Stony Run has re-introduced the Extended Family program which is open to all within the Meeting. Getting together on more or less a monthly basis, participants have been enjoying each other's company in fellowship and fun.
As Stony Run Meeting looks forward to a new year, we find ourselves both thankful for what we are and moved by a strong sense of what we need to do more of. To this end, we encourage all in our Meeting to reflect upon the following queries: What are the spiritual needs in our Meeting? How can I as an attender or as a member best contribute to and improve the life of our spiritual community?
Knowing that we labor in the Spirit and in the embrace of the larger Quaker community gives us courage and hope.
Interchange - Spring 2009
Stony Run is a large meeting, and there is quite a bit going on. Here are some highlights from the past few months.
The Community, Care and Clearness Committee (which used to be called Overseers) organized the annual Attenders’ Breakfast, where new members tell the stories of how they came into membership. The stories were at once inspiring about our shared faith and reassuring about the strengths of our Meeting. CCC is at work on a revision of its manual; they report that, “the work on the manual has not only helped us to clarify the work that we do but also has deepened our understanding and experience of Quaker processes as we have engaged each other in conversation and sharing.”
Some things take years to come to fruition, such as this news from the Indian Affairs sub-committee, which is joint with Homewood Monthly Meeting: the Maryland Department of Corrections approved sweat lodge practice for American Indian
inmates, and a ceremony took place on October 4, 2008 at Eastern Correctional Institute. This is a very meaningful outcome from years of work by the sub-committee.
Also joint between Stony Run and Homewood is the Working Group on Racism. Recently Friend Joy Zarembka spoke on “Modern-Day Slavery: Human Trafficking in the U.S.” and Morgan State University professor Ray Winbush spoke on “A Dialogue on Race and Education in the Age of Obama.”
At Stony Run a year ago, about 40 of us joined into an informal “Extended Family” composed of members, attenders, singles, couples, and children, with a wide age range. These new “cousins” meet about every 6 weeks to enjoy hikes, potlucks, game nights, “Quaker Swap,” and getting better acquainted. In a large meeting, it’s lovely to be able to get to know others better in informal settings.
The Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture Committee continues to organize morning discussion forums on First Days from September to May. We have a variety of topics, all with the goal of building up fellowship and growing in spirit through nurture. We also do a fall newcomers’ series for the purpose of advancement and outreach.
The Library Committee has several new members and is implementing a new numbering system and new technology,
which will make checkout faster. BYM members should know that our library owns many old books (mainly 19th century) and bound volumes of Friends Journal and Pendle Hill pamphlets.
Stony Run hosted the Friendly Folk Dancers during their BYM tour. We had a potluck and performance on April 3. The performance actually included a lot of audience participation, and everyone had a really wonderful time. The dancers also performed for the middle schoolers at Friends School.
Stony Run is also taking part in the BYM Spiritual Formation Program. Our group includes 21 people who meet once a month as a group and also in small groups during which participants are supported in individual spiritual practices. Our hope is that by bringing intention and awareness to our own spiritual growth our group will assist in deepening the spiritual life of our Meeting. We come together with curiosity,
openness and acceptance, eager to listen to and learn from each other.
Spiritual State of the Meeting Report - 2007
Overall Stony Run continues to be a sizable and active Meeting blessed with a diversity of spiritual gifts among its members and attenders. Meeting for Worship is at the center of our Meeting’s life with the offering of two meeting times on First Days: an early meeting, usually quiet, small and intimate, and a later meeting, larger and popular with families whose children often attend the multi-leveled First Day School or Young Friends programs coordinated by the Religious Education Committee and taught/led by dedicated members and attenders of the Meeting.
