Contents

• Representative Meeting: All Welcome!
• Reduced Expense Budget for 2006
• New York Yearly Meeting Proposed 2006 Operating Budget
• Nurturing Our Yearly Meeting, Nurturing Our Selves
• Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel
• Advancement in NYYM
  • Our Work Ahead
  • Getting Started on Renewal
  • How Does My Meeting Grow?
  • When a Friendly Little Meeting Lights Up
  • From Dream to Vital Meeting: Philipstown Worship Group
  • Old Chatham Meeting Reaching Out for Peace and Justice
  • Making Our Meetings Visible
  • Lighting the Way Behind the Walls
  • "What Do Friends Believe?
  • Education and Support of New Attenders
  • Seeking Light
  • Inreach/Outreach Review
  • Thy Will Be Done—Transformation
  • Piseco Friends Welcome a Traveling British Friend
• Sharing Fund—Letting Our Light Shine with Our Dollars
• Eyes Wide Open in Our Area
• Eyes Wide Open—Visual Memory
• Where Have All the Young Friends Gone?
• Arts As Outreach
• NYYM Web Site: Advancement, Outreach, Nurture
• What Does "Right Sharing" Mean?
• NYS Council of Churches Public Policy Commission Work Party
• Letter to the Editor
• Notices

Representative Meeting
All Welcome!

December 3–4, 2005
Albany Academy for Girls

Hospitality and Meals
Please indicate your needs for hospitality and childcare, and also the meals you request on the registration form. Send it as early as you can, but no later than November 20. Home hospitality may not be available if you register after that date. Contact Anita Paul if you have questions. There are also rooms available at Powell House for that weekend. Powell House is offering Representative Meeting attenders a special $25.00 discount. This fee includes accommodations for both Friday and Saturday nights. Powell House will not provide any food. Friends should bring their own snacks. Contact Powell House directly at info [at] powellhouse.org, or call 518-794-8811.

Childcare
A program of activities for children is being planned for Albany Academy during meeting times for Saturday. It is important to have the number and ages of children who plan to attend. Albany Academy for Girls is entirely accessible, as it is all on one level, with a ramp at the entrance.

Committee Meetings and Displays
Coordinating Committees will meet between 10:45 and 12 noon. Other committees can meet between 3:45 and 5:15. Requests for committee rooms and display space should go to Anne Liske by November 20, 2005.

Friday Night
No Friday night program is planned. Committees could meet at Albany Meetinghouse if needed. Otherwise participants who arrive on Friday should go directly to the place where they are staying.

Schedule
Saturday
8:30 A.M.	Registration
9:00–9:45	Meeting for Worship
9:45–10:30	Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel
10:45–12 noon	Coordinating Committee Meetings
12–1:15 P.M.	Lunch
1:30–3:30	Meeting for Business
3:45–5: 15	Committee Meetings
5:30–6:45	Dinner
7:00–9:00	Committee Meetings
Sunday
9–10:00 A.M.	Meeting for Worship
10:15–12:15	Meeting for Business
12:30–1:30 P.M.	Lunch

Agenda
Agenda Items as known at press time are: Treasurer's Report, Budget, Transition Working Group Report, World Youth Gathering Report, Powell House Lease with Old Chatham Meeting, and Meeting the Minimum Needs of All.

Transportation
If requested, Friends arriving by plane at Albany International Airport, by train at the Albany-Rensselaer train station, or by bus at the Albany bus station can be picked up and taken to and from the Academy. Please provide transportation requests on the registration form. A general contact number for Saturday and Sunday is cell phone 518-542-6000. Messages can also be left at the Albany Meetinghouse machine 518-436-8812.

Driving Directions
From West & North: NYS Thruway to exit 24, then south on Northway I-87 to Western Avenue, where the Northway ends. Turn left on Western and travel east 2 and ¾ miles to South Main Avenue where you turn right. Travel south to New Scotland Ave, where you turn left. Continue on New Scotland ¾ mile until you come to Academy Road (just before the SAGE College sign). Turn right. The Albany Academy for Girls will be on your left, just past Congregation Beth Emeth.

From East: I-90 to I-787 South toward Downtown Albany. Take the Madison Avenue Exit and follow directions below from ***

From South: NYS Thruway to Exit 23. Take I-787 toward Downtown Albany. Exit to Madison Ave. Rt. 20 West and go*** up Madison Avenue just over 1 mile to New Scotland Avenue, where you turn left. After you pass Albany Medical Center, look for Academy Road on your left, just past SAGE College. Turn left and Albany Academy for Girls will be on your left, just past Congregation Beth Emeth.

Motels
Some local motels convenient to Albany Academy (price ranges approximate):

• Comfort Inn Rt. 9W (1/2 mile south of Exit 23, 518-465-8811 ($100-$120 range)
• Best Western Sovereign, 1228 Western Ave., Albany, 1-800-Western ($95-$110 range)
• Holiday Inn Express, 1442 Western Ave., Albany, 518-438-0001, ($100-$120 range)

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Reduced Expense Budget for 2006

Continuing the good news, Financial Services still forecasts expenses for 2005 that will balance with our expected income. The key factor is the covenant donations that meetings agreed to with the approval of the 2005 budget last December. If these donations fall short, there will be an unwelcome deficit in December.

Last year we all approved a "deficit budget" for 2005 (possibly for the first time ever?), a financial plan calling for expenses to be $34,625 higher than our income, expecting to draw down the unrestricted operating balance (UOB) by the end of the year as needed. Many agreed that this was not good stewardship in the manner of Friends, and Financial Services suggested that the Yearly Meeting would not want to be in that position again for the 2006 budget.

One of the most successful programs this year directly benefits local meetings, the visitation of Friends in ministry to small meetings and worship groups who have requested that presence. To grow this program next year Ministry and Counsel more than doubled the provision to $6,500. The YM Trustees also provide money to support this program. Friends and monthly meetings are fervently invited to do the same. A check to NYYM earmarked Friends Traveling in the Ministry goes directly to this fund that supports this work.

Please note that we have planned an increase of $5,000 in income from registration fees at the spring and winter sessions of the Yearly Meeting, the Representative Meetings. Sessions Committee approved a registration fee in lieu of voluntary donations to help defray the substantial costs of these meetings.

Using the Friendly Discernment process at Budget Saturday, Friends agreed to increase the total covenant donations expected from meetings by $14,400, or just over 3%. As always we hold fast the hope that some meetings will be able to donate even more next year as led.

Even though we have reduced expenses by $2,405, and raised our expected income by $18,650, we still do not have a balanced budget for 2006. We propose a deficit budget again, this time short by $12,570, drawing down the UOB as needed.

Friends are tenderly reminded that our budget is only a financial plan and that we are the faith community that carefully prepares it and approves it as led. We rely on Friends and attenders in all our monthly meetings and worship groups under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to provide the fuel that makes the yearly meeting go—the substantial service work of volunteers supported by our dedicated staff, and of course the covenant donations from our meetings.

For the Financial Services Committee,

Tom Martin, clerk

Click here for the 2006 Proposed Budget. Click here for Covenant Donations. (These documents are in PDF format. Adobe Reader is required, to read and print PDF files. You can download Adobe Reader free by clicking here.

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Nurturing Our Yearly Meeting, Nurturing Our Selves

We will focus on the following issues that rose up during the mini-retreat: nurturing individual leadings, nurturing monthly meetings, nurturing the children of NYYM—all under the umbrella concerns of rethinking the structure of our yearly meeting and promoting the growth of the Religious Society of Friends.

We will indeed look for the life and spirit of our yearly meeting and find ways to nourish, educate, and cultivate our selves, our faith, and our yearly meeting.

