Mercy Nasenya Miroya is a Quaker from Kenya, who visited Bull St Meeting last year as part of a tour for young adult Friends, organised by Friends World Committee for Consultation.
Mercy has contributed an article ‘Listening for Life in the Silence’, to the blog ‘Voices from Silence’. The article partly reflects on her experiences of different forms of worship from that tour:
“I did not come to silence because I was seeking stillness. I came to it because life around me was loud.
Quakerism has different flavours; the programmed, unprogrammed and the evangelical. I continue to worship in a programmed meeting here in Kenya, a tradition that has shaped my faith through spoken prayer, preaching, and communal song. These forms remain meaningful to me. At the same time, through my involvement with Friends beyond my local context, I have encountered Quaker silence many times across different spaces, gatherings, and practices. Each encounter has deepened my understanding of what silence can hold.
My first experiences of extended silence unsettled me. Sitting together without an agenda, without instruction, and without anyone directing the moment felt unfamiliar. I noticed the external sounds first: the shifting of bodies, distant traffic, birds outside. Soon after, I became aware of the noise within myself: restless thoughts, expectations, and anxieties. I learned that silence is not empty. It is attentive. It asks something of us. Silence has not replaced my programmed worship. Instead, it has become a complementary practice: one that has quietly shaped how I listen, discern, and respond, both within and beyond meeting.”
Voices from Silence is a monthly blog featuring personal stories of engaging in silence by practitioners from the Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and Black and Indigenous Peoples of Colour (BIPOC) communities.
It is shared by Seeds of Silence, a Christian project that helps people to explore how a prayerful discipline of silence can deepen their relationship with God, with themselves, with other people, and with all of creation.