Baltimore, Homewood

• Interchange, Spring 2007
• Interchange, Fall 2006
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2005
• FUM Policy Concern
   
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2004
• Interchange, December 2004
• Interchange, September 2004
• Interchange, May 2004
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2003

In many ways, Homewood Friends Meeting thrived in 2004. Our Meeting's strengths continue to be magnified by Friends' and attenders' commitment, participation and gifts shared across the Meeting's life. The number of families who made financial, as well as other, contributions to the Meeting increased. Amid the Meeting's strengths, we searched together to address ongoing challenges we face: providing sufficient support for our First Day School; tending to the character, qualities, and spiritual hospitality of vocal ministry; knowing each other more intimately on a spiritual level; and remaining rooted as a religious society and as spiritual persons within an angry and painfully divided nation. On the whole, the Meeting nourished our spiritual lives, offering both balm and challenge, individually and as a community.

Meeting for Worship was attended by about 45 - 70 people each First Day. Usually attenders included from 5 to10 visitors, some of whom have been traveling Friends, but most of whom were new to Quaker worship. The quality of worship varied week by week, yet the Committee's sense is that meetings often were deep sources of needed spiritual refreshment to Friends and attenders. After a period of mostly silent meetings, this year Homewood appears to be in a new stage of increased vocal ministry, by a wider array of persons giving messages. This is experienced differently across the Meeting, and Friends have expressed divergent views about both messages and silences in Meeting for Worship. We continue to grapple with this aspect of our collective worship.

Spiritual Inquiry and Nurture. Homewood Friends sought several ways this year to strengthen our collective spiritual journey. In the spring, both newcomers and seasoned Friends attended a six-session orientation to Friends' faith and practice. Participants responded enthusiastically and requested further, more advanced learning and discussion. Young Adult Friends met monthly throughout the year, and in addition to worship sharing, the group hosted a gathering with a speaker and discussion of Friends' vocal ministry. The Ministry and Worship committee sought to aid the Homewood community to deepen our collective understanding and practice of vocal ministry, as both gift and responsibility, and held several discussions with individuals and as a committee. Discussion groups held on the first First Day of the Month examined this and other topics relevant to Friends' beliefs. Conversation together over simple lunch after Meeting for Worship continues to contribute to our sense of community.

The spiritual development of our children and teen-agers is also important to us. Relying heavily on a group of hard-working, dedicated volunteer teachers, the Meeting's First Day School provided classes for four different age groups. The curriculum included Bible studies, Friends' history, beliefs and practices and social witness activities. The First Day School's Christmas pageant was again a highlight of the year.

Social Witness to Friends' Faith. Collectively and individually, Homewood Friends continued to strive to make our world a better place. Numerous members of our Meeting participated in myriad social witness events. Among the many activities were the weekly peace vigils in front of the Meetinghouse; participation with diverse congregations in the Baltimore region in the work of BRIDGE; voter registration and poll-watching; and work (with Stony Run) to obtain recognition of the right of Maryland's imprisoned Native Americans to practice their faith. Numerous members undertook social witness activities as individuals, through Friends' organizations and otherwise. A strength of the Meeting is the ties among many members who consult informally to remain attuned to their spiritual Guide.

We continue to treasure our Administrative Coordinator, Elizabeth DuVerlie, whose deep knowledge of the Religious Society of Friends she shares generously, competently and efficiently. Elizabeth enriches our spiritual lives by including readings relevant to the Queries in the weekly announcements and the monthly newsletter, informing us of events and action opportunities likely to interest Friends, and bringing relevant materials to the attention of committees.

Challenges. Despite our strengths, we wrestled with some serious problems in 2004. We faced a particularly difficult phase of the recurring problem of how to staff and support our First Day School without overstressing our most dedicated band of teachers. After a threshing session, the Meeting approved the proposal of the Religious Education Committee to hire a curriculum coordinator. Concerns about the Meeting's spiritual well-being, including its vocal ministries, prompted multiple forms of tender (and not so tender) discussion. Our Meeting nearly achieved unity on its recommendation to Baltimore Yearly Meeting about homophobia in Friends United Meeting, yet achieved agreement when one Friend stood aside. The poor acoustics in the Meeting room remain a continuing problem. We laid down Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Healing because of low attendance. It is our sense that our struggles with these issues helped to strengthen our corporate life.

