Appreciation: travelling minister

RantWoman has heard much appreciation of Friend Joe Snyder's visit to the Marysville Worship Group. Friend Joe seems to have been well-led as far as queries and well-used as far as inspiration for that community's life.

RantWoman offers appreciation for an incidental conversation with elder Dave Fabik about membership clearness committees. RantWoman appreciates that Multonomah MM is trying to get FOUR people together for one clearness process. RantWoman does not feel called to elaborate about what she was led to share of great clearness committee moments in her own Meeting except that RantWoman's Meeting seems to do well most of the time getting TWO people together on a membership committee.

Strike that reticence even if it is a free association digression: one comparatively recent clearness committee member remarked after discussion in Meeting for Business that the Friend being admitted to membership had expressed concern about specific names but every single name had spoken of a reason to admit him to membership. RantWoman's posthumous formulation after a short but draining illness: RantWoman is glad this Friend found a spiritual landing place among us, but the landing was going to be bumpy wherever. RantWoman also treasures young Friends who came to us about the same time as this Friend and who all appreciated his regular greetings.

RantWoman still does not know quite what to do with the other clearness committee moment. The most recent mention of it was in front of other Friends before a clump of college students doing ethnography about Friends' customs. In response to some kind of question about membership, RantWoman blurted out "if you slug two members of your membership clearness committee, you are probably not going to be admitted to membership." Part of what RantWoman does not know what to do with: neither of the two Friends remarked AT ALL afterward about RantWoman's comment even to ask which incident RantWoman might have referred to or how RantWoman was connected to it.

RantWoman is collecting moments from Friend Joe Snyder's visits to TWO meetings in Seattle. TWO because:

1. RantWoman needs LOTS of listening and actually likes listening to different strands of Quakers.

2. RantWoman lives close to one and needed a Friday activity.

3. Of COURSE RantWoman went to the Sunday potluck event at her own Meeting.

Friday's meeting touched on shifting eras within Meetings and also personal lives. There undoubtedly was more but that is what stuck with RantWoman

RantWoman also mentioned that a good wedding is always a joy, and a good wedding that includes many strands of life outside Meeting is even better.

A funny takeaway from Friday: last summer RantWoman was all cross because a Friend from her own Meeting was not able to talk about what RantWoman found COOL about an interest group at Annual Session on vocal ministry: many voices. Voices unfamiliar to RantWoman. Friend Joe working with a much younger elder. Turns out Friend Joe also found the group  too big and unwieldy.

Plus too many people straggled in or introductions took too long. RantWoman deeply esteems introductions but they did take too long. Okay, sure, but what happened in the time available was to RantWoman COOL, and RantWoman would not have minded at least a tiny bit more capacity to talk about it. Mleah. [Can anyone besides RantWoman pull out the joy from these comments? What all is being balanced here?]

In other words, the things RantWoman found COOL and energizing are also stressful and challenging. There. MUCH Better.

But on to Sunday, abundant potluck food, a number of youth, two adults younger than RantWoman and a generous number of old-timers. Also a confession from the Clerk after Friends shared on the queries: it would have been good specifically to try to draw out the youth among us.

OMG. Offering a blessing OUT LOUD . A blessing for abundance and for all the hands and labor that got the abundance to our tables. A blessing RantWoman absolutely endorses.

Where is joy  / life comments with RantWoman quibbles:

We can do Potlucks!
[yes, in the evening, but RantWoman has food handling concerns if Friends try to do potluck after Meeting for business. The number of people needing to heat / rehat over time when there was time to do it might be too much for light lunch after meeting for Business. RantWoman will not stay if the traffic jam is too bad.]

A sense that, Meeting has made progress about important issue: needful actions not happening if we rely only on volunteers so we write a job description and see what our offer will buy us. That's the upside of the speaker's this year vs last year. That is not the whole story.

For instance RantWoman at one point blurted out that the Business Meeting where one piece of the work was approved could be characterized as "Push around vulnerable women." RantWoman is grateful that someone not a Business Meeting gasped about the comment. Anyway, much is still unclear. Much is seasoning hopefully not only in a long tangled interwoven trademark RantWoman email.

RantWoman welcomes the process of discernment about changes happening around us
[said later: we need more conceptual practice about realizing actual discernment than one paragraph in the newsletter. Not said: other things RantWoman is seasoning.]

