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SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2004
We find that we are a Meeting in transition and we are a community with many who are striving to hear and to appreciate more deeply the whisperings of the Spirit in our midst. We are still seeking a more clearly shared understanding of Friends traditions and practice. During the past year, we have lost several seasoned friends to death. Attendance of several others has lapsed. In addition, several members have decreased their participation, perhaps due to the realities of the aging process. In both Meetings for Worship and Meetings for Worship with a Concern for Business, we are endeavoring to listen and to encourage more meaningful communion.
We have been enriched by attenders who bring experience in other faith traditions as well as some who are seeking to find a spiritual home for the first time. Although this brings us tremendous opportunity for growth, it also presents challenges to offer adult religious education which helps us to develop shared traditions. We also have a small number of youth for whom we are striving to provide a rich First Day School experience amid the familiar struggle for adequate human resources so common to small meetings.
We acknowledge that these shifts in the Meeting have presented us with a need to rediscover the meaning of membership and examine the need for regular participation in the life of the Meeting, including, but in no way limited to, regular attendance at Worship and Business Meetings. Some feel that we can best serve Meeting when there is familiarity with and appreciation of why and how Quakers do things. We have become more clear about the need to help Friends and attenders learn more about our process as Friends, both in worship and in business. We have learned more clearly about the important spiritual font which is the Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business and strive to enhance this understanding.
Many in Meeting are spiritually invested in our corporate journey. While we have had some struggles, we recognize that there is a real sense of spiritual investment in Valley Friends Meeting among those who attend regularly and those struggles have brought us closer. Meeting has held people up in times of trauma and crisis. That is the richness of our Meeting. Coming to Meeting is the culmination of a Faith Journey for some Valley Friends and attenders. We share an ongoing sense of community and nurture for one another.
We undertook restructuring our committees, broadening the purview of each committee and intensifying the work of each group. We have found that this has also deepened our work. We have provided more Second Hour opportunities for worship sharing. In addition, we have spent time in several second hours discussing the queries and the ways in which we walk our talk in the world. One popular intergenerational second hour included viewing "Blood makes the Grass Grow" on conscientious objectors and the Gulf War. In part as an outgrowth of this discussion we sent out letters to 24 young adults encouraging them to consider their position on issues of conscientious objection. We have thus far received one response. We held our traditional Easter sunrise service, Strawberry fest and Christmas season candlelight service. As a reminder of the bounty we enjoy we discussed the Simplicity testimony and had a frugal meal. We honored our past with a Meeting for Remembrance. We even had a community swim party at the end of the summer. We have begun to share more about our individual spiritual journeys. We also find the fellowship of our monthly pot lucks important in our development of deeper relationships.
Valley Friends know that each of us bring different talents and abilities for service to the meeting community. We have initiated the remodeling of our basement in order to create space for our youth. Working together on this project has enabled us to discover one another's talents. In addition, it has provided a multitude of tasks in which different people have been able to take significant leadership. This has been a welcome addition. We continue to be blessed by Friends who are and have been deeply involved in the work and life of the Meeting and who carry out the many tasks, sometimes unseen and unsung, which keep our meeting going, our building and grounds in good order, our newsletter published and so much more. We are mindful of and grateful for efforts made by several members and attenders to keep contact with Friends who are unable to attend Meeting regularly; we are further blessed by the connections some Valley Friends have maintained with the families of those whom death has taken from our midst. We continue to seek more and better ways to nurture each other and express our deep appreciation for work done on our behalf
We have been trying to discern meaningful outreach opportunities for Valley Friends and have initiated or participated in several community projects. We are examining the possibility of planting Peace Poles in varied locations throughout the community, including at our own Meeting House. Several members have participated in the Blacks Run Cleanup, helping to improve the stream as it runs through the town of Harrisonburg. The Meeting chose to engage in this service project after considerable corporate discernment late in 2004; a portion of Black's Run is now our Meeting's to maintain and we will engage more fully in this work in the coming year.
