Wow! What a ride!

My assistant clerk, Anne Supplee, and I celebrated out last day on the job on August 31.

We had a running query through our term which I believe we repeated to each other monthly: “Are we (still) having fun?”

The shared answer has always been “yes!” And it was “yes!” again this week.

Not that it hasn’t been a challenge. Being asked to form up an ad-hoc committee to oversee the repair of our sick building, and receiving a challenge to the meeting about giving up a Friend in Residence, in order to have more classroom space, are the top two that come to mind.

And WE, dear Friends, we have handled these challenges well. As you Quakers know well, the clerk makes a contribution to our shared work by trying to anticipate what will need to happen, and encouraging meeting members to address the issues in a timely fashion. The clerk’s role IS very important, but it is the membership who actually make the spirit-led decisions, and we community members are the ones who step up to the plate and do what needs to be done.

Thank you, thank us all!

And it has been fun. I think probably the most important part of that, for me, given my personality, has been that I have always been clear on your affection, or at least your respect. Even those of you who have complained to me (many of you will remember who you are) you have complained to me affectionately, or at least you have respected that I have been doing the best I could.

Since I wasn’t in it for the money, your love has been crucial.

And, I must say, it has been a spiritually-enlarging time for me. I originally said “yes” to Nominating Committee in response to something within me that felt larger than my conscious self, and I have tried to stay aligned with that “larger” purpose, putting myself “in the place of TCFM,” as I tried to understand the right way forward at crucial moments. Your respect and concern, your support, both careful and casual, have made a big difference in my not having to fall back into “little-me-self-protective mode.” We have all done well.

And the icing on the cake has been this “Shake the Piggy Bank” mini-fund-raiser, that started and ended just in the last two weeks. I saw we were coming up on some tough choices with less than enough information. I put out the word, and plenty of you responded quickly enough that MOMSAH was able to confidently make choices which will bring this construction to a close in a durable and beautiful fashion, with a minimum of loose ends that would soon be claiming our attention, AGAIN.

And for those of you who were out of town, or for other reasons missed a chance to contribute, fear not! Development Committee will be informing us in the months ahead that retiring the mortgage we took out to finance the construction will require the contributions of EVERYONE in our community, if we are to pay it off in a timely fashion. A huge amount of work has been done, and done well, and quality work doesn’t come cheap.

Except when it’s free. The leadership of MOMSAH has been exceptional, and I guess I should note that that has been another source of inspiration and strength to me, during my term as clerk. Every time I would finish a load of clerkly work, getting some Quaker ducks in a row, I would be in a position to notice another large bunch of careful, knowledgeable, patient work being done by MOMSAH members. I never felt like Anne and I were “doing all the work, or at least a lot of it.” Far from it. We felt ourselves part of a community, with people on MOMSAH and on many other committees giving that community wonderful devotion-filled work. Thank you, thank us, all! It has been a wonderful time.

“And for my next act…” That will have to wait a bit. Betsy and I are off to the Oregon coast for what promises to be an amazing workshop, and will miss the September MWB. On my return I’ll eager to dive back into the life of the meeting, as the Gaia Troubadour, and as Richard, member of First Day School Committee.

Happiness!

“How much more money?” That’s a chicken and egg question.

The construction which is being supervised by MOMSAH continues to go well, and the end is mid-October, the date promised by Whole Builders all along.

The TCFM “Design Team” and the volunteers it coordinates (and maybe the subcontractors it hires) will finish up the work. This may take longer than mid-October, but hopefully the work that remains will not prevent us from using most of the building.

The “chicken & egg” problem I am bringing to you is that we are running out of the money we have budgeted, and we don’t know how much we should change gears and “make do,” with what is left.

We can “make do” just fine, but we will sacrifice some quality, convenience and efficiency. If the TCFM community has more money available, we can continue to invest more now in work which will save us money and disruption in the long run.

So I’m asking, please pledge what you can, or just send money.

We need to know, no later than next Sunday, September 6, how much money you think you can offer.

I’m talking extra money here, beyond what you already expect to give to the Meeting this year.

