Reflective Reading and Sharing Workshop

On Sunday, October 28th 2018, Concord Friends Meeting co-sponsored an interfaith event “Sharing Practices of the Spirit: For ourselves, our communities, our world” with Canterbury United Community Church, Shaker Village, and Church of the Woods.  Our meeting led two of the workshops, one of which was “Reflective Reading and Sharing”.  Our Ministry and Counsel Committee created the following introduction for the participants in the workshop.  Two versions in Microsoft Word format are available below: letter-size and ½-letter-size.

Introduction to this Quaker method of reflection and sharing

Traditionally (going back to the 17th century), Friends (Quakers) have read scripture seeking the Spirit that gave forth the written words, rather than literal interpretations.  Friends would read worshipfully and prayerfully, inviting the Divine to open to them the spiritual message in the words.  This was a mystical and transformational discipline.  In more recent years, as we have become more intellectual and accustomed to literary criticism and debate, some Friends have longed to reclaim our earlier, worshipful way of reading.  Though we recognize that there is a place for scholarship, and many of us enjoy intellectual pursuits, we know that spiritual formation is the work of the heart rather than of the head.  The approach we will be experimenting with today has been used among Friends to draw modern worshipers into a meditative experience of reading scripture and other writings in the spiritual ways of earlier Friends.  We invite you to practice this worshipful reading with us.

 

Guidelines for the Process

  1. Basic process:
    1. Read the passage aloud.
    2. Using 4 questions for guidance, reflect individually on it, and write notes on your reflections. 
    3. In small groups we will share reflections using a process Quakers call Worship Sharing*.
  2. About the reflection process:
    1. Friends believe that the Inner Light speaks to each of us.  We are listening to that today.  
    2. This is time for deep listening--we are listening worshipfully to the inner voice.
    3. Expect that this passage will speak to different people in different ways.
    4. There are no wrong, trivial, or silly answers.
    5. This is about YOUR reaction to this passage.  This is about YOUR experience.  Quakers would say “How the spirit is speaking through these words to you.”
  3. About Worship Sharing time:
    1. Share as you feel led.
    2. Allow a brief time of silence between each speaker so that we may reflect on and absorb the precious sharing of all participants.
    3. While others are sharing, give the gift of deep listening rather than responding to or questioning a speaker.  You may think of something that would be very helpful to a speaker.  Save this for after the session.
    4. During the sharing we hope you will discover one of the blessings of this approach—not only do we come to new insights as we reflect, but we receive insights from each other.
    5. We honor each other in this time by listening deeply to the spirit in their words.
  4. Feedback:  The facilitators welcome your feedback on this practice after the session.  But during the session, we encourage you to be fully present in the practice rather than considering what you like or do not like about the practice.

* Worship Sharing:  A group practice in which participants share personal and spiritual experiences, thoughts, and feelings, often in response to a prearranged theme or questions, and in a manner that acknowledges the presence of God, and in which there is no criticism or direct response to what another says.

Extract:

Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center.  Each of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and simplified multiplicity, on one condition—that is, if we really want to.  There is a divine Abyss within us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world.  We have all heard this holy Whisper at times.  At times we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of life, amazing effectiveness of living set in.  But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times.  Only at times have we submitted to His holy guidance.  We have not counted this Holy Thing within us to be the most precious thing in the world.  We have not surrendered all else, to attend to it alone.  Let me repeat.  Most of us, I fear, have not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy Within.  – Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941) from A Testament of Devotion, p. 93

Queries:

  1. NEW LIGHT:  What new light do I find in this passage?  How is the Spirit speaking through the author to me at this moment?

     

  2. TRUTH:  Is this true to my experience?

     

  3. IMPLICATIONS:  What implications does this passage have for my life?

     

  4. PROBLEMS:  What problems do I have with this passage?

     

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