Hallowed Time. The Bus COUNTS

Reflections on hallowed time, prayer, worship, the bus.


RantWoman's mind is in a time warp. RantWoman's body is reluctantly back from vacation and Quarterly Meeting. RantWoman's brain most assuredly is still dawdling. Here: MODEST efforts to corral RantWoman's reflections on recent reading.

About making every moment holy and not apologizing when psychic "junk food" turns out more nourishing than one initially assumes.
http://quakerpagan.blogspot.com/2013/09/whats-twenty-minutes.html

About spending 10,000 hours to get good at something and in passing about Saturday plenary at NPYM annual session.
http://generousgrasp.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/ten-thousand-hours/#more-503



Digression alert? Prayer experiments
http://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/prayer-experiments/



Does the bus count? At the moment, all roads, courses of Living Water, nearly hidden tracks in the woods, ALL Routes lead to the Bus!

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/04/time-to-pray.html

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/08/bus-eldering-123.html


Really? How about hold RantWoman and all those in the path of her emanations in the Light?

Submission--on deadline

RantWoman is submitting the following item for her monthly newsletter. RantWoman notes that the deadline for her Meeting's monthly newsletter is the 20th of the month for the next month. RantWoman notes this with an eye toward Friends wanting to publicize events and activities on schedules that work both for the electronically au courant and for Freinds whose Weighy one frequently wants in the conversaion even when those Friends never go near that electronic stuff.


*******
First, the VERY boiled down version of what RantWoman will submit along with a couple comments about what might be cut if, as RantWoman suspects, this is still too long for our monthly newsletter:


Thank you to UFM’s Spiritual Enrichment fund for money to attend NPYM’s Annual Session.


I love Annual Sesssion. I get credit just for showing up. Friends from small Meetings and Worship Groups in MT, ID, OR, WA feel a spiritual liftjust to be among large numbers of Friends and all I have to do is show up!

At Annual Session Interest Groups provide time for education and discussion about specific topics. I went to a fun one about “The Quaker Language Barrier.” Friends shared all kinds of words used among Friends and talked some about the questions they raise. Among the words Friends mentioned: clerk, seasoning, programmed and unprogrammed. Friends comments wandered quickly to broader communications themes: how does Spirit move across different approaches to electronic communication? How do Friends of different generations feel Divine presence in the midst of challenges of travel and distance? The best part of that discussion for me was hearing that other Meetings are having some of the same conversations I am a part of.

Another rich experience: I served as a worship group leader for the daily small group meetings where Friends meet to reflect on the Annual Session theme, a common set of readings and queries, and events as they unfold at Annual Session. Being a group leader is fairly new for me. I was especially grateful for the email reflections other worship group leaders offered over a couple weeks. I was grateful for the content of the reflections. I was grateful the worship group leaders were willing to have the discussion by email and I was glad other leaders took time as it fit into their schedules to share their thoughts.

I got to meet Mary Klein, the new editor of Western Friend. I also got to thank her very much for help editing my recent article about the White Privilege Conference which may be found in the UFM library or online here as a link on http://westernfriend.org  

Finally, a note about my dorm: My very favorite thing about the suite I shared was that the shower had ferocious, wonderful, wake me up and remind me how glad I am to be alive and living in a first world country water pressure.

To read more about my evolving reflections Friends are invited to visit my blog at http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/search/label/NPYM%202013

  ******* The WAY too long version, minus some tweaks as RantWoman was boiling down     Thank you to UFM’s Spiritual Enrichment fund for money to attend NPYM’s Annual Session. When I request money from UFM’s spiritual enrichment fund to attend an event I always hold two queries no matter what else might come too:

What do I take with me? What of my own spiritual compost heap, what concerns for the community are on my heart, what needs weeding, what needs tending?

What do I bring back? What experiences do I need to share? What new Light has come to me? What do I carry from renewing new ties or from stretching to make new ones? What am I especially grateful for?

Friends interested in what Friends in Residence Becca and Paul Molally Renk brought on the theme “Not by my Strength Alone” can hear for ourselves at an upcoming Adult Education session.

Here are a few personal reflections.

At Annual Session Interest Groups provide time for education and discussion about specific topics. I went to a fun one about “The Quaker Language Barrier.” Friends shared all kinds of words used among Friends and talked some about the questions they raise. Among the words Friends mentioned: clerk, seasoning, programmed and unprogrammed. Friends comments wandered quickly to broader communications themes: how do different Friends view electronic communication? How do Friends of different generations view challenges of travel and distance. The best part of that discussion for me was hearing that other Meetings are having some of the same conversations I am a part of.

