We invite you to share the hospitality of our Meeting House and to join us in Meeting. Quakers will not define for you their form of Meeting or impose it upon you, but it does involve a discipline. The Meeting asks that you listen attentively, both to the remarkable harmony of the silent waiting and to the ministry of the spoken word which may arise from the silence. We ask you to wait with patience and openness for an understanding of the Friends Meeting.
Speaking arises from a deep religious experience and is preceded by the conviction that this experience must be shared. This is sometimes sensed as an upwelling of the spirit, sometimes as an insight. This is the result of most earnest seeking and is never casual or argumentative. Quaker silence is not an emptiness crying out to be filled but a discipline and contemplative openness to the spirit of God.
The Meeting is a special time away from our worldly concerns, in which we seek together, often in silence, for the strength and light to meet our problems and concerns.
Invitation found at the door to the meeting room of the Westerly Friends Meeting.