As in any community, Stony Run Meeting has experienced a number of challenges and struggles this past year. In late June 2007 the Meeting’s Executive Secretary resigned from employment. This was immediately followed by the resignation of the Meeting’s Administrative Assistant. Both resignations have meant far more than mere personnel loss; they have brought to the fore a deep, abiding and perhaps in some sense a heretofore unexamined concern about our state as a spiritual community. The Meeting is continuing to work through the events that led to these painful losses, to understand our needs as a community on many levels including staffing needs, how we work and communicate with each other, and the roles of volunteer and committee work. Through listening sessions retreats and Ad Hoc committees, we are laboring together to create a strong and loving community. The committees of Community Care and Clearness and Ministry and Counsel have worked jointly to develop a program. A prolonged period of healing sessions involving from two to six persons was followed by a day long retreat within the past month. This session was received warmly. A small ad hoc Committee called Moving Forward,. Charged by the Meeting to help it “discern the purpose of our life together, our function as a spiritual community and the role of staff and volunteers in carrying out our work a as a Meeting,” is now at work.
The concern for the spiritual state of our community has been underscored in other ways as well. While our size offers us a rich spiritual diversity, it can also be a disadvantage: intimacy and a sense of community inherent in smaller, less urban meetings are more elusive for us. This is particularly true in the case of newcomers and more occasional attenders. Some seekers are coming from traditional religious backgrounds where ministers, priests, or other lay clergy are readily available to welcome newcomers and provide a specific support structure for integrating them into the life of their respective communities. For such seekers an unprogrammed Friends Meeting like Stony Run can feel daunting: To whom can I turn for pastoral care or spiritual counseling? Or, even more basically, How can I learn more about the Religious Society of Friends and what it means to be a Quaker? For those seekers coming from non-religious backgrounds, the task of discerning whether this religious community is the right path for their spiritual needs can be equally overwhelming in our large Meeting. Many such newcomers are initially drawn to the Society because they already hold a deep affinity with Quaker values and testimonies; seeking with Friends is but a natural extension of those values. Yet affinity with a value set does not automatically imply an affinity for a community practicing that set. While many seekers report feeling initially welcomed at Stony Run, there has been some hungering for greater and more meaningful connection to the Meeting as a caring, loving community. Stony Run’s Committees on Community, Care and Clearness and Ministry and Counsel’s Ad Hoc Committee on Newcomers have labored with these concerns, seeking ways to go beyond mere friendly welcoming to being supportive and embracing, something all Friends must do in any Meeting regardless of size or location.
Providing ongoing opportunities for members and attenders to deepen their spiritual lives, thereby nurturing the larger spiritual community, has been the collective effort of several committees over this last year. In addition to its annual “Seekers and Speakers” series for newcomers and its regularly scheduled First Day Forums, the Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture Committee, in conjunction with the Committee on Ministry and Counsel, have been seeking ways to respond to the need for Adult Religious Education where long and not-so-longtime members and attenders can share their spiritual knowledge and experience for the purpose of guiding, supporting, and fueling others’ spiritual journeys. This activity has already begun, with a large turnout of interested people. More formal adult religious education programs are being planned.
Interchange - Spring 2008
The Meeting continues to hold a series of adult forums on First Days prior to Meeting for Worship. Topics this year are focusing on Quakerism and spirituality; in January and February, our member Don Gann has led a series of discussions about George Fox’s life and journal.
The Meeting is also educating itself about the recognition
of spiritual leadings, and the need for Friends to support such leadings.
A well-attended Meeting Retreat was held on Jan. 26 at Friends School of Baltimore, during which the Meeting's
long and colorful history was reviewed, issues relating to staffing were discussed, and the Meeting's ad-hoc Moving Forward Committee made a presentation.
The event, which included ample time for silent worship and sharing, was at once refreshing and informative.
We are looking forward to the annual breakfast for attenders on February 24, during which our newest members will share their spiritual journeys and discuss their decision to become members of the Society of Friends.
Simple lunch following the 11 a.m. Meeting for Worship,
often with homemade soups to feed our bodies and souls, is a weekly opportunity for the community to get to know each other better. Our First Day School is bounding along with the energy only children can bring to it. We are delighted that nearly every First Day brings newcomers to Meeting for Worship.
The Meeting continues to be a source of strength and direction for Meeting members involved in a broad spectrum of concerns and interests. As we engage in looking to the future and reviewing the past, we are also striving to express more sensitivity and love to one another.
Interchange - Fall 2007
Lamar Matthew resigned as Executive Secretary of
Stony Run Meeting after five years of service. Also in
July, Jacquelin Potter retired as the Meeting’s administrative
assistant. Jackie had been a welcoming presence
for 20 years. Both will be greatly missed.
