Frederick

• Interchange, Spring 2008
• Interchange, Spring 2007
• Interchange, Fall 2006
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2005
• Interchange, Summer 2006
• Interchange, Fall 2005
   
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2004
• Interchange, Spring 2005
• Interchange, September 2004
• Interchange, March 2004
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2003

FMM began a new time of holding monthly Meetings for Worship for the conduct of business at the rise of regular Sunday worship rather than just prior. The preliminary feedback from those in attendance was positive. This arrangement will be reviewed in the business session to be held on March 30, 2008.

In seeking ways to include our young people in the life of the Meeting beyond First Day School (FDS), Meeting has begun including a report from representatives from FDS in the business sessions. This fall, service projects were encouraged as a major part of FDS. Special speakers about Native Americans and a field trip to the Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC, helped to increase awareness of this special part of the American heritage where there are still native people with the need for warm clothing and educational materials. In an ongoing FDS /Meeting service project, goods have been collected and sent to people living in the Torreon/Star Lake Community near Cuba, New Mexico, and the Ramah Navajo Chapter, NM.

Ministry and Counsel Committee has discussed the general topic of “where do we go from here?” on the sex offender/prison ministry issue. An ad hoc committee was appointed to look at the whole issue of sex offender/prison ministry. The Ad Hoc Prison Ministry Oversight Committee presented and received approval of proposed policies and procedures for the establishment of a Prison Ministry Committee on 1-27-08. The Committee will next pursue issues regarding the presence of known sex offenders in our Meeting and also post-prison ministry for those in transition from prison to community. Meeting appreciates the way this committee is proceeding, in a careful step by step discernment process.

In October, Ministry and Counsel Committee held a worship sharing session on Trust. And in November, a discussion on “Picking up the Pieces,” helping to deal with trauma and the spiritual connection. Both of these sessions were well received. In 2008, a workshop/discussion is planned on “Living in the Body/Sensing the Spirit.”

Last year, those who attended the women’s retreat brought back the idea of holding a games night once a month, which was implemented and has been enjoyed as an ongoing intergenerational event on the second Saturday of the month. This year, the women who attended were so inspired that they volunteered as Frederick Meeting members to coordinate planning for next year’s Retreat.

A process is underway for Meeting to address the request from BYM annual sessions last summer for input by April 1, 2008, regarding the FUM/BYM relationship. The plan is to have something to forward to BYM.

Membership and outreach - The Allowed Meeting at Shepherdstown, WV, under our care, continues to grow in the Spirit and in numbers. There are frequently as many as ten friends present for worship. Shepherdstown Allowed Meeting has organized potluck book club discussions, held a lively Christmas Eve potluck dinner, and participated in activities at Friends Wilderness Center.

Peace and Social Concerns and Activities - This fall our Peace and Social Concerns Committee organized volunteers from the Meeting who participated in the annual CROP walk in Frederick raising over $600. We are now busily preparing to participate in a series of community events called: A Season For Non – Violence. An idea that grew from one of our First Day School classes was to sponsor an event in this series that would be a day to realize the seriousness of often abstract world problems by depicting the world as a small village of only 100 people. Also as part of this series, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee will sponsor a seminar to look at how issues of energy and environmental degradation are intersecting with peace issues. Our P and SC Committee also encouraged the participation of the Meeting and Frederick community in the recent March for Peace in Washington DC on the 27th of January.

Children - In September, our First Day School opened with 60 children registered. The attendance on any given Sunday is usually around 20-30. We are grateful for our children and the life they bring to the Meeting, and we are grateful for the adults who help.

Building Community - We continue to seek ways to build community, and deepen our spiritual life as a meeting. Our annual Fall Festival was a warmly experienced community event. In September we held a women’s retreat at the Friends Wilderness Center. A number of our women spent the night in the tree house enjoying the fellowship and silence and sounds of the woods. Some of our members who participated in the Spiritual Formation Program of BYM are continuing to meet and are finding the continued fellowship richly rewarding. Others have begun a weekly gathering for study of Quaker literature and the Bible. Other special interest programs are springing up.

Prison Ministry - Ministry and Counsel Committee is working with Program Committee to offer opportunities to look carefully at the needs and concerns of our members and attenders which have been identified over time as a result of our ministry to two individuals who were referred to our attention who were incarcerated for sex offenses. Ministry and Counsel is looking at ways that we can assure that our children are protected, that adult attenders who have experienced abuse feel nurtured and attended to, while we continue to support one of the above mentioned individuals. An Ad Hoc committee is being formed to further discern and clarify our ministry in this area.

Our Meeting Space - Since Meeting has decided not to go forward at this time with long term plans for an expansion to our present Meeting space, our Property Committee is working to bring our current space into better energy efficiency and repair.

Our Meetings for Business - We continue to seek ways to improve the spiritual experience of our work in Business Meeting and our committees and to improve the way we communicate with each other and the way we prepare for and conduct our business. We continue to experiment with a monthly gathering of the clerks of committees, and all others interested, the week or two prior to business meeting to help us with this.

Respectfully submitted,
Frances S. Williams, clerk

Dear Friends,

In August a good number of us attended at least some BYM annual sessions in Harrisonburg VA, and we are grateful to be part of this larger body of Friends. We find support, inspiration, advice and a deepened sense of our connection to Spirit and each other.

In May, as a Meeting we gathered at Camp Catoctin for our annual meeting retreat, a time for renewal and a chance to introduce our new families and their children to the wonders and possibilities of that special place and to the idea of summer camping. We sent campers to Catoctin, Shiloh, and Opequon this summer.

In June, we invited Rosalind Zuses from Sandy Spring Meeting to preside as guest Clerk of a Called Meeting in which we explored the recommendations from the Ministry and Counsel Committee report on Prison Ministry. Friends in attendance were moved by the depth and quality of worship in that meeting. However, in a subsequent Meeting for Business, as we were considering how to move forward on this matter, it was observed that there are deeper issues that have troubled our Meeting for several years that have not been addressed fully. We have arrived at a commitment to continue to consider this carefully and to collectively seek divine guidance to discern what we need to be talking about so that we can move into a place of healing for the Meeting. Please hold us in the Light.

During the past year, we were informed by the Friends Extension Corporation of Friends United Meeting that they are going out of the mortgage holding business . We have begun looking at how to refinance the balance of our mortgage with them ($185,618.13 as of 6/06). We continue to successfully lease space which assists with our monthly payments but we still need new financing for our meeting house. We are gathering information on local bank financing, the Friends Meeting House Fund of FGC, and resources among members of our own meeting. It was also suggested that we contact other Monthly Meetings within BYM to ask for assistance with this, hence our mention here. Please contact us at: clerk@frederickfriends.org with any advice or help you can offer.

Our Meeting has continued to grow and attract families bringing energy and vitality to our worship and First Day School programs. We look forward to a year of spiritual growth as individuals and as a community. We seek ways to be actively engaged in peacemaking, energy conservation, pastoral care and outreach to our community as well as providing welcome to those who visit us or seek us out as their spiritual community.

Frederick Friends Meeting continues to experience both the blessings and the challenges that have accompanied it for the past few years. For many members and attenders, Frederick Friends Meeting is a vibrant spiritual community through which Friends receive great support and enjoy spiritual growth. In witness of this, the numbers and energy of new members and attenders continues to grow, the programs sponsored and co-sponsored by our Meeting continue to support us on our spiritual journeys, the prospect of growth led to a group of Friends working diligently on plans for the future that have helped us refine our vision of what that should be, and deep personal relationships have been nurtured through our faith community. Many attend Meeting for Worship and draw strength from it, the First Day School program is the still the treasure it has been to us for so long, and Friends serve with great commitment on Meeting committees upholding Friends’ testimonies. In the world outside, many from Meeting continue to provide service to local and distant organizations, ranging from Women in Black and the Frederick Peace Resource Center locally, through various Friends organizations nationally, to the Able and Willing Foundation in the Congo. At the very same time, challenges that have faced us in the past continue today, wearying some and even driving others away, and although many amongst us experience love, support, and growth, some dear Friends feel hurt, neglected, or otherwise disgruntled with their fellow Friends and/or our Meeting as a body.

Clearness Committees for Membership were held for five people, two Friends transferred their membership to Frederick Friends Meeting, and a Committee for Marriage under the care of the Meeting was convened for one couple. Members of the Support Committee for Shepherdstown Allowed Meeting visited Friends there several times last year and, at the close of the year, reaffirmed our commitment to visitation and support. In March, in an effort to deepen the spiritual life of both individuals and the Meeting as a whole and to help bring healing to some of the pain being felt over our challenging issues, a weekend workshop was led by John Calvi, a Quaker healer and teacher, with approximately 30 people attending. In May, arrangements were made for Emily Breton to be the speaker at Warrington Quarterly Meeting hosted by Frederick Monthly Meeting. Emily spoke about her experiences as a survivor of torture and the mission of her organization, TASSC-Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition.

Meeting supported and Friends attended several events bearing witness to our Peace Testimony. Some of these included: hosting the "Stop the Bombs" peace walkers in April, the annual 4th of July Picnic for Peace, and the September 24th rally in Washington D.C. against the Iraq war and occupation. The Spirit also led us to support several more societal issues, such as housing and financial support for Hurricane Katrina displacees and the annual Crop Walk against hunger. It is hoped that our hearts will be further opened by the Spirit to the calling of such global and local problems.

Our First Day School program continues to grow, largely as a result of the organizational skills and fortitude of the co-clerks and the commitment of a group of talented teachers, many of whom are parents. Forty-four children were listed on the August 2005 roster, and on average 15-20 of them attend classes on each First Day. The classes are imbued with creativity, and though most teachers follow our chosen curricular theme of Peacemaking, some follow special leadings to share other aspects of our Friends’ heritage. Seeing the need of parents who are new to Meeting to be welcomed with hospitality and information about Quakerism, First Day School Committee asked Ministry and Counsel to again hold an Introduction to Quakerism series: as a result an eight-lesson adult religious education program called Quakerism: Experiencing It was lead toward the end of the year, with ten people attending all or some of the sessions to read and discuss Quaker writings.

Members and attenders also find growth and beauty within the larger communities of Baltimore Yearly Meeting and other Friends organizations. Several of us are deeply involved in the BYM camp program, youth programs, religious education, Indian Affairs, and other Committees and projects. Through these organizations, we perform satisfying works and build spiritual Friendships with those from other monthly meetings.

We appreciate our blessings and try both to keep them in our perspective and to remain thankful for them as we deal with our challenges. One of the largest of these challenges is how to deal with people who wish to attend Meeting in some manner, but who have a history of sexual misconduct. A year ago, we could write that over the past few years our Meeting has experienced great difficulty in dealing with this issue, and that we had still neither reached unity nor had we been fully reconciled. Now, a year later, we appear to have made little progress. The hurt that was present last year seems not to have been healed, unity still eludes us, and in the absence of this unity we have no agreement in sight on any approach to take. Some even question whether others come to Meeting wishing to cause hurt, and regardless of the answer to this question, the fact that it is even raised gives pause for great concern. We need to labor on the questions “do we welcome all people who come to worship in the manner of Friends?” and “do we have a common belief that our worship should be open to and inclusive of people who are different from us?”, being ready to accept our common understanding regardless of our individual starting points.

For others the challenge is over the quality of worship and spiritual sustenance they draw from meeting. While some find that bringing a prepared mind helps enrich their experience of meeting for worship, and that this and other time-tested spiritual disciplines should be the focus of our efforts, others speak of emptiness and a feeling that spiritual growth has stopped, and that as a result they feel a lack of connection, devotion or commitment to the Meeting. Some even feel “judged” by the Meeting. It has been said that we understand the outward forms of Friends beliefs and practices but do not understand what should be at the center.

Another question that faces us is the “meaning of community”. Are we a gathered community or just an assembled group? Are we a community of fixed conviction, or a community of belief, still open to uncertainty and the rich possibilities that uncertainty can bring when it is coupled with an acceptance of the “other”? As a community, we know we are in need of some common ground, or a common way of living; without this we are adrift, and though we have some common aspirations and intentions, this is not enough. We ask, what binds us together? We are all here by choice and we are seeking the spiritual, not just for our love of God but also from a need to be loved by God. The Religious Society of Friends has always allowed constructive conflict within its ranks as a path to the truth. It has long known that community must be more than enjoying someone else’s company, and that the community must beware of being captured by what George Fox called “notions”.

Nevertheless, within these struggles we are not left without the possibility of answers. We need to be more open - to God, to the leading of the Spirit, to each other and to that of God in everyone, to our differences, to the need to learn. We know we must let go of ego, perhaps even having to let go of some of our beliefs and convictions in order to be able to learn. If we have been hurting each other then we must take responsibility for creating pain, even if unintentional. We must recognize that perceptions of an action or attitude may differ, even if intentions behind the action or attitude were good and no harm was intended. Perhaps then, through the pain there may be growth. We will always be tested, yet we must face the struggle together and be grateful of one another.

We are still seekers at heart, searching for answers to questions such as what do we most need to deepen the Spiritual Life of our Meeting, and what do we most need to strengthen our witness on behalf of Friends testimonies to the world? We know that perfection is hard to achieve, we know that we should not expect the vocal ministry always to be pleasing, we know that we must take undivided responsibility for our actions, that we try to honor other’s needs and not feel hurt when our own expectations are not met. We seek to balance the needs of these Friends who are hurting with the needs of others who are enjoying more fruitful experiences within our group. We have attempted to address these concerns through discernment within large and small groups and have offered several opportunities for continued growth and healing with the hope that continued attention to the needs of us all will strengthen the spiritual community in which we live and grow.

Our greatest strength lies in the witness and assistance of other Friends. Many have helped in a number of ways with guidance on our approach and methods. Others, through their own brave witness and sacrifice, help us put our own challenges in perspective. As we look back at the past year to prepare this Spiritual State of the Meeting Report, we also look back on our Friend Tom Fox, known and loved by many in our Meeting, who in a far away land has given the ultimate sacrifice for Friends’ beliefs at their very best. If we can draw from the same source that gave Tom his courage, then the real size of our challenges will become apparent.

We send greetings from Frederick Monthly Meeting. We are able to report that all of our regularly scheduled Meetings for Worship for the Conduct of Business have been held in good order during the period August 2005 through January 2006. One serious challenge that we face with the conduct of our business is our difficulty with concluding our business in the allotted time.

The busy-ness of lives has interrupted the regular participation of Shepherdstown representatives in our Monthly Meetings for Worship with the concern for business, but they inform us that they continue to grow in the Spirit in their worship together.

We continue to search our hearts as individuals and as a meeting for ways that we can respond to the issues confronting us as a result of the escalating violence in our world; the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; reports of the spread of the use of torture in our own country and world wide; and within our own faith community, concern about the exclusion of gays and lesbians from positions of leadership as volunteers and employees in the hiring policies of Friends United Meeting.

Since Tom Fox, and three other Christian Peacemaker Team members were kidnapped in Iraq in November, we have found ourselves holding them in the Light and attempting (in our hears and minds) to walk in their shoes; trying to imagine how it must be for them to hold the United States Government and their captors in loving prayer facing whatever conditions there must be.

In October, two of our members traveled with the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Inter-visitation Committee to worship and fellowship with Friends in Winston-Salem Meeting, NCYM (FUM), October 7-9, 2005. Upon their return, one Friend acknowledged that an important aspect of the trip was that it shattered stereotypes about FUM, pastoral Quakers. This person experienced a shared sense of fellowship that felt familiar and “powerfully Quaker.” There was not an opportunity for open dialogue with Friends who fully support the FUM policy as this particular Meeting is also concerned about the FUM policy against hiring people living in committed unmarried relationships.

We continue to have concerns about a lack of depth in our worship and in our discernment that has at times been reflected in impaired decision-making. We can’t seem to complete our business meetings within the allotted time. Some of the issues under consideration include: decisions about space for our future growth; decisions about our prison ministry; how to manage the day-to-day work of the Meeting, from house cleaning to reaching out to our membership. We have not used the discipline of Worship Sharing as often as we might have. One time when we did use it very successfully was when our First Day School Committee held a Worship Sharing to consider our guidelines for reporting incidents of abuse or harm which might occur in the Meeting.

For the past year, in an effort to strengthen our committees and share leadership within the Meeting, we have been implementing a monthly Meeting of Clerks of Committees and others. Friends come together to prepare the agenda for our business sessions, to share concerns, and to sort out which items should come under the care of which committee. We have done some study and work on learning the art of clerking. Much more progress is needed.

Frederick Monthly Meeting continues to receive applications for membership in the Meeting. Some have been from long term attenders who having looked within, and decided to make that step on their spiritual journey which calls them into service to the meeting from yet a deeper place. We were honored recently, to be asked to care for the marriage of a young man this fall who was an attender at our Meeting as a child.

Representatives from Frederick Meeting who attended BYM annual sessions are holding the lessons gained and sharing them as the Meeting seeks awareness of how we are called to be merciful and how we can nurture and support our community more deeply. In the annual proceedings, Frederick Meeting and Hopewell Center Meeting were identified as two BYM meetings that have been facing issues related to having identified sex offenders participate in their Meetings. Some of the Frederick representatives felt humbled that others might be looking to Frederick Meeting for Light on this subject as they felt the Meeting is not yet clear and in a place of unity on this. They felt it was heart warming and encouraging to meet and speak with members of Hopewell Center and to hear that there are similarities in our journeys through this issue. Frederick representatives are hopeful that we can get together over the coming year to seek guidance and support from members of Hopewell Center Meeting as Frederick Meeting continues to seek healing and unity.

On August 27th FDS Committee sponsored a Child Safety Training for FDS teachers and committee clerks. It was a time for deep reflection through worship sharing as well as a time to plan the logistics of teaching to the curriculum theme of Peace Making. We are blessed by a large and growing group of young people in our Meeting who are surrounded by loving and caring adults.

Over the summer, our Peace and Social Concerns Committee brought a request that the Meeting become an endorser of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill (HR 2631). The Meeting endorsed the Peace Tax Fund at its August Meeting and further identified how we would support it in our September Meeting. We prepared a handout which was made available at BYM annual sessions, and we now encourage further consideration of this matter by the Yearly Meeting. Could the Peace Tax Fund be brought to Interim sessions? Our representative reported to us that when the issue was introduced at Warrington Quarterly Meeting in August, those gathered did not reach unity.

Recent events of the hurricane have brought us together to ask ourselves how are we called to respond to the needs of this situation as individuals and as a faith community. We will hold a called meeting to consider this further on the 11th of September. We are ready to cooperate with other Friends in BYM should opportunities arise.