Meeting for Worship

This scene is a typical Meeting for Worship on an early spring day around 1800 in Old Caln Meeting House, built in Thorndale around 1726. The painting depicts the simplicity of Quaker worship and the close ties the meeting members have with each other born from this unique form of worship. They sit in silence together in "expectant waiting" for one of the group to give what is often a short message or, perhaps the time will pass in the deep silence of a "covered meeting". The essentials of a traditional Meeting for Worship have changed little in the more than 350 years that the Religious Society of Friends has been in existence. The models are all Friends from Downingtown Meeting in period costume. In this painting the artist pushes the idea of backlighting portraits, first explored in his painting of Bel B., by having numerous variations. The open door to the meeting shows a gentle landscape and admits a cool spring morning light into the midst of the worshipers. The two rows of Friends come towards the viewer like enfolding arms.