Trust [??? Predictability and trust are not synonymous. How easy is it to upset the apple cart? How resilient are we when...?]

Willing to hang in there.

Try something new if this does not work. [YES! But some who need the Try Something New message are not in the room. Are we actually getting to something new?]

RantWoman does not remember the exact words behind what got scribbled here as "Public face;" RantWoman thinks they have something to do with reputation in the community. RantWoman also appreciates that the words prompted her to share comments from a visitor unfamiliar with Friends who observed a sense of worshipful space in our worship room.

So what would Radical Safety mean?

Please forgive RantWoman because things were said that did not register.

Then a Friend was led to lead the room in "Love is something if you give it away, give it away you end up having more."

m'kayyy?

Yep. RantWoman is a musician's kid. RantWoman thinks music is wonderful and almost always enriches our community.

AND

RantWoman cannot always just sing a happy song and forget other pieces.

Give some love away to the homeless wheelchair users who cannot access one new tenant's services.

Give some love away to RantWoman because Little Sister uses a wheelchair, because RantWoman has LOTS of friends who use wheelchairs, and not even being able to acknowledge things, even hard things, to do with wheelchairs MAKES RANTWOMAN'S HEAD EXPLODE.

Give some love away to the screwed-up government contracting fiasco that results in a beloved Friend having to endure RIDICULOUS waits for his paratransit ride home from worship.

Give some love away to everyone dealing with hearing loss or at LEAST give some State of the Meeting love to lots of experiments with mobile mics. If RantWoman is still not feeling heard, she is in fact literally not being heard. EVERYONE needs to be held in the Light about this. RantWoman finds hearing loss INCREDIBLY frustrating. Shhh. don't tell anyone. Hearing loss? Who RantWoman too...?

Give some love for conversations where some present complain about things wandering off topic and have to be told that a large percentage of the topics they consider off-topic have something to do with disability so NOW What? Put not one but TWO of those historical voices on Personnel Committee?  Torture the new Recording clerk and Personnel Committee about what is actually meant by one moment in minutes? Ummmmm, stay tuned.

Give some love away for one Friend who says " well I think we are finally figuring out ableism." Then give some love away for RantWoman who wants to say well, if you think you get ableism, how about mentioning it with all the other 'isms in the State of Society?

Mention ableism even if it is only the trip to exotic Planet rantWoman that no one really signs up for and RantWoman keeps going there anyway.  Sure, okay, off-topic at least until RantWoman  cannot find the large print bible she donated to the library [the prodigal book has been found, catalogued, and findable with other Bibles. Hallelujah!]

Radical safety like can we talk about housing choices? Issues like some in our Meeting are doing quite nicely thank you very much based on property appreciating in value. Others are struggling to find housing they can afford. Seattle in general is dealing badly with huge need to upzone to make more space in the city for residential housing, neighborhoods trying to meet housing demand by allowing accessory dwelling units (backyard cottages), thoughts in some quarters that tiny houses are preferable to tent encampments (yeah, and...)

RantWoman is still sitting with a phone conversation with a Friend who refused to shake RantWoman's hand in closing worship. RantWoman decided the issue needed conversation--in daylight. RantWoman even reached Friend on the FIRST try by phone. Ding. Ding. Ding. Phone tag makes RantWoman SO crabby.

Understand, RantWoman really is trying to be faithful to some difficult Light but to do it as kindly as possible.

Friend complained of a sense that RantWoman always wants the last word. Friend has complained of this before but not in a way where RantWoman can speak to a specific moment. Friend also used the phrase "exercise in domination."

RantWoman is not even asking forgiveness for the following thought bubbles:

Okay Friend, who is in charge here, you, RantWoman or God?

Okay Friend consider yourself loved. Consider the love given away though if you wourld prefer RantWoman would be happy to charge.

But for now Friend does kind of get the last word:   a specific link as requested for articles about difficult people. RantWoman much prefers specific links rather than having to pick through search results with a screen reader. RantWoman had almost forgotten about the request by the time the links arrived and RantWoman will reflect further in a future post.

Benjamin Lay Summoned to Mind

RantWoman appreciatively posts this contribution via Avis Wanda Mc Clinton.

RantWoman notes this in partial preparation for NPYM Annual Session.

Also, RantWoman has not looked very hard but has not found an easy accessible path To NPYM Friend IN Residence Vanessa Julye's book Fit for Freedom Not for Friendship. So instead RantWoman is likely to read So you want to talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo.

But in the meantime, Benjamin Lay.

Happy Fathers Day 2018

Happy Fathers Day.

Happy Fathers Day minus any meditation on matters of God the Father. Faith of our Fathers, holy faith, maybe though.

Happy Fathers Day in honor of whatever parenting trends have according to one nurse made fathers who come to the ER much better at answering detailed how are things questions.

Happy Fathers Day to fathers walking with their children's gender identity issues.

Happy Fathers day to a husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson who ALL came together with one member one year.

Happy Fathers Day to the father and his daughters who came to worship one year after negotiating realities of a restraining order. RantWoman took the joint appearance as a sign of healing, progress.

Happy Fathers day to dads raising bilingual children. Maybe RantWoman will get around to speaking of Irrepressible Nephew and Brother in Law and matters of literacy and vocabulary. Maybe.

Happy Fathers Day to one Friend who says she never goes to 11:00 worship on fathers day because of her father issues, and to [Nom de blog omitted] who resonated with a RantWoman comment about perhaps things that do not need to make it out of one's mouth on Fathers Day.

Happy Fathers day to RantDad and the righteous Rev. Rant Grandad especially when they argued. It is SO much fun to be in the back seat with both one's siblings while responsible figures in the front seat argue VEHEMENTLY about funerals and memorials.

Happy Fathers Day to RantDad and good on ya for letting RantBrother drag you to counseling, ONCE.

Happy Fathers Day to the reality TV star and his husband who broadcast the birth of their daughter, made a number of misogynist comments about the surrogate mom they contracted with. May your misogyny earn y'all and especially your daughter a really good guardian ad litem and some strong female role models because she is really going to need them.

Happy Fathers Day to a father who, a number of years ago starred in a membership clearness committee drama: RantWoman was glad to learn that said father was referred for mental health help and RantWoman has always wondered what happened to the teenage / now young adult son.

And Happy Fathers day in honor of a Make RantWoman's head explode topic RantWoman is still trying to figure out how, nicely, to address. PLEASE hold RantWoman and the concept of Inner Blowtorch in the Light.

Happy 50th Anniversary to St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Billings

RantWoman sincerely wants to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the St Andreews Presbyterian Church, Billings MT. RantWoman also wants to honor gifts founding pastor Paul Krebill and other church members brought the Rant Family.But first, the church as it is today, in its own words. 
http://standrewbillings.org/

The Sanctuary View, from S 24th St.

Our Mission Statement

Our mission statement is "Building a servant community seeking to be Christ's hands and heart."
“Building” means we are still creating together, open to new ideas and new people.
“A servant community” means a group of people gathered in a sacred place, committed to serving God by serving the world and building one another up with compassion and joy.
“Seeking to be” means we aren’t perfect or finished, but trying. We are all in process, trying to live into God’s call.
“Christ’s hands and heart” means we want to live out God's love, justice, and mercy in Jesus Christ. We want people to recognize Christ in compassionate action, breaking bread, and challenging destructive systems. We want people to recognize, as Jesus said, that the realm of God is within our hands and hearts. 

http://standrewbillings.org/pages/discover.html

http://standrewbillings.org/pages/gather.html

RantWoman was hoping to find a picture of the labyrinth. RantWoman imagines the labyrinth has grown some pleasant vegetation since RantWoman last visited. Alas, no pictures, but this wonderful informational link.

http://standrewbillings.org/pages/labyrinth.html





Graphic shamelessly borrowed
from the Church website

Now, as to the RantFamily,

Readers who want to celebrate--or visit--the church as it is today are invited to stop here.

Readers game for another trip to Planet RantWoman with an extra side of discernment about which of the "makes RantWoman's head explode" themes really must be spoken of in present community are invited to pray along below.

 RantWoman has been reflecting on a recent Adult Religious education session of fathers reflecting on their lives in Meeting. It does not sound like any of the speakers are the kind of parent whose teenage son will have to drag off to counseling.( Once. It did not really take.)

The RantParents migrated to St Andrews after RantDad stopped bing choir director at First Baptist. It was a mutual parting of the ways, years after RantDad's moaning after every choir practice led RantWoman to ask "Why don't you quit? God will open another door"


At some point, Rev. Krebill started taking recorder lessons from RantDad. RantWoman has a sense of great spiritual comfort for RantDad from those lessons.

