See Lauri Perman's brief introduction.

From the Presiding Clerk:

Joy in a Box

When I was a child, I didn’t like crayons, especially dull, broken crayons. When I became a parent, our son gravitated to washable markers, then new to the market. As far as I was concerned, crayons had no value – why would anyone choose crayons over markers? Three years ago, at the 2004 Annual Session of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, when I accompanied Riley Robinson (Friends Meeting of Washington), our new General Secretary, to buy supplies for the family worship-sharing group, I confidently said, “don’t bother to get crayons. These days kids prefer markers.”

Wisely, Riley was not content to take my word for what all families and children would want. Instead, he asked Meg Fullerton Regal (Sandy Spring), mother of then two-year-old Hannah, what Hannah would prefer, “oh, crayons, definitely.” So the next day when I showed up to family worship sharing we had markers and crayons.

I don’t remember how I came to use crayons in family worship sharing. After years of watching children color, of venturing only to decorate my nametag or to make a few scribbles on a carefully hidden page, I found myself on the floor with the children, coloring whole pieces of paper with circles and swirls.

The children, curious about my scribbles, seemed surprised to find an adult coloring with them. Sometimes they’d tell me they liked my swirls – it felt surprisingly wonderful to have a six-year-old tell me, “That’s pretty.” Even better, sometimes they’d show me their drawings and talk about them – a beautiful gift of trust. My favorite memory is when Miranda Newheart (Adelphi), then four, said, “Let’s make a picture together.” And we did – she drew the tree and asked me to color the bark. She drew the dog and suggested we fill it in with brown and white stripes. Later, after the family worship-sharing art display in the cafeteria came down, Miranda generously said, “You can keep it.” I still have our picture; my heart softens and I smile whenever I look at it.

Crayons have brought me untold happiness since Annual Session 2004. If I start my morning by coloring as part of my daily spiritual practice, I start my day in a calmer frame of mind than if I don’t. Coloring opens me up by taking me back to worship sharing at Annual Session. The memories are tactile, visual, and aromatic, almost an immediate channel to a place and time when I feel centered in the presence of God with Friends. The small broken crayons without wrappers are now my favorites. Gradually my plain scribbles and swirls have given way to scribbles with words. With a crayon in my hand, I am less afraid to ask and answer hard questions.

I have come to see that within a single box of crayons is a world of joy. This joy, which I had overlooked at an earlier time in my life, was available to me all along.

With joy, love, and hope,

Lauri Perman
State College

Some Queries To Consider:

• What have I overlooked in my life that has the potential to bring me deep, abiding joy?
• What do I need to learn from children?
• How can I let go of my fears that others will judge me foolish or unworthy?
• Is a key to my future happiness waiting for me at the 2007 Annual Session of Baltimore Yearly Meeting?

Matthew 18:3 NIV

From the Clerk

Rest. Rest. And more rest.

Friends – many of us are soul-tired. In the face of unrelenting war, we are discouraged, sad, frustrated, angry, and at times despairing. These feelings are not only heavy burdens, but they are contagious to the people around us and do little to advance the cause of peace. Often we try to push these feelings aside and do the work anyway. But peace work founded on discouragement won’t thrive. Our peace work needs to grow out of our strong, hopeful selves. The question that challenges us is “how do we cultivate joy and peace in the face of sadness and war?”

When newcomers flocked to our meetings after 9/11, I believe they were seeking solace, how to sustain hope for peace in the face of impending war. Some received what they came to find and stayed. Others felt our confusion and discouragement and moved on.

For some time now I have been clear that “rest” is the answer. When we are discouraged, we need to do less, not more. When we despair at all there is to do, we need to stop to replenish ourselves, whether we are facing peace work or housework. This counter-intuitive prescription embodies an important truth that we know but find hard to remember: inner peace is a necessary step to peace to the world.

Dear Friends, if we are to strengthen our work toward peace, we need to rest until we can approach our work from a serene center that allows us to be fully present to the joyful moments in every day. Resting is not just “abstaining” from work. “Rest” is active work. When we rest, we need to awaken the Spirit Within. To rest in the Spirit, we need to be able to open ourselves to the Divine, recognize God acting in our lives, and cultivate a greater spiritual sensitivity. We need to pay careful attention to discover what feeds our souls and revives our spirits. The Baltimore Yearly Meeting Spiritual Formation program, beginning again this fall in many monthly meetings, is one way Friends learn which daily practices nourish their souls.

