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Saturday Evening, August 1, 2015
Following an opening worship, Jacqueline Stillwell, presiding clerk, welcomed us to the 355th annual session of New England Yearly Meeting Religious Society of Friends at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont. She introduced our theme, “Living into Covenant Community.” She began with a prayer of gratitude, “Dear God thank you for this time together, for sharing your abundant love, for the opportunity to step into it and be transformed,” and encouraged us to be faithful in living into our gifts and areas of discomfort.
2015-1 Jacqueline Stillwell introduced the rest of the clerks’ table: reading clerks Susan Davies (Vassalboro) and Andy Grannell (Portland), recording clerks Will Taber (Fresh Pond) and Rachel Walker Cogbill (Plainfield).
2015-2 The reading clerks called out the names of monthly meetings and worship groups by quarter, and we rejoiced as each group stood and waved. We were excited to welcome many newcomers. Throughout the week the following visitors were introduced and welcomed:
Joseph Andugu, Central YM, Kenya
Jennifer Bowman, Camden Friends MM, Philadelphia YM
Mary Foster Cadbury, Bulls Head-Oswego MM, New York YM
Rob Cox, University of Massachusetts
Laura Everett, Massachusetts Council of Churches
Sharon Frame, Resident Friend, FM at Cambridge; Gwynedd MM, Philadelphia YM
Elizabeth Melanie Gifford, Adelphi FM, Baltimore YM
Sallie Gordon, Fallsington FM, Philadelphia YM
Sylvia Graves, West Newton Friends, Western YM
Dale Graves, West Newton Friends, Western YM
Caroline Jones, Northeast London Area Meeting, Britain YM
Emma Condori Mamani, Bella Vista Friends Church, Chasquipampa MM, Santidad Amigos YM, Bolivia
Francis O’Hara, Central Fingerlakes FM, New York YM
Anita Paul, Schenectady MM, New York
Kirenia Criado Perez, Havana MM, Cuba YM
Anne Pomeroy, New Paltz MM, New York YM
Emily Provance, 15th Street MM, New York YM
Gretta Stone, Doylestown MM, Philadelphia YM; attending Plainfield (VT) MM
Peterson Toscano, Pennsdale FM, Philadelphia YM
Elizabeth Yeats, FM of Austin, South Central YM
Organizational Representatives:
José Aguto, FCNL
Beverly Archibald, FUM General Board, Manhattan FM, New York YM
Christine C. Greenland, Tract Association of Friends
Dustin Lemke, FGC, Tampa FM, Southeastern YM
Julia Neumann, FCNL
Richelle Ogle, AFSC
Gloria Thompson, FWCC Section of the Americas, Northeast Region coordinator; Manhattan FM, New York YM
Martha Yager, AFSC North East Region, Weare MM, NEYM
2015-3 The clerk invited us to reflect on changes over the past year, to see what we are growing into, and to shift and let go so others can grow into new spaces, too.
2015-4 John Humphries (Hartford), Sessions Committee clerk, gave an overview of the coming week, glad that we can be a second time at the same place. The Sessions Committee prepared our theme, “Living into Covenant Community.” Each year there are new events; this year’s changes include the Memorial Minutes in a special worship session, coffee house on Tuesday evening as a time for the whole community to gather, a return to a contradance, and a new focus on the Campus Center as a gathering place. The website neym.org/sessions is serving as a source for the latest and greatest news about Sessions.
2015-5 Noah Baker Merrill (Putney), Yearly Meeting Secretary, announced how one aspect of Sessions as a covenant community is sharing our gifts with each other by having an on-call support team for medical, pastoral and emotional needs. The back of our nametags has contact information for the on-call support team. This includes support for those who have experienced abuse, as that topic will come up with one memorial minute. Jean McCandless (Burlington) and Carolyn Stone (Wellesley) are offering a workshop for child safety in Meetings. Noah quoted Marge Piercy: “I love people who harness themselves to a heavy cart, who strain in the mud and muck to do what has to be done, who submerge themselves in the task.” Our Yearly Meeting is blessed with such people in our year-round staff.
2015-6 Noah welcomed the Gender Inclusivity Working Group, all of whom shared their preferred pronouns. Clark Reddy (Beacon Hill) introduced the work of the group: to embrace the invitation to live into a covenant community by welcoming people of all genders and no gender, which translates at this Sessions into a focus on bathroom needs, nametags with options for preferred pronouns, training on gender and language, maps of the gender-free bathrooms, listening sessions Sunday on gender, a workshop on Monday afternoon, and gender elders as a resource, wearing pins that say “Hey, you can talk to me about gender.” We were asked not to put people on the spot with questions, but to seek someone with a resource button. We were invited to pick up a gender information sheet for more information.
2015-7 Kimberly Walker-Gonzalez (Northampton), Childcare coordinator; Betty Ann Lee (Westport), Junior Yearly Meeting coordinator; Gretchen Baker-Smith (Westport), Junior High Yearly Meeting coordinator; and NiaDwynwen Thomas (Beacon Hill), Young Friends coordinator, introduced their staff for Sessions, and each age group paraded away to begin the week’s adventures as the body sang Spirit, We Adore You. Parents are welcome to visit the programs.
2015-8 The clerk explained that we will be appointing adults to visit our constituent youth yearly meetings, with two adults needed for each age group: 0–4-year-olds, kindergarten and 1st grade, 2nd through 4th grade, 5th and 6th graders, Junior High Yearly Meeting, Young Friends and Young Adult Friends. Sign-ups were posted in the foyer. Friends confirmed for these visitations may visit together or individually. They will collaboratively prepare a two-minute report for Thursday business meeting.
2015-9 The clerk noted upcoming homework in the Advance Documents and explained our process for reading back minutes as we proceed through each session. Please hold all of us, and especially the clerks’ table, in worship as minutes are prepared.
2015-10 After a moment of worship and approval of minutes, we adjourned to our anchor groups.
Sunday Morning, August 2, 2015
2015-11 Ministry and Counsel introduced our inter-generational worship. Kevin Lee (Westport), pastoral counselor, explained how, when we experience the loss of a person or pet, our memories are clear at first but grow fuzzy with time. Friends use memorial minutes to help us remember members of our community who have passed. He invited young people to share the names of people and pets that they have lost. Memorial minutes of three Friends were shared.
Kirenia Criado Perez (Havana Friends Church, Cuba YM) delivered a sermon from the parable of the sower in the synoptic gospels. She asked us: What are we sowing? Are they the seeds of instinct or the seeds of the Spirit? Is the soil prepared to accept and nourish God’s seeds? We are the seeds that God is sowing and we are also invited to be the sowers.
Sunday Afternoon, August 2, 2015
2015-12 Brian Drayton (Souhegan) introduced a panel who shared their experiences of covenant community. In the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, there was a small fish called the babelfish that could be put into one’s ear; the fish could hear an unfamiliar language and implant the meaning directly into the person’s brain. Charity is a theological babelfish that allows us to hear with love what people are saying, even when they use unfamiliar or challenging language.
Brian said that covenant is a formal commitment to a relationship in which God is a partner. The details of the covenant are worked out in the living of it. There are a number of covenants in the Bible, but the underlying one is “You shall be my people and I will be your God.” It must be so embodied in us that it is revealed in our actions, deeds and words.
Margaret Hawthorn (Monadnock) told how she first came to Friends in 1964 and found that the people she met there were the people that she wanted to be. She found that she was entering into a covenant of mutual support that included early Friends who inspired her and current Friends who supported her in difficulties and transformations. She spoke of how reading the words on her marriage certificate helped her as she struggled in difficult times in her marriage. The day after her daughter was murdered in 2010, she issued a statement that said, in part, “We will not turn to hatred.” This was partly out of self-preservation, because if she turned to hatred she could end up in a place from which she could not return. Before the sentencing hearing for the man who murdered her daughter, her meeting held a meeting for worship in the courthouse. They had a minute in which they promised to pray for this man that he might find peace in his heart. She and members of the meeting signed it, as did the judge and the prosecutor and members of the man’s family. Signing it reminded her of when she signed her wedding certificate. She finds now that when she speaks, it is her voice and it is also the voice of Quaker covenant.
