Worship and Action Update

November 8, 2002

We often exhort each other to speak truth to power. We also admonish ourselves to listen for the truth in the voices of others. The election results of this past week remind us that we do not have an exclusive hold on truth, that we always need to listen more attentively. Discernment is an evolutionary process.

When we venture to take action in our society, we learn again and again that reality's prism refracts the Light in many hues. Much of our nation sees colors to which today we are blind. And we see tints that cannot yet be perceived by others. The effort to integrate these many disparate tones as we seek the full rainbow of truth tests our faithfulness.

"There is, of course, no guarantee of success. But politics is not about observations or predictions. Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine." --Senator Paul Wellstone

Do we still see "conflict as an opportunity for spiritual growth"? This week we may be daunted by rediscovery of the many and seemingly vast differences in perspectives across our country. And yet and still, we can continue to search for illumination in the watchful waiting of worship and in renewed dialogue among Friends and our many wider communities of friends.

The journey is filled with flashes of bright wonder. We need not gaze only upon the farthest star. When the Light others reflect seems strange, even perverse, we can know it still projects rays of God's truth and we can seek to respond to that incandescence.

In continuing care,

Linda Chidsey, Vicki Cooley, Fred Dettmer
NYYM Worship & Action working group

We have been given possession of an unshakeable kingdom. Let us therefore hold on to the grace that we have been given and use it to serve God acceptably, in reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire. --Hebrews 12: 28-29