First Day School in the wake of Covid-19

In late spring of 2021, my monthly meeting began preparing to return to in-person worship in June. We made the transition to hybrid worship-some folks in the meetinghouse and some on Zoom-pretty easily.

Early in the process, God laid it on my heart that we needed to have in-person first day school (FDS) when we returned to the meetinghouse. One reason was to have childcare for our clerk and other parents to be able to attend worship. Another reason was that in the 15 months when we only had Zoom worship, the children and parents had been clear that the kids did not want to participate in another Zoom activity on Sunday morning. A couple of Friends tried to stay in touch with families during the pandemic, but it wasn't very successful as a religious education program. The best thing they did was organize a fifth Sunday intergenerational online meeting for worship with pets. 

• • •

In deference to the pandemic health restrictions, we decided a few things. First, we would not return to the small classrooms upstairs in the meetinghouse - even though they were freshly painted during the first year of the pandemic. We would hold FDS outside, under a tent that had been erected on the grass by the school attached to our meeting. And second, we would begin with brief lessons and plenty of time to play outside. Third, the lessons part would start with getting to know each other again.

I committed personally to being there most weeks and finding a second adult to join me, or finding two adults to be there on weeks I was not. Some of the Friends who had been teaching before came back, and some had moved on in their commitments. A parent volunteered to follow through on the child safety policy requirements, like background checks, etc. 

We had previously not had much of a tradition of snacks in our First Day School, maybe because we always had a robust offering during 'hospitality' or "coffee hour." Since we would be meeting outside in the Philadelphia summer, I started bringing individual juice pouches - popular and pre-portioned - that could offer some hydration, some blood sugar, without a risk of sharing germs. It wasn't very environmentally sound but it seemed like the best solution under the circumstances.

I bought a set of a dozen clipboards to use to write or draw on, and I brought some oil pastel crayons and colored pencils and a surplus sketchbook from my house to have tools that children from 3-12 could use. We encouraged the kids to bring a blanket or towel to sit on if they wanted.

We changed our tradition to have kids sit with their families for the first 15 minutes of worship so that they could arrange where to sit with social distancing and not have to disrupt where other people were sitting at the end of worship. And so parents didn't have to defend space all through worship in order to have a place for their kids to sit when they came back. This also meant that the FDS program mostly started with everyone together, instead of dribbling in. When families were more than 15 minutes late, the kids just joined us outside - no problem.

Kids came-and they came back. Their parents reported that the kids were looking forward to coming to meeting. So I considered that a success.

By the end of the summer, we settled on a loose rotation of one week of spiritual practices that help us feel closer to God, one week of a Bible or Quaker story, one week on the month's advices & queries about how we live our lives (as 3rd-6th graders), and one week of playing sports or games the whole time.

We were lucky that all the kids over 5 got vaccinated just before the weather got too cold to sit outside. We transitioned to meeting in the dining room where we had good ventilation, and no one was cooking anyway.  We're still wearing masks in the meeting house. And mostly when we're outside too.

I kept inviting more adult Friends to join us - to bring something for the content or just to be the second adult. And I set up a text group for last minute announcements to parents. By now, we have a pretty regular cast of characters. We have a regular rotation of teachers and we are renewing our background checks for continuing and new teachers. We have some kids who come (almost) every week and some who come once a month. We can incorporate new Friends any week, and we have a critical mass of participants to be sure that if you come, there will be a program for children and there will be other children there.

• • •

Every week, we start with "News of the Week" - we pass the clipboard around and each say our name, "reporting from Philadelphia," (like a broadcaster) and then whatever is news from our week. Like "my cousins came to visit" or "we had a half day at school and I played a lot of video games" or "I lost a tooth." Whatever is news for you. [This has been a great way to get to know each other better.]

The first couple of weeks we talked about what was different at the meetinghouse now and drew our family portraits (including pets). Then we spent a few weeks talking about God - what is God? How do we know? Does God hear our prayers?  

In late July, the yearly meeting organized a Sunday morning, in-person activity in conjunction with annual sessions. It was a program with separate groups for elementary, middle and high school kids, at the Historic Fairhill Burial Ground, (now a public park) where Lucretia Mott, among others, is buried. It was actually very close to our meetinghouse, and at one point was under the care of our monthly meeting. So we had one week where we learned a little bit about who Lucretia Mott was and how she was (tangentially) connected to our meeting. The next week we all met at the park, and the kids participated in small, age-appropriate groups run by the yearly meeting staff, and it was fun for everyone. The following week, one of the kids reported on the book about a black abolitionist that his family picked up from the Tiny Library in the park. 

We spent the whole month of August learning about prayer. As in, prayer can take many forms-it's between you and God. It can be in motion--a Friend who is an actor came and led some movement. It can be words that are already written. We read the 23rd Psalm and a friend came and led us in a song that is also a prayer. It can be a personal ritual-a Friend came and shared her personal prayer practices.

In September, we spent a couple of weeks preparing for World Quaker Day (first Sunday in October) by interviewing an older Friend in our meeting using the materials from the Africa QREC and FWCC Section of the Americas. Said older Friend also happens to be a documentary filmmaker so she took the footage home and edited it for us and we watched it together, and then showed it to the rest of the meeting on WQD and then sent it in to the WQD website. 

We started in November using the General Queries of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting on the first of each month that I translated into language appropriate for third graders. The kids have been genuinely interested in answering the questions and we have had some very interesting conversations about how we are living our lives, at home, at school, and at Meeting. 

In December, we started preparing food for the Meeting to share after worship. It's an activity, a snack, and a service project, all rolled into one. We have baked cookies and spread peanut butter on crackers and portioned out baby carrots into paper cups to make serving easy. It's different each month.

[In January, we were back on Zoom-only worship because of the covid-19 surge, so we didn’t have a children’s program for a few weeks. I promoted the yearly meeting’s online programs to anyone who wanted to participate.]

In February, we started, once a month, learning about Quaker distinctives. Why don't Quakers celebrate holidays, or do we? What does plain speech mean? How do we practice it now? What about oaths and music and communion? I have found that our kids didn't know these were part of Quaker tradition but now they are learning more of the depths of our Quaker practice-and talking about what is relevant to them, more than what it was like 200 years ago. I have been pleasantly surprised how engaged they are in the discussion. We just roll with the tangents and the non-sequiturs-everyone has something to say.

So now the content rotation is: first week: answering the queries, second week: playing games, third week: learning about Quaker faith and practice, fourth week: cooking for the Meeting. When there’s a fifth week, we are supposed to organize something for the whole meeting for intergenerational worship, but we haven’t actually done that yet. 

We have one baby who is regularly attending our Meeting, but still sleeping through worship much of the time, and cuddling with his parents the rest of the time. But we are ready when he is to welcome him to our program space - we have a plan and a brand new rug that is just waiting for someone to spit up on it.

• • •

For me personally, it has been a lot of work in the last year. But as I no longer have children at home, I had some time to give. I think it is important that parents don’t have to teach or supervise the children’s religious education program during worship, unless they really want to. For someone who spends her working days talking about how to build Quaker community, it has been a way to stay connected to my monthly meeting - both the joys and the tedium and the normal conflicts of community life. And it has been a way to channel my creativity and to talk about the spiritual things that matter to me. And I’ve gotten to know the kids (and parents) in my meeting a lot better, which is a blessing in and of itself.

Holy Week 2021

I didn't intentionally choose this week to begin my sabbatical. A collection of external factors coincided to make this the right time. I only realized this coincidence would be true a couple of days ago.

But it feels good. Around the world, this is a week of holidays for Christians. In some contexts, secular holidays - schools and businesses are closed. In other contexts, the procession from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, with special rituals of remembrance on each day in between.

• • •

Holy Monday was the overturning of the tables in the temple. A challenge to unjust economic systems. For me, this time of rest and creative activity feels like a direct challenge to the economic structures of our day. For me, this ten week period feels like a sabbath season. A time to make right the patterns of my life. 8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will.

What do I will? And perhaps, not what I will, but what God wills. Not God's agents on Earth, not the church, not the government, but the Holy Creator, Source of All Wisdom, Beauty, Goodness. Not Caesar.

My main plan for this week is to begin by writing every day. To go swimming several days. And to schedule all the appointments that I put off until now. A haircut, a mammogram, new glasses, and more. It may take my whole sabbatical season to get to them all.

I already scheduled two - a deep cleaning for our house and our car. These fall into the category of things I could do for myself. However other people will be more efficient and right now I would rather pay someone to do it well and get it over with and not be exhausted when it is done. It will free me to think about other things instead of fretting about the housework. This goes against all my home training, but for once, I think it will be a good tradeoff.

• • •

Later in the week, Maundy Thursday is a reminder about community and service to others. Will I find ways, during this sabbatical season that overlaps with the Covid19 pandemic, to break bread with others and wash their feet? As a serious extrovert, I need to talk to other people for my own mental health. And as a human being and a Christian, I need to be of service to other people. Also for my own mental health. But I also need to practice some discipline around "custody of the eyes". The main purpose of this break is to bring forth that which is in me - to give to the world that which only I can give. Not to spend the time reading what other people have already written.

But recognizing the enormous privilege of having ten weeks in a row of paid leave, without even a newborn baby to take care of, I want to find some way to be of practical service to the community around me in this time as well.

• • •

Holy Friday and Saturday are about dying to self and waiting in the deep unknown. Am I able to give over my own longing to know or do or be anything and sink down to that seed that God sows in the heart? And to let that seed grow in me and breathe in me and be in me without striving to make myself more? For that seed to increase, I must decrease. In my striving and my desire for control and for fame and fortune and, and, and... everything. Not my will, Lord, but thine.

• • •

Then next Sunday, I will be going away. To an undisclosed location. For a week of self-denial of other people and the freedom to just write. A rebirth in some ways, maybe more like extended labor. I don't think it tracks to a resurrection. I'm afraid it's going to feel more like an extended Holy Saturday.

But we'll see. What freedom comes in that emptiness? What new inspirati­on or motivation? What will I be able to produce under those conditions? I have no idea.

Seventeen years ago, I went away for a solo retreat for a weekend. At that point in my life, what I most needed was for no one to touch me for 48 hours. I literally had to wean the baby in order to go away. The writing was just a serendipitous byproduct. But my life has changed ever since. And that baby is 19 years old now.

One of the things people keep telling me is not to have too high of expectations for myself in this sabbatical season. To not feel like I have to fill it with any particular kind of productivity or to set too concrete of a goal. That has been helpful advice.

But I am trying to establish the conditions for creative output to be possible.

I am trying to leave margins of time and energy to do what feels right in the moment.

To seek God's guidance in each day, each moment. And then to follow that guidance wherever or however it may lead.

• • •

This is the way.

That would be enough.

Amen.

My 3 Words for 2018

This is still my favorite way to approach New Year’s resolutions and some reflection on the year behind me. This process is from Chris Brogan. You can read about the discernment process and his 3 words for 2018 on his blog. You can search for the hashtag #my3words to see other people’s takes on it. You can read my 3 words for 2017 and find links to the years before that on my blog.

My three words for 2017 were Slow, Teach, Ask. I feel like I made progress in all three areas, so that is something. And I specifically referenced these intentions in my mind throughout the year, to help me choose my words and my commitments and my actions. Which is the point. And it was easy to tell other people my words because they were both simple and cryptic. Most of Brogan’s 3 words choices fit that model. Each single syllable word holds a wealth of meaning and serves as a touchstone for a profound intention.

This year, I’m going to buck that tradition and use the longer words that baldly mean what I mean.

Family, Intellectual, Marketing. 

Family, because this year is going to require more engagement with my extended family than before. My parents are aging and my sister is bearing most of the burden because I live so far away. So I am acknowledging how much positive love and support I have been given by my parents and committing to be more present and more helpful in the coming year.

Intellectual, because I really enjoyed the writing and reading and talking to academic people I did in 2017. I want to push myself to find more opportunities for thinking and writing and talking to people about ideas in the coming year. Most of my non-work reading in the last dozen years has been young adult fantasy and adventure fiction, following my tween and teen kids. (Part of my standing commitment to be able to have conversations with them about the things they are interested in.) But I remember now that I want to read to challenge my brain, not just to comfort or distract myself. And I want to push myself to articulate my ideas clearly and completely. And to write for a wider audience.

Marketing is all about my paid work. This last year, I took an online course with Seth Godin, the first cohort of The Marketing Seminar. It helped me in so many ways. What do you do? Who is it for? What change are you trying to make? How do people who need us learn that we have what they need? How do we delight the people we serve? This coming year, I want to address more straightforwardly the challenges for FWCC, which all have a marketing component. And I don’t want to waste time looking for new words that mean the same things as marketing technical terms but sound spiritual. Plain speaking is still a Quaker value.

As I look at this, these are my personal intentions for improvements in 2018. And as always, I try to remember that what I truly desire to do is not my will, but thine, O Lord.

New mercies I see

Have you heard the saying that the secret to a long, happy marriage is falling in love over and over again, each time with the same person? I believe this to be true.

I think it is also the secret to a long tenure in the same job, or a long-term practice of the same religion. The cycle of conviction, convincement, and conversion is a staple of Quaker faith and practice.

I feel like the last couple of weeks have brought me to a renewal of my “vows” to my job. (I use quotes here because it’s still a time-limited contract, not a lifetime appointment.) Perhaps it is more a renewed sense of my vocation and the discovery that it is still in line with my paid employment. I think this will come as a relief to my husband and my board of directors, who have watched me wrestle with the questions only I can answer. I know that this season of uncertainty will come again and again. That is just part of the examined life.

One of the factors has been this class I’m taking, on marketing with Seth Godin. I’m using the Traveling Ministry Corps as my case study and it’s been great. I’ve gotten much clearer about how to do that work. But one of the byproducts has been what Godin called, “marketing to the most important student." Which is myself. In the act of thinking about who is this for? and what do they care about?, I find myself articulating more clearly why I think this work is important. Which has the effect of reminding me why I want to do this work. Which makes a lot easier to do it.

Another factor was going to the Stoking the Fire retreat before the FUM  Triennial. It was wonderful to be with about 40 Friends, from high-school age to 80-somethings, who all came to stoke their own fires. And it was wonderful to be taught by women whose character and ways of service I can aspire to. We all need those examples. Imperfect human beings who are sharing their own lessons. I can’t overemphasize how important it was to go to a denominational conference for which I was not the over-burdened staff. I went to worship every day. I was present and vulnerable in worship sharing groups. I snuck out for coffee with old and new friends.

One of the messages from God to me in worship was, “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Not in the sense that song was written. But if I can’t be with the Meeting I love, I have to love the gathered community of Friends wherever I am. I can’t hold back until I’m home with the people who already know and love me. I have to share my insights, my faith and my doubts with whoever is there, or I’m not going to make it. (There are limits to this, but they are further out than many people think.)

And if I can’t be with the river I love, I can love any bit of water I can find. The Greenville Y of the Feather River and the Connecting Railway Bridge over the Schuylkill River are both spiritually grounding places in my life. But other lands have sunshine too, and clover

In this same couple weeks, I read Diana Butler Bass’s book, Grounded. In it I recognized my own sense of dislocation from my roots and my connection to the imagery of water in my psyche and my spiritual journey. (Mountains and grass are also important images in my spiritual life, but that’s a different story.) The phrase that resonated the most for me, that speaks to me of my whole life’s project, is “sacred cosmopolitanism.” (Bass, p. 270) Bass cites Kwame Anthony Appiah, Mark Mitchell, and John of Patmos as sources. I’m still working this out, but it speaks to me of an urban theology. We need a positive theology for living together in the 21^st century. Cities are not inherently and unrelentingly more corrupt than anywhere else. As a friend said to me twenty-six years ago, “The city is the place of the people animals,” and it has been my place for over 30 years. It is a philosophy beyond nationalistic parochialism, but with room for a “humane localism.” This is a philosophy that can acknowledge that home-grown tomatoes are the best without falling into the trap that only my family’s tomatoes are any good. This speaks to me of the possibility of pluralism and affirming the truth of my own people’s stories. In the midst of the morass, we need the uniquely human spiritual gifts as well: compromise, paradox, balance, contrarianship, translation. None of us is a single story, least of all me.

While I’m at it, I want to acknowledge that all of these good things have coincided with a break in the hormonal crappiness of peri-menopause. Despair is both a spiritual and a chemical condition. I don’t really want to discuss that here, but I think it would be a sin of omission to not recognize that it’s a factor in life, and I am not immune to or above its effects.

Which brings me back to feeling refreshed for the journey and re-committed to my work. I am blessed to have the right and the responsibility to live out my divine calling in my day job.

My main job is connecting Quakers to each other - so that they are freed up to connect with other local people who want to be part of a healthy and functional spiritual community that is committed to peace and justice and following God’s guidance for our lives. From Alaska to Bolivia.

There is always more work to do than hours in the day or days in the week. There is a lot of accounting and administrivia in my job, no fooling. But there is also the opportunity to speak up, to connect people, to see patterns from this particular perspective, to hold the big picture in the Light and to call Friends to live up to the Light that we have been given.

I need to not get so bogged down in the accounting and event planning so that I fail to look up and out and do all the things that are risky and engaging and visionary. I try to practice a refreshing honesty, a warm, engaging hospitality and a bracing ministry of encouragement. Sometimes I get to be a bee, pollinating between blossoms in the orchard of Friends. Sometimes I get to be a gardener, preparing fields for planting, or hoeing crops in the ground, and contributing to some harvests I will not live to see. That is a blessing.

Over the last several months, I have wrestled with the fact that I have to choose my battles. I can keep up with my home life, or my work life, or the national/international world. Pick two out of three. And this year, I realize that I am choosing family and Friends. But I believe that if I and the Friends World Committee do our work well, there will be more than enough hands to do all the work that needs doing.

Because these Quakers are the line of people who taught me to be more fully myself, who helped me understand the mysteries of my spiritual life. Because this is the people I have found who are the most committed to peace and justice and following God’s guidance for our lives. Because I think I can make a difference here and now.

Now, because this is the time I have. Now, because these are probably my peak years to combine experience and energy.

Now, because the world desperately needs more Quakers who are committed to peace and justice and following God’s guidance for our lives. And in order for Friends to live up to our highest calling, we need each other to balance and challenge and support each other.

Now, because it’s the most exciting thing I can imagine doing - where I generally feel competent and appreciated - and fully challenged to live up to the Light I have been given.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. … Morning by morning, new mercies I see.

My Three Words for 2016

This is an annual exercise invented by Chris Brogan. You can read more about it at http://chrisbrogan.com/3-words-2016/
 
My three words for 2016 are: Grateful, Deep, Invite.

Grateful
Because I want to remind myself, frequently, to be grateful for the many blessings in my life, instead of resentful. Resentful of what I have and what I don’t have.

I know that in many ways, I have been blessed in this life. From my loving and stable parents, who are both still alive and still married to each other, to my education, my health, the house I live in, the people I live with, and this extraordinary job I have. But sometimes even blessings can be hard work or stressful or conflict with each other. So, even when it’s hard, and into every life some rain does fall, I want to remember to be grateful: to God, to my husband, to all of you who read this blog, etc. My life is better because of you/them. Thank you.

Deep
Because I have been spread too thin over the last year and a lot of my life has been necessarily shallow. So I want to go deeper this year, starting with deeper rest. Last year, I took all my vacation days but really it just meant I was working from home. I didn’t do a good job on my sleep hygiene, so I want to go to bed on time more often. Good sleep makes everything better, and regular hours mean better sleep.

Most of my reading was children’s fiction. I did read one whole grown up book and I loved it. Otherwise, I only read Facebook, poetry, Twitter, snippets of theology, and a lot of online articles about feminism, racism, management, and Adele. I don’t know if I’m willing to change this or not.
In my spiritual life, I think I need a silent retreat. I haven’t done one since 2004. So sometime in 2016, I think it’s time.

At work, because of a variety of circumstances, I have been doing too many different things, none of them as well as I’d like. But circumstances have changed again, and I need to recognize what that will free me up for. Getting deeper rest will make it possible to go deeper in all the rest of the areas of my life. (And how blessed I am that I get to make choices like this, which reminds me to be grateful, see above.) This also brings me to my third word.

Invite
I spent quite a while thinking that my third word was going to be let. As in let go, let God, let other people help. I need to remember that, most of the time, I’m not the only one who can do things. But I also don’t want to shirk my responsibility, or abandon other people to just get on with it.

At work, I want to invite more people into this dance with God, and the Religious Society of Friends, and me. One of the fundraising maxims I live by is, “Invite people into the kitchen.” This comes from a story that Kay Sprinkel Grace (one of my mentors) tells about Berthold Brecht once saying that the reason he chose one place to eat over another was not that the one didn’t have a delectable menu, but that the other invited him into the kitchen. In one place, he was an honored customer; in the other, he was a participant. I know which I prefer.

At home and in my local Quaker meeting, it is part of my role (parent, nominating committee) to organize other people to do the things that need doing. But my kids are old enough to make more of their own decisions, and at meeting everybody has other commitments too. How can I invite them into the work in a way that is encouraging and honoring and effective?

And I want to keep having guests at our house. I love dinner parties. I like introducing people I like to each other. I like cooking elaborate meals and playing board games and talking to people until way too late. (Not every night. See sleep hygiene, above.) This is my idea of deep fun.

So I want to try not to order people around nor guilt them to do things, nor freeze them out, but to invite them into all the fun I’m having in this blessed life of mine - at this amazing job, and my wonderful Quaker meeting and at my dinner table. Maybe even around the dishwasher.

So those are my three words for 2016. It’s funny how my three words for 2015 aren’t wrong now, but they aren’t what I need now, as much as they were a year ago. But when I look at the ones before that, Encourage, Long, Grind for 2014, and here for 2012 and 2010, I start to recognize the patterns of my life. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.

My three words for 2015

The end/beginning of the year is a great time to find people reflecting on their lives and writing about their commitments. This morning, I was grateful to read Bono’s A-Z reflections on 2014. Most of the buzz is about his bike accident and his broken arm. But I was personally struck by his quote from Nietzsche, that “to do something great requires ‘a long obedience in the same direction’.”

This is probably the big lesson for my life right now.

For five years now, I’ve been inspired by Chris Brogan’s “My Three Words” exercise. I haven’t always written about it on this blog, but some years I have. http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/search?q=my+three+words

This year my three words are: True, Sustainable, Brave

True
I want to be true to my word. More reliable, dependable, consistent. And this means I have to be more honest with myself and others about what I can and can’t do.

And I want to stay true to the vision I have for my life and for the Religious Society of Friends, like carpenters use the word true, like Peggy Senger Morrison’s metaphor of God’s Love as a plumb line.

Sustainable
I have to keep seeking ways to make my life and my work sustainable. Managing my time, my energy, my resources, my happiness, to hold up over the long haul.

Life is not a sprint. Building a family (marriage, kids, aging parents, etc) and homemaking is a long term project. Being a real part of a local meeting is not something I can put off indefinitely. Taking time for health care and mental and physical strength building and stretching are necessary along the way, not just “when this [day, week, month, year, event…] is over.”

My job is not a sprint. Did you know that, at 3 and a half years, this is already the longest I have ever held a single job? And now I’m in the process of making plans for the next five years, not for my departure in the next six months or anything like that. It’s a little scary, and I’ve realized it means I can’t run flat out for the next three years. I’ve been working on this balance for the last eight months or so, but I have a long way to go to figure out how to do the best I can for as long as it takes.

And this word also leads to thinking about the world, and fossil fuels, and social justice, and what is possible in my lifetime and the long-term prospects for life on Earth.

Brave
I want to have the courage of my convictions, to lead confidently when that is my responsibility and opportunity, to do scary things when that’s my job (at home or at work), to finish things and say they’re done for better or worse, instead of letting them wobble on. I want to have the courage to admit my mistakes and correct course, and to say no when the opportunity is not right. And I want to encourage other people to be brave, about following their leadings, about telling me the truth, and encouraging others in their turn.

All of these will require the grace of God, and Jesus as an example to follow and as the Consoler, as I move forward, day by day and moment by moment, this year and for as long as I may live.  

So what are your three words for 2015?

FWCC from A to Z

I've been entertaining myself today with a single handed game of "I'm going to Grandma's house and I'm taking a..." Did you play that when you were a kid? Or with your own kids?

Well, I'm going to the Friends World Committee Section of the Americas Meeting of Representatives next week, and I'm taking

an Agenda
a Bible
some Crayons
Donation Envelopes
Friends
a Glossary/Glosario
a Hymnal
Ideas
my Journal
Knitted hat
Laptop
a Mission
some Nominations
I hope to find some Opportunities when I get there
a Pencil
a QUNO report
Respect
Socks
Thermal Underwear
Vision
Workplan
Xtra paper
Yahweh
and Zeal.

