February 13, 2010 – Meeting for Worship for Business – Nominating Meeting Worship Sharing

Regarding our two dormant committees – Peace and Social Action (PSAC), and Community Service:

• Quakers have to do with worship and service. We’ve moved away from that. It’s understandable with recent focus on the Meetinghouse. I would like to consider moving towards more service.
• I work with immigration issues. At a recent event represented by various spiritual communities, I wish I could have said that I represented TCFM, rather than just coming as an individual.
• From the perspective of First Day School, and Family Meeting, I wonder if there could be an intergenerational social action experience.
• Having been on PSAC in the past, it was time to lay it down at the time. But as I attend peace and social action events, I wish there were official Quaker representation.
• We’re in a time when social action is sometimes considered anti-American. Perhaps there could be a called Meeting, such as what M&C is doing, to consider how we are called with respect to social action in the world.
• I helped Mary Ann with meeting and talking with newcomers, and was asked how they could “help others out”. It was hard when I didn’t have a good answer except “We serve dinner and cookies to the poor on 5^th Mondays.” We need Community Service.
• If we reform these committees, we need to be clear what the purpose is. Energy for one community means less energy for another.
• When the committees were laid down, I still kept collecting food for Department of Indian Works, and still do. I don’t know how long I can do this.
• How do we structure these committees such that they serve the larger community.
• When Community Service was laid down, we looked at internal energy, and could not continue doing what we were doing. Regarding Project Home, our renovated Meetinghouse may offer opportunity to relook at participation. Could there be a feasibility study done?
• There is pain in this world, and I’m glad we’re asking the question how we might respond. I am part of an ad hoc committee – Activism from the Heart – and we sponsored several discussions. When I ask, “Where is the activism in this Meeting?”, I think of the work on global climate change, and our renovated Meetinghouse speaks to that.
• I have been touched by the reaching out to needs in our community. I also want to hold up issues of justice related to LGBTQ issues.

For the Meeting:

1. What does your meeting do to bring our peace witness to the wider community and the world?
2. How does your meeting live out the peace testimony within its own practice?
3. How does your meeting teach and practice the peace testimony with your youth?
4. How is our peace testimony grounded in right relationship with all creation?
5. How does your meeting learn ways of peace from other groups and communities?

Summary comments from the Adult Education meeting on Sunday, May 9

The Queries from the NYM chapter on the Peace Testimony (above and below) were read.

These were the questions presented:

(1) Is this the time to move toward reactivating one or both of the dormant committees (Peace & Social Action and Community Service)?

(2) If no, how will we, as a Meeting, best live up to the Peace Testimony represented in the NYM queries?

(3) If yes, how shall we best move forward?

Responses:

(1) In general, yes – some movement forward seems to be a good idea.

(3)

