Williamsburg

• Interchange, Fall 2009
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2008
• Interchange, Fall 2008
• Interchange, Summer 2008
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2007
• Minute on FUM Concern - 2008
• Interchange, Summer 2007
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2006
• 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, May 2004
• Interchange, March 2004
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2003

Williamsburg Friends Meeting continues to meet faithfully although a number of us have been away or working this summer. Two Friends traveled together to England and brought back greetings from several Friends Meetings there. And one Friend returned to Opequon to be the head cook for a month.

We are sending one of our young Friends off to college this fall, and while we will miss him, we know that he is ready to join a larger community of his peers. Those of us who remember Taylor as a small child are now experiencing the joy of having watched a young person grow into a deeply spiritual and grounded teenager. We have been grateful to be part of his journey and his family has expressed gratitude for our Meeting’s support over many years.

We continue to minister to the frail and grieving among us and to support a local food pantry. We are planning a retreat on nonviolent communication for November and once again many of us will participate in the Spiritual Formation program.

Strengths and Failings

Our chief strength is that we really do care for each other; we take the responsibilities of community seriously. A number of Friends in the past year have needed care in one way or another, and we have helped each other. The illness and death of our clerk, Bob Solomon, was an experience of community as well as grief, as we supported Bob and his wife Linda Winston in the months before his death, and Linda in the months since then. Even Friends who no longer attend meeting returned to be part of the caring community in this time of need.

Our Meeting is blessed by many relationships in which people can address each other directly in terms of the Spirit. Probably this has been fostered by the groups in the Spiritual Formation Program. We are very willing to accept each person on the basis of his/her own calling and gifts, making allowances for all our shortcomings.

As a group we are not able to take care of many others outside the community, but this is not so much a failing as a fact; we are small, and self-care is necessary. This priority appears proper to us, although we regret not being able to do more.

We identify our small size as a weakness. We are such a small group that we may be unappealing to families with children. It is hard to sustain momentum and energy when the group is so small. We are aware of meetings similar to ours that have grown much larger because of a core of people really dedicated to First Day School; families were drawn to the meeting because of FDS. We have not had this circumstance.

Worship/Ministry

The ministry we hear is invariably welcome, and our silences are rich. We are blessed in not having inappropriate vocal ministry. We observe that as a worshiping group we have grown better with practice. It is evident that we do somehow encourage vocal ministry: We have heard ministry from newcomers, out-of-town visitors, and children. Our practice of soliciting “afterthoughts” also opens up an easier place to share. In general we feel we can speak plainly to each other about our spiritual lives.

Our meeting space is good for us – it is quiet and visually open to the outdoors, and good things happen here the other days of the week. We are grateful for the relationship with our hosts, the Williamsburg Montessori School.

Two Friends have been serving as puppy-raisers and trainers for Service Dogs of Virginia, and their dog Flint has attended Meeting with them. As he has matured from a puppy of eight weeks to young adult-doghood, Flint has learned to be quiet and has been the inspiration for several messages during worship.

Meetings for Business

Considering our size, our Meetings for Business are consistently well attended. We are not much stretched in our business meetings because we do not often have many concerns to consider. We own no building, have a small membership, and have few active committees. We have moved toward conducting ourselves in better Quaker order over the years. Our business meetings are characterized by lack of contention (perhaps a benefit of our small size), and our deliberations have brought some very good ideas to light. We are grateful for the faithful attendance of our Friends from Norfolk Worship Group.

Committees

Peace and Social Concerns continues in direct community service, largely due to the efforts of one person. We make ongoing contributions to the food pantry at FISH. We adopted a family again for Christmas and collected clothing and school supplies when school started.

Religious Education. We conduct First-Day School every other week, with a number of people sharing the teaching. We are welcoming some families with young children. Our Second Hour adult RE program has not been very consistent: the quality has been good, but frequency has been problematic. The adult group plus our high school Young Friends have enjoyed discussions of the Quaker Response to Christian Fundamentalism.

