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General Reflections
June 30th marked the end of my third year as the General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. That being so, it seemed appropriate to use my report to Interim Meeting to make some observations about what has happened in the Yearly Meeting, and in my service, over the last year, and even the last three years. I did so hoping to stimulate conversation about where the Yearly Meeting is going, as well as reporting on my work.
An Overview
Looking back over the last year one can see signs of significant progress, some disappointment and some frustration for our Yearly Meeting as an organization. The good news is that many aspects of our new structure are working reasonably well, though there are still some strains of transition. There are many new faces at meetings of working groups and Standing Committees, which is good. One central goal of our change process was to get new people involved. On the other hand, some long-time members and volunteers have ceased to be involved with the YM because they do not like the changes we have made; and new member/volunteers have not filled in the ranks as fully as we hoped yet.
Other "pluses and minuses" are evident. A host of new initiatives, coming from the Monthly Meetings and members, are taking shape at the Yearly Meeting level. Some are very exciting. On the other hand, some longstanding projects and services, including a few that are very important to us, are floundering. The openness of our new ways of operating seem to have created a higher level of trust in the YM among Monthly Meetings and members overall. Even so, a residue of cynicism, apparently built up over many years in PYM, sometimes still undermines efforts of Friends to work together as a larger faith community.
The primary point of our reorganization as a Yearly Meeting (as it was explained to me) was to create an organizational structure that is more flexible, and whose energy is much more clearly focused on supporting the initiatives and meeting the needs of its Monthly Meetings and members. We should all recall that this reorganization came about because people in the Monthly Meetings (apparently) felt that Yearly Meeting activities were too centralized; that YM was not responsive enough to the concerns of local Meetings and members, and that its workings were too cumbersome and hard to understand.
Given how short a time we have been operating in a new way, it is hard to say yet whether we have fixed those problems. Some of our new ways of working are still hard to understand and a bit cumbersome; but those processes are new, and still being refined. What is clear is that this new way of being has released a great deal of new energy among our members, focused on pursuing new projects intended to make Quaker ideals and values visible and effective in the world. It is also clear that our new way of talking about budgets and support has resolved a number of longstanding tensions, and is focusing those discussions in a much healthier way on discerning our priorities before we talk about our pocketbooks.
Where We Are & Where We Are Going
From where I stand — three years into this job, and with the Yearly Meeting three years into this change — I find I now want to know not only where we are, but also where we are going.
For hypothetical purposes, at least, let us assume that we have a new way of being a Yearly Meeting, one that is better able "to serve God by nurturing and supporting the collective spiritual journey of Friends and seekers;" and can be more helpful to members and Meetings. [Note: the quotation here, which is Goal # 1 from the Structure & Workings Report, approved at YM sessions in March 1996, and is as close to an articulation of a mission statement as this Yearly Meeting has ever come.] The questions we then need to ask, I think, are, "Where should this 'collective journey' be taking us, and what are the most important challenges we face?"
I want to offer my own answer to the first question, identify what I see as the two most important challenges we face as a Yearly Meeting, and comment on what is the most difficult challenge in all this for me as the "manager" of this organization.
I believe "the collective spiritual journey" just spoken of should be taking us deeper into a transforming relationship with God, a continuing and more profound experience of the Presence of the Divine. This is an experience in which we can find a deep peace and personal fulfillment; but also in which we are made more compassionate, and (as William Penn put it) "enabled to live better in the world, and excited in our endeavors to mend it."
What challenges do we face in our efforts to make this journey, to walk this walk; and, just as importantly, to invite and support others to share the journey with us? I see two challenges that I believe are most critical for us, as members and Meetings, right now.
First, we face the challenge of fully living into, and helping others to find, a transforming experience of the Presence and Grace of God. Everything else we might want to do together as Friends and as Meetings that is truly important and worthwhile begins with and depends on our having and sharing this experience of the Divine — as Meeting communities and as individuals.
Our Meetings are likely to quit shrinking and start growing only when we have and actively seek to share this. New people will come to us and stay with us only if they find this most fundamental of spiritual experiences in our midst.
We will hear our true callings, and find the power to fulfil them, becoming (in Paul's phrase) "co-creators with God" of a better world, only if we come into this experience of God's presence.
We will become the generous people we need to be in order to support our community of faith at the level we should in order to make God's work possible only as we are transformed by the experience of God's grace and generosity.
