{"id":121,"date":"2017-06-16T14:21:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T14:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pym.org\/spiritual-formation-program-collaborative\/?page_id=121"},"modified":"2022-06-07T11:19:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T11:19:57","slug":"eldering-reading-groups","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pym.org\/spiritual-formation-program-collaborative\/the-sf-program\/two-types-groups\/reading-groups\/eldering-reading-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"6. Eldering in Reading Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elders and Eldering in the PYM Spiritual Formation Program<\/h3>\n

Written by the Working Group to guide participants as they serve as elder in their Reading Groups.<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>A work in progress\u2026<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>October 2009<\/em><\/p>\n

In Spiritual Formation Program, we invite participants, including the facilitators, to create the experience of having someone serve as elder in our retreat sessions and in the reading groups.\u00a0\u00a0 We have grappled with the terms elder and eldering, and have been discovering what may be of value in this particular Quaker spiritual practice.\u00a0 Patricia Loring writes that eldering is a service \u201cborn in the experience of God\u2019s love and tenderness\u201d (Vol. II, p 143). \u00a0\u00a0Isaac Pennington writes about our life being about bearing one another\u2019s burdens and helping one another up with a tender hand.\u00a0 \u00a0We have the sense that eldering carries this connotation of nurture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Margery Larrabee, in her years as a member of our working group, guided us in exploring and implementing eldering.\u00a0 In her Pendle Hill pamphlet, Spirit Led Eldering, <\/em>Margery Larrabee describes it as \u201c\u2026offering spiritual leadership, which is to support and encourage the life of the Spirit in an individual or group, or to raise questions and explore with another person or group, ways in which they may be more faithful to the Spirit, or it is simply being prayerfully present. No particular act of behavior in itself qualifies as Spirit-Led eldering. It is the well-grounded intention and attitude of a compassionate heart and mind, led by the Spirit that makes it so.\u201d \u00a0The elder holds each person in the Light. Although each person in the group attempts as best they can to discern the will of the Spirit, the elder is more focused in doing so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Participants will observe and experience the facilitators in the Spiritual Formation Program\u2019s opening retreat working with an elder.\u00a0 Participants may simply see a person seated beside the facilitator, and remaining in worship throughout the session.\u00a0 Perhaps the elder will speak at the end of the session.\u00a0 \u201cAs facilitator, I have found I can go deeper into my topic, in unanticipated ways, when I have the accompaniment of someone who has listened to me ahead of time, who is listening to those present, and, who is listening for the Eternal.\u00a0 It is like the admonition: No Swimming Alone.\u00a0 Use the buddy system\u201d (Carolyn Schodt, personal communication, 2009).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We ask the Reading Group members to participate in this eldering experiment.\u00a0\u00a0 The elder accompanies the reading group leader as well as the group members. Here is what we have generally have in mind. The elder: <\/strong><\/p>\n