Are you coming? What are you bringing?

If you're not coming, what are you carrying with you wherever you are?

Why don't you write more?

A couple of weeks ago, a Friend suggested that I should write a blogpost (100-1000 words usually) expanding on a tweet (140 characters) that I wrote. I said I'd like to write more, but this darn full-time job keeps getting in the way.

I am actually writing quite a bit these days, but it's all for work, not for play. But just for today, I thought I'd post links to some of the things I've written in the last few months.

First, I write a little introduction to the monthly newsletter for the Friends World Committee for Consultation in the Americas. And then usually I write some, but not most, of the other articles. Here you can read the latest one, titled "Let the Living Water Flow Through You!" If you'd like to read our archive of newsletters, including every bit of it that I wrote in the last year, you can go here: E-news Archives.

A few weeks ago, I wrote up a few reflections on the 6th World Conference of Friends for a report-back conference call. You can read my report, the notes from the other speakers, or listen to the call, all on this page of the FWCC website.

In the months before and after the Conference, I wrote a series of letters in English and Spanish to delegates, to yearly meeting clerks and to donors to the Travel Fund, but those are not archived online. In April I rewrote the description of our Visitation program for our website, but I see now that it needs to be updated again. I also write quarterly letters to the Representatives of Yearly Meetings who are members of the Friends World Committee. That is also due again in the next month or so.

I'm currently working on a longer explanation of the theme for our local gatherings in the coming year, "Let the Living Water Flow! Friends Serving God's Purposes." The short description on our website is a collaborative effort.

In August I've been invited to speak on a panel about leadership in the age of social media at the Earlham School of Religion Leadership conference. So I still need to write something for that.

And last, but not least, I write fund raising appeal letters. Here's the latest one, featuring the work of young adults and younger Friends in the Friends World Committee. If you'd like to make a donation to support that work, I'd be very grateful. 

Vision

Without vision, the people perish. Mostly because they get eaten by tigers they didn't see coming.
Isn't that a joke from Calvin & Hobbes?

I've been thinking a lot about vision lately. Mostly because I just got glasses. I have developed astigmatism and nearsightedness in my mid-forties. I was prepared at this point in life to go to the drugstore and get a pair of reading glasses. Instead I need prescription corrective lenses to be able to read the clock from across my kitchen.

So I've spent a lot of the last two months taking them off and putting them on again, testing my vision. Looking at things under and over and around my glasses, as I become aware of what they do better and where they don't work in my range of vision. Pretty soon I'm going to need bifocals to be able to adjust, because now that the astigmatism is fixed, I'm noticing that I do have to hold my paper at arm's length to be able to see what I'm writing more clearly. The doctor warned me that as my eyes stop straining so hard to focus all the time it would seem like my vision was getting worse. Really, it's just that my eyes aren't trying as hard to make up for their defects. So I don't see as well but I'm not making my brain as tired as it would have been either. And these days, my brain is getting plenty tired working on the other kind of vision anyway.

Part of my job as the new Executive Secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation - Section of the Americas is to articulate a new and compelling vision of the purpose and function of FWCC. One of the first set of tasks was to establish more clarity around our financial situation. Another set of tasks is preparing for the World Conference, including envisioning what will come out of the 6WC and how can we at FWCC be supportive of the movement of the Holy Spirit among Friends in the coming year?

I'm reminded of the place in Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he says, now we see as in a mirror, dimly, but then [in God's kingdom] we will see clearly. And if you think about the quality of mirrors in Paul's day, which were just polished metal, you'll better understand how dim he thinks we are.

Some days, I too feel like I'm surrounded by fog and molasses. Can't see far, can't move fast. John Woolman has a story about being in a swamp and having to stand still until he can find the next stepping stone. I know that feeling.

But it's not always like that. Sometimes, I have flashes of clarity and insight and farsightedness and I know where I'm going and how to get there. Those are the stepping stones I cling to and my sense of God's guidance is palpable. I believe God sends the vision, and it's my job to use my practical gifts (like math and planning and listening skills) to move along the path.

I'm realizing that when I see clearly, in a prophetic sense, not just with my glasses on, I am already in the Kingdom. It's not just for after we die. The Kingdom is among us. Some people see more clearly, more often, already. All of us see that clearly sometimes. Quakers everywhere need to pay attention to those moments of clear seeing and use them to inform our plain speaking.

I'm working on paying more attention when I'm seeing clearly and then being more bold in speaking my truth, in claiming the force of my vision, in inviting people to see things my way. The head of another Quaker organization put it this way: when you are the executive director, you have been given the opportunity to see things from a different perspective, in all directions.  The key is learning how to communicate to others how, if they were in your seat, they'd see these things and that would help them understand why you're suggesting this action.

I'm still learning how to balance my vision with committee process. That's probably a lifetime's work, and I won't pretend that I've got it right yet. But I also worry whether Quakers are ready for leaders with vision. Will we continue to cut them down, like Tall Poppies? Is there room for someone like me to make mistakes without failing completely?

I would love to hear a) any stories of Quaker leaders & committees/organizations that have functioned well together past or present or b) advice on how you or someone you know have successfully navigated this pathway and what tools (spiritual or practical) you think are useful.

Because the world is hungry for what Friends have to offer. All the Friends, together. At our best, we live and work out of a dynamic tension, a paradox of faith and practice, of contemplation and action, of usefulness today and for the future, and I want to be part of bringing that forth, being the best we can be and giving the world what it needs. That is what FWCC is for. I am honored to be part of it. It needs the best I can give it. I need all the help I can get.

[In the comments, I don't really want to hear all the stories of how badly leaders have been treated in the past or currently, thank you very much. I know enough of those already. I will delete whiny comments, at my sole discretion and with no apologies.]

So what do you actually do?

New acquaintance: So what do you actually do in your job?
Me: That's a good question. 

It's funny. I think it's a good sign that I've gotten better at explaining who/what FWCC is without overloading people so that they're not afraid to ask another question. The first question is usually more like this:

New acquaintance: What is the, um, Friends World Committee for Consultation-Section of the Americas?
Me: We are the association of Quaker meetings and churches from Alaska to Bolivia. 

That's my soundbite version. I can say it all in one breath and people understand all the words, even if they don't know anything else about Quakers or what that involves.

Lately, I am inspired by the name of one of our projects that I think encapsulates what we do. Our new website with information about the various branches of Friends and short writings by Quakers on a variety of topics is called Voices of Friends. From my perspective, FWCC is all about helping Friends to listen to one another's voices, helping the outside world to hear the voices of Friends, and helping each of us to hear the voice of God in our own hearts and in the words and actions of other people (and the rest of God's creation). I want to use this imagery more in describing our work.

I'm curious whether this makes sense to other Friends, and whether this connects to what you thought FWCC was/is or not?

So what do I actually do there? My new short answer is that my job is part minister and part manager. A lot of religious education, a little pastoral counseling, some office management, the fundraising and accounting to sustain it all, some P.R. work and some institutional politics, and mostly volunteer organizing (in more religious terms, I call this helping to connect people with their own ministries).

I am considering Brent Bill's suggestion of using released minister as a descriptive title. He was suggesting it for the paid pastoral staff of a local Quaker congregation. Wess Daniels wrote about his adoption of the term in that context. I wonder if it's just as useful in my situation as well. I'm not actually suggesting that we change the title on my business card, which is Executive Secretary, and generally makes people think I'm the admin assistant to the CEO. That would require a different process that I don't have time for right now.

I'm more considering how it feels like I have been released to do the work I really want to do, and that my work is to minister to the whole Religious Society of Friends. The job description isn't very well defined, but essentially I am paid enough to concentrate on the RSoF at the international, inter-branch level, which is always, of course, also at the inter-personal level.  (For anyone who cares, I'm not actually paid enough to support a family without my spouse also working, but it's about average for a non-profit organization with our budget size.)

Part of the reason that the job is hard to define, as any minister or pastor or executive director knows, is that the work shifts and flows over time and space and needs and opportunities and expands to fill all the time and energy you can give it, plus some. The real reason I do it isn't the money, it's the joy and love and excitement I feel at being part of the infrastructure of the RSoF, part of holding it all together and equipping other people to be the Quakers we need in today's world. I would do this work for free, except that if I wasn't getting paid to do this, I'd have to find another job to support my family and then I wouldn't have time to do this work. (See half my blogposts from the last three years if you want to know how well that went. Especially here and here.)