For some this may mean ensuring regular time outdoors in with nature. For others it may mean reading scripture or visualizing themselves resting in Jesus’ arms. For still others it may mean playing or listening to music, or playing with children. We need to find those forms of rest that nurture us and we need to do them regularly. There are advantages both to having a regular daily practice and to having a wide repertoire of practices that we can draw upon. The key is to nurture our souls until we are fit to spread the message of peace from a joyful, centered place.

Last March, when Langley Hill Friends met the press after Tom Fox’s death, they spoke with conviction and strength from a deep, heart-filled sense that peace is the only way. The dominant feeling they conveyed was not anger or sadness but calm conviction that peace was the right work to be doing, even though it carried risks and was difficult, demanding work. The message was powerful and deeply moving for the gathered reporters. Langley Hill Friends were tired in the conventional sense. They had been doing lots of extra peace work for several months. Why then did they appear to be rested? They had been resting in the Spirit. Their regular Friday night interfaith Meetings for Worship with a concern for Peace, begun after Tom’s kidnapping, had been deeply nourishing and sustaining. One Langley Hill Friend shared that it felt as if they had been living a covered meeting for two months.

We can rest too, Friends. When we do not know what to do, we can rest. When we feel overwhelmed, we can rest. We can rest until we are no longer tired. We can wait until we become clear. And with our replenished selves, we can do the important work to which we are called.

A rested self hears the call more clearly.
A rested self does not get distracted from the call by clutter and obligations.
A rested self can speak more clearly to others.
In the 23rd Psalm, we learn that: “he restores my soul.” How does this happen?

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside still waters.

In other words, the shepherd helps us rest. From that rest,

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell [rest] in the house of the Lord forever.

In Peace,
Lauri Perman
State College Monthly Meeting

Queries to consider:

Am I tired? When did I last feel really rested? What do I most need to do to nurture my inner self? How can I support (shepherd) others who choose to rest and replenish themselves? Have I considered that resting is holy work and part of the work that I am called to do?

‘Remember the Sabbath’ is not simply a life-style suggestion. It is a spiritual precept in most of the world’s spiritual traditions…. Sabbath honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy. If certain plant species, for example, do not lie dormant for winter, they will not bear fruit in the spring…. We, too, must have a period in which we lie fallow, and restore our souls.

Pp. 6-7 in Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. This book draws from a variety of spiritual traditions—Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and others –to encourage us to find rest (Sabbath).

In the past few months, the Yearly Meeting, individual Friends, and several monthly meetings have been traumatized by the abduction in Iraq of our Friend Tom Fox, a member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting.

Tom's courage and faithfulness have inspired us. Throughout the Yearly Meeting, Friends have engaged in vigils, interfaith prayer services, media outreach, and other actions on an ongoing basis. For example, at Friends House every night after dinner Friends gather for a Meeting for Worship for Tom and all in Iraq. When at home, the members of Midlothian Meeting light candles to hold Tom in the Light. Other meetings have ongoing weekly prayer vigils.

But we need to acknowledge that there has been trauma too. Individual Friends can find themselves immobilized, unable to get on with their lives, and waiting, always waiting, for news of Torn and praying, always praying, for his safe return. One Friend, a first-time attender at Yearly Meeting session this past August, spent an intense week working with Tom, as both were Friendly Adult Presences with our Young Friends community. After his abduction, although she had only met Tom this one time, she found herself constantly checking news reports for news of Tom.

This trauma has left some of us anxious, grieving for the injury inflicted on our Friend and on our communities. As individuals, we respond differently to grief. Some are angry; others numb. Some work hard to keep feelings at bay; others act out anger and distress. Friends may cycle through

these feelings and other Friends may be puzzled by the intense reactions in our community. For some, including me, past traumas become resurrected, and we need to deal with these past traumas as well as the current situation. To recognize and honor the inevitability of experiencing this trauma through our own past experiences is neither self-indulgent nor histrionic. We need to examine our own complex feelings in order to move forward as a faith community, united in clarity, faith, and love.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tom was well prepared for the work he was called to do with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq. He and his support committee had discussed what to do in the event of his possible abduction. The rest of us, however, were woefully unprepared, except as we live in faith and trust in the Spirit. We never imagined that we'd find our Friend the subject of international news. How do we recognize and heal from this trauma, while continuing to hold our Friend in prayer'?