Ann Davidson, director of NYYM's Powell House Conference and Retreat Center, is offering a very special price for this weekend—$50 for adults and youth, $25 for commuters and young children. Let us take advantage of this wonderful offer, and pack Pitt Hall!

This retreat is being facilitated by Melanie-Claire Mallison, clerk of the Nurture Coordinating Committee, member of Ithaca Monthly Meeting, and one who has many ideas of what we all could be doing to nurture Quakerism in our own backyard and beyond. Feel free to contact her at mallison [at] cnf.cornell.edu or 607-272-1108.

To register, please use the form on the back page of your Powell House News, go on the Web at http://www.powellhouse.org or contact Powell House at 518-794-8811.

Melanie-Claire Mallison

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Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel

The Coordinating Committee on Ministry and Counsel has requested the morning committee time on Saturday, December 3, for this gathering.

Each meeting should appoint a representative to this session, perhaps a Friend who is already planning to attend the fall Representative Meeting in Albany. Members of the Coordinating Committee for Ministry and Counsel will be taking notes during the gathering, and will consider the concerns that arise at later meetings.

Deborah B. Wood, clerk, YM on Ministry & Counsel

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Advancement in NYYM

Our Work Ahead
Spiritual Growth Is Advancement

It is the depth of our worship and lived practice that will make newcomers realize that somehow, without knowing how or why, they have come home. So Advancement is both about attracting people to us, and about having something to share with them once they do arrive. This means fostering a depth of community and power in worship that speak for themselves.

To be sure, once people come in our doors, they can be well met or ignored, and this will have a major impact on whether or not they stay. There are some very important concrete, common sense practices that create a sense of hospitality, and these have a significant impact on whether or not someone feels initially welcome. But that initial welcome will not bear fruit if it is not supported by genuine community, a depth of worship and the means for helping the newcomer to partake in these. For this to occur, we have to be alive in our own faith and practice, and we have to be able to share, over time, the basic elements of how we tap into the wellsprings that nourish us.

Advancement is often taken to be about increasing our numbers. And Friends do tend to worry about numbers—many Friends have expressed concerns to me about the decline in our membership. Indeed, membership in the Yearly Meeting has dropped every one of the last forty-eight years, except this last year, when we have realized some modest gains. At the same time, our average attendance at Meetings for Worship in the last ten or twelve years has remained relatively stable. And attendance in most of the past few years has been above the ten-year average. How are we to understand these two statistics, of falling membership and of stable, even increasing, attendance? And what does this have to do with Advancement and spiritual deepening?

My sense, based on my travels and discussions with Friends about their Monthly Meetings, is that we are not succeeding in retaining those seekers who try out our Monthly Meetings. Nor are we incorporating newer regular attenders into the community life of our Meetings. So while numbers at worship are about the same, the proportion who are members, and who, one would hope, are seasoned Friends, has been dropping.

We are having plenty of seekers at our doors, wanting to explore who we are and how we worship. Some stay awhile. Some stay for a few years, and then drift away. Some become faithful attenders, but not enough a part of the Meeting so as to be clear to seek membership.

For some of those who drift away, we are not a good fit, and they would do best to find a better fit elsewhere. But in too many instances I believe we are losing people who actually do belong with us, who have been called to us, but with whom we have failed to share the heart of how we practice our faith. We are losing a lot of people who are drifting away after even two or three years of regular attendance. What has been missing for these seekers? We need to be helping them to access the riches we have gained in our practice. We need to be offering Quakerism 101 classes, and also ongoing support in helping newer Friends to deepen in our core practices of worship and worship for business. Perhaps we hang back in sharing our spiritual experience?

I believe that this is the work ahead for us, to better meet and integrate the influx of seekers that are drawn to us, as we all deepen our life in the Spirit. Many of our Monthly Meetings are growing, some dramatically. Our website is being visited by an astonishing number of people. We have added four new worship groups in the past year or so, and four more are under consideration. The office is constantly getting calls and emails asking for help in finding a Meeting to attend. We are not lacking in people interested in us.

Spiritual deepening, the work ahead, lies at the heart of Advancement and Religious Education. In advancement, we need to not only be trying to attract newcomers (outreach), we need to work at deepening our community (inreach). In religious education, we need both to continue to grow in our own faith lives, and to find effective ways to share what we have found, especially with those who come seeking to become a part of us.

Some Friends have expressed concerns about the survival of the Religious Society of Friends. That is not my sense of our current situation, at least in this small part of the Religious Society. My sense is that we are poised for new growth. The question at this time is not "What shall we do to ensure our survival?" but "How do we best respond to the growth that is already at our door?"

It is a paradox of the Spirit that the way to our goals is rarely the shortest or the most logical. Perhaps the best and most effective way for us to promote growth in our monthly meetings and worship groups is for each of us to become more faithful in our own faith and practice. If our spiritual life is deep and rich, if we come to worship filled up from our week's practice, if our life is a witness of what the Spirit asks of us, if our meetings for worship reflect the power of how God is moving in our hearts and lives, then we will grow. And we will grow because we have struck a chord of faithfulness, and it has drawn others who recognize it and respond to it.

Christopher Sammond, NYYM general secretary

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Getting Started on Renewal

Nevertheless, we began to wonder if our comfort was stagnation. Our membership was not growing; in fact, when we trimmed off relocated members and grown children who had lost interest, it was shrinking. We had set up a First Day school space in the somewhat musty basement, and no children stayed there long enough to form a group. We were surrounded by the liveliness of Rutgers University and the complexities of multiethnic New Brunswick, but except for the dedicated projects of a few individuals, the meeting seemed not to partake of the community around us. What should we do? What kind of meeting did we want to be?

We began with a survey of members and attenders. We asked each person what had drawn them to Quakerism, which of their needs were being met or not met, which local and regional Quaker activities they were involved in, and which direction the meeting should take. We received many answers, but one stood far above all others—the need and desire for spiritual life. Although First Day school, community outreach, and spiritual life were endorsed equally as "meeting roles to strengthen," it was the spiritual experience of meeting for worship that first drew our members to Quakerism and that remains our primary need.

With this information, we embarked on a series of facilitated discussions. In the first three meetings of 2003, Steve Ross of Shrewsbury Monthly Meeting helped us sort through our thoughts, emotions, and values regarding meeting for worship, community outreach, and the business of meeting. We held a fourth discussion several months later on how best to conduct meeting for business. These discussions were exciting and strenuous—helping us to know the meeting's diversity, the depth of our feelings, and the power of Quaker traditions that are not often made explicit. We also learned how much we would rather talk than act.

Nevertheless, action followed. We moved quickly (in Quaker terms) to improve our building's accessibility. We created outreach materials that could be handed out to students. We attended interfaith meetings on campus. We continued to serve our turn at the local soup kitchen. Our Religious Education Committee launched a series of Quakerism 101 seminars that generated high attendance and much discussion. A small Spiritual Friendship group formed and prospered.

We now have a lively meeting of adults working on issues of spiritual community and witness. But here renewal entered a different phase. Although we can meet our obligations, the meeting is no larger (and maybe a bit smaller) and we still have no First Day school. In the past six months we have once again raised questions of what kind of meeting we want to be. Do we need or want a First Day school? If so, is the musty basement the problem? Do we need to remodel or relocate, and if so, do we go toward the urban core (for witness), the green suburbs (for nature and families), or a campus rental (for student outreach)?

Our discussion of these questions, formal and informal, will not end soon. The current phase of renewal tests our words against the realities of property, local politics, and the specific communities around us. We are no longer arguing about values in the abstract, but about values that require time, money, and choices. In this change we are already renewed—and have far to go. We pray that the Light, which has shone on us so far, will illuminate a path to greater commitment and deeper life.

Karen Way, New Brunswick Meeting

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How Does My Meeting Grow?

