Worship Room (Photo: Emma Hohenstein)

Homewood Friends meet for worship every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. in person and online. See our Weekly Announcements for the Zoom address.

When we meet in person, child care and Sunday (“First Day”) School are provided; children old enough for First Day School generally join adults in the meeting room for the first twenty minutes of worship and then leave for classrooms with their teachers.

In our traditional Quaker worship, there are no pastors, rituals, or programmed activities such as readings or music. Worship is held “on the basis of silence,” so that each worshiper may, in unity with all those assembled, open their mind and heart to the guidance of the divine Spirit. Historically, this has been called “waiting on the Lord.” During the silence, which usually lasts for about an hour, anyone who discerns a call to ministry may speak from the silence. (Friends have never restricted ministry to ordained persons, males, or any other group.) When the meeting for worship has been “gathered into the Life,” those present feel themselves joined together in love, transformed in spirit, and strengthened for service.

The following statement, which is read at the beginning of worship each Sunday by a member of our Committee for Ministry and Counsel, provides a very brief introduction to our way of worship.

Welcome to Homewood Friends’ meeting for worship.

The Quaker experience is that each of us has a measure of that radically loving spirit which guides us to live justly and peaceably. In worship, we enter into stillness of body and mind in order to feel that spirit of love within and among us, to give ourselves over to it, and to discern what it would have us do.

Sometimes during worship, that spirit will lead one or more of us to offer vocal ministry out of the silence. If you are so led today, please stand and speak loudly and clearly, allowing a period of silence after any previous message.

For more information about our worship, please see our “Introduction to Quaker Worship,” a printed copy of which is offered to visitors by our greeters. The following video may also be of help.