Identifying and facing our feelings is an important first step in healing from trauma. In Parker Palmer's pamphlet, Leading from Within, he writes, "There are things that you can do that constitute inner work that are as real and as important as any outer project or task." He goes on to say, "... while inner work is a deeply personal matter, it's not necessarily a private matter. There are ways to be together in community to help each other with that inner work." I believe we need to talk with each other about our feelings.

In his pamphlet, The Dance between Hope and Fear: Healing, from Trauma, John Calvi describes three important ingredients for healing from

trauma: a commitment to joy, a commitment to self ­awareness, and a commitment to self-discipline. Regarding the latter, he writes, "Each of us has things that keep us strong. It's very important that we know what they are and we use them; that we make a daily practice of using them."

Friends want to act. There is a strong desire within the Yearly Meeting to do something. How do we determine what it is that we are led to do? Tom's example suggests that we follow the process of clearness, becoming clear about what it is we are called to do, supporting one another in community, and upholding our witness against war. We are called, I believe, simultaneously to hold Tom and Iraq in the Light, while taking care of ourselves and our community, honoring the differences in our needs, feelings, and experiences. If we do not have any clear leadings beyond that, then we can continue to wait in the Light actively and faithfully far our path to be shown to us.

Tom's abduction, while a traumatic experience for us, has also brought healing gifts and it is important to name and recognize these too. Tom's example of clarity and willingness to serve is a gift that has inspired and challenged us. We have all had the opportunity to live our faith by holding Tom in

prayer, while he strengthens us in holding up alternatives to war. Nonviolent Iraqis, Palestinians, and American Muslims have been able to get their message out to the American public. The public has had the opportunity to learn more about Quakers, pacifism, and Christian Peacemaker Teams. Interfaith relations have been strengthened in some communities. Langley Hill Friends have felt the push to consider Quakers' roles in the outside world; there is a similar opportunity for the Yearly Meeting as a whole. The final gift, very evident to me, is how the Yearly Meeting has united in concern for Tom, Jim, Norman, and Hameet.

I ask your continued prayers for these CPT members and those holding them in Iraq, for Tom's family, for Tom's support committee, and for Langley Hill Friends as they continue to discern what they are called to do. Please also hold Hopewell Centre Meeting and Alexandria Meeting in the Light as Tom has many Friends in these meetings. Please hold Young Friends, Opequon campers and staff, Junior Young Friends, and Friendly Adult Presences in the Light as Tom touched these communities in a deep way. And I ask your prayers for the Yearly Meeting, that we too will discern what we are called to do.

I have known Tom for fifteen years and many memories of him surfaced in the first few days after his abduction. The memory that returns most often is of him laughing and having fun in the creek at Wilson College during Yearly Meeting, waist-deep in the water, playing with the children. I believe this image keeps coming to reassure me that, although Tom is waist-deep once again, he is still in the Living Water that preserves and carries al 1 of us. And I believe that he feels our loving prayers.

In Faith and Friendship,
Lauri Perman
Presiding clerk
(State College)

Both pamphlets are available from the Pendle Hill Bookstore; the Calvi pamphlet is also available from FGC Quakerbooks.

Dear Friends,

It is now more than two weeks since our beloved member Tom Fox was reported kidnapped in Iraq.

Throughout the Yearly Meeting, Friends have held Tom in the Light, as well as his family, his colleagues, those who hold them, and all those working to secure their release. From Roanoke to State College, from Little Britain to Goose Creek, and throughout the metropolitan areas, Friends have held meetings for worship, vigils, press conferences, and interfaith prayer services with Muslim communities. Our shared concern for the Christian Peacemaker Team members heightens our awareness that while we are separate monthly meetings we are united as a larger Yearly Meeting community.

Nonetheless, the burden of this extraordinary situation falls heaviest on Friends in the three meetings where Tom has been known intimately: at Alexandria Meeting where Tom and his family came to Friends; at Hopewell Centre, where Tom has been living recently; and most of all at Langley Hill, where he holds membership and where his support committee is located.

