At the October Earthcare Gathering, I hope to explore “radical worship”.
What happens in Meeting for Worship? This mystery is hard to articulate, but we all experience something meaningful; otherwise, we would not return. Friends often define it as an encounter with the divine-God-light-love. Many Quakers would expand this light to embrace all living beings. This precedes my question:
“Does listening, waiting on, and experiencing this Divine spark mean we can commune and communicate with the natural world, i.e., trees, rocks, streams?”
I want to learn and listen to the wisdom of the Earth as much as I want to listen to “God”. Are they one and the same? Do they feel different? How? If “God” is omnipresent, does this relate to the Earth? What are the qualities of the spirit(s) that live in plants and animals, humans, the Earth, the galaxy?
I would like to explore these questions at the EarthCare Gathering, not in an intellectual way, but through a sharing of our experiences and practices, maybe including art, music, movement, and journaling. I am curious: Do the Jurassic rocks at the end of Exmouth Beach have something to say to me in 2025? What is my relationship with the trees in the park at the end of my road? Are there deva spirits that I can work with? Is the curlew teaching me something today? I have been listening to a book recently in which two women share their experiences by focusing on, for example, a particular plant or body of water in very different landscapes. They go beyond describing them by sharing what they are learning from being in their presence. I am finding this inspiring, and wonder if this would appeal to other Friends? What kind of Quaker gathered worship would this be?
For most of my life, I have been practising Tai Chi. This embodiment practice allows me experientially to feel into the energy of Earth and air, and fill my breath with calm. As I root myself to the Earth and lift my crown to the skies, my balanced body moves in stillness with the growing understanding that the flow of energy inside my body merges with the energy outside, in unity.
However, it is through a Quaker doorway that my compassion for people grows. In Meetings, we minister on what it is to be ‘human’, and the human condition, with all its shortcomings. I appreciate how Friends listen in silence and open their hearts to each other and “God”, resting and grappling in this loving space called Meeting for Worship, aspiring to be spirit-led in our lives. I wonder how sitting with each other during gathered worship is akin to sitting with a river.
Gerry Winnall