What is happening when we come together to listen for what the Spirit is calling us to do?

How do our disciplines help us to be sufficiently open to hear and heed God’s callings?

Most importantly, how can we put aside our own “stuff,” not eschewing our intellect, but rather our pre-dispositions and pre-judgments?

What’s God got to do with it when we turn to business?

Our pre-Annual Session retreat always calls us to address this question of the relationship between Spirit and our business. In this year’s retreat, we will weave our pursuit of this question with some consideration of how we are guided by history - both general history and our own personal history. What things influence our ability to listen in the present? How do we bring the unseen into awareness? How do we help others to do this as well, particularly when it comes to the pre-judgments and pre-conceptions which influence our interactions with one another? How do we avoid assumptions?

When we look at the history and current reality of racism among Friends, we recognize all too frequently that we have just gone along with the realities of our culture, being far less “peculiar” here than we are in other contexts. How do we allow Spirit and our connection through Spirit with each other to truly influence and indeed determine our interactions with others? What tools can we bring to bear on our work in this undertaking?

Please join me as we listen with patience and hope to the Spirit and with care to one another as we ground ourselves in preparation for our Annual Session.

Jean-Marie Prestwidge–Barch