Looking for a downloadable/printer-friendly version? Go to the bottom of the page to download a printer-friendly PDF that includes related reports, etc. If you wish to have a printed Minute Book sent to your meeting, please contact the Office Manager, 508-754-6760.
Saturday Evening, August 7, 2010
1. The New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends gathered on Saturday evening, August 7, 2010, for its 350th Annual Sessions at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, singing as we entered. Out of gathered worship the clerk, Linda Jenkins, welcomed all to our second year observing Jubilee. Her news was of change, based on Leviticus 25 and Luke 4:16–20, in the ways that we will be together in community and lay down old ways and activities, in order to focus on the state of our religious society in today’s world and corporately to seek to know Gospel Order. These are the queries before us as we clear the decks of our usual business, using the Unity Agenda, in order to focus on deeper listening and sustained seeking to understand what God wants of us. This week together, we will hold meetings to hear God’s call—periods of waiting open worship out of which minutes of exercise may be discerned.
2. Members of the clerks’ table were introduced: Linda Jenkins (NSan), presiding clerk; Rebecca Leuchak (Prov) and Brian Drayton (Weare), recording clerks; Beth Bussiere-Nichols (Port), and Greg Williams (NBed), reading clerks; Ben Guaraldi (BHill), clerk of Young Adult Friends; Mike Wood (Stor), clerk of Young Friends; and Kate Bonner Jackson (Camb), recording clerk of Young Adult Friends.
3. The clerk recognized the work of Kimberly Allen, outgoing Young Friends/Young Adult Friends coordinator, and Katharine Clark, outgoing communications director, and asked our current and incoming year-round NEYM staff to rise: Jonathan VogelBorne, Yearly Meeting secretary; Alison Hersey, accounts manager; Beth Collea, Christian education coordinator; Jeffrey Hipp, incoming communications director/office manager, Nat Shed, Friends Camp director, Delia Windwalker, interim office manager, Aimee Belanger, interim Young Friends Sessions coordinator; Kevin Lee, Junior Yearly Meeting retreat coordinator; Gretchen Baker Smith, Junior High Yearly Meeting retreat coordinator; Marnie Miller-Gutsell, New England Yearly Meeting archivist; NiaDwynwen Koch, Young Friends/Young Adult Friends coordinator; and Barbie Rugg, New England Friends Home director.
4. The reading clerks called the roll by Quarter, and Friends rose and raised hands as their monthly meeting was named. We welcomed Friends from China, Fairfield, Gonic, Martha’s Vineyard, and Narramissic Valley Monthly Meetings, represented at Yearly Meeting Sessions for the first time in a few years.
5. The clerk took a census of modes of transport to Sessions, asking how many Friends came to the gathering: by horse, by bicycle, by foot, by public transportation, and in cars by number of passengers.
6. The clerk introduced visitors and representatives from Friends’ organizations: Listone Ayodi of East Africa YM, representing the Rural Service Programme; LaurenBaumannof Philadelphia YM, representing Earlham School of Religion; Jocelyn Burnell of Britain YM, representing Friends World Committee for Consultation; Letticia Salcines and Marilyn Escalona of Cuba YM; Suzanne and Richard Frechette of Southeast YM; Newton Garver of New York YM, representing the Bolivia Quaker Education Fund; Eden, Jim, Isaiah, and Jesse Grace of NEYM, representing Friends United Meeting; Keith Harvey of the American Friends Service Committee and Viv Hawkins of Philadelphia YM, Jubilee Seminar speakers; Kody Hersh of Southeastern YM; Ian McEwen of Intermountain YM; Laura Melly of Philadelphia YM; Juliet Smith of New York YM; and Thomas Swain, presiding clerk of Philadelphia YM.
7. We appointed the following adult visitors to the youth yearly meetings: Childcare, Martha Penzer (Camb) & Skip Schiel (Camb); Junior Yearly Meeting (JYM) k–2, Patricia Shotwell (Well) & Debbie Humphries (Hart); JYM 3–4, Tom Libby (Well)& Katie Green (Worc); 5–6, Bonnie Norton (Well) & Suzy Klein-Berndt (Nham); Junior High Yearly Meeting, Martha McManamy (Ames) & Carol Raines (NSho); Young Friends, Sheila Garrett (Mon) & Charlotte Fardelmann (Dov); Young Adult Friends, Leslie Manning (Dur).
