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Peace Seeds

Door Keepers

Towards A Global Ethic,
by Elizabeth Oakley Hutchinson

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© The Peace Abbey

Members, friends, supporters and visitors to The Peace Abbey are invited to share one hour of meditation and prayer each Sunday morning in the Quaker room at the Conference Center. It is a time for those who have been involved in the work of peace and social justice to renew, connect and share the sense of peace that comes through gathered silence.

Pacifists, and those striving to deepen their understanding of nonviolence and cruelty-free living are always welcome to join us for the Sunday Service. Our form of worship is conducted in the spirit and style of an unprogrammed Friends (Quaker) Meeting. Though inspired by the Friends, it differs from a traditional Quaker gathering in that after the first 15 minutes of silence, we recite Peace Seeds comprised of the twelve prayers for peace of the major faith traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Bahai, Shinto, Native African and American, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian). As a pacifist community, members of The Peace Abbey have, since 1986, shared silence with the special needs students that attend The Life Experience School. This practice of “sharing silence” is now being extended to the wider community of pacifists in the greater Boston/Cambridge area.

We hope you find your time with us centering, fulfilling and supportive to your desire to be in community with others who see themselves as pacifists -- perhaps in the spirit and tradition of the Buddha, Jesus, St. Francis, Gandhi, Dr. King, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh or Dorothy Day. We come from various or no religious backgrounds, many life philosophies and walks of life. At heart, we share a common commitment to making our lives speak a certain truth about justice, equality, nonviolence, compassion and love.

When you come to the Pacifist Sunday Service, you will be greeted by one of the Stewards. This individual may be a staff person, a commissioned Chaplain, a volunteer, child or adult.

Quaker style benches, a gift from Wellesley College, are set facing the middle of the room. In the center, there is a table with a candle, a bell and an hourglass that is turned once members are gathered to indicate when the hour is drawing to a close. You are welcome to sit wherever you'd like.

We do not have prepared addresses or sermons, nor do we subscribe to the notion that religious services need to be led. The responsibility for the gathering belongs to all. We sit in silence, which grows deeper as it progresses, seeking to open ourselves to the spirit of God, and to know one another in that which is eternal, universal and hopeful. The meditation is unguided in total silence. After approximately one hour, the gathering adjorns with the chiming of the grandfather clock followed by announcements. The National Registry for Conscientious Objection is made available for signing. Tea and refreshments are shared in the kitchen through the generosity of volunteers.

On the 2nd Sunday of each month, half way through the hour, attenders gather at the Peacemakers Table to pass the Assisi blessing bowl to wash and dry one another's hands.

Visitors are invited to tour the Abbey buildings and grounds and visit the animals in sanctuary. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to speak to one of the Stewards at the close of the gathering.

DOOR KEEPERS

We stand by the door. We neither go too far in, nor stay too far out, the door is the most important door in the world - it is the door through which men and women walk when they find God.

There is no use in our going way inside, and staying there, when so many are still outside and they, as much as we, crave to know where the door is. And all that so many ever find is only the wall where the door ought to be. They creep along the wall like blind beggars, with outstretched, groping hands . . . feeling for a door, knowing that there must be a door, yet they never find it, so we stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world is for men and women to find that door - the door to God. And the most important thing any person can do is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands and put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks and opens to one's own touch. So many die outside that door, as starving beggars die on cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter - die for what is within their grasp. Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it, and open it, and walk in, and find God . . . So we stand by the door.

Go in, great saints, go all the way in - go way down into the cavernous cellar, and way up into the spacious attic - it is a vast and roomy house where God is. Go into the deepest hidden casements, of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood. Some must inhabit those inner rooms and know the depth and heights of God and call out to the rest of us how wonderful it is. Sometimes we take a deeper look in, sometimes venture in a little further; but our place seems closer to the opening . . . so we stand by the door.

We admire the people who go way in. But we wish they would not forget how it was before they got in. Then they would be able to help the people who have not yet even found the door. You can go in too deeply, and stay too long, and forget the people outside the door.

As for us, we shall take our old accustomed place, near enough to God to hear him and know he is there, but not so far from men and women as not to hear them and remember that they are there, too.

Where? Outside the door - thousands of them, millions of them. But more important for us - one of them, two of them, ten of them, whose hands we intend to put on the latch. So we shall stand by the door and wait for those who seek it. We'd rather be doorkeepers ... So we stand by the door. We stand by the door.

These words, written by Samuel Moor Shoemaker, are dedicated to those who devote their time and energy to serve as door keepers at The Peace Abbey.