Julian Meetings

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Hilary Wakeman · 1973 · England

What it is

The Julian Meetings are not a therapy but a lay, ecumenical Christian movement: a network of small, autonomous local groups that meet regularly to share silent contemplative prayer, plus individual members who pray alone. The movement states its aim as fostering the teaching and practice of…

Format

• Two settings that complement each other. Personal daily prayer, and the regular group meeting. The JM says personal and group prayer "should complement and enhance each other".
• The meeting. Usually up to about 15 people, meeting regularly in a home, church, chapel or other suitable place; some meet online or in hybrid form. If a group often has more than a dozen or so, it may split. There is no minimum size.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Organisation. No set leadership and minimal organisation. Each meeting runs itself; two meeting-appointed contacts (First and Second Contact) handle venue, publicity and enquiries and are needed to register a meeting. A Council gives advice. Individual membership is free; attending a meeting does not make someone a member.
• No stages or grades. There are no published phases of progress, levels, courses, teacher certification or initiation. Nothing is taught under confidentiality; all guidance is public.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Health claims. The JM pages consulted make no health or treatment claims. Contemplative prayer should not be presented as treating physical or mental illness; the evidence on Christian contemplative prayer groups specifically is thin.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Collaboration that pressures the client, or confidentiality slips.
• A useful option for clients who find sitting silence too activating.
• Clients feeling their prayer has been taken over or reduced to a technique.
• Over- or under-engaging with religious content to manage the therapist's own discomfort.
• Not pathologising normal religious experience, and not missing illness because content is religious.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.