8. Betty Ann Lee (Wport), coordinator of JYM, introduced the youth programs coordinators: Kimberly Walker-Goncalves (Nham), Child Care; Aliza Correia (Wport), Kindergarten; Paula Rosvall (Han), 1st & 2nd grade; Margie Carpenter (BHill), 3rd & 4th grade; Carol Baker (West), 5th and 6th grades; and Kara Price Bachand (Stor), JHYM; as they and their staff led the children out to their evening programs Young Friends and Young Adult Friends continued in worship with the adult Friends.
9. Jean McCandless (Bur), clerk of Sessions Committee, introduced the daily anchor groups, a place for us to know one another better. She detailed some of the opportunities that this Jubilee year has given us: a half-hour of intergenerational worship each morning and new ways to be with each other, such as games, handiwork sharing, encouragement of relaxation, and other forms of informal gathering. We adjourned to the anchor groups.
Sunday Evening, August 8, 2010
10. The clerk introduced the following visitors to Yearly Meeting who have arrived since yesterday: Elaine Emily of Pacific YM; Christine Greenland of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; LaVerne Shelton of Northern YM, representing Friends General Conference; Darlene Walker, representing Pendle Hill; Elizabeth Yeats of South Central YM, YM News editor; and Stephanie Powers from Belgium.
11. In a joint plenary session with Young Friends, their clerk, Michael Wood, and their recording clerk, Evan McManamy, brought forward the Young Friends Unity Agenda, which comprised the Young Friends Nominations for their Ministry and Counsel and their proposed retreat themes for the year. Young Friends approved these items.
12. The clerk then turned our attention to the adult YM unity agenda. We:
- accepted all staff reports
- accepted all committee reports
- approved the slate of appointments presented by Nominating Committee
- approved the Bank Resolutions
- accepted the Memorial Minutes forwarded by Permanent Board (to be read on Tuesday morning)
- accepted the recommendations from Permanent Board to approve re-hiring Nathaniel Shed as Director for Friends Camp, and Jonathan Vogel-Borne as YM Secretary
- accepted the minute on FUM Financial Implications, extended by a sentence that clarifies our intent to continue last year’s decision through Sept. 30, 2011, to wit, “This process is to be in force until September 30, 2011, unless explicitly extended by the YM in its Sessions next year.”
Regarding the proposed FY-2011 deficit budget, Edward Mair (Ames), treasurer, Travis Belcher (Mon), clerk of Finance Committee, and Jonathan Vogel-Borne (Camb), YM secretary, explained the recommended budget, which was based on the development and analysis of the Priorities Budget process. The working reserves would easily cover the projected shortfall, if it should appear, but the treasurer believes that it is very likely that we will be able to reduce costs, and increase income from a Development Committee effort currently under way. We noted that the proportions of giving to the three main Friends organizations (FUM, FGC, FWCC) has not been recomputed annually as required, rather than simply continuing a fixed proportion year after year, and the Finance Committee is asked to resume this practice. It is acknowledged that in this unique year, not enough information was made available in advance, and there will be more thorough preparation in advance of next year’s Sessions. Sensitive that some questions remain, and that Friends wish more time to consider this, we will return for a final decision on the budget as a unity agenda item at our session on Monday evening.
13. We are grateful for the dedicated work of many Friends that has enabled us to hold more time open to the Spirit’s promptings towards more faithful practice and witness, and the better ordering of our beloved community. We also are grateful for the hard work that the Young Friends undertook to prepare for their participation in this meeting, and the sensitivity and care of their contributions. We also appreciate their endurance in staying present for a part of this evening’s deliberations, and for their faithfulness in returning to this business session after having left for their own concerns, to join us in the evening’s final deliberations.
14. The clerk opened the first of our Meetings to Hear (and Perhaps Answer) God’s Call. She offered a brief definition of a Minute of Exercise, and described how these minutes will be used to help maintain the continuity of our deliberations—and perhaps discoveries—over the course of the week.
