24-9 Welcome and Roll Call
Susan Davies (Vassalboro), Clerk of the Permanent Board, welcomed Friends to the Zoom meeting. The tech host froze the screen order and Friends introduced themselves in the order they were on the screen.
Permanent Board Members
Susan Davies (PB Clerk), Willa Taber (PB Recording Clerk), Newell Isbell Shinn, Mary Zwirner, Martha Schwope, Allison Randall, Carole Rein, Roger Jasaitis, Beth Hansen, Eleanor Warnock, Darcy Drayton, Liesa Stamm, Deana Chase, Donn Weinholtz, Diane Weinholtz, John Reuthe, Chris Gant, Martin Forsythe, Fran Lightsom, Morgan Wilson, Bob O’Connor, Kathleen Wooten, Edward Mair, Leslie Manning.
Ex-Officio Members
Carl Williams (Clerk of Ministry and Counsel), Sarah Gant (Clerk, Meeting Accompaniment Group) (Acting Secretary for Pastoral Care and Governance), Nia Thomas (Acting Secretary for Programs and Administration), Rebecca Leuchak (Presiding Clerk), Scot Drysdale (Finance Clerk), Marian Dalton (Treasurer), Elizabeth Reuthe (YM Secretary Supervisor), Jackie Stillwell (Clerk of Nominating Committee),
Other Friends
Janet Hough (Zoom Host), Elizabeth Hacala (NEYM Events Coordinator), Jennie Isbell Shinn, Phil Veatch, John Fuller, David Coletta, Kristina Keefe-Perry, Pat Moyer, Beckey Phipps, Sarah Allen, Ellen Neelands, Kim West, Sarah Smith, Melody Brazo, Tom Vargo, Bob Murray, Mey Hasbrook, Andrew Grant, Ken Stockbridge (Patapsco Friends Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting), Polly Attwood, Emily Savin, Melissa Foster, Lynn Taber, Pamela Terrien, Robert Dove McClellan, Fredrick Martin (NEYM Accounts Manager), Annie Patterson, Peter Blood Patterson, Gail Charpentier, Lucy Meadows, Kathy Olson, Mary Link, Susanna Schell, Regina McCarthy, Mary Hopkins, Callid Keefe-Perry, Ginny Kristl, Maille Wooten, Fritz Weiss,
Regrets
Kimberly Allen, Thomas Brenner, Carolyne Lamar Jordan, Meg Klepack, Christopher McCandless, Anna Radocchia, Noah Merrill (YM Secretary).
24-10 Opening Comments
Susan Davies opened the meeting with these comments:
I arrived at a place of relative calm yesterday morning when I woke up to the realization that I have been expecting myself to carry out an impossible job. I have caught myself clinging to the spiritually unhealthy expectation that I owe it to the 364 years of Friends’ faithful service to NEYM, to try to do it all, to hold it all together. Yesterday I was called back to remembering that over-busyness, urgency, perfectionism, and dissonances of words, all work against the Spirit, whose Voice I can only hear when I have given up my own willing and striving. That elusive awareness is the only gift I have for you today.
But there is that opportunity waiting within this “impossible task”: to accept the Truth that these urgencies won’t be solved through our own will, and our own effort. We have all arrived here with agendas of one sort or another, but we are not asked to do everything—only to do what knits us together, and heals us to better do God’s work together. Can we pray together, “Be Thou our will,” as one gathered people? Can we gather to seek that Kin-dom together, that only arrives once we lay down our own strivings?
Those of you with a heart for the Three Rivers community are here with the fervent hope for Three Rivers to be welcomed into a covenant relationship within Salem Quarter, and New England Yearly Meeting. We have heard your frustration and pain at the caution and slowness. But can you hear what is amiss when the asking to join in a covenant relationship is clothed in a spirit of contention, urgency, and entitlement?
And those of you who harbor reservations about whether the Three Rivers spiritual community can hold a member in a spirit of love and accountability—are you willing to let them to try? Are you willing to trust in the possibility of God’s healing? To trust that this might be a community that yearns to be accountable to one another, and to the covenant relationship with the wider Body of Friends? And can you trust in the possibility that reconciliation, growth, and renewal might be accomplished through a process of circles of restorative justice?