Please send your money to:

Treasurer

Twin Cities Friends Meeting

1725 Grand Avenue

Saint Paul MN 55105

Please note on your check: “Extra for construction”.

Pledges of extra money you can contribute this year can also be sent to the treasurer, or you can email them to

clerk@tcfm.org

The response to this appeal in it’s first week has been very gratifying, and here’s an example of how that money has made a difference:

We recently discovered that parts of the library window had rotted away. In “we can make do” mode, we might have patched the rotten areas. If the patches didn’t hold, we notice, and work on them some more. And we would have saved the meeting a chunk of money, this year. However, several professionals have been clear this is not advisable. For the over-all health of the building it is much preferable to get a whole new bank of four windows that will be trouble-free for years, with a full warrantee. Because of the money that was pledged last week, MOMSAH felt confident to order the new windows.

We have several choices like this, and it is hard to make them when we are in the dark about how many extra $$ the community has available.

So, as Clerk of Meeting, I am asking you all to make pledges or send money, ASAP.

We don’t need all the money ASAP, but we need, quickly, to have an idea of what we can expect.

I understand that our Development Committee is launching a formal fund drive in the fall, and they will follow up on pledges, as well as reaching everybody in the community, which this appeal surely will not.

This is like shaking the piggy bank, just to get an idea of how much is in there.

Time is of the essence here, rather than completeness.

Any response from you, whether it is “I’m maxed out” or a $5 donation, will help MOMSAH and the Design Team know how much more we have available.

In closing, I’ll offer another example of how knowing what resources we have available has been extremely helpful in the decision-making process: the Meeting Room walls.

Because we know we have the money, it makes sense to patch the cracks and paint the Meeting Room walls as part of completing the project, before the sound-dampening panels go back on. Without the money that was pledged last week, we might have waited until later to patch and paint, which would have cost us more than it will now. By doing it next week we avoid the later renting of high scaffolding, which would have meant protecting the floor, moving much of the furniture out of the room, and a fresh wave of fumes making the building unusable for some, for a month or more.

Yours in faith,

Richard Fuller,

Clerk of TCFM

8/21/09

Most of the 22 attenders at the meeting expressed a clear preference, and all who did said they would like to see a Friend in Residence (FiR) living in the building. All those not present who sent their opinions also wanted a FiR.

Interesting facts that emerged:

• TCFM gets about $12,000 in revenue from outside group donations. We named 18 groups off the top of our heads, including AA, Friends and Families of Suicide,  the Royal Scottish Dance Society and Spiderwomen.
• Meeting House Committee had had a special meeting-long discussion in November and recommended we have a FiR. (The notes from that meeting are available from Meeting House Committee or Richard Fuller.)
• The FiR works 50 to 60 hours a month in exchange for a place to live, which works out to less than $10/hour, at current rental rates.
• Many churches do NOT have caretakers in residence.
• Our building is not compartmentalized so that outside groups can be limited to public space. Once they’re in, they can go almost anywhere. Most of those churches who rent have buildings designed so that whole wings can be locked off, denying entry to the general public. This offers them greater security than we would have, with low or no staff on site.
• If we have a FiR, unless the FiR is a family, there will be many hours of the day that the building will not be occupied. Whoever lives there also needs an income, which likely means working off-site.

Points of full agreement:

• First Day School (FDS) needs more adequate classroom space and the adult activities in the building would also benefit from more space. We would like to rebuild in such a way that more room is available for such meetings.
• Having someone living in the building provides a friendly presence, which includes

o    Convenience and ready answers for many questions, for both strangers and meeting members,
o    A sense of warmth,
o    Security.
A non-resident manager CAN perform the duties specified in the FiR job description, but something important is lost.

• The primary purpose of our building is to house meeting activities – First Day School, committee meetings, etc. Housing a FiR and hosting community groups come after that.

• No matter what we decide this spring, to advise MOMSAH of Meeting’s priorities, we must continue to work on the questions of how to provide more adequate space for children and adults.

Points of difference, discussion & concern:

Is what we want from a FiR realistic, or good for them?

