Friends: Here are some stories about the travels and work that your Quarterly Meeting Coordinator has experienced recently. Please hold them tenderly. I am striving to let folks know what is happening in my life working for Friends of USQM. If you would like to talk to me about anything you read here, please phone me at 570-925-5708, or invite me to your Meeting for a visit.  —Wade Wright

July 2008

Lewisburg Meeting visit: I was led to vocal ministry regarding how my first adult mystical experience attending a Pete Seeger concert affected my life, and how a recent hearing of his music (on the drive to Meeting) reminded me of all the Quaker testimonies, and what God wants from us and for us in this life. I think this ministry encouraged a new attender to speak at rise of Meeting at length about his life as a prison chaplain for 30 years, and enabled the Meeting to engage him deeply. I was able to connect with him around my hospital chaplaincy. I look forward to getting to know him better. One member commented on the providential aspect of both he and I being present on the same Sunday, and how wonderfully the Spirit moves.

Elklands Meeting visit: I worshiped with seven folks at Elklands. Dotty Rexer led us in a delightful program taken from Christie Duncan-Tessmer's One Book, One Yearly Meeting intergenerational First Day program. Dottie read The Other Way to Listen, and we all practiced deep listening and then did worship-sharing about our experience. It was a delightfully different experience of worship. I had lunch with Dottie and Ed Rexer, and we had wide-ranging conversation about how USQM folks could do outreach, Ed's milita4y service in Korea, his work as a toolmaker, the state of peacemaking among Quakers.

North Branch consultation with Art Larrabee and Wright Horne: The three of us met with many of the Meeting folks to support their intention to find a way to acquire a Meetinghouse. The group arrived at some beginning clarity, tempered by a few folks who arrived late who had seemed to have reservations about the sense of the group. It was mostly agreed that North Branch Friends at this point don't feel safe regarding their ability to take on a property mortgage, and most of the grant funding, if not all, that is available is not for purchase, but for renovation, and therefore not appropriate. Friends considered finding an adequate space to rent (perhaps Stella Presbyterian would work), forming a five-year plan to build the membership by utilizing YM support for outreach and advancement. More discussion will follow. Friends were very appreciative of Arthur and Wright's presence and input. Several Friends spoke privately to me about their happiness and agreement with the sense of the group to take on this long term goal in this manner.

Personal spiritual friendship: I spent time with a Friend who has been a spiritual companion for the past nine years, listening and supporting the discernment that is leading toward going to seminary for a degree in holistic theology. This Friend affirmed that my role as Quarterly coordinator, and the spiritual nurture skills I have acquired while doing this work made my support role in this discernment very valuable.

Millville Spiritual Care Committee: helped me discern issues regarding my attendance at the School of the Spirit's Way of Ministry program, especially on how to form, and who should be on my "Anchor" committee. The Spiritual Care committee made a commitment to me to track my involvement in this program and to engage Millville Meeting in discerning its place in corporate support for my ministry.

August 2008

Residential Yearly Meeting: I had very little structured leadership at this Yearly Meeting, and was thus able to be very present to all the business sessions and opportunities to talk, build relationships and network. I was asked to lead the opening intergenerational semi-programmed worship on Thursday and was pleased with the feedback I got on the "peeling the onion" on deepening worship guided mediation that I led. I did meet one afternoon with the Spiritual Formation working group to nail down all the goals and objectives of the program and its various retreats. We did this in order to bring the newer members into full ownership of the program.

State College visit: Ed Solenberger and I travelled together to SCFM. We were warmly welcomed by folks, and spoke about Camp Crystal Lake and the Peace Conference. I had good conversations with a variety of folks, including Gary Fosmire, the new clerk. In particular, Dorothy Habecker and I spoke about her involvement in a deepening spirituality group, and my involvement in the Way of Ministry. She promised to stay in touch regarding how SCFM could utilize my experience of that program. I believe I was led to vocal ministry during worship, but have no memory of the content.

Spiritual Formation Pennsdale: this group of six is one place I get spiritual nurture for my journey. I shared the events leading up to my being called to participate in the Way of Ministry program, and accepted their offered support to accompany me on this journey. Ricky Gross accepted my invitation to be on my anchor committee for the program. We had deep discussion facilitated by one member's questions as to how we all experience God's action in our lives directly. How do we know it is God? How does contemplation work for some of us? What about dreams and other parts of the collective unconscious? We are reading Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now.

