For consideration after the last Business Meeting

                                                                        March 9, 2019

Dear Friends

First I want to thank everyone who has been coming to Meeting for Business recently. I truly am grateful for energy, no matter what the energy carries with it.

I know I have hurt many people’s feelings. I do not know how to move forward without being present in the conversation. I recognize that this point will be uncomfortable for many people. I believe in the kind of God that can hold all who are present and I ask that we all hold in the Light:

Our Clerk, Merlin.

The needs of our community

Ourselves with all our individual needs and complexes, roles in the community, perspectives on vital issues of the day, and life challenges.

Opportunity to experience continuing revelation, consideration of what practices bring Light to our community , which do not, and where if led we might look for paths to learning and growth.

 

I have been reading minutes and holding many things prayerfully:

the many OWWW’s I read in the January minutes,

a deep sense of overwhelm and a desire for openings so that “the yoke is easy and the burden is light.”

my love and gratitude for this Meeting community,

my desire for the community to flourish.

A sense from conversation that desire for me to stay away is not as unanimous as is reported in the minutes. I have told more than one person that if they have a concern that I be present they need to speak up.

 

As a person with a disability I have also sometimes been called to be present in places where my presence is to some degree or another explicitly not wanted. For better or worse, solid grounding in worship and spiritual seeking increases my willingness to attend to that call or at least to season deeply a desire for direct conversation. And I am humble about those who enjoy the privilege of getting to come and go from realities I deal with all the time.

I also appreciate a number of Friends who have said they are willing to be part of an Ad-hoc committee on Disability at UFM.  Currently Friends have formed a Clearness Committee and are seasoning what work to propose, a desire to see what can get done in a year and then to reassess. I deeply hope this work will nourish our community and promote healing and growth. If you are interested in talking more about this, please contact (RantWoman or the other brave souls who have formed the Clearness Committee)

Lest everyone just think I am completely incorrigible, I appreciate Worship and Ministry’s efforts to think about rules the community can live with. And I find the current draft highly imperfect on numerous grounds. The question is what would support spirit led seasoning by the whole community.

In the past Friends have suggested I go worship in Quaker House or downstairs in the childcare room. I am clear that I am unwilling to worship in places that are physically inaccessible to people I might choose to worship with including my sister and other people with mobility limitations. There is a work party in the library that I do not want to interfere with. I have been saying that I have faith that God will show up on Sunday and that I have no idea what that will look like. Let us please hold that problem in the Light.

 

In Light and Faithfulness.

 

(RantWoman)