When a Friendly Little Meeting Lights Up

Then things changed again. It started with a small new outreach committee looking at the FGC survey of what meetings can do to be more visible and welcoming. Having a couple of families willing to bring their children to a struggling First Day school program also helped.

Getting the meeting to accommodate the suggestions of the survey turned out to be relatively easy and took only about a year. We now have a culture of greeters and Friends who look for new attenders, name tags are standard, the new sign is about to be replaced by an even better one, we have reordered the materials for the newcomers packets several times. A babysitter comes every week for the littlest ones and two separate programs have emerged for the elementary and the junior high and high school kids—today the program is well organized and overflowing with new children/youth. Several teens have come with our children and then proceeded to get their parents to attend!

The outreach committee soon found itself looking for something to do. The meeting realized one day that we, despite being Quaker, and despite doing peace work, had no Peace Concerns Committee. It was natural to make the Outreach Committee into an Outreach, Peace and Justice Committee. There are many fun and interesting things to do. The aftermath of 9/11 and the lead-up to war provided plenty of ideas. And it also led to contacts in the community with many others who had similar concerns and outlooks to ours. We helped start a Meeting for Learning once a month before meeting where some Friend talks on a topic of interest to them that has a Quaker slant. We invited people to help us and others think about the basis of the peace testimony. We join with other groups doing antiwar work or counter-recruitment in the community. We gave local libraries our favorite children's books that show peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. (There are many!) And we started a monthly showing of a film, advertised to the community, usually political in nature but always inspiring and with a sense that there are alternatives.

The meeting grew. It began to get crowded, not only in the meeting room but also in the First Day school rooms. An idea that had bounced around Old Chatham for years resurfaced: We could meet our own needs and those of the community even better if we had our own space, separate from Powell House. Discussions about constructing a meetinghouse began, slowly, but little by little gained momentum. It looks like it is happening.

Our advice? There are a lot of interesting people out there that you meet every day; don't be shy to talk about what you think is important, and have fun!

Jens Braun, Chris DeRoller, Terry Dix, Bob Elmendorf, Merry Lathrop, Diane Leung
Outreach, Peace & Justice Committee

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From Dream to Vital Meeting:
Philipstown Worship Group

Outreach and advancement have been accomplished in a number of ways: representing the worship group as participants in public religious events organized by Graymoor; Christmas projects undertaken by the First Day school kids in collaboration with local community-service organizations; a yard sale and a bake sale with the children to raise money for Heifer International; participation in local anti–Iraq war vigils; leadership of an AFSC-inspired candlelight vigil to encourage people to vote in the presidential election; activities to counter military recruitment efforts in the local high school.

Our most ambitious outreach project so far was to hold a public meeting on conscientious objection and the proposed reinstatement of the draft. Rosa Packard of Purchase Meeting (the meeting under whose loving care our worship group has functioned) was the featured speaker, and the meeting was held at the First Presbyterian Church in Cold Spring. A press release was printed in the local paper, and over 40 people attended, about a quarter of them teenagers. Rosa was able to provide much useful information and to answer questions on the proposed draft legislation. She created a real sense of community by having everyone take turns reading the legislation aloud. Perhaps most important, she spoke about her own experiences, as a war-tax resister and counselor to those seeking CO status, as functions of her faith as a Quaker.

As our identity as a Quaker community has grown, so has our ability and willingness to witness our faith as Friends in the life of the larger community in which we live.

James O'Barr, Philipstown Worship Group

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Old Chatham Meeting Reaching Out for Peace and Justice

Although our beliefs are rooted in many different religions, and although we worship in different ways and in different languages, we stand firmly united on this crucial moral issue. We have weighed and considered the many statements offered by our government officials to excuse or justify the practices in question. We remain unswerving in our demand for an immediate cessation of the use of torture.

Our condemnation of torture is not based upon any political opinion or on the laws or treaties of any nations. Rather, we are guided today by a higher law that serves as a compass for all of humanity.

An act of torture is an act of evil. There are no exceptions. Such actions dehumanize both the victim and perpetrator. In many sacred writings, it is said that men and women are created in the beauty of God's image. The wanton cruelty and horror of torture is a desecration of that image. It denies and debases the splendor of creation and the beauty of life itself.

For centuries, our most revered moral and religious leaders have given their very lives in the quest for peace, humanity, and justice. So have many of our beloved friends and colleagues. Today we honor their memories and the tenets that guide us all, by speaking out in one voice. As we witness the pain and suffering of so many human beings, we cannot remain silent.

Stop the torture now.

In addition, September 18–19 the committee sponsored an Alternatives to Violence basic workshop in Chatham, N.Y., with participation from within our meeting and from the wider local community. On September 24 we organized a peace walk through Chatham. A number of Scarsdale Monthly Meeting members, on retreat at Powell House, joined us. We were nearly 40 Friends/friends strong, with a dozen enthusiastic young friends leading the way.

On October 3, we had a free public showing of Stomp Out Loud for our monthly peace and justice film series. This was our family night film chosen for its affirmation of a sense of rhythm, a sense of humor, and a sense of the dynamic whole. All are essentials in our quest for peace and life.

Contact: Chris DeRoller, Outreach, Peace, and Justice Committee, Old Chatham Monthly Meeting, 524 Pitt Hall Rd., Old Chatham NY 12136; 518-794-8811; chrisandmike [at] powellhouse.org.

Chris DeRoller

Editor's note: Please let us know about activities of your meeting or worship group, so we can share them with the NYYM family. E-mail articles to paul [at] nyym.org or mail them to Paul Busby c/o the Yearly Meeting office.

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Making Our Meetings Visible

A meeting's sign is an essential part of its public face. (Meetings without their own building might place a sandwich board sign on the sidewalk before worship.) Make sure your sign is easy to read from passing cars. It is important to include the word QUAKERS, which many people recognize more readily than "Friends." The sign should also give the time of meeting for worship and a phone number. And it should make clear that visitors are welcome. If your meeting is on a back road, try to find a way to place a directional sign on the nearest main road.

A telephone is another basic advancement tool. A listing in the phone book is important not only to help others locate the meeting, but also because people often call before visiting for the first time to ask directions, to learn the time of worship, or simply to make certain they will be welcome. White page listings should be under "Quakers" followed by the proper name; potential visitors will not necessarily know the name of your meeting. In the yellow pages meetings are easiest to find under "Churches—Quaker."

Your answering machine should give the time of meeting for worship and directions. It is also helpful to include the number of someone in the meeting in case prospective visitors want to speak with a live person. Develop a fail-proof system for picking up and responding to the meeting's voicemail messages. Lack of response can be a big disappointment to someone hoping to find a new spiritual home. Similarly, if your meeting has e-mail, prompt response to seekers' inquiries is essential.

Place listings in other directories in your community. Colleges often put together a booklet of local resources, including houses of worship, for new students and faculty. Similarly, many hotels, inns, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts maintain lists of houses of worship for their guests. Newspapers sometimes allow free religious listings. In some areas meetings have found it cost effective to maintain a paid listing in the local paper. If your meeting has money for advertising, keep in mind that September, Christmas, and Easter are times when seekers are most likely to be looking for a house of worship.

Another way to increase visibility is to put posters or notices concerning your meeting or its activities in local community centers, health-food stores, libraries, and the like. A simple invitation in large type to meeting for worship or to a special event can be effective. Fancy graphics are not necessary.

Many meetings have found that witness activities are the best form of outreach. As a meeting engages with the community, word of its existence gradually spreads. An active meeting also has numerous opportunities to garner free publicity in local media by sending out notices or press releases, about, for example, simple meal fundraisers, videos, forums, speakers, and vigils. Assign one person to create a list of media contacts—local TV, radio, mainstream, ethnic, and alternative newspapers. As each event is planned, that person will be able to get the word out quickly.