• Is being FiR is a nourishing experience spiritually & economically?
• Being a full-fledged FiR is part ministry to the Meeting, and part exchange of services for remuneration.
• You need clear boundaries to protect your sanity. Requires certain stamina to put up with various interesting discussions & attitudes that sometimes come by.
• It can be a rich and rewarding experience.
• Who can tell the FiR what to do, everybody? One early FiR felt much put upon.
• It makes a lot of difference who is on Meeting House Committee and how they can support you.
• It depends a lot on the person in the job.
• It’s in the domain of loving service, and if you don’t feel it, you shouldn’t be there.
• Because WHO the FiR is, is important, we should accept that we might decide to have the apartment and then not fill it when the right person doesn’t show up. We could have a FiR apartment and use an outside manager for some time if that’s what works.
• The apartment is small with or without the extra room. There’s a limited amount of space to drop your stuff.
  On other hand, it’s part of a nice big house.
• What we offer to a prospective FiR doesn’t have to be either-or. We might offer more than the living space as compensation for services.

Do we return the FiR apartment to its original one-bedroom size?

• (Legally the room that was annexed to the apartment in about 1996 cannot be called a “bedroom” because it does not have a closet. Legally, it was called a “living room.”)
• The 1996 expansion provided more that just the “living room” for FiR use. Moving the apartment’s exterior door closer to the stairs also added valuable storage space in the new entryway. The original apartment had very little, even for coats and boots.
• Sometimes the “living room” was convenient for overnight guests. We might want to design the extra room as easily convertible so it could be part of FiR space when it made sense, and available for FDS under other circumstances. Perhaps a hybrid used by both FiR AND FDS?
  Regardless of decision on primary use of that room, we can ask MOMSAH to make that space as flexible as possible. Much agreement on this.
• Can the apartment be rebuilt to expand it into the big empty area over the stairs? [A little, but because of the fire-rating called for in stairwell walls, it would be expensive to do much. -Whole Builders.]
• Offering a one-bedroom apartment is minimal, but that’s true for other aspects of Meeting life. First Day School classrooms are minimally satisfactory, or not even that, depending on who you talk to.
  “What we can get away with” is kind of what the entire conversation is about – we ask the same questions re FiR and FDS. We hope not to shortchange anyone too much.

How do we meet all or most of TCFM’s needs within the confines of our current building?

• Whatever we decide this spring, we may need additional space- e.g., in Ramsey School or the Council of Churches building – the future needs of meeting are unknowable – FDS may be at its peak. We know there are ebbs & flows. There’s no final solution to the building’s limitations.
• If the FDS population is at peak, it’s because there is no more space. Some sensitive members of the FDS community might hear that as not welcoming or nurturing of children; FDS committee can’t be viewed holding ALL the responsibility for our kids. We need to think of the whole meeting’s responsibility to kids.
• We’re talking about values we hold. We want to be friendly to neighborhood, and FIR helps us project this warmth. AND we want to care for our children. This IS a community-wide concern, not just FDS committee’s job. The fact that the building doesn’t seem large enough to do everything we’d like is a meeting-wide challenge.
• We need to question the idea that we necessarily need space outside of our current address. The building as presently configured isn’t working well, but our current real estate may be able to adequately support the number of FDS kids who actually come each week.
• How can we grow Quakerism without growing the building?
• Has community gotten too large for this space? (The “bud meeting” question.)

Raquel Wood has sent a letter to TCFM and other Friends meetings.

It includes the declaration, below, with the following cover note.

For Twin Cities Friends Meeting

January 7, 2009

At the Monthly Meeting for Business on last Sunday evening, January 4, 2009, Prospect Hill Friends united in our wish to endorse the attached “Declaration of Principles. . .” A number of us had signed this Declaration as individuals. Our clerk, Michael Russelle, brought to our attention that the organizers are hoping many church groups will go on record as endorsing this statement. To date very few Friends meetings have done so. The intention is to reach the new administration with a strong voice of conscience. I volunteered to send this form to each of the meetings in our area. I hope your meeting will join Prospect Hill and other Quaker bodies that decide to join this effort. Thank you, all.

Peace, Raquel

Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order On Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty

Though we come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, we agree that the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners is immoral, unwise, and un-American.