The Way of Ministry program: This was a very rich time and a good start to this exploration of how Quakers in the unprogrammed tradition are moving to understand and take seriously the need to define Quaker ministry and to learn to support those who are called to it. Approaching the residency, I named some tensions and lack of clarity in my own life (at that moment) regarding my call to ministry, but immediately found myself very clear and calm in the place I find myself, and overjoyed in being in the program, with others, in a place I can add much to the praxis regarding this issue. There are many words to describe ministry, and in my retirement time at the residency I came to: I am laboring under the concern for the spiritual revitalization of the RSOF. My life (and my employment) seem to fall under what I call a ministry of spiritual nurture, and conform to the definition proposed by Brian Drayton, a Quaker who has written on this topic extensively and who was one of our travelling teachers: "Gospel ministry is service whose goal is to encourage, support, push or invite people to seek and respond to the guidance, teaching and activity of that Light and Life at work in all, right now…" This definition is likely something all Quakers should be called to be open to doing, but that some are called to do it full time, making them functionally different , no better or worse. I recognize that the discussions regarding this subject may be lively, as it is a complex issue among Friends!

September 2008

While I don't credit it as work hours, the memorial service of Arthur Clarke was deeply inspiring. I heard of how Arthur's support was critical to USQM taking Greenwood Friends School under its care 30 years ago. I spoke at length with Libby Marsh, USQM's former clerk, and had good contact with many other PYM Friends, including Chris Nickelson, a member of Interim Meeting. I appreciated travelling with Bill and Jane Keller.

Anchor Committee for The Way of Ministry (TWM) program: I am pleased that this committee seems to have gotten off to a good start. The members asked some hard questions and seem willing to push me, and MMM in considering the relationship between the Meeting and my ministry. Leticia Weber has agreed to clerk the group. I am experiencing more clarity regarding my ministry and work as a result of this program. Indeed, my effectiveness seems enhanced since I have been able to claim with more clarity that I have faithfully been laboring under the concern for the spiritual renewal of the Society of Friends (and the world) for the past 13 years.

North Branch Meeting: I was pleased to check in with North Branch for no apparent reason, and to attend their Meeting for Business. I was pleased that they seemed so content with their decision to return to Wyoming Seminary for Meeting. It was nice to see so many new faces. One attender spoke with me afterwards, expressing his appreciation for the way I handled the conflict over the confidentiality issue last summer.

Peace Conference Delegate: I decided that I would not offer to be USQM's delegate to the Peace Conference, but would offer to support, and travel with whomever was chosen (as they interpret what happened to the Quarter). I made some phone calls to try and recruit for the position.

Camp Crystal Lake: I was pleased with how the youth program worked out, and very excited with the number of parents and young children that participated. The older youth program was less well covered, but they seemed to do all right with the high ropes course and simply enjoying being a part of the community at other times. I thank God for Campbell Plowden and AVP community games, as that seemed to unite all of us in an intergenerational way. I am very excited that Leticia Weber and I are the core of a youth program planning committee for next year, and we plan to start that process in June.

PYM Spiritual Formation Opening Retreat: John Brady and I were the primary leadership for this event, and it was as positive a start as we have ever managed. We had 23 participants, and it seemed as if all of the small groups and regional reading groups were well-formed by the end of the weekend. I was very pleased that some of the participants, who have a reputation as very serious social activists, (and who came with some admitted skepticism), seemed to leave very excited about the program. We brought a new Friend on board the Working Group and retreat leadership, and I am very excited that he was a wonderful addition to the program. I proposed a new working definition of the Spiritual Formation Program for all to consider, taken from Brian Drayton's definition of Gospel Ministry: The Spiritual Formation program is a community activity whose goal is to encourage, support, push or invite people to seek and respond to the guidance, teaching and activity of that Light and Life at work in all, right now…" Folks seemed willing to explore this definition, which is also a good definition of the art of Quaker spiritual nurture, and the hospital chaplaincy definition of the art of healing presence.