WELCOME!   We invite you to Merion Friends Meeting and hope that you will join us in our Meeting for Worship (Sundays, 11 am - 12 noon). A Friends Meeting is a supportive community for its members, but we also consider a it to be a spiritual resource for the community at large. You may come as often or as infrequently as you wish.  you may come with no other preparation than a willingness to join us in silence, with openness to allow the Inner Light to inspire and perhaps to change you.

Here is what you can expect when you come to Merion Friends Meeting for the first time. Depending on when you arrive, you may be greeted by someone who will help you get settled.

If the worship is already in progress, you may be entering a very quiet space, which can feel like you are interrupting. Please come on into the Meeting House, and find a seat anywhere you like, whenever you have arrived. There are no special seats or designated areas.

Then, join the  group as we settle into silence, with no pastor, no music, no order of service, not even any formal process to begin the meeting itself. We gather and wait together, seeking to feel the presence within of the Living Christ -- "the true Light that enlightens everyone." 

Anyone in the meeting may be inspired to share aloud a message, a prayer, a heartfelt concern. Sometimes no one will be led to speak. Even a wholly silent meeting may leave us deeply moved and closely gathered.

The flowchart below, attributed to Stan Thornburg, provides guidance about whether it is appropriate to speak during Meeting for Worship.

The close of the Meeting for Worship is signaled when we turn to one another and shake hands, both to thank each other for joining in worship and to remind ourselves that the community we have felt there continues throughout the week. A member of the Meeting has been appointed to keep track of time and signal the close of Meeting.

We hope that you will feel drawn into the love and power of God when you visit. If you have comments or questions about Friends, about our beliefs and testimonies, and about the meeting or the meetinghouse, any one of us will gladly talk with you at the close of Meeting for Worship.