Haverford's long tradition of Fifth Day Meeting has been reinvented as Fourth Day Meeting. Faculty, students and staff now come together for reflection at a new time (Wednesday mornings at 9:45) and in a new place (The Philips Wing of Magill Library).
In the Philips Wing of Magill Library, March sunshine pours through towering Gothic windows lighting up the book-lined room where two dozen students, faculty and staff sit in silence with eyes closed. Eventually, breaking the quiet, a young woman speaks from her heart about the lessons in equanimity she has been learning from her elderly grandfather.
Finally, signaling the close of the session, Director of Quaker Affairs Helene Pollock cues up the sweet strains of the hymn“Simple Gifts” performed by cellist Yo Yo Ma and singer Alison Krauss.
This is the new Fourth Day Meeting. Launched in February, the 30-minute long Wednesday morning sessions are a reinvention of Haverford's long tradition of Fifth Day Meeting, which was compulsory for students until 1966. In the intervening years, Fifth Day Meeting has shifted times and venues—moving from Haverford Meeting House to the Common Room in Founders Hall.
“We thought it was time to rethink Fifth Day Meeting,” says Pollock, who wanted to find a way to make this venerable Quaker tradition, in which a group sits together in silence with no pre-determined program, more vital to the Campus community. After checking class schedules and consulting with faculty, Pollock decided a Wednesday 9:45 to 10:15 time slot would afford more students and faculty the chance to attend the sessions, which she sees as building on a Haverford vision of community that emphasizes deep listening and a radical openness to anyone who feels moved to speak. Also new is the music that ends the Meeting. “It's not what Quakers usually do,” says Pollock, who invited Catholic priest, Fr. Ed Windhaus to select the music for another March session. His pick: Gregorian Chant.
To Pollock, the musical interludes, which will be chosen by a different person each week, can help to highlight the diversity of religions and spiritual approaches that can be compatible with Meeting.“We all do something different,” she says.“Some of us pray. Some of us meditate. People craft their own approach. We all can use the silence in our own way.”