Ministry and Oversight. Ministry and Oversight oversaw a Memorial Meeting for our beloved long-term member and Clerk, Bob Solomon. The meeting was very well-attended, and the many messages from members of the Williamsburg community were a testament to the caring and compassion that characterized Bob’s life.

We regret not having had the opportunity to join with Friends from other meetings at the spring retreat that was planned by BYM’s Ministry and Pastoral Care committee, and we hope that the future will bring another chance for this kind of spiritual exchange.

We are committed to sharing social and service activities with Friends from Mattaponi and Norfolk in the coming year.

Stewardship and Finance has done an excellent job of looking at our financial state and guiding us into amending our budget and working within our limited means. This committee functions well.

Website and Newsletter. We are blessed with the continued dedication of a geographically distant Friend who tends our website, which helps us build community and has brought us several visitors. The Friend who writes our newsletter has done a good job of keeping us informed. We are grateful for her faithful service.

What is most needed to deepen the spiritual life of the Meeting and to strengthen its witness in behalf of Friends’ testimonies to the world?

Being more connected to the wider Quaker world would be helpful to our Meeting. We recall our hosting of Interim Meeting and the infusion of care and energy from the wider community that came with it. Friends who attend the annual sessions, Spiritual Formation retreats, and the women’s retreat find these to be powerful and inspirational experiences. We need to continue reaching out to the wider BYM community, both individually and as a Meeting.

Williamsburg Friends are still mourning the loss of our clerk, Bob Solomon, who died May 2nd after a short battle with cancer. A memorial service for Bob was held on May 18. Bob, a neurologist in Williamsburg, was well-loved by his patients, many of whom spoke eloquently about his kindness and empathy. He was also active in a local peace group and had many friends and colleagues who were deeply respectful of his commitment to living a spirit-filled life. His absence leaves yet another large hole in our very small Meeting.

We continue to meet faithfully in spite of our small size. We have welcomed Flint, a labrador retriever puppy who is being trained by two of our members to be a service dog and who comes to worship each First Day eager and ready to learn about obedience and expectant waiting. We will also welcome William and Mary students with worship and a potluck on August 31.

Williamsburg Friends Meeting hosted approximately 60 people for BYM's Interim Meeting on March 29th. Because we are a small meeting and quite far away from the central office, we were grateful for the presence of these visiting Friends and glad to feel embedded in the larger Quaker community. We enjoyed planning the meals and some of us felt that we'd come away from the weekend with not only a deeper understanding of Quaker process but also the possibility of some new friends.

In February we held an all day retreat on spirituality and creativity, which was enjoyed by all. Our ongoing food and clothing drives provide us with links to the greater Williamsburg community.

We continue to nurture and support our clerk who is gravely ill, and yet another Williamsburg Friend has a parent who is close to death. In spite of these losses, we feel Spirit working among us and are thankful for our small and close-knit community.

Our small community has continued to experience losses since we last considered our spiritual state. One of the oldest members, a Friend from Norfolk Preparative Meeting, died at the age of 91; five Friends lost parents; and one family moved away. In addition, our Clerk is gravely ill. The Meeting has been faithful in supporting its members through their journeys of grief. We continue to support our clerk and his wife with visits, food, prayer, and good humor. We feel these losses deeply but realize that we have a feeling of closeness in our small meeting that is harder to find in a larger meeting, and we are grateful for this.

We miss the presence of young children in our meeting. At present we have only one family with children: three teenagers and an eight-year-old. We suspect that young families attending for the first time may be hesitant to return. However, we remind ourselves that all of the things we perceive as gains and losses are part of God’s work. We realize that we can be thankful for what we have been given, not being so anxious to ask for more. We acknowledge that we are in a place of watching and waiting.

Clearly one of the strengths of our Meeting continues to be the Spiritual Formation Group. A large percentage of the Meeting participates in the program, and both the large group and the small groups are cherished. The trust and interconnectedness that have grown through this program are surely one reason for the closeness of our community.

