| Baltimore Yearly Meeting | 301/774-7663 |
| of the Religious Society of Friends | 800/962-4766 |
| 17100 Quaker Lane | Fax: 301/774-7087 |
| Sandy Spring, Maryland 20860-1296 | bym@bym-rsf.org |
| | http://www.bym-rsf.org |
Eighth Month 6, 2006
O God guide us
strengthen us and support us
help us live in harmony with thy will.
Greetings to Friends everywhere:
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends gathered for its 335th annual session from Seventh Month 31 to Eighth Month 6, 2006 on the green – but hot – campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Our theme was Living in Harmony: With One Another and All Creation. This year marks the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Friend Elizabeth Harris in the Chesapeake Bay area, leading to the establishment of the first Quaker Meetings in America. We seek among us the same courage and harmony with God’s will that brought her to our area so long ago.
An opening retreat led by Jean-Marie Prestwidge-Barch encouraged us to experience diversity within the Religious Society of Friends and included a wonderful jazz concert, a parable of harmony. Young Adult Friend Rachel Stacy gave an impassioned talk about Friends and transformation, the Light shining through her as she strode about the platform, leading us into deep worship.
Our beloved Friend Tom Fox, a Christian Peacemaker Team member, was kidnapped in Iraq on Eleventh Month 26, 2005, then shot and killed on Third Month 9, 2006. Our grief, especially our campers’ and Young Friends’ grief, is profound. A moving memorial meeting, an evening panel of heartfelt sharing and other activities helped us understand that Tom’s ministry and death are a witness to the whole world and a legacy for the future. Our Young Friends and Young Adult Friends honor Tom’s memory by moving forward in Tom’s playful spirit and humor.
Throughout the week, in business sessions, over meals, and during worship and activities, the love working within our vibrant community comforted us in our grief. We celebrated the presence among us of our Junior Yearly Meeting and Young Friends who encircled our business session with love and song.
The Young Friends in Ramallah Program participants brought us messages of desires for peace and justice for the troubled Middle East. Their experiences and reflections on the fifteen days of listening, service and learning in Palestine and Israel will be helpful resources for understanding the situation in that region.
We joyfully welcomed our new General Secretary Robert H. Robinson, Jr. (known to all of us as Riley), and expressed appreciation for the hard work of our continuing staff and of Howard Fullerton, who served as Interim General Secretary after the resignation of Frank Massey, our General Secretary for the past 17 years.
Our Camping Program staff shared with us its goal of providing campers with attainable challenges, situations that put campers in a zone between comfort and panic, a place of stretching where they most feel the Spirit working and where they grow.
We continue to labor with whether we can financially support Friends United Meeting while its personnel policy effectively discriminates against gays, lesbians and others. Though our connection to FUM and its work is important to us, can we, in good conscience, fund a policy we find hurtful and wrong? This challenge has taken us out of the comfort zone into the place of spiritual growth through continued intervisitation with other FUM Friends and continued seeking for discernment. Our intervisitations have built bonds of affection, and we welcome invitations for future visits.
The presence of many visitors enriched our session. Marshall Massey, of Omaha Monthly Meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), who carries a deep concern for a common environmental testimony among Friends, walked much of the way to our session from Nebraska. In the Carey Memorial Lecture, Marshall called on Friends to approach environmental concerns in the same way that the earliest Friends changed the world: by keeping under the dictates of God and by speaking to the spiritual condition of others. There is no need for despair. We should dream big dreams, and pursue them as a community.
Yours in the Light,
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
