Query Tuesday: Speaking Up

Today’s query focuses us on how and when we speak.  This set of questions is really about speaking in worship out of the deep silence.  However, they can provide guidance for our speaking up (or calling shenanigans) at any time.  Quakers call the sense that they must do or say something a leading, and that is what these questions are about.  How do we follow our leadings to speak.

How do I discern the source of a leading?  How do I know when to speak?  Do I hold myself back when moved to speak, or do I trust in the Light to lead me.  Am I careful not to speak at undue length or beyond my light?  Am I aware of a sense of “rightness” after I speak?

Faith and Practice, Intermountain Yearly Meeting, p. 118

For the purposes of speaking up in Meeting for Worship, these questions are clarifying.  For the purposes of speaking in general, they are equally helpful.  These times require that we speak up, not letting injustices and false stories flourish.  I hope the path forged by Friends can be helpful to anyone who needs to speak up.

For more queries from the Inter Mountain Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice, click here.

photo by Geoffrey Whiteway, Freerange Stock