When we ask ourselves if we are grounded in the Spirit, we affirm that we are. We have an awareness of Spirit-led action, and also of spiritually infused, Spirit-led inaction. Two qualities that seem to describe our spiritual condition are discernment and community.

As a Meeting we have experienced no call to community action. We are intentional in not undertaking things without sensing a leading to do so. We feel we are faithful to God’s call to us at this moment in our Meeting’s history. We seek clarity about what is, not lamentation about what is not.

Our vocal ministry, when it comes, is meaningful; it has deepened and matured, and comes from a place of having waited upon God. Our silence too has deepened; we take care of it. We are blessed in not having problems with disruptive or inappropriate ministry.

Committees Ministry and Oversight oversaw a wedding in June in conjunction with Mattaponi Worship Group, and a memorial meeting in October.

Peace and Social Concerns. Our consistent social witness is ongoing support of a local food drive and clothing collections. Organized and implemented by one member, our efforts generate several bags of groceries for the food pantry every month. We adopted a family for Christmas as we have done in the past. We collected school supplies, and we supported activities at a day treatment center for mental health. Individual members of the meeting are also active in a local peace group and an anti-racism group.

Religious Education. The First Day School program has had less continuity this year because of the loss of both children and adult members. The adult program offers topics as Friends volunteer to present them; and consistently on third Sundays we have topics on spiritual development.

We gained no new members this year but welcomed a long-time Friend from Charlottesville. We recognized birthdays every month with a birthday cake and cards. We send cards to members who are sick. We do support and care for each other; we know this is one of our strengths. Some of our newer attenders report that their affiliation with us has been powerful and enlightening.

When we feel challenged by the paucity of members, we remind ourselves: This is God’s meeting. We have been given a caring community and we know it is enough.

Williamsburg Friends Meeting does not wish to be affiliated with Friends United Meeting and does not wish any part of its Baltimore Yearly Meeting apportionment to be used to support Friends United Meeting in any way, including its missionary work. Further, we urge Baltimore Yearly Meeting to immediately discontinue its membership in Friends United Meeting.

Williamsburg Friends Meeting has been focused on nurturing members and attenders of our small community this Winter and Spring. One of our elders from Norfolk Preparative Meeting was very ill this winter but has made a nice recovery. Another elder in Williamsburg suffered a back injury and was unable to worship with us for almost two months. He too has returned to Peace and Social Concerns continues its food and clothing drive for local families in need, and our friends at Mattaponi Preparative Meeting are moving into their new space in a barn built on the farm where they have been worshipping for a number of years.

Two of our Young Friends, who are living away from home, will return to Camp Shiloh and Camp Opequon this summer as staff members, and several other youngsters will also attend camp. One of our Young Friends, now a college senior, will be married under the care of Mattaponi Meeting in June.

Individual Friends continue to work with a local peace group and with an anti-racism group in town. Our spiritual formation group was strong and well-attended this year.

Spirit continues to work powerfully among us and we are grateful to have each other through all these ups and downs.