When a meeting participates in public events such as fairs, parades, and vigils, a banner can display its Quaker identity. Meetings might also distribute flyers at public events. An antiwar vigil, for example, can be a good place for a handout on the Quaker Peace Testimony.

In addition to witness activities, meetings and individual Friends have found myriad other ways to raise their visibility, including: inviting the public to tag sales, open houses, courses on Quakerism, Bible study classes, or spiritual formation groups; writing letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, or articles for the local religion column; participating in radio and TV interviews; sporting Quaker T-shirts and buttons; and donating adult and children's books to the local library.

Seekers often turn to the Internet in their search for a spiritual home. The Web site www.QuakerFinder.org has brought visitors to meetings throughout the United States and Canada. When a user types in a place name or ZIP code, QuakerFinder quickly displays a list of the six closest meetings. Created and maintained by FGC, this site describes Quakerism in language accessible to people who are not Friends. By referring to QuakerFinder.org in meeting pamphlets, flyers, handouts, and other publicity and by using QuakerFinder bumper stickers, Friends help make all our meetings more visible.

Some Friends ask whether a meeting Web site is a good advancement tool. The answer is: yes, and no. It depends whether the site meets the needs of seekers, who require basic, accessible information about Quakerism. A site should also clearly show that your meeting is an active, vital community, not a historical society. Maintenance is a concern. Sometimes meetings set up sites with great enthusiasm only to find that Friends lack the time required to keep them current. An out-of-date site is a big turnoff to seekers. The answer might be to create a static site with general information about the meeting that does not need to be updated frequently.

Perhaps the simplest and most effective form of outreach is personal contact, letting others know that you are a Friend. Sharing what is important to you is an act of generosity. Inviting someone to meeting for worship may help transform a life.

Word circulates gradually. Be persistent. Don't become discouraged. Experts say that seekers usually have to see the name of a house of worship many times before they decide to give it a try. The small efforts involved in becoming more visible can change seekers' lives and bring us the joy, richness, and diversity of new Friends.

Jane Berger, Chappaqua Meeting

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Lighting the Way Behind the Walls

Eastern Correctional Facility hosts a number of religious disciplines. However, despite the prison's religious diversity, spiritual homelessness abounds. Our meeting responds with its God-directed open-door fellowship where we invite those who have not found a spiritual home to enter into our meeting for worship. Many find the fellowship of our unprogrammed worship appealing. Singular invitations to join us in worship harvest much fruit, but it is our retreats and religious gatherings that usually result in increased membership. Fellowship in our worship provides invited guests and attenders with an opportunity to experience, first hand, the genuineness with which we minister to ourselves and others. During our retreats, many get to meet and speak with Friends from neighboring meetings who speak about their activities and share openly what God is doing in their lives. Many experience, for the first time perhaps, a sense of oneness with the Spirit and, afterward, vow to return having found themselves, their spiritual home, or a place to experience the ordering of their spirit during the silence.

Witness sharing is another means of advancing the Light of Friends' principles. In each of us the Spirit often manifests itself in some particular way, for a very useful purpose. As we are called to share with others our experience that God is actively present in the world and in every human heart, we also convey to all who would listen, that the fullness of God's grace may be encountered by all who turn to God in openness, truth, and expectation, no matter their age, sex, or religious background.

Care should be taken when witnessing, especially by those newly inspired or the occasional attender. Before we can express the Truth of our faith to others, whether in words or in deeds, we must first experience the reality of the Inward Light in our own souls. Then we are released to be faithful to this Spirit. Our corporate and personal disciplines are the means by which we have found and experienced the presence of God. Through them we are able to remain faithful in our witness to the world. Early Friends found that the Light opened their lives to the painful knowledge of their own inadequacy. Therefore we must always remember that we are called to a genuineness of life and speech that leaves no room for deceit or artificiality.

The testimony of simplicity, of detachment from possessions and worldly aspirations, arose from Friends' conviction that simplicity would enable us to grow in communion with God and to discern God's will for us. When we open ourselves to God, we want to unclutter our lives, to free ourselves from the distractions of the routines of daily living. For many experiencing Quaker faith and practice for the first time, our simplistic approach to life and living in accordance with our faith, perhaps is what appeals most to a newcomer. In the prison setting simple living allows us to detach ourselves from the restrictiveness of our environment. Simplicity clears the distractions of routine prison life that often threaten the peaceful existence of our daily living and hinder our ability to focus upon our spiritual growth and development. For many seekers, our meeting offers an opportunity to engage a faith practice that does not encumber its congregants or require them to follow rigid religious protocols, rites, and adherences to complex codes and/or doctrines. Our belief that people can continually discover more about the will of God makes us eschew dogma. Newcomers often express their enjoyment of our services, partly because of the peaceful environment silent worship creates and the freedom they feel in sharing among those who genuinely manifest loving care and concern.

As we continue in our attempts to move forward in our journey toward the Truth, we continue to seek out new ways of responding to the queries of our Faith and Practice, Do we acknowledge the oneness of humanity and foster a loving spirit toward all people? Do we honor Friends' traditional testimony that men and women are equal? How do we work to make these ideals a reality? As a lived faith, we find expression in our testimonies and our faithful practices. Both spring from a belief that there is that of God in every person, the Christ Within, which illumines every aspect of life. To bring all areas of our lives under the ordering of the Spirit, we try to follow these practices in all our relationships. Thus, all of us at Eastern Prison Preparative Meeting incorporate our visions collectively with those of Friends all over the world as well as those who are yet captive, whose light does shine, dimly in some cases perhaps, but shine nonetheless. We are bound together in Christ, and surely Christ is lighting the Way.

James Cheatham, Eastern Prison Preparative Meeting

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"What Do Friends Believe?"

They had been genuinely interested, but this answer that is a non-answer did not satisfy. In this moment when I am being invited to share what is most important to me, I have often felt uncomfortable with the vagueness of my reply. Is there a way of naming our commonalities that does not do disservice to the strength of our diversity?

Long Island Quarter has been grappling for some time with the issue of what they as Friends can claim in common. They have seen this as an advancement issue, wanting to have a clear self-identity prior to making a public invitation for others to join them. One Long Island Friend asked me what I thought all Friends held in common. What follows is my attempt at answering that question:

First and foremost is our commonly held belief that there is that of God, or the Divine, or Truth, or the governing Principle of the universe, inside each of us. Of almost equal significance is the experience that this inward aspect (the Seed, Inner Teacher, Inner Christ) can lead and guide us in our daily lives, from aspects that seem trivial to major life choices. Most all of our testimonies, faith, and practice stem from these core experiences.

Because there is that of God (please translate as you need to) within each of us, we are all equal (thus the testimony of equality). And because there is that of God in each of us, it is not okay to kill another (thus the peace testimony). Because being guided by this aspect of the Divine is central to our faith and practice, we limit the complexity of our lives in order to be able to hear its leadings (thus the testimony on simplicity). And because we are seeking to lead our lives in accordance with this primary principle, there is no separation between our secular and religious lives, in our dealings with each other, or in our prayer life, in our speech and life in small matters and in large (thus the testimony of integrity).

Implicit in all of this is the common strand we call continuing revelation, which Fox expressed as "Christ has come to teach His people today.". This was a radical, even heretical belief in Fox's day, when it was taken as a given that prophecy and revelation had ceased with the ultimate bodily revelation of Jesus. Though we might name what is guiding us in different ways, Friends' experience of continuing revelation is central to our understanding of our worship, vocal ministry, and business practice. We know ourselves to be led, and we seek to speak from this leading in worship, and to discern this leading in our practice of business.