Friends, we need to hold these three meetings in the Light. The vigils, press conferences, interviews, explanations of Quakerism, and extra meetings for worship can be tiring and stressful, as well as renewing, for all concerned. I ask especially that you hold Tom's support committee and all Langley Hill Friends in the Light now and in the coming weeks.

Please lift our Friends and their meetings up in your prayers, in your thoughts, and in your awareness of the care they need now and will need in the future. We need to remember to be tender with ourselves and with others as we all live through this unknown future together, recalling that we are held and will be guided, even as we learn to trust and discern in the face of confusion and uncertainty.

Some meetings may wish to consider the example of Langley Hill Meeting and explore holding interfaith prayer services with a local Muslim community. Also, Friends, if members of your meeting know Tom, please consider contacting local media and offering to be interviewed to help explain what it means to be a member of a peace church and what led Tom to serve with Christian Peacemaker Teams. We can honor Tom's courage and his witness by following his example as we are led. As Langley Hill Friends write, "we want to find ways to extend the spirit of Tom's ministry in promoting peace and interfaith cooperation."

If you have questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 814-234-0502 or ymclerk@bym-rsf.org Please know, too, that the wider Quaker world, from Atlanta to Seattle, from Richmond to London to Iraq, FGC and FUM, AFSC and FCNL, and FWCC, is united in holding Tom and all in Iraq in the Light of Enduring Love.

In Faith, Fellowship, and Witness,
Lauri Perman
Presiding Clerk

Dear BYM Monthly Meeting Clerks and Committee Clerks,

On Saturday, November 26, 2005, Tom Fox, a member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting and former Baltimore Yearly Meeting Youth Secretary, was kidnapped in Iraq where he has been serving as a member of a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT). To protect Tom and the three others kidnapped with him, CPT leaders urged us to keep Tom’s identity confidential until released by the media, as it was last evening. For additional information, I refer you to the CPT Web site at www.cpt.org.

Tom’s Langley Hill support committee invites you to join them in holding Tom, his colleagues, those who hold them, and those who are working for their release in the Light everyday at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Langley Hill, Hopewell Centre, and State College Meetings have also held or will hold special Meetings for Worship for this purpose. We encourage other Meetings to consider holding their own Meetings for Worship with a Concern for Tom, his colleagues, and those who hold them. I also urge you to hold Tom’s young adult children in your prayers.

Tom is especially well known among Young Friends; we know that news of his capture has deeply affected them. Even those who do not know Tom personally have been drawn into the heartfelt reactions of their friends who know Tom. We believe that Young Friends need special care at this time. Please know that you can contact Hope Braveheart, current BYM Youth Secretary, or Betsy Tobin and Ted Heck, co-clerks of Youth Programs, if you have questions or suggestions about Young Friends.

Members of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq prepared a statement of conviction explaining their awareness of the risks they faced, their reasons for remaining in Iraq, and their request that no violence be used to secure their release in the event they were kidnapped. They wrote, “We need to help preserve what is human in all of us and so offer glimpses of hope in a dark time.” In the face of danger, Tom and other CPT members have shown courage, hope and faith. We can do no less.

I have known Tom for fifteen years and many memories of him have surfaced in the past few days. The memory that returns most often is of him laughing and having fun in the creek at Wilson College during Yearly Meeting, waist-deep in the water, playing with the children. I believe this image keeps coming to reassure me that, although Tom is waist-deep once again, he is still in the Living Water that preserves and carries all of us. And I believe that he feels our loving prayers.

In faith and hope,
Lauri Perman
Presiding Clerk

A Language of Love

Mother of the Earth, Undying Love, God of Hope, Spirit of Truth, Inward Teacher, Light Within, Spirit, Living Christ, Jesus, Eternal Spirit, Voice Within, Spirit of Love in the Universe, Heavenly Father

Which words do we choose? Which words do others choose? How do I hear their words? How do they hear my words? Do I love to listen for “where the words come from?” Are we reluctant to talk about the words?

