STATE OF THE SOCIETY REPORT 2003
Summary of Monthly Meeting Reports

Another meeting wondered whether this process of self-analysis is useful:

Some among us have questioned the value of the annual State of the Meeting report, as we don't "do" anything with it, nor do we get feedback from the Yearly Meeting, except for the combined Yearly Meeting report. Others maintain that it is a useful spiritual exercise in itself and an important aspect of Friends' discipline.

That meeting gathered together to reflect on the state of their meeting, and their report followed their collective thoughts. Another meeting went through a different process:

To come up with a state of the meeting report is to create a tapestry. When we are together as a community we work toward unity: toward a sense of the meeting in meeting for business, toward a gathered meeting in worship. But we have written separately about our own individual "state of spiritual adventure," perhaps sitting in solitude in our own homes. We have varying orientations toward faith and Quaker experience that do not cohere tidily together. That is the way with Quakers. This diversity provides raw material and ballast, meaning and power to the unity we enjoy. This is our expectation. But unity is never given and cannot be assumed. What is it about any tapestry and about this one in particular that is focused, collective? How do various scraps fit together meaningfully?

Certainly as we read these reports we felt privileged to be part of the weaving of this tapestry. This spiritual journey we are on together is not always easy:

Several of us mentioned that, as much as we wish spiritual growth always to increase, in reality some pauses, an ebb and flow, even slips are part of what we sense.

And our reports reflect that ebb and flow as we work to weave together our joys, our failures, our difficulties into a story that reveals the spirit at work in our lives.

As in recent years, quotations from the individual reports are included without attribution.

The State of the Society 2003

Some Meetings have "appreciated the fine ministry of music in our services, heartfelt messages in song...." Others find that "silent worship has been the bedrock of the meeting, and the spirit has been with us bearing deeply felt messages."

The silence is deep and full, and the messages all the more meaningful. Our worship is "that firm foundation on which clearness and resolve of witness is sustained" and it has led us "to a greater awareness of the divine love that flows through each of us in caring for the others."

"The depth of worship, the quiet intimacy and the sense of community" in our Meetings "provide much comfort and renewal for those of us" who sit in the silence listening for the still small voice of the Unseen Presence.

Several Meetings were motivated to reflect on the meaning of vocal ministry and the words that we use to speak of spiritual truth:

The art of speaking out is a very elusive issue in non-pastoral Quaker meetings. Since we are all helping to steward each other's journey and witness each other's spiritual dialogue with God or the Light, perhaps we can spend more time investigating how we can identify these leadings, individually and collectively. The freedom and courage to speak one's inner leadings is, in our opinion, one of the features of Quaker worship that makes it such a fresh, exciting, and unique (albeit challenging) form of worship.

How can our language be truthful and authentic in expressing our spiritual experience and yet sensitive to the differences in spiritual understanding that exist within our Meeting families? How can we be both loving and truthful in our speaking and in our listening?

Some meetings report that "all would welcome a more vocal ministry in Meeting"; others speak "with some sadness and disappointment about worship on First Day which often feels like 'conversation,' lacking the deeply gathered sense" we yearn for. For some, worship is "growing deeper, both in the silence and in the general quality of the vocal ministry" with most of the messages seeming "to come from a deep center ." One meeting received a message from a "very young member" of First Day school, "a powerful message that left the adults in awe." Many meetings find that the practice of sharing afterthoughts at the rise of meeting for worship helps them "to discern better what to speak in meeting and what to share later."

We have also been working this year at building the community fostered among us by our worship together. The work is hard:

We hope to live and to help one another to live always more fully in the light. It would be helpful and healthy to have more members actively involved in the life of the Meeting, in supporting and nurturing that life.

Some meetings celebrated their success:

We are a very small, committed group, learning to listen more closely and communicate our trials and joys more openly. This new closeness is a great joy.

Others looked honestly at their own faults:

It was painful for some of us, and a great relief to others, to hear publicly voiced that our community can seem cold and unwelcoming, and our business meetings can be un-Friendly. Shared values, shared faith, and shared worship do not necessarily translate into sociability and warmth.

Many asked for greater civility and consideration within Meeting . The responses point out the challenge of balancing personal consideration with honesty--balancing the patience that we all hope others would extend us, with the need to be true to our own beliefs. All of the issues flow back to love. We all want it; what are we willing to do to share it?

The clearness process continues to be used by individuals for specific concerns, but many meetings mentioned a noticeable increase in the use of clearness committees not just for marriage or membership, but for a wide range of spiritual, practical, and conflict-related issues.

Not only did these clearness committees address the concern before them . They were a sign of individuals' greater awareness of leadings and the community's willingness to help support and guide spiritual choices.

Several meetings spoke of strong leadings in the areas of increasing diversity or ministering to "hidden racism" within individuals and meetings, trying to go deeper in their understanding of this problem and trying to better live our testimony of equality in the real world. The balance between work and celebration was portrayed in the response of one meeting:

How do we support what we say we are? Beginning the year celebrating community, we have ended the year exploring the community that we want to become, for after the celebration of the harvest, begins the planting for the next year.

Often, our communities are built on the small sacrifices we make for each other:

From late fall through early spring we stay warm with the help of wood-burning stoves and the greeters who lovingly arrive an hour or two early to light them and prepare refreshments for the rise of meeting.