That we can discern the will of God or the movement of Truth is a weighty assertion, which most are hesitant to name so directly; yet it is a core assumption behind most of our faith and practice. We also affirm that individual discernment can be distorted by our personal desires and issues, so we entrust this discernment to the body of the community. This is the reason behind our corporate discernment in business, and the basis of our clearness committees for membership, marriage, etc. We depend upon the community to help us test our spiritual insights.

Finally, I believe that it is common to all Friends that our corporate worship enhances our access to that of God within. That is why we worship together, and not at home alone or just with our families. It is our experience that something happens in the corporate body gathered for meeting for worship or meeting for worship for business that radically improves our capacity to hear the inner promptings that might lead us to vocal ministry or to action, and to discern the will of the Divine in decisions for our business.

Some Friends may disagree with my attempt at naming our commonalities, or feel left out by it. If so, "What canst thou say?" I believe that most Friends could affirm a wide variety of experience and belief that informs our respective faith and practice. How would you describe it? In focusing on our differences, it is easy to lose track of how much we have in common. What can we name in common, and how can we communicate to others our experience of Life and Power reaching us through our commonalities?

Christopher Sammond, general secretary

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Education and Support of New Attenders

For seven years I have been working with the education and support of new attenders at my meeting in Lake Forest, Illinois. My understanding of their needs and of what works and what doesn't is ever-evolving and continues to mature as I learn from each group of seekers. Following are several things I have learned thus far.

Integrating new people into the fabric of our meetings involves more than greeting them warmly on Sunday morning or mailing them copies of our newsletters. We need to make a commitment to their nurture, spiritual development, and integration into our community.

At the FGC Gathering this past summer a Friend asked how I get new attenders to commit to continued class attendance. It is my belief that it is not the newcomers' commitment but mine that makes the difference. The seekers have already demonstrated interest by coming to our meeting. How do we demonstrate our commitment to them—to our future?

One way is to have a class that is facilitated (not taught) by a leader or team who demonstrate(s) Quakerism while exploring its nuances with the seekers. This program needs to continue throughout the school year (hence the commitment).

In our meeting, we use a manuscript written by Marsha Holliday called Exploring Quakerism: A Guide for New and Seasoned Friends, which will soon be published by FGC.

We meet at the convenience of all who plan to attend. This is important. At the rise of an early autumn meeting, I announce that we are holding a class for F/friends who are curious about Quakerism and interested in studying our values and beliefs. Anyone interested in attending this newcomers' class is invited to meet with me in a specified corner of the meeting room for five minutes to explore scheduling. We then set up a class day and time that works for everyone concerned, including me. This concept is in stark contrast to choosing a time, announcing the class, and hoping people show up. Meeting first to determine the best time for the initial class demonstrates our commitment to be inclusive and meet the needs of the attenders. At each class, we set up or affirm the dates and times of two more classes—accommodating everyone's schedule.

The class usually follows a normal school year. We try to keep the classes open and flexible, announcing the week before one is to be held what our topic will be and that the class is open for additional attenders. Sometimes they are held monthly; flexibility is more important than maintaining a rigid schedule.

One of the many things I like about the material we use is that it begins with the group's exploration of our experiences of God. We start by introducing ourselves and talking about our spiritual backgrounds and what led us to Quakers and to this meeting. I participate in this sharing. Usually, we discover that the class is a reflection of our community's diverse spiritual backgrounds, which I point out, adding any groups (such as "no formal religious upbringing") that may not have been mentioned during the introductions. After that, we participate in worship sharing about our individual experiences of God. This is important because the experience of God is foundational to Quakerism and it gives us an opportunity to learn about worship sharing by experience rather than discussion.

Because of the highly personal and confidential nature of these classes, I do not recommend having them at a time or in a place where other members of the meeting might casually walk in during the sharing.

I believe we need to spend more time assisting new attenders in their experiences of Quakerism and less time teaching concepts and history. The latter is like inviting people to dinner and spending our time selecting a china pattern while forgetting to cook the meal.

To that end, as we progress through our material, we spend time on open-ended questions. We explore what people like and what they do best. I listen to their concerns and help them unpack their baggage from negative faith-based experiences. Our task is to assist new attenders in integrating seamlessly into our meeting tapestry. We teach them the nuances of Quakerism (such as speaking only once in meeting for worship) as well as the local meeting's cultural etiquette and traditions (such as when the children join us for worship) and how to navigate the physical spiritual home. (My class members learn the rules of the kitchen.) We explore their gifts, and at our last class I bring in members of the meeting's committees to discuss the work of the meeting.

Let's spend our time cooking a luscious feast of welcoming for those who are curious about who we are. Let's lead them home to Quakerism by focusing on them and their needs while giving them a map to guide them through Quaker culture and tradition. This is also the map that leads to our future. Let's travel it together in peace and love.

Suzanne Siverling
Lake Forest Friends Meeting
Illinois Yearly Meeting

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Seeking Light

For such meetings, a visit from a seasoned Friend can make a world of difference, bolstering worship, sharing ideas for new growth, and providing a sense of connection to the wider Society which can encourage and sustain a small meeting through hard times. And there is more need for this kind of support than your staff, Friends traveling under the care of Ministry and Counsel Coordinating Committee, and the Advancement Committee can address. We need Friends from larger, healthier meetings to join in supporting smaller groups through visitation.

But why, you might ask, should Friends from meetings that are thriving bother to assist nearby monthly meetings and worship groups? Would it not be better to perhaps let some sort of social Darwinism run its course, and let these groups thrive or die out as they will? I'd like to offer you three reasons to consider otherwise:

First of all, Friends have a vital message to share with our society as a whole, and one that is desperately needed. We know the truth of a living Divine Presence, which can lead and guide us in our daily lives and which can teach us how to live with each other in peace. I know of no better way to communicate our message than through the visible witness of Friends' lives in local communities. For us not to be thought of as an anachronism, quaint but irrelevant to the needs of today's world, or something to do with oatmeal, we need our physical presence widely available in many local communities.

There is a wealth of people who resonate with our message and are seeking us out, despite our reticence in making ourselves prominently visible. Our Yearly Meeting Web site receives over 450 visits per day, and while some of these must be from NYYM Friends, the vast majority of these are probably from individuals exploring Quakerism. Hardly a day goes by when our office does not field a call or receive an e-mail from someone wanting to try out a Quaker meeting for the first time, or from an isolated Friend new to the area. People are knocking on our door; we need to have geographically diverse places to send them.

Second, many of our now thriving monthly meetings were once tiny or faltering. Were it not for the support of other meetings in the presence of Friends visiting, how many of these meetings would be here today? Dramatic turnarounds are not just possible; they have been common.

Finally, if we do not help each other, it is damaging for us spiritually. Rabbi Hillel said "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" It is a spiritual truth common to most traditions that if I try to cling to the Light I have been given, it will wither away within me.

One story that illustrates this well for me is that of St. John of the Cross. He told of having prayed for years to Mary for help in his spiritual life. Finally, one night, while he was deep in prayer, she at last appeared to him in a vision. And at that precise moment, John heard the knock of a beggar at his door. With agonizing regret, he left his prayer, and gave the man what food he had. In returning to his prayer, he was delighted when Mary reappeared. She told him that had he stayed in prayer with her, instead of tending to the beggar, she would have left and never returned. How many of us want our nice neat little spiritual lives and are not willing to have them interrupted?

More recently, a group of high school youth from New Jersey began to tutor younger children. Not surprisingly, the younger children's grades went up. But to everyone's surprise, the academic performance of the tutors improved as well. Similarly, I have frequently heard from Friends teaching Quakerism 101 that they felt they had learned and grown more in their faith and practice than those they were teaching.