Another part of the experience I really valued: I served as a worship group leader for the daily small group meetings where Friends meet to reflect on the Annual Session theme, a common set of readings and queries, and events as they unfold at Annual Session. Being a group leader is fairly new for me. I was especially grateful for the email reflections other worship group leaders offered over a couple weeks. I was grateful for the content of the reflections. I was grateful the worship group leaders were willing to have the discussion by email and I was glad other leaders took time as it fit into their schedules to share their thoughts.

I got to meet Mary Klein, the new editor of Western Friend. I also got to thank her very much for help editing my recent article about the White Privilege Conference which may be found in the UFM library or online here as a link on http://westernfriend.org

Finally, a note about my dorm: I shared a suite with 3 other women. My very favorite thing about our suite was that the shower had ferocious, wonderful, wake me up and remind me how glad I am to be alive and living in a first world country water pressure. Others found the water pressure a bit much and I am sorry for that but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am still digesting this year’s experiences. To read more about my thoughts Friends are invited to visit my blog at http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/search/label/NPYM%202013

Warning: it’s a blog. My personal model of blogging falls somewhere between historical Quaker journal and permanent clearness committee. Historical Quaker journals in their raw state make a good case for the existence of editors. Enough said?

Spirit Sucked Out? Straggling: still not entirely back from Annual Session

Okay RantWoman admits it: she is procrastinating and would rather be somewhere else than her current daily diet of only occasionally diverting dramas.

RantWoman is still trying to get her brain home from Annual Session, also known as Quaker summer camp. RantWoman admits, part of this mental straggling has to do with NPYM being a geographically large but very unevenly populated Yearly Meeting. Being together in person really means a lot for many Friends even if this means long distance travel or organizing ourselves to communicate a lot of the time in new media.

Remember how RantWoman wrote ad copy about "it's Quakers go to camp, Business Meeting every day?" RantWoman had a great time regardless. Here RantWoman pokes at dances of the Holy Spirit as more or less corralled into plenary business sessions and other kinds of intentional and unintentional activities.


Opening Musings:
Weighty Friend who teaches Clerking sometimes points out that one can be dealing with both issues of process and issues of content or agenda. For me the entire issue of doing business at Annual Session falls into that category. I would like to outline some observations and see where they lead.

The structure committee originally intended to facilitate both doingbusiness at Annual Session and spreading out the work of the community across more committees. I think both ARE occurring; some comments about the second before tackling the question of Business at Annual Session.

There were a couple diverse committees including many different names and Meetings created last year; from the sounds of their reports some of them did a lot of spirit-led work. A couple other committees needed to come to plenary even if all they found out is their work needs more seasoning.

It was wonderful last year to hear the number of different names of Friends led to work on the structure evaluation and the question of relationships with Friends from other groups of yearly meetings.

I have enjoyed hearing bits and pieces of the work done by the Committee on the Discipline including all the consultations the committee did at annual session this year with Friends of different ages.

I like that the Youth Committee was clear to act on pretty tight timeline and to bring forward a proposal to hire a children's program coordinator. I think exactly what gets assigned to that position needs some adjustment and I would like to have better understood some numbers points about who participates in Annual Session and the impact of adding a fourth day, but I like being able to make decisions even if uncertainty is involved! I like that there is a full slate of Friends led to work on Outreach and Visitation.

I am not necessarily distressed that a standing Peace and Social Concerns committee has not coalesced. Friends are active in so many different ways that creating a standing committee might draw energy away from all the other ways Friends are engaged. On the other hand, between the geographic coverage of the coal trains issue and the fact that Sen. Murray D WA is the chair of the Senate Budget committee, I am going to continue to season some thoughts related to FCWPP and FCNL andNPYM.

I have been VERY impressed with the work done by M&O over the past several years. Meaning no disrespect to the people newly nominated to M&O, I have a continuing concern that M&O really needs the gifts and Light of Friends from Meetings in communities of different sizes and I hope that Nominating Committee and M&O will discern about ways to work with that concern.

[Comment added as this goes to blog: RantWoman means to foward to Nominating Committee and Young Adult Friends a list of about 5 standing committees where RantWoman would be thrilled to see added the name of 1 or more Young Adult Friends.]

[Further reflections due at some point on RantWoman's experience arriving at her Meeting at YAF age but never with any strong leading or draw to connect to Young Adult Friends.]

Turning now to Annual Session, different topics might require different strategies as far as shared seasoning. Friends need to attend to a sense somehow among at least a substantial number of Friends that structure is threatening to squeeze out Spirit. What do we need to do to preserve a greater sense of Spirit moving among us?

Such Light as has arrived to RantWoman, subject of course to all manner of RantWoman-derived distortions:


Agenda items are currently presented in plenary with framing one day and action after a couple days and opportunity between for God to work and for Friends to season and talk amongst ourselves before things come back to Business Meeting.