So I am very grateful to have this opportunity to focus on this work. And to do it from a vantage point with systems already in place to implement the work that needs to be done. We don't need more organizations. We need the ones we have to do the work that God is calling us to do, even if that includes a faithful betrayal of the people who came before us.

In the Christian tradition, we are supposedly all released to follow this calling. I think this is part of salvation and being born again. At this point, I'm hearing Bob Dylan in my head, are you? Any day now...

More soon about balancing motherhood and ministry. But that's another blogpost.

Making Choices

Ain’t that always the kicker? So many choices, so little time. And yet God only asks us to do our part, not everything under the sun. Everything is in God’s job description, not mine. So which part is mine? That’s the hardest to start with.

On my list of balancing acts, there’s:

• Family time and work time
• Writing time and talking time (and which category does Facebook fall in?)
• Travel time (and money) and office/home time
• Internal work processes and external relationships
• Clearing out old stuff and getting started on new stuff
• Raising money and doing program work
• About twelve different current work projects
• About six new projects I’d like to be doing

I want to be involved in my children’s lives while they are growing up. I want to still be married in 30 years, not just in name but in love. I want to be a woman who still cleans her own bathroom, or at least takes her turn emptying the dishwasher and running the laundry. It is important to me not to get so caught up in the academic and political aspects of my job that I fail to be connected to the real life of people on Earth.

I see more clearly the practical organizational development tasks that need to be done in my office. Not exciting, most of the time, but necessary to build the strong foundation for the organization to thrive. Nothing at crisis level, but they still take more time than you think.

I see the changes taking place in the Religious Society of Friends and I want to ride off in six directions at once. The renewed life of the Spirit among South American Friends. The continuing outpouring of energy and ministry among young adult Friends in many places at once. The re-shuffling of the deck of Midwestern Quaker meetings. The new crop of heads of Quaker organizations.

I want to be up-to-date and informed, I want to have a broad and historical perspective, I want to be involved, I want to be helpful, and darnit, I can’t do everything and be everywhere. Not all at once, even though it feels like everything is happening at once.

I’m praying a lot about this, but at some point I just have to make my own decisions. I believe that God is with me, comforting and guiding and hoping for the best from me, but I don’t really expect the wet fleece/dry fleece kind of signs about any of my decisions. Maybe that’s just a lack of faith on my part? No, I think it’s more to do with God’s faith in me to do the right thing.

So what is helping?

Making lists. Seeing that I can fit all the options I’m considering onto one page, even if I have to write small, helps.

Knowing that I can’t do everything at once. Accepting that choices will be made, consciously or sub-consciously, and that it’s better to make them upfront rather than recognize and rue them after the fact, makes it easier to say no sooner.

Taking time out to walk, swim, sleep, laugh and read juvenile fiction are all helpful. I probably haven’t done enough of these in the last month and I’m starting to feel the ill effects of that.

Hearing myself talk helps. Sometimes telling someone else about the options helps me to hear which way I’m leaning.

Asking for advice and input. Many of the choices in my life are not just mine to make. My family has their own opinions. My co-workers have a lot of valuable experience and insight. The huge network of representatives and committee members and friends of FWCC all have a role to play in our priority setting process.

Asking for help, not just because I need the help, but because other people are yearning to be of service, to carry out the ministry and use the gifts that God has given them. Whether that’s a gift of display making, or accounting, or translation, or money to give away, or committee clerking, the RSoF is richly blessed with people who want to help. A big part of my job will be helping to connect people with their ministries.

So, what do you do when faced with new choices to make and new resources to direct?

How are we, as the Religious Society of Friends, in all our diverse glory and painful divisions, going to make the choices that will affect our future?

Which Bible stories do you find to be the most relevant to all the choices I’m facing? I really need help with that, so if you have suggestions, please leave a comment or contact me one way or another.

This is the day

...So what if I'm not the strongest,
A little weaker than I'd like to be
Even I can do what's right because
I know the King is calling me

To live a life worth looking up to,
Holding on to what matters most
No one said it was going to be easy
But I know I'll never be alone
Because when all hope is gone,
Help will come, come from above

And give me strength to go farther, climb higher
Courage that burns inside like a fire
No turning back; this is the day

I will do what I need to and when I need you
I know your love will come to the rescue
No turning back; this is the day
I do the right thing...
~Mandisa, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Soundtrack

I don't know how many other executives are inspired by Veggie Tales movie soundtracks. But when the FWCC Executive Committee hired me, they knew they were getting a different kind of leader.

My family saw the movie when it came out, and I played this disco anthem from the soundtrack at the end of the workshop I led at the FGC Gathering a few years ago, so I've known this song for a long time now. It's taking on new significance now as I prepare for my new position.

In addition, a few weeks ago, my husband added a new quote to our morning meditation space:

Give over thine own willing, give over thine own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in thy heart and let it be in thee, and grow in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee, and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that and loves and owns that, and will bring it to the inheritance of life, which is his portion.
~Isaac Penington

These are both important to me because pretty much everything in the last three months has been hard. It's all working out, but as they say, everything takes longer than you think. Partly I think the lesson has been simply not to get a big head about this exciting new job. I've had to ask myself at least once a week, if not several times a day, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Fortunately, the answer at my core has remained, "Yes." I didn't want to leave my home, my meeting, my kids' school, San Francisco or California. I can admit that honestly. But my sense of being called and equipped for this work to come has not faded.

Going forward, I intend to continue writing about my spiritual journey on this blog even as I step into the new role. I find it helpful to reflect on what I'm learning and to process it on paper. One of the joys of Quaker blogs has been sharing this journey with all the readers and other writers.

On My Way

I am on my way today to my first duties as the next Executive Secretary for FWCC Section of the Americas. I don't really start until mid-June, but this week I will meet with the outgoing E.S. and then travel to the FWCC Europe & Middle East Section annual meeting followed by the world Central Executive Committee annual meeting and then the International Planning Committee for the World Conference of Friends that will be held next April in Kenya.

So on Wednesday night, I'm actually headed to Zurich for two weeks. Which still sounds unbelievable and little pretentious, to me anyway, every time I say it. I've never been to Switzerland before, although I have been to France, almost 20 years ago, as part of my work with the international anti-poverty group, ATD Quart Monde, known as the Fourth World Movement in the US.

I don't have a specific role at the international meetings. I'm just going as an observer and a chance to meet in person some of the people I'll be working with in the future. I'll probably come away with plenty of responsibilities for next year, but I don't know what they are yet.

Just in the last few days I've started to deal with the practical aspects of international travel. Like, I need to change some money, and my cell phone won't work in Europe, and I need a special plug adapter for my computer. The last time I went to Europe, the most advanced technology I took was a hairdryer that converted to 110 or 220 current. This time I don't need that but I do want to be able to communicate with my family. We'll use Skype some, but I'm taking recommendations for a global cell phone and an international calling plan that works great in Latin America. Leave me a comment or send me an email if you have suggestions or cautions.

This will be the longest time I've ever been away from my kids. And the longest I've been away from my husband since we got married 17 years ago. Fortunately, my kids are old enough now to be a lot easier to take care of. But there was still grocery shopping and scheduling playdates and team practices, etc.

I finished my work at my old job last week. It was a mixed experience, as so many jobs are, but I learned a lot. About myself, about organizational politics, about succession planning, about social media and the new technology of fundraising.

I'm still thinking about the possibility of starting a new blog for just my FWCC work, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea of not. Will I have time to post regularly in two places? That's a big question. Do I have enough to say to be worth two blogs? And is it really possible to separate my personal life from my public/professional life? Do I want to? I don't really think that people pay attention to the disclaimers like the one at the bottom of this page, that says I don't speak for any organization. I think this is one of the lessons of integrity in the post-Facebook world. I have one life and I have to conduct myself in all parts of it as if all the other parts are watching.

I started this blog for two reasons. First, I wanted to share with my friends what I was reading on other Quaker blogs and what I was thinking about all that. Second, I had all these essays composing themselves in my head and I needed an outlet for them. I used to picture them as lectures in a college classroom. But then I found that a blog was about the right length and frequency for my writing, and came with more feedback/instant gratification than writing magazine articles and made me less likely to harangue my personal friends with my soapbox speeches. Both of those reasons are still true, so don't think I won't keep at least one blog going. Have you had experience writing more than one blog? Does it ever work?

