Worship and visits among early Friends

For whatever reason, the last few weeks in Meeting for Worship I have found my mind resting on how our participation in meetings and in worship perhaps has changed since the first few generations of Friends:

Without cars or mass transit, would people have traveled more than 10-15 miles on any given First Day to attend worship? Or would people naturally have gathered as a local meeting or worship group, making it easier for more Friends to attend a meeting for worship that was held in closer proximity to where they lived?

Would there have been many more meetings and worship groups across the land as a result of needing to rely on our own feet or maybe a horse?

Would it have been that much more important, then, to make the effort to attend the monthly meeting's Meeting for Worship with attention to Business, knowing that the Spirit was moving amongst so many small groups in a region? Would it have been refreshing to hear those experiences from other Friends, in the next town over?

And would such proximity have lent itself to a local, more sustainable faith community, relying on one another for mutual support and accountability; and helping one another get to know each another "in that which is Eternal"?

If a traveling minister or other traveling Friend had arrived in town, would a good many more Friends attend Meeting and social or public events in order to listen to and worship with the visitor(s), knowing that such visits required an additional measure of spiritual faithfulness and physical endurance?

Without the huge media network that we have today, would worshipers be more likely to listen inwardly to that still, small voice, rather than mull over what they heard that morning on public radio or read in the newspaper?

Without the tremendous number of books available to them on psycho-spiritual matters, other faith traditions, or Quakers who had lived before them, did early Friends at the time gain inspiration from the Scriptures and from the living ministers among them?

I wonder sometimes if I have become a bit lazy in my Quakerism. I use the internet to search for another Quaker's words about a concept with which I am wrestling--but should I be carving out more time to listen inwardly or wait patiently in the Light for understanding and revelation to come to me?

I underline the pages of the pamphlets and books that I read, grateful that someone is able to speak to my condition--but should I be allowing myself more time to sink into the Seed more deeply and allow the Spirit to speak directly to me?

Blessings,
Liz

A visit from Deborah Fisch

This weekend, the worship group was blessed by the visit and presence of Deborah Fisch, clerk of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and coordinator of FGC's Traveling Ministries Program. Aside from the positions she holds, Deborah is also a personal friend to some of us in the worship group, and she has been following the progress of our small group for the past few years.

The ministry that Deborah shares is often expressed through her personal stories... stories which are slowly finding their way onto paper, not because she is writing them, but because Friends groups are recording the plenary sessions where she speaks, and then producing the transcripts as pamphlets. During the evening presentation that Deborah gave on Saturday night, she again returned to the stories of her life that serve as examples to her and to many Friends about the nature of God's Love; the discipline of corporate practice; and the challenge and reward of being faithful to God's leading.

This weekend was not the first time I have heard Deborah speak; and her stories that she shared for Beacon Hill Friends House's Weed Lecture are more of the same. There are few Friends who provide a plenary presentation by speaking out of the Silence, without notes or a complete draft of their remarks in front of them. Maybe it is because of Deborah's careful listening for what God lays on her heart that Friends are brought closer to the Inward Teacher as a result of Deborah's tender sharing. It amazes me each time--not just the power of story and personal experience, but also the way that we connect with one another, and with God, as a result.

At one point, at the close of her evening presentation, Deborah was asked if she had actually experienced a meeting that she described in her stories: a meeting whose members actively nurtured the spiritual gifts of each other and freely welcomed the children into the whole life of the meeting; a meeting whose members regularly companioned one another through crises of faith, without giving answers or trying to fix another's shortcomings; a meeting whose members noticed who had not come to worship and then make a phone call to those Friends on Second Day, asking if all was well.

I think Deborah's response is indicative of the caring "center" out of which Conservative Friends, as a group, seem to live more intentionally:

Well, I can say I have traveled to a lot of meetings and I have visited with a lot of Friends. And each meeting has at least a piece, or maybe even a few pieces, of what is possible. Friends are wanting to be faithful to how they are called, and they are hungry to know one another in That Which Is Eternal...

It was not lost on me that Deborah did not raise her own meeting above any other; and neither did she put any meeting down.

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

Deborah also referred to a metaphor she had used earlier in the evening, about the "spiritual refrigerator" within our meetings.

There is plenty of nourishing food already in the spiritual refrigerator of our meetings, but many Friends are at that "hungry" stage of our spiritual journey among, where we open the meeting's refrigerator door, stare past the shelves full of food, and groan, "There's nothing to eat!"

What we need to do, Deborah explains, is take a closer look at what's inside the fridge; maybe seek out the Friend who has the gift to use what is on the shelves and create a delicious meal from it. Or maybe another Friend has the gift (the patience? the willingness?) to sort through the really old stuff that's in the way back, stuff that maybe has gone bad because it's been ignored or forgotten for so long. And maybe that Friend can recognize if there is something still of value in that old container that's worth saving, while tossing out the stuff that has no Life anymore.

My own thought is that we need to be careful not to throw out the container itself when throwing out the spoiled food within it. That's a very easy thing to do, so as not to have to deal too closely with what can be so nasty. And yet we need to be careful not to discard the practice--the container of a part of our faith--without first learning where the practice came from, what its roots are, and how might it add to the spiritual banquet if it were to be restored.

Blessings,
Liz

UPDATE: The story of Deborah's visit doesn't quite end there...

Canadian Yearly Meeting: Game on!

Well, after nearly a week of fatigue, fever, body aches, headaches, and nausea, I recovered enough in order to get myself to Canadian Yearly Meeting... and only a day late at that!

Much of the week's time is dedicated to business, so perhaps I'll float on over to attend a business session or two for Young Friends, just for a change of pace.

And speaking of Young Friends, just today I have seen three Friends of various ages wearing the Quaker Youth, Speak Thy Truth! t-shirt... and I of course brought my own as well.

In addition, on the large white board that sits in front of this bay of 18 computers, someone has written the URL www.quakeryouth.org, and I am sitting here wondering:

Do I dare grab a marker and post www.quakerquaker.org as well???

Oooooh, don't tempt me so!

Blessings,
Liz

IYM(C) sessions, Part II

NOTE: You can read more about my experience at this year's IYM(C) annual sessions in my previous post.

Annual sessions take place on the grounds of Scattergood Friends School, over four full days, an extra night (at the start), and an extra morning (on First Day, for "pre-meeting" and Meeting for Worship).

Each day, Fourth Day through Seventh Day (Wednesday-Saturday), older Friends attend sessions for MfW with attention to Business, while younger Friends go off for their own activities. Business sessions are often two to two-and-a-half hours, and there are two business sessions on Seventh Day.

Much of the business consists of listening to reports from the various committees within the yearly meeting, which at first glance may appear dry and tedious. But as I listened to the reports, I could hear some of the practice and tradition of Conservative Friends that are not necessarily made explicit:

In two separate reports, the worship group was mentioned by name... and we aren't even affiliated with the yearly meeting! One report was from Ministry & Counsel, acknowledging that there is still contact with a few Friends from IYM(C) while the worship group discerns whether to affiliate there or with Northern Yearly Meeting. A second report was from Religious Education, lifting up some of the questions that the worship group is beginning to entertain about how to approach First Day School for the children.

These reports indicate to me that IYM(C) is responsive and extends care to its meetings and worship groups. The reports also hint at a level of accountability and follow-through that was mirrored in other reports.

Business sessions and interest groups were not the be-all and end-all of annual sessions, though. There were other events that point to the spirit, the fellowship, and the Love that pervaded this year's annual sessions.

Scattergood School alumni panel

Time for confession: When I first saw this event in the schedule for IYM(C), and then when I saw that the panel included at least eight Friends, I thought to myself, "Borrrrrinng." Panels often are too large and have too little time for a rich exchange between the panelists and those attending.

I could not have been more wrong.

As the Friends on the panel began to share their experiences about being a student or administrator at Scattergood, some of them openly wept. The first panelists to speak were two women who are now in or close to their 70s. They each spoke about how they experienced a spiritual awakening while they were at Scattergood, and they made it clear that their ties to the school impacted their ties to the yearly meeting and vice versa.

More than once the word "family" was used. More than once it became clear to me that love of family and love of friends was not the only type of love that was being cultivated and nurtured there. There was a Divine Love that knit Scattergood students and administrators to one another, and to the yearly meeting.

From my journal:

The yearly meeting is a family that transcends family, for their lives are connected through actions, worship, good deeds, study, difficulty, joy, and the Holy Spirit.

This was most especially made clear during the panel of Scattergood Friends School alumni. The oldest panel member had babysat for a child who later would go to Scattergood [and who also sat on the panel]. The parents of a younger panel member had gone to Scattergood with one of the older panel members. And the impact of one Friend in particular provided a multigenerational lineage that also connected the school with the yearly meeting.

[Listening to all the stories pour out and seeing the headnods and smiles among those of us gathered made it] as if I had been invited to attend someone else's family reunion... [a reunion] for a family that is defined by and knit together in love and treasured friendship.

The sense of love extended beyond the years of education that the panelists had accumulated. It was a gift just to have been in the room witnessing the exchanges, laughter, and tears.

Anna Sandidge of Friends Peace Teams and
the African Great Lakes Initiative

I first met Anna while I was at the annual sessions of Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association (SAYMA) in early June near Asheville, North Carolina. Then our paths crossed again during the Gathering in Tacoma. But I didn't get to hear her Story until I was in Iowa.

In Rwanda, the tragedy there is known as "genocide." In Burundi, Anna explains, the tragedy there is known as the Crisis.

Anna is a compelling storyteller, in part because she keeps low, making certain that she is telling the story of the people of Burundi, not turning the Crisis into a showcase of U.N. policy--or American failure, for that matter.

Division does not come from God. We must see each other as brothers and sisters in our hearts, she says.

She talks about how, by the grace of God, she was available to listen to the horrors that person after person observed, endured, internalized, and escaped from.

Each person's story is more horrific than the last, and we hear that one woman in particular has walked three hours one way, just because she has a story that needs to be told, a story that needs to be heard. She had not shared it with anyone, yet she finds Anna to share it with.

Anna balances out the horror by sharing how God--or mere humanity--showed up unexpectedly. Like the time when a school teacher was held at gunpoint, thought to be guilty of massacreing school children. At that moment, a man appeared and "vouched" for the teacher, saying that the teacher should not be harmed. The teacher was released. The man who got the teacher off was Tutsi--but passed as Hutu.

We were entranced by the stories of the people of Burundi and how they were moving towards reconciliation, one story at a time.

I have found [that] the tree of mistrust only gives bad fruits. But the tree of trust gives good fruits. The bad tree symbolizes the bad that people do and you have to find them and help them plant the good tree in their hearts. I realize the teachings are powerful. The people who learn this are wise because it is the healing of a traumatized people. --page 15, "After The Guns Have Stopped"

Many of these experiences that Anna relates to us at IYM(C) are available in the written report from the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams.

But the report is much more than a report. It is a narrative of the reconciliation work that is occurring in Burundi, "after the guns have stopped." It is a narrative of the transformative power of Love.

Arthur Meyer Boyd, Friends Committee on National Legislation

The annual sessions were coming to a close on First Day morning. The pre-meeting remarks were given by an associate executive secretary of FCNL, Arthur Meyer Boyd. Not a topic I was looking forward to, since I often experience presentations about peace-and-social-justice work more as rhetoric rather than as evidence of how the Spirit is growing us.

But like the Scattergood panel, I was delighted by what I heard. Arthur had been encouraged to share some of his personal and spiritual journey. He spoke of how an early leading he had--to seek CO status--ultimately led him to work for reform within mental health institutions of his day (aka asylums).

I appreciated the point he made that early Friends did not have a leading to go to jail; they had a leading to stand up to the status quo... and they were imprisoned as a result. Subsequently, these early Friends--and later Arthur himself--were simply being open to applying principles of their faith wherever they happened to find themselves.

Arthur lifted up a few other things that gave me pause.

For example, he offered that it was likely that prominent early Friends had much "ordinariness" in their own lives. They likely wrestled within themselves, sought God's guidance, resisted God's call, and at times, fell into being obedient to the Spirit.

But the journals condense into one volume all the really wonderful things that happened in the lives of these Quakers, and contemporary Friends are left to think we aren't being faithful enough, we aren't doing enough, that it should be possible to lead such amazing, extraordinary lives... but we fall short. There are no more Foxes, Fells, Woolmans, Peningtons, or Motts among us.

Arthur reminded us, though, that chances are their lives were pretty ordinary most of the time. It's just that not a lot of this "ordinariness" was recorded in their journals!

Arthur also spoke about what has sustained him and others at FCNL over the years. He referenced an article by Ed Snyder that had appeared in the magazine Quaker Life, called "Sustaining the Peacemaker." (The only link I could find was to this article, which seems to address a similar theme... and has the citation in the footnotes, item #15.)

