Freedom Friends at FGC Gathering

Well, it figures that I'd be adding another post here or there as I remember other significant meetings and events that happened at the Gathering.

(FYI, on this blog's home page, on the lower right-hand side, there is now a listing of Gathering-related posts.)

On Wednesday night of the Gathering, during the evening's picnic dinner, I was wandering around the field looking for just the right conversation to join, when I heard someone call out--

Hey, that must be Liz Opp!

I looked toward where the voice was coming from but didn't recognize the faces who were there, so I kept on walking.

But something drew me back to that spot just two or three seconds later.

"Did someone here just call out, Hey, that must be Liz Opp?" I asked.

And then a woman responded,

Yeah, I did. I'm Peggy.

The look on my face must have told her I was clueless, and as I was taking in the scene of this unfamiliar woman wearing black cowboy boots and her head resting on a motorcycle helmet, she added,

Peggy of Freedom Friends, Peggy Senger Parsons.

Ohhhh, Hello!!

So then I was introduced to clerk Alivia Biko and I took a seat to listen in on the conversation.

I don't remember much of what was said, but at one point, I turned to Peggy and told her I was looking forward to attending the session the next day when she and Alivia would be speaking about Freedom Friends.

She wondered what I was talking about.

I couldn't tell if she was serious or not, so I decided to err on the side of taking her seriously. I pulled out the paper that had a list of FGC outreach events and pointed to the one that said Friends from Freedom Friends Church would be speaking about their experience.

Well, whether or not they knew ahead of time that they were scheduled to say something about Freedom Friends Church, Peggy and Alivia were great the next day in how they asked us to participate in a worship service in the manner of Freedom Friends.

The room was set up in concentric squares, and Peggy and Alivia spoke out of the opening silence about the attenders and visitors who come to Freedom Friends, their own history among Northwest Yearly Meeting and their departure from it, and what we as attenders of Freedom Friends might expect to experience during the course of worship...

I liked hearing about the use of a box full of pieces of paper that have a significant quote, query, or advice on them, that worshipers could draw from, pick one out, and contemplate it during worship. I also liked that worship starts with a description of what Freedom Friends are about, especially since most attenders there seem to find the church through the internet. It takes the guesswork out of what these particular Friends believe and how they worship.

Then we moved into a period of sharing concerns and joys, with Peggy wrapping up that sharing time with vocal prayer.

I don't remember some of the other programmatic things that were talked about, or the opening song we started with, but I remember that the period that is typically used for open worship was, for this particular session, reserved for Alivia and Peggy to speak out of the silence about their own journey and leadings to establish Freedom Friends.

Somehow, hearing each of their stories helped me understand a teeny weeny bit about programmed, pastoral Friends churches. I had not known, for example, that among EFI churches, there can be Friends who travel in the ministry, which had been a part of their story.

What struck me was Peggy's and Alivia's integrity and sense of call. Here are two Friends, striving to be faithful and obedient, living up to the measure of Light they have been given, one day and one worshiper at a time.

What also struck me was that the manner of worship for Freedom Friends is not one that would work for me, but it clearly works for others. And the same can be said for the unprogrammed manner of worship for liberal and Conservative Friends, that it works for some but is not for everyone.

Towards the end of our time, Chris M. lifted up the question, Do either of you, Peggy and Alivia, have a message on your hearts for those of us here?

We fell into worship, and after a couple of beats, Peggy offered this:

There are embers smoldering among us, and they need to be blown on.

We sat motionless and held that ministry for just a while longer before other comments were addressed. Shortly after that, I needed to leave as part of a mini-exodus: a number of us were headed to a meeting related to next year's Gathering.

It is now very clear to me that Freedom Friends Church is indeed "passionately Christ-centered, passionately Quaker, and passionately inclusive." I was glad I could make it to this particular session.

Having met and heard from these two passionate Friends, I'll now read Peggy's Silly Poor Gospel with a different lens. Thanks, you two, for making the trip to Tacoma. And thanks to the faithful Friend in FGC who helped smooth the way for them.

Blessings,
Liz

Tecnorati tag: fgcgathering06

After the 2006 Gathering

This year, my experience at FGC's summer Gathering was so-so. Nothing compared to last year's Gathering, in which I led a well-received workshop and found opportunities to connect with and worship with young adult Friends.

Still, there are some highlights worth mentioning, the most significant of which is the interest group about Quaker renewal and Convergent Friends. (Robin M. has a fine definition of Convergent Friends, by the way.)

On Fire! interest group

On Sunday night, the evening before the interest groups were to be convened, Robin M. and Martin Kelley and I got together to consider how we might set up and organize the On Fire! interest group. We had an energetic conversation, just the thing I needed to get stoked and fired up for the next night's event.