The Meeting has requested its Ministry and Counsel and
Community, Care and Clearness Committees to jointly
facilitate the Meeting in an exploration of three queries:
What does it mean to be a Spiritual Community? How
do we become that community? Where do we hope to be
in the future? Exploration of these issues will inform
future staffing plans. In the meantime, Heather Landheim
will be present in the office part-time to help with
administration and hospitality.
Many from Stony Run will go to Camp Catoctin September
21-23 to get better acquainted and enjoy a ‘mountain
get-away.” First Day School begins on September 9th,
with 112 children on the Meeting rolls.
Spiritual State of the Meeting Report - 2006
This year the Stony Run Committee on Ministry and Counsel (M&C), charged with reporting to Baltimore Yearly Meeting on the spiritual state of Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends, Stony Run, asked all members and attenders for comment and reflection. This report is a reflection of those responses and discussion among Ministry and Counsel members at a retreat focusing on this issue.
Vitality and vibrancy characterize the Meeting, with a combination of engagement in Meeting life and in the larger world community and a healthy continual assessment of how the Meeting and its members can more fully live our Quaker values.
Meeting for Worship
There was unity on the spiritual state of Meeting for Worship. Those responding, members, attenders and newcomers, expressed that there is a palpable presence of the spirit of the Divine among us in Meeting for Worship. Those who may feel led to speak in Meeting for Worship, but also hesitant, are encouraged to listen with confidence to the voice within of the Divine to discern if the moment is right.
Meeting for Worship With a Concern for Business
Concern was expressed that too few attend Meeting for Worship With a Concern for Business. This is where decisions are made on behalf of the Meeting, yet regularly only 20 or 30 attend these monthly sessions. We have experimented with varying the time of day and day of the week; yet still the numbers attending does not change. Ministry and Counsel prepared a booklet on business meetings two years ago that will be circulated again. This committee will also conduct a forum on the protocol of such meetings (as in keeping reports brief). Some Friends have also expressed concern that the business meeting is not conducted as a worship service. Effort will be made to keep us all mindful that discussion be held and decisions made in an atmosphere of corporate worship in the expectation of divine guidance
Newcomers and Attenders
There has been much discussion this year of how better to welcome newcomers and to integrate attenders into the life of the Meeting. It was noted that we are all ministers and all are seekers. It is therefore, the responsibility of all in the Meeting to make an effort to engage those who have come into our midst, realizing that there is no one definition of the belief system of the Religious Society of Friends, but rather we can all learn from each other and from our traditions, queries and literature.
A small Working Group on Newcomers including members, attenders and newcomers was started under the care of Ministry and Counsel. This group is reviewing and revising the written material we make available and also exploring how we can ease entry into the Stony Run family.
Changes are underway: Community, Care and Clearness (CCC), responsible for pastoral care of individuals in the Meeting, will re-start small group dinners this Spring with Friendly Eats; a member of Ministry and Counsel will try to arrange a meeting of the larger Monthly Meetings at Friends General Conference (FGC) to share ideas about how to welcome people into the Meeting; the Friend closing Meeting for Worship has begun to invite newcomers to gather in the Library before going as a group to Simple Lunch; a member of Ministry and Counsel has coordinated a small group evening series of discussions about the Religious Society of Friends as follow-up to Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture Committee’s (SINC) fall series of adult forums introducing Quakerism. Many newcomers are introduced to Stony Run through SINC’s adult forums. The Working Group will explore ways to circulate information about SR’s adult forums to the wider community as a way to reach out in invitation to the larger world.
