For the last sixteen years, every Monday that the church is open, Monday Night Meditation has been a gathering point for people seeking to experience the Spirit in silence and fellowship, usually in the sanctuary chapel. It’s a wide open group that includes both long-time, practiced meditators and people just beginning to explore silent contemplation. Some think of what they are doing in Christian terms, “waiting on the Spirit”, others come from Buddhist or purely secular perspectives, but the sense of calm and fellowship seems to transcend the labels. Some are there virtually every week, others come when they can, and a few wander in seemingly by accident.
The group grew out of the experience Betty Cole and others in the All Saints congregation had as far back as the 1980’s when she was encouraged to offer contemplative opportunities during Advent and Lent, some connecting social activists with their own needs for inner healing, some enlivening the words of scripture through deep silence and sharing, some using the combination of meditation and inquiry to help people discern vocation in their lives. Having experienced in her youth the many ways Quakers used both group and individual meditation in conflict resolution and group discernment, then developing a Zen meditation practice for many years, Betty was encouraged to see how All Saints people might respond to a weekly opportunity for group meditation as well.
“It’s important to me that the group acts both as a grounding fellowship and training ground for “regulars” AND as a place-holder of the Silence for people who may just stumble in at a given moment. There have been times when someone has arrived on a Monday night not even knowing we were there as an ongoing group, but the sense of healing and refreshment has been like a life- jacket thrown out at the critical moment. I remember a young man who had left home and was lost, literally, having gotten dropped off from hitch-hiking. He came into the church because it was so beautiful, and there we were. He ended up sitting with us for the evening and then I took him to the Metro stop he needed. He just kept saying, “You have no idea what it meant to me that you were there at that moment.” Sometimes we’ve learned only after the fact that people came to the group because they knew that they were dying, or that they were facing a moment of crisis, but the Silence and the fellowship were the healing they needed.
For people just learning to meditate, the chance to work one-on-one with someone experienced in different forms of meditation over a long period of time can be just what they need to find their way. Monthly talks and sharing can give support, as does just sitting together and having the additional energy. Although some may imagine that meditation is just an inward-looking thing, that inward vs. outward dichotomy doesn’t fit real experience. As Eleanor, a long-time practitioner put it, meditation “broadens my perspective on just about everything, deepening compassion and empathy.” In a world characteristically frantic and noisy, the value of an oasis of quiet fellowship in beauty and holy expectation can hardly be overstated.
For more information on the Monday Night Meditation Ministry, visit their webpage.
This article was originally published in the February issue of Saints Alive — our monthly magazine. Visit our Publications Page to read the whole issue … and explore past editions.