We all have something to give. We are all necessarily a part of the Advancement of our Religious Society. This is work for all of us. If we turn aside from it, will not the Light we have been granted, like the manna in Exodus hoarded for an extra day, turn to worms and dust in our mouths? I would ask Friends to prayerfully consider whether or not they, or perhaps their meeting as a whole, feel a leading to offer support to a nearby meeting or worship group that needs care. You may be the Friend they have been waiting for.

Christopher Sammond, general secretary

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Inreach/Outreach Review

The following list of questions, taken from Friends General Conference Advancement and Outreach, will help your meeting explore these issues and begin to develop an "advancement" plan. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, and no need to answer them all. Hold a workshop or meeting retreat and use this "review" as a starting point or guideline. You may want to divide into small groups and assign each group a category to discuss. Choose the questions that speak most directly to the condition of your meeting. Try to identify small steps that would be easy for you to take. FGC has found that the simple act of thinking about welcoming visitors and getting ready to receive them may give new life to a meeting.

Communication

• Do you have a greeter each First Day?
• Do you welcome all visitors equally whatever their age, status, or ethnicity?
• Do you make introductions in a way that does not put newcomers on the spot?
• Do you clearly identify people whom visitors can approach with questions after meeting?
• Does your announcement period enrich the meeting?
• Do you welcome visitors to meeting as you would welcome guests in your home?
• Do you use Quaker jargon that may confuse newcomers?
• Do you use name tags, or display meeting photos, to help match names and faces?
• Do you have a meeting brochure or statement of welcome that you can hand to visitors?
• Do you have a guest book?
• Do you have a way of following up on those who sign it?
• Do you offer visitors a chance to receive the meeting newsletter?
• Does every member and attender receive a copy promptly?
• Do you have a supply of simple literature on Quakerism to offer to visitors?
• Do you use bulletin boards to communicate the vitality and diversity of Quakerism?

• Do you make your meetinghouse available for the use of other groups?
• Does your meeting have special events to which you invite the community?
• Does your meeting join activities organized by diverse groups of people in your area?
• Does your meeting carry out service or social justice projects?
• Are meeting members and attenders active in such projects?
• Do you make an effort to publicize Quaker activities and meeting events?
• Do you publicize in media geared to diverse audiences?
• Do you tell other people that you are a Quaker?
• Do you personally invite others to meeting for worship or meeting activities?

• Does your meeting practice spiritual hospitality?
• Do you offer programs which nurture the spiritual growth of the meeting?
• Do you have regular worship sharing?
• Is the atmosphere of the meeting open and accepting to members and attenders?
• Is the meeting open to diversity and different-ness?
• Do you give new attenders a chance to share their spiritual search?
• Do you have programs to help new attenders explore Quaker beliefs and practices?
• Are you aware how small group activities can enrich the life of a meeting?
• Do you make a special effort to include new or sporadic attenders in these activities?
• Do you take time to name and affirm each other's gifts and ministry?
• Do you attend to your own spiritual growth?
• Are you knowledgeable about Quaker beliefs, practices and testimonies?
• Do you take part in the gatherings and offerings of the wider Quaker community?
• Do you practice outreach as a ministry?

• Do you have a program for children during meeting for worship?
• Is it provided by someone other than parents and new attenders?
• Do you provide childcare for infants and toddlers?
• Do you provide opportunities for Friends to mingle after worship?
• Do you have regular meeting potlucks, sings, or other get-togethers?
• Do you make a special effort to invite new or sporadic attenders to such events?
• Do you find ways to include newcomers in the life and work of the meeting?
• Do you have a system of pastoral care for members and attenders?
• Do you get in touch with those who have been absent from meeting?
• Do you extend invitations to former attenders?

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Thy Will Be Done—Transformation

"What?" I asked in response. "Plant a church? Lord, surely not me."

"Plant a church," the spirit continued to send, as I prayed in the spring of 1999. I was a member of Newberg Friends Church, in Oregon. In our practice, planting or starting a church would often be the work of a charismatic preacher or team. I am a recorded Quaker minister, but my vocational call has been that of a hospital chaplain. One-on-one interaction is my means of sharing the spirit. Preaching and teaching were very uncomfortable for me. So I could not see myself as the sort of person God would call to plant a church. Also, there were several Quaker churches in our area. No, this spirit message made little sense to me. Yet it is my experience that God will move my heart and my feet to where I need to be, if I am willing to be obedient to the Spirit. So even though the message seemed strange, I did my best to place my own spirit in an attitude of obedience. And then I held it all within my heart and tried to wait patiently.

By summer, the insistence of the message was a consistent thread in my prayer times. So at lunch with my spiritual director friend, I shared hearing the call. My friend exhorted me to trust that God could utilize my gifts toward church ministry. I accepted her input, and continued to ponder the sending.

Throughout this time of waiting, both my church's associate pastor and my mother sat in the spirit with me. And during this time, my role as presurgery chaplain at a local hospital was very fulfilling. Yet the call persisted, "Plant a church."

In 2000, my husband's mother died. As John and his father grieved, we wondered if we were to move near to John's dad. We began to prepare our hearts for change. And we both waited.

October 5, 2000, my husband received a call from his company's eastern office. John was asked if he would move to New York. We responded yes. As if displaying God's confirmation of our yes, I was able to sell our house to a neighbor within four hours.

The first month we were in our new home, I called the local chaplain. He informed me of the local clergy association. He also gave me the name of an interfaith minister, Alyce Branum, who was worshiping with Piseco Friends. Alyce was interested in starting a Gloversville Quaker worship group. Was this tied to the spirit sending laid upon my heart? Alyce and I began to dialogue about a worship group. Two things stood out immediately in our conversations: Quaker worship on this side of the country is primarily silent worship, with a smattering of programmed or pastor-led meetings; and Alyce loves to preach and teach. Our gifts complemented each other.

With much prayer, and lots of dialogue, we affirmed with the Northeastern Regional Meeting that we desired to start a worship group in the tri-county area of Fulton, Montgomery, and Hamilton in upstate New York. This area has historically been known as Tryon, and my husband suggested that name for our worship group. And again as if in confirmation, and the Spirit's affirmation of our willingness, Albany Friends Meeting agreed to place our group under its wings for nurture and oversight, and to provide insurance for us. Margallen Fichter and Helen Garay Toppins (NYYM staff) were instrumental in helping us during this process. Anne Liske, Steven Taylor-Roth, and Dorothy Richards graciously agreed to be our oversight committee. Carol Barclay and Dorothy Richards aided us with music and, with others, prayed us through the angst of starting a new work.

In June 2001, we found a meeting site at our local YWCA. We made up 300 flyers announcing an open house. We distributed the flyers to local businesses and posted them on bulletin boards. Our open house was well attended. The first few months of services were also well attended. "Plant a church." "Lord, you continually amaze me," my heart responded, as we worshiped together.

Over time, we realized that our worship group was a place for seekers of spirituality. Persons came to find something within themselves and/or within their relationship to a higher power. Often, once this was found, the worshipers moved on. So be it, God, we said, because we were seeing transformations occur.

Our numbers have remained small. I sometimes grieve this; yet I rejoice. We have a solid core group and a strong visibility in our community. Also, transformations have occurred not just in the seekers, but also in Alyce and in me. Alyce, who is a very dedicated minister, has been hired as a chaplain for a local nursing home. Her ministry is strongly affirmed by all who interact with her there. Due to time constraints and health issues, she has had to choose to devote her energies to Piseco Friends Worship Group. We miss her, but we celebrate her ministry. For me, by being willing to yield to the Spirit, I have been brought to an area where incredible persons were available to come alongside me, as I had the privilege to care for my own mom in her end-of-life journey. And I have been blessed to have time with my father-in-law and to share in my husband's joy at being home in his birthplace. Another transformation has come, as Alyce has continually encouraged me to stretch my comfort boundaries. To our delight, she and I were able to develop, with other women clergy in the area, a support group for women clergy. This meeting has enriched my soul.