• There was a general sense that two rather than one committee is called for, as they tend to be two arms of the Meeting – but not everyone agreed with this.
• There were several statements connected to a desire to do intergenerational activities, and to tie TCFM action to national / Friends initiatives (FCNL, AFSC)
• The committee could be a matchmaker: matching a peace and justice cause to people who are passionate about it. – perhaps the role of the group could be to nurture Meeting members in discerning leadings in this area.
• There was a sense that issues to be addressed might come easier with community service than with peace and justice issues.
• Ideally, an expression of the Peace Testimony from the Meeting would be something that the children could relate to – that an important part of what goes on when Quakers do this well, is that the youth in the community get a chance to see and participate in this core Quaker value. An example of that – underlying that peace is not just “anti-war” – might be doing something to create dialogue with a Muslim community, which would be a broadening of the general testimony and something that we could do at a number of different ages and levels.
• We had a recent action as a community around the marriage equality minute – we have a group of people interested in carrying forward that mission. There’s no reason that group couldn’t continue to go forward on that issue, while other groups act on different issues.
• One friend would like to see an avenue for our meeting to do these New Testament activities: shelter the homeless, visit the sick, feed the hungry, visit those in prison – and would like a corporate, organized way of doing these activities. There are two issues here, if not two committees.
• One role of the committee(s) is that organizing around peace or service issues can bring people into action or understanding in ways they need to be informed.
• If we move to activating one or the other or something new, and it starts with someone saying, “I feel some energy in this area, and I’d like to talk with some people,” then maybe something could be developed from that.
• I do worry that sometimes the Nominating Committee has to work very hard to get people on committees – but the old saw applies: if you want something done, ask busy people. Which is me saying, “I want to get involved with this.”
• For me, we should look for what is the thing that binds our community together that is fun, which is connected, that I can bring my kids into – activity has that kind of energy. It’s wonderful to come together to celebrate our birthdays together – but couldn’t we, from smallest to largest, do some project together that’s service-based, informing us-based – like pairing up with a Muslim mosque – and learn about each other, respond to each others’ needs? I’m looking for a project that our whole community could do that’s fun, that’s energizing, that’s an adventure –m that’s about peace-making in a time of war with the Middle East. What’s the project? Where do we shine the light?
• There’s an example of North Seattle Friends Church, where a few individuals pulled the whole community together to do a quilting ministry. They do a lot of quilts – some that go to cancer patients, and they have also broadened the project to bring sewing projects to train women in Rwanda/Burudi area, to use sewing machines. They brought fabric and stuff to these women, and the whole community got behind this, and made connections. There should be more of those projects.
• Maybe community gardening with another church?
• I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Peace Testimony. We don’t have to all be on a committee, but we need some sense that there are enough people committed to this major feature of friends to make something possible. There have been many activities and programs that relate to peace. We need some focus as a community, and there are so many issues, such as increasing militarism, recruitment in the schools – there’s no reason we couldn’t have a core group that could take leadership in this area.
• I think it would be wonderful if Nominating could bring together a preliminary sprout of a committee and give a nudge to an embryonic committee – not saying this would turn into an oak tree – but it would be good to get a sprout going.
• Perhaps a blurb in the newsletter – that gets read by more people.

Click here to send your comment to Nominating Committee, or post your comment below to be part of the public, online conversation.

As most everyone now knows, Meeting Worship for the next few months cannot occur at TCFM due to building reconstruction.  On May 17 and June 14, TCFM will also not be able to meet at the Friends School of Minnesota as that building is also unavailable.   While details for June 14 remain uncertain, Advancement had been asked by the Meeting to assist in creating some smaller Meetings for Worship in the homes of Friends on these days.   Here is the list of Friends who have graciously offered to host Meetings for Worship on Sun May 17:

Sunday May 17, all Meetings for Worship begin at 9:30 and conclude at 10:30 in these homes:

• Joe LandsbergerST PAUL  West 7th, has 1 cat, 20 people
• Ava-Dale Johnson ST PAUL  Mac Groveland, has no pets, 20 people
• Sarah Cledwyn,  ST PAUL  Mac Groveland, has one cat, 12 people
• Carol Bartoo, ST PAUL Mac Groveland, has one dog, 15-20 people
• Susan DeVries ST PAUL  Saint Anthony Park, has two dogs, 15 people
• Chris Clauson and Sandi Bandli, NEW HOPE (NW suburb), has no pets, 14 people
• Nancy Beecher MPLS Longfellow, not sure of pets, 15 people
• Mary and Jack Phillips MPLS Uptown, has no pets, 17 people

Some important points to keep in mind for these house Meetings:THE TIME FOR MEETINGS IS DIFFERENT THAN NORMAL: 9:30 AM on Sunday!

In order for the meetings to be attractive to both 8:30 and 11 AM meetings, Advancement decided that 9:30 AM might be the most attractive time for attenders from both meetings to attend.  We understand this could also engender some confusion as this is not a normal time for meeting, but this would also place least burden on hosts to not have to have two separate meetings at two separate times.  This will also help mix attenders who normally do not see each other!

CAN CALL HOST BUT NO RSVP REQUIRED
You may wish to call the host to let them know you plan on attending, but you do not need to call a house before arriving.   As with meeting for worship, we would recommend that attenders arrive 10-15 minutes or so early to get the full experience of the Meeting and minimize interruptions for worship. Some hosts may encourage the group to meet for worship outside.

LOOK UP ADDRESS INFORMATION IN DIRECTORY
We are not posting addresses here, but all of these individual’s addresses are located in the TCFM directory, so that is how attenders will know how to get to houses.

NOT DESIGNED FOR FIRST TIME ATTENDERS
First time attenders are welcome but there will be no directions from TCFM to any of these locations if someone would just show up at the meetinghouse.   There should just be a sign on the door that TCFM is closed for that week.

