PYM asks: How does Spirit move among you?
Spirit moves among us at Downingtown Friends Meeting in the care and love that we show for each other in our covenant community and in turn, the care that we offer our Meeting community spreads out in concentric circles to the larger community that surrounds us. Our experience of Spirit in our Meeting body emanates out to others like ripples in a pond.
We are blessed by the many ways that we see and feel Spirit in our Meeting community. We see that in how we welcome the many new attenders who are being led to worship with us and how we care for our current members and attenders. We are blessed by the growing numbers of families with young children who bring joy and happiness into our Meetings for Worship. Spirit thrives in the winter Co-op dinner gatherings of six to eight people who meet in each other’s homes to share fellowship, support and a wonderful meal. We experience Spirit’s spark in those who generously share their spiritual journeys or inspire us with their volunteer experiences through presentations at our Opening Exercises just before we head into Meeting for Worship. We felt Spirit in the dedication to growth demonstrated by so many who participated in and contributed to the Quakerism 101 class held last year.
In turn, our Meeting takes Spirit out into our larger community through our actions as a covenant community and also as individual attenders and members, whose actions reflect their spiritual values. Each year Downingtown Friends holds a Fall Festival that is highly anticipated and well attended by the larger Downingtown community. At the festival we share information about what it means to participate in the Religious Society of Friends and we offer many opportunities to nourish mind, body and spirit (i.e.: a food booth, kids’ games, Friendly Thrift, and multiple vendors and community organization tables).
A large portion of the proceeds from that festival are donated back to nonprofits that benefit the communities in which we live. Those organizations are then invited to make presentations during our Opening Exercises, held prior to Meeting for Worship, to educate our Meeting community on their work in the larger community and informing us of how they assist others. Through those presentations we have learned of their valuable work with child trauma victims, various food pantries, education and job training and other groups that are available to empower and support those who are less advantaged in our communities.
Our Peace and Social Concerns committee has asked us to sign on to several public statements renouncing violence and genocide, which has led to more thoughtfulness of how our purchases could inadvertently support companies participating in the actions we renounce. This committee has also been very active in response to the effects that ICE has had in the area. Every month they organize a collection of food, funds and clothing to benefit a different food bank or shelter that assists those impacted by ICE. Spirit has been present in the committee’s work and continued strong support that our attenders and members have shown each month. We are very grateful for their work in this endeavor.
As a member of the Downingtown Ministerium, our meeting hosts one of the Lenten lunch and worship services which traditionally is well attended by the greater community. Many in the area look forward to experiencing worshipful silence with us, recognizing that Spirit is alive in many different forms of worship.
Downingtown Friends also participates in services of other religious bodies through our participation in the Interfaith Action Community. We grow through attending other denominations’ religious services and celebrations, learning about their beliefs as we experience the unity of Spirit that is in us all.
Our meeting has wrestled with decisions that brought our community together in Spirit-led discernment. The final steps in the completion of a multi-year driveway/accessibility improvements project inspired questions about the impacts on climate change and the ways to offset those effects. Spirit was present as we chose to create an ad hoc environmental stewardship committee to review all areas of impact on our campus and bring back recommendations of ways to lessen the environmental impact. We could not have reached unity on these difficult subjects without keeping Spirit centered and moving among us.
Emily Provance describes, “The best definition of covenant…is that we give ourselves to God and God, in turn, gives us to a group of people. And from there, we are expected to care for this group of people, and this group of people is expected to care for us.”* This is how Spirit moves among us at Downingtown Friends Meeting.
*Provance, Emily (2020) Spiritual Gifts, the Beloved Community, and Covenant, [Pamphlet #461], Pendle Hill, pg. 4
Respectfully submitted by
Cheryl McVickar and Jody Kinney
On behalf of Downingtown Friends Meeting