Williamsburg Friends Meeting has seen some important changes this past year. Our dear Friend and former co-clerk Suzanne Tignor died in April, leaving an empty space at the core of our Meeting. During her illness, we took Meeting for Worship to her house for as long as she was able to participate. She participated in her small spiritual formation group until just a few weeks before she died, and several Friends were active in her spiritual care as she went through the process of dying. We still miss her, and our grieving has made us feel closer to her and to each other. A Memorial Minute for Suzanne was read at Baltimore Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions this year. We gratefully report that several newcomers have arrived and have been regular attenders for some months now, and their strongly spiritual presence has helped to replenish both our number and our spirits. We feel we have become better able to welcome newcomers, and indeed our newcomers report that they have felt welcome. We are agreed that the spiritual core of our Meeting is strong, supported and nurtured by inspiring vocal ministry that arises out of the depth of our shared silence at Meeting. We are grateful that the Montessori school space where we have met for a little more than a year nurtures our spirit and feels welcoming and comforting. Our most important fundamental activity, that of providing spiritual support and refreshment to all members and attenders, proceeds regularly each First Day. For those who feel that their spiritual messages are not completely ready to be shared as ministry during Meeting for Worship proper, we continue to reserve a few minutes just afterward for Friends to share "afterthoughts." Our Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business continues to be reasonably well attended with good participation and proceeds in good order. We are still aware of our small size, and the effect that has on the number of tasks that can be accomplished. Our committees don't work very well, for example. Another example is that we have struggled this year to have a cohesive First Day School program for our youngsters because there have been so few people who want to teach. We had eleven Friends, including several newcomers, join our Spiritual Formation Group for this year, and it has again been a powerful source of spiritual guidance and development for those participating. Two Friends attended the BYM Reteat. We continue to nurture Mattaponi Preparative Meeting and the worship group in Norfolk. Friends from Norfolk participate regularly in our monthly business meetings, and we have been working to develop shared activities with our friends at Mattaponi. We note that many Williamsburg Friends have had personal or family illnesses, and are thus preoccupied. We feel we've been able to support each other personally, but some committee work has suffered.

Adult Religious Education

Child Religious Education

Peace and Social Concerns

Ministry and Oversight

Conclusion

Williamsburg Friends are still mourning the loss of clerk Suzanne Tignor who died April 5, 2006 after a long battle with cancer. But in spite of this hole in our midst, our small meeting continues to flourish and change.

We supported six youngsters to go to Quaker Camps this summer and had one young friend who returned to Opequon as a counselor. A college student who has ably run our First Day School for several years has graduated and moved away, so we are now discovering that each of us has talents and time to devote to this program. We continue to focus our energies on local social problems, and to this end we have had an ongoing food and clothing drive to help families in need and have just completed a school supply drive. We have a strong spiritual formation group which will begin again this month.

It has been almost a year since we moved from a home where we had been worshipping in for many years into the local Montessori School. It is a nurturing space and we have developed a positive relationship with the school. One Williamsburg Friend, a potter, became their artist in residence for a semester. We welcome new attenders and are looking forward to embracing some William and Mary students.

As we review the spiritual state of our Meeting over the past year we find both strengths and weaknesses, and we strive to report accurately on both.

The year 2005 has perhaps been most notable for the changes our Meeting has undergone. Our most joyous occasion was the marriage of two Friends under the care of the Meeting. The ceremony was carried out in good Quaker order, and the reception offered food and drink that was enjoyed by all. The happy couple have remarked on how important the support of the Meeting has been to them, and specifically how useful the Clearness Committee was.

Other changes have brought a measure of sadness to us. Two families, including seven children, have left the Meeting, and a long-time attender who was very active in the Meeting's Committee on Peace and Social Concerns has relocated permanently.

Sadly, one of the Co-Clerks, who has been living with a cancer diagnosis for almost ten years, took a turn for the worse last spring and died while we were writing this report. The loss of her presence at our Meeting and to individual Friends who love her leaves a hole in our world. For several months the Meeting sent two or three Friends each week to worship with her and her family in their home. Individual Friends also visited and helped with her caretaking. We remembered her in our prayers, and mourned her absence from Meeting each First Day, and shall continue to do so.

The two Friends in whose house we met for many years relocated to be closer to family, necessitating our finding another meeting space. We are still in contact with them, but their loss as regular worshippers is irreplaceable, and we are still feeling somewhat diminished. The good news is that we have gained some new attenders, who have added new insights and new spirit to our gathering. New additions to the Meeting include a long-time Friend from Maryland and her spouse who recently moved to our area, as well as several newcomers from this area.