I rode back from Annual Session in a car with two other Friends and we ALL talked about how we are only now starting to get the hang of the presentation, season, discern in plenary cycle and by extension how we hope work occurs between Annual Sessions.

One thing that I think would help Friends understand the logic of the scheduling at Annual Session is to remind Friends of this multiple times multiple ways, when stuff is emailed out, in plenaries, etc. One Friend in the car was not crazy about the term framing, but maybe something like "opening a container" would be an interesting option. The container is partly blocks of time, partly environment, plenary or otherwise, partly the contributions of Friends' seasoning. If one block of time container gets full, another is needed but if might be a different container as far as room, timeline....

A second thing I think would help is to be REALLY explicit about a time and place for people to meet outside plenary with the committee when further seasoning is needed.

--The have everyone mob the speakers' area thing that has gone on for two years is really hard for anyone with physical limitations. Having a specific time and place announced is inviting, not exclusive, maintains a sense of worshipful space not just friendly mob. The idea would be that more seasoning is frequently needed but not by a whole plenary.

--Or if a new adhoc committee is needed, having an open meeting space gives a way for people to gather in person and worship briefly even if they wind up working a lot by conference call over the next year.

A third thing to think about: A Friend from the Youth Committee mentioned that the Presiding Clerk did a conference call with the people needing to present in plenaries before Annual Session I think this in general is a good idea. Maybe I misheard as far as who participated in the call though: the people presenting already know their topics well and the question of how to present in plenaries MIGHT benefit from fresh ears. Maybe a set or two of fresh ears would just offer questions that the Clerk or those presenting could listen for. Maybe the fresh ears would suggest that some items might need more time in plenary than others. Who knows? The idea is just to have some fresh ears to think about and uphold during sessions.

This year, ironically, one agenda item where I clearly saw the seasoning between plenaries pay off was the Relations with other branches of Quakers committee, the one that got postponed because God needed to work on Saturday. I heard the co-clerk's frustration about having done a lot of work to fix concerns which arose during framing and being disappointed that they could not present on Saturday. I am sorry their co-clerks had to leave, but I think we were well-served even when the plenary attempted some word smithing. Also, RantWoman heard one Friend talk about the work of the committee over the year and how she felt it had been rewarding to stick things out and work through some rough spots as a committee.

Where would time for open committee meetings come from?
One option that comes to mind is to have one or more meeting rooms during interest group time. People might have to give up an interest group but see an additional idea.

Another option: during service project time even though that also is a conflict.

A third: get rid of a plenary.
--There is one day where there were 3 plenaries. Cut back to two and do open committee meetings, several at once during that the time that would have been the third plenary. That means people can only go to one. Oh well.

--Have a separate space or maybe use the main plenary room for open worship and people holding the work in the Light. OR do a mix of open committee and interest groups so that there are three time slots with interest group options. ALWAYS make an open worship option during Interest group times.

--Also consider some kind of intergenerational freeform craft activity where people can get together and DO and talk at the same time but also in a way that is a break from other busyness.

--Part of the thinking is explicitly to take advantage of Friends all being together and to do at least some Business in smaller groups than the whole plenary.


What would I subtract from the plenary agenda if we cut back by one?
--There should be at most 1 or two Quaker alphabet soup presentations at plenary. Everyone else gets interest group options or the Quaker fair. MAYBE spend some time thinking about ways to make the Quaker fair a little bit less of a mob scene.

--One interest group option: the Alphabet soup interest group with short presentations by several groups. Maybe ask people who present in plenary what their efforts yieleded this year and whether they are satisfied. Then use those thoughts in planning how presentatins are done next year.

--Another option, just repeat some of the interest groups and maybe create room for one or two more, especially if way were found for a third interest group time.

Another important discipline is just to focus on decisions that absolutely have to get made such as approving the budget.

Money

This year, I heard great lack of clarity about financial concerns including tradeoffs of different choices regarding length of Annual Session, whether Annual Session is covering its costs, financing Annual Session partly through assessments or expecting it to be self-supporting, how to ensure that different parts of our community are able to attend, spending from reserves and general budget balancing.

Some of the time I think it is reasonable for Finance and Legal to prepare one budget; sometimes I think it would be more helpful to present a couple alternatives with tradeoffs clearly spelled out in the first framing session and then expect people to have gotten clear about recommended choices in time to approve at a subsequent plenary.

For myself, I come from a large Meeting but I think a smaller percentage of our community regularly attends Annual Session than from other Meetings. This is a point I think about when thinking about large dues increases and how to finance Annual Session vs other choices of activity for the Yearly Meeting. I have no clear answers but I do think about it and I am grateful for time to season big changes with my Meeting in time to offer meaningful input over a series of years at Annual Session.

Thank you all for your work.

