Not a notion but a way

And this [we know] experimentally -

So, what's the problem?

But, what does that have to do with us, you may well ask? All that old +language may be all very well, and give us a warm feeling of in-group-ness when +we hear it, but what does it actually amount to here and now? It may be +interesting in an intellectual sense to hear that historical Christianity and +contemporary Judaism were/are founded on practice, but we're not about water +baptism or attending Mass or circumcision keeping kosher. What's so special +about Meeting for Worship that it can sustain us in unity, preserve the +effectiveness of our business method and allow our disagreements about belief +language to be recognised without fear?

It's simple, readlly. In Meeting for Worship, on a good day, we +experience two things: a presence and a possibility. That's why we keep +coming back, because at some level we know we need to keep having that experience.

What presence? The technical term for it is 'transcendence'. We're not very good at talking about it. We refer to a +"gathered" meeting. We say "Meeting for Worship is not just meditation". We +know it when it happens. It's +elusive, and if we try to pin it down we lose it, that feeling that we are +joined with one another into something more than just our physical co-location. +Accepting that it is "not just me" isn't easy in the resolutely individualistic +culture we live in today, but if there is one item of faith we +must confess, at least to one another, it is the truth of that +experience, joining with and encouraged by 350 years of history and hundreds of +Meetings around the world today.

What possibility? The technical term for it is 'immanence'. We see and +hear it in the witness of those around +us: the possibility of living an inspired life. We recognise it +most vividly in Meeting for Worship, when we hear authentic ministry, 'authentic' because it comes from someone +we know is speaking as they live. It cannot be be faked, it is unmistakeble, +terrifying and uplifting in equal measure. It +calls us to what we aspire to. It is at once daunting (how can I possibly do +what they do) and reassuring (it is possible). These are not celebrities or +distant missionaries, they are each one of us.

Whole books have been written about both of these, I have barely scratched +the surface. My point is simply that this is what we need most to +be talking about, and we don't need to agree about the words in +order to get started, we just have to acknowledge that there is a shared +experience that matters, deeply, to us, and that its reality and +its significance are not compromised by our unsatisfactory +attempts to talk about it.