wall of sound

Whenever I get to Meeting, I go in and the room is silent. Sometimes, there is a commotion outside, because people are coming in, removing coats and greeting each other.

But, even with all that noise, there is a sense of purpose in the silence, whether it is a Meeting for Worship, Business, Threshing or Clearness.

So, going into the large Meeting Room on Sunday morning, ten minutes before the official start of a Britain Yearly Meeting session, I was surprised by the tumult, a great commotion, as I walked up the stairs and into the east gallery.

Were Friends not upholding the Meeting, each other and the clerks? If they were, they were doing it among 150 voices, chatter and noise.

It was my first ever session of Britain Yearly Meeting, so I do not know whether it is always like this. Is it?

Almost on the dot of 9:30am, when the session was timetabled to start, a hush rushed across the hall. It was as if a naughty class suddenly stopped, realising that the feared teacher was about to walk into the room.

When the clerks came in, I wondered, did they feel that we were not, as a Meeting, upholding them?

When you hear people grumbling about how the session went, do you ask them if they were there with their heart and mind prepared?

Or, am I wrong? Is this the usual way for Quakers to uphold each other?