In the Light

(RantWoman)
Link to apage full of documents, including epistles from other Yearly Meetings.
http://www.npym.org/as/index.html

Let's not have a party.

RantWoman is still picking over moments from this year's NPYM Annual Session. RantWoman is in Tells too much of the Truth mode regarding certain customs at NPYM Annual Session that it would be hard for newcomers to find or hard for parents of young children to participate in.


1. Bible Study at Breakfast.

--A Friend has a continuing leading to lead this; other Friends have continuing leadings to show up. Some years, announcements about this make it into the Daily Bulletin. This year, a table in the dining room filled by word of mouth without ever listing it in the Daily Bulletin. RantWoman thought of mentioning the listing, but then kept silent.

--This year's readings were from I Kings, chapters 17-19 or so. RantWoman GOES to Bible studey to learn more bible stories and this year's readings rocked in that regard.
--The hard for parents point: it's a time when there is no childcare. A single mom had a grandmother in her circle supervise her 4-year-old. Note to self: Accessibility to Families Committee could ask people who have been attending Annual Session since infancy or people who have brought young children to Annual Session what coping strategies they used.



2. Meeting for Worship with Attention to Chocolate

This event customarily includes both chocolate and stories of brushes with Fame.

--The event occurs on either Friday or Saturday of Annual Session and is oe of those only by word of mouth occasions that RantWoman gets invited to when she happens onto it but that otherwise no one would have any way of finding. This comment is in no way any opinion about whether eating chocolate at 10pm is GOOD for RantWoman.

--The Brushes With Fame must refer to the Brusher in some indirect terms. For instance if RantWoman were to speak of the story behind this blog post http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/07/spank-spitzer.html, RantWoman might says something like "my grandparents' oldest grandchild" went to school with the former governor of NY now running for other public office.

--The hard for parents point is just that Meeting for Chocolate usually occurs when kids should be headed toward bed and in fact around 10 pm Quaker Midnight, the witching hour when even many Quaker adults (not RantWoman) also head off to bed.

--Some years attendance at Meeting for Chocolate is greater than other years. RantWoman is meditating about why she even feels entitled to be invited or to have the event widely enough known for newcomers to participate in, but she does. Cope!

Scratch that. RantWoman thinks if God is supposed to be accessible to all, the chocolate should be too. RantWoman further thinks that what Friends have to offer the world is a lot bigger than Meeting for Chocolate, but if we cannot even invite ... into Meeting for Chocolate....

--RantWoman tends not to think of the event in advance for instance to contribute some chocolate. So RantWoman is putting this on her maybe try to remember for next year list.

Exercise, Families, Saturday Plenary, MONEY

RantWoman DOES have an I voice. If readers are lucky, RantWoman will preserve her I voice out of an edited email. This item summarizes some circumstances feeding into the famous Saturday plenary at NPYM Annual Session where God needed to rearrange the agenda as well as some points RantWoman heard or did not hear spoken out of worship.


RantWoman notes that God still seems to be organizing several points related to how NPYM conducts Annual Session in addition to the content questions connected with the items being discussed. In other words, RantWoman means to post a couple other pieces of the picture separately and pointedly encourages readers to hold all the pieces when trying to understand why Friends needed just to work with God.

At an earlier plenary the Annual Session had approved creating a 1/4 time paid position to coordinate the entire Annual Session children's program, carry out the requirements of the Youth safety policy, and find people to staff programs for all age groups at Annual Session. This proposal emerged from an ad hoc committee in late spring and was circulated among Monthly Meetings and Worship groups before Annual Session. The proposal included straightforward job descriptions and suggestions about how to fund the work but did not address some points which RantWoman speaks to below..
RantWoman's Meeting heard an announcement about it almost in passing at the very end of June Meeting for Business and the actual proposal was distributed electronically the next week with the weekly bulletin. RantWoman read the proposal including a proposal to fund the first year of the position out of reserves and a request later for about a 17% increase per capita in Yearly Meeting dues assessments and a proposal in subsequent years to add an outreach component.
RantWoman sent the clerk of the ad hoc committee some questions:

--Should the outreach component begin immediately if only so that the person doing the work can identify counts of children and of adults who might be recruited to support the work to be done?

--Should there be targeted fundraising so that assessments do not have to be increased so much, particularly for Friends who never attend Annual Session?

--Does the proposal need to take into account other issues such as the Great Recession, our Yearly Meeting's practice of changing venues every two years to reflect our geographic size, addition a few years ago of an additional day?

--How does this proposal relate to several questions about attenders, identity as members of a Friends' community, membership coincidentally being thought about as the Committee on the Discipline works to describe current practice and to revise our Faith and Practice.

RantWoman did not expect a reply to her questions any sooner than Annual Session; RantWoman did not hear her question about numbers addressed at all one way or another in the plenary discussions of the paid children's program arranger position.

