Prayers for NWYM Annual Session July 19-24

Wilt thou go....

...to annual session at Northwest Yearly Meeting...?

RantWoman has been having enough trouble getting her brain back home after the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology conference without one of the voices from the conference showing up after Meeting for Worship at RantWoman's Meeting. The voice repeated a call RantWoman heard at the conference, a call to go prayerfully to the Annual Session of Northwest Yearly Meeting.

RantWoman is well aware that the agenda for this year's annual session includes discussion of same-gender relationships. RantWoman assumes those assembled may also find themselves called to opine about the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling as now played out in the Department of Education granting George Fox Evangelical University a waiver from some policy in order to bar a transgender student from residing in university dormitories. RantWoman is woefully underinformed about the key threads of community conversation about these topics. RantWoman's instinct is to hold the entire assembly in prayer.

As for appearing in person, RantWoman's first reaction "Oh, no, no, no, no. No God. You are joking..." The last time RantWoman attended even part of the NWYM Annual Session, RantWoman was part of the planning committee for the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology conference. RantWoman's brief visit happened to coincide with reports from the mission committee about visits to four countries to which NWYM was considering sending missionaries.

RantWoman, whose insights about women and spiritual presence is informed more by suffragists and Gloria Steinem than by Margaret Fell stood up and eldered the entire assembly about how it would have been appropriate to include at least one woman in the travel party. Then RantWoman left the next day and did not stick around to notice whether her comments caused any consternation or needed further laboring about.

This summer, RantWoman is a little afraid she would might blurt out some of the women meet across sexuality stories from the Women's Theology Conference and in RantWoman form: the next iteration of  "oh my gosh, I was in home group with Three Lesbians and Lived to tell about it." Or RantWoman might launch into harangues about how countries like Russia or Uganda try to pump themselves up by wrapping themselves in religion and pick on their gay people. If everyone were REALLY lucky, RantWoman would summon only the story about one Friend coming to see the face of Jesus in an outspoken--and very centered--weighty Friend. Unfortunately, RantWoman thinks this summer's agenda may need more listening and less plainspokenness than RantWoman would likely deliver.

If RantWoman has a sense that her own Light may splutter and flicker about live appearance at the NWYM Annual Session, what about the Captain Picard "Make it So" school of leadings on others' behalf? After all, RantWoman is on a roll.

--This year RantWoman had a leading to help cause the Women's Theology Conference epistle to occur; RantWoman did not particularly have a leading to do the writing herself and was blessed to cheerlead for the work of a wonderful committee.

--RantWoman LOVES fractals. RantWoman might find calling to go on and on about fractals and God. But at the Women's Theology Conference, RantWoman stumbled onto a spot on a facing bench for the message at closing worship. A message about fractals was given to a Friend who unquestionably can deliver the God part of the fractals and God message WAY better than RantWoman.
So in terms of "Make it so," some of the people on whose behalf RantWoman MIGHT discern leadings to attend in person:
--One or more lesbian couples raising children among Seattle Friends.
--One or more other lesbian couples.
--Assorted other LGBTQ Friends and their admirers, groupies, hangers-on and other entourage.
--Any number of thoughtful straight people who find that honesty about the varieties of blessed couples interferes not a whit with these Friends ability to hear and experience the Divine.
Okay, so RantWoman is discerning and discerning. It's a little like an auction: don't move or RantWoman may discern a leading on your behalf.
Or, if, like RantWoman, you also have other time and location constraints, check out http://nwfriends.org/ym-sessions/   Consider attending to whatever you can via live stream or by following looking for social media options....
Send Prayers regardless.

The "failed Pastors conference"

Now about that "we are all ministers of God" Quaker thing.

Rachel Held Evans interviews J R Briggs about pastors' failings. Hint: there w as a satirical suggestion about a conference about failed pastors involved. Only, the idea took off. RantWoman THINKS the Biblical language is gentler than her Flogging Bureau. Hold that point in the Light.

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/fail-jr-briggs

Must Fiddle with Knobs: the Ministry of Talking Art Supplies

RantWoman is again stuck with her brain only halfway home from latest physical excursion, this time to the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference.

RantWoman totally blesses Bernie B for:
1. Inviting RantWoman to be part of Facing Bench during the message at closing semi-programmed worship.
(Data nerd digression: Ya know, actually semi-programmed sounds even more scary, kind of like vaporware or endless beta testing than unprogrammed. Never Mind!)
2. Bringing a message about Mandelbrot / Julia sets and, in perfect riposte to some tiresome "God does not exist" physicist in RantWoman's tweet stream on the way home, "If the definition of a field is something that acts across space then God is a field and I want to see what the Gospels say to back me up!"