In any case, today is the first day of the rest of my life, as the saying goes. I'm doing the best I can. Deep breath. Everything is going to be all right. I am not in charge. I am not alone. It's not about me. Please, God. Thank you.

I am not in charge

That has been the number one lesson of the last few months. It's been an exciting time, full of new possibilities and new challenges. It has also been a time of very intense and fretful waiting. A lot of decisions have been made, some of which I agreed with and some of which I didn't, and many of which were not mine to make. Oh, right. I am not in charge.

I am going to have a new job. I am excited to inform anyone who hasn't heard that the Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, has chosen me to be their next Executive Secretary. I will attend some meetings at the end of April and then start full time in June.

Yes, my family is moving to Philadelphia. We are all very sad to leave San Francisco Monthly Meeting, the San Francisco Friends School, College Park Quarterly Meeting and Pacific Yearly Meeting. All of these groups of people have been important in my spiritual journey and my every day life. If I could somehow close the gap between San Francisco and Philadelphia, I would. But I am not in charge of geographical miracles.

I especially would have liked the announcement of this new appointment to have been more orderly. I would have liked to tell a few more people, including my mother, before they heard about it on Facebook. But I was not in charge of the communications plan.

There are huge changes taking place in the wider Quaker world. Lots of turnover in the executive roles in major Quaker institutions and many smaller ones. Huge generational shifts in leadership and communications and expectations and membership at all levels. The sheer volume of change is both an enormous window of opportunity and, honestly, frightening to anyone who's really paying attention. I will soon have a lot more responsibility for leading Friends through these changes but I know I am not in charge of anyone else's response, whether fear or fascination.

There are far-reaching changes going on in our society and all of Planet Earth. I highly recommend Joanna Macy's work on the Great Turning and Phyllis Tickle's book, The Great Emergence, to help us all to understand how we are part of a larger changing whole. FWCC has some helpful queries for examining our own response to the economic, ecological, social, political and spiritual changes in our world. Here especially, I am not in charge of anything but my own response and my children's education. I hope that, with Divine assistance, modeling awareness instead of avoidance, and integrity/consistency between my beliefs and my actions in my own life will be helpful to others, but I am not in charge.

So who is in charge of all this? I don't think God planned it all this way. I believe we do have free will and we have to live with the consequences of our decisions. And we have to live with the consequences of thousands of years of other people's decisions, for good and bad. I believe that the will of God is for us to do and be better. I believe that God sends us strength and encouragement and understanding. God gives us the ability to find meaning in what is and what happens, hope for a better future, and love. Love for ourselves, for the people we know, and for the people, plants, rocks, animals, etc. that we don't really know. Love is that of God. Hope is that of God. And this love and hope give me faith and courage. I think my theme song for this year is Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. I recommend the Iris DeMent version from Lifeline, but the words are in the public domain:

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

I am so grateful to the FWCC Search Committee and the Executive Committee for putting their faith in me. I am indebted to many, many Friends for sharing their spiritual journeys with me, in the Quaker blogosphere, in their homes, in small and large gatherings and through FWCC. Thank you. I trust that we will continue to learn how to be the Quakers together. I will write more about my hopes and dreams for FWCC in the coming months. If you have suggestions, advice or questions about FWCC, please send them to me in a comment here, to my email address in the sidebar profile, on Facebook or Twitter, or in a letter or phonecall or whenever I see you.

I believe that Quakers need the Friends World Committee on Consultation and FWCC needs you.

FWCC in Philadelphia - Y'all Come Now

So there's a series of interesting things happening in Philadelphia this month. I'm just sorry it's taken me so long to actually write about them. Keep going to the end to read about the convergent dinner party!

First, and the reason that I'll actually be in the area, is the Annual Meeting of the Section of the Americas of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). I'm a representative of Pacific Yearly Meeting, and a member of the Wider Quaker Fellowship committee, which is officially a program group of FWCC, and so I'll be attending the business meetings at Friends Center on March 17 and 18.

Following that, there will be a public gathering on Friday, March 18 in the evening and most of the day Saturday, March 19, This is one of a series of local gatherings on the theme of the 6th World Gathering of Friends (that will be April 2012 in Kenya): Being Salt and Light: Friends Living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World. There is a cost of $40 for dinner, lunch & snacks during the sessions, and they are requesting free will donations to support the gathering and the work of FWCC. Child care is available by advance request.

The speakers are Linda and David Kusse-Wolfe, recorded Friends ministers from University Friends Meeting in Wichita, Kansas. Here's the description from the website,

"Linda and David carry a ministry of reconciliation among peoples of different races, classes and cultures. This led them to live and study in Qom, Iran, where they were the only publicly-declared Christians in a city of over one million inhabitants. The Holy City of Qom is the center for education for Shiite Muslim clerics. Linda and David will provide opportunities to relate their experiences to current issues of ‘brokenness’ that Friends are facing in their communities. We hope Friends will take away something that is relevant—both practically and spiritually—to our lives today.

An FWCC program provides time for worship in the manners of Friends, small group sessions and time for fellowship, within the framework of FWCC's mission to bring Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world."

If you'd like to attend, or you know someone else who would be interested, whether they are Quakers or not, you can register online or by mailing in the form that's available from the same page on the FWCC website.

And last, but by all means not least, there will be a convergent Friends/blogger get together on Saturday night at Eileen Flanagan's house!
(info on Facebook) (info on QuakerQuaker)

This is the first time that I'll be in the Philly area for more than a day or so, so I'm grateful that Martin Kelley is helping to organize things. And I'm very grateful to Eileen for having us over. She'd like to have a rough idea of how many people are coming, so please RSVP on one of the above event pages or leave me a comment, or email her directly.

I think that we're going to order pizza for dinner, so be prepared that we'll take up a little collection towards that, and if you would like to bring something to share (to drink, a side dish, dessert, an alternative that you prefer to pizza...) that would be great.

Over the last five years, I've been to little gatherings like this in San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Newberg (OR), Baltimore, rural Indiana, Greensboro (NC), and Boston. They have ranged from 4 to 24 people, in homes, parks and meetinghouses. They have all been different, but they all featured interesting conversations, usually with people from 2-8 different yearly meetings. The best have included a time of worship sharing on some query that helps us to see how each other is wrestling with the question of how to be Friends in the 21st century. The amazing thing to me is how often unexpected people show up who enrich and expand the conversation just by being there.

If you'd like to join this conversation, you are invited. You can find more details on how to get there on the QQ or Facebook pages, or you can email me at the address in the sidebar. If you have questions, please leave me a comment on this post, or email me or Martin Kelley directly.

And if you're not going to be in the Philadelphia area this month, maybe we can talk about how to organize something like this in your area - both the Salt & Light gatherings and the convergent Friends dinners are a mobile feast!

Help Wanted 2010

There's been a fair amount of buzz in the Quaker blogosphere lately (and over the last five years) about Revitalizing the Message and New Wineskins. This is part of a more general debate about the fate and usefulness of old Quaker institutions. I think it is very important to have these discussions on an ongoing basis. But pontificating on the internet is not enough. What are we going to do about the state of the Religious Society of Friends?

On that note, have you noticed how many of the major Quaker institutions (and a few minor ones) have been or are now, or will be soon, looking for new executive leadership in the course of about two years?

American Friends Service Committee (2010)
Ben Lomond Quaker Center (2011)
Friends Committee on National Legislation (2010)
Friends General Conference (2011)
Friends Journal (2011)
Friends United Meeting (nominated 2010, starting 2012)
Friends World Committee for Consultation (2011)
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (2008)
Quaker House (in Fayetteville, NC) (2012)
Western Friend (2008)

There’s probably more. Which ones have I left out? (Is there a clearinghouse somewhere for announcements and job descriptions?)

***Here's two more:

QUNO Geneva [added thanks to Eden Grace, 10/9]
Earlham College [brought to my attention by Martin Kelley, 12/8]

***And even more, now with dates thanks to Kathy Hyzy, 1/27/11:

Woolman Semester (2008)
Friends Fiduciary Corporation (2011)
Quaker Earthcare Witness (2011)
Quaker United Nations Office/New York (2008)
Northwest Yearly Meeting (2012)

One Friend I know got interviewed for one of these jobs and the first question the committee asked was, “Out of all the Quaker jobs open right now, why do you want this one?”

Why do you think this is all happening at once? Is it just time in the generational cycle? Is it because the financial crisis of the last couple of years has been so hard on executive directors?

