The gathered meeting

by Steven Davison

Other authorsCarol Holmes (Editor), Mary Helgesen Gabel (Designer)

Pamphlet, April 2017

Status

Available

Call number

CP 444 c2

Collections

Your library, CP - PENDLE HILL PAMPHLETS

Publication

Wallingford, Pa. : Pendle Hill, 2017.

ISBN

9780875744445

Local notes

Inscription: Carol Holden for Mornington Mtg

Other editions

The gathered meeting by Steven Davison (Pamphlet)

Description

Steven Davison lifts up the gathered meeting for worship as the essence of the Quaker way. He puts it in historical context within the Christian and Quaker traditions and considers the state of the gathered meeting in our own time. While describing the gathering in detail from his own experience, he also quotes Thomas Kelly, William Taber, and Patricia Loring. He explores the “faith” of the gathered meeting and how it fulfills the promises of the Quaker way. Most important, he describes what fosters the gathered meeting. In the holy communion of the gathered meeting lie the soul of the Quaker faith and the hope for a Quakerism that remains vibrant and relevant into the future. Discussion questions included. "Davison lifts up the gathered meeting for worship as the essence of the Quaker way. He puts it in historical context within the Christian and Quaker traditions and considers the state of the gathered meeting in our own time." Steven Dale Davison is a member of Central Philadelphia Meeting. -- Publisher's description.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member QuakerReviews

Davison describes what a gathered meeting is and lays out concrete things we can do to foster this experience of communion in our meetings more often. While it is impossible to fully convey spiritual experience in words, his descriptions may help us to avoid barriers and open to the way toward this

quintessential Quaker experience of a shared sense of presence, knowledge of the Truth, unity, joy, and love. Some of his suggestions for worshippers and meetings may be familiar: come prepared, on time, seasoned by regular devotional practice, deepen the vocal ministry, hold the meeting and each other in the Light; but new and old, they are powerful seen together.
He declares that meetings need to take responsibility for preparing worshippers, with a robust religious education program about Quaker faith and practice, and a meaningful approach to spiritual formation. Rising to this challenge, both as individuals and meetings, can lead us to the distinctive form of spiritual experience that Friends can offer of the gathering presence of the Holy Spirit. And he points out that it is in this encounter that Quakerism remains a living evolving religion.

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LibraryThing member kaulsu

This is a fabulous Pendleton Hill pamphlet. But I must ask: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING to name it after Thomas Kelly's book by the same title? Such a shame.

Davidson did a wonderful job of putting in writing how possible it is to remain open to the Lord, Spirit, Source (name it what you will) in

religious venues that are unlike one's normal setting for worship. I especially found resonance with the notion that "we are all clerks" (25). Just as holding the recording clerk in the Light while contemporaneous minutes are being written produces demonstrably a better record, it would seem to me that Davidson's admonition that we all bear responsibility to listen for the movement of the Spirit, and to help move the body towards the Truth.

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