INTERGENERATIONAL STYLE
The meetings will be intergenerational in style, so if a family wishes to attend and bring children, it would be the expectation that the children participate in the meeting for worship.   There will not be any formalized childcare at the locations.  It was our understanding that FDS was planning a picnic for families on the same day, which we believe would be a great compliment to these house based meeting for worship.

NO FOOD EXPECTATION
There is no expectation that hosts are providing food or drink, as this is very last minute we are trying to minimize work on hosts.   Attenders may wish to bring simple food, but there is no expectation for this.

Advancement also wishes to thank Susan DeVries for helping to coordinate a number of these meetings.  Thanks Susan!

You can contact Joel Krogstad at 651 646 1993 or joelkrogstad@gmail.com if you have any questions about the gatherings.  We hope that they are a success!

Please adhere to these deadlines:

• Make requests for scholarships to Northern Yearly Meeting or Friends General Conference by priority deadline of May 1, or final deadline May 10, 2008. Those meeting the May 3 deadline will have priority. (Note: early FGC registration begins on-line on March 27-April 6, then opens up again April 11. Check registration materials for more on requesting scholarships or work grants from FGC.) Please note that TCFM funds are limited.
• All other requests need to be submitted at least six weeks prior to the event or Friends activity for which support is requested.

To request a scholarship, please download and complete the form linked below and send to Scholarship Committee, c/o Clerk, TCFM Meetinghouse, 1725 Grand Av. St. Paul, MN 55105.

• 2009 TCFM Scholarships Form

Does the Republican Party have a right to peaceful assembly? Does that include deciding who may sit and speak in the meeting? Does that include free access of participants to the assembly without threat of violence or insult? If they have these rights and these rights are threatened do they then have the right to enlist the elected government and the police to protect these rights?

Do Quakers have similar rights? If such rights do not exist what danger are Quakers in who hold views that most of our neighbors would consider destructive and dangerous?

To what extent was George Fox’s case to the government that Quakers were innocent and harmless damaged by the fact that many Quakers supported and belonged to a party that intended to overthrow the government?

(I ask these questions deferentially since I am not a Quaker and simply attend the meeting regularly and support it with some little effort and financing. I may be confused and inaccurate in what I assume is the accepted answer to these questions. The comment section exists to inform me of my mistakes. I am not inquiring about the rights of protesters or the possibility those rights were violated. I expect that the inquiries and court cases will expose many violations of the right to protest, some egregious.)

–John Cowan

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

So, I’ve been thinking…

I’ve been carrying a concern for a number of months now. I read in the news awhile back that a recession is expected and the economy isn’t doing well, so the government has decided to send out “economic stimulus” checks to most Americans. As the discussion was taking place in Congress, both sides had to concede things in order to come to agreement. I was saddened to read that “calls for increases in food stamps and an extension of unemployment compensation” were dropped as part of the agreement.

I had to wonder: is more consumerism, buying worthless stuff, and going into more debt really going to help the economy?

My husband and I were stopping by a store the other day and saw flyers all over advertising an “economic stimulus plan.” Buy $750 worth of stuff and get no interest and no payments for a year.

As I read about the plans for these economic stimulus checks months ago, I wondered what I could do with the money. Did I really need it? I don’t feel that I’ve been affected much by the economy and I’m doing okay financially. But what about those living in poverty around me? $600 will help them right now, but it won’t pull them out of poverty. So I began to think of all the places this money could be given: to support food banks, programs and housing for the homeless, and so forth. And then I thought, what if a lot of other people also decided they didn’t need the money and they also passed the money on to worthy causes? What a statement we could make!

I am pleased to read that there are plenty of people who aren’t planning a shopping spree with their checks. People are considering saving the money and investing it, or paying off credit card or school loan debts. Considering the debt many Americans are in and our lack of saving, this is a wise idea.

The IRS will begin sending checks and automatic deposits on May 2nd.

My hope is that people will think about these checks. Do we really need the money? Is there someone or some local charity that needs it more than we do? Can we save some and give away the rest? Can we give it all away? If we are able, can we use this money for something better than a new electronic gadget or a new designer outfit?

We’re still planning what to do with the funds we receive – which should arrive on the 16th.

Will you consider what you can do with yours?

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.

