One of the hardest things, in my experience, about
trying to explain Quaker practice to those unfamiliar with it, is
getting down and detailed about Meeting for Worship. Okay, so we sit
in silence, and wait for the spirit to move someone to speak; that
much sounds simple. I've written before, in some detail, with
thoughts on how
to tell if the spirit is moving you to speak. After that, though,
once someone is speaking, how do we understand what has been said in
that spoken ministry? Even assuming that everyone who stands to speak
is genuinely moved to speak, there are several ways to think about
this.
The most obvious one is at one extreme, that these
are genuine, literal messages from God/the Spirit/the Divine/whatever
you're calling it. That the words themselves are chosen for you, and
the speaker is merely a conduit, with no responsibility for what is
said. At the opposite extreme, perhaps the Spirit only gives the germ
of an idea, and the compulsion to share it. Then the words are the
choice of the person speaking, as they try to express an idea,
possibly a very nebulous idea, that has been placed into their mind.
I have spoken to Friends who view ministry at each of those extremes.
As is usually the case, however, when there are
extreme points of view, there's also the possibility of ideas that
lie between them. I suspect that most Friends lie somewhere in that
in-between space, as indeed do I, but there's a lot of variation
possible. Ultimately, however, all such positions amount to something
of the form that ministry is a collaboration between the individual
and the Spirit.
For those with a traditionally theistic view, that
might mean that God and the individual cooperate to produce the final
form of a piece of ministry; to those with a near totally
materialistic view, this might mean that a person's subconscious
“divine” is cooperating with their conscious, rational mind. For
myself, it is a cooperation between the essence of the Divine in the
individual, possibly in some degree of gestalt with that of others,
with the ego-mind – that is, the part of the mind we most readily
recognise as our conscious self – including both rational and
creative parts of that mind.
What do I mean by a collaboration, in the way I
see it? It is not merely a seed planted by the Divine that the mind
works out on its own, as in the most person-focussed extreme
presented above, nor is it the Divine working through a person and
making all the choices of word and phrasing, as in the most
Divine-focussed extreme. It is not that the Divine makes some of the
choices, leaves them there for the person to work through, and
perhaps signals approval or disapproval through some impulse in the
individual. Rather, it is a two-way collaboration; the Divine reveals
more of its contribution as the individual works through it with
their ego-mind.
This fits the observation, made by myself and many
other Friends I have talked with, that sometimes, when one stands to
minister, one doesn't know exactly where it is going. You know what
you're going to say to begin with, and have a general sense of where
the ministry is going, but you don't know precisely where it will go
immediately. In my experience, this is not some power controlling my
mouth when it reaches the unknown parts, but a power directing my
thoughts down certain lines, and leaving it to me to figure out the
hard bits; I do not have to think hard for the words to every phrase,
but sometimes pause to consider how best to put what must come next –
and sometimes, occasionally, a phrase comes to mind to use without
any effort on my part.
I know some Friends will recognise this
description of the experience of being given ministry from their own
experience, and I don't doubt that others will see it differently. As
with so many things, the richness of all of our experiences is
enhanced by the sharing of the differences between those experiences.
But I do not stop here. For ministry is not
limited to spoken ministry in Meeting for Worship. Many of us express
our faith and our religious experience through other sorts of
ministry, whether it is in writing, such as my written
ministry found elsewhere
on this blog, or in action in the world, such as the pursuit of
Concerns for human rights, disarmaments, economic justice, asylum
seekers' & refugees' welfare, or so many other causes that occupy
the time and effort of faithful Friends.
For any such effort, followed faithfully, will
continue to be a collaboration between the person concerned and the
Divine, making use of our own gifts in service of those missions set
by the Spirit and accepted by those acting under Concern, or
otherwise following the leadings of the Divine. For one working in
advocacy for a disadvantaged group, the Spirit will give inspiration
and leadings on where to focus, but rely on that person's gifts to
execute those tasks. The Spirit will strengthen our will and aid us
in persistence, but will make use of our skills and our intellect
where those are needed for the task. Just so, I believe that my
written ministry is inspired by the Spirit, guided by it, and my own
abilities enhanced by the love and power that flows from it – but
my own talent for writing, such as it is, continues to be utilized, a
vital component of the collaboration between the Divine and myself.
