Facts About Friends(Quakers) #11

What forms of worship are practiced by American Friends?

Two rather different forms of worship characterize American Quakers.
Some groups of Friends gather in silence and expectant waiting, without prearranged singing, Bible reading, prayers, or sermon. Their worship proceeds, rising above individual meditation to a sense of seeking as a gathered group, with spoken ministry only as Friends may feel led to share their insights and messages. Such unprogrammed worship is the usual practice in both the more liberal and the more traditionalist Friends meetings, and it continues in some measure the Quaker way of earlier times.

Other congregations of Friends follow the form of worship practiced by Protestant and Evangelical churches generally, and adopted by many Friends meetings during the nineteenth century, at time of revival and renewal in American Protestantism.