 St. Andrews took excellent spiritual care of the RantParents: Sunday school. Worship. Music without RantDad having to organize it any more. A packed sanctuary with more musicians wanting to perform than would fit on the program for RantDad's memorial.

Somewhere in RantMom's cancer treatment, RantWoman was visiting. RantWoman kept nudging RantMom to create a care committee. Rantmom kept resisting. Finally RantWoman threw a fit: "MOM, it will make ME  feel better if you get a care committee."

So RantMom invited some people from her church and her Walk to Emaus group. RantWoman explained about care committees. The deacons' eyes all lit up: "We can think of about 5 people who need this!" RantMom got her care committee with extra reinforcement from RantMom's siblings.
 
RantWoman heartily thanks all the members of the St. Andrews community who thanked RantWoman for, much to RantMom's initial distress, making RantMom open up about matters on her heart. News flash: RantMom is assuredly not the only parent on the planet with highly imperfect adult children.

Here the spirit of God flourishes. May it do so 50 more years, at least.

Gratitude with SIM card and dancing broccoli

RantWoman is feeling GRATEFUL.

RantWoman is also feeling beset but is trying to breathe deeply and do one thing at a time.

Here the gratitude, with today's excursion to exotic Planet RantWoman: Praise the Internet and all the friends it connects to, smartphone edition.

RantWoman has her dancing broccoli back!

Dancing Broccoli

RantWoman had to get a new phone. RantWoman had to brave both multiple brain exploding phone customer service experience and two rounds of in-person upselling.  Dial-a-tirade happy to function about public requests for PIN numbers, and the thumbnail-sized SIM card, also known as Time to Pray on a chip. The SIM card would have vanished entirely if RantWoman had dropped it onto her floor instead of hearing it land on her table.

At first RantWoman was determined to swap the SIM card from the old phone into the new phone herself. After several tries it was obvious: RantWoman should just get on the bus early to her final destination, stop at the Verizon store and act helpless, not a meme RantWoman does easily, This time RantWoman was desperate!

Do not forget those terrifying moments when one needs one's device and accessibility features to duck the itty-bitty teeny tiny print about critical instructions such as backups and restoring factory defaults.

The dancing broccoli did not survive the first-pass migration. They vanished in a cloud of erased electrons. RantWoman cowered about just using the search bar. Blessedly, RantWoman has been filling enough of her groupies' text messages with dancing broccoli that someone was able quickly to resupply until RantWoman recovered enough time and patience to go find more dancing broccoli GIF's on her very own!

Fruits of Travel

Fruits of C Wess Daniels and Lloyd Lee Wilson travelling in the ministry, Seattle, NSFC.

Announcement described travelling in ministry without a set program.

The worship space was full of Friends from a number of Friends congregations. and a sense of having been well-worshipped in.

Silent worship

Voices that stuck with RantWoman, though interpreter brain thinks some voices are missing
LLW spoke of hearing a call to travel in the NW along with a call to wait until C Wess Daniels was ready to go.

Invocation of the native peoples to whom what is now Seattle used to belolong

A message about Light.

A Friend spoke of how to connect and what we share with other Christian denominations.

A Friend spoke of grappling with Faith  vs belief.

RantWoman thought bubble from Breme Brown, Rising Strong: opposite of faith is certainty.

A RantWoman message which started out in RantWoman's head as popcorn kernels in language not appropriate for meeting for worship. Basic point: what does God call us to do with the outrages of the world? Pray for the President and stay out of barfing range? Sing a raucous song in a 900-year-old church asking God to take care of...? Ask God to smite or at least shine a fierce light on the immigration abuses of the day?

RantWoman had a sense of being faithful to her Light. RantWoman also had a sense from stunning tight-breathed silence that RantWoman's Light had not arrived as hoped. RantWoman spent time praying "God, please give someone else a message. We should not close like that."

A message came about Faith and Belief and worship closed except the sharing did not.

Appreciation of the birthing process of Sierra Cascade YM

Further message about a few decades ago perhaps not being permitted by one's home YM to worship with the likes of Friends in the NW.

Car ride consensus on the way home:

Go deeper. Worship Pray.

Also God should give Wess more words.