Second, we face the challenge of growth. Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting can no longer ignore or hide from the challenge (and mandate) to share the good news of our faith. Or at least we cannot do so and have a future. If we do not want the Quaker faith to simply disappear here, then we face a practical imperative to share it. Moreover, if what we have in this religious tradition and practice is a good thing, then we have a moral obligation to share it.
If we want Quakerism to thrive and make a difference for good in the world, then we have to learn to be both "liberal" — in terms of our commitments to harmony, diversity, and social justice — and "evangelical" — in terms of making an active commitment to sharing with others the spiritual experiences and ideals that undergird our desire and empower our efforts to make a difference for good. Virtually every major problem we are struggling with is related in some very significant way to our declining numbers. And a significant increase in our numbers would be a great advantage in solving almost all of them. Some examples:
We do not have enough Quaker children (and teachers and administrators) in our Quaker schools. Well, the truth is, given the number of children in the Yearly Meeting, if every last one of them went to a Quaker school, the percentage of students who are Quaker would still be a small minority — not much more than 20%.
We complain that our witness is not clearly heard and honored in public affairs; that when we put forward our testimonies about peace and justice, they do not carry the weight we think they should in the public arena. So, as a tiny minority in the religious landscape, a denomination that represents less than 1% of the population in this region, what do we expect? So long as we are such a small — and worse yet, shrinking — religious community, this is only likely to get worse.
Monthly Meetings tell us they feel their financial resources are limited, and their ability to support the Yearly Meeting (and other Quaker groups) are seriously constrained, by their shrinking numbers.
There are surely a number of other factors just as important as our small number in creating these problems, but certainly having more members would help!
As a member of the Religious Society of Friends I often find myself wondering if and how we will meet these challenges. As the General Secretary of PYM, I find myself hoping that — and wondering if — this organization can both encourage and enable our members and Meetings to meet these challenges. The next few years may tell us a lot about the likelihood of this happening.
The Management Challenge
Finally, in my role as the General Secretary, I see these matters as a management challenge, as well as a personal and spiritual challenge for each of us. The staff management team has had a number of discussions in the last few months about what strategic choices we should be making to best use of the resources the YM has in order to best serve the members of PYM (and the larger Religious Society of Friends) over the longer haul.
In that context, the single greatest — and most frustrating — challenge I face is the absence of a clearly articulated, shared mission for this organization. One of the things I learned in the first graduate management program I attended was that the chief staff officer's focus in any organization should be on the mission; that she or he should focus on "managing to the mission." Doing that provides the context to make wise choices about how to use resources to get the greatest positive impact from the time, money and energy people put into the organizationÉs work.
I cannot do that here — the management team cannot do that — because as a Yearly Meeting, as an organization and a faith community, we simply have not been able to agree on what work we are called to together! To be truthful, most of our Meetings cannot agree to any such thing as faith communities with only 200 or 50 or 20 members.
In my dreams this Yearly Meeting would take one of its annual meetings, or a special called session, and commit itself to trying to discern a single, overarching (or undergirding) priority for its work in the world — one task, one kind of work, one vision — to which it was called for a longer period of time — say three to five years. This means we would gather at some point without an "agenda," but rather just the question, "What does God want of us as a people now?" And commit ourselves to prayerfully waiting and seeking for an answer to that question, expecting we would also commit ourselves to responding collectively to that answer. Then we would commit the bulk of our resources to that pursuit, and see what a faithful people committed to working together to serve a living God can do.
As my comments before suggest, I would have that priority be outreach, sharing our rich spiritual tradition with others with the hope they would be made more whole and more hopeful by joining us on this spiritual journey. Then again, perhaps we would be called to some other vision. I can honestly say that, at one level it would not matter (to me) what the common vision was, so long it reflected a renewed and renewing commitment to be a community of faith, acting together under the guidance of the Divine, participating fully in what is truly a "collective spiritual journey."
I believe that if we could do that, we would begin to see wonderful things happen in the life of the Yearly Meeting, and in our Monthly Meetings. I know that if we could discern and commit ourselves to some overarching common mission for a substantial period of time, then I (as a manager) could help this be a much more effective organization, and this organization could be a much more significant force for good in the world.
Some Final Thoughts
I see the potential in this Yearly Meeting for us all to participate in the kind of "collective spiritual journey" just described, one that is so much deeper and richer than what we know now that the experience would astound us. I am grateful to be in a place where even that potential is visible. I pray we will open ourselves more fully to that possibility in the months and years ahead.
—Thomas Jeavons
General Secretary
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM