More Low-Salt Popcorn: the God of the Bus and of SHARE

RantWoman was honored to hear FWCC Section of the Americas Executive Secretary Robin Mohr speak this weekend. Robin is one of those calming centered people in whose presence RantWoman cannot help but become better centered herself. Considering the state of RantWoman's spiritual compost heap, better centered is a VERY good thing. RantWoman remembers forwarding one of Robin's blog posts to the clerk of the FWCC Nominating Committee in the midst of the search for a new Exective Secretary. Little did RantWoman realize....

RantWoman thanks Friends for musical contributions. First was an item composed by Friends from RantWoman's Meeting about worship and sung to the tune of Girl from Ipanema. Next worship opened with prayer and Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, with refrain written in Spanish and Kiswahili on a flip chart. RantWoman would only be able to see the flip chart by planting her nose right in front. Unfortunatly RantWoman remains resolutely opaque, in tall woman in a big hat form to boot. This would get in the way of others reading the refrain as well so RantWoman decided just to put holding the words and the tune into others' hands and to duck.

Robin spoke of learning she was passionately interested in theology from required theology class in college. Robin spoke of the transformative power of travel first to Colombia and later to Chiapas in Mexico. Robin spoke of discovering Quakerism and the world of blogging, of connecting through blogs with others thinking deeply about theology and Quakers in the modern age. Robin also spoke of the sequence of jobs which, it turns out, have prepared her to be where she is today.

RantWoman is pleased to learn that the FWCC Section of the Americas will do another round of travelling ministers similar to Salt Light but on a new theme. This will begin after the World Gathering. RantWoman is moved by Robin's commitment to listening to God and to the way God talks through Friends throughout the Section of the Americas. RantWoman really likes the idea of 42 peer yearly Meetings rather than Meetings from the global North dominating the global south. RantWoman also specifically likes the idea of a world gathering of Friends journeying to one of the countries where there are especially large numbers of Friends rather than, say, expecting the world to travel to a richer country.

Queries from the "speed listening" part of FWCC Section of the Americas Executive Secretary Robin Mohr's presentation tonight after the closing potluck of the FWCC Executive Committee in Seattle.

1. After the Bible passage about Salt and Light, do you have too much or too little Salt and Light in your life?

RamtWoman spoke of what a gringo thing it is to want to buy low-salt popcorn at one point when the Arevalos of El Salvador came to a Salt and Light event. RantWoman spoke of bright lights in our worship room and the frustration of lots of pairs of voices in close quarters. RantWoman wishes she had registered what our clerk said in response to this query; perhaps what matters more is that we shared a chuckle and a sense that we are chuckling about the same vexations but the time is not ripe at this event to add more words.

2. What do you see as the main 2-3 key things the Religious Society of Friends should be working about? RantWoman does not remember the exact wording, but RantWoman and her query partner together came up with:

Global Climate Change / ecological concerns.

Equality, overcoming big differences in wealth. Right relationship can handle a lot of financial hits, but sooner or later, the equality bug bites.

RantWoman, channeling her Baptist spiritual roots: proclaiming the gospel, taking Friends' message to a hungry world. RantWoman realizes it might sound funny to phrase things thus from within a Yearly Meeting where "preaching the gospel" includes everything from Christ-centered to Buddhist to pagan to agnostic. Perhaps the point is that "the gospel" blesses and thrives and survives in and among all these forms

Our clerk added "Discerning what we are called to do."

As sometimes happens in RantWoman's experience, the questions period drew out themes more directly for locals to work at again than necessarily points it is realistic to expect Robin to respond to:

One Friend spoke of "the same people in the room" since 1981. RantWoman thought of taking exception since she was not in the room at that point, The more important thing is, what is preventing anyone from reaching out and drawing in? Perhaps that Friend missed Robin's point about FWCC being a volunteer-based organization with a very thin staff. Even when people have clear leadings and unmistakeable callings, material support is also needed, but FWCC by itself is, to RantWoman's understanding not mainly a place to find financial support.

RantWoman finds it curious that this question led her first to ramble of money because the Friend who posed it complained that many Friends he knows are little interested even in matters of quarterly and yearly Meeting, let alone of FWCC. RantWoman finds herself again thinking, well, what do these bodies need to do to present small steps Friends can do where they are, local activities with global connections. RantWoman is amused by persistence in her life of the theme "Think Globally, act locally."

"Getting Friends interested in racism" RantWoman finds this a vexed question: the Friend who expressed the question is, himself, active professionally outside Meeting in a number of ways to engage with the dynamics of racism. If RantWoman actually wants to listen to people different from her, Friends Meeting is not necessarily the best venue because others in Meeting are considerably less aware than the Friend who posed the question or RantWoman or a small number of others. But what is our task laboring with each other about topics like this?

Robin spoke of the global change queries and RantWoman found herself reflecting on a conversation about global change and the bus: even in comparatively bus dependent Seattle, life aboard the bus is at best alien, novel among many in RantWoman's Meeting. RantWoman values her bus experiences for many, many reasons. Others in RantWoman's Meeting are considerably less engaged about that of God on the bus and what new spiritual skills we might be called to learn to cope with eg more and closer togetherness.

Speaking of new spiritual skills and engagement with problems at hand, RantWoman has one more quibble which she should quibble about in person ahead of her blog: those gathered needed to move because it was time for SHARE, the self-managed homeless group who sleep on our worship room floor to arrive for the night. RantWoman was not close enough to planning for this event to think in time of making sure to invite SHARE to the potluck.

SHARE is the self-managed community of homeless people, primarily men, who sleep on our worship room most nights. Our agreement with SHARE is one of those "good boundary" things that RantWoman wishes we could adjust in a few different ways. Mainly, if there is an event like a potluck that might be of interest, Friends have to be quite intentional about channels for delivering an invitation to take part. RantWoman is going to have to take up this concern regarding future events.

In the Light