In 2001, Gina Nortonsmith (Northampton) and Heidi Nortonsmith (Northampton), with others, sued the state of Massachusetts to have the legal right to marry. They knew that Northampton Meeting would support them. The suit attracted local, national and international attention. Their Quaker background helped them in responding to both their well-wishers and those opposed to them. Living under scrutiny was difficult because it meant that they had to be “on” all the time. The meeting provided a safe space that allowed them to be real. It was a place where they could speak of their own doubts and questions and drop the public facade they had to present. Their lawyers once requested that they stand in a small counter-demonstration outside a meeting organized by the Catholic bishop to oppose their suit. It was a bitterly cold January day when they mentioned at Northampton Meeting that they would be doing this that afternoon and 20 people spontaneously joined them. In spite of the support from their monthly meeting, they felt that often they were invisible to NEYM, even as the Yearly Meeting was wrestling with issues with Friends United Meeting regarding gay, lesbian and transgendered people. In part this was because they had difficulty knowing how to raise the issue. Looking back, they wish that they had had a travel minute from their monthly meeting or another formal process to bring their work to the Yearly Meeting. It is hard to remain in a community where your humanity is not recognized.
Callid Keefe-Perry (Fresh Pond) was attracted to Friends while he lived in Rochester, NY. He found himself among a people who took seriously things that were important to him. While attending a meeting retreat, some traveling ministers told him they felt he was stewarding spiritual gifts. When he asked them what was meant they said, “We are naming what we can see. It is like saying that you have two arms. We thought you should know.” He asked other people in the meeting what this meant and they did not know either, but they were willing to work with him to figure it out. Eventually the meeting came to adopt a travel minute for him that was endorsed by the quarterly and yearly meetings, yet there were still some Friends in the meeting who had questions: “We do not do this. Why bother? What makes you so special?” The Friends with questions felt unheard. If we disregard the voice of the uncomfortable we have failed. Fortunately failure is a process and not an achievement and we can work to overcome it. Our communities are what they are now and what they will become. God casts seed extravagantly on ground far beyond where we think it could possibly grow. That is the covenant to which we are called.
Sunday Evening, August 2, 2015
2015-13 We opened in worship, hearing an excerpt from the epistle from the 2015 annual meeting of the the Europe and Middle East Section of Friends World Committee for Consultation.
2015-14 We welcomed visitors and heard a letter of introduction for Mary Foster Cadbury from Bulls Head-Oswego Monthly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting.
2015-15 We reviewed the procedures for speaking in business meeting, hearing the ten advices on corporate discernment from our 2014 Interim Faith and Practice.
2015-16 The Unity Agenda was introduced in preparation for approval later this week. The nominating committee slate will not be a part of the Unity Agenda. The clerk announced a modification to the bank minutes to add the name of our proposed new treasurer where appropriate.
2015-17 The presiding clerk commented that there is much Life throughout our Yearly Meeting at the individual, monthly and quarterly meeting levels. In this Life, the power of climate change ministry is evident throughout the Yearly Meeting. She introduced a panel of Friends who presented examples of ministry and witness on climate change.
Emily Newman (Fresh Pond), member of the Young Adult Friends Working Party on Climate Change and convener of the panelists, shared the two queries she posed to the panelists: What does it mean to be a Quaker and do climate work? How do we bring our faith into that work? She started with a story, sharing a day in the life of the Pipeline Pilgrimage when the group, discouraged with a looming hill at mile 17, was greeted with snacks and water, and how she appreciated signs that said “thank you.” Daily morning worship expanded to also include walking worship, and the impact of it grew into a journey of faith. It broke her open. The group found the strength of “ten grinches plus two,” to quote Dr. Seuss.
Brian Drayton has been involved with climate education for almost 30 years. As urgency and fear grew, he felt action was essential to his spiritual health, and that others were engaged in the same struggle to deal with the emotional and spiritual challenges of climate change. Even hardened professional educators asked for spiritual help and he found that Quakerism offers resources for dealing with climate change and the paralysis that comes with this task. Wait for light to arise, act on it however small, be prepared for discomfort, tell each other stories and reach outside our comfort zones to meet others.
Elizabeth Claggett-Borne (Cambridge) traveled from political despair to making a Quaker witness. She learned to open her eyes and be ready. When running she saw a sign quoting scripture: “The tree of life is planted on both sides of the river, and the leaves of the tree are for healing all nations.” She found she needed to do internal work before outward action. She held protesters in prayer publicly and walked for change. She found community and acting out of joy to be key.
Alan Eccleston (Mt. Toby) illustrated the disproportionate use of energy by our country. We do not need to wait for the government to do what is right. With the support of his meeting he started a voluntary carbon tax along with seven others, and it helped him feel that this was his covenant community. Six other meetings are now doing this and have distributed many dollars. Other congregations are now starting to follow this example. He urged us to look at the Connecticut Valley Quarter minute on climate change and its queries.
Our presiding clerk closed with appreciation for hearing the stories of these friends. She encouraged us to talk with each other about our ministry and witness, and to find the Christ within us who acts.
2015-18 The clerk introduced her practice for discerning which quarterly meeting minutes are brought forward to Yearly Meeting Sessions. Some minutes that ask for very specific action and are grounded in a widespread Yearly Meeting concern that is previously documented are brought directly to Sessions. Other minutes are forwarded for wide circulation and discernment among the monthly and quarterly meetings before coming to the Yearly Meeting for action.
2015-19 Five quarterly meeting clerks shared reflections on the States of Society in their quarters. Some shared information about the minutes they have forwarded to other quarters for consideration, in anticipation of future action by the Yearly Meeting. The minutes are available with the Advance Documents at neym.org.
The reading clerks read a report from Kathryn Olsen (Yarmouth) about Sandwich Quarterly Meeting. Is the quarter vibrant? Restorative justice and fun days may provide an avenue here.
Jay Smith (Concord) reported for Dover Quarterly Meeting that one part of its life is in the All New Hampshire Gathering. They have worked to support one small meeting, and laid down a worship group. The clerk is exploring with monthly meetings how a renewed Quarterly Meeting Ministry and Counsel could help some small meetings with no Ministry and Counsel of their own.
Connie Kincaid Brown (Hanover) presented the minutes that Northwest Quarterly Meeting has forwarded to Yearly Meeting. These include: Gun Safety; Campaign Finance Reform and Constitutional Rights of People, not Corporations; Climate Change; Israel and Palestine; and Supporting Boycott and Divestment of Products Supporting Continued Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territory. The Quarter is also working on the Doctrine of Discovery. They have experimented with restructuring their committees and procedures. They have moved monies to different concerns including religious education, an emergency loan fund, and to support Palestine. They also have an annual intergenerational retreat.
Pat Wallace (New Haven) shared how moving it was for them to get responses to Connecticut Valley Quarter’s Climate Minute, sent around to other quarterly meetings in 2014. The Quarter has also taken a public position against the proposed pipeline that would cross Woolman Hill property. Naming actions and being joyful and creative about them leads to vitality. Many other concerns are rising. The Quarter is also looking for ways to work with Friends Committee on National Legislation. They are glad that their concern on climate change has been heard and hope that the Yearly Meeting will act on it.
Salem Quarterly Meeting was presented by clerk James Gray (Framingham). They are missing the vibrancy of families and children and the meetings are getting older. How can the structures support all Friends, deepen our faith and build our communities? Working as individuals and together there are programs within the Quarter that can issue grants, provide Quaker education, share local minutes, support a youth group, and more. It is harder to find Friends to serve within the Quarter.
