From Silence To Service

Here's a Quaker joke. A Friend takes a non-Quaker to Meeting for Worship. Everyone is sitting quietly with heads down and eyes closed. After five or ten minutes of continued silence the visitor becomes increasingly restless and puzzled. He nudges the Quaker and asks in a loud whisper, "When does the service begin?" The Quaker replies, "The service begins when the worship ends." Not exactly a knee-slapper, but then Quakers have never distinguished themselves as humorists.
The point of the story is that for Quakers there is a direct link between worship and service to others. The search for truth, which begins in contemplation, finds expression in action.

- Robert Lawrence Smith in A Quaker Book of Wisdom