 November/December 2000 (XXXVIII 5) |
eepening and Strengthening Our Meetings as Faith Communities, a project made possible by grants from the Shoemaker and Tyson funds, has been developed as a result of concerns expressed over the years by many Monthly Meetings within PYM.
The former Family Relations Committee of PYM, now more aptly renamed Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members, has worked for many years with Meetings on matters of pastoral care and means of deepening the life of the Meeting community. Our experience in doing that work has taught us that there is a longing within many of our Meetings for a deepening of their spiritual life and a strengthening of a sense of community within the Meeting. While it has been clear that many Meetings care about deepening and strengthening the Meeting as a faith community, and there is energy for trying to do that, a focused way of addressing that concern has not been as apparent or readily available. This new project has been developed as a means to support that effort within Meetings that wish to address these issues.
Even as individuals and families go through times of change and transition carrying them into a new season of their life with new blessings and new challenges, so too do Meeting communities go through those times of change and transition. It is our experience that there is value in a Meeting periodically pausing for a time of reflection which can then lead to clarity about actions which would strengthen the life of the Meeting. How are we doing overall in the life of our Meeting? Do we find a richness and experience a spiritual renewal in our meetings for worship? What are the things which we are doing well as a Meeting community? In what areas are we not fulfilling what we would hope for as a Friends Meeting? How has our Meeting changed in the last five years? How have those changes affected our life as a Meeting community? What lies ahead for us? In what ways will the Meeting be impacted by those changes we can see coming down the road? These questions are just a sample of what the Deepening and Strengthening Our Meetings as Faith Communities Project invites Meetings to reflect and dialogue on.
For Meetings which feel that the time is right for them to attend more deeply to their life as a faith community, this project is prepared to provide a process to support that work. The project is designed to draw in the voices of all Meeting members (and attenders if the Meeting so wishes) in reflecting on three areas central to the life of the Meeting: the quality of its spiritual life, its conduct of Meeting business, and the quality of its life as a community. One of the project’s facilitators works closely with the Meeting in a process of:
- drawing out, through a series of questions, the individual reflections of Meeting members,
- pulling together the main themes and learnings from those individual reflections, and
- coming together in a day of retreat in which the Meeting as a whole works with those themes and learnings and determines if actions are indicated in any area.
The testing of whether the themes identified speak the truth of the Meeting and the determination of any actions to be taken is the work of the Meeting. The facilitator is active at each of the three stages in order that members of the Meeting can be free to participate fully.
The project facilitators are: Deborah Cooper of Germantown Meeting, Arlene Kelly of Central Philadelphia, and Judy Owens of Haddonfield. Each of them has been active for many years in working with Meetings within our Yearly Meeting on matters similar to those central to the project. The development of the project and its oversight is under the care of a working group composed of Nancy Bieber (Lancaster), Michael Dawson (Princeton), Muriel Edgerton (Gwynedd), Tom Gates (Lancaster), Lee Junker (Central Philadelphia), Bobbi Kelly (Media) and Sue Martin (Haddonfield). The project is part of PYM's Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members.
Meeting Clerks and Clerks of Overseers/Ministry and Counsel Committees have recently received a letter with more information and a brochure describing the project. Anyone who feels that this project speaks to the condition of their Meeting at the present time could inquire of those clerks about how it might go forward, or e-mail one of the project co-coordinators, Arlene Kelly (arlenekel@aol.com) and Deborah Cooper (cooperd@redcross-philly.org), or leave a message at (215) 241-7018.
Arlene Kelly
Central Philadelphia Meeting
Co-Coordinator of Deepening and Strengthening Our Meetings as Faith Communities Project
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM