Worship Sharing Queries & Guidelines

 

Worship Sharing is a form of worship that helps us listen to each other in a deeply spiritual, loving, and prayerful way.  Worship Sharing groups focus on particular questions and help us explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation.  It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses, and encounter each other in “that which is eternal.” 

 

Worship Sharing is very much like silent meeting for worship, except that the participants are asked to respond to a query or set of queries on a theme.  The queries you have for your Worship Sharing groups this weekend have been chosen prayerfully, to help retreat participants explore our theme:  Lighten Up:  Sharing Love, Light and Laughter.  We will gather in the same groups for each of the 3 Worship Sharing Sessions we have scheduled.

 

Your convener will read the following guidelines at the beginning of each Worship Sharing:

 

• Take this time to reach as deeply as you can into the sacred center of your life.

• Listen carefully and deeply to what is spoken, not distracted by your own thoughts.

• Do not respond to what anyone else has said, either to praise or to refute.

• Leave a period of silence between speakers to savor what has been shared and keep centered.

• Expect to speak only once, until everyone has had a chance to speak.

• Speak from your own experience.  Concentrate on feelings and changes rather than on thoughts or theories. Use “I statements.”

• Be mindful of the time so as to not take more than your share of it.  You may have many responses to the queries; pick just one or two to share.

• Use as few words as possible but as many as are necessary.

• You always have the option to pass.

• Respect confidentiality, whatever is said in the group stays within the group.

• After centering into silence, the queries for the session will be read out loud.

 

Your group may choose to go around the circle in turn, or invite participants to speak out of the silence, as they are ready.

 

Session 1 (Friday 7:45 pm - 8:45 pm)

 

Sometimes our “cups runneth over” and we have an abundance of love, energy, time, and resources to share with others. Other times we are in deep need and barely have enough for ourselves. How do I experience this ebb and flow in my life, and how do I find balance?

 

What challenges do I face as I seek to lighten my burdens, let go, and allow love to be the first motion?

 

Session 2 (Saturday 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm)

 

As I face my shadows, how does my connection with the Light help move me toward growth and change?

 

In what ways can I be in the moment, add humor into my daily interactions, and take myself and others less seriously?

 

Session 3 (Sunday 9:15 am - 10:15 am)

 

When I hold others in the Light, or others hold me in the Light, how does that affect me spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically?

 

What gives me joy?