HEARTS AND MINDS PREPARED Meeting for Worship at Friends’ Central Lower School
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1 About Meeting for Worship
8 What is Centering?
2 Values That Guide Our Meeting for Worship
9 What Does it Mean to Reflect?
3 Themes and Topics of the Month
11 How Does Listening Connect Us?
5 Preparing & Developing Skills for Meeting for Worship: Devotions
12 What are Queries?
6 Faith & Play as a Part of Devotions
16 Meeting for Worship Poems
14 Closing Meeting for Worship
Meeting for Worship at Friends’ Central Lower School It is Thursday morning, and Pre-K, first, and second grade students are walking quietly from their classrooms to the Meeting Room. It is time for their weekly Meeting for Worship – 25 minutes of quiet reflection and truth-seeking that are an essential part of life at Friends’ Central School. Quakers believe that one needs to come to Meeting for Worship with “heart and mind prepared” to listen to the “still small voice” of the Spirit within each and every person. At the Lower School, children get ready for Meeting for Worship during Devotions, a daily classroom activity where the teacher may pose a reflective question called a “query,” practice a mindfulness technique, or read a story that illustrates the Quaker-focused Theme of the Month. These classroom moments reflect our ongoing commitment to our Quaker foundations. Our School is enriched and strengthened by weekly Meeting for Worship – held on Tuesdays for students in grades 3-5 and on Thursdays for Pre-K through grade 2. The entire Lower School gathers together once a month for a community Meeting for Worship. The special silence that distinguishes a Quaker service is evident as students and teachers work to still the body and mind and open themselves to the Spirit and to the community. This booklet is designed as a living resource for teachers, parents, and students. We hope to offer ways to prepare hearts and minds for worship through the development of habits, such as listening inwardly, centering, and reflecting. These skills not only deepen the experience of Meeting for Worship but also carry into school life.
“The purpose of Meeting for Worship can be explained in relatively simple terms: we gather in silence to seek a deeper understanding of what lies in our hearts, a greater awareness of the spirituality of life, and a clearer sense of direction for our lives.” – Lee Quinby, The Mystery of Meeting for Worship
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Values That Guide Our Meeting for Worship Quaker Testimonies, key principles that guide Quaker practice and lives, are sometimes grouped into the acronym “SPICES.” This acronym helps children remember them and provides a common vocabulary for all of us at Friends’ Central to use when talking about the shared Quaker values that guide our religious education. In Meeting, we gather and sit together in quiet; we listen Simplicity carefully to center on what’s important. Worshiping in silence is the way to become more peaceful inside, Peace more loving and better able to deal with our problems. – footnote - The Worship Kit by John Lampen
Integrity
I ntegrity is making sure that your actions are true to what you know to be good, right, and kind. – Lower School teacher
feel connected as a school community when we gather Community Wetogether to be spiritually present with each other.
We see and appreciate the Light of God in each Equality and every one of us.
for and respecting our Meeting time together helps Stewardship Caring us care for each other and our world.
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Themes and Topics of the Month At Friends’ Central, we participate in lessons and conversations about spiritual values and principles that help us develop a deeper understanding of our Quaker roots. Each month, we center on a different topic in preparation for Meeting. These themes are present during our worship sharing and in our Meeting for Worship. Below are a few of the themes:
Gratitude
Learning to be thankful for what we have opens our hearts to the Inner Light.
Compassion Learning to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes – deepening our caring and feeling for others “ I let my life speak by taking out my coins from my piggy bank and putting them in my UNICEF box.” - Samantha
Fairness and Justice Knowing and speaking up for what is right
Mindfulness Centering exercises help us to clear our minds and make room for the Spirit. 3
Devotions is a way for us to start the day as a classroom community and to settle into silence and reflection. It is a time when we learn and explore Quaker testimonies, values, and themes.
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Preparing and Developing Skills for Meeting for Worship Learning to use the time meaningfully in Meeting for Worship involves the development of skills such as centering one’s body and mind, reflecting, and listening. We begin each day with a Devotions period – a time in which we can practice some of the spiritual skills and habits of Meeting for Worship. We read stories, practice yoga, talk about the monthly themes, and write reflections. We are always emphasizing the skill of listening to the voice within and to one another. These experiences in Devotions (and at any time of day when it seems right), help children become familiar with the spiritual principles and basic ideas of Quaker practice.
Thoughts About Devotions
How does Devotions prepare us for Meeting for Worship? “Devotions helps my day by calming me down and getting me ready for the rest of the day.” – second grade student “Devotions is a time for being peaceful by listening.” – first grade student “I like Devotions. It allows me time to wonder.” – Kindergarten student “Devotions helps you know what is important.” – Pre-K student 5
Faith & Play as a Part of Devotions Some classrooms prepare for Meeting for Worship through activities like Faith & Play stories. These activities and stories provide moments for children to wonder. They offer students questions and queries and help to further develop the depth of their own journeys, understandings, and discoveries of “that of God.”
“I wonder what I would do if I had the choice to get presents for myself or ... for others.” – third grade student “I wonder if, given the choice of following someone who is my friend and doing something wrong, I would actually do the right thing.” – third grade student “I wonder if I’d help a stranger, or if I’d mind my own business.” – Kindergarten student “I wonder what would happen if everyone picked up one piece of trash in the whole world on one day.” – Kindergarten student
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“Giving the Gift of Friendship” by Ellie
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What is Centering? Centering is focusing
“ Centering is thinking about what you need to do, and knowing you don’t have to do everything at one time.”
– fourth grade student
Centering is paying attention “ In
Kindergarten, mindfulness exercises help us center and prepare for Meeting for Worship.” – teacher
Centering is making a space for listening and hearing “ Sometimes I imagine my brain being a big room full of closets, and I close one closet and open another to set my mind to something like Meeting.”
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– fourth grade student
What Does it Mean to Reflect? “ Reflecting is thinking about what is meaningful to you.” – third grade student
“ When our gym teacher was talking about
being kind, all day I thought about that, and if someone was down, I made the effort to cheer them up.” – third grade student
“ Reflecting is thinking about how you’ve changed.”
– third grade student
“ Reflecting is thinking things through; you might think that you want to apologize to a friend or you might be quietly happy.”
– fourth grade student
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Flower-themed note card created by a Lower School student and sold – with a packet of seeds in each – to benefit the SEGA School, an all-girls’ high school in Tanzania
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How Does Listening Connect Us in Meeting for Worship? “ When people stand up at Meeting, I listen and I feel how happy they are to be at this school.” – first grade student
“ Listening for the Spirit or voice that is trying to lead you to being good.”
– fifth grade student
“ When
it’s quiet in Meeting for Worship, I can believe and imagine things that are normally impossible.”
– fourth grade student
“ The facing bench with Mrs. Dawson and her guitar” - Ani
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What are Queries? Queries are reflective questions that prepare our hearts and minds for Meeting for Worship.
How does Meeting for Worship help me? Why do we worship together as a community? “Meeting for Worship helps me think about love and family.” – Pre-K student “The point of Meeting is to come and listen to God. Your friends are also listening, and you may all be getting different messages so, when you listen to them, you hear God’s messages in what they say.” – fifth grade student “Meeting for Worship makes me feel safe and happy.” – second grade student “We worship together because you can center into yourself, but you are supposed to look into the Light of God in everyone. When you are having trouble doing that, you can use the words of others to inspire and help you.” – fourth grade student
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Gathering for an outdoor Meeting during Earth Day at the Lower School
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Closing Meeting for Worship As Meeting comes to a close, we sing a song and then shake hands with those around us. We affirm our connection to one another and the importance of community in our lives at school.
“ As we leave this friendly place Love give Light to every face; May the kindness which we learn Light our hearts ‘til we return.” – Meeting for Worship closing song
“ I liked Meeting for Worship in the Lower School because when we would sing at the end it was so nice and calming.” – seventh grade student
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“ Shaking hands at the end of Meeting for Worship” - Henry
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Meeting for Worship Fifth Grade Class Poems I see Meeting for Worship when people are silent and calm or focused and thinking I hear Meeting for Worship when leaves are rustling, snow is crunching, or birds are chirping from the top branch of the tree outside I feel Meeting for Worship when I am deep inside myself trying to find the light inside of me I know Meeting for Worship when I walk into a calming place where everyone is silent and still I like Meeting for Worship when people share their thoughts and I can really understand what they feel inside. I like Meeting for Worship when~ I have time to see my own thoughts, to share my feelings without anyone judging me, time to just think. I know Meeting for Worship when~ A brave spirit comes to my mind, And people see things in life I would never see, When I see my old friends and teachers, And peaceful thoughts fill my mind. Each Lower School student creates a “Peace Flag,� and all are hung across the playground for a Meeting for Worship on the International Day of Peace.
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Fourth Grade Class Poem What is Meeting for Worship? Meeting for Worship is a period of time in which everything is still. A moment of silence, if you will It’s not loud Even though there is a crowd What an accomplishment A crowd of children Silent in deep thought
This booklet was created by Chris Ramsey, Kristi Kallam, Robyn Richmond, and Toni Sharp with the support and guidance of the Friends’ Central Lower School Religious Life Committee. We thank Friends Council for the grant which allowed us to represent and document what Meeting for Worship is at our Lower School. The booklet layout is by the FCS Communications Office. 17
Tile mural created by fifth grade students for the School’s International Day of Peace celebrations
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