I agree with the Quaker contention that the silence is worship rather than emptiness, though for me this was influenced by access to a Bible in which I could read, meditate on, and understand the voice of God. But every week? What could I do with the New Song that the Scriptures tell me the Lord puts in my mouth?
When hands were shaken and the hour was over I was faintly disappointed rather than, as I had expected to be, relieved. I felt a kinship with these peaceable and silent people even though their hour of worship was like nothing I had ever experienced.
Then, just when I felt we must for ever remain friends but without common experience, the equivalent of the Church Secretary or Administrator stood up, the Meeting for worship being over. And he gave the notices. Familiarity at last! Not just one announcement, not just two, not just three . . . Others chipped in who in worship had remained silent. Seventeen and a half minutes after the hour of silence was over the announcements were finally completed! And that for a body of about thirty Friends. I felt that these good folk would, after all, feel more at home in a Baptist Church than I had ever imagined! And though a Quaker Meeting could find nothing for an organist or a preacher to do, it will always offer an alternative place of service for a Church Secretary.
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