The needs and behaviors of our outside world have generated a variety of responses from Valley Friends, some individual and some corporate. In this second year of our Quaker Peacemaker Scholarship Fund, we have provided funding and emotional support for students in Eastern Mennonite University's Conflict Transformation Program and Summer Peacemaking Institute. In 2004 we funded a Burmese refugee who has worked with American Friends Service Committee. During the months since her attendance at the Institute, we have continued to provide her with some financial and emotional support as she has sought medical care and acceptance as a refugee in this country. We continue to seek ways to build the fund through contributions from others. The First Day School planned and carried out a successful Fundraiser for the Heifer project. Our youth have also participated in fundraising for Big Brothers/ Big Sisters.
Members and attenders have participated in national protests and local pro-peace activities together. Many who are active in the larger community strive to walk our Quaker talk and bring our faith into action in the wider world and our local community. We share a commitment to enact our Quaker values in the world.
Concern generated by the need for a Prevention of Sexual Abuse policy, originally generated by our insurance company has heightened the need for deep conversation among Valley Friends. We feel a strong desire to focus on the protection and honoring of our children, not simply on the prevention of abuse. We will continue this work in the current year.
We have struggled with our understanding of the FUM personnel policy on sexual relationships outside of traditional marriage. Regarding the prohibition this places on homosexual Friends, many Valley Friends unite with the Friends General Conference Central Committee statement that "our experience has been that spiritual gifts are not distributed with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity." We have also united in a desire to engage in dialogue with the FUM leadership, and have communicated with them regarding this desire. We are seeking ways to create opportunities to pursue this in 2005.
As we move into a new year, Valley Friends plan to continue to strengthen our commitment to the Spirit and to each other by making room at our shared table for all Friends, old and young, seasoned and fresh. We hope both to create more profound shared understanding of our spiritual journey as Friends and also to continue offering support to each other as we walk in the world.
Interchange, Spring 2005
Valley Friends celebrated Thanksgiving season with our annual Frugal
Meal. We shared the event with a local Mennonite congregation. Funds
raised from this simple meal were sent to Right Sharing of World
Resources. Christmas festivities included caroling at the homes
of some older Friends. Fellowship and refreshments finished off
the evening. Our annual candle light sharing of Christmas reflections
is a highlight of each year. This year, our young people shared
their diverse talents with us. We look forward to the opportunities
the new year brings.
Interchange, Dec 2004
Valley Friends celebrated the end of summer with a party that featured
F(f)riends, food, swimming and visiting. This intergenerational
event was enjoyed by all.
Our new year began in September. Our clerk has embarked on an ambitious
program of personal visits to each family in the Meeting to hear
their joys and concerns. We appreciate his willingness to pursue
this time consuming project and look forward to hearing his reflections
on these visits.
The Property Committee has organized several workdays directed
at completing the renovation of the basement. This will give us
three additional rooms.
The women of the Meeting held their third annual sleepover at the
Meeting in November. This has become an important community building
event.
We will celebrate an Evening of Remembrance this month to celebrate
the lives and share memories of those who have died over the past
few years.
There are issues of concern among us that we will continue to work
with. The aging and death of active members of our community required
we combine several committees to honestly reflect the number of
people we have to fulfill the duties of these committees. We are
concerned about the issues of discrimination facing Baltimore Yearly
Meeting and its relationship with Friends United Meeting. We continue
to process what our response as a Meeting should be.
Interchange, March 2004
Fall was a busy time for Valley Friends. In October Mike Heller
of Roanoke Meeting, and an expert on John Woolman, presented a program
on "John Woolman's Spiritual Journey". Mike's presentation and the
discussion that it generated was thoughtful and rewarding. We held
our frugal meal in November with contributions going to Right Sharing
of World Resources and the Blue Ridge Food Bank. The women of the
meeting held their second annual overnight at the meetinghouse.