RantWoman blesses one speaker for the phrase "low threshold creatives." Okay, RantWoman gets nervous around modern hipster lingo and suspects that this phrase also encodes a lot of possibly unexamined privilege. Nevertheless, RantWoman is thinking of grabbing it as cover for all her traits demonstrably driving others around her CRAZY. Actually, RantWoman is thinking of Cover; RantWoman is also thinking that too much cover might deprive others of opportunity to lurch along their own paths to spiritual perfection. God(dess) help everyone!

Lately God has been saying to RantWoman in various ways, Ya know, more music.. and ya USED TO play the piano and you don't need as much of an ear for the piano as for the cello because you can always get one of those folks from the NORTHWEST Blind Piano Tuners school to tune it and the visual part of reading music / memorizing anyway might be solvable and and ...

In the meantime, science to back up the nostalgia:
http://mic.com/articles/91329/science-shows-how-piano-players-brains-are-actually-different-from-everybody-elses

God was actually nudging RantWoman at one point toward poking at the piano during a plenary but the available piano was serving as platform for art supplies.RantWoman also apologizes: her brain was meandering worse than usual and RantWoman has little memory of the well-chosen words brought for a message before Friends were invited to see what the art supplies were saying.

RantWoman remembers an invitation to help some fruits of the Spirit find their way to a tree in the corner. RantWoman was given Fruits of the Spirit in Sharpie on a whole piece of paper; other people were given smaller considerably paler fruits so if there was some message RantWoman was supposed to get from others' fruits, God is going to have to try harder in media RantWoman can interact with.

But here is what came to RantWoman from the Ministry of talking art supplies:
The art supplies laid out on the piano included lots of stickers, little round ones, bigger square and rectangular ones. RantWoman has no idea what was on the stickers but conversation with a Friend in line to use some ofthe art supplies and  shapes and leading to speak of a "must fiddle with the knobs" matter at RantWoman's Meeting muddled out onto a page from one of RantWoman's endless tablets.

The particular "must fiddle with the knobs" matter: RantWoman's Meeting has an assisted listening system. It has microphones that hang down into the worship room. It has a console with lots of nobs. It has an induction loop for the benefit of people with hearing aids. And it has handheld receivers for people who do not have hearing aids.

The sound system is fussy in various ways: performance is better in some places than others. There can be mysterious buzzing of various kinds. A brave Friend has been working for months to rid the system of extraneous and undesired noises. Preferred settings for the console have been derived. People with hearing aids are learning whether their systems have the needed switches. And... and... Meeting is figuring out how many more than one test receiver are needed.


There is MUCH trial and error and trial and error involved. In particular, one of the handheld receiver guinea pigs listened to the buzzing in the receiver and the buzzing in his own head, and who knows what else and experienced an irresistible leading to fiddle with knobs, not only the one available knob on his receiver, but all the knobs on the central console! Can we say Friend in need of eldering?

So now, back up. Begin again now. And in the meantime bless the talking art supplies for the stories spilling out.

God. Physics. Weapons Verification.

Nuclear Inspection Protocol Inspired by Game of Marbles

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/jul/04/nuclear-inspection-protocol-inspired-by-game-of-marbles

RantWoman CAN envision a Friends Meeting where terminology such as "Monte Carlo simulation" and "neutron flux" MIGH Tcome up in, say Meeting for Business. MOstly RantWoman recommends the article and files it here for blog as filing cabinet purposes.

Zen Cat to the Rescue

Who can resist?



That was Zen. This is Meow!

This post dedicated to the Queen of Spades. The Queen of Spades' current approach to a wide variety of crises: "it appears that the human is in mortal danger of losing it. How about if I

--Jump onto her chest?

--purr extravagantly all over her shoulder?

--shed all over her face!"

Thanks, dear.

And an article just to reinforce RantWoman's uncharacteristic engagement with matters Buddhismic.
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/an-experiment-with-anger-buddha-style/6067

Waking Shevardnadze

RantWoman is probably not going to have time or Light to pen as much of a reflection as Georgian diplomat and former leader of the Republic of BGeorgia Eduard Shevardnadze deserves. But RantWoman can at least dump here a sampling of her reading for the day:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/world/europe/eduard-shevardnadze-soviet-foreign-minister-under-gorbachev-is-dead-at-86.html?_r=0

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140707/controversial-legacy-former-soviet-foreign-minister-shevardnadze

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/eduard-shevardnadze-dies_n_5562781.html

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/07/world/europe/eduard-shevardnadze-death/index.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28190328

The English language Wikipedia article about Sophia Shevardnadze, granddaughter of the late leader:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Shevardnadze

Religious Liberty for Corporations

RantWoman could easily OD on sarcasm. Think of this as Bad Friend prayer.