Arthur pulls from Ed's article the "false motivators" that appeal to us at first but do not sustain us over the long haul:

• anger;
  
• fear;
  
• guilt; and even
  
• success.

Then he offered up some of the real motivators, especially based on what has worked for him:

• love;
  
• joy;
  
• faithfulness in pursuing a prophetic vision;
  
• vision and a long view of things;
  
• balance in one's life;
  
• maintenance of relationships despite disagreement (as opposed to burning bridges);
  
• a spiritual community to belong to; and, similarly,
  
• like-minded, like-spirited people to spend time with.

In the end, because of Arthur's remarks and all that I had witnessed and experienced during the course of the week, I would say that Friends within Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), and IYM(C) as a body, seem to be highly dedicated to the pursuit of doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. Especially when no one is looking.

Some closing thoughts

From my journal:

[Among Iowa Conservative Friends,] there is an innate consistency of understanding, generosity of time, and discipline of patient waiting that seems lacking among Liberal Friends. There is a sense of WE that is nearly out of place in American culture and that is more often felt among Liberal Friends during weddings and memorials. But imagine that same WE feeling extended for several days, during worship, business, meals, and leisure time.

I have heard how Conservative Friends especially feel a deep and devoted love for one another. I would have thought I was beginning to see and even feel this love, especially during the Scattergood panel. But then I started to feel something else, something deeper, something... MORE.

I noticed it at first when I saw Deborah glancing around the room from the clerks' table... [At first] I thought she was sending her love to each Friend in the room. And then I realized it was not just her love, but also GOD's Love that, in that moment, had arisen in her and found its release through her.

So it wasn't the clerk who brought us all together: It was God, the Living Presence.

It was a blessed week.

Blessings,
Liz

P.S. It wouldn't be a complete report if I didn't mention how I got to spend time with Kody. He and I even had a chance to blow the coop for a bit and get to a co-op nearby.

Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative):Part I

There is so much I could write, regarding my experience among Friends from Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) [IYMC]... I hardly know where to start. At the same time, I can name some themes that emerged during the course of the week:

Discipline. Friendship. Love.

Discipline of the body

Over and over again, I was struck by what I would call the discipline of the gathered body.

In the two years I have attended IYMC events, including annual sessions, I have never heard anyone complain about having too much business and not enough recreation. It's clear to me that Friends come to sessions "with hearts and minds prepared," prepared to address the business of the yearly meeting. Way will open for fellowship and recreation at other times.

There are some specific instances I can point to that demonstrate what I mean by this discipline. For example:

When the clerk recognizes that Friends have been sitting still for a good long while, she will say plainly, "Friends are invited to stand and stretch quietly at this time." And we do.

For about 20 seconds.

Then the clerk carries on: "We now return to the business of the yearly meeting."

No coffee break; no refreshments. And no mass migration to the restrooms.

It isn't oppressive; the clerk doesn't demand or insist that Friends stay put. And neither did I pick up even an inkling of resentment from the 100 or so Friends there. (To be clear: Friends do use the restroom, etc., as they need to!)

I believe it is out of Love--a Love that in many cases has been knit together over a number of years, or over a lifetime--that Friends stay as centered as they do here.

Maybe it is because such discipline is and has been the expectation, the traditional "etiquette" of Conservative Friends, at least during this clerk's tenure, nearing 10 years, I think...

Or maybe it's because of how the clerk wordlessly expresses her deep love for those gathered. As reports are read aloud, she glances around the room from time to time, smiling as she "connects" with the Friends she sees. Sometimes she raises and lowers her eyebrows as she smiles, or nods her head slightly, conveying the silent greeting, "It is so very good to have you here. I see you; I see your love for me, too. Thank you. Isn't it great that we are all gathered here again?!"

I also believe that the clerk, Deborah Fisch, is gifted as a clerk, and that she and the yearly meeting have earned one another's deep trust in one another and in the Guide. She certainly has earned mine!

When there is such love and trust, we are likely to want to give it all we've got, to go the extra mile, to give one-hundred-and-ten percent. The spiritual covenant of the community is superlative and it works both ways: the clerk so clearly loves the Friends who make up the yearly meeting, she wants only to affirm the respect, care, and love she has for them; and the Friends in the yearly meeting so clearly love the clerk, they want only to offer respect, care, and love to her.

And because of that reciprocal L/love, everyone seems to want to work harder, to be faithful, to come under the discipline and the authority of the Living Presence.