2015-20 Jan Hoffman (Mt. Toby), clerk of the Faith and Practice Revision Committee, spoke as the corporate voice of the committee. She announced that there is now a large-print version of the Interim Faith and Practice with a study guide, and there will soon be an e-book edition. The many surplus copies of the 1985 Faith and Practice are available for free in the bookstore. After joyfully and faithfully clerking this committee for 14 years, Jan will be taking a sabbatical from this work. Her sense is that the committee is strong and centered and will move forward ably during her sabbatical.
The committee was led this year to focus again on the organization chapter (after having started with this in 2005). They offered a minute of exercise describing the new light they had this year on how to approach this chapter. They found they couldn’t describe the meaning and purpose of our structures without coming to grips with the central role that ministry and counsel plays in nurturing the spiritual lifeblood of our meetings. Jan Hoffman then read excerpts from the introduction to the Queries for Ministry and Counsel offered by the committee. Meetings were asked to engage with this section and give responses to the committee.
Jan then read the general query: “How is our reluctance to acknowledge spiritual authority, to accept guidance, and to submit to the discipline of our meetings retarding our growth as a Society?” We held this question during our closing worship.
Monday Morning, August 3, 2015
2015-21 The reading clerk read from the 2014 Epistle of Aotearoa/New Zealand Yearly Meeting. Their gifted Maori name means “the faith community which stands shaking in the spirit.” Growing points appear not only at the tip of a plant but also along the stem and branch and root. How can we make our testimonies of integrity, simplicity and sustainability real and visible within our society and in the wider world?
2015-22 Noah Baker Merrill reported that Kevin and Betty Ann Lee have returned home and are seeing Kevin’s doctor about complications subsequent to his cataract surgery. The situation is not an emergency but is critical. Friends are asked to pray for them and to hold in love and prayer the Junior Yearly Meeting staff as they adjust to the Lees’ departure.
2015-23 Janet Hough (Cobscook), co-clerk of Ministry and Counsel of Vassalboro Quarter, presented the report from Vassalboro Quarter. The Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting is currently functioning without a presiding clerk; the life is being carried forward by Quarterly Meeting Ministry and Counsel. Janet presented background for a minute of concern passed by the Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting, urging support for efforts to save the lives of Ugandan gay and lesbian people who are being persecuted by the Ugandan government. The Quarter came to clarity to actively support the work of Olympia Monthly Meeting, Washington State, in their efforts to provide safe transport for persecuted gays and lesbians. Diane Dicranian (Winthrop Center) read the Vassalboro QM minute:
Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting holds a deep concern over the Ugandan Government’s continued targeting of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) population in Uganda. The Ugandan government has created a climate where the life, freedom, and human dignity of all LGBT Ugandans, and those who support and assist them, are at immediate risk. We are distressed by the plight of LGBT citizens who have been forced to leave their homes, denied basic rights, been beaten, imprisoned or killed, and who live in constant fear of further reprisals. We abhor and are appalled by the violent, unjust, and inhumane actions of the Ugandan government as it terrorizes its own citizens.
Washington State’s Olympia Monthly Meeting has created a “Friends New Underground Railroad” (FNUR) to aid LGBT Ugandans and their allies who are fleeing their homeland for their lives and safety. The purpose of the FNUR initiative is to financially support Ugandans helping to save Ugandans.
We ask that New England Yearly Meeting Friends, both individually and through their monthly meetings, learn more about the plight of LGBT Ugandan’s by visiting the Olympia Meeting’s site http://friendsnewundergroundrailroad.org.
The website contains background information and reports on current activities. We also ask that individuals and monthly meetings prayerfully consider if they are led to financially support the work of the Olympia Monthly Meeting and the FNUR and to take action in accordance with their leading.
NOTE: In May 2015, Olympia Friends changed the name to the “Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund.” The old FNUR web address now links to a new website, http://friendsugandansafetransport.org/.
2015-24 Friends appointed the visitors to the other gatherings which comprise NEYM.
2015-25 The clerk asked for names of people who are unable to attend our Sessions so that we may prepare and send cards of greeting to them. As we heard the names spoken, we sensed their spirit among us.
2015-26 Noah Baker Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, reported on his work. He began with a passage from our history. We hear of a great people to be gathered. Are we ready? How do we know that God speaks to us? If we want to be relevant to our times we must be able to answer these questions. We need to be possessors of the Truth and not just professors. Who will bring in the harvest? It is up to each of us. Only by our actions can we make love visible. This message was from the minutes of NEYM 1968.
Noah brought out a rope. He has been thinking about mountain climbing, and how it relates to the work of the Yearly Meeting. Sometimes it seems that there is no way forward and no way back. It is important, when we have made progress, to drive a spike in a sure spot to hold us when we fall later on, because we will fall. But when we fall, we fall into the hands of a living God. We have a wonderful and terrifying opportunity to hammer in a new spike during our Sessions this year. How can we liberate the spirit to work among Friends in New England?
2015-27 Suzanna Schell (Beacon Hill) reported for the Legacy Gift Committee. The committee was charged in 2014 to develop a vision and guidelines and report back to 2015 Sessions.
We approved the following vision and purpose:
Guided by our living testimonies, we seek to strengthen our Witness through the funding of public and released ministry, beginning with attention to Racism and Climate Change and understanding that this is a starting point and concerns beyond these may also be funded. We seek to nurture our beloved community through the support of education, outreach, released ministry and meetinghouse projects. The Legacy Funds will serve as potent seeds to help Friends answer God’s call in our time and to strengthen the new life that is already rising up in our Yearly Meeting.
2015-28 The Legacy Gift Committee recommended renaming Legacy Fund A as the “NEYM Fund for Released Ministry” and that Legacy Fund B be renamed the “NEYM Future Fund.” Given the experience of the Yearly Meeting in administering loans, the Legacy Gift committee recommends that all disbursements be in the form of grants. The Legacy Committee will begin to disburse the NEYM Future Fund and continue over the next three years or until the funds are exhausted. Both of these funds are expected to support the work of the Yearly Meeting at all levels.
Friends approved these recommendations of the Legacy Gift committee.
2015-29 Holly Baldwin (Fresh Pond), clerk of Permanent Board, introduced Sarah Gant (Beacon Hill), the incoming clerk of Permanent Board. Holly reported on the work of the Permanent Board. A lot of the business that we do in Sessions comes to us through the ongoing work of Permanent Board.
2015-30 Rebecca Leuchak (Providence) reported on the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Student Loan Fund. NEYM has had a student loan fund for 125 years, but this has ceased to work as it was originally intended. After extensive consultation, the Ad Hoc committee heard that a grant program would be useful. They also heard that a maximum grant of $2,000 would be useful to recipients. They recommend that the NEYM Student Loan Committee and the funds be repurposed.
Friends approved the following recommendations:
We propose that the funds remaining from the Student Loan Program be used for grants to students seeking post-secondary educational/training advancement who are either: 1) members of monthly meetings within NEYM, 2) children of members of the meetings within NEYM, or 3) persons who have been active in the life of a meeting within NEYM or the programs of our Yearly Meeting. The total amount of award money available in the first year of the program will be $30,000, and the same amount of $30,000 will be available in the second year, with any remaining funds to roll over to a subsequent year. This schedule will continue until all funds are paid out. Individual grants will be awarded up to a maximum of $2,000 each, unless the remaining available funds are insufficient to provide that amount to all successful applicants. In that event, the available funds will be divided equally among the successful applicants. The fund will be spent out over a period of several years.
The grant program will be administered by a subcommittee of Permanent Board composed of three to five members.
We propose that the stipulations of the old loan program be continued in total. Permanent Board will oversee the repayment of loans and relationship with borrowers. Accrual of interest in existing loans will be discontinued. In the case where repayments of loans under the old program are entered into the bank account after the grant program is ended, this money shall be transferred to the General Operating Fund of NEYM.
2015-31 Friends approved laying down the Student Loan Committee.
Part of the difficulty in laying down this work resulted from the restrictions on the original gifts. Friends were encouraged, if they are able to leave legacies to the Yearly Meeting, to leave them unencumbered and trust to the discernment of the body in future years.
2015-32 Lisa Graustein (Beacon Hill) reported for the Structural Review Committee. Friends accepted the following report of the committee and asked Permanent Board to continue the work in this area:
1) Monthly meetings are the heart of Quakerism in New England. While we have several programs for supporting monthly meetings, we need to invest more resources—staff time, funds, training, materials, etc.—in our meetings. Different monthly meetings have different needs and a larger, stronger, better-staffed system of support will allow all our meetings to grow and thrive. We need to prioritize providing resources to monthly meetings and significantly increase staff support to monthly meetings.
2) Nominating Committee has been overwhelmed with the task of finding members to serve on our 26 committees and often falls into filling slots instead of having the time and resources to seek out and lift up gifts. We are exploring the idea of grouping committees with similar charges into clusters, allowing us to provide specific training, support, and move some work into shorter-term working groups. This will create a more functional workflow, foster collaboration, and allow for different levels of commitment and engagement, making committee service more accessible and dynamic. We need to release Nominating Committee from filling slots and instead focus their work on raising up gifts and leadership for committees, including naming clerks and recording clerks.
3) We heard that August Sessions are not logistically possible for many Friends with seasonal jobs and that many Friends yearn for more connection throughout NEYM. We propose the addition of two more NEYM-wide gatherings of Friends during the year and an increase of support for quarterly meeting programing and gatherings. These could be a time for worship, spiritual nurture, exploration of issues salient to Friends and community building. The logistics and resources required in organizing such gatherings are significant and it will take time to fully develop these additional gatherings.
Finally, it was clear from what we heard that how we act towards each other has an equally profound impact on the life and health of NEYM as our structure does. We can make all the structural changes we want, but if we do not pay attention to how we interact—how we welcome newcomers, help younger Friends make the transition into adulthood, communicate with each other, etc.—our structural changes will not have much impact. Although these observations about our culture are outside the scope of our charge, they emerged as an important part of our work to share with the Yearly Meeting.
2015-33 Friends closed the session with worship.
Monday Evening, August 3, 2015
2015-34 We opened in worship hearing the 2015 epistle from Central and Southern Africa Yearly Meeting, which in addition to noting the blessings of the earth near Johannesburg, spoke of the yearly meeting undergoing a spring cleaning, a spring cleaning that fit them to a new 21st-century world with a fruitful, revitalized nominations process, created fresh procedures which do not waste energy, and kept only necessary yearly meeting offices. Local meetings then could provide a rich crop of potential names for these few offices.
2015-35 Marian Baker (Weare) introduced a panel on creating gospel order, including people who represent us to other groups and some who have travel minutes.
Greg Williams (Beacon Hill) shared his ministry on racism. He recommends the book Between the World and Me. To quote, “Very few Americans will directly proclaim that they are in favor of black people being on the street, but a great number of Americans will work hard to preserve this dream.” It is not his dream as a person of color, nor should it be ours as Quakers. We have never had a real discussion on racism at NEYM. We have come close, but not close enough. Greg shared that he was annoyed. Racism drains spiritual energy. We don’t hear the positive. Our job is to make the peace testimony live. We need to go out and live what we believe. If we speak out on critical issues that need to be heard, it might help us have more people of color be here. We need to stand for Truth, although it may hurt at times. If we stand as a community we can support each other through the hurt.
Nancy Shippen (Fresh Pond), our representative to the Friends Peace Teams Council, asked for a moment of reflection on this, the one-year anniversary of the ISIS invasion of Sinjar, Iraq, resulting in many deaths and a flood of refugees. Nancy came to Friends Peace Teams through her work in the Alternatives to Violence Project, which she considers Friends’ best gift to the world since the Peace Testimony. She asked the many facilitators of AVP present to stand and be recognized for their service. She described the structure of Friends Peace Teams whose council supports three initiatives: the African Great Lakes Initiative, Peacebuilding en Las Americas, and the Asia West Pacific Initiative. Nancy currently serves as the assistant clerk of the Friends Peace Teams Council. She invited all to learn about this powerful work through available reading material, an interest group, and contacting her about ways monthly meetings can become involved.
Kaj Telenar (Wellesley), NEYM representative to Friends Committee on National Legislation, told us FCNL is our voice on Capitol Hill and it has been around since 1943. It is the largest religious lobby in the country, and has many interns. One program taps the energy and wisdom of Friends around the country. Anyone can be trained in their workshops to learn how to better lobby our representatives. The Peaceful Building Program tries to teach people how to prevent wars, something rather surprising to some of the politicians at first. We were asked to follow up on the FCNL action alerts.
Susan Furry (Northampton and Smithfield) told us New England Yearly Meeting has been blessed with an elder, Bruce Kay, who read her travel minute: “to travel among Cuban Friends in God’s love in order to better understand their lives, to learn from them and to be obedient to the leadings of Truth which may arise.” She has been going there since 1990, when she was in one of the first groups to go. The Cubans see her as a minister, and she preaches, teaches Sunday school, visits, listens and prays. She needs to be ready when she is asked to speak. God gives her the words.
Susan asked Kirenia Criado Perez (Havana, Cuba YM) to share the NEYM ministry to Cuba from a Cuban perspective. “The reason why we Cubans want to come is because it is exciting and we have had an exchange going for many years. The Puente de Amigos has never had an embargo. You cannot embargo the Spirit. So many friends have come to Cuba; it is a culture of peace, a bridge. The readiness of the ministers you have sent us has always been to become a part of our church, not to export who you are. I come to be a living letter of recommendation for the ministers you have sent here.”
Rachel Carey-Harper (Barnstable) spoke for the Minute 52 Working Party on a Journey of Healing, part of the Racial and Social Justice Committee. In 2013 New England Yearly Meeting passed Minute 52 to begin taking action to heal the wounds with the indigenous people. Rachel read a quote from Eleanor Godway (Hartford), one of the many workshop participants in this journey of healing program:
As New England Yearly Meeting started to confront the Doctrine of Discovery, I felt overwhelmed. How can we ever think clearly about these evils with which we have been complicit for so long—from which we still benefit? Even as the mindset which holds them in place threatens to destroy the earth itself. … In particular, as an Englishwoman, I also inherit, like it or not, the burden of the British legacy of imperialism and xenophobia and racism. But the Journey of Healing, the assigned readings and, especially, the workshops, have started to speak to this condition. The possibility of coming into right relationship with the people who have been living here since before the Europeans came, and, under their influence, with the earth itself, implies the healing of a woundedness which most of us have always carried inside, but which has been almost impossible to face. Is it true that evil can be overcome with good? I begin to think so. I feel privileged, awed even, experiencing the honesty and generosity of the Indigenous leaders, their unflinching naming of evil, and their steadfast looking forward, not back.
The success of the workshops depends on trust: in ourselves—we need all the courage we can muster; in the leaders as we let ourselves become vulnerable; the Native American leaders come to be with us, not to ask for a “handout,” nor a “hand up,” but to offer a handshake. And they trust us enough that we won’t hide behind defensiveness and guilt, so that we can see they are reaching out their hands. The exercises are scary and hard-hitting as we are pushed to question taken-for-granted assumptions and examine what our values really are, as well as confront deeply disturbing facts (such as the complicity of Quakers in the development of the policies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the legacy of the Penns). But the movement towards Truth feels like a release, a scraping away of accumulated deadness, painful but salutary, definitely a journey towards healing of the broken human community. I come away shaken, with tears in my eyes, and hope. I know this is a true leading, and am so grateful to those who are showing us the way.
