Silent spaces

The Rev Roddy Hamilton considers the power of silence in worship.

IN previous articles we have begun to think about worship beyond the church building and in her community.

As the church shrinks, and we focus much more on ‘mission’ in everything we do, which in real terms is just trying to keep the church going, we perhaps waste an opportunity to make the faith, and encounter with God, more democratic and open to more people. With mission, we keep control. Worship is bigger than that.

Maybe we have to let go a lot, recognise we are broken as an institution, and take some of what we do on a Sunday in worship, into our communities more. What I mean is, how might we offer some of the elements of our worship in ways that invite folk to explore that which can bring meaning, and offer moments that speak deeper, without having to find these in church? How might we resource our communities with spiritual, sacred and meaningful spaces designed for encounters with God?

Over the next few months we’ll think about some of these, but the first, perhaps, is the whole idea of silence and silent spaces within our neighbourhoods.

In the congregation where I minister, we used to begin worship with words such as, “Let us hold silence and centre ourselves for worship”. But I realised that silence doesn’t preempt worship, it is worship itself. And the congregation knew that before I did as in any worship discussion the one response that could be guaranteed to arise was the request for more silence: silence following the reading, silence after the reflection, silence within prayers. These were times to free us into our own unique encounter with God, the world, the story.

Of course the Quakers are way ahead of us in realising the democratising power of silence. Taizé too, who offer long periods of silence to hold a thought, a prayer, a word, collectively, for silence isn’t necessarily an individual thing but powerfully shared in times such as Remembrance.

In silence we open ourselves to the uncontrolled encounter of spirit and mystery, where our questions and our priorities come to the surface and are exposed and presented to that which is bigger than us. No clergy should want to define or limit that.

Thus, how might we share the profundity of silence in an encounter of God more widely beyond the church? As a church how might we resource our neighbourhoods in inviting people to find the silent spaces where we all live and recognise it as a place of worship and encounter? In other words, how might we create a legacy for our worship in our communities, as buildings, designed for that worship, close? Peace gardens, labyrinths, installation art, story boards, meditation spaces, walks with QR codes (whatever level of technology) might be beginning places. That would be worth a conversation – a faith community finding and creating sacred space beyond the church building that invites an encounter with the sacred.

In addition, might we create new rituals for grieving, celebrating, loss, remembering, to name a few, where we offer a way into silence, and freely give away these rituals to our communities to partner folk in these times?

Maybe our imagination of mission can expand to offer these gifts of worship and encounter beyond the church traditions as legacy and love. ¤

The Rev Roddy Hamilton is minister at Bearsden: New Kilpatrick