I think of the love between a hard-working horse and its long-time beloved trainer; or a group of sled dogs and their experienced and beloved mushers...

Metaphors are inadequate but the love and commitment in the meetinghouse last week was palpable. Put simply:

These Friends love God.

Their life, their words, and their works demonstrate it over and over and over again.

Reining us in

All committees of the yearly meeting give written reports, which are read by pre-appointed readers. This seems to prevent "off the cuff" reporting from the floor and raises the bar in terms of accountability and having your report ready in advance, lest you have no report to present at all.

And the only report that was read where we intentionally paused for questions to be answered on the floor was the treasurer's report. Any questions regarding any of the other reports could be asked after the report was read--and it's assumed that committee clerks are paying attention to any comments made after the report is read--but few questions if any were answered on the floor, as far as I recall.

No answers to questions raised in the face of the meeting likely means no rehashing of work that the committee has already taken up, threshed, and seasoned. Imagine!

But there are a few times when a decision needs to be considered.

At one point, the very active, very respectable Peace and Social Concerns Committee had its report read. It included the text of several drafted letters and a minute that were to be considered by the body.

One letter was about the war in Iraq and referenced Tom Fox and the request made by Langley Hill Friends for meetings to contact their U.S. Senators and Representatives. Another letter was about military recruitment at William Penn University. A third letter was to be sent to the editor of an Iowa newspaper, thanking the paper for printing a full page ad in support of same-sex marriage. The minute to be considered was regarding the rights of immigrants to the U.S.

(And I know there were one or two OTHER items as well, believe it or not.)

First of all, the report itself, which included the text of these items for approval, was long. Very long. As she had for every other report presented, the clerk pulled the report from the table and visibly paged through it. Four, maybe five pages. Single-spaced I believe.

Before she passed the report onto the readers, the clerk said, "Within this report, there are several items that call for action. We will hear the entire report and then we will go back and address each item separately. Are Friends easy with that?"

Which of course we all were.

It took about twenty minutes to have the report read aloud. No one budged; no one hemmed or hawed. But the clerk endeared us once again to her when she slouched in her chair when the reading of the report was complete and she let out a huge sigh of relief.

In that sigh was recognition that we were human; that she was human too. We couldn't sit there perfectly and not acknowledge it was a lot to listen to.

"Friends are invited to stand and stretch quietly."

20 seconds.

"We now return to the business of the yearly meeting."

Now, I don't know about you, but I was expecting that each letter and each minute would have to be re-read in the face of the meeting; and I was expecting that there'd be concerns about one paragraph or another; one sentence or another; one word or another, and that there'd be concerns about one another's concerns, if you know what I mean.

Not so.

It was as if we had received each letter as an indivisible whole. Consequently, during the initial reading, the body had already felt itself come under the weight of approving it or not.

I say this because of how quickly approval happened. The clerk would say, "We first heard a letter to be sent to Congressional representatives and senators about such-and-so. Do Friends approve?" Silence, head nods, and an occasional quietly muttered, "I approve."

The remaining letters were handled and approved the same way. None of the letters was re-read, though my own guess is that if anyone asked to hear the letter again, that would have been provided.

When it got to the minute on immigration, our discipline was tested a bit. Maybe since the minute was short, and maybe since approving a minute provides more weight and significance to the concern than does approving a letter, the minute was re-read before we considered it.

There were a few concerns that Friends raised: We can't predict what would happen if immigration were, in a sense, deregulated... Would open immigration invite a new form of low-wage slavery...? One Friend spoke to the fact that she (or he) supports what is currently being pursued by the administration, which was counter to the spirit of the minute being considered.

It couldn't have been more than after four or five Friends spoke--and they each spoke amazingly briefly, literally no more than three sentences--when the clerk interrupted: "I see there are many hands. Let us settle and return to worship."

No hemming, no hawing. We settled.

And then this is what I saw: The clerk began to write a minute. It took her awhile, maybe two or three times as long as all the other minutes she had prepared up to this point.

No one called out, "Clerk please." No one raised a hand or whispered to a neighbor.

But then again, no one had done this during the previous two hour sessions either.

After quite a few minutes, as is the practice of this clerks' team, the clerk shared the crafted minute with the assistant clerk. Some small changes were noted, and then we heard this: "The clerks would like to try a minute for your consideration."

