State of the Meeting 2011

RantWoman did not write her Meeting's State of the Meeting report this year, though she was one of the people thanked for "generous" offerings about suggestions for additions and subtractions from the draft presented at Meeting for Business last month.

RantWoman also notes that in her Meeting it is the custom, if only due to concerns about deadlines for delivery to Quarterly Meeting, quite pointedly to ACCEPT the April offerings of those who draft the report and to refrain from and maintain severe restraint about further wordsmithing. RantWoman notes this point specifically because she wishes to stand aside from claims on her behalf about email. RantWoman expects she will experience further revelation about this and other topics, but in the meantime presents the committee's offerings with gratitude for their work.




State of the Meeting Report
University Monthly Meeting
Seattle, Washington April 2011

Although the final report on the Year of Discernment came out in early 2010, we find that our need for discernment never ends. We are called to paths lit by many visions, even as our worship is often gathered, rich, and deep.

One member continues a ministry, recorded by our meeting, in her professional work as a hospice chaplain. Another continues a minuted ministry concerning paganism and Quakers. Individuals seek greater unity between different branches of the Society of Friends and pursue spiritual dynamism arising from new scientific research. Friends are deeply involved in peace efforts. Several families and individuals minister as musicians and artists. Others among us work in the wider community in a great variety of forms of service. Several write Quaker-related blogs. A sizeable group traveled on Lobby Day to labor with legislators in Olympia, Washington’s state capital. Two of our community published books this year: one of poetry and one of graphic fiction.

One Friend clerked the search committee for the new Executive Secretary for the Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas; another is national clerk of Friends Committee on National Legislation. Three of our women served on the planning committee for the eighth Pacific Northwest Quaker Women’s Theology Conference, including its clerk. Held at Seabeck Conference Center, the gathering’s theme was “Walk With Me Mentor Elder Friend”, and brought together women from across the diverse Quaker family in our region. Two young adult Friends associated with our meeting co-clerked the annual West Coast New Year’s Gathering of Young Friends, held in southern Oregon.

Meeting re-affirmed use of our worship room as a nightly shelter for homeless people, working with the city-wide, self-managed SHARE shelter program. We are also trying to open our community to those who sleep in the shelter, and to open more prosperous Friends to what our homeless friends can teach us. We had larger than ever turnouts for our annual shared Thanksgiving Day dinner, as well as the Annual Picnic – both were attended by Friends, shelter participants, attenders and visitors. Another successful and fun community event was the “Hoedown for the Homeless”, a fundraiser with live music, a dance caller and innumerable tasty desserts prepared and contributed by members of the community. We gathered and delivered high protein food monthly for Tent City. Individuals from our meeting have participated in the work of the University District Ecumenical Parish and the U District Monthly Conversation on Homelessness.

Twenty-five members of our community served on a variety of care committees, for which our Subcommittee on Care has developed guidelines. Friends also formed a variety of support committees, and clearness committees around major life decisions.

We are in our second decade of holding, at once, the community and worship needs of survivors of sexual abuse, of our meeting children, and of a person who was in the past a sexual offender. This continues to be a challenging balance. Following a threshing session, numerous committee meetings and laboring at two meetings for business, we slightly loosened the individual’s restrictions, allowing him to attend adult religious education sessions. At the same time, we welcomed an educational presentation by a representative of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, and maintained strict safety safeguards for meeting children.

We continue the Quaker Experiential Service and Training program (QUEST), supporting young adults in volunteer service internships, by providing program support and housing in our Quaker House.

We celebrate the 2010 independence of South Seattle Meeting, which had long been under our care, and worked together with them in planning the spring 2011 gathering of Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting. Even as South Seattle departs, our own Sunday Meetings for Worship grow in size, now sometimes numbering more than eighty at 11:00, and a smaller number at 9:30. We rejoice that our meeting preschool and firstday schools are also growing again--we celebrate the new babies and children among us. But we have yet to generate a renewed Junior Friends program for teens.

Twenty-three of our members transferred to South Seattle Meeting, four joined us, one died, and three left; our membership now stands at 166. Many attend without having sought membership.

A weekly adult religious education series draws fifteen to twenty people. Beyond that, “Life, the Universe & Quakers” is an ongoing study group which arose during the Year of Discernment. Another group is making its way through Barclay’s Apology. Spiritual Sharing Groups and “Quaker 8’s” potluck groups have been organized, to help people to get to know each other better within this large meeting. We have community lunches two Sundays a month, and a monthly musical salon hosted by our Quaker House resident.

We’ve replaced rotted meetinghouse siding and windowsills, repainted, installed parking lot lights, and cleared sewer lines. Friends have done wonderful work to improve our grounds, replacing invasive exotic plants with natives, and bringing pruning up-to-date.
Now we’re beginning the next steps of meetinghouse renewal, and are engaged in a fundraising campaign.

We do have challenges. Growth in several areas at once runs up against limited meeting space. Despite rising attendance, contributions to the general Meeting budget are down. Many of us feel too busy. We have difficulty filling some committees. We do ever more meeting business by email, but worry that even when all use email, we may lose depth of face-to-face discernment and community-building.

At the same time, we see need rising around us: for jobs, housing, and food. And as always, for connection to the Spirit, to integrity, to peace, and to community.