Many years ago, members of the BYM Epistle Committee compiled selected quotes from the epistles that the Yearly Meeting had received that year into a booklet called “A World of Concerns,” that we distributed at annual sessions. The next time I saw the committee member who compiled the booklet, he said, “I didn’t know you were a Christian.”

I replied, “I’m not.”

“But,” he said, “You sent me Christian quotes.”

I replied, “I sent you the most wonderful quotes I could find.”

Perhaps that’s when I began to change, when I began to feel that Christian language was a language of love. When I read those epistles from other yearly meetings, I felt the love the authors were trying to send, despite their use of Christian language and imagery, which was still a barrier for me.

Like many people, I came to Quakerism with unhealed wounds from my previous religious experiences. In my case, the Lutheran funeral service for my teenage sister and three other girls killed in a car accident on a church-sponsored ski trip left a deep scar on me. I heard the Lutheran minister and the program of service say, “be happy; these girls have gone to heaven.” Shortly thereafter I resigned my membership in the Lutheran Church because I wanted no part of a religion that denied the reality and value of human love and grief. Years later, when I reread the Lutheran funeral service, I saw no evidence of this emphasis on a happy hereafter. I now suspect my grief distorted what I was hearing. Nonetheless, I harbored deep wounds from my sister’s death that were inextricably tied in my heart to Christianity and Christian language.

I know I’m not alone in bringing a religiously wounded self to the Religious Society of Friends. For some among us, Christian language, used in vocal ministry, grates like fingernails on a chalkboard. Whether the discomfort comes from unresolved grief and deep emotional associations, from an unhappy Baptist or Roman Catholic childhood, or from theological or intellectual differences doesn’t matter. What does matter is our discomfort and its effect on our meetings.

What are our responsibilities to one another? Those of us who are wounded must take responsibility for our wounds and healing and not inflict or project them on to others. We can express our pain but not demand that others silence their voices. All of us can show sensitivity to others by using multiple words for the Divine, as Earlham College chaplain Trayce Peterson modeled for us a year ago when she addressed us at sessions. Each time she spoke of the Divine, she used three different words or phrases. But we probably can’t expect others to do that all the time.

We can all talk with one another about words – how we intend them and how we hear them.

“Is everyone comfortable with the word ‘God’?” was one of the first questions Renee Crauder asked participants in her prayer course last fall at State College meeting. “No,” one Friend honestly replied. Renee asked, “How about ‘Spirit’?” We agreed that we were all comfortable with Renee using the word “Spirit.”

How surprising, but typical of the work of the Spirit, that the Friend who was uncomfortable with the word “God,” should be the Friend whose words led me to “Jesus.” During a break in class, while we looked at the books Renee had assembled for us to borrow, this Friend returned a book she had borrowed the previous week. I asked her if she’d recommend the book – it had a tempting title. “Not really,” she said, “except the author makes one really interesting point – we need a name for the Divine.” At that moment, my final resistance lifted, almost like a block falling into place, “ker-plunk,” and I knew that I would henceforth be addressing my prayers to “Jesus.”

Seven months earlier, shortly before the Search Committee asked me to allow my name to be considered for presiding clerk, a message had come to me in Meeting for Worship: “Thank you, Jesus.” It was a message for me alone, not meant to be shared. I remember thinking immediately, “Where did that come from?” Since then I frequently think, “The Spirit gives us what we need, often before we know we need it.” I have needed Jesus often in these past months, calling on Him frequently to support me in my work for the Yearly Meeting. When I talk about Jesus, I do not mean a Jesus of Christian exclusivism nor do I wish in any way to limit the vocabulary of others. In my ongoing prayer group, for example, another member is inspired by Joyce Rupp’s book, Prayers to Sophia, in which each prayer starts with a different beautiful name for a feminine Divine: “Comforting Mother,” “Juicy Life-Giver,” and “Holy Midwife,” for example.

Let us open our hearts to one another and to the Divine, by whatever words we know Him or Her. Let us open our hearts to the non-theists and others among us for whom the Light can’t be reduced to pronouns. Let us love one another, as “He has loved us,” and let us use all the names rather than none of the names, as we move, together, ever closer to the Light.