In our effort to secure ourselves, we have resorted to tactics which do not work, which endanger US personnel abroad, which discourage political, military, and intelligence cooperation from our allies, and which ultimately do not enhance our security.

Our President must lead us by our core principles. We must be better than our enemies, and our treatment of prisoners captured in the battle against terrorism must reflect our character and values as Americans.

Therefore, we believe the President of the United States should issue an Executive Order that provides as follows:

• The “Golden Rule.” We will not authorize or use any methods of interrogation that we would not find acceptable if used against Americans, be they civilians or soldiers.
• One national standard. We will have one national standard for all US personnel and agencies for the interrogation and treatment of prisoners. Currently, the best expression of that standard is the US Army Field Manual, which will be used until any other interrogation technique has been approved based on the Golden Rule principle.
• The rule of law. We will acknowledge all prisoners to our courts or the International Red Cross. We will in no circumstance hold persons in secret prisons or engage in disappearances. In all cases, prisoners will have the opportunity to prove their innocence in ways that fully conform to American principles of fairness.
• Duty to protect. We acknowledge our historical commitment to end the use of torture and cruelty in the world. The US will not transfer any person to countries that use torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
• Checks and balances. Congress and the courts play an invaluable role in protecting the values and institutions of our nation and must have and will have access to the information they need to be fully informed about our detention and interrogation policies.
• Clarity and accountability. All US personnel – whether soldiers or intelligence staff – deserve the certainty that they are implementing policy that complies fully with the law. Henceforth all US officials who authorize, implement, or fail in their duty to prevent the use of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners will be held accountable, regardless of rank or position.

“We are all connected to one another. Whether you look to Jesus Christ or were raised Jewish, or something else, everywhere our traditions say not to turn your back on the poor, on suffering.
Quakers have our own splendid tradition of prison reform, working against slavery, caring for the victims of war. How can we, a fine, strong Quaker Meeting with many resources, not be active of behalf of others less fortunate?”

For myself, personally, I am not so concerned. My own leadings from the unseen world have led me to the identity of a Gaia Troubadour, and to work toward a Quaker Community Forest and to take a responsible role in the life of the Meeting. I may not be offering much more than token support for social justice, or caring for the homeless, but I feel like I am being faithful to my Light. And there have been years when, following that same Light, I have been almost invisible, within the life of the meeting. I want to believe that what is true for me is true for all of us; that we are being true to our deepest promptings and that we are living lives faithful to those promptings. If our days are filled with child-rearing or other activities that nourish the souls of ourselves and others, so be it. It is not our place to “should” one another to “look busy” at traditional Quaker activities, unless we are led there by Spirit.

As Clerk of Meeting, I find myself in a somewhat different position.
While I feel no need to “recruit” to repopulate PSAC and CSC, I do feel we should ask ourselves, “are we missing something important here?” I want to join with the voices of those who express worry about TCFM’s lack.
I want to press us as a Meeting community to do some soul-searching. If we, as a community, can look at the pain of the world, can engage with it, recognizing “there but for grace, go I”… if we can truly acknowledge the misery and injustice in foreign lands and in our own neighborhoods and can say, “I am doing what I need to do, what I am called to,”… if we can clear-mindedly, as a community ask these questions, and give this answer, and PSAC and CSC remain inactive, I will be content.

And at the moment, the TCFM community has its hands full, restoring our damaged buildings to health. This includes making some challenging decisions together, and probably trying to raise a bunch of money in time when people are frightened about money.
So your Clerks Team is not pressing for a big soul-searching effort at the moment, but we don’t want to let the issue slip away, unnoticed. We say, “let’s keep this simmering on the back burner, and look forward to the time when we can give it our undivided attention.” This web-log entry is a part of the keep-it-simmering process, and we will look for other ways to keep the issue cooking at a high enough temperature that it doesn’t go bad.

So here are a few queries for your individual back burners.

Can I find a voice within myself that would press me toward the advocacy of the Peace and Social Action Committee or toward the human service of Community Service Committee? Without making any commitments about joining another committee, can I find a still small voice within myself that is hungry for such things? And, if I can find such a voice, can I encourage it to say more to me?