24-11 Losses
Susan Davies reminded us that Ian Harrington, a long time Permanent Board member, died unexpectedly on December 24, 2023. She also announced that the Memorial Meeting for Sarah Spencer, a former Permanent Board member, will be held on February 17 at Northampton Meeting and on Zoom at 2:30 p.m. with a reception to follow. Please contact Northampton Meeting for the Zoom link.
24-12 Advance Documents
The Clerk pointed out that there are 27 advance documents, not all of which we will get to during today’s meeting. All of these reports will be attached to these minutes. Specifically, we will not be addressing the Anti-Racism Consultation Working Group Report, the Report from the Israel-Palestine Resource Group, the Interim Report from the Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools Research Group, the 23-12-09 Noticing Patterns Debrief Notes, the Report on FGC, and the North Fairfield Meetinghouse Proposal.
The Anti-Racism Consultation WG recommended that NEYM engage the services of Melvin Bray to be a consultant for the anti-racism work of the Yearly Meeting. The YM Secretaries have already been authorized to continue the negotiations to hire Melvin Bray.
The Noticing Practices Debrief for this meeting has been scheduled for February 19, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. over Zoom. A link will be sent out in advance of that meeting.
24-13 Approval of Minutes
Friends approved the minutes for the Permanent Board Meeting held at Mount Toby Meeting on December 9, 2023, and the minutes for the called Permanent Board Meeting held on Zoom on January 25, 2024.
The minutes for both meetings are attached.
24-14 Report from Ministry and Counsel Clerk
Carl Williams (Plainfield), NEYM Ministry and Counsel Clerk, called our attention to his written report, here attached. He then went on to share his thoughts about the state of us, the members and the body of the Yearly Meeting.
There are those of us who want to be transformed. And there are those of us who want to hold on to certain of our traditions. And those two things aren't mutually exclusive, even when they come into conflict with each other. There are those of us who celebrate with great joy the life of the Spirit and there are those of us who are engulfed in sorrow. There are those of us who hunger to be led by Spirit and those of us who are frustrated when things aren't in right order. There are those of us who find hope in worship and in community and those of us living in tension both spoken and unspoken. There are those of us seeking new life and there are those of us who are angry.
If you will indulge me in a little as I tell a little story and I know that some of you will have to hear this and translate it in your own head. I'd like to talk just for a minute about Moses.
When Moses led the Jews out of Israel with the help of his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron, he couldn't have done it without them. He was following God's leading. And when he got to the Red Sea, God said, Moses, this is where I want you to cross. There was no Charlton Heston, standing on the dune throwing his arms wide and commanding the sea to part so they could cross. That's not my understanding of what happened. Moses said to God, “Dude, there's water here.”
And God said, “This is where I want you to cross.”
So Moses stepped off the shore into the water like up to his ankles and nothing happened and God said, “Come on Moses let's get going.” And Moses said, “But this is an ocean.” And God said, “This is where I want you to cross.”
And so Moses went up to his knees and you know now he's beginning to hear Pharaoh’s troops because his stepbrother double-crossed him and he's getting to hear Pharaoh's troops coming up behind him and he says, “This can't work.” And God said, “This is where I want you to cross.”
So, Moses stepped in up to his waist and nothing happened and Moses said, “This just isn't gonna work. God, you got to do something different.” And God said, “So let me be very clear with you Moses. This is where I want you to cross.”
And so this kept happening and happening and finally Moses is up through his shoulders. And he's feeling his heavy robe being pulled into the water and he's terrified and maybe getting a little cold, because you know oceans can be cold. And God said, “Cross here.” And when Moses stepped in, up over his nose, the sea parted.
And that, that is my understanding of faith.
The world wants us to believe faith is this kind of old grandmotherly pasteurized, homogenized cup of chamomile tea that we sip, then we just feel cuddly about. That's not the radical faith that I know. And that's not the faith I see among Friends. An act of faith is to step into deep relationship with each other, even when we see things differently. It’s an act of faith to recognize our faults and move beyond them. It’s an act of faith to trust each other. Is that daunting? Absolutely. Is that possible? Absolutely. And Friends have done that for 350 years. Mostly. When we’ve been at our best and we can do that now.
24-15 Report from Three Rivers Visiting Committee
Mary Zwirner (Beacon Hill) presented the report of the Three Rivers Visiting Committee (attached) and requested that the Permanent Board accept Three Rivers as a monthly meeting in Salem Quarter.
