Lauri Perman, Clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting

Introducing the Clerk

Lauri Perman

Members of State College Meeting have urged me to introduce myself to you in this column. I am a convinced Friend, having grown up a Minnesota Lutheran. My partner Tom Ryan and I have a son, Nate Ryan, who is a high school senior. Nate, a former Shiloh and TA camper, enjoyed being a counselor at Shiloh this past summer and is on the Young Friends Executive Committee. Tom and I were married under the care of State College Friends Meeting in 1986 and became members shortly thereafter. Tom has just finished a term as presiding clerk of State College Monthly Meeting. During my years in State College Meeting, I have served as clerk of our Program, Worship and Ministry, Advancement and Outreach, Oversight (now renamed Care and Concern), and Nominating Committees, and am current clerk of our Memorial Service Committee.

At the Yearly Meeting level, I have served on the Epistle Committee several times, most recently in 2003. I have been part of the Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns since its inception and served as clerk of the committee during the spring and summer of 2004, before accepting the call to serve as Yearly Meeting Presiding Clerk. In 1990, the first year I attended annual sessions, I enjoyed working with preschoolers; I continue to have a fond spot in my heart for Junior Yearly Meeting. In 2002, Nate and I attended the FUM Triennial in Kenya, afterwards visiting Friends Theological College and Lugulu Hospital.

By training, I am a sociologist. Most recently, I served as assistant dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State before taking a mid-life retirement in 2002. At the university, I served on the President’s Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity and as Director of Multicultural Affairs for my college. During my years as an administrator, I came to believe that I was being prepared for Quaker service, suspecting that at some time in the future I might work in a Quaker college. I now believe that I was being prepared, unknowingly, for my role as presiding clerk of our beloved Yearly Meeting.

This summer, I clerked two joint meetings of the three Yearly Meeting committees (Ministry and Pastoral Care, Stewardship and Finance, and ad hoc Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns) that were charged with bringing a recommendation to annual sessions regarding the Friends United Meeting line item in the BYM budget. At the first meeting, I asked Friends attending to describe the spiritual gifts they brought to our work together. I was thankful that several Friends identified themselves as having the gift of “listening.” This gift proved invaluable in our work together. I described my gift as a deep faith in Quaker process. In the coming year, I look forward to sharing that gift with the Yearly Meeting.

I would also like to share with you the joy I have already experienced in my short time as Presiding Clerk. Friends have shared their love, their hopes, their dreams, and their support with me. I feel I am basking in the reflected love of the Yearly Meeting. In the coming year, I hope to share that love with all of you in this column, in person, and in my work for the Yearly Meeting.

In Faith, Fellowship, and Love,

Lauri Perman, State College Meeting