This looks like a wider nonprofit trend of long-time executive leaders leaving. About 10 years ago, there was a big fuss in the nonprofit world about a survey that showed that half of all executive directors planned to leave their jobs in the next five years. Then five years ago, another survey showed that the massive shift hadn’t happened but that most EDs still planned to leave in the next five years. I think that we are now seeing that shift starting to happen among the Baby Boomers who founded organizations in the 70s and 80s. It’s complicated by the economic recession, and by the fact that Boomers are living longer in better health and so working longer too. I highly recommend a book by Frances Kunreuther, Helen Kim and Robby Rodriguez, called Working Across Generations: Defining the Future of Nonprofit Leadership.

I don’t know enough about evangelical Friends organizations, but there aren’t any on this list. Why not? Did they already go through a shift or are they just about to enter this phase? Or am I just not in their loop?

I’m wondering how many of these jobs will go to another Baby Boomer. (It’s two out of three for the ones I know of that are already filled.) [Update: Seven out of ten as of February 2011.] What kinds of risks are the hiring committees/boards willing to take on less experienced Friends? Will they just hire another Boomer to stay another 2-5 years? Will we have another generation of 20-30 year tenures at the tops of these of organizations?

Will all these institutions survive this once in a lifetime mass shift in leadership? How many will move in new and vibrant directions? Are there too many openings at one time? Are there enough younger Friends who are ready, willing and able to take on new responsibilities? To take on the hard work and hard choices? To commit?

New wine needs new wineskins with every harvest. But not a whole new winecellar every year, just to continue the metaphor. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel just for the sake of saying “I did it my way,” or “We sure showed them.” Then again, when your winecellar starts to cave in, it may be time to move the whole house.

Organizations help to coordinate the matching of resources with missions. Structure can be helpful. Systems liberate. Creativity flourishes best without complete chaos surrounding it. One lone ranger, or a small, committed group of citizens, can do some things for a short time, but organizing materials, money and manpower takes infrastructure to run smoothly. What would a GenX Quaker institution look like? What about a Millenial Quaker organization?

Honestly, I don’t know or even have a fixed opinion on what should happen. These organizations vary widely in size, complexity and mission. Some are on firmer financial and spiritual footings than others. But all will depend on, contribute to, and have to face either the diminishment or the revitalization of the Religious Society of Friends.

In an era of reduced budgets and growing unrest, what does the future hold for the Religious Society of Friends?

Where do you see yourself?

FWCC 2010: Worship, Old Town, and an Idea for the Future

I try to call home each night when I’m traveling, after dinner but before bedtimes. Last night, as I talked to each of my sons, I told them, “I got to go to worship three times today.” Both of them, independently, just said, “Wow.” I don’t think they envied me. But I was happy about it. Each worship opportunity was quite different.

First was morning worship at the FWCC Section of the Americas Annual Meeting, organized by the Conservative Friends. Perhaps surprisingly, they were the only ones to make use of the audio-visual (AV) equipment in worship. They had a single slide projected on the wall at the front of the room that said something like, “We are already engaged in worship. Please join us in expectant waiting upon the Lord.” Then it quoted Advice # 24 of Ohio Yearly Meeting to encourage Friends not to quench the Holy Spirit but to respond when the call to vocal ministry comes. I think this was a good example of advices being written for a particular community that are beneficial to a wider range of people. I imagine that among programmed Friends there could also be a tendency to think that vocal ministry is only for a few people. (In my own yearly meeting’s advices, there are reminders that not every thought that comes into your head is meant for vocal ministry and that if a particular piece of ministry doesn’t appeal to you, you can just let it go.)

The second opportunity was the closing worship at FWCC, which was organized by a very international group of young adult Friends. It opened with a moment of silent worship, then there was a passage of scripture read in English by a young man from Kenya and in Spanish by a young woman from Bolivia, with commentary by the Friend from Kenya. There
was another short period of silence, then a small group including North American Friends led us in a song,and then another period of silence.

Next was supposed to be a message by a very young pastor from Guatemala, but instead some woman got up in the silence to read a Native American prayer that she “just happened to have with [her].” I’m sure she felt deeply moved, but I still think it was rude to interrupt a programmed worship service like that. The Friend from Guatemala did a fine job anyway, but it’s hard to be preparing to preach and then have it unexpectedly postponed.

This really brings up for me the question of what is the purpose of silence in a programmed worship service. I think there’s a difference between a period of open worship which is intended for Friends to speak as moved and a few minutes between elements of the program to let a message sink in or to open ourselves to the next element.

Anyway, then we sang another song and then it closed with a prayer by a young woman from a Hispanic Friends Church in the U.S.

The third opportunity for worship was with an emerging Quaker worship group in Baltimore, Old Town Friends Fellowship. Several months ago, I realized that if I was going to Baltimore anyway, this was a chance to visit this group I’ve been hearing about, that has been worshipping together, in various places, for about two years now.

It was a chance for a little bit of FWCC to come to local Friends, and a chance to support this small worship group. This second purpose turned out to be more important than we could have known in advance. Just hours before we gathered, the worship group’s request to be taken under the care of Baltimore Meeting – Homewood was turned down. The worship group folks were really very gracious about the decision, but I was personally shocked. I am certain that there is more to the story than I know, or than could be shared on this outsider’s blog, but I just don’t understand a decision like that. The Old Town Friends will go on, and way will open somewhere else, another day. However, it felt really good to be with them on a depressing day like this. I’m glad that a much larger group came to worship with them, to hold them in the Light, to hear their stories, and to affirm the Holy Presence in their midst.

I arrived with Nancy C, a Friend from North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), who gave me a ride. Fortunately, it was on her way south anyway. David M, from Ohio Yearly Meeting, met us there. Susanna R, Clerk of the Oldtown Friends, welcomed us to the Aisquith St Meetinghouse, the oldest house of worship in Baltimore. (More history here.) Other local Friends soon joined us for some juice and cookies. Bill Samuel, a long time Friend now attending Cedar Ridge Community Church, and an occasional commenter on this blog came in person as did Stephen D, who came to the convergent Friends workshop at BLQC last year. Joan L, who participated in my workshop at FGC in 2008, and her husband Rich are semi-regular attenders at Old Town Friends, as is Ken S. Other Friends came from the DC and Baltimore areas. Martin Kelley and his whole family came, although Julie and the boys didn’t stay for the whole worship period. Altogether, I counted 19 people, from 5-6 Yearly Meetings.

We started with reading Propositions 5 & 6 from Barclay’s Apology and a lively discussion of the possibilities and limits of universal salvation, of free will vs. God’s power to save. It was interesting to be in a group with some people who have clearly read and studied Barclay at length and people like me who are just reading it for the first time. I didn’t realize before that the original 15 Propositions are not that long. A lot of what is published as Barclay’s Apology are his later refutations of his contemporaries’ criticism of his points. I think I could read just the Propositions a lot sooner than I would be motivated to read the whole enormous book, even in the modern English version. They are available online or through Quaker Books. I also recommend Will T’s series of blogposts on Barclay, starting in 2006. If this encourages anybody else to read it, let me know.

Then we moved over to the other side of the room for worship. The meetinghouse still has the original partitions for the men’s and women’s meetings, but the building has been adapted slightly for another worship group that meets there on Sunday mornings. Their AV and praise band equipment, including full drum kit, are set up on what used to be the facing benches. The acoustics are really good in the building that at one time held 350 people for worship.

We began with introductions, then joys and concerns, then a couple of Taize chants, led by Kevin-Douglas Olive’s fine voice, and then about 45 minutes of open worship, followed by announcements. We had a really good discussion of how the worship group can welcome children to worship with them in the future.

And last we had potluck. As with Friends everywhere, the food was good and plentiful, and the opportunity to talk with old and new Friends was wonderful.

I am very grateful to Oldtown Friends for welcoming us into their normal routine. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to worship with them. Each year, when I have made the time to stay over after the FWCC meeting for a visit with local Friends, it has been so enriching for me. I think it has also been a gift to the local Friends to have some of the diversity of FWCC come into their regular lives, not just as a conference but as intervisitation. I also know that many of the Latin American Friends were hosted this same evening by the Iglesia Evangelica de los Amigos de Baltimore, and I expect that interaction was also valuable for visitors and locals.