If I anticipate a time when my spiritual community will gather specifically to discuss what TCFM should be doing in the areas of redressing injustice and serving those who are suffering, what might I say? Do I believe my Quaker community needs to witness in these areas? Whether I personally offer myself to that work or not, what might I say to other members of our community?

Richard Fuller

In your comment on my “Q-horn” post, you write,

Do I misunderstand your message?

Yes you do. Thank you for the opportunity to try again.

In the July 2008 Friends Journal, Arlene Kelly asks some of the big questions a meeting community faces:

What are our expectations of each other for sharing the work of the meeting, and in regard to how we will deal with differences when they arise?

What does it mean to be a member of the meeting?*

Arlene goes on to say

Opening conversation on some of these questions may be scary since it will bring into the open that we have a range of views on these matters.

I have been part of this meeting community of about 300 since 1988, and we do have an impressive range of views on everything from child-rearing to original sin.
We are fairly comfortable in community, except for the occasional dispute. Since I have been here, none of our differences have polarized the Meeting. There may have been feelings so strong that some community members felt required to “take sides,” but none of them have drawn the bulk of the community membership into feelings of “us” and “ them.” This is very much to the community’s credit, to my mind. Unfortunately, one way we have maintained this equilibrium is by sharing our hearts mostly where we feel fairly safe, among small sub-groups where we know our listeners fairly well. In worship, especially Meeting for Worship with attention to Business, where “everybody” is listening, many of us have been reluctant to share explicitly out of our core values and beliefs.

If our community is to deepen we need to learn –-as a community—to share our feelings on some of the loaded topics. Only after we have appreciated our differences will we be able to recognize where our vision is shared and to live this vision forth into the world.

I have no doubt that the discovery of a shared vision is possible, but how to “break the ice” on some of those challenging discussions? How establish an atmosphere where people can begin to express the tender feelings in their hearts without fearing it will trigger a dispute, will rent the fabric of warm regard we have for one another?
The use of the Q-horn in its first appearance worked as I had hoped. People with strong feelings, based in the fundamentals of Quaker faith as they understand them, prefaced their remarks with a couple of toots as a way of indicating “I feel strongly about this, but I assure Friends that I have some flexibility here; I am open to hearing other points of view.”
It’s a silly thing. In this context the horn does not say “out of my way.” It does NOT say, “God is speaking through ME, directing YOU what to do.” I am sorry if you got that impression. I assure you this is not the case.

Patricia, you write,

… the Friends way is to allow the Spirit’s guidance in all matters, in all meetings.

We are in full agreement on this.
Arlene Kelly’s article, and the center of which she is a part, helps me to understand that levity in itself will not be enough to create a community where differences on important matters can be held in an atmosphere of trust and mutual regard. But it’s a start. I hope you can accept it as such.
Sincerely,

What people seem to have taken the Q-horn to signify:

“I believe I am standing in the Quaker tradition when I hold this horn and say…”
Or:
“I feel the Quaker tradition as I understand it, flowing through me as I speak.”

Language is crucial here, for us to work together. Also crucial is remembering the Quaker truth that words –language– can never actually BE the truth; words can only signify a desired direction for awareness to travel in.
Where I’m coming from as I introduce the Q-horn is what I have learned from Process Work and World Work.

(These links to Process Work, and its offspring, World Work, will get you started, but if you feel more than passing interest we should talk –Process Work is not linear and it’s not simple.)

Process Work would say that our Meeting for Worship with attention to Business is a microcosm of TCFM. In both there are many voices, many points of view, spoken and unspoken. And we are a group of passionate people, survivors of long journeys, often challenging ones. We have many stories to tell, truths we have learned.