Also, I've been embraced by Albany Friends meeting. Through Albany Friends, I have grown to love many persons who have been a tremendous spiritual support for me as well as for our worship group. Margallen's impact on my life was immense. Had I not been in a spiritually willing place to acquiesce to starting the worship group, I would have missed knowing her. God never ceases to surprise and to amaze me.

We at Tryon Friends welcome visitors. Please come worship with us. We meet Wednesday nights at 6:45 at the Salvation Army Community Center, 3-5 Spring St., Gloversville NY 12078. Telephone number 518-773-2203.

Sunday Blackmon, Tryon Friends Worship Group

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Piseco Friends Welcome a Traveling British Friend

Tamara Dragadze, a writer and member of the Hammersmith Meeting in London, U.K., was spending a month at the Blue Mountain Center working on a new book. Folks there told Tamara that she was unlikely to locate any meeting for worship, especially since she did not have a car and there is no public transportation in the Adirondacks. Not discouraged, Tamara got my e-mail address from a Saratoga Springs Friend and sent me a note. After assuring her that Friends did indeed worship here in the North Country at both the Piseco Worship Group and the Saranac Lake Meeting, I set about finding some way to get her the 60-mile distance.

Judy Cadbury, a long-time summer resident of Indian Lake, is well acquainted with Blue Mountain Lake. I gave her a call thinking she might know someone who would be willing to drive Tamara down to Indian Lake. Judy took on the challenge, driving over 120 miles so that our British Friend could join us. Tamara not only got to worship with Adirondack Friends, but to do so in the style we find so comfortable here in the mountains. We gathered in silence, joined by two cats, around the hearth of the home that newly licensed Adirondack guide, Mary Ellen Blakey, built herself. Over tea and cookies, Judy Damkoehler and Judy Cadbury were also able to provide Tamara with a history of the Cadbury Family "Back Log Camp" on Indian Lake and other early Quakers in the Adirondacks. In turn, Tamara shared with us parts of her life, her travels and her insights.

Reaching out to Friends from afar is not just a welcoming gesture, but a way to refresh and stimulate a very small group that has lived and worshiped in close community for years. As we bless, so are we blessed.

Alyce Branum, Piseco worship group

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Eyes Wide Open in Our Area

Courtesy AFSC

Eyes Wide Open was recently displayed in Ithaca, N.Y.; at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Union Square in Manhattan; and in Military Park, Newark, N.J. It will be in Poughkeepsie November 15–16, including an all-night vigil on Tuesday Nov. 15.

Plans for the exhibition in Union Square were abbreviated to reading of the names of all U.S. casualties and many Iraqi names on October 22nd only, due to rain.

The memorial exhibit makes it possible to speak with individuals one might not otherwise encounter. A vignette:

In Newark a woman approached the table where volunteers sold T-shirts. She had on a U.S. Marines shirt, and a set of dog tags hung from her neck. AFSC's Ann Morrell asked if she were in the Marines, and she said, "No, my son was." She had just visited the pair of boots representing his lost life. She quietly purchased the t-shirt and departed.

AFSC/NYMRO

Courtesy AFSC

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Eyes Wide Open—Visual Memory

Each pair of boots had a white tag on them, some blank, but most with information. A name, hometown, age. I found myself drowning out the letters, instead closely examining their ages. A fixation with numbers, I guess. Many of them were kids. Kids like you and me. Some of them had already started families. I looked at a picture of a younger soldier, 23 years old I think, holding his infant in his arms.

Were they alone when it happened, were they scared? They must have been scared senseless. How are their mothers coping? Are they doing alright? A woman from the Ithaca Journal asked if she could quote me. I was numb from feeling and all I could say was that it's amazingly tragic; these kids were as old as I am.

I stood in bewilderment, while the organizers remained steadfast in their work. I walked while trying to mull over the harsh facts, and almost tripped over a piece of string the organizers had used to meticulously line up the boots. A field of boots, representing lives lost. Lives lost. It was hard to come to grips with the fact that these were lives that were lost.

Sophia Asare, Cornell University

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Where Have All the Young Friends Gone?

So what can we do to include all Friends in the Quaker community? We can ask high school–age Friends to serve on committees. Monthly Meetings can also ask young Friends to attend business meeting. I have found that older Friends are sometimes reluctant to ask younger Friends to serve on committees. They usually say that they are concerned that young Friends will be bored or will not want to participate in this way. I always point out to these Friends that many adults also get bored or do not want to participate by attending business meeting or serving on committees! We should ask younger Friends as well as older Friends to participate fully in the business of Quakers. A wonderful F/friend that I know talked about an example from her meeting. Young Friends were not interested in the committees that their meeting had, so the meeting formed a new intergenerational committee on military recruitment in high schools, an issue that is important to their high school–age Friends. Intergenerational Bible-study groups and intergenerational groups exploring Quakerism could also be a good way to nurture Quakers of all ages. Do not assume that high school–age Friends in particular are not interested in studying spirituality and Quakerism. Teen years are often a time of exploration and seeking and we should be ready to aid in that work.

I think it is important to remember that high school–age Friends and young adult Friends have many gifts to offer the Quaker community. They have many talents that may be well used on committees, and many thoughts and insights that can add to an exploration of our religion.

Meg Obermayer
Binghamton Community Friends Church

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Arts As Outreach

We created a Peace and Social Justice Film, Music, Town Hall discussion series from January through April 2005 under the care of the 15th Street Arts Committee. We had an annual budget of $100 and no paid staff.

Each day from December to May, I pursued this goal of creating a viable program that would help with both outreach and inreach at our meeting on topics that reflected our Quaker values of Peace and Social Justice in a creative venue. I prayed and sought divine guidance along the way. We had a core group of about five people on the committee. Our first event was to honor Bayard Rustin, who had been a member of 15th Street Meeting, by showing a film called Brother Outsider: The Bayard Rustin Story. Some high school students from Friends Seminary played music at the event, and there was a panel with some of Rustin's friends and colleagues. And on the coldest day of the year over 200 people attended the event. During the next three months I took a sabbatical from my work and focused on facilitating six additional events, and also on helping other committees coordinate several other events, all of which brought in over 500 people to our meetinghouse. One of the events was a reading by Fergus M. Bordewich, from his recent book Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America. Over 50 people attended and participated in a Q and A afterward.

Now I am seeking to continue these types of creative programs as the way opens. I want to find a seed of what we as a meeting can do to empower and nurture our teenage and young adult f/Friends, who have all but disappeared from our meeting. Although our committee was small in number, and the work was long and intensive in preparing for the programs, hundreds of new and old Friends benefited by the experience. Some asked for more information about Quakers, and some showed up as attenders.

If anyone would like more information on how we set up these projects they can log on to www.quakerarts.org or call 212-388-7999.

Bob Baldridge, clerk
15th Street Arts Committee

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NYYM Web Site:
Advancement, Outreach, Nurture

Our Web site provides a good way for us in NYYM to let our Light shine, within our community and to the world at large. We post each issue of Spark, and InfoShare is posted on the site six times a year, in months in which Spark is not published. (Paper copies of InfoShare are mailed to those who request them.) The NYYM Yearbook is posted on the Web site (without individuals' addresses or phone numbers).

The calendar lists events throughout the Yearly Meeting—though it is only as up-to-date as the information meetings and individual Friends send us. The Events section provides more complete information on some of the calendar items.

Other important material on the site includes Linda Chidsey's testimony to the New York State Legislature on the death penalty and to the New York City Council in favor of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Bill; a very good bibliography from the Conflict Transformation Committee; and such publications as the NYYM Handbook.