Susan Davies, Clerk of the Permanent Board, reminded us of the necessity of separating concerns about specific individuals from the question of whether to establish Three Rivers as a monthly meeting.
Friends expressed gratitude for the work of the visiting committee. Its start was messy but there has been deep spiritual fruit that has come from it. Other Friends reported on the spiritual nourishment they have received from Three Rivers.
Friends accepted the report of the Three Rivers Visiting Committee
Friends approved establishing Three Rivers as a monthly meeting in Salem Quarter.
Friends approved laying down the Three Rivers Visiting Committee with gratitude for their work.
Kristina Keefe-Perry (Three Rivers) expressed gratitude for the visiting committee, Fresh Pond Meeting, and the Permanent Board for their support for new growth among us. Liberal churches in general are shrinking and laying down bodies. She is grateful for this opportunity for new growth and experimentation with new forms.
24-16 Report from the Coordinating and Advisory Committee (C&A)
Rebecca Leuchak (Providence), Clerk of NEYM Sessions, presented the C&A report here attached. Last Saturday she attended the gathering of Friends called to ministry in East Sandwich. She was sitting next to the woodstove and saw that fire-tending requires steady and constant attention and action. The goal is not to build a blazing fire, but to establish a deep bed of embers that will carry the fire through the night. If we just pile on logs we risk smothering the fire. All of us are fire tenders.
Can we hold an appreciation, as we hear the reports today, for how much the people doing this work give of themselves?
24-17 Contributions Criteria Working Group
Rebeca Leuchak presented the proposed charge of the Contributions Criteria Working Group, attached.
Friends recognize that this question raises thorny issues of our relationship with FUM. This group is not being charged with resolving these issues. The Friends on the working group are encouraged to consult with the committees handling our relationship with the larger groups as they prepare their recommendations.
Friends approved the charge to the Contributions Criteria Working Group as described in the proposal.
24-18 Extension of service for the acting co-secretaries
At the called meeting of the Permanent Board on January 25, Friends approved Nia Thomas (Northampton) and Sarah Gant (Beacon Hill) to serve as Acting Secretaries during Noah Merrill’s bereavement leave through February 10, 2024. The Permanent Board also charged the Coordinating and Advisory Committee to present to today’s meeting a plan for how to finance those added expenses (PB 24-6). Rebecca Leuchak presented that report, the “Request for Approval of Funding Applications to the Legacy Gift Fund and the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund to Financially Support Acting Co-Secretary Roles,” here attached.
Friends approved extending the arrangement of acting secretaries, including their added compensation through April 1, 2024.
Friends also approved applying to the Legacy Gift Fund and the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund for amounts over $10,000 to cover the added expenses for the compensation to the Acting Co-Secretaries.
Both groups have been contacted for verification of the fit of this extraordinary need to the mission of these bodies and both have affirmed that an application for this purpose would be acceptable. There has not been any additional fundraising for this specific need because the need is immediate and there was a desire not to detract with fundraising already being planned to address the overall financial needs of the Yearly Meeting.
24-19 Conflict Response Working Group
Melody Brazo (Fresh Pond) presented the report from the Conflict Response Working Group, here attached. They have let go of their sense of urgency in order to better serve the needs of the Yearly Meeting.
Friends approved adding Alysia Parkes to the Conflict Response Working Group. Friends accepted the report and affirmed the direction of the Conflict Response group.
Friends were reminded that the work of conflict resolution is not just the work of this working group but is the work of all of us. Friends were also encouraged to read the book, The Little Book of Conflict Transformation, by John Paul Lederach.
24-20 Sessions Visioning Phase 2 Working Group
Nia Thomas presented the charge for the Sessions Visioning Phase 2 Working Group (attached). They intend to bring names for this working group to our called meeting on March 19th.
Friends approved the charge of the Sessions Visioning Phase 2 Working Group.
24-21 Site Search Working Group
Elizabeth Hacala, NEYM Events Coordinator, presented the charge for the Sessions Site Search Working group here attached. Concerns were raised that the membership of the working group should include people with disabilities so that people with lived experience with disabilities be included in the site selection process.
Friends approved the charge.