Anne Supplee and I believe that, as a Meeting community, we are somehow hampered in our work. We clerks want to help TCFM loosen up, be freer with each other. For my part, I want to encourage us to express our passion, our deep truths. However, when you get down to the level of spiritual truths in a person, it’s a tricky area. Our passionately-held truths are guides to our lives; very important to each of us. It’s hard to talk about them “dispassionately.” But, in our culture, many of our experiences of listening to passionate spiritual/religious speech are profoundly off-putting. I would like to encourage the TCFM MWB community to practice passionate speech –telling our Truths– in ways that don’t frighten our community members.
I propose starting with our passion about what we each have found in the Quaker tradition that helps us live our lives. And the Q-horn is a humorous way to signify “wake up, here I come!” Several people were ready to take up the horn at our July 13 meeting. They spoke heart-felt words, but with the horn in their hands I think none of their listeners felt “shoulded” or guilt-tripped.
This is exactly what I want, and I’m writing about it now because I want to share and spread this wonderful development.
There’s another horn on the Clerks’ table too, a squeaky parrot. When I was deciding use a horn as a humorous indication of strongly-held statements, I knew that if things went well I would need at least two horns. Because, Friends, we WILL disagree. That’s fine. We need that. It is when we combine our individual truths,

• when we state them as individuals…
• and then work them back and forth and up and down together,
• sometimes holding them in worship…

It is when several individual truths are thus lovingly examined, for points of misunderstanding and for points of genuine difference, that we begin to move toward a collective wisdom and the possibility of inspired collective action in the world.

So my “high dream” about how we might someday use these silly horns is that in a difficult discussion a few people would be honking the Q-horn and some others the parrot-horn. In that discussion the parrot would come to stand for another point of view. People could passionately speak their positions, from the Q-camp or the parrot-camp, we would be hearing people’s deeply-held truths. At the same time, with the squeaking and honking, we would be reminding ourselves not to take ourselves too seriously. We are all part of a mystery larger than any of us can comprehend on our own.
The horns are a gimmick. They are not intended to be taken seriously, and I imagine that, after a while, their use will pass. However, what they stand for is one of MY (honk, honk) deeply-held truths: part of Love is passion. If we do not share with each other out of our hearts’ wellsprings, we limit the expression of our Love, for our community and for its future.

Unfortunately, our idea of leadership has been deformed by a myth that links leadership to hierarchy, as if leaders were needed only in systems that operate from the top down. But when we are in “community”—which, at the turn of the kaleidoscope, evokes the romance of an instinctive life together—we can dispense with a designated leader, allowing the role to pass spontaneously from one person to the next. Or so goes the myth.
Yet in my experience, a community requires more leadership than a hierarchy does. A hierarchy has clear goals, a well-established division of labor, and a set of policies about how things are supposed to run; if the machine is well designed and well lubricated, it can almost run itself. A community is a chaotic, emergent, and creative force field that needs constant tending. And when a community’s aims are countercultural… its need for tending is even greater.
…
The authority …a leader [in community] needs is not the same as power. Power comes to anyone who controls the tools of coercion, which range from grades to guns. But authority comes only to those who are granted it by others. And what leads us to grant someone authority? The word itself contains a clue: we grant authority to people we perceive as “authoring” their own words and actions, people who do not speak from a script or behave in preprogrammed ways.

Pp 76-77, Parker J Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life – Welcoming the Soul and Weaving Community in a Wounded World. 2004, John Wiley & Sons

I have never been in a king’s court and do not take the metaphor of “jester” too literally. And yet, I have discovered over the years that while I don’t like being in positions of hierarchal power, I am comfortable standing next to them, and that I often have something to offer, frequently through the vehicle of a humorous remark.

And what does this have to do with being Clerk of TCFM? This is where the “magic” comes in. I don’t pretend to understand the synchronistic events within myself and the TCFM community that have led me to becoming its clerk. I simply marvel that this has happened.

AND, it is time to alert you to the fact that I will be bringing a fool’s energy to the job.

That is not to say I will make light of my responsibilities. I promise to take them seriously. But my energy, my “magic,” my gifts that I bring to the work, contain a good portion of what I call the fool.

I believe that is just fine. I trust that I have been brought into this role among us at a time when what I have to offer will be beneficial. We’ll see.

My message to you, my community, at this point, is that sometimes your clerk will be odd. On the one hand, I could argue that Meeting has gotten a little stuffy, and that it can use some fresh air. On the other hand I could say that Nominating Committee had already asked a lot of other people to serve, and they had said “no;” I am the best that TCFM can do, at this point in our history.