We are grateful for this opportunity to be together and the sense
of community it provides. Our youth solicited sponsors for reading
for the Read to Feed program of the Heifer Project International.
The Christmas season was celebrated with a program by the youth
and our annual candle lighting service. This program of worship
sharing with Christmas as the theme is a highlight of our holiday
season.
SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2003
Members and attenders consider Valley Friends their spiritual home, and meeting for worship to be the touchstone of their spiritual life. It seems that Meeting also enriches the spiritual journeys of those within our community.
Personal experience, expectations, and context impacts perceptions of the quality of meeting for worship. While worship is generally described as satisfactory, all realize that it could be deeper. Some find certain types of messages more meaningful than other types. There is a sense that our spiritual community would be deepened by greater awareness of and familiarity with Quaker tradition, and unprogrammed worship would be enhanced. Those in the meeting also continue to feel and struggle with the ever-present tension between collective and individual religious experience.
Members and attenders find meeting for worship with a concern for business to be generally worshipful. and resulting in decisions that reflect the sense of the meeting. Despite positive feedback on the new, shorter format, there are some remaining perceptions that business meeting is unduly long and too focused on unimportant details. There is also concern that, despite format changes, attendance remains low.
Valley Friends would like to see growth in both Meeting attendance and in membership in Valley Friends Meeting. Many spoke to the need to increase outside awareness of Quakerism in general and Valley Friends specifically.
A new second hour format featuring a mix of outside speakers, social activities and group discussions on the queries has received favorable response. However, there does not seem to be an ideal mix of these activities that would suit all preferences, and there continues to be a need for a variety of second hour activities,
Potlucks continue to be an important intergenerational social activity. However, members and attenders expressed a desire for additional opportunities to connect more deeply with others in Meeting. This is tempered by the realization that the majority of those in our meeting community are often hard pressed to find additional time and energy for activities outside of family and workplace commitments. Although not always well-attended, special activities such as the women's retreat, Friendly 8's, and 5th Sunday breakfasts were deeply appreciated by those who participated.
After an intense burst of activity in the wake of 9-11, there is a general sense that the meeting's corporate peace and social concerns efforts have fallen somewhat by the wayside. Instead of collaborating on one or more concerted efforts, Friends and attenders are apparently devoting time and financial resources to selected concerns in response to personal leadings. Friends also express the importance of corporate peace and social concern endeavors in life of Meeting. An example of this is the effort to help young friends develop personal responses to the Quaker peace testimony and related issue of conscientious objection.
There is no single perception as to how well Meeting responds to the needs of all parts of our community, For example, some Friends and attenders perceive the need of more adults to work with youth. However, sporadic attendance and a wide range of ages among participating youth can make this a challenging and sometimes frustrating experience for others involved. Friends and attenders express feelings of loss regarding
our elders' reduced ability to participate in Meeting and social activities. Perceptions vary as to the adequacy of Meeting's response to our elders' changing needs. Friends and attenders are also unclear about the most helpful way to respond to our elders' various situations, and this will continue to be an area requiring awareness, action and clarity.
Friends and attenders are grateful for our Meeting community, but at least some express a desire for closer connections among us. One member has suggested that perhaps the absence of commonality, purpose and unity in worship affects the quality of our community life in ways we do not fully understand. Friends and attenders long for a deeper sense of community. Yet we must acknowledge that community is only generated by life together its a result of self-investment and involvement. We see this awareness as a challenge for those in Valley Friends Meeting to examine possible discrepancies between our wants and actions.
This report was prepared by the Valley Friends Ministry and Worship committee. In February, the committee solicited feedback from members and attenders concerning the spiritual state of the meeting. Questionnaires were generated and made available via E-mail and at meeting for worship. Six responses were completed and returned, and they were used as the basis of this report. The report was read and approved during the March 2004 meeting for business.
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