Moment of Silence
Jason Evans, a Quaker from Brighton, noted the concept of Creative Suspension in the book Gentle Action: Bringing Creative Change to a Turbulent World and was struck by its similarity to the “moment of silence” that occurs during a Quaker business meeting.
Here is his explanation:
“For Quakers, the whole of life is sacramental and the silent worship in our meetings is intended to extend into everyday life. What this means is that business meetings, our meetings for church affairs, are held in the same prayerful stillness that we have experienced in our worship. Indeed the full name for our business meetings is “meetings for worship for business”. In practice this leads to a finding of unity beyond consensus, what we call the “sense of the meeting” which is much more than the majority rule found in other spheres of life. Because it is rooted in silence and stillness, the “moment of silence” is familiar to the process from the outset and if conflict does arise it is common practice for a Friend to ask for a moment of silence to consider the views of those whose are not our own. In our book of discipline, (really discipleship), we are encouraged to consider that we may be mistaken and that new insights may come from unexpected sources.”
8 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Christine Egger, February 20, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
Another reason to be grateful for this new blog. Thank you for this post, David.
You’ll enjoy knowing that Peter Deitz has a long history of working with and among the Quaker community. A recent Social Actions team meeting included a moment of silence to appreciate the contributions of all of the people involved in the Social Actions initiative. It was both powerful and calming at the same time. A wonderful practice.
By F. David Peat, February 21, 2009 @ 11:28 am
Christine
Thank you for this comment.
“Silence is golden”
By Gordon Shippey, February 24, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
There is a strong quaker presense in the north of england too in fact my home town of Middlesbrough was started by a Quaker from Darlington!
By ron ritter, March 1, 2009 @ 5:05 am
what a wonderful arrangement this is and
to take this into our normal lives would be amazing. of course we are reaching into the stillness of our consciousness where all the answers await us
By Harriet Mall, March 5, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
The beauty in Gentle Action is the power that is contained and available to all of us. I appreciate what Ron wrote: “reaching into the stillness of our consciousness where all the answers await us” The context of “creative suspension” provides the place for the development/birth of what is to come; akin to a midwife, waiting for what will be born.
With great gratitude to you David!
By David Peat, March 6, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
Thank you Harriet.
Yes, the midwife is a good metaphor.
It has also been used in a different context by the “Chalice of Repose” who work with the dying via harp music. Sometimes they refer to their work as sacred midwifery because they see the subtle of the spirit leaving the gross of the physical body and being reborn.
By Michael Bischoff, March 19, 2009 @ 2:45 am
I’m currently reading and savoring Gentle Action. I’m a Quaker, and I’m currently studying the integration of spirituality and organizational life. As a part of that, I’m very interested in how the Quaker practice of “sense of the meeting” can be translated into non-religious organizations. As I’m explore this, I’m putting some writings and videos about the topic on this blog: http://spiritofinstitutions.blogspot.com/.
Thank you for the book, and for doing this blog. I look forward to following it.
By F. David Peat, March 19, 2009 @ 3:52 pm
Michael
Thank you for your post. I hope that readers of this Blog will visit your own blog.