Robin had put forward the topic for a round of introductions, suggesting "Name one spiritual discipline or practice you use that brings you joy or somehow sustains you."

Then it was suggested that this be carried out in a "worshipful frame," so that Friends would be less likely to take the time to explain why that practice was significant to them. Since more than 40 Friends attended the session, introductions could easily have expanded to fill nearly an hour of time, so we did well to set the expectation that (1) the sharing be brief and that (2) we take time between each person's introduction to receive and "absorb" what was shared.

Martin, Robin, and I also agreed that we would start with a decent amount of worship and then share our own stories of how we came to lend our voice to the growing movement among Friends for a renewal of certain practices and a convergence among the branches.* What ultimately emerged from our own sharing was that we had set the stage for others to share deeply as well.

I don't know what I had been expecting--a few questions about our life as Quaker bloggers? a challenge about how Quakerism can't or shouldn't be brought into a venue such as the internet?--so I was delighted to hear from others about their own experience in having navigated, traversed, and transcended the schisms that typically keep us Quakers in our own geographic and theological boxes.

There was a reference to the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theological Conference, for example, which appears to be scheduled for September 2006. (Sadly, my Google search did not turn up a decent website for this conference.) And there were other stories of how the Living Christ has brought Friends together in small and large ways.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

A side note: Of the three of us who convened the interest group, I would say I am the least "convergent" of us. That is, I am still establishing and strengthening relationships with liberal and Conservative Friends who believe in Christ Jesus, and have not ventured very far afield in exploring relationships with Friends from EFI or FUM.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

After so much talk of and witness to the power of Christ in our journey among Friends, the concern was raised that we not turn into a "Christian glee club." Clearly there were more stories to be shared and questions to be asked and answered, but instead we found ourselves falling into a deep and gathered worship.

I can only point to how well Martin, Robin, and I had come to the interest group "with hearts and minds prepared," and how most of us in that room shared a belief in the ability to know God directly when we stop and listen together out of worship.

It was hard to break worship and close our session, but as Martin has written elsewhere, the cell phone of a Friend--who was giving vocal ministry at the time--went off. We had a good chuckle, the Friend rather hurriedly finished the message and abashedly sat down, and Martin offered a beautiful segue by articulating that we ourselves had not broken worship yet it was time to go.

It was clear that Something was among us that had moved us into a deep place that night.

Martin then invited Friends to continue our conversations throughout the week, adding that there would be an informal gathering with young Friends that night who were offering and/or participating in other interest groups--one on FGC's new Youth Ministries Program and another on the 2005 World Gathering of Young Friends.

Intergenerational meet-up afterwards

On Martin's suggestion, a number of us wandered over to the prominent clock tower on campus, and got into a wonderful intergenerational conversation with about 20 Friends, including a handful of bloggers. At first we shared how our respective interest group experiences went... and then we started talking about the state of FGC's age-segregated Gathering.

One Friend commented on the difficulty of bringing us together in an intergenerational community when there are concurrent activities that clearly break us up along age lines--such as having an interest group dedicated to young Friends, which was occurring at the same time when fFriends of young Friends were conducting other interest groups!

There were other comments about how well certain yearly meetings were doing in embracing and integrating young Friends, too, which were valuable affirmations to hear.

And then came a question that I couldn't have anticipated:

Why don't older Friends talk to us? asked a young Friend.

We fell into silence, holding that question. It was a question I felt called to answer.

I'm afraid of you, I answered plainly. I don't want to intrude, so I hang back and give you space. Plus, I had such a miserable time in middle school and high school--I wasn't surrounded by Quaker teens and supportive Quaker adults--and I am only now beginning to have some healing about that. I don't know how to connect with young people because I've gotten older and my life is so different now. Plus I don't always know how to invite you into things that other adults at Meeting are talking about...

I don't remember what else was said after that, but I remember feeling grounded and cared for after having spoken.

We were under that clock tower for an hour or hour and a half, when I discovered that yes, the Pacific Northwest does have mosquitoes. But that meet-up was another highlight of my time at the Gathering.

So much to do, so little time

The Gathering was so incredibly FULL this year, probably because it was one day shorter than it usually is. FGC was concerned that east-coast Friends wouldn't come if they didn't have an extra day to travel... (Never mind that many east-coast Friends still did not come, but many more western US, Canadian, and Alaskan Friends did!) So here is a list of things I didn't squeeze into my schedule, for one reason or another.

The forum and follow-up discussion on the continued concern about the status of the Quaker sweatlodge workshop.

The meetings for worship with attention to healing racism.

The noon sings.

Hearing Kody sing at the Lemonade Art Gallery.

A number of films that were shown during the week.

Meetings for Worship with attention to Business, for Friends for LGBTQ Concerns.

And impromptu conversations that probably happened at the main dining room, where I visited only one meal a day, late in the evening.

Oh well. There's always next year, in River Falls, Wisconsin!

Blessings,
Liz

*Be sure to look at a related post and great comments about what Convergent Friends may and may not mean.


UPDATES, ongoing:

1. Photo of bloggers at the interest group

2. Other posts about the 2006 Gathering:

Paul L reflects on many good things that happened there

Rebecca writes about a Meeting for Worship on the train

Robin M. describes how we set the stage for a firey interest group

Martin adds his take to the interest group... and creates a list of Gathering-related posts at the end of his entry, too (my list and his list are slightly different, fyi)

Timothy wonders about the use of the word 'Convergent' at the interest group

Pam questions the format of Gathering workshops

Technorati tag: fgcgathering06

Interest group at Gathering

Life has been crazy-busy for me, in between the trips I am taking. So, in preparation for FGC's Gathering and before my last few minutes of free time are taken up by some other silly thing I remember needs doing, I thought I'd share this with you:

Fellow Quaker bloggers Robin and Martin and I have plans to convene an interest group on Monday night at the Gathering. Thanks to Beppe for his early input and support for this idea.

Here's the interest group's title and description. I believe a list of interest groups will be included in the registration packet that Friends receive on-site.

On Fire! Renewing Quakerism through a Convergence of Friends

Excited by the renewal of classic Quakerism? Want to reclaim traditional disciplines and language that seem on the brink of being lost? Interested in new forms for a living faith? We'll share how we are communicating across Quaker schisms and addressing our spiritual hunger as Friends. Hosted by Friends from QuakerQuaker.org.

Perhaps we'll see some of you there... if not on Monday night, then other times during the week.

Blessings,
Liz

UPDATE, Sixth Month 2006: Martin has asked me to "tag" this post so it will become part of what I think of as an online archive about the 2006 Gathering. So here 'goes: fgcgathering06.

UPDATE, Seventh Month 2006: To read some of what happened during the interest group, take a look at this post-Gathering entry.

Bearing witness in a commercially-run household

This week my partner and I have been in south Florida, visiting our 5-year-old niece and her folks. I am beginning to think of our visits as an opportunity to bear witness to a different way of being in the world, compared to what Madison is exposed to here, and how we live our own lives as Friends.

Madison is a vocal, demonstrative little Disney princess, and when she is not in school and when we aren't visiting, her usual daytime activity is watching television:

network TV
cable TV
TiVo
DVDs.

Not necessarily in that order.

So when we visit, one of the first things we do is entice Madison away from the boob tube.

"Madison, do you want to play a game with us?"

No answer. Eyes staring straight ahead at Scooby Doo.

"Hmm. Guess not. (audible sigh) Well, we'll go over here and you can visit us whenever you want."

Three seconds later, our little princess plops herself at the chair next to me. "What are you doing?" she wants to know.

"Just drawing..." and soon we are sharing a pen or some crayons back and forth.

Yesterday, while my sweetie was taking a nap and Madison's folks were at work, Madison asks me: "Do you want to exercise with me?"

Tired as I was, I pulled myself up and joined her in the living room. "Leg circles!" she announces, and falls to her side, lifting one leg into the air and making small circles with it. I join her, and we move into leg scissors, push-ups, and squats.

When we're done, she asks me if I want to play a game. "I'm good at playing games," she announces. But I say I just want to lay on the floor a bit, and we start making rhymes together:

Is that a rat?
No, a bat.
Oh drat, it's on the mat!

My reward is a little chuckle from this precious little girl.

Then I say, "Once upon a time..." and she rolls her eyes like a teenager might.

"What?! You don't want to help me make up a story?" I ask. Eye-roll...

"Well, how about I tell you a story from my own life?" and she suddenly becomes alert and nods her head vigorously.

I tell her about the time I saw a man pull out a gun and how I called the police; and about the time I was on a sailboat for the first time in my life and a thunderstorm broke open the skies and I thought I was going to die for sure.

After about 20 minutes, we are both still, and I say to her, "Hey, Madison, do you know what this is called, what we've been doing all this time?"

"No, what?"

"It's called being. We don't have to DO anything; we can just BE. Isn't this fun?"

Vigorous head-nod. "Yes!"

And for a few hours yesterday, we had no television, no Pretty Pretty Princess, no Kim Possible computer games.

Will it make a difference after we are gone, when the television turns into the babysitter and her bedtime story is a cartoon figure off of TiVo?

Well, it seems to make a difference for those few days when my partner and I are in town. At least to me.

Blessings,
Liz