There is a parable which I learned from the Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield about a poison tree. It goes something like this: Near a village there is a poison tree. The poison is very potent, and it deeply wounds the hearts and spirits of all who ingest it.One day, someone from the village discovers the tree and runs back to the village in great fear and agitation. “There’s a poison tree nearby! There’s a poison tree nearby! We must do something!”

The villagers hastily assemble to decide what to do about this dangerous enemy. Many argue loudly and urgently for the destruction of the tree — “It is a menace it must be completely destroyed!”

Some counsel restraint. “This tree is not ours to destroy. The Creator made it. We can put a fence around it, and warning signs, and no one will be harmed.”

The argument went on throughout the night. Everyone was exasperated and exhausted.

As everyone sat numb and bewildered in the first light of day, a stranger in strange gab walked into their midst. “I am a healer,” she said. I have heard you have a poison tree here. Wonderful! Just what I was looking for! I need this tree in order to make medicine which will cure a deadly disease.”

This parable came to mind as I reflected on a workshop I participated in recently on racism, embodying as it does the various reactions I have to unfamiliar situations and people. Like the villagers, my first, visceral reaction is often “Danger! Danger! Make it go away!”

When I can move beyond the rejection response, I often look for ways to make the situation comfortable, or at least tolerable. Sometimes my efforts are gross, like keeping my distance. Sometimes they are more subtle, like retreating into a safe generality such as “we’re all God’s children”. While there may be a truth in these nostrums, there is also a lack of intimacy.

And so I aspire to learn the healer’s response: “Terrific! Just what I need!” “This new person is exactly who I need to meet now. Their unique particularity is what will enliven a sleeping room in my heart. The discomfort they release in me pinpoints yet another strangling idea I’m gripping.”

This response also resonates because I have sometimes tasted God’s own delight in particularity. Why else create a thousand butterflies, ten thousand beetles, endless ways to say “I love you”? The God who knows every hair on my head surely and specifically blesses every atom, every rain drop, every unique snowflake, each child.

And so, as I strive to be healed from the deep, unsettling, embarrassing, and almost reflexive racism I find in my own heart and mind, I pray to be filled with God’s delight. May we all be so filled.

Reprinted from Friends Journal with permission

• Realize that you are at one with everyone and everything.
• Realize that your sense of being a separate ego is illusion.
• Learn to give up this and your other illusions.
• Learn not to crave things or loathe things.
• Learn not to fear.
• Fear can be dispelled by love, or at least by appreciation.
• Appreciation is discernment, then amazement, then gratitude.
• Discern, and answer to, that of God in every person.
• Experience lovejoy, and communicate it.
• Know unity and feel unity, to be motivated to serve unity.

Jack Phillips, 9-7-06

• Realize that you are at one with everyone and everything.
• Realize that your sense of being a separate ego is illusion.
• Learn to give up this and your other illusions.
• Learn not to crave things or loathe things.
• Learn not to fear.
• Fear can be dispelled by love, or at least by appreciation.
• Appreciation is discernment, then amazement, then gratitude.
• Discern, and answer to, that of God in every person.
• Experience lovejoy, and communicate it.
• Know unity and feel unity, to be motivated to serve unity.

Jack Phillips, 9-7-06

We know there isn’t a Quaker Creed, but I just came across this quote that was offered as a succinct definition of the Quaker Faith by a former executive secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. I found it strikingly clear and accurate and is the kind of thing that could easily be placed on the “What we believe” section of any meeting’s web site or brochure. What do you think?

God gives to every human being who comes into the world—regardless of race, religion, gender, or station–a measure of the divine spirit as a living witness and an eternal Light to be inwardly guided by on a daily basis. That Inner Light is supernatural, personal, universal, saving, eternal, persistent, and pure. The chief end of religious life is to learn to listen to and act upon the promptings of this Light under the authority of God and within the bonds of human community. Those who learn to heed the promptings of this Light come to be “saved”–that is, they come into fullness and wholeness of life and right relationship with God, themselves, the universe and one another. Those who resist, ignore, or otherwise deny the workings of this pure spirit within them, though they profess themselves to be religious, are “condemned”–that is, they become alienated from God, from themselves, from the universe, and from one another.

Samuel D Caldwell
From “The time has come to choose”
A Pendle Hill Mondy Night Lecture
Nov. 8. 1998

Paul Landskroener