In the near future, the site will be revised and expanded to make it more useful in disseminating important information from the Yearly Meeting's coordinating committees and other committees.

Again, you can make the Web site a more powerful outreach and inreach tool by sending us the information on your committee's or meeting's events and activities. You may be surprised to find out how much other people yearn to know about what your committee, monthly meeting, or worship group is doing! Send your news and information to Paul Busby at the NYYM office, either by e-mail to to paul [at] nyym.org or by mail to NYYM, 15 Rutherford Pl., New York NY 10003.

Paul Busby, Web weaver

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What Does "Right Sharing" Mean?

It was an example of how our economic system can work to keep a poor person in debt forever.

The system works in similar fashion among the poorest people in the world, people for whom the possibility of car ownership is only a little less remote than a trip to the moon. It may be more satisfying to help someone close at hand, someone we know personally, but we can still enjoy that "sweet sting of power" by releasing really poor people from the "jail" of debt, poor health, hunger and illiteracy.

Jeffrey Sachs, head of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals program, estimates that it would cost about $100 per person to release the 1.2 billion poorest people in the world from their extreme poverty. But Right Sharing of World Resources and similar organizations do better than that with microcredit. For each $100 that you or I can "liberate" from our discretionary spending budgets, RSWR can make a grant to a non-governmental organization's revolving microcredit program. Even with administrative costs, $100 given to RSWR translates into one to two life-changing loans of $40 or so in the recipient country. However, those loans will be paid back, usually in less than a year, and the money goes on to help someone else. If we look at this feature, we realize that for $100, we can help release at least 25 families from grinding poverty between now and 2030. That feels like power.

I admit that power is dangerous to our spiritual health. Yet I still feel that the "sweet sting" is more like the joy promised us by the Gospels when we choose to follow "the Way". Money gives us power; rightly used, our power can bring us, and others, great joy.

Mary Eagleson, clerk
Right Sharing of World Resources Committee

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NYS Council of Churches
Public Policy Commission Work Party

The theme of the annual work party was "Shalom," and Linda was asked to serve as chaplain or "listening presence" for the work party—leading opening worship, lifting up the spiritual and scriptural basis of the work, reflecting back to the group the movement of the Spirit among us.

Elaine Linder, deputy general secretary for Research and Planning of the National Council of Churches spoke the first evening on "The Vision of the Church as Advocate for Justice," and her Spirit-led words informed our work the following day. Breaking into two groups, one group met to articulate the vision, underpinnings, or theological framework for the concerns we would focus on for the year; the second group met to identify issues that were likely to emerge legislatively.

A spirit of deep seeking and boldly spoken ministry was present as we lifted up the profound connection between warmaking, racism, and neglect of "the least of these." We talked about the relation between charity and justice; acknowledged the materialism, racism, increasing militarization and desire to dominate that are afoot in our nation—all generally supported by the media. We affirmed the sacredness of all life. No one is expendable; further, we are called to be stewards of all of God's creation. We agreed to continue to engage the question of how we move beyond a culture of violence to building a culture of peace; how we lift up the reality of abundance in the midst of a society that embraces a notion of scarcity.

Among the issues that we agreed to work on this year were criminal justice, farmworkers' rights, immigration rights, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, equitable education in New York State, the war in Iraq, healthcare, and housing for low-income families.

Dorothy Day said, "No one has the right to sit down and feel helpless." It is everywhere and at all times a blessing to join with others who are living out the gospel message of Shalom. < align="right">Pat Beetle, Albany
Linda Chidsey, Croton Valley
Steven Taylor-Roth, Albany

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Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

One of the great risks we face as Friends is the belief that God's work has a deadline. As a participant in the difficult labor that led to our 2005 Yearly Meeting Epistle I find myself a bit saddened by the final result. I am grateful for the hard work of the Epistle Committee. I trusted that they would, with Divine assistance, be able to capture the sense of our meeting in a few additional words that could not be approved in the meeting. I do not believe they succeeded.

Many of us at the meeting considering the epistle were concerned that the messages of two of our speakers were being reported as though they represented the sense of the Yearly Meeting. When it became clear that this was not the case, it was simply a matter of reporting the content of the messages without taking a position on their respective suppositions. We partly succeeded and yet the epistle has now gone out to the world with a message for which there is certainly no unity in our Yearly Meeting.

The critical flaw is best understood in the paragraph repeated at the end of the epistle. It begins: "Many Friends in New York Yearly Meeting find it difficult to talk about racism." That is unquestionably a fact but the very next sentence says: "When we do, we experience feelings of rage, pain, awkwardness, confusion, guilt, and/or denial." Though that is true for many of us it is not true for all of us and yet that sentence immediately converts "many Friends" to an all inclusive "we." I and many others, of all "races" and skin pigments, experienced none of those negative emotions and also did not entirely unite with the messages presented by Irma Guthrie and Vanessa Julye. Many of us also felt love, concern, joy, and satisfaction that in the spirit of worship we could labor long into the night seeking Light together. That was not reported in the epistle nor was the meeting's profound disagreement with the message of necessary segregation by "race" to effectively fight racism.

The discussion of racism is indeed difficult. But, for me and for others in this Yearly Meeting it is difficult for other reasons and in other ways. Racism is difficult because it is the product of a lie, a false construct we name "race." The poisoned fruit of that deception is not just racism but the belief that we Friends must remain slaves to the falsehood. A letter in September Spark from several of our members calls for future considerations at Yearly Meeting with some members of our community segregated by "race." They wrote, "In order to nurture our continued participation in Yearly Meeting sessions as we do this work, we are asking that Friends of Color have a time and place that is separated from other Yearly Meeting activities." Why should I react to that bizarre request any differently than if it were written by "white" Friends?

The belief that Friends must continue our work toward the Light divided into separate groups defined by skin color and "race" is a worldly political concession to the lie called "race" and as a Friend I will not support it or accept it. The "racial delineation" approach is particularly difficult for the children who already recognize our racist past for what it is and want nothing to do with 1960s mindsets and victim language. There may be a place for "us and them" approaches to racism in the wider world but not in our faith community.

We are a people of faith and our only hope resides in our unified belief in God, God's Love, and our absolute equality as God's beloved children. Faith and trust in that love are the only path that guarantees the defeat of racism and all other forms of darkness. As a faith community we must model this Truth to the world.

Don Badgley, Poughkeepsie Meeting

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Notices

NEW MEMBERS
Anne Bowman – Summit
Elisa Leone – New Paltz
Alexander Mathias Zarin – Housatonic
Katherine Ophelia Zarin – Housatonic
Lauri Lynn Zarin – Housatonic
Richard Scott Zarin – Housatonic

TRANSFERS
Louise V. North, to Croton Valley from Amawalk

DEATHS
David C. Anderson, member of Brooklyn, on September 15, 2005
Marvin Clark, member of Albany, on July 1, 2005
Emily Laura Richardson, associate member of Poplar Ridge, on September 25, 2005
Ruth B. Stewart, member of Poplar Ridge, on October 4, 2005
David Thornton Wagner, member of Montclair, on September 9, 2005

MARRIAGES/COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS
April Joy Varner, member of Rahway-Plainfield, and Frank Nanton, on August 20, 2005.

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. . . Be obedient to the Lord God and go through the world and be valiant for the Truth upon earth . . . be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness in God in them to bless you. --George Fox, Journal, 1694

There is that of God in everyone. As we reach out to God, we find other people. As we reach out to others, we reach out to God. When we are most fully alive, most real, we discover life in others and help to make God real to them. Spirituality is about relationships and about depth. – PH pamphlet #314, "Spiritual Hospitality: A Quaker's Understanding of Outreach," Pendle Hill, Wallingford, Pa., 1994, p. 3

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