 November/December 1999 (XXXVII 5) |
feel moved to share some of my thoughts on the issues of declining membership and the division that exists in many Monthly Meetings. These issues were briefly touched upon in Thom Jeavons' most recent "General Reflections" column in the September/October issue of PYM News.
In my opinion a religion cannot be measured by its numbers, but by the love and integrity of its people. When numbers begin to be valued over other issues, such as community involvement, education, or activism, the very foundation of a religion is threatened. This is nowhere more true than in Quakerism. I realize the word "evangelize" was used in the absence of a better word, but to find it in a document even remotely related to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was deeply disturbing to me.
Have we forgotten the most basic message of Quakerism, that there is that of God in everyone? If we acknowledge this, we must also acknowledge that there is that of God in every religion, that of God in every personal system of faith and spirituality. The tenets of Quakerism move and sustain us, fulfill us and challenge us, but to actively "evangelize," to reach out with no other goal than to increase our numbers, is to deny that there are other paths to God.
Perhaps the declining membership of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is indicative of much larger problems, some of them even extending beyond our own religious community. We live in a time that devalues belief, devalues faith, and even we are not immune to this. Rather than devote ourselves to attracting new membership, perhaps we should concern ourselves with activities that would make this small but beautiful religion a vibrant and active aspect of our communities, our culture. As for the problems particular to our faith community — the emphasis of talk over action, the division over a Christ-centered religion, the indifference and laziness — perhaps they rise out of the same stuff that makes us beautiful: our belief in the individual, our belief in a boundless God, our respect for each other. And perhaps, in the same peculiar way they curse us, they will save us too.
In Young Friends we say that "Work is Love made Beautiful," and in that same spirit, perhaps there is no other way to outreach than to live our message everyday, to do it free of charge and with no strings attached. This allows for incredible hurt and frustration, constant rejection by our peers and by total strangers, but to me there is no other way. The most we can do is to take a firm hold on the forces that move us — Love, God, Freedom, Equality — and do our best to follow them.
Angelina Conti
Providence Meeting (PA)
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