Changes in membership. The Meeting community gathered for three memorials this year. Multitudes of friends, colleagues and family shared stories and feelings in mourning the loss of beloved members John Brown Newman and Russell Groff at Memorial Meetings in the fall of the year. "Brownie", the husband of Jeanne Newman, gave bountifully to Homewood of his steadfast love, warmth and intellect for forty years. Russell Groff, the spouse of Kevin Douglas Olive, left us an all-too-brief experience of his gentle soul when an acute illness ended his young life. In the spring, a diverse cross-section of Baltimore's cultural, educational, political and business communities celebrated the life of Anne Thomas Carey Boucher in the manner of Friends at our Meetinghouse. She was the granddaughter of Anthony Morris Carey and Margaret Thomas Carey, weighty members of Homewood during 1910-1950 period. The Meeting also mourned the death of longtime member Meta Tschudy.

We welcomed eight new members: Douglas Bartlett, Karen Cook, Brad Ebersole, Reginald Flowers, Caleb Hawley, Anita Poloway, Claire Twose and Kelly Vikstrom. We also welcomed newborn Hope Robie-Craven and provided oversight for the joyous wedding of Caleb Hawley and Robin Brilliante.

An abundance of new members has blessed our community this year with spiritual creativity. Brad Ebersoll and Kelly Vikstrom were accepted in September and October. Claire Twose and Douglas Bartlett transferred their membership in May (the last Interchange listed their surname incorrectly).

Russell Groff was recently released from ICU and is off a respirator. His doctors informed his partner, Kevin Douglas-Olive, that his improvement was a miracle. Kevin credits the positive energies and prayers of many friends for the miracle. However, Russell is still seriously ill.  Homewood has held two in-hospital Meetings for Healing. Kevin requests ongoing prayers for Russell and himself.

John "Brownie" Newman died of a heart attack on Wednesday, October 27, age 83, in Evanston, Illinois. About 100 family members, friends and colleagues attended a memorial service on November 6. Many messages emphasized the joy that Brownie brought to everyone's lives.

An Advancement and Outreach workshop on December 11 from 1:30 to 8:00 p.m. will revisit the reasons we chose Homewood to be our spiritual home and explore ways to invite others to join us. A Quaker Response to Christian Fundamentalism is a seven-part series based on a new curriculum developed by BYM and Sally King and led by Homewood member Kevin Douglas-Olive. Each session contains a presentation followed by discussion and worship. Remaining dates are 11/22, 12/06, 12/20, and 1/17/05.

Several Homewood women are diligently working on the final plans for the 2005 Women's Retreat.

The Peace and Social Witness Committee drafted a letter which we sent to Governor Robert Erlich asking that Maryland recognize the legality of same-sex married couples who come to Maryland, having been married in places where such marriages are legal.

Homewood has welcomed several new members so far during 2004: Karen Cook, Claire and Doug Storey in May, transferring their membership from Swannanoa Valley Meeting in North Carolina, Anita Polloway, Caleb Hawley and Reginald Flowers. Homewood Friends celebrated the wedding of Caleb Hawley and Robin Brillante at the meetinghouse on June 26.

Many Homewood Friends have been involved with AFSC in voter registration efforts through Baltimore Votes! Some have also gone to other states to do voter registration with America Coming Together.

The Young Adult Friends (YAF) group is open to all between the ages of 18 and 35-ish, from Meetings in the region and interested others. It meets for socializing, eating and worship on the first Tuesday evening of each month. On occasion, there is an outside speaker. YAFers say, Bring food to share if possible, but come anyway; there’s always enough. Potluck is at 7 p.m., Meeting for Worship starts at 8 p.m.

Marriage/Ceremonies of Commitment:  Russell Groff and Kevin-Douglas Olive, 10/25/2003 Death:  Pam Acher, 10/30/2003

SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2003

The year 2003 challenged many of us at Homewood Meeting to examine our Quaker compass. Within the past year, attendance at Homewood has grown, as we have enjoyed an influx of attenders. Some have been drawn to the Meeting because of the war in Iraq, and some have been attracted by the presence of the Young Adult Friends under the care of Homewood. Complementing the new faces is our core of members and longtime attenders who provide stability. This exciting addition of newcomers has renewed the necessity to define both what it means to be a Quaker in the world and what it means to be a Friend within the Homewood community.

