Release Return Receive Respond

RantWoman thought the only things she needed from an article in her Meeting's newsletter about the 2014 NPYM Annual session were the words in the title of this post.

Upon rereading, RantWoman also decided to highlight:

Above all, stay Truthful. Love requires Truth and, in return, Truth allows Love.”

Hold in the Light!

Report on NPYM Annual Session 2014 by Ann Stever, UFM member of NPYM Coordinating Committee

At the Annual Session of North Pacific Yearly Meeting, 280 people met at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, July 24 – 27. Highlights for many includedmaking new friends and connect-ing with old friends. Worship groups and interest groups fedminds, hearts and spirits.

A Meeting for Memorials remindedus of Friends we have known and loved from all corners of the YM. A binder with the memorialminutes is in the Library.

We had some Spirit-led Meetings for Business, clerked by Tom Rawson. We were presentedwith the revised “Practice” section of our Faith and Practice. It is available atnpym.org/q=fandp/all-versions and click on Faith and PracticeTransitional Version. A print version is in the UFM Library. We are urged to use it and provide feedback to the Committee on the Discipline.

We approved the budget with an increase in assessments, paid by Meetings,from $48 to $60 per member in order to fund the new Children’sProgram Coordinator. JayThatcher served in this position last year and Friends were delighted with his work, which will continue.

We approved Nominating Committee recommendations, including Warren Ostrom as rising clerk of the YM, meaning that he will become presiding clerk for 2 years, starting in October 2015. We approved a minute on Repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. ...

Each year a highlight for me is the message from the Friend or Friends in Residence. This year, the FinR were Katherine andKen Jacobsen from Ohio YM. Katherine has Parkinson’s disease and sometimes has problems speaking. Because of her difficulty speaking, we were given the gift of transcript of what she said. She ended with the heart of the message she had been given. “The power you seek,seeks you as well. Trust the 2-way motion of Love. Reciprocal and co-creative Love generates Life. She ended saying “So, Friends of NPYM, release your expectations for these annual sessions and listen deeply together in expectancy. God is not far. Call for silence when the two-way motion of Love is interrupted and/or Life seems to have gone out of the proceedings. Above all, stay Truthful. Love requires Truth and, in return, Truth allows Love.” What a wonderful reminder of how to act in Business Meeting.
Ken spoke particularly of our worship and how we can work at this. He gave us four words for the rhythm of worship.
Release what is on your mind, the chatter and the world.
Return to the ground of connection, to the wordless mystery of God; expectantly await an encounter.
Receive – feel a quickening, a senseof the wordless Presence, and thejoy of responding to the invitation to dance with the Divine.
Respond to what we have felt andunderstood in worship to go out into the world and bear witness.
Quakerism is no halfway religion! We are asked to be co-creators in the motion of Love.
Ken and Katherine gave us a lot to think about. The depth and strength of their connections with the Spirit were apparent. But it was the sight of them in front of us, the tenderness of the way they shared and cared for one another, that made, at least for me, the motion of Love absolutely visible.