24-22 Financial Summary Report for 2023
Robert Murray (Beacon Hill) presented the financial summary report for 2023, here attached. He would be glad to go over the reports in detail with anyone interested at a later time. Having reserves is important to us because we have employees that we have an obligation to pay on a regular basis. He hopes that we can start running a surplus again so that we can begin to rebuild our reserves. This is not just money lying around, it is our safety net.
Friends accepted this report with gratitude for this report and Bob’s many years of service as treasurer.
24-23 2024 Budget update
Fredrick Martin (Beacon Hill), NEYM Accounts Manager, presented the informational update on the 2024 budget outcome. For the first quarter, our income is tracking in line with recent past years. Our major fundraising efforts are scheduled for the spring and summer.
24-24 2025 Budget preliminary report
Scot Drysdale (Hanover), clerk of the Finance Committee, presented the preliminary report on the 2025 budget, attached. Scot noted that there was an error in the document and the amount of reserves was understated. (This has been corrected in the version included with these minutes.) This budget does not allow for contributions to other organizations. We are not funding future sabbaticals. We are not increasing our reserves. We are trying to do more than our current income allows. We need to make significant increases in our income, or we will need to make significant cuts in our programs.
Friends noted that our revenue has been flat over the past 6 years while our personnel expenses have gone up over 5%. This is not sustainable. Do we have the right structures in place to deal with these issues? Sessions is our most expensive annual program. Are there ways to reduce the cost of Sessions? Should we revive the Development Committee and hire a person devoted to development work? Are we attracting new people to the Yearly Meeting and providing something of value to them so that they will be inspired to contribute to the Yearly Meeting? As a Board, we will have to find a way to address the immediate budgetary issues and also address the larger, systemic issues.
24-25 Legacy Gift Review
Mary Link presented the first draft of the 10-year Legacy Gift Review, here attached. Based on survey responses, there appears to be support for continuing the Legacy Funds but how do we do that? The Legacy Review Committee asked, do we use some of this money for reparations since it came from the sale of stolen land? What do Friends think about their proposal for allocation of the funds? Should the clerk of this committee be a stipended position? Should they cooperate more with other funding sources in New England? How can we replenish the funds? Can we rename the fund with something that speaks of our future and not our past? Are we on the right track?
Friends noted that the Legacy Gift Fund and the Obadiah Brown Fund are starting to get to know more about each other’s work so that they can work together. It might be good for this to include the Lyman Fund as well. There were conflicting ideas about using some of the funds for reparations. It was also noted that when the Legacy Gift Funds were established there was an extensive process of listening that went into the discernment about how the funds would be used and what structures would support those uses. Has that broad and searching listening process been fully deployed in this 10-year review? Would it make sense to have that level of consultation going into our proposals for the next 10 years?
24-26 Nominating Committee Report
Jackie Stillwell (Monadnock) brought the report from the NEYM Nominating Committee, attached.
Friends approved the nomination of Newt Barletta (Framingham) to serve on the Youth Ministries Committee.
24-27 Nominations for the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Working Group
Susan Davies presented the report on the nominations for the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Working group, attached.
Friends approved the nomination of Celadry Humphries (Northampton) and Christine Hansen (Burlington) to the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Working Group.
24-28 Minute of Exercise
The opening comments of the Clerk of the Permanent Board and the Clerk of Ministry and Counsel helped the meeting to enter into a worshipful and grounded state. The clarity and depth of the report of the Three Rivers Visiting Committee helped to relieve the confusion and dissension that had accompanied our previous discussions of acceptance of Three Rivers as a monthly meeting. The decision to accept Three Rivers as a monthly meeting was followed by expressions of joy, thankfulness, and relief. This feeling was a factor in our successful completion of the rest of the items on our agenda.
However, the conflict that had been entangled with the acceptance of Three Rivers has not been resolved. Our discussion about the Legacy Gift Review revealed that we have work to do yet to find unity on the issue of making reparations to indigenous people. There are also difficult financial decisions to be made in the next several years. We will need to be mindful to not let these questions get likewise entangled.
There appears to be a spirit of division present in the Yearly Meeting. The way forward is not clear. Our shared faith reminds us that there is also a spirit of love and reconciliation that can heal our conflicts and lead us back to unity. We worship a God who can make a way out of no way. We pray that, with Divine assistance, we may be led on the path of healing.