A minute of exercise expresses the clerk’s sense of the condition of the meeting after some time spent in corporate discernment. It seeks to identify how the spirit seems to have moved through the body in an emerging concern, to point towards work that the meeting feels it should take up again, or on which we wish to seek further clarity. It is not a record of each message voiced or of a debate, nor does it seek to reflect the whole process by which the meeting has arrived at the point when the minute is taken. It may be a kind of log book, a milestone, and a signpost: Thus far we have been led, as we seek to know God’s will; we have a sense of where we might seek for the opening way, and we may note certain issues, openings, gifts, or blessings that we wish to bear in mind as we fare forward.
The clerk then posed the following queries for Friends’ consideration with which we will begin at our next Meeting to Hear (and Perhaps Answer) God’s Call:
- What is the state of our religious society?
- What is our spiritual condition?
- What is God calling us to?
Monday Morning, August 9, 2010: Meeting for Worship to Hear God’s Call
15. Friends gathered Monday, August 9, 2010, at 9:15 a.m. to consider the state of our Religious Society, to hear and to answer God’s call. Friends welcomed visitor Theresa Kirby of the American Friends Service Committee. The clerk offered the following queries as we settled into worship:
- What is the state of our religious society?
- What is our spiritual condition?
- What is God calling us to?
16. We approved the following minute:
Arise, shine, we are bathed in the light, seeking, waiting for revelation. Friends give thanks to God for being with us for 350 years and bringing us to this place where we meet together. We too have been faithful. Young Friends have often shown the way. God has been with us. God was with us in George Fox’s time when thousands of Friends gathered in Newport, RI, and felt such love that they took two days to part with each other. God was with us when John Woolman brought his witness against slavery to New England Friends; and God waswith the slave-owning Friends who sat beside him in worship.God was with us through the schism in 1845, during the First and Second World Wars, and when the Wilburite and Gurneyite yearly meetings reunited.We give thanksfor those generations who came before us, in their faithfulness and unfaithfulness. God is with us now as we continue their rhythm, in faithfulness and unfaithfulness, in our openings and closings, and we are confident that thereis a love great enough to hold us all. If we are faithful God will be with us in continuing revelation.
We seek our right balance as individuals with leadings and as a corporate community which supports its members’ callings, and embraces and bears witness to our discerned conviction of what God calls us to do. How do we livethat balance? That balance and tension is exhilarating, challenging and filled with love. We are, in this Jubilee year, engaged in a process that for some isnot easy. Living afresh and anew our faith, we ask for God’s help and the connection among us that is the vital strength of our community.
Before we come to the place of grace, we may not be able to let go of our fear, but we may need to let go of those ways we hide ourselves from recognizing our fears: the illusion of financial security, the false security of self-righteousness, or the addiction to being liked and loved that keeps us from speaking truth. There is no safety but accepting God and releasing our substitutes. Then we might be free to be faithful. God calls, though our hearts be filled with our own concerns, God calls.
Among many things we may be called to do, we may stand up and work in our own ways to foster justice in the world. Grieving for the conflicts around the world, where is our corporate witness for peace? In this week are we called to convene a public witness in Washington, inviting all yearly meetings in the U.S.to a public demonstration against this war in Afghanistan and all wars?In our struggles to reach across differences, how shall we bring our truth to a world in fear? Have we asked forgiveness for the harms we have done, and have we forgiven those who have harmed us? Are we afraid to be washed free through God’s mercy and forgiveness? Are we being patient in discernment or are we just afraid to act? What are the ways that we, individually and corporately, may be hiding from our fears? If we can let go, forgive and be forgiven, then we will be prepared to be faithful.
Monday Evening, August 9, 2010
17. We welcomed Linda Coates, visiting for the Baltimore YM visitation committee.
18. The Clerk presented the YM treasurer’s report and proposed FY11 budget for a second time as a Unity Agenda item. Friends approved. We take note that some feel continued unease with the lack of information and analysis available, as recorded in minute 12.
