Silence, Church, and Worship

I enjoy the silence in a church before the service begins And more than any sermon…

Ralph Waldo Emerson Cited in Mystical Hours

Br. Teasdale explains this quote in these words…

“Emerson’s quip wasn’t meant to be disrespectful. 

It is the true sentiment of a Contemplative spirit drawn to revelations and rejuvenating power of stillness, the silence where the divine Presence dwells.

Emerson, the great transcendental mystic, is like the countless ranks of the unchurched, who have left traditional spiritual communities but who maintain a longing for genuine spirituality. Many of these people have experienced substantial tastes of mystical spirituality but find it difficult to attend a church….

Why? Because these institutions fail to give their flocks the spiritual sustenance they need…. Thomas Keating calls silence “God’s Language.’

Emerson was conversant with this language, just as we all may be.”

This was a near and dear dilemma that challenged me all through my ministry, as I had Emerson’s affinity for silence and yet many, if not all of the church worship spaces I had, did not encourage it by their design and structure. 

Now, some of the consternation many ministers feel stands at odds with the positive desire for community building, and for friendships among church members to prosper. Many members look forward to greeting and welcoming one another, however the lack of social space before entering the sanctuary would often present a daunting problem!

Then there are those “tone deaf” members who attend a church gathering, without regard for the mystical and contemplative dimension that I sought to provide in worship. So on more than one…most… Sundays, the lack of quiet in preparation for worship was disheartening and disillusioning…

Admittedly, many people who attend churches that would self describe themselves as more intellectual, more agnostic, more political etc., do not value that sense of silence, or even the presence of anything holy that lives or exists among them!

It might be the reason Emerson and I could tag along with Thoreau and commiserate; seeing that we needed to address our spiritual needs as “outside” interests!

Another complementary perspective is that some of his biographers have stated that “Emerson left the ministry with a yawn” because he realized that the accustomed style of gathering for a church was not conducive to meditation, introspection, or silence. 

Those soulful and often necessary qualities have always acted as the sincere and heartfelt invitations for the Divine to come, be present, and dwell among us and they can be tragically and regularly absent in many contemporary places of worship!