We now meet in a Montessori school, which we are finding very congruent with our Quaker spiritual beliefs and quite satisfying for our physical needs. Not only is it spacious, peaceful and quiet, but it also allows us to conduct First Day School in a separate building without disturbing the Meeting for Worship. Members of the Montessori community have greeted us warmly, and some have begun attending our Meeting. One Friend, a potter, has already served as Artist in Residence for the school.

Our most important fundamental activity, that of providing spiritual support and refreshment to all members and attenders, proceeds regularly twice weekly on each First Day and each Fourth Day. The Fourth Day meeting takes place near the campus of The College of William and Mary, and meets in the early evening, so that students and faculty of The College can attend. It continues to be less well attended than the First Day Meeting, and in the past year Friends have considered laying it down because of the low attendance. This is still under consideration.

Our Meetings for Worship take place in a worshipful silence, interjected by vocal ministry that has been particularly welcome recently. Now that the First Day School is conducted in a separate building, we feel the quality of silence has deepened. We hear vocal ministry often and it speaks to our condition. We are all gratified to experience the profound and peaceful silence known as a covered Meeting on a regular basis, being particularly reminded at these times that God is always among us.

For those who feel that their spiritual messages are not completely ready to be shared as ministry during Meeting for Worship proper, we continue to reserve a few minutes just afterward for Friends to share "Afterthoughts."

Our Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business continues to be reasonably well attended with good participation and proceeds in good order. However, due to losses, we note that there are not as many Friends to share the work.

We had a good number of Friends joining our Spiritual Formation Group for this year, and it has again been a powerful source of spiritual guidance and development for those participating.

Williamsburg Friends try to welcome to newcomers without pressure, being mindful that some who come to Quaker Meeting for the first time may have had negative experiences of pressure to join other religious organizations. We feel blessed to be small enough so that newcomers can be given a personal welcome by all Friends.

Another way that our Meeting reaches out to potential new Friends is through our website, which continues to be maintained by a Friend who has relocated. We continue to hear from newcomers that they have found us through the website.

Adult Religious Education: Our Adult Religious Education takes place during second hour each First Day. Last year, it was decided that Friends in the Spiritual Formation Group would provide a second-hour presentation based on each of the SFG readings. This practice has been continued this year and has been well received. Other Second Hour subjects have included information on Norfolk Preparative Meeting's trip to the Heifer Project in Honduras, FUM's hiring discrimination policy, a presentation on affordable housing in Virginia by the Virginia Organizing Project, a presentation on slavery and genocide in the Sudan, and an hour on African literature by a Friend who was with Voice of America for many years and worked in Africa. We also had a day-long retreat on poverty and education.

Child Religious Education: Our First-Day School is six children, a smaller number than in the past. We are sharing the teaching duties among a larger pool, with the result that more of the adults are getting to know the children. We are grateful for the dedication of a William and Mary graduate student who has been the mainstay of our First Day School program.

Peace and Social Concerns: This committee has been quite active this year, with a shift in emphasis toward local community projects. We supported two families for Christmas and supported one family whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and we are providing ongoing support to a local charity that provides food for those who need it. Much of this activity is credited to the initiative of the convener of the committee. Friends feel that the Meeting as a whole still lacks corporate commitment to public witness.

Ministry and Oversight: We continue the work of caring for WFM members and attenders. Several important events were sponsored in the past year. We again provided a welcoming event for students returning to The College of William and Mary in September. It was well attended by Friends and students. As noted above, we ministered to our Friend who was gravely ill. We helped Friends who moved. And we provided birthday cakes monthly for those Friends celebrating birthdays in that month.

Conclusion: This past year has been one of many changes during which we have lost weighty Friends and families whom we love and value. We also lost a Meeting space that many of us had come to see as sacred. Despite our losses, we experienced community as we worked together in love and support. Living through these painful challenges has helped us to observe how the Light of God can lead us as well as comfort us on our journeys. Our community continues to feel grateful and blessed for the opportunity that our Meeting affords us for spiritual guidance, inspiration, and caring community support.

Following a long illness, Suzanne Tignor, presiding co-clerk of Williamsburg Friends Meeting and member since its earliest days, died 5th day, 4th month, 2006. A memorial minute is forthcoming in the fall issue of the Interchange; a remembrance web page is accessible at www.williamsburgfriends.org.

Williamsburg Friends Meeting has been meeting for several years in the warm and welcoming home of Peg and Len McMaster. However, the McMasters are now are in the process of moving, and our Meeting will have to relocate. We are looking for a new home, and are exploring several options. We are a small Meeting, but we believe that we are up to the challenge of achieving this transition.

Several of our members and attenders have moved away during the summer.  We are sad to have to say goodbye, but send our friends on with our blessings.

Our Meeting has been active at Shiloh and Catoctin camps this summer.  We have had several persons who served on staff or as volunteers.  A Williamsburg Meeting member managed the camp kitchen all summer.

At this time, we are reverberating from the heartbreaking images of the devastation wreaked by Katrina.  Although our Meeting is small, we are making contributions as we can. We send our greetings to all our fellow Friends, and pray that we all may continue to be sustained by the Light.

Friends of Williamsburg Monthly Meeting have labored together in self-examination to report the spiritual state of our Meeting for the past year. We have found both strengths and weaknesses in our activities together and strive to report accurately on both.

Our most important fundamental activity, that of providing spiritual support and refreshment to all members and attenders, proceeds regularly twice weekly on each First Day and each Fourth Day. We still feel blessed to be able to meet in the house of two Friends, in a special room set aside for our Meeting. Each First Day, we are reminded that Quakers began their worship in this kind of special and personal setting.

The Fourth Day meeting takes place near the campus of The College of William and Mary, and meets in the early evening, so that students and faculty of The College can attend. Though the midweek Meeting is typically less well attended than the First Day service, in the past year Friends note that more William and Mary students have been attending the fourth day meeting than previously. We are pleased that this Meeting is as spirit-filled as our First Day Meeting.

Friends are pleased to report that our Meetings for Worship take place in a worshipful silence, interjected by appropriate vocal ministry that we feel is typically spiritual in nature, and most often comes from a "deep place." Vocal ministry is typically followed by respectful silence. Friends do not tread on others' ministry by being too quick to follow, understanding that the spiritual messages delivered by others needs space and time to be properly heard and felt. We are all gratified that we are able to experience the profound and peaceful silence known as a covered Meeting on a regular basis, being particularly reminded at these times that God is always among us.

Overall, we feel that we successfully provide our Friends the balanced opportunity to worship in both powerful silence, but with the benefit also of appropriate and meaningful vocal ministry. We all agree that the presence of prayerfulness in silence is the foundation of our worship together.

For those who do not feel that their spiritual messages are not completely ready to be shared as ministry during Meeting for Worship proper, we reserve a few minutes just afterward for Friends to share "Afterthoughts." All Friends agree that this is a sound practice and allows all Friends to talk about their worship experience if they would like to, without necessarily presenting their experiences as ministry.

Our Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business continues to be reasonably well attended, has good participation and thanks to some very committed, experienced and talented leadership, proceeds in good order. However, Friends note that follow-up is often faulty, due primarily to issues of limited time and small Meeting size noted below.

Membership of Our Spiritual Formation Group for this year has increased to 8 from last year's 5, and has again been a powerful source of spiritual guidance and development for those participating. It is hoped that the Meeting as a whole has also benefited from these Friends increased spiritual awareness and commitment.

Williamsburg Friends have continued to make a conscientious effort in the past year to extend a welcome to newcomers, while at the same time taking care not to convey any kind of pressure, being mindful that some who come to Quaker Meeting for the first time may have had negative experiences in the past with pressure to join other religious organizations. We continue our practice of asking everyone to identify themselves after the first day Meeting for worship if anyone is in attendance who is unknown to Friends. We also have a greeter who greets everyone who comes in for First Day Meeting for Worship.

