Baltimore Yearly Meeting of
the Religious Society of Friends gathered at James Madison University,
Harrisonburg, Virginia from 26 Seventh month to 1 Eighth Month, 2004, for our
333rd Annual Sessions. Friends
found ourselves challenged by the theme for this Annual Session, “Inclusive or
Exclusive? Meeting God in
Everyone.” Spirit-led ministry
throughout our sessions reminded us of the life and teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth, whose message of radical inclusion led him to minister among the poor,
the outcast, and the voiceless of his time.
We asked ourselves how have we excluded others in our past, and what must
we do to remedy the injustices we see today in our world.
Our retreat opened us to
experience the healing power of touch and prayer and helped Friends to be open
to the leadings of Spirit during our business sessions.
We felt the truth and power in the message we heard in Britain Yearly
Meeting’s Epistle (2004), that “prayer is love in action and therefore
profoundly subversive….”
Traveling minister Vanessa
Julye and Donna McDaniel blessed our gathering by sharing with us historical
research they have undertaken, supported by Friends General Conference, on the
relationship of African-Americans with and in the Religious Society of Friends
from 1688 through the present day. The
sources they presented described Friends’ lengthy practice of slave-holding,
fears of inter-racial marriage and denial to African-Americans of membership in
the Society and admission to Friends schools. We
learned that despite our testimony of equality and examples of creative
resistance, Quakers share a legacy of racism similar to the world in which we
live.
Friends labored, with
several threshing sessions, over a concern regarding our relationship with
Friends United Meeting (FUM), to which we belong.
The concern was minuted by several Monthly Meetings, brought before our
Third Month Interim Meeting, seasoned, revisited in Sixth Month Interim Meeting
and then forwarded to the Yearly Meeting in session.
FUM has a long-standing policy requiring its staff and volunteers to
affirm to being celibate outside of marriage while also defining marriage as
solely between one man and one woman. Yearly
Meeting Friends feel the injustice that this policy has visited upon us all.
Tony Campolo, founder and
President of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education,
challenged us with humor and biblical passages to center ourselves in authentic
Christian witness, as understood in the Beatitudes, and to evangelize from this
center. Trayce Peterson, Director of
Campus and Quaker Ministries at Earlham College, brought her pastoral gifts to
the Carey Memorial Lecture, pulling these themes from the week she had spent
among us: passion, leadership and
what it means to be an inclusive community. The
Inward Teacher meets us at the place of our passions; she urged us to pay
attention to that and embrace a “holy boldness.”
Throughout this session,
Friends were aware that this was the final Yearly Meeting session with Lamar
Matthew as clerk. Several Friends
read a minute they had prepared expressing love and profound appreciation for
his six years of service. They then
sang a five-verse tribute to him, to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic,” with all present joining in the chorus, “Thank thee, kindly
Friend Lamar….” Lamar, in turn,
thanked Friends for the opportunity to serve.
While the business sessions,
workshops and interest groups engaged us, we were mindful that some one third of
those present for the week participated in Junior Yearly Meeting and the Youth
Program – children, teens and the adults who nurture them.
We showed our love to our children this year by singing a song to them
during a business meeting session – “How could anyone ever tell you, you are
anything less than beautiful?”
Our treasured camping
program reveals to us and nurtures the deep spiritual well within our children,
as does our Youth Program. We
operate “not a ‘camping program,’ but summer religious education in an
outdoor setting.” Friends
expressed gratitude to Josh Riley, Camp Administrative Director, as he moves on
to another calling. In sharing the
secret of the program’s success, Josh reminded us of the simplicity of being
inclusive: “We love each child for
exactly who he or she is.”
In the Light,
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of
the Religious Society of Friends