Committees
Stony Run faces a continuing challenge to fill all the committees and boards with an adequate number of volunteers. As an unprogrammed Meeting, Stony Run relies on committees to do the work of the Meeting. Stony Run has nineteen standing committees where members and attenders serve. In addition to our own committees, Stony Run members participate in the larger Quaker world by serving on the board of directors of Friends School, of Broadmead, of Sheppard Pratt, of Friends Care, Inc., and on the regional board of American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Friends also serve on committees of Baltimore Yearly Meeting Interim Meeting and Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
The larger world
There have been Meeting-wide efforts to tackle some of the larger issues of war and peace and making affordable housing available in our community through our participation in the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, a Peacebuilding Conference and BRIDGE, a group working for affordable housing in the greater Baltimore region, with leadership provided by the Peace and Social Order Committee. Additionally, Stony Run joined the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) which is focusing its campaign on amending the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Still, there is the desire expressed by some that Stony Run take on more social outreach to persons of color and to the poor, for example. Others have expressed a desire for the Meeting to be a better steward of the earth. Very often, meeting-wide ministries are started because of one person’s leading that is vetted through a clearness committee and brought to the business meeting for a fuller exploration.
In keeping with a continual assessment of how Meeting members are participating in the life of the Meeting and addressing issues in the larger community, the following queries are ones we will pose to our members, attenders and newcomers:
- If there are areas of spiritual need in our community, what is your role in addressing them?
- Our lives move in cycles. There are times when we must retreat and refresh; times when we can reach out to others. Do you regularly evaluate where you are in your life cycles?
- How do you contribute to the vibrancy of our spiritual life together as a community?
- Do you call on members of Ministry and Counsel or Community, Care and Clearness when you see – or feel – a need for greater spiritual clarity or pastoral care?
- What do we need to do to attract more members to Monthly Meeting for Worship With a Concern for Business?
We seek to live a life in the Light – individually and corporately, in our community and in the larger world. In this effort, we are not alone, but rather are a community of seekers and ministers to one another.
Spiritual State of the Meeting Report - 2005
Stony Run Friends Meeting has experienced both stability and change during 2005. The Monthly Meeting clerk and recording clerk are the same as last year, providing continuity, and the Executive Secretary is in his third year, not only well settled in to his job responsibilities but also joyfully welcomed as a member after transferring his membership from York Monthly Meeting. The Finance Committee clerk has created a new format for arraying the Meeting’s fairly complicated financial structure; it brings all the components together in more easily comprehensible ways, thus more readily engaging everyone in understanding, tracking the Meeting’s finances and, we hope, supporting its financial needs.
At the same time, it is a concern that there is not broader participation among members and attenders in supporting the financial needs of Stony Run and in serving on committees. There has been a loss from the decreased presence of some previously very involved older members. Who are taking their places? While most of us struggle with time and financial pressures, we hold in the Light those less active in Meeting who are not choosing, or not able, to participate more fully in the Stony Run community and its activities. Especially in view of the crises in the world this year – the war in Iraq, the tsunami, the hurricanes, the earthquake in Pakistan, and ongoing needs for social and economic justice – we know that Quakerism has a crucial role to play in alleviating suffering and enabling a deeper spirituality. In this context our relative stability in numbers and operations may give little satisfaction and may be better characterized as a failure to grow. There is close to full participation in committee life by those people who are the most regular attenders at Meeting for Worship. Many of these people are serving on more than one committee, and they are being fulfilled and sustained in their service. This would seem to speak well for the spiritual connections to the Meeting of those individuals and makes us yearn to extend this level of involvement to more people. Each individual and family can look to the Light within to see more clearly how it can contribute to our community and to the world. Equally, the Meeting can look to the Light to explore how best to engage people in the experience of Meeting for Worship, which would seem to be an indicator for greater overall involvement in the Meeting.
Gratifying to the Stony Run community, and to the individuals involved, are the significant initiatives and contributions that have emerged in 2005. The continued health and vibrancy of Stony Run is illustrated by the work and spirit of its many committees.
The newly-named Community, Care and Clearness committee expressed their joy in the continual flow of visitors, new faces, and willing hands and in the vibrant programs for our children. Their main spiritual challenges were replacing the term "Overseers" to reflect the charge to this committee and to cease the hurt of that term from times of slavery; deciding membership guidelines in several gray areas (what does membership mean? require?); tenderly crafting revisions to the previous marriage and commitment minute; extending our reaching out and involvement of everyone; tending to the pastoral needs of a large membership; and attempting to discern how to go beyond "seekers & speakers" with attenders.
The committee on Ministry and Counsel sought to be helpful in assuring that Quaