Communion for a Quaker

"The absence from Friends' worship of the outward observance of the Lord's Supper and of baptism is due to emphasis on the reality of inward experience. . . . In meeting for worship at its best, they know direct communion with God and fellowship with one another."

I read through that paragraph in Faith and Practice again, wondering why I felt a little wistful. Isn't that something I liked about being Quaker? No sacramental ceremonies, no solemn rites loaded with symbolism, no words repeated by rote? None of that; just God, me, and the gathered silence of my community in meeting for worship.

Sitting in the familiar, white-walled room where old wooden benches faced inward from all four sides and where large many-paned windows looked out into old maple trees, I had often been held with others in the deep silence of a meeting for worship. There I had known experiences of God's presence. I had felt the Spirit sweep across our group as a Friend would rise to speak out of the silence and I had known the inward movement of the words burrowing deep within me. Together we had experienced the mystery of a Spirit which could overflow into speech for the gathering or guide one silently to a communion of love and compassion, a Eucharist of joy and gratitude.