Our Meetings

In a Quaker meeting for worship, everyone sits in a room where the benches or chairs face each other. This helps us hear each other and demonstrates we are all equals, all part of a shared community. A meeting is usually an hour long. You may enter the space at the start of the hour and take a seat wherever one is available. You can wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing. The silent, waiting worship begins as soon as the first person enters the room. A designated person may make an announcement or give a reading at the beginning of meeting. Otherwise, we sit together in silence to settle our minds and connect to something greater than ourselves. In the quiet we open our hearts to new insights and guidance. We listen for a message from our inner voice (AKA God, Spirit, love, the Light, Jesus, the divine, the eternal...). Occasionally someone is moved to share a message heard from that inner guide. If someone does feel divinely moved to speak, we listen and consider the message, and leave a space of silence afterward.

At the end of the hour, that designated person  close the meeting for worship by shaking hands with their neighbor. Announcements, afterthoughts, and requests to be held in the Light (prayer requests) may follow. Many meetings offer a coffee/social hour after worship; feel free to grab some coffee, tea, or a light snack.

Most of the NYC meetings hold this kind of silent, unprogrammed worship. Manhattan Meeting holds a programmed worship service that's led by a pastor and incorporates readings, music, and spoken messages in addition to a period of silent worship.

Most of the Quaker meetings in NYC are unprogrammed, which means worship is mostly silent and not led by a pastor. “True silence is the rest of the mind,” William Penn, a famous early Quaker, wrote, “and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.” The goal of this silence is to make ourselves more receptive to divine revelation. We sit together in silence so we can quiet our minds and connect to something greater than ourselves. In the quiet we open our hearts and lives to new insights and guidance. Sometimes we are moved to speak, to share what we have discovered. These pieces of vocal ministry are sometimes called "messages."

For most Friends, a message is something spoken in Meeting for Worship which has been inspired by God/spirit and which comes to us only after silent searching and waiting expectantly in the Light. Everything else is mere talking. From quaker.org: "Not everyone will feel led to share a message at any given meeting; some days, nobody gets the spiritual or metaphorical tap on the shoulder. People often wonder how they will know if it happens to them—one person might experience a leading as a thought that won’t go away, no matter how much they try to set it aside; another person might encounter Spirit as a voice only they can hear; still another might be contemplating a page of sacred writing and have a sentence seize their attention." Friends at worship should leave space between messages. A message should never be directed to a specific person (or given in response to a previous message). It is meant for everyone present.

No. There is a tradition of "non-theist" Friends who interpret Quaker concepts and practices in secular ways while still participating in communities that embrace the values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.