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Friends United Meeting |
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May 2000
Commitments
No Shortage of Power
Vera Dyck's article in this issue, "The Healing Power of Open Worship," reminds me vividly of my own first experiences of open worship among Friends. Back in the summer of 1974, as a new convert struggling to understand the awesome implications of giving my life to God, I looked forward hungrily each week to the unprogrammed worship of Ottawa Friends Meeting.
At the beginning of each meeting, the hour stretched before me like the start of a great adventure. My "Quaker godmother" in Ottawa meeting, Deborah Haight, had told me about the "inward liturgy" which she brought from her time with Anglicans before there was a Friends meeting in Ottawa. So the first few minutes of the hour were taken up with a personal liturgy of Bible reading and intercessory prayer. Then I had to cast off and let myself simply be with God.
I would be lying to imply that what followed was forty-five minutes of serenity! Distractions abounded, ranging from the sweat trickling down my back on hot mornings, to anxieties about whether the Canadian government would give me landed immigrant status (they didn't, by the way, a decision I now can't argue with!), and my upcoming exams. I was grateful for the advice I got from Douglas Steere's writings, to allow the distractions themselves to lead me back to God by becoming the occasions of thanksgiving or requests for divine help. Almost always, the hour was over surprisingly quickly.
Unlike some unprogrammed meetings which complain of too much vocal ministry,
Ottawa Meeting in those days rarely had more than three or four people
speaking during the hour. Some of the speakers deepened my experience
of worship, and others were a distraction, but I was so incredibly grateful
that the freedom was there for all, that there was no script, just utter
dependence on God for the quality of the worship.
The day came when I myself was picked up and set on my feet by the power
of a message given to me. That happened at Downingtown Meeting in Pennsylvania,
around Christmas 1974, in the midst of that season's oil crisis. I had
never once said anything publicly in any religious setting, but there
I found myself talking about the contrast between fuel shortages and the
unlimited power available from God...the same healing and saving power
that flows through every experience of genuine worship, and which I now
recognize in Vera's essay. When I sat down and realized what had just
happened, I really did quake with mingled fear and awe and joy.
In the years since 1974, I've mostly been involved with programmed worship, in which "open worship" is one element among several. I feel completely at home in both programmed and unprogrammed modes, because genuine openness to God's power is an attitude rather than a method. Programmed and unprogrammed worship may look different from the outside, but in either case it is soon evident whether the worshipers are there to be faithful and responsive to the Holy Spirit or are going through the motions of sterile tradition. At their best, both modes can provide the setting where the soul can soar in Gospel freedom, and Jesus can be honored in fresh ways. Both modes can provide the freedom to bring the soul's struggles into the light of corporate confession and prayer. In both cases, the meeting for worship can also lose its vitality if it is not part of a larger pattern of group discipleship that includes biblically grounded education, sensitive pastoral care, and faithfulness in outreach and evangelism.
Jan Wood once challenged a gathering of Friends to be more open about
what happens to us as individuals in meeting for worship. She said that
it was important for us to hear each other's stories of Gospel power.
I hope that Vera Dyck's essay will be an opening for more Friends to testify
to God's healing power in worship.
Johan Maurer is the general secretary of Friends United Meeting.
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