Quakers have many words for the divine: God, spirit, Goddess, light, life, good. Describing what we feel connected to in our Quaker meetings is not easy – in my case it doesn’t fit any of the descriptions of the divine that I heard as a child, nor many that I have heard as an adult. Nonetheless, I use the word God. I understand the spirit behind all of the words that are used. The words do not define the experience we have, they only describe it or point to it.
I know that some Friends do not want to hear some of these words used. There are those who do not want to hear the word God, for example. Others insist on Christian language.
Many years ago, as a professor of psychology, I used to teach my students about Maslow, Freud, Skinner, Tinbergen, Pavlov, Erikson, Jung, and others. Each of these theorists brought a unique point of view to their understanding of human behavior. My students used to ask which of these theories is correct. The answer is that they are all correct, but they are incomplete. They all result from the discipline and thought of the formulator who was looking at human behavior (visible and invisible, exterior and interior) through their own unique lens. Each brought a part of the truth. The more views we have, the better we understand the subject.
I think it’s like that with Quakers describing the connection that we feel in Meeting for Worship I have no traditional Quaker words for the deep connection that I feel to something that I cannot describe. The closest I can come is to use the words I was taught as a child – the God words. But others have other points of reference, other lenses through which to view and describe this experience that unifies us as Quakers. Sometimes the words others use may trigger old memories or feelings in us – but that’s for us to manage. I believe that we can give the person using those words the grace of letting them use the words that they feel comfortable with and ask for that same grace for ourselves. We none of us have words that can absolutely, correctly, completely capture the power of that connection.
I love the fact that Quakerism is large enough to hold all of our various diverse experiences in Meeting for Worship as well as all of the various diverse backgrounds that we bring to it. I love that Quakerism is large enough to encapsulate all the ways in which we worship. Large enough for the conservative Friends who embrace plain dress and plain speech, for those Friends whose pastors program their worship sessions, for those of us in the calm stillness of unprogrammed worship, and even for the joyous, lively singing and dancing in worship among our Evangelical Friends.
I hope that this can extend to embracing the many and wonderful ways in which we describe whatever it is that we engage with in Meeting for Worship. Words automatically limit what we describe, and these words can only point to something bigger than all of them. No description of our experience is perfect. It is at best an approximation, incomplete.
Until we have new words, we are limited to the old ones in trying to describe the indescribable. All of these words are correct, but they are incomplete.
Each of us has a particular experience of God and each must find the way to be true to it. When words are strange or disturbing to you, try to sense where they come from and what has nourished the lives of others. (Quaker Faith and Practice of Britain Yearly Meeting – Advices and Queries #17)
Photo credit to Pixabay
Brave Spaces 