Salem Quarterly Meeting

Called Meeting for Worship on Kosovo and the Balkans

Dear Friends,

Seven of us, drawn from four monthly meetings of Salem Quarterly Meeting, gathered on 23 May at Mickleton MM to worship with a concern for Kosovo and the Balkans. Following introductions and greetings to one another, we entered into silence in the warm glow of the meetinghouse.

We didn't expect the Guide to hand us a solution to 600 years of discord and fighting in an hour of worship. We hoped to be led, however, to learn what we ourselves might be called to do that would be more than reaction to the current military situation.

Following our worship, it became clear that members of the group felt the need to take part in the prayer vigils every Sunday night at 5:00 PM on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. The group undertook to work out car pooling to the vigils as long as necessary, with participants leaving for Philadelphia from Woodbury MM.

It was also felt that sponsoring, housing, and caring for one or more Kosovar refugee families would answer to the Kosovars' needs and the group's condition. While one or two people might provide housing, other individuals—or monthly meetings, or the Quarter—could be called on for financial assistance and spiritual and emotional support. The group will investigate the procedure necessary to sponsor a family, the resources that may be available from others (the government, non-Quaker organizations), and how the Quarter might make its own resources available. A minute to move this forward will be prepared to present at Salem Quarterly Meeting's business session on Sunday, 13 June.

If the Quarter agrees, we realized, we need to gather information. We've begun to explore an open meeting with a speaker who knows about placing the refugees, and another who has experience with providing a home for Bosnian students. The group will come together again—either for such a program, if it's rightly ordered, or for our own worship—on the evening of Tuesday, 29 June. We expect that the exact time and place, as well as just what we'll be able to offer, will be determined within the next week. All will be welcome.

The decisions the group came to today are important. Even more important, I felt, was that the group is led to work not for short-term nonviolence, but for genuine peace; that we acknowledged a need to avoid outrunning our Guide; and that we understood the movement of the Spirit we experienced today can best be moved forward under the care of the larger Quaker body represented by the Quarter. We hope and trust that Salem Quarter's community testimony among ourselves can be strengthened and widened by reaching out, in whatever small way, to the world community.

I was heartened by the worship that preceded our discussion, in which there was no discussion, argument, polemics, nor sloganeering, only willingness to submit ourselves to God's direction. Members of the group counselled one another not to try to take on too much, but rather to wait and discern what particular role each of us is led to play, and to leave room for others who weren't with us today. A particular concern was voiced that we each do our job because we're called to it, not simply because it needs to be done.

When we concluded our worship and discussion, it was exactly five o'clock. We entered worship again in support of our friends whose vigil near the Federal Building in Philadelphia was just beginning.

Grace and peace,
Phil Anthony
coordinator, Salem Quarterly Meeting

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