It is the hope of many in FWCC Section of the Americas that the proposal to hold a series of local gatherings on the Being Salt and Light in a Broken World theme in preparation for the 2012 World Gathering of Friends will also give some of this rich experience to many more Friends in the next couple of years. I encourage all of you who read this to find out what the plans are in your area. Ask the FWCC reps from your yearly meeting. See if you can help make it happen.

If you are an Evangelical Friend, please think hard about how you can encourage other Evangelical Friends to participate in the World Gathering itself, and in local convergent gatherings in their areas, especially if they are not used to working with other Friends near them.

For everyone who has wished for something convergent to happen near you – this is it, folks. It’s not the only thing, of course, but this project is coming to a location near you some time in the next two years. If you need to start saving now for a trip to the next state, or if you have always wanted to visit Friends in another region of the Americas – Friends in that region would be so happy to have YOU come.

More information will become available over the next few months. Since the proposal was only approved on Saturday morning, not all of the plans are clear yet. But this could be a amazing opportunity for Friends everywhere to connect with the wider world of Friends, to find the kindred spirits out there, the ones we already have something in common with but we just haven’t met yet, and to influence the voice of Friends in the world. And this time, we have all the institutional support of FWCC Secion of the Americas: staff, committees, relationships, experience, fundraising and vision.

Dear God, please help us to see with your eyes the possibilities for Friends to truly be salt and light in the world. Help us to hear with your ears the cries of the world, the suffering of the poor and of the lost. Help us to listen to voices we have ignored before. Help us to mend our broken covenant to share the Earth with all creation and with all generations to come. Help us to be models of righteousness and right sharing. Help us to be brave when we are afraid and humble when we are right and when we are wrong. Help us to feel where the winds of the Spirit are blowing, to welcome the new things that you are doing, and to be patient for the arrival of the fruits of the Spirit. Amen.

Friends, is this the vision for the appointed time?

FWCC 2010, Day 3

Last night, the keynote presentation by Deborah Suess, a pastor from North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM), was a little Bible-geeky at the beginning, but it warmed up by the end. Her topic was the theme of the new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. (John 13:34) She pointed out that in the other Gospels, the Great Commandment is to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. But in John, the point is that we have to love each other, the people we live with, our family, the people in our own meetings. Not just those other people over there. But these people that we run into all the time. And we have to love them with relentless dedication and grace. God help us all.

I got to chat with Deborah for a few minutes afterwards and she was delightful. Friendly, funny, smart. I hope our paths will cross again one day.

This morning, the message in today’s programmed worship was brought by a Friend from Jamaica Yearly Meeting. Her topic was “We Are the Light of the World.” We always talk about Jesus as the Light of the world, but he says that we are the Light of the world. How are we living that out? After her message, a woman rose and sang a song she said she learned from Rolene Walker [a member of my Meeting] who had a leading to do a walk for the beauty of the Earth, from San Diego, CA to Santiago, Chile. The song was beautiful, and it went,

Let me taste your salt
Let me taste your salt
Don’t go hiding the light of the world
Let me taste your salt.

Nancy Irving, General Secretary of the FWCC World Office, finished her report. Here are the two websites for the upcoming projects of the World Office.

Information about the initiative on global change can be found at www.fwccglobalchange.org

Information about the World Conference of Friends in 2012, in Kenya, will be at www.saltandlight2012.org

The Section of the Americas proposal to bring the Salt and Light discussions to where Friends are, by having a series of small events rather than a large annual meeting next year, was approved quickly. Since we had a long time to talk about it on Thursday afternoon in small groups, people had a chance to ask their questions and to ruminate on it before this morning’s business session.

The budget discussion was not a slam dunk, but it was relatively painless, and adopted as presented on Thursday. Because we’re trying something completely new, the budget reflects that. There’s still a little deficit projected for this year, but it’s way less than the last few years. It’s also totally a gamble, a shot in the dark. Nobody knows if the assumptions in this budget will come true. Both the economic uncertainty and the programmatic changes add to this.

This afternoon, the Regional groups met. Pacific Yearly Meeting and Intermountain Yearly Meeting are in the same Southwest Region. Evangelical Friends Church-Southwest would be in our region too, but they have chosen not to affiliate with FWCC at this time. We discussed how this would really work out in our enormous geographic region. We decided that there are probably different responses in different areas. In Northern California, we decided to start with making substantive reports back to our monthly meetings, and to support one another in leading Second Hour worship sharing on the queries we used here this week. (I’ll write more about those another day.) We will then arrange interest groups that also include some worship sharing opportunities at College Park Quarterly Meeting and Pacific Yearly Meeting sessions, and then regroup based on those experiences.

This evening will be the presentation by local Friends about Baltimore Yearly Meeting. This could be dry and long or it could be humorous and engaging. I have no idea.

Today was the first day that I didn’t feel like I absolutely needed a nap after lunch. I went for a little walk in the woods around the center. It was sunny and the temperature was in the seventies. There was a little bitty stream in the woods that was lovely. I feel much better.

FWCC 2010, Day 2

Another long day at the Section of the Americas Annual Meeting. This morning was the first business session. Executive Secretary’s report, naming committee, treasurer, first reading of the budget, that kind of thing.

Nancy Irving, the General Secretary of the World Office, also gave the first part of her report. She told us more about the initiative to consider a Quaker response to global change (which includes elements of climate change, migration, economics, etc.) which she had just hinted about last year. They have just sent information to all the Yearly Meetings to invite them to organize cluster meetings to consider six queries. These clusters can be as small as a few Friends from a Monthly Meeting or larger gatherings. First, they seek to understand the varied experiences of Quakers of global change. Secondly, what is the faith basis of our responses? And finally they will consider whether there is a distinctive Quaker response to global change. Responses can be submitted in writing or in video. An international committee will collect and edit a first version of these responses. Then an international gathering in Fall 2011will meet to consider these responses, including people who have deep knowledge of global change issues, people who have participated in the clusters, and people with more theological perspectives. Where it goes beyond that, they don’t know yet. But should be interesting to see. Nancy said that this initiative has been proposed and then met with great enthusiasm from Friends in many parts of the world.

The other thing she told us about is the World Gathering of Friends in August 2012. 1,000 Friends will gather in Kenya. More details will be forthcoming. Yearly Meetings will be responsible for naming the majority of delegates to the Gathering. There will also be approximately 300 places that any Friend can apply to attend. Check the FWCC World Office website for more information if you’re interested. Everyone who’s been to a World Gathering before (the last one was in 1991) says that they are amazing, life changing experiences. I think we should really try to send people younger than me, honestly. If we’re going to change lives, let’s start young.

I had lunch with the Finance Committee, who are really very nice people. I asked a couple of questions, got sensible answers and a promise to get me more information soon. I really appreciated their welcoming of my questions and I resisted their efforts to get me to volunteer for more work.

After lunch, I went to a discussion of the future of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage. Have you even heard of the QYP? I’ve heard about it since I’ve been involved in FWCC, but not really otherwise. But it’s been around for about fifty years, happening every other year or so, and mostly has involved groups of teenagers from the US visiting the 1652 country for a month, and teenagers from the U.K. visiting Quaker communities in the US. The next one will be this summer in the Pacific Northwest. This is one of the programs that FWCC is considering whether they can continue or not. This was not a decision making meeting, just an opportunity for a random group to hear the state of the program and share some ideas.

Then we had worship sharing. Then I had a nap. Dinner. And now I’m typing while people are singing before the keynote speaker, Deborah Suess. Probably more tomorrow.

FWCC 2010, Day 1

Being Salt and Light:: Friends Living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World is the theme of the 2012 World Conference of Friends in Kenya.

Here in the Section of the Americas, we’re considering whether we should drop most of our regular business to spend the next two years organizing a dozen smaller gatherings all over the Americas on this same theme. It would also be in conjunction with the FWCC World Office initiative entitled Mending the World: A Broken Covenant? Friends’ Responses to Global Change. It would be a big change, and it’s not a sure deal yet.

Some of the questions that came up today include basic questions of time and money and priorities. A few of the more interesting questions are:

How will committees continue to function if they don’t meet at the annual sessions?

How can we put the institutional resources (experience, time, organization, money) of FWCC to work supporting the energy of Young Adult Friends rather than trying to create something new?

Is this what God is calling us to do?

[It's only the end of the first day, and I am completely worn out, despite a nap in the middle of the day. The time change, my allergies, other minor ailments, all are depleting my normal energy and cheerfulness. And I still have to go to worship sharing in Spanish at 8:00 tonight. I’m just hoping I sleep better tonight.]