19. We approved one final item of the Unity Agenda: the report and recommendation of the Permanent Board’s Clerks Nominating Committee. The committee recommends the following slate of clerks for 2011: Linda Jenkins, presiding clerk; Rebecca Leuchak and Brian Drayton, recording clerks; Greg Williams and Beth Bussiere Nichols, reading clerks. Friends approved.
20. We heard the minute of exercise from our Monday morning session, and continued our listening in the Spirit.
21. We approved the following minute as a record of our labors:
This morning, as we began our exploration, we began to see how we must be opened by living past our fears, and living in forgiveness, to grow into a prepared people. We were reassured by the felt presence of God’s love and strength, and accepted that God is present in our stumbling as well as our walking strongly.
This evening, we were led to see further. We were challenged in our exercise to recognize how deeply enculturated we are, and how the spiritual weaknesses and blindness of our culture are interwoven in many of our patterns of thought, even here in this beloved community. Our leadership is failing us by staying in well-worn ruts.
If we are to arise in the Light as we told ourselves this morning, and bear a witness in this world, we must take seriously the things we say about God the present teacher, leader, healer, and giver of power. Gifts of vision, of ministry and service are poured out among us, all around, for the upbuilding of the body. We need to accept them, and demand that they be exercised in fresh life. If we cultivate these gifts—nourishing, cherishing, pruning, guiding—we will all be fed, we will increasingly be able to take spirit-led action, and the bodywill discover its witness. If we do not nurture the multitude of gifts among us, and nurture also our ability to follow, our spirits and our community will starve away. To those who have, more will be given, but those who hold a treasure, and do not employ it, will have it taken away.
We are this evening mourning our shortcomings, but we know that God mourns with us. We know we are accompanied, and not yet abandoned by the Shepherd of Israel, who is working with light, joy, and mysterious power yet, and waiting for our embrace.
Tuesday Morning, August 10, 2010
22. We gave thanks for the work of God in the lives of 12 beloved Friends, in a morning session devoted to the memorial minutes forwarded by Permanent Board. We heard the memorial minutes for John Sutton Barlow, Arthur Howland Brinton, Gordon Mervin Browne, Eloise Houghton, William How, Heather Moir, Eleanor Butler Perry, Finley Perry, Ilse Ollendorff Reich, Katharine Wolcott Toll, Rosly Walter, and Jane Weaver Westover.
Wednesday Morning, August 11, 2010
23. We remembered with delight and gratitude the Jubilee journey and celebration in song and story, led for Friends of all ages Tuesday evening by Peter and Annie Blood-Patterson.
24. We heard the minute of exercise from our Monday evening session, and continued our listening in the Spirit.
25. We approved the following minute:
We have traveled together, circling over familiar territory, we have remembered our ancestors, and begun to feel each others’ pain, and despair. We have heard calls that we do know the way. We have begun to call the spirit into the world through each other and hold space for the spirit to come. While we have been struggling to love each other we hurt each other too. Our next steps are available to us and perhaps have been named already. Meeting for Wandering in the Desert.
Wednesday Evening, August 11, 2010
26. We heard the minute of exercise from our Wednesday morning session, and continued our listening in the Spirit.
27. We approved the following minute:
How we struggle and yearn in our human limits to arrive at the joyous moment of embarkation— he momentous launch to action we so long for! Here we are, Lord, wrestling with our so fallible desires for action, for setting the course! We struggle to meet that imperative to go forth! Many feel we are on a vessel that is not fully ready, prepared for a charted course. Grant us wisdom to relinquish our expectations, to hand over the helm and to wait for the spirit to lead. We are together for such a brief time, but can we wait? It’s time to go, to go forth. When we allow ourselves to look into the darkness of our times we cannot deny the outward evils that confront us—environmental disaster impending, wars, and social and economic collapse at many levels. We are all torn and oppressed by these evils, and long to bring both hope and help. And we are reminded that right before us in our neighborhoods and in our communities is the opportunity to speak truth to power, to work for justice, to tend to the needs of neighbors, to build the community we say we want. We need to wake up, open our eyes, to see and understand what is before us. We need God’s grace to acknowledge that there are openings and gifts present within our monthly meetings enough for every friend. We need the courage to work in our own homes and in our own communities, with and for our neighbors.
But our exercises have not only been in the Meetings to Hear God’s Call. Our work here has been accompanied by the work in the anchor groups where we have experienced support and expectations of accountability for our leadings. Many of us report the rich experience of group support and mutual seeking experienced in anchor groups. And many have made personal commitments to take back to their monthly meetings for seasoning.
Together, we may have come a long way, but we have still a long way to go on the path God has given us, instead of our stubborn, arrogant resistance to where God is leading us. We need to be holy. We need to wake up to openings for the ways we must let our lives speak. There is revelation; there is the peaceable kingdom but to get there we need to be cracked open. We have no doubt in our minds that You can do this in us. We yearn with our hearts that You will.
Thursday Morning, August 12, 2010
28. The meeting upheld the Young Adult Friends as they heard and approved their 2010 epistle.
29. We heard and approved the 2010 General Epistle.
30. We approved the following minute:
Sing and rejoice, ye children of the day and of the light; for the Lord is at work in this thick night of darkness that may be felt. And truth doth flourish as the rose, and the lilies do grow among the thorns, and the plants atop of the hills. And upon them the lambs do skip and play. And never heed the tempests nor the storms, floods nor rains, for in the seed Christ is over all, and doth reign. And so be of good faith and valiant for the truth.
George Fox 1663
the call to forgiveness;
the call to strengthen our ability to love and to build our community;
the call to name, cultivate, and exercise gifts of ministry, eldership, and leadership;
the call to undertake clear leadings for witness.
These priorities are reflected in our minutes of exercise, and we have returned to them repeatedly. They have emerged so clearly in our sessions that we direct Friends to bear these priorities in mind, and address them explicitly as they are doing their work at every level of our community. We cannot now dictate specific courses of action, but we ask all committees and meetings to seriously reflect on these priorities, starting within the next two months of 2010. We also encourage Friends to discover ways in which meetings and committees can help each other in this work.It may be that quarterly meetings and the Yearly Meeting can help constituent meetings, but it may also be that monthly meetings or committees can find ways to collaborate directly.
Furthermore, because we know that we have much work to do, and we are always tempted to avoid hard work, we desire to hold ourselves accountable.So we ask Friends, as they report to each other and to the Yearly Meeting, to speak in concrete terms about whether and how their work has taken account of each of these priorities. Clerks of meetings and committees at all levels must be responsible to ensure that Friends undertake this in a substantive fashion. But this call is laid on all of us.
During our sessions, the anchor groups have been deep in exploration, discernment, and community building. They have been working with concrete individual gifts and leadings, and begun to develop structures of accountability necessary for these to bear fruit. That work will encourage monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and committees within the Yearly Meeting to take up the work of supporting and eldering these leadings, holding each other accountable in love within our communities.
We note that we are not finished with the work of listening for God’s call, and for God’s guidance in preparation and faithful response. We have learned during our Jubilee years that there is no substitute for frequent extended times of worship, in groups of all sizes within and between meetings, and this is a lesson that we must not lose. Therefore, we encourage meetings and other groups to continue to create opportunities for such worship.
We are not discouraged that we have so much to do, and that so much of it is long overdue. We are not discouraged by the realization that this work will take time. It has begun, and we all, for the honor of Truth, are called to proclaim what we found during our jubilee exercises here in Smithfield, and in the months leading up to it, and be persistent, creative, and joyful in bringing the work home with us.
We would like to close by sharing some of the words of one of our anchor groups, which expresses much of our exercise, our hope, and our resolve, noting that we as a body cannot claim all these words as our own:
There is only one testimony, and it is the testimony to the transforming power of God. There is only one witness and it is the witness of the body of Christ.There are many pieces of work, which will require the particular gifts, ministries, and passions of all of us, because the desire of God for healing and redemption of this blessed creation requires profound change.
We refute the lies of the present situation: the lie that causes movements for transformation to see each other as competitors; the lie that says that social action is spiritually shallow and spirituality is socially passive; the lie that says that war and destruction are inevitable and efforts for change are hopeless; the lie that says we can’t change the world until we have perfected ourselves.
We declare that with God’s help, we stand ready to be agents of transformatory witness to God’s promise. We pray for the wisdom to perceive the patterns of thought and behavior within ourselves, which conform to the present darkness. We pray for the strength to take bold, prophetic and concrete action in the world. Some of that action will be local, some global, some individual, some corporate, some immediate, some long-term. For action which is rightly guided, we can trust that we have already the resources required for faithfulness. Use us Lord!
It is with pain and regret and gratitude for their faithfulness that we record that the following Friends wish to stand aside from this minute: Clifford Harrison, Allan Kohrman, Elizabeth Dyer, Connie Kinkaid-Brown, John Wilmerding, Jerry Carson.
31. We heard reports from the visitors to the youth yearly meetings. Friends enthusiastically recounted the joy and life in the young peoples’ sessions, and commended the skill and dedication of the youth staff.
32. Jonathan Vogel-Borne, YM Secretary, reported some statistics about this YM session. Although the number of attenders is down by comparison with last year (680 this year, last year 740), more Friends stayed full time, and this provided a consistency of attendance that was valuable to our seeking work.
33. We have become aware that Ralph Greene (China) is celebrating a personal jubilee, as 2010 is the 50th consecutive YM session which he has attended in whole or part. We are glad to celebrate this record of faithfulness, by giving him a gift of a large-print Bible. Are there similar stories of which we should hear? We thank God for everyone’s attendance as they are able, but at this moment are particularly aware of the blessings that our community receives from those who attend year after year.
34. Closing worship, with all ages gathered, included hearing and joining Jim Grace in singing the song he composed describing the 350-year history of NEYM:
(to the tune of American Pie), Jim Grace, 2010
A long, long time ago,
Friends can still remember how the Spirit came to these here shores.
Young George Fox heard a voice within him, saying there is one to speak to his condition.
And then his heart did leap for joy.
But Mary Fisher and Ann Austin walked cheerfully in Puritan Boston. To thank them for their trying, they were banished on pain of dying.
And William Leddra, and William Robinson, and Mary Dyer and Marmaduke Stevenson,
Were all hanged on Boston Common, as Friends can testify.
Chorus:
So mind, mind, mind the light that thou hast,
Not the preacher nor the steeple nor the book from the past. But gather in love and hold the Spirit so fast,
Asking “What is it now thou canst say? What is it now thou canst say?”
Did you read the book of Love, and do you have faith in God above? Did the Spirit tell you so?
Well, do you believe in Inner Light? Did Jesus tell you not to fight? And, can you teach me how Friends decide, real slow?
Well I know that you’re in unity when I see you sit so quietly. You might drop off to sleep, but I know that worship is deep.
Ooh, I was a young urban professional, and I’d seen my last confessional, But I knew I was impressional the day I came to Friends. I started singing:
(Chorus)
Did you hear the Newport news, what with George Fox sitting in the pews, And the Spirit of the Lord was over all?
Well, for three hundred and fifty years we’ve been meeting there and meeting here,
Always seeking to discern our corporate call.
But we’ve not always heard it clearly, and those enslaved have suffered dearly. As we discerned intensely, John Woolman helped immensely.
So slavery’s days have seen their ends, but did we fully make amends? And were those freed as fit for Friends? We still have work to do.
(Chorus)
“To scripture” cried the Gurneyite, as Wilburs followed Inner Light, A split was underway.
And when Eli and Sybil departed, a Friends school in Ramallah started. We were going global all the way.
But when independent meetings came and Rufus Jones had made his name, We found that reuniting was better far than fighting.
And though we were in unity, we still had much diversity, And when we talked theology, we had to find the way.
(Chorus)
To Jubilee we came this year, God’s quiet voice for us to hear, The Spirit over us to sway.
We needed to discover fear and do a different thing this year, Never easy when the Spirit has its day.
But as we sat in stillness there, community for us to bear,And not a word was spoken. The boundaries all were broken.
I can’t remember if I cried when that sense of separation died,
But something touched me deep inside, the day I found my guide. We were singing:
(Chorus)
35. The clerk closed this meeting for worship, noting that there be no further business before us at this time, sending us forth, to meet the sixth day of eighth month 2011, if not sooner, God willing.