In Faith and Love,
Lauri Perman, presiding clerk

Our two Yearly Meetings have a wide, rich, and diverse heritage, chiefly from historic Christianity interpreted by Quakerism. We not only tolerate diversity, we encourage and cherish it … we usually find ourselves richer for our differences. … Friends in our two Yearly Meetings are clear on certain principles [that] are so basic and essential that we tend to take them for granted and forget that they are essential and probably the only essentials. We all are clear that religion is a matter of inward, immediate experience. We all acknowledge the guidance of the Inner Light – the Christ within – God’s direct, continuing revelation.

From the Committee of Ten, 1964, as reported in A History of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends by Bliss Forbush (1972)

From the Clerk

Lauri Perman

Spring is my favorite time of year. Many years ago, when I was living in the Boston area, but had just accepted a teaching position at Penn State, one of my new colleagues sent me a friendly note and wrote, "the crocuses are blooming." That note - both the sentiment behind it and the image it contained - were Light to me.

I've grown very fond of primroses in recent years because they bloom first and last in my garden in a kind of perpetual spring. It's early December as I write this and my yellow and white and red primroses are still in bloom. If we have a warm spell in February, they'll bloom again.

Several years ago, for my mother-in-law's 90^th birthday, her niece's family sent her a beautiful orchid in full, glorious bloom with six huge white flowers with deep purple centers. The accompanying instructions said to cut the stem back after it bloomed. When we did, it looked as if we had a 12-inch stick in a pot. Months went by and the stick began to grow. Then we had a longer stick in a pot. Finally the stick began to curve and along the curve appeared tiny buds - a two-foot high curving stick with buds - dare we hope? Yes, it bloomed - just as gloriously as before.

This year my mother-in-law celebrated her 95^th birthday and once again the orchid is blooming.

It's taken several years but now that orchid has become for me a symbol of hope. From what appears to be a dead, lifeless stick in a pot comes the most beautiful indoor flowers I have ever seen. At first I found the transformation hard to believe. Now I have come to expect it and tell others of it. "Just wait," I say. "This stick will grow and the blooms will be unbelievable."

So, too, do we humans bloom. When it seems most unlikely, when we feel dry and lifeless, the Spirit of Love in the Universe calls us forth and we bloom. Our bloom fades, we once again feel dead and lifeless, and once again the Spirit of Love seeks us out and calls us to bloom. Over and over again we are called to respond to the universe by blooming. Sometimes we think blooming comes about by what we do and how well we water ourselves. But the Gardener of our Souls tends us gently, lets us rest and recover, and then sits us in the Light, which warms us and we grow.

Sometimes we grow subtly, like the stick of the orchid, we get longer but look unchanged. Sometimes our buds are visible and sometimes our blooms are big and glorious for all to see. Some years we get five blossoms on my mother-in-law's orchid; sometimes six. This year, when I was showing the budding stick to Ed, a nursing assistant at Foxdale Village where she lives, he said he'd never noticed it before, though he'd been in her room many, many times. As we looked at the stick together and I pointed out the buds and urged him to keep an eye on the stick so he could see the blooms, he pointed out that this year there will be seven blooms.

Seven blooms. A 95^th birthday for a beloved mother-in-law. Amidst the pain of memory loss and dementia are the blooms of her birthday orchid, the shared joy with Ed in the wonder of it all, and the gratitude of the universe.

May we bloom together as a Yearly Meeting. May we transform our individual sticks and stems into a gallery of blooming orchids. May we bend and curve to the Light. May we recognize each other's buds and treat them with care. And, when we are spent, may we prune away the spent blossoms and rest until we are called to bloom again.

Happy Spring!

Lauri Perman

Think of My trees stripped of their beauty, pruned, cut, disfigured, bare, but through the ... seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly, the spirit-life-sap, till, lo! with the sun of Spring comes new life, leaves, bud, blossom, fruit, but oh! fruit a thousand times better for the pruning.

Remember that you are in the hands of a Master-Gardener who makes no mistakes in pruning.  Rejoice.  Joy is the Spirit's reaching out to say its thanks to Me.  It is the new life-sap of the tree, reaching out to Me to find such beautiful expression later. So never cease to joy.  Rejoice.

From God Calling, edited by A. J. Russell

From the Clerk

Lauri Perman

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth thou hast for me

The words to this hymn have been running through my mind for several weeks now and once again they come to mind as I sit down to write a column for the Interchange. So I ask myself, "Why these words at this time?"

Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp, and set me free

I think we've yearned for a key to unlock us from the war in Iraq. I think we have longed for a key to unlock the Yearly Meeting from the box of needing to talk about the FUM line item in our 2005 budget.

Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth thou sendest clear

I am grateful to our Peace and Social Concerns Committee whose recommendation that Meetings take contributions each week for AFSC reconstruction work in Iraq provides us a way to work together to remember the suffering of the people of Iraq and our involvement in that suffering.

And when the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear

We heard the Truth from faithful Friends at Fall Interim meeting. From a Friend attending Interim Meeting for the first time. From a seasoned Friend who had the courage to say, "My Meeting does not agree." From a Friend who rose trembling to ask us to search for the Truth present with us "at this moment." We still seek the revelation of Truth. Let us hold in the Light all those among us who find our continued seeking painful and frustrating.

Open my mouth, and let me bear
Gladly the warm Truth everywhere;

I am filled with gratitude when I think of Friends' work on behalf of Baltimore Yearly Meeting.

Open my heart, and let me prepare
Love with thy children thus to share

Friends overflowing historic Goose Greek Meeting House, sitting and eating lunch on the stone steps of the veranda on a warm October day. Leaves crunching underfoot. The joyful sounds of children. Over 160 Friends came to lunch on Yearly Meeting Day, October 30. Members of Goose Creek Meeting pulled off a loaves and fishes miracle by setting out enough food for all of us even after the Meeting House water stopped flowing.

Open my mind, that I may read
More of thy love in word and deed;

Many of us are tired and are working too hard. Friends, we need to rest when we are weary. We need to encourage each other to rest when we are weary.

What shall I fear while yet thou dost lead?
Only for light from thee I plead.

In this season of gratitude and joy, be mindful that in winter our plants rest, storing up energy for growth and greenery in the spring. Let us store up energy in our roots, let us strengthen ourselves for the work ahead, let us store up joy to sustain us during the sad times, let us be mindful and grateful for the moments of unexpected joy that await us each day. In our joy and delight, let us give thanks. And from our gratitude, let us come together to work on behalf of the Spirit of Love and Truth.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

Be sure of My Help, be conscious of My Presence, and wait until My Rest fills your soul.
Rest knows no fear. Rest knows no want. Rest is strong, sure. The rest of soft glades and peacefully flowing rivers, of strong, immovable hills. Rest, and all you need to gain this rest is to come to Me. So come.

From God Calling, edited by A. J. Russell

Silently now, I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see;
Open my heart, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

#166, Worship in Song, FGC.

Peace and Love, Lauri Perman

The View from the Clerk's Table: Reflected Love

Lauri Perman

Friends, one of the blessings I will have as the new presiding clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is the opportunity to view the gathered Yearly Meeting from the Clerks’ Table. Those of you who have already served the Yearly Meeting as presiding clerk, recording clerk, or reading clerk have shared the view and know how wonderful it is. The faces of Friends gathered in worship are luminescent and the reflected love of the Yearly Meeting gathered in session is truly glorious to behold.

Bill Carroll (Williamsburg), a first-time attender at annual sessions this year, has written of his experiences at sessions in an article entitled “Coming Home.” Our outgoing clerk, Lamar Matthew (York), invited Bill to serve as reading clerk to read the epistle of Monteverde Friends Meeting. In Bill’s column, he describes that experience as the “highlight” of his week.

Bill wasn’t the only first-time attender to serve as reading clerk this past year. Linda Wilk of Hopewell Centre Friends read that meeting’s Spiritual State of the Meeting Report aloud to the Yearly Meeting. In this tender epistle, Hopewell Centre Friends shared with us their meeting’s painful experiences coping with the presence of a convicted sex offender in their midst. From their pain, Hopewell Centre Friends spoke honestly and openly in the hope their experiences would help others. They have offered to be a resource within the Yearly Meeting for other meetings who may encounter this situation in the future.

We are all a resource for one another, dear Friends. Personally, I want to express my deep gratitude to, and affection for, our outgoing presiding clerk, Lamar Matthew, whose leadership and gentle example inspire me. Lamar continues to labor on behalf of the Yearly Meeting and we are blessed by his love and commitment.