Quaker Dimension

Upper School Student Perspectives on Meeting for Worship

"Meeting for Worship is very giving and open. Silence is like a friend who just allows me to think in peace but at the same time be in a gathering of a community. Meeting allows me the time I usually don't have in a week to just close my eyes and focus my thoughts inward and spend some time with myself. I think Meeting has grown on me."

"Meeting for Worship is my time for meditative and inner thought processes. It is the only time, within school, that I can be completely alone if I wish or share in other people's thoughts also. Either way it is a time for my choices and my thoughts."

"I sit inside myself looking outward at the diversity of faces around. I feel moved to speak and moved by what is spoken. I appreciate and absorb and ponder all that has been given to me. I give thanks for my restless thoughts that make my heart quiver. I give thanks for where God has put me, that I can sit in this silence, smile, and be educated. I thank God for these people who sit with me."

"A bit of time for all people to stop what they are doing and just sit and think. The angry calm down, the sad feel relieved, the tense relax and life can continue for us with a bit of joy in our hearts. For Meeting for Worship is one of those rare occasions that a person may put his or her life in perspective and, upon doing so, realize that none of the problems are really that bad, that life is indeed worth living."

"Meeting is a release for me. A time to exhale everyday life and inhale silence and new hope."