Up til now, the clerk would say, "The clerks have prepared a minute for your consideration." So we were in somewhat new territory for this item, and that single word-change, from "prepared" to "try," was an invitation for us to listen with an extra measure of care.

According to my somewhat faulty memory, the minute stated simply something to the effect of:

While Friends are not in unity around this minute, we ask that Peace and Social Concerns Committee continue to labor with us around these issues. We ask that the committee help educate us further about immigration/migration. We thank them for their work.

The minute was approved rather quickly and we moved on, knowing that the concerns were not simply dead in the water. I fully believe that at the 2007 sessions of IYM(C), we'll hear a revised minute from the Peace and Social Concerns Committee.

But what struck me with such delight was that Friends could be united in a spirit of care for what had happened; that Friends were willing to be kept under a short rein by the clerk; and that the body was disciplined, yoked together, in such a way that what could have taken up the entire two-hour session took maybe 40 minutes: 20 minutes to read a very long report; maybe 5 minutes to approve a few letters; and another 15 to address the minute on immigration.

Shortly after that session, I was able to visit with Deborah at the end of lunch. I commented on how well I thought she navigated us through what could have been a trying time. She said to me, "Well, y'know how with a horse, you sometimes can let the reins fall loose for awhile, but then when you want more control, you can tighten up the reins...?"

Indeed.

And I must lift up: Being willing to be disciplined, by the Spirit or by a well-led clerk, requires a tremendous amount of love and trust!

Out of curiosity, I looked up in IYM(C)'s 1974 Discipline what it says about Meeting for Worship for Business. Here is one part that affirms what I had witnessed all week:

The Clerk should be a person who has the confidence of the Meeting's membership and who, in turn, has a real respect and warm regard for its individual members and attenders. The Clerk should be able to comprehend, evaluate and state clearly and concisely an item of business or concern. He/she should be able to listen receptively to what is said and gather the sense of the Meeting at the proper time. No doubt few Friends can measure up to the qualifications of an ideal Clerk, but the role is an excellent one for developing leadership. (emphasis mine)

It was made clear to me at that particular session that we really don't have to hear from every Friend who seeks to be recognized during our Meetings for Worship for Business. And by stating the sense of the meeting so quickly when there is so much trust already built up, well, our egos to "have the floor" are also kept in check.

Paying attention to what is right here, right now

In the middle of one of the items being discussed at a business session, a Friend approached the clerks' table and handed the clerk a note. Deborah read it to herself while another Friend was continuing to address whatever it was that was on the floor.

After the Friend had finished speaking, Deborah addressed the body:

I was just handed a note, and I am going to read to you what it says...

The note said that a long-time Friend of the yearly meeting, mentioned by name, had been making his way to annual sessions from Salem, Oregon and had been in a car accident on the interstate, not far from where we were meeting. The note further explained that the Friend had been able to walk around a bit, may only have a broken nose, and was being taken to the hospital.

Deborah was very cool-minded. She asked that someone be in touch with the Friend's daughter, and that someone else go to meet the Friend at the hospital. Once those details were addressed and volunteers had been identified, Deborah then said:

Let us settle into worship and hold this Friend and his caregivers in the Light.

The room settled quickly. We were drawn together in deep prayer and concern. No doubt those who knew this Friend--as Deborah herself knew this Friend--had many questions and maybe even an impulse to drop everything. But at the same time, there was a calm that undergirded the worship, and it was not long before I heard the clerk say:

Let us now return to the work of the yearly meeting.

And we did. Without missing a beat.

Later that night, to everyone's relief, we were given an update that the Friend was doing well, that he did in fact have nothing more than a broken nose, and that he had actually helped divert a number of cars from plowing into an accident that had already occurred at the crest of a hill on the interstate, by having turned his own car abruptly--and at high speed--into the road's median.

Apparently the highway patrol officer had praised the Friend for being attentive and alert enough to have taken such swift life-saving action. And two days later, that Friend arrived at the yearly meeting, a bit purplish around the eyes and nose, but seemingly in good cheer.

Stay tuned for Part II

There is much more for me to write, mostly about some of the non-business events that I attended. I hope I'll get to it all, before I head to Canadian Yearly Meeting next week!

UPDATE: Here's the link to Part II. And here's the link to what I wrote after attending last year's IYM(C)'s sessions.

UPDATE, Eighth Month 2006: As it happens, the clerk of IYMC told me she looked at this post while she and I have been at Canadian Yearly Meeting sessions. So this is my chance to clear up a couple of things.