Many meetings express the sense that this past year has been one of change and transition; they find themselves in "a period of redefinition and transformation rather than in a period of growth." Friends are resolved to meet these "unsettling circumstances with care and deep feeling." Smaller meetings yearn for the presence of more young families and small children, and very small meetings speak of having "to be creative in meeting [their] spiritual needs," often by participating in activities of the Quarterly and Yearly Meeting or by extending or responding to invitations with other local groups.

As we struggle through this period of transition, we are finding that our strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. We are finding that we have become more creative and flexible with our solutions.

The reports from our prison meetings were full of the same questions, self-analysis, and joy that characterized reports from other small meetings, as well as unique concerns raised in the current climate of increased security, which puts new restrictions on outside visitors and prisoners alike.

Prison rules forbid prisoners from attending religious services other than that which is indicated on their prison records as their faith of choice and we struggle with the difficulty it causes us in recruiting new members to our faith.

Another meeting acknowledged a similar difficulty: "For many of the men here there is an attraction to and appreciation for Quaker Principles and lifestyle," and yet they "are in dire need of volunteers to help us develop a deeper understanding of these principles."

The interaction between inside and outside continues to be fertile. Visitors commented to one prison meeting that "the world they leave behind is too noisy and fast to promote spiritual growth; however when they enter behind the concrete curtain the noise decreases and the pace slows, enabling them to be better prepared to receive the spirit during silence." One frequent visitor to a prison meeting noted, "The inmates relate to me as having power they don't have and I don't want, and we struggle with that together." Another prison meeting was "proud that two needy families received gifts of food and clothing during the Christmas season through our Adopt-a-Family activity with Poplar Ridge Meeting." Another "outside" meeting reported:

Exterior painting of the meeting house was done by a work crew from Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility through their community service program, with conscientiousness and good cheer, and we hope to have them do other work in the spring as they are eager to return.

The enduring strength of our Society is evident in the energetic witness for peace that has led our meetings to become more visible in their communities.

Throughout last year, "the war on Iraq and other points of conflict and tension around the world...and the human suffering connected with them have been heavy on our hearts...and the focus of much of our activity. We pray for yet more Light on how best to bring the Quaker message of nonviolence and reconciliation deeper still into our own hearts and from there out into the world."

From one member who inspires her meeting with her solitary peace vigil, to the weekly/monthly vigils engaged in by so many other meetings, every report seemed to contain some collective witness against our country's war on Iraq.

In early 2003, with the U.S. invasion of Iraq pending, Friends were called to consider the state of our meeting as a witness for peace within the larger religious community. This was a defining moment for our Meeting, and we asked God for the courage to let our lives speak.

And our lives have spoken, in so many ways.

Our meeting was led to invite the larger community and other churches to talks centering on a nonviolent approach to the violence around us . Some members also participated in programs at community churches so that we now feel a spiritual bond with congregations unfamiliar to us last year.

 

Our Witness Committee held vigils on the "Undeclared War against America" decrying the deprivations brought by tax cuts for the rich resulting in the loss of benefits for veterans and the less fortunate.

 

We have a monthly Vigil for Peace and Nonviolence that is conducted as a meeting for worship. It is held at Washington Square Park, under the arch that bears these words from George Washington: "Let us erect a standard to which the wise and honest may repair The event is in the hands of God."

 

Friends created a set of cloth banners for the March 22 peace march in New York City. With the banners, we had a real presence at the march, and Friends could find us so that we walked as a large and visible group. These banners were one result of our Peace Committee's attempts to create quiet at large demonstrations.

Some may measure our activism by its impact on the world, but we who witness can also testify to its energizing effect on us:

Our country is at war abroad with growing despair at home, yet in looking back over the past year we must give thanks. We have been blessed in so many wonderful and unexpected ways that we look to the future with joy, hope, and humility.

 

We consider how the meeting might live its witness over the long term, to ineradicably establish the Peaceable Garden in the hearts and minds of the world . We move forward in the belief that way will open as we are faithful.

 

In spite of vigorous activism, we felt unable to affect the outcome of the inexorable march toward war in Iraq. In spite of much talking we couldn't prevent the construction of the large building behind the meeting house. Many of us felt powerless, hopeless and angry . Then we found that we could manage-- that although we are only a tiny part of the groundswell of pacifism, it is an increasing power in the country . Although we couldn't prevent the growing darkness from the building being constructed behind us, it is not as dark as we feared. We have discovered a different sense of light in the Meeting; the Inner Light is not dependent on the external light. The Light sustains us and adversity strengthens us.

Now that we've listened to some of the answers meetings have provided to our query, we end by considering some of the queries meetings asked themselves and us:

Do we remember to consider the needs of the community when we assert our own personal needs and wishes? How can we better communicate with one another? Do we strive for simplicity in our words? How well do we know and trust one another? Why are we today so timid that we are afraid to speak out on those conditions we know to be against God's Laws? Is our faith and practice defenseless and weak? What does it stand for? We ask this of Friends in the Yearly Meeting.

So this is the state of our Society. We ask ourselves questions and search our souls for answers that never quite satisfy us. We pause to look, each year, at where we are on our journey, knowing always there is more to do. This year we can say yes, we have a message that will save our troubled world. And today we can rejoice in the presence of the Spirit, sustaining and inspiring us in this slow work of changing the world one day, one step at a time.