2015-36 Sara Smith (Concord), clerk of the Development Committee, thanked us for how we have changed our giving behavior. Friends gave more individually, $134,764 in fiscal year 2014. Giving monthly makes a difference. The $44,000 still needed for this fiscal year was illustrated by a human bar graph. Some Friends have offered a challenge gift to match funds up to $10,000 for gifts from the people who have never given or who give more by September 30, 2015. A generous spirit is a blessing.
2015-37 Holly Baldwin, clerk of Permanent Board, introduced the Long Term Financial Planning Committee. Christopher Gant (Beacon Hill), clerk of the committee, shared their progress. The committee introduced themselves and their meetings and affiliations, showing broad representation from across the Yearly Meeting. One came to the process with joy, saying the financial crisis is a gift; the need, when paired with our large reserves, lets Friends think more broadly about the Yearly Meeting as a whole. Another added that people don’t fund an unmet need. They fund a plan to meet the need; therefore we need a plan. The Finance Committee wanted to see more numbers, said another. We need to know what fruits we need to harvest and what monies are needed to help that harvest. Others added we can’t make plans for a spiritual life unless the dollars are linked to the movement of the Spirit.
This past winter the committee asked Permanent Board to expand the charge of the committee. Statements of priorities for the Yearly Meeting were collected with gratitude from previous minutes, staff planning reports, long-range reports and other documents over the years. The committee named and grouped priorities. We heard their proposed core purpose and key priorities. We will continue our discernment later in the week.
2015-38 We closed in worship.
Tuesday Morning, August 4, 2015
2015-39 The reading clerk read the epistle from New York Yearly Meeting 2015. They felt ease and unity after years of work. They we re challenged to live from their spiritual core and become again Publishers of Truth. From their experience of worship arose the recognition of the injustices caused by racism and white privilege. They are coming under a concern to work against mass incarceration and extended use of solitary confinement. They sent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to repudiate the Doctrine of Christian Discovery.
2015-40 We heard the travel minute for Dale Graves, from West Newton Friends Church, Western Yearly Meeting, who is traveling with a concern for the work of Friends United Meeting in Belize.
2015-41 We heard reflections from our Yearly Meeting staff.
Nathaniel Shed (Vassalboro), Director of Friends Camp, spoke of what brings him joy. In February, the things that brought him joy were, “Did I hire the right staff? Will there be enough campers to make the budget? Will I complete this report in time?” But what gives him greater joy now is seeing plans drawn on the back of a napkin coming to fruition and seeing the growth in campers and counselors over time.
Beth Collea (Wellesley), Religious Education and Outreach Coordinator, said that the New England Quaker Outreach Pilot Project is under way. The meetings in the pilot are Concord (NH), Westport (MA) and Fresh Pond (MA). Inreach and outreach are always connected. They are starting to see blank spots such as a lack of adult education materials. Outreach efforts are springing up in many places. Yarmouth reached out to children to teach about peace during school vacation week. Every moment can be a moment for Quaker outreach. Be bold in our faith.
Gretchen Baker-Smith (Westport), Junior Yearly Meeting/Junior High Yearly Meeting Coordinator, reflected that when we announced the theme “Living into Covenant Community,” she thought we could just call it JYM or JHYM. She told the story of a child who first came to a JYM retreat with extreme anxiety and how over the years his courage, along with the love and support of the children and staff, allowed him to grow and thrive.
Sara Hubner (Gonic), Office Manager, shared that it is hard to think of working with a database and sending emails as ministry, but there is a fine line between ministry and caring for one another in practical ways. She feels fortunate to be able to be working with and among people whom she loves.
Jeff Hipp (Souhegan), Communications Technology Coordinator, said that his transition to his new role has been one of listening and testing and having the community test and support him. He is thrilled to be able to do the work, and to know that he is more replaceable because the job description is less crazy. The work is not about him, but is about being faithful, and having what we need to be faithful to the ministries we are called to.
The clerk thanked all our staff for their continued work on our behalf, including staff members NiaDwynwen Thomas, Frederick Martin, Kathleen Wooten and Noah Baker Merrill, who did not offer reflections at this time.
2015-42 Laura Everett, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, told us that other churches are struggling with the same issues that we are. She reminded us that Friends have gifts to share with other denominations, who need us to be the best Quakers we can be. We all need each other.
2015-43 Dorothy Grannell (Portland), clerk of the NEYM Friends World Committee for Consultation Committee, introduced three of our representatives to Friends United Meeting, Friends General Conference and FWCC. Our representatives to these organizations are also those organizations’ representatives to us. Ann Dodd-Collins (Winthrop Center) asked a series of questions to test our knowledge of the three organizations.
At the NEYM Treasurer’s request, the representatives came together this year to discuss the formula that we have used to allocate funds between these organizations. These organizations are far different than they were in 1982. The old formula was based on the relative size of the budgets of each organization. Our contributions now do not reflect the relative needs of each organization or the value of each organization to us. The representatives came to the conclusion that we should divide the amount equally between the three organizations because each of these provide value to us and sustain us.
Ann Dodd-Collins reported on the many initiatives of Friends United Meeting (FUM). FUM provides a weekly Quaker devotional reading. It also publishes Quaker Life. North American Ministries is exploring having regional gatherings. Ramallah Friends School was founded by NEYM; we transferred responsibility to FUM when we could no longer support it ourselves. Is it possible that our struggle with the FUM personnel policy has resulted, not in the result we would look for, but in something good, such as our working group on sexuality and sexual ethics?
David Haines (Wellesley) spoke of the work of Friends General Conference. The FGC bookstore has moved to Pendle Hill. FGC has supported Quaker Quest, Spiritual Deepening, and Godly Play. Many Friends in New England participate in FGC Central Committee and are active in the FGC Gathering each summer. The theme for next year’s gathering is “Be Humble, Be Faithful, Be Bold.”
Dorothy Grannell spoke of the work of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). The International Representatives meeting will now be held every four years. This year it will be in Peru. FWCC supports a traveling ministries program of intervisitation. The Wider Quaker Fellowship is being incorporated more directly into FWCC. They will be continuing to publish pamphlets and other material online, in English and in Spanish.
2015-44 New England Yearly Meeting acknowledges the incredible value of Friends General Conference (FGC), Friends United Meeting (FUM), and Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) and the spiritual resources and opportunities they offer NEYM, its quarterly meetings and its monthly meetings. The connections between these organizations and NEYM enable the Spirit to work more fully within our communities, thereby enriching the Yearly Meeting.
Since the formula governing our contributions to these organizations was created in 1982, the focus and work of each of the organizations has changed dramatically. Each one provides unique and necessary programs and services to the Religious Society of Friends. This realization leads us to the following recommendation for a change the manner in which the NEYM contributions to FGC, FUM and FWCC are allocated, beginning with the FY 2016 budget.
Friends approved the following minute:
This recommendation should be reviewed by the clerks of the respective committees (or their representatives) every three years, and any recommended changes made at annual sessions.
2015-45 Members of the Development Committee led us in a rousing version of the new Quaker classic “How Can I Keep From Giving?”
How Can We Keep From Giving?
(Adapted by the NEYM Development Committee)
Our life flows on in endless song
Above Earth’s lamentation.
We hear the sweet tho’ far off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Thru all the tumult and the strife,
We hear the song of living.
It finds an echo in our souls—
How can we keep from giving?
When hearts leap up upon the news
Of new abundance springing,
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can we keep from singing?
No deficits will shake our calm
While to our hope we’re clinging.
If each of us will give our share,
How can we keep from singing?
2015-46 Ben Guaraldi (Beacon Hill), NEYM Treasurer, gave his report. He told people that if they laughed at his jokes he would go faster. We laughed. He has felt blessed to do this work for the past two years.