1. Part of why few committees present written reports is that the committees do much of their work during annual sessions. In addition, there IS a concern about conserving resources, like paper.

2. As Marshall points out in his comment, there has been a multi-year, multi-clerk history of how business is conducted and clerked during IYMC. Deborah herself humbly points out that she has had the opportunity to witness and come under the discipline of these skilled and caring clerks over the years.

Thanks for reading me!

Blessings,
Liz

Off to Iowa once again

This week [Seventh Month 2006] I head to the hometown of Herbert Hoover, near which will be held the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative).

This will be the second time attending these particular sessions, and it looks as if I will run into fellow Quaker-blogger Kody... but will miss Conservative Friend and Quaker-blogger Marshall, as he approaches Baltimore Yearly Meeting territory at the end of his trek.

During Meeting for Worship today, I spent some time recognizing that I had found yet another way to put myself in the center of my Quakerism: I had caught myself imagining having all my high expectations about IYM(C) met simply because I had had such a good time last year... because I had ZERO expectations last year.

I was making IYM(C) be all about ME: Would I have such a good time again? Who would I see there? What new people would I meet there? Would I enjoy the singing as much? Would the business sessions be as grounded in worship as they had been last year?

Would I come away from sessions being a better Friend, a better Conservative Friend...?

What I need to be doing is putting God in the center:

What will God ask of me?

How might I be of service?

What will help me stay open and attentive to the gentle promptings of the Spirit, despite the busyness of the sessions, so that I might be a faithful servant?

I'll let you know how it goes when I return.

Blessings,
Liz

After Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative sessions

Seventh Month 2005

I feel refreshed by the Spirit that lives among this group of Friends, though I cannot point to any other time when I have sat still for so long over many days--

in Meeting for Worship;
in Meeting for Worship for Business;
in holding presenters in prayer.

How is it that I am refreshed after four days of this routine, with 12 hours of worship, neither drained nor eager to return home?

I can attribute it to the movement of the Spirit; the discipline and gift of IYMC's clerk; the discipline of the body of Friends gathered. Even in response to the longest of reports, only a very small number of Friends spoke to its wordy knots. It seemed to take a few minutes to loosen the knots and then move on.

During MfW for Business, Friends seemed to speak to the heart or the kernel of what their message was. It was enough to say, "It is a joy to have the young Friends of junior yearly meeting among us," without having to add why the Friend felt that way.

The clerk recorded the sense of the Spirit among us, rather than the who-said-what-and-then-what-happened details that often lead to long corrections and wordsmithing from the floor by more than the clerks' team.

Each committee's report seemed to be received as a whole, as a mini-gestalt, rather than as a list of items that had to be scrutinized, challenged, edited, and threshed by the gathered assembly. Explicit approval of minutes was seldom sought. Silence or the occasional "Good minute" were enough.

The lack of suggestions and the absence of impromptu brainstorming that met each report sent me a nonverbal message of the level of trust in the work of the committees these Friends had, as well as being another signal that these Friends, for the most part, share in the discipline of seeking out committee clerks away from the floor of business session in order to share ideas, ask questions, and offer revisions.

Spiritual hospitality also seemed to be a gift that is part and parcel to the life of this yearly meeting. I was welcomed warmly--perhaps because of the travel letter that accompanied me--but my sense is there is a deeper, quieter joy in many of these Friends that is embodied by genuine welcome and care for visitors and first-timers.

The love of God that these Friends experience in their daily lives is clear. And it is made manifest by the words they speak and by the deeds they do.

I was invited to sit in on a care-and-accountability committee, as well as be part of two other hold-in-prayer opportunities for speakers and the clerk; and I was asked to participate in the variety show, despite my newness to the yearly meeting.

As the week progressed, I was told that the clerk felt that these Opportunities would give me the experience of being among Conservative Friends in a variety of settings, rather than solely looking at MfW for Business and MfW.

I was particularly moved by the epistle that will be sent to Friends Everywhere (as compared to the epistles that will be sent to Iowa Conservative's sister meetings, Ohio Yearly Meeting and North Carolina Yearly Meeting Conservative), which mentions the presence of Friends from Yahara Preparative Meeting and the as-yet-unnamed Conservative-leaning worship group; and that by having us among the yearly meeting, Friends are having to consider the question, "What makes us Conservative Friends?"