Appreciating my gifts, compensating for my weaknesses

In any case, here we are. I greatly admire the sense of gravitas Marianne Clinton-McCausland was able to bring to the role of clerk, and I am sorry that I have much less of that to offer. I will do the best I can, with what I bring.

And to the extent that there are things lacking in my style of leadership, dear Friends, I am counting on you to supply them. This fool is looking to cultivate a collective style of leadership among us. If you sense that discussion during MWB has gotten too heady, or that significant emotional realities are not being given enough weight, ask for some moments of silence. If you know that the discussion at hand is going to take a long time and that there is a later agenda item that needs to be dealt with before the end of the meeting, please point this out. I am not saying that I will deal perfectly with surprising suggestions from you, but I want to hear them. I want us all to hear them, and, as a group, to find our way forward as best we can.

One of the benefits of a person like myself being clerk at this point in the life of our meeting is the contrast with Marianne. I cannot “replace” her. I cannot fill her shoes. I will do clerking in my own way, and we, the community, will adapt to this, appreciating the gifts I bring, and compensating for my weaknesses. Assistant Clerk Anne Supplee is our first line of defense!

And, as the TCFM community discovers it CAN function with this oddly-gifted clerk, I hope it will embolden others of you to think about taking positions of greater responsibility, in the months and years ahead. You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to live up to your ideal of who you “really should be,” to offer valuable leadership in a community that is watching out for you, and helping you when you need it.

We sent the Martinsons the following letter:

How important all of you are to the life of this meeting! Your family has opened itself to include TCFM. You have chosen and invested in us, maturing into who you currently are, in our context, and you have extended your family devotion to many members of the Meeting community.This is foremost a letter to John, thanking him for his ministry to the physical home of TCFM. However, what John has offered has come out of the Martinson family as a whole, and any proper recognition of what he has accomplished must begin with the importance of his entire family for John’s life and work. For instance, we must recognize that after John spends hours at the meetinghouse, he goes home to Fran. The John we see in decades-long service to the meeting is really John-and-Fran. We see an example of Fran’s offerings, in her own right, in the design and implementation of the kitchen, but we know that she also has made a huge contribution to the Meeting through sustaining John’s work, intellectually, emotionally and financially.

And what a work John has wrought! It is easiest to point to the carpentry. The beautiful wood surfaces in the meeting room and the fellowship room shine with the skill, care and patience that are characteristic of John’s work. Less easy to see are John’s skill and care in working with the trades-people who have serviced the meeting, and with the various offices of city government that concern themselves with our public building.

And then there are John’s contributions to the original creation of the new building. He combined his carpenter’s eye with an understanding of the kinds of space in which Quakers can feel comfortable. He spent many hours with the building’s architect, with Ralphs Hilgendorf and Jacobson, and many others, to deeply consider the meeting’s needs and to skillfully combine them with the Saint Paul building codes and the existing structure at 1725 Grand Avenue to produce a serviceable, beautiful building. The huge folding doors that open the meeting room to the library for overflow seating are just one example of the care and ingenuity that the Building Construction, Maintenance and Repair Committee has brought to the ongoing life of the Meeting.

John, we thank you for the ministry to our home, which you now lay down, during this personally-challenging time. We recognize that the power of your ministry to our physical space comes partly out of the larger life you have lived. You have served our community in many other ways, as Clerk of Meeting and as a member of Ministry and Counsel. Your service on innumerable clearness and support committees has allowed many of us to benefit personally from your careful listening and remarkable compassion and caring. You have served many years in other Quaker institutions, from the national Friends General Conference Long Range Planning Committee to the local Friends For a Non-Violent World. And, in and out of these institutions, you have served causes Quakers love, like your decades-long work with draft and military counseling.

In your ministry to provide and sustain a physical home to our community you have been a teacher and source of empowerment to all who were interested. From helping interested community members take a part in laying the hardwood floor in the meeting room to including the shattered pipe from the sprinkler system in your report to Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, you have shared your knowledge and your love of your work with us.

Thank you, John E. Martinson, for your ministry to this community,

[Signed]

Richard Fuller & Anne Supplee
Clerks of Twin Cities Friends Meeting,
writing at the behest of the April 11, 2008
Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business