Sunday Meetings: Zoom | Mailing address: 3519 NE 15th Ave. #204, Portland, OR 97212info@clearheartsquaker.org
A Welcoming and Inclusive Community of Friends in Portland, Oregon
What to Expect
Thank you for taking the leap and giving us a try on Sunday morning! We hope this summary helps you feel comfortable with the usual flow of events during a Sunday Meeting for Worship. We are a small meeting, and our worship is unprogrammed in the Quaker tradition – in other words, we choose our own adventure together every week! If meeting in person (we are meeting only on Zoom as of the beginning of May – check the News page for updates!), we have access to the rental space starting at 11:30, will check your vaccination card (for anyone age 12 and up) if you have not yet presented it, and Meeting for Worship starts at 11:45.
We welcome children! We will have quiet-play toys for children to enjoy at tables nearby (within parental view) with a volunteer while we have our silent time together, and we welcome families to bring their children’s favorite quiet toys along, too. Despite the silence of Quaker worship, and our best efforts to create a quiet, contemplative environment, we welcome the sounds children might make! Children are one more reflection of God in our midst, and are a blessing to the community and an opportunity for us to practice flexibility, patience, and radical inclusion.
As we gather, we settle into silence together in expectant waiting. We listen for the guidance of Spirit (God/The Light/The Inward Teacher/Christ, etc.). Queries (questions) are posted as a starting point for contemplation. If someone feels led to share a message with the group, they do so – first discerning whether it is a message that is based in Spirit and meant for everyone. When someone speaks, we listen deeply and hold them in our care, and we wait in silence for a time before someone else speaks. There is no expectation to share, and some Sundays the community might feel most spiritually nourished by mindful, complete silence.
A designated Friend closes the meeting by greeting the group. Before the pandemic, Quaker meetings would typically close with the shaking of hands – we understand that might not be comfortable for some people to resume for a while yet! We follow with brief announcements and sharing Joys and Concerns before enjoying some social snack time together. We hope that you feel free to share songs, crafts, poems, pictures of your garden, or other wonderful and creative pursuits during social time!
We can’t wait to meet you, and are so grateful for your presence.
What to Expect
Thank you for taking the leap and giving us a try on Sunday morning! We hope this summary helps you feel comfortable with the usual flow of events during a Sunday Meeting for Worship. We are a small meeting, and our worship is unprogrammed in the Quaker tradition – in other words, we choose our own adventure together every week! If meeting in person (we are meeting only on Zoom as of the beginning of May – check the News page for updates!), we have access to the rental space starting at 11:30, will check your vaccination card (for anyone age 12 and up) if you have not yet presented it, and Meeting for Worship starts at 11:45.
We welcome children! We will have quiet-play toys for children to enjoy at tables nearby (within parental view) with a volunteer while we have our silent time together, and we welcome families to bring their children’s favorite quiet toys along, too. Despite the silence of Quaker worship, and our best efforts to create a quiet, contemplative environment, we welcome the sounds children might make! Children are one more reflection of God in our midst, and are a blessing to the community and an opportunity for us to practice flexibility, patience, and radical inclusion.
As we gather, we settle into silence together in expectant waiting. We listen for the guidance of Spirit (God/The Light/The Inward Teacher/Christ, etc.). Queries (questions) are posted as a starting point for contemplation. If someone feels led to share a message with the group, they do so – first discerning whether it is a message that is based in Spirit and meant for everyone. When someone speaks, we listen deeply and hold them in our care, and we wait in silence for a time before someone else speaks. There is no expectation to share, and some Sundays the community might feel most spiritually nourished by mindful, complete silence.
A designated Friend closes the meeting by greeting the group. Before the pandemic, Quaker meetings would typically close with the shaking of hands – we understand that might not be comfortable for some people to resume for a while yet! We follow with brief announcements and sharing Joys and Concerns before enjoying some social snack time together. We hope that you feel free to share songs, crafts, poems, pictures of your garden, or other wonderful and creative pursuits during social time!
We can’t wait to meet you, and are so grateful for your presence.
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