Committee work offers us the opportunity to renew and refresh these definitions. The various committees offer Homewood members and attenders, seasoned and new, forums in which they simultaneously become more intimate with each other and strengthen Homewood's capacity to fulfill spiritual and community needs. Clearness and Counsel and Ministry and Worship attempt to address the spiritual needs of a growing group; in addition, they educate us about the Society of Friends. Trustees and Stewardship and Finance assess and protect the Meeting's financial assets so that these assets may continue to preserve the building in which we celebrate our faith and commitment to each other and to the greater community. At the same time they also seek to put our dollars to work to further our goals of social justice and provide financial support to Quaker organizations. Peace and Social Witness demonstrates our financial and moral witness in even more concrete ways and expresses the core of our testimonies. With the continuing war in Iraq, the Friday peace vigils remain a vital expression of the peace testimony. Religious Education nurtures our younger members, celebrating their lively role in our community and educating them so that they will understand their presence as Quakers within society at large. In addition, Homewood is re-establishing the Advancement and Outreach Committee to bridge the gap between Homewood and newcomers. Other committees also straddle the inner and outer worlds, as they work tirelessly to define and address their goals within the context of the Meeting.

Representatives of our various committees and others join monthly under the loving guidance of our clerk, Beth Edelstein, as we gather for Monthly Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business. A sober expression of our imperfect striving to fulfill our testimonies, Meeting for Business also celebrates community. Even with the hurried simple lunches before hand and the clatter of dishes, even with hot summer afternoons or glorious autumn days with deep blue sky, we settle into silence. Usually we conduct business smoothly, but sometimes, only after thorny discussion are we able to unite.

And finally, there is Meeting for Worship. This year (as in many others), we have encountered challenges as we sought to balance the needs and feelings of individuals with those of the worshipping community.

During many Meetings for Worship we have few or no messages, although during the period of Joys and Sorrows people frequently feel moved to share requests for prayer and short messages. We continue to struggle with the acoustics in our very large, simple Meeting Room. The Meeting room, built generations ago to accommodate a Five Year Meeting, seats 250, and while it is often full for weddings and memorials, weekly attendance for worship varies from 40 to 70. Repeatedly we hear expressions of concern and regret that worshipers do not sit more closely together as a worshiping community. Multiple committees have studied ways to solve this problem, yet technical solutions are expensive, and Friends have not united around simple solutions such as sitting together, or removing, roping or reconfiguring benches. Many in the Meeting are attached to the room as it is, and speak of the comfort or relief they find in its spacious quiet. And yet not all messages can be heard. We have many latecomers, and outside noise in the summer competes with our seeking.

The Meeting continues to grapple with these issues. The space issues highlight the Meeting's renewed attention to vocal ministry among the kinds of ministry to which Homewood Friends are called. It has been difficult to discern what connections, if any, there are between the room's size, numbers in attendance, proximity and distance of worshipers, timely and prepared arrival, the frequency of Meetings with no messages, and the wide diversity of spiritual paths suggested by the messages offered in worship. These issues about the quality of Meeting for Worship suggest that we need sustained and patient dialogue about vocal ministry and silence in our corporate worship.

Additional forms of spiritual communion that include worship are proliferating within the Meeting. The Religious Education committee continues to offer evenings of intergenerational fellowship, with a worship sharing time for adults, and Family Worship in the library a few times during the year. A Meeting for Healing takes place each month. A Young Adult Friends group has formed among people 18-35ish, who share meals, book discussions, explorations of Friends' practices, and worship once a month. Homewood members participate with enthusiasm in spiritual retreats within the Yearly Meeting. A renewal has occurred in the First Day program for teens, led by Gary Gillespie, exploring ways Quakers walk the testimonies' talk.

Completing Meeting and committee business has become easier for all with the welcome addition of Administrative Coordinator Elizabeth DuVerlie. We are very grateful for all that she does, for the Friendly reminders that are woven into our days by her thoughtful emails and telephone calls. Her presence has enabled us to concentrate more deeply on the spiritual fiber of our work together.