Another way that our Meeting reaches out to potential new Friends is through its website, which continues to be maintained largely through the dedicated solitary efforts of a Friend. All of our Friends struggle with issues of time and commitment restraints and we strive to resolve these issues in favor of our spiritual development, with mixed success. We all feel very fortunate to have such Friends among us who make dedication to the Meeting such an important ongoing part of their lives.

Several new Friends have come to the Meeting due primarily to information posted on the website, which includes Meeting times and locations, Second Hour program content, statements of Witness, links to other Friends' sites, and driving directions to the WFM Meetings, as well as announcements of upcoming events of interest to Friends.

Our Meeting has in the past year suffered from the loss of a number of Friends, some who have attended for some years, but have left without explanation. The Meeting has struggled with our puzzlement and concern. We have made efforts to stay in contact with these Friends, but have arrived at no conclusion about whether the Meeting can do more to encourage these Friends to return.

Some issues that we reported on last year are still matters of concern. Many Friends are concerned that issues arise in our Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, but are not followed up properly. Last year, and this year, we wondered with whether our small size has something to do with this --too many tasks, not enough Friends! We are still seeking guidance on the issue, with as yet no clear answers.

Related to this is the perception that, although individual Friends engage in various important social witness activities, we as a Meeting we do not seem to have a cohesive corporate social witness. This is also an issue that was raised last year in this report, and that has not been fully resolved. Some Friends have pointed out this year that perhaps there is a lack of clearness with respect to what issues should be focused on by the Meeting as a whole. This is another issue we contend with still.

Adult Religious Education:

Each First Day there is a Second Hour activity, but Friends have raised concerns that this past year, there were fewer educational activities and more community building activities. Although some Friends pointed out that perhaps the community building was good for the Meeting, it was decided that Friends of the Spiritual Formation Group would take responsibility for providing once monthly Religious Education hours based on the SFG readings. This will begin in 2005.

Child Religious Education:

WFM is blessed by the presence of many Friends' children in attendance, as well as by the attendance of adults who are committed and experienced in their religious education. Weekly First Day school is typically well attended and the children participate enthusiastically in activities ranging from education about Quaker history and practice to athletics and art projects. Two Friends are working on a curriculum for First Day school instead of having more or less random lessons, with plans to incorporate teachings on other religions. A Child Safety Policy is also being developed, with guidance from BYM.

Peace and Social Concerns:

Meetings of the committee have been less frequent this past year, partly due to the absence of a Friend who is an important and active committee member. The Meeting continues to support the local Community of Faith for Peace.

Many individual Friends are involved with working to support various social concerns, but many of these activities are not seen as connected to the Meeting as a whole. Williamsburg Friends recognize this issue as long-standing.

The Meeting as a whole still continues to lack a corporate commitment to the Peace Testimony or to any other single witness. Friends continue to see little progress on this issue.

Ministry and Oversight:

We have continued the work of caring for WFM members and attenders. Several important events were sponsored in the past year. A Welcoming event for students returning to The College of William and Mary took place in September and was well attended by Friends and students. Several students attending that function continue to attend the First Day Meeting regularly. A baby shower was held to welcome two new babies. A memorial service was held for an elderly Friend who passed away this year, and a birthday party was held for a 90 year old Friend. Calls to ill Friends and relatives of Friends were taken care of with help from Hospitality. The Clerks do a lot of behind the scenes calling, checking on ill Friends, and staying in contact with Friends who have not attended recently. A Poverty Retreat was planned for 2005.

The Book of Joys and Sorrows, initiated last year as a way for Friends to communicate important events, has been found to be underused in keeping track of significant events in Friends' lives, likely due to lack of its full integration into the Meeting practice.

Recently the Co-Clerks have called meetings of conveners in an effort to move toward a more proper model of Meeting functions and committee functions. Clerks have felt recently frustrated and somewhat overwhelmed with too many tasks to handle properly, which seems to be an ongoing weakness in our Meeting. They have also struggled with feeling overly responsible for tasks that should perhaps properly fall to others, such as individual committee members.

Norfolk Preparative Meeting:

We are proud that despite our small size (3 to 6 people), we continue to have our Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business. Our experience as a group has been further enriched by joining Williamsburg Meeting once a month for their Meeting for Business. This has deepened our spiritual life as Quakers. Williamsburg Meeting has also supported our activities.

Our size has not prevented us from undertaking projects. We have been careful to commit only to tasks we feel we can accomplish. This means we may fail to act on other important issues or tasks. Currently we donate coffee, sugar, oatmeal, and grits to the Catholic Workers who feed the homeless in Norfolk. Our larger project is to "Build an Ark" (raise $5000) for Heifer International. We have a timeline of 3 years in which to accomplish this and have raised over half the amount needed in a little over one year. We much appreciate the support of Williamsburg Meeting in this project.

Our Meeting seems to focus on the search for truth both in Meeting for Worship and during our fellowship after worship. As we strive to become better Quakers, we often raise more questions than answers. We will never be perfect Quakers because we are human with all our imperfections. We continue to grow by asking the questions.

Conclusion:

Although members and attenders of the Williamsburg Friends Meeting struggle with ongoing issues of too many tasks and too few resources our community feels grateful and blessed for the opportunity our Meeting affords us for spiritual guidance and inspiration, as well as a strong sense of caring community support, in a world in which there appears to be less of either. As a result of being together in the presence of the Holy Spirit each week, we all look forward to the coming year with love for our lives together, and the hope that our spiritual commitment to help each other to be peaceful and loving, will also benefit our world to do the same.

Our community is considering how best to ensure our children's safety and our response to discriminatory FUM policies.  Like others, we are doing our annual self-examination in order to produce a state of the Meeting report_always an illuminating, useful process.  
 
Births: Samuel Berry was born on 10/22/04 to Colin and Sue Berry; Tzipporah Jeter Harker was born on 10/21/04 to Shannon and Joseph Harker.
 
Deaths: Curtis Williams on September 20, 2004. 

Friends Meeting sends greetings to all. We are happy for the opportunity to share some of our thoughts with you. First of all, we are pleased to report that five children from WFM attended camp at Shiloh and Opequon. Additionally, our Meeting generated one counselor, two staff persons, one kitchen manager, two cooks, and one maintenance person as volunteers. Since we are a small Meeting, we were pleased to be able to provide so much support to the Quaker camping program. An issue that has concerned WFM is the current discord created by FUM’s controversial policy concerning gays. Our Meeting intends to study this issue, and seeking the guidance of the Light, find our way relative to our response to this concern.

Finally, featuring two gifted, spirit led BYM Friends, WFM, in conjunction with the Community of Faith for Peace of Williamsburg, hosted an interfaith workshop entitled “Building a community that can sustain peace work over the long haul. “Chuck Fager and Ann Riggs led participants in a rich mix of presentations and small-group threshing sessions over the course of a weekend. The seminar, dedicated toward developing long-term, spiritually based strategies for waging and maintaining peace was made possible by a generous grant from the Ethel Reynolds Fund to QUEST (Quaker Ecumenical Seminars in Theology). Our thanks to the fund for its assistance as well as Fager and Riggs for their inspiration!

The Meeting sends greetings to all its brothers and sisters throughout Baltimore Yearly Meeting.  We are pleased to announce the upcoming marriage on April 17th of Shannon Jeter and Joseph Harker.  Also, we are in the process of taking stock of ourselves as part of the process of drafting the annual state of the meeting re-port.  We appreciate this opportunity to assess both our strengths and our failings.  We remain a small but committed community of Friends, attenders, and visitors.

Marriages/Ceremonies of Commitment: Deanna Rote & Robert Leek, 10/18/2003