In both 2013 and 2014 we projected deficits of $60,000. The actual deficits were $29,631 and $14,759. Will we do this again this year? Ben projects that we will fall short of this year’s budget for monthly meeting contributions by $9,000. He estimates that the total income of all Friends in New England is $242,800,000. The entire NEYM budget is smaller than that of some churches in Boston. We have $44,000 yet to receive in individual contributions from what we have budgeted this year. If everyone in NEYM gave an extra $22 this year, we could eliminate our budget deficit. While we consider what we will be doing in the future, can we support what we are doing right now?
He finished by saying that this has been a long two years, but one of many gifts for him personally. What we are doing together is important. Sometimes it changes lives. Sometimes it saves them. Our organization and our budget isn’t the only way to do this work, but it’s the way we know now. Let’s keep going on this journey together.
2015-47 Jeremiah Dickinson (Wellesley) recommended for the Finance Committee that Shearman Taber (Beacon Hill) be the NEYM Treasurer. Friends approved.
2015-48 Shearman Taber reported for the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee tries to follow the guidance of the Yearly Meeting but sometimes those instructions are not very clear. Different members of the Finance Committee have analyzed our budget figures for the last 10 years from our minute books. One predicts a rosy future; another projects doom and gloom.
When we begin to run a budget surplus, we intend to rebuild our reserves. It appears that we may still need to propose deficit budgets for the next several years.
Our general reserves may fall below one month’s expenses sometime in the next several years. We would like to address this before it becomes an emergency. This is where we look to the work of the Structural Review Committee and the Long-Term Financial Planning Committee. It is our hope that the work of these committees will lead to greater contributions from monthly meetings.
Making cuts to the programs of the Yearly Meeting at a time when we are trying to grow and improve our support of local meetings does not make sense, especially before we determine how our priorities should be altered. If we have to cut programs, we will need to make some very difficult decisions:
- Do we cut staff hours? If so, which programs do we cut back? Retreats? Beth’s First Day school and outreach efforts? Noah’s visits around the Yearly Meeting?
- Do we cut travel costs by telling Friends they should not visit each other so much?
- Do we make deep reductions to our contributions to the larger Quaker organizations and their work of bringing Friends together?
Raising money from the monthly meetings is the responsibility of the Finance Committee and it is an area in which it has underperformed. Communication between the Finance Committee and the monthly meetings needs to go in both directions. They will be asking meetings to increase contributions 3% to 5% a year for the next 5 or more years. Any changes in monthly meeting giving does not show up for 6 to 24 months because of their budget processes and the differences in fiscal years.
The presiding clerk appreciated the work of the Finance Committee and noted that all of us share these concerns, and that Long-Term Financial Planning Committee will take them into consideration as they develop the plan for the Yearly Meeting.
2015-49 Shearman Taber presented the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016. Friends are encouraged to bring questions to the Finance Committee meeting.
2015-50 Friends closed with a period of worship.
Wednesday Morning, August 5, 2015
2015-51 We opened in worship, hearing from Pope Francis’s second encyclical Laudato Si—On Care for Our Common Home (issued on May 24, 2015). Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis describes Mother Earth as a sister who is crying out because of the harm we have inflicted on her.
2015-52 Debbie Humphries (Hartford), clerk of Ministry and Counsel, presented the following State of Society reflections based on monthly meeting reports.
As we sat with reports from our monthly meetings, and our experiences among New England Friends, we are clear, as M&C, to share three elements of our sense of the State of Society of New England Yearly Meeting.
- We yearn to be in deep relationship with each other and with the Divine.
- We are active in the world working for justice. At our best we seek the deepest healing of the world.
- We want to be faithful to the Quaker tradition, recognizing that our Quaker forbearers had something precious they were compelled to share with the wider world, while remaining open to new revelation.
The committee raised the following queries:
- How is our Yearly Meeting community a place where we experience a depth of Divine Presence and transforming power?
- How does our community experience of the Divine ground and nurture our actions in the world?
We entered into worship, and out of that we responded to these queries.
2015-53 Mary Frances Angelini (Framingham), Archives and Historical Records Committee clerk, spoke of the value of archives and the process of finding a home for them. We approved the following recommendation with gratitude for the committee’s hard work over the last several years:
2015-54 Holly Baldwin, Permanent Board clerk, reviewed more about the work of Permanent Board, asking its many members to stand. They labor with heart and vision, with love, and with mind. It takes love and discipline to serve. As Holly Baldwin’s service as clerk ends we expressed gratitude for her love, vision and faithful work as clerk. Bruce Neumann (Fresh Pond), outgoing recording clerk of this board, was also appreciated for his faithful service.
Holly reported:
We have sold The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace (by Roger Williams),[1] a rare, old book discovered within our archives, and have received $128,800 from the sale. Permanent Board directs that this $128,800 be tracked separately until the future of our archives and future expenses related to our archives are clear.
2015-55 The Young Adult Friends Climate Working Group earlier had asked whether any of NEYM funds were invested in fossil fuels. The Board of Managers of Investments and Permanent Funds reported that we are not invested in fossil fuels or energy generation and our criteria in these fields are more rigorous than the criteria of 350.org. Permanent Board asked them to make this practice a formal policy and they have done so. Katherine Fisher of the Young Adult Friends group led us in a celebratory song.
2015-56 We approved the following proposed Clerks’ Table for 2016:
Presiding clerk, Fritz Weiss (Hanover); reading clerks, Katherine Fisher (Beacon Hill) and Andrew Grannell (Portland); and recording clerks, James Grace (Beacon Hill) and Rachel Walker Cogbill (Plainfield).
2015-57 The Permanent Board also brought to us a proposed process for making time-sensitive public statements on behalf of NEYM. Ian Harrington (Cambridge) was the convener of this subcommittee, which modeled some of their work on work done by the New York Yearly Meeting.
We approved the following process:
This could include, but would not be limited to, collaborating with other organizations in joint statements or actions; signing onto amicus curiae briefs; signing petitions and letters of concern as an organization; sending letters of concern to other yearly meetings affected by wars, terrorism and natural disasters; and making time-critical comments to public officials.
When time allows, the clerk and Yearly Meeting Secretary should seek approval from the Permanent Board. The clerk and Yearly Meeting Secretary should confer with each other and be in accord before taking action. If one or the other is not available to confer, the presiding clerk or Yearly Meeting Secretary should confer with the clerk of Ministry and Counsel and/or clerk of Permanent Board.
Statements made by the presiding clerk and Yearly Meeting Secretary should be anchored in our faith as Friends; articulate how the statement is linked to our testimonies, our Faith and Practice, and past minutes approved by the Yearly Meeting and the NEYM Permanent Board; and use the resources of the Yearly Meeting’s members known to share deeply the relevant concern. If necessary the presiding clerk may call a special meeting of Coordinating and Advisory Committee to aid in discernment. Care should be taken that statements made do not interfere with or interrupt ongoing discernment of the monthly and quarterly meetings.
Furthermore, these Friends may ask an individual member to speak for the Yearly Meeting in a specific instance in which the individual can draw on their expertise in the relevant area of concern.
Notification of any public action taken under this policy should be shared with each of the monthly and quarterly meetings at the same time as any statement is shared with the public. At the next meeting of the Permanent Board or Annual Sessions, the clerk and Yearly Meeting Secretary are expected to report on any such statements and actions they have taken in the interim between meetings of that body. At or in preparation for the Annual Sessions, all such statements and actions would also be shared with the whole body. Their actions and joint statements with other bodies should be archived in the NEYM records.
In approving this minute, New England Yearly Meeting encourages monthly and quarterly meetings to consider their own processes for time-sensitive action consistent with the discernment of their meeting community, with the hope that Friends’ witness might grow more visible and vital.