Other observations and perceptions include:
1. A good deal of Conservative Friends exchange greetings and news with one another via letters rather than emails.
2. Cell phones ring less frequently but are just as annoying when they do ring.
3. Bible verses, selected by the speakers, were read at the start of each plenary session.
4. Friends were easy with "God language" and with "Jesus (Christ) language."

Overall, I sensed the shared desire and concern for faithfulness and obedience to the leadings of the Spirit; that individual Friends as well as the corporate body be discerning and attentive to the Will of God as it is made known; and that such faithfulness is encouraged.

Blessings,
Liz

This post is an adaptation of a journal entry.

UPDATE, Eighth Month 2006: Here is the first of two posts I wrote after having attended the 2006 annual sessions of Iowa Conservative Friends.

After annual sessions

Shortly after my family's visit, I headed to the annual sessions of Northern Yearly Meeting, held in north-central Wisconsin. While there, I provided a "warm-up workshop" on Quaker identity in preparation for the workshop I'm scheduled to offer at this summer's FGC Gathering.

All in all, the workshop and the annual session went well, meaning that I have gained new insights about the "state of the yearly meeting," about Friends within it, and about myself:

1. At the yearly meeting level, at least for Northern, the discipline of conducting meetings for worship for business has been so diluted or nearly lost among monthly meetings that the clerk spent much time and energy patiently reminding Friends of some basic practices:

resist repeating what another Friend has already said;

slow down for careful consideration and reflection of items;

there is great value in having items discussed, threshed, and seasoned by a committee.

A visiting Friend pointed out to me that such teaching and modeling is best done at the monthly meeting level, so that at annual sessions, business can be attended to without such interruptions.

Though I appreciated many of the explanations and much of the modeling carried out by the clerk, I wonder: Are meetings failing to convey our practice of conducting business, based on our faith, to those who who attend meetings for worship for business?

2. I was sad and disheartened to hear the skilled, caring clerk emphasize that the nature of our meetings for worship for business is one of "creating ever widening circles of love," rather than being one of listening together for the guidance of the Spirit and discerning together how we are led as a body.

Why do many of the clerks of our meetings and committees diverge from a Spirit-based practice of conducting business? What message is that sending to those new to Friends?

3. Friends are not just hungry for a rich, meaningful Quakerism. Many also thirst for having their Quaker faith articulated, words put to why we do what we do and how we do it.

What is the balance to be struck between explaining all that we do as Friends and allowing the short-term and long-term experience among Friends to speak for itself?

4. More Friends than I expected are wrestling with the (in)ability of their monthly meetings and worship groups to meet their spiritual needs. These Friends feel invisible within their meetings, despite their sometimes rigorous involvement through committee service, &c.

How do we articulate and lift up these needs within our meetings and worship groups so that these spiritual needs can be addressed in a Quaker context?

5. Friends have questions and confusion about how they are to know if they are ready to request membership: there are no dues to be paid, no membership forms to be filled out, no explicit guidelines for consideration of their relationship either to the meeting or to the Religious Society of Friends.

How might we make our infrastructure and "entrance points" into committee service and membership more visible, more accessible to those who are new(er) to Friends?

6. Friends in my workshop had questions related to how a meeting or worship group grows into and nurtures a Quaker identity as a corporate body.

What responsibility does the yearly meeting have to its constituent meetings and worship groups around modeling, teaching, and conveying Quaker faith and practice?

In addition to all this food for thought, I had a brief conversation with a Conservative Friend who still has connections to the yearly meeting. She listened patiently as I told her about my journey with my meeting and my continued concern for the spiritual condition of many individual Friends and their local faith communities. Through that Opportunity, I was given the helpful reframe that perhaps my monthly meeting has the gift of preparing to send Friends into the world who have a ministry that otherwise is "too big" for the meeting itself to hold, weigh, or even appreciate.

That reframe dovetails nicely with the idea of my meeting being a rest stop along the way and with my personal journey of releasing my meeting from certain expectations I have had.

Individual Friends affirmed me for the workshop I had created, the friendship I had offered, the care I had expressed, and the faithfulness I had demonstrated. Indeed, I came away from Northern Yearly Meeting with a sense of the Light reaching into me, calling me forward in a new way.

Blessings,
Liz

UPDATE, 3 Sixth Month 2005:   Kiara has also written about her experience at NYM.