RantWoman remembers speaking to support the general thought of investng in youth programs. RantWoman also remembers urging Friends to go forward in faith about money even though for her some money parts of the proposal did not compute; at the time RantWoman was assured that discussion of the Ad Hoc Committee on affordability for families committee work would address RantWoman's concerns. This turned out not really to be feasible.

The Ad-hoc committee on Family Affordability was the focus of the agenda for the Saturday plenary when God and several young Friends rose to speak. There had been various questions about how the committee proposed to work to better understand the issue, what it was trying to accomplish and other ways to understand priorities. Process, content, how to listen to movements of the Divine were all muddled in Friends' questions about the proposal and ministry on the topic.

This was the point where a Weighty Friend spoke to a sense of unease in the room and a whole sequence of Friends spoke before a suggestion was made simply to go into worship and allow Friends to speak out of worship for the remainder of the time for that plenary. RantWoman spoke of her sense that the question before the group was how best to use our resources to draw our community closer to God and to each other.

(RantWoman also led a worship group. Email among Worship Group leaders after Annual Session indicates that several of the Saturday Worship Groups, though not RantWoman's were led to speak of the plenary within their worship groups.)

Here is RantWoman's email after Annual Session, in the spirit of Minutes of Exercise edited only minimally, and offered with RantWoman's name attached even though she is NOT the Recording Clerk: This is such Light as has come to RantWoman and RantWoman is specifically NOT speaking on behalf of the whole group.


This message is topical to the paid children's program discussion and to the Family Affordability committee. Friends are welcome to ask for clarifications or to forward. I do not want to make a blanket offer, but would also be willing to discern whether I have additional increments of time to devote to this work.Other than that, I am happy just to feed my thoughts into others' work and not necessarily expect responses right away.

As a process point, I am aware that I may be suggesting things other than decisions made in plenaries and I would remind Friends that Coordinating Committee (the representative body which meets a couple times / year between Annual Sessions) might be a place to consider adjustments to charge, scope of work, objectives for the newly approved position of children's program arranger.

Here I want to outline some stuff I heard, some stuff I did not hear, questions on my mind, and see how my thinking feeds into next increments of work.


To Friend Clerk of the Ad hoc committee on children's program coordination:

I did not hear ANYTHING in my report about your committee's request for numbers. I was hoping someone else would have the same thought in plenary; they did not so I am raising it here. I asked for data about numbers of people of different ages at Annual Session different years, different locations with a couple other before and after points in my ask.

To me a bunch of people looking at numbers CAN be really valuable and that is the kind of thing I wish Friends could wade into when an issue is framed. My request may or may not have been easily doable in the time between when I made it and annual session, but it's something to think about. In fact, in the car on the way home, I jotted down some other thoughts about making an analysis dataset from historical registration data. MAYBE I will elaborate especially if anyone else is interested in this idea.

I DID NOT hear ANY mention in either the Annual Session affordability or the Paid childcare arranger discussion of the survey done at the beginning of 2012 about families and Annual Session. The survey was HOPEFULLY going to collect input from people who do not attend annual session. Since the survey was done, even the fact of there being only a few respondents might be important in thinking about next steps. I heard LOTS of people talk in plenaries and otherwise about the value of Annual Session.

I heard some amorphous thoughts about care of Quarterly meetings as an idea not attached to particular actions. On the way home a Young Adult Friend mentioned Young Adults' interest in travelling among different Quarterly Gatherings. I wonder what opportunities there are for synergy with Outreach and Visitation, information sharing....

I heard and share a concern about sucking out Spirit either with too much business or in how we do business. I will send some thoughtsabout my Quakers go to Camp / Business Meeting EVERY DAY theme and will write separate emails about these thoughts.
I heard complete lack of clarity about a whole bunch of questions to do with assessments, various charges for Annual session. I think complete lack of clarity is actually a helpful place to start. I would find it valuable for the family affordability committee at next year's Annual Session to present a few different scenarios addressing both the length of Annual Session and apportionment of costs between assessments and things charged to those who attend Annual Session and even some different per person breakouts. For instance, I think it might be fine to ask all annual session adults to help subsidize children / families.

I heard voices of Monthly Meetings saying "ask us what we need, don't just ask us to keep seasoning stuff." (This is a reference to our evolving standing committees, all of whom seem to be sending out queries asking Monthly Meetings and Worship groups to season various questions.) I do not know whether there is a disconnect about the ask here but the "ask us what we need" is important.

I heard mention of lots of interest from Monthly Meetings in educational curricula and help with children's programs. I am not sure where that comes from but I have heard it before and for instance the paid children's program coordinator job description as written does not address that concern right away. Would anyone besides me find value in reconsidering elements of the job description?


Friend, Clerk of the Ad Hoc Committee, you talk about wishing more of your Meeting would come to Annual Session.

--Why do you think they don't? Are they not interested? Does no one do anything to promote? Is it only cost or are there other barriers?

--What if anything would a paid children's program arranger position contribute to getting more people specifically from your Meeting to attend Annual Session? Do Friends feel any call to think about this question with respect to other Meetings?

--Here is a blog post with my take on some possible barriers:
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/07/annual-session-ad-copy-too-late-and-too.html

--I always have a reflex to try to spell out some "how do we know it works" criteria. I know God showing up is--and SHOULD BE--hard to measure, but things like numbers, repeat attenders, finances that balance might suggest some basics.

I hope these comments are helpful. I would be interested to hear Friends responses if led but I am also happy just feeding thoughts into the work.

Thank you all for your work.

In the Light.

(RantWoman)

Memorials, evaluating

1. RIP Manila envelope.

By the end of Annual Session this year, RantWoman's manila registration envelope was full of important things like:

--the Annual Session program

--extra query sheets and the worship sharing guidelines for her worship walking group

--a half-completed evaluation form

--copies of the Daily Bulletin under new editorship

--a stack of new FCNL bumper stickers. RantWoman occasionally meets people with bumpers to put bumper stickers on. More importantly RantWoman goes about taking notes in different meetings on different legal pads. FCNL bumperstickers are among the things RantWoman in "Let our lives speak" mode likes to paste on the back of tablets. Note to self: probably there are lots of ways to get more bumperstickers.


2. RIP Evaluation?
Alas, RantWoman's manila envelope somehow did not make it back to Seattle with her. RantWoman is not afraid to attach her identity to most of her opinions. RantWoman also tends to have more to say than fits in the spaces on evaluation forms but there is no electronic option available. So in the interest of the "how do you do that" thread of Quaker gatherings, RantWoman feels called to share more evaluation elements here.


3. "Let the dead bury their dead?"
Today's topic: Meeting for Worship for Memorials.

This year Meeting for Worship for Memorials bumped against the plenary where God needed to rearrange the agenda. RantWoman PROMISES to say more of what came to her from that but today she needs to start slowly. The main point for now: Meeting for Memorials was shorter than average anyway.

This year instead of reading the full memorial minutes, the Meeting for Worship for Memorial opened with someone reading the list of names, which for various reasons including a very recent death of someone who was not a member wound up not being complete. RantWoman is glad to have heard names added. RantWoman was glad to have a sense of time and space for Friends to offer more individual ministry in remembrance. RantWoman  (urk!) came in late and was grateful someone reread the list of names again towards the end of the time.

And...

RantWoman misses the "let our lives speak" aspects of reading Friends' full memorial minutes. RantWoman often LIKES the things she learns about people's lives, even people she does not know. Posting memorial minutes in tiny print on a wall in a noisy plenary room is not a substitute. RantWoman definitely assumes she is not the only one put off by tiny print on a wall or who just needs to hear something out loud and held by the whole group.

Also, RantWoman thinks offering at least something from each Friend's memorial minute would create a fuller sense of these Friends being present to those who attend. RantWoman wonders whether it MIGHT be possible to read a paragraph or two from each minute at the Meeting for Worship for Memorial.


4. RantWoman is seasoning a list of tweaks to suggest about various aspects of the Annual Session program. One that comes to mind is just to have a space somewhere during every time slot for open worship. RantWoman MIGHT think to put notebooks full of memorial minutes, epistles, and state of society reports in this room on a table so that people might have an opportunity to sit, read, hold worshipfully.

There.

Thank you for reading.

In the Light.

RantWoman

Random Reflection Rising from NPYM Annual Session: Let's have a Party?

RantWoman thanks a Junior Friend in her worship-sharing group for the message from which the leading to pose this question arises:

If becoming a Quaker automatically came with your choice of tatoo and location for the tatoo, what would you tatoo and where on your body would you tatoo it?

RantWoman is VERY high. RantWoman's nerves are zinging with ideas.


God(dess) showed up at NPYM Annual Session in the middle of Quakers go to Camp Business Meeting EVERY DAY. God(dess) showed up in the voices of young adult Friends who have grown up in our Yearly Meeting, in the form of seasoned Friends who spoke Truth, who held silence, and who worshipped together. God(dess) showed up in business between plenaries, in learnings, and in muddle.

God(dess) showed up in an Interest Group about the Quaker Language Barrier, that sociological / anthropological line between jargon fetishism and group coherence. The group did only some on Quakerese and did even more about some of the same big Meeting challenges in RantWoman's Meeting: transportation, scheduling meetings, varying comfort zones about electronic communication. Knowing one is not alone is a mixed blessing.

God(dess) showed up Sunday when Breakfast Bible Study could not stay on topic. Topic was I Kings and all sorts of dramatic doings with Ahab, Elijah, Elisha. RantWoman can ALWAY stand to shore up her Biblical knowledge but God(dess) saw fit to require Annual Session to share our dining space with Really Different people headed to a classic car show. Blame the car show people? Slaughter a yoke of oxen? Oh, there are still 11 more yoke so we're still rich and let's have a party. Jesus comes back after, as one group participant put it, "getting tortured to death:"  don't messa around about revenge; let's just have a party (?!?!?!)

RantWoman hopes other bloggers who were there will provide a more detailed account of the exact turn; RantWoman wants to concentrate on sharing the Light which has come from the plenary, subsequent events at Annual Session, and the ministry of car ride conversations.

Regarding the car ride conversations, God(dess) has a twisted sense of humor:
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/07/five-volcanoes-65-hours-and-finally-home.html

The ONLY excuse for it to take 6.5 hours to go from Forest Grove to Seattle is that God MUST have needed more work out of Annual Session! Stay tuned.

Annual Session Ad Copy, too late and too early

Ad copy: Why should YOU consider attending Annual Session:

How will Annual Session make you / your Meeting more open to movements of Spirit, better steeped in God's currents, more full of daily centering and prophetic witness?

What will you bring with? What might you take away?
Look world, RantWoman actually does NOT prefer to offer ad copy after Meeting for Worship about “why should YOU consider attending Annual Session” on the last day of registration. RantWoman prefers to weigh in a lot sooner, like maybe January so families who need to request vacation time and fit things into a tight budget have a prayer of doing so. RantWoman further points out that these days RantWoman goes to Annual Session already wearing too many hats, determined not to take on more hats, and aware that there are hats attached to fun, rewarding doable work which RantWoman wishes would find other heads. This year, RantWoman went so far as to tell Worship and Ministry that if heads who might be inspired to take on some of this work apply for money, they should get money ahead of RantWoman! Guess who got her full grant request approved!


Ad copy, such as it is:

LOTS of ways to renew connections and nurture spiritual growth including Friend in Residence, Interest Groups, Worship Sharing, singing, singing, singing.

It’s Quakers go to camp! Business Meeting EVERY DAY! ?!?!?

It’s our youth needing to get together.

1. RantWoman remembers the Central Friends calling adults out last year. The latest CO mass shooting occurred during last year’s Annual Session. The Central Friends were the ones whose epistle called Friends’ attention to this outrage. RantWoman has been holding that concern all year as Friends Committee on WA Public Policy talks about different aspects of gun violence, suicide, shootings in the headlines and which states have most well-developed restorative justice and violence prevention programs; RantWoman admits this energy from our youth also causes her to invite youth to talk to Friends Committee for WA Public Policy about leadings which might develop further.

2. RantWoman remembers Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting last year, the one where urban families all got smoked out by wildfires in the area. Two business meetings did need to happen, but the youth who had come from many less urban places also implored the adults who came to please stay so the youth could also have time together as Quakers.

RantWoman has been holding these thoughts while considering a large proposed dues increase to fund planning of the youth and children’s program at Annual Session. See “it’s Business Meeting EVERY DAY.” RantWoman has some probing questions about Annual Session and planning youth programs and has duly made, basically, a data request; RantWoman also finds herself wondering whether a good youth program at Annual Session might depend on outreach and nurturing local Meetings and Worship Groups all year. RantWoman has two further possibly controversial thoughts:

1. RantWoman suggests that NPYM do targeted fundraising to support both immediate outreach and work focused on youth programs at Annual Session. RantWoman’s Meeting has been able to invest from a large donation to pay First Day School teachers. A more stable program with more consistent participation has bloomed because of this. In other words, there are youth whose families theoretically might come to Annual Session precisely because we are investing all year. RantWoman thinks targeted fundraising could share the costs of this outreach. The proposed dues increase also just looks really dramatic.

2. RantWoman is all for good Annual Sessions, BUT RantWoman notes that some Yearly Meetings only have large gatherings every other year. RantWoman remembers a couple years ago when a proposed minute arrived about overpopulation and was left hanging without final action after being transformed into concerns about overconsumption. RantWoman thinks Friends should test the thought of having large gatherings only every other year and investing our travel time and other resources in activities closer to home on the off years.


It’s two contradictory extreme writing exercises:

1. Daily Bulletin editor. 1 page, 2 sides, a deadline, God and LOTS of people with opinions about what should go on that page every day. Someone with even the slightest inclination to be a petty tyrant might be a good match for what is needed.

2. Epistle Committee. The fun parts: Epistle Committee gets to read all the epistles from all over the world. This is a great opportunity for naturally introverted Quakers who do not just burst into spontaneous conversation every time they find themselves in a flock of people. One contributes by reading quietly on one’s own and by seasoning with a committee how to send a sample of the year’s gathering out into the wider world. The downside: reading the epistle in plenary where God and 300 people all want to help edit one’s STUFF.




Ad copy HIGHLY specific to RantWoman’s situation that probably ALSO speaks to at least a few other Friends.

RantWoman’s annual session lately has come with bonus interactions with campus tech support staff when RantWoman has encountered difficulty interfacing with campus computer networks. RantWoman considers it a great good thing that over time she has acquired more of her own technological prerequisites AND also received appropriate technologically competent and otherwise astute help, particularly dealing appropriately with the presence of RantWoman’s assistive technology from the tech support staff of every university where Annual Session has taken place.

It’s a really awesome place to hang out while living with a long succession of medical issues. RantWoman is not sure the Quaker spa angle is the BEST marketing she can come up with, but….

If you are not interested in RantWoman’s experience on this score, please stop here, check out npym.org and get about discerning what Annual Session might have to offer you. If you want testimony to community in spite of multiple forms of difficulty read on.

2012: PLU Reports back from World Gathering; Benigno Sanchez Eppler. Many messages of renewal in closing worship and work to get there. RantWoman broke her arm a week before Annual Session. RantWoman spent all of Annual Session seesawing between pain and the downsides of different painkiller regimens. More than enough said. RantWoman held daily one-person worship lethargy events during Worship Sharing time. RantWoman is deeply grateful that every day someone sat down for a visit and that someone was willing either just to help RantWoman tie up her hair OR let RantWoman teach them how to French braid. RantWoman in passing also particularly upheld epistle committee and participation by one youth attending with his grandparents and masterful attention from his age group leader.

2011: PLU RantWoman’s attention and Light were needed by situations not suitable for specifying in further detail except to say this was a blessing as far as channeling scorching opinions of other matters.

2009, 2010: U of MT. RantWoman was Daily Bulletin editor. RantWoman has written previously of her long life history with the University of MT campus. RantWoman loves having Annual Session in Missoula, and RantWoman also always has to tend to layers of memory.

2008: Oregon State. Great swimming pool. Same great dorm windows that always irresistibly draw people to sit and dangle their legs several stories above the ground. RantWoman has decidedly mixed feelings about the allure of these dorm windows and visitations to Annual Session by state police who prefer to err on the side of caution as far as gravity and potential lawsuits.

2007: Reed College. RantWoman thinks, looking back that by this year she at least had taken up with Ambassador Thwack the Badly-behaved White Cane. RantWoman THINKS she was in pretty good shape, but her roommates, Grandma and granddaughter had some rough moments RantWoman found herself unsure how to uphold. RantWoman learned after the fact that those organizing Annual Session need upholding as far as relationships with our venues. RantWoman thinks that is enough said about the change in venue for the next year.

2006: PLU abbreviated session before Friends General Conference. RantWoman was very glad to get to go to the FGC gathering. RantWoman also was glad to help about accessibility. And RantWoman was not yet speaking up for herself as far as desire to consume Quaker print in forms accessible for her. Sigh. But half the allure of Gathering was just a big break from other family members’ medical issues.

2005: PLU. RantWoman had some role related to Interest Groups for Annual Session planning. RantWoman does not think she fulfilled it brilliantly. On the contrary, RantWoman thinks it MAY have been at least a mixed blessing that RantWoman left Annual Session 2 days early to fly to MT and tend to RantMom after cancer surgery. RantWoman also thinks she had some undiagnosed eye yuck because the eye yuck was finally diagnosed after RantWoman returned from MT in September.

2004: U of MT. Two months out from surgery for detached retina. Face still swollen with a serious “my doctor got paid to do that to me bruise.” RantWoman spent lots of time falling asleep in plenaries or on whatever furniture was handy in air conditioned spaces. RantWoman was blessed by a travelling companion who asked her thoughtfully whether she ever considered having an anger management moment. No, not in the last 11 seconds or so. And what about a service python? RantWoman considers the idea of a service python so deliciously inappropriate that she grins every time it comes up. Thank heaven RantWoman does not try to get into a cab with an actual python though.

2003: U of MT: RantWoman’s other arm was still in some kind of cast or exercise regimen. RantWoman apologizes for not remembering who were Friends in Residence….

RantWoman is grateful to feel well-held in many ways; RantWoman does NOT think she could have handled all her own circumstances if, for instance, she also needed to tend to a child. RantWoman thus finds yet another reason to be humble and seek Light about what exactly Annual Session offers others and how to make those blessings more apparent when people are choosing whether to attend. RantWoman also darn well wants to interact with the questions more timely with respect to future years!