2015-58 The budget was presented for the second time by Shearman Taber and was approved as presented in the Advance Documents, with the addition of $2,000 for recruitment of a Friends Camp Director (see page 28).
The meaning of budget income line 12, “Funds from the Legacy Gift,” was explained. These funds represent a portion of the income from the Legacy Gift fund and not the principle.
2015-59 Lisa Appleton (Mt. Toby), clerk of the Epistle Committee, introduced the members of the committee. We heard the first reading of our epistle for this year. Friends were invited to share their responses directly with the committee.
2015-60 We closed in worship.
Wednesday Evening, August 5, 2015
2015-61 Out of our opening worship we heard the 2015 epistle of Cuba Yearly Meeting read in both Spanish and English (see page 91).
2015-62 The presiding clerk, on behalf of all of us, expressed our appreciation for all the volunteers and committee members who make the work of the Yearly Meeting possible. She gave specific thanks to Jan Hoffman, as she begins her sabbatical year, for her 14 years of service as clerk of the Faith and Practice Revision Committee.
2015-63 The presiding clerk introduced the Unity Agenda.
We accepted the reports of our staff, our committees, our boards and our representatives.
We accepted the memorial minutes for: Harold Nichols Burnham Jr., Benjamin H. Cates, Beth Cheadle, Anna Palmer North Coit, Peter Robbins Haviland, John Kellam, Jeanne M. Kinney and Richard Reeve Wood Jr.
We approved the recommendations from Permanent Board to continue the employment of Nathaniel Shed as Director for Friends Camp and Noah Baker Merrill as Yearly Meeting Secretary for the 2016 Fiscal Year.
We approved the following bank resolutions:
- That Shearman Taber (Beacon Hill) be appointed New England Yearly Meeting Treasurer for the ensuing year or until a successor is appointed and qualified.
- That Elizabeth Muench (Brunswick) be appointed Friends Camp Treasurer for the ensuing year or until a successor is appointed and qualified. The Friends Camp Treasurer will work under the oversight of the NEYM Treasurer and the Friends Camp Director.
- That Shearman Taber, Yearly Meeting Treasurer, be authorized to open and close bank accounts in the name of New England Yearly Meeting as needed.
- That Elizabeth Muench, Friends Camp Treasurer, be authorized to open and close bank accounts in the name of Friends Camp as needed.
- That Shearman Taber, NEYM Treasurer; Ben Guaraldi (Beacon Hill), immediate past treasurer; Sarah Gant (Beacon Hill), Permanent Board clerk; and Noah Baker Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, be designated as alternate signers, individually, of all bank accounts of New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, except those checks for greater than $5,000, which shall require the signatures of two signers from the list above.
- That Nathaniel Shed, Friends Camp Director; Elizabeth Muench, Friends Camp Treasurer; and a designated member of the Friends Camp Committee be authorized, individually, as signers of the Friends Camp bank accounts, except those checks for greater than $5,000, which shall require the signatures of two signers from the list above.
Friends authorized the presiding, recording and reading clerks to make edits and corrections to the minutes of NEYM Sessions 2015.
2015-64 Christopher Gant, clerk of the Long-Term Financial Planning Committee, reported that there were three consultation sessions held during the week on their report. There were no comments on the priorities, but there was significant feedback on the purpose section. Based on this feedback, they brought back a revised statement of purpose and priorities to be used as a guide for the ongoing work of the committee.
Friends affirmed the following purpose and these priorities for the ongoing work of the Long-Term Financial Planning Committee.
Purpose: New England Yearly Meeting of Friends connects the people of the Religious Society of Friends across the six New England states. New England Yearly Meeting supports and strengthens a vibrant and growing web of monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and other Friends communities under our care, helping us do together what we cannot do alone. In all our work, we strive to obey the promptings of the Spirit to bring healing, wholeness, and transformation of ourselves and to the world.
Priorities:
1. Spiritual Development and Religious Education. As local meetings, we want help in being prepared to hear and heed the leadings of the Spirit, and to support one another in living with greater joy, authenticity and courage. Friends have inherited a transformative way of life supported by precious disciplines and practices of listening, discernment, encounter with the living Presence, and sacred work in the world. We yearn to educate and train one another to help keep the flame of our faith and practice alive and thriving in our time and in our region.
2. Outreach, Welcome, Inclusion, and Witness. In our meetings, we also want assistance from our wider Quaker community in strengthening and growing our presence in the world. We want to draw in active and diverse seekers who can find a spiritual home among Friends. And we want help in knowing how best to welcome, educate, orient and encourage newcomers when they visit our monthly meetings. Friends want support in witness when we feel we have Truth to share, on climate change, racial justice, and other urgent needs for healing and wholeness in our world.
3. Relationship and Communication. Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting want to connect with each other, and spend more time together. We want to deepen and strengthen our relationships in ways that nurture and challenge us. We want to know who is doing what and what is going on across the Yearly Meeting. We want more solid, effective, and efficient ways to share information, best practices, and resources, and strengthen the network of local meetings and individuals.
4. Leadership and Administration. In reviewing the documented prior discernment of the Yearly Meeting, our Committee heard a desire among New England Friends to identify and support leaders: those who see clearly the work that needs doing among us, and who have the gifts to communicate their vision and harness the talents and the willingness of Friends to act together to realize our goals. We want to cultivate and strengthen the emerging leaders among our youth. We want our clerks and committee members, at all levels, to be effective at helping us listen to the Spirit and get our work done. We need to deepen our understanding of how leadership can free the gifts of the whole in a community in which all are called to ministry. Local meetings want NEYM to provide administrative services and support that monthly and quarterly meetings cannot provide efficiently for themselves—financial and insurance services, legal services, technology and communications infrastructure, training and education—for the benefit of the whole.
5. Stewardship, Integrity, and Accountability. New England Friends have said that we need to be clear about what work we engage in, and why. We need to revisit our activities regularly to ascertain whether we are actually moving forward toward achieving our goals in faithful, healthy, and productive ways. If after careful discernment we resolve to do things, integrity requires that we follow through and do them. Sometimes we will have to decide not to do things, or to stop doing things. We must be wise stewards of all our resources, and must live within our means, investing our energy and attention in that which is essential.
2015-68 Connie Kincaid-Brown presented the recommendations of the Nominating Committee, which are attached (see page 82 of the printed Minute Book). They were approved.
We noted that over time our approval of the Nominating Committee reports on the floor of the Yearly Meeting has been moving into an increasingly pro-forma approval process. There are many logistical reasons for this. We hope that as we continue to examine our processes and procedures we will find better ways to handle our nominations.
2015-69 We closed in worship.
Thursday Morning, August 6, 2015
2015-70 We opened in worship, hearing the 2014 epistle from the Bhopal Yearly Meeting in India, who met in a newly constructed meetinghouse, with thanks to the Almighty, for they initially didn’t have enough money for the building—until everyone contributed wholeheartedly.
2015-71 Peterson Toscano presented this year’s Bible Half-Hours, drawing on both his theatrical and theological training. On Monday morning there were electrical problems in the auditorium, so Peterson presented his Bible Half-Hour standing on a wall outside the building in a scene that evoked the outdoor preaching of the prophets, of Jesus and of early Friends. He told the story of Abram, Sarai and their family. He paid attention to Eliezer, Hagar and Ishmael, the members of Abram’s family who have often been considered as excluded from the covenant. Living into the covenant is about being willing to see those who are left out of the promise. And though we are far from perfect, as a society Friends have a long history of listening deeply to those wronged and embracing outsiders.
On Tuesday Peterson told the intertwined stories of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. Traditionally, Mary is often portrayed in a positive light because she is submissive and Martha is criticized for daring to question Jesus. In fact, Mary was breaking gender roles by taking on the role of a rabbinical student, which was a male role in that culture. Neither Mary nor Martha was submissive. Both questioned Jesus when he did not come to save Lazarus right away. Jesus called Lazarus back, but it was his family and friends who unwrapped his burial cloths and loved him back to life. There are people who are looking for a home, looking to be unwrapped. One of our gifts is that we can be that home and we can help unwrap them and love them back to life.
On Wednesday Peterson spoke of how in the rabbinical tradition, each interpretation of scripture is seen as a possibility to be considered, where the Christian tradition has focused more on finding the one, true interpretation and enforcing it. The Bible can serve as a mirror in which we can see ourselves. The resurrected Jesus is a wounded Jesus. The marks of the crucifixion were still on him after the resurrection. We try to detach ourselves from those things that are uncomfortable to us, but we are flesh and blood and wounds and scars. We are broken and whole at the same time. When Jesus was resurrected all of the parts of him came together and became whole. How can we do this as a society? How can our ministry embrace both the spirit and the flesh? How can we be full of humanity and full of divinity? How can we embody a balanced life? How can we be a balanced meeting?
On Thursday Peterson opened up the themes of sin, forgiveness, redemption and resurrection. His character Elizabeth Jeremiah spoke of generational curses. Why does God allow evil on earth? It is because people do evil things. Our activities have repercussions on future generations. Carbon dioxide is a generational curse. We can escape the curse through repentance, in this case a national repentance. “If my people will turn from their wicked ways I will bless you and heal the land.” We need to find the path of forgiveness, repentance and redemption for the planet. Peterson asked us to consider, in the light of whatever passions we have and the massive changes we are facing:
- What is my role on a new planet?
- What is the role of my meeting on a new planet?
- What is the role of New England Yearly Meeting on a new planet?
2015-72 We heard and approved the epistle for this year.
2015-73 We heard and accepted the reports from our visitors to the other business meetings that are a part of NEYM.
Katie Green (Worcester) visited the age 0 through 4 group. She reported an uplifting experience, in wonderful magical rooms, with nine children and seven adults. The toddlers enjoyed testing gravity and cause and effect, and the adults knew just what to do.
Kristina Keefe Perry (Fresh Pond) and MaryAnn Cadwallader (Hanover) reported there were eight members and four adults making a covenant community in the kindergarten and 1st grade age group. Based on the Yearly Meeting theme, the children wove a wonderful tapestry, with one paper representing God and lots of scotch tape to hold it together. They needed to share, compromise, listen, figure out boundaries and be together. Covenant community was in circle times and in getting to know each other.
Jan Hoffman (Mt. Toby) and Chris Gant (Beacon Hill) visited the 2nd through 4th grade group. In spite of its being “Tired Tuesday,” students were full of energy for stories, including stories from stuffed animals who had traveled in the ministry. Inspired by the discussion of memorial minutes, the walls were covered with the names of pets who had died. Covenant promises were on the wall such as “Respect people and nature” and “I promise to play with everyone and include everyone.” A keen sense of love and respect among staff and kids pervaded the space, a good foundation for a covenant community now and in the future.
Luki Hewitt (Narramissic) and Catherine Bock (Burlington) reported about their visit to the 5th and 6th grade group. The eleven children and four staff learned a Cuban song, discussed how the same thing could be perceived differently by everyone, had a clay meditation which was like meeting for worship (only better because there was something to do with your hands) and defined faith as “when you believe in something you can’t see.”
Abby Reuscher (Portland) and Elizabeth Claggett-Borne (Cambridge) visited Junior High Yearly Meeting. There is a strong physical manifestation of the deep understanding of covenant community in JHYM. It presents itself through singing, sharing and cuddling. They show that love embraces us and helps us move honestly through conflict within our community—and they began worship with saxophone and humming.
Chris Fitze (Portland), Debbie Humphries (Hartford) and Jerry Sazama (Storrs) visited the Young Friends. The adults were impressed with the care with which the young people held each other and their business. They engaged in a lot of hard work this week—programs on forgiveness and covenant community, and practicing using a shared language. We are grateful for the work of the Young Friends and for the love and care they show for each other.
Jay Smith (Concord) and Christopher McCandless (Burlington) reported a precious hour of worship with the Young Adult Friends and wonderful experiences with these Friends over time at Annual Sessions, in committee work and in recreation, that leave a certainty of God’s intent to continue to bless NEYM both with challenges and with Young Adult Friends who will rise joyfully to the work.
2015-74 Kathleen Wooten (Fresh Pond), Sessions Coordinator, shared a poem about Yearly Meeting, telling how Providence worked in strange ways among us, building community when the power was out.
So Peterson Came
So Peterson came
But not the lights
So the plenary that had to be done
Was moved outside
One chair at a time
One Friend at a time
Moving together in community
They’ll meet again
In their monthly meetings
In their own chairs
They’ve found a whole new world together
If the sound system and lights had come
But not Peterson
They would have been in an entirely different place
Providence moves in strange ways.
2015-75 Noah Baker Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, and Ben Guaraldi, Treasurer, gave us statistics about Yearly Meeting this year. There were 601 persons attending this year, in contrast to 705 last year and 576 two years ago. There were a number of cancellations this year due to illness. We looked at graphs of the age distribution of attenders, geographical distribution and pay-as-led breakdowns. In the pay-as-led category they noted that persons paid an average of $40 less than last year. Their oral report concluded: No numbers cover what happens when we make connections. Numbers do not capture the fullness of who we are. New England Yearly Meeting has taken many steps, and we have so many more to go to live more fully into being a covenant community. Financial sustainability is just one part of this, and it will help carry us.
2015-76 The presiding clerk expressed appreciation for John Humphries (Hartford), clerk of Sessions Committee; childcare staff; and many invisible elves, including the Castleton staff, who have supported us. She expressed appreciation for the outgoing clerks from the clerks’ table, Susan Davies and Will Taber, and for all other clerks who are stepping down from leadership and making room for others to step up. Although the clerk didn’t express appreciation for herself, a Friend stood to say that he sensed it from the floor.
2015-77 In worship and song, the children and youth joined us.
2015-78 We heard the epistles from the week, from nursery through adult (see page 87).
2015-79 Our outgoing clerk shared what a gift it has been to serve as presiding clerk for the Yearly Meeting, the personal growing and deepening she has experienced and the abundance of love she has felt. She encouraged each of us to be faithful in living into our gifts; it is the diversity of all our gifts that builds wholeness in community. It is our covenant with God and each other that provides the strength to let our Light shine in ministry and witness.
2015-80 A Friend provided us with a minute of appreciation for the presiding clerk that was approved in a heartfelt way.
New England Yearly Meeting is grateful to Jacqueline Stillwell, our presiding clerk for the last four years. Her sparkling personality, her vivacity, and her gentle sense of humor enriched us all. She came to sessions extremely well prepared with a firm grasp of the dynamics of a Friends’ business meeting. She stayed centered under pressure, and she could say no with kindness and firmness. We wish her well in her challenging adventure with Right Sharing of World Resources.
2015-81 The clerk introduced our incoming presiding clerk, Fritz Weiss. He greeted us and began his service.
2015-82 We closed in worship, purposing to meet the first Saturday of August 2016 at Castleton University, Vermont.
[1] Historical information from Edward Baker is included here but is not part of the minutes: The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience was written and published in 1644 by Roger Williams, who was in London, England, at the time, in order to obtain a charter for the colony of Rhode Island. In this work he declares for the first time the separation of church and state, an important element of Rhode Island’s charter (which allowed Quakerism to flourish there) and eventually was included in the United States Constitution. The idea was not acceptable in England, however, and Parliament banned the book, ordering all copies to be burned. Thus this book is important because it is a foundational document of the freedoms enjoyed by Americans, and valuable because it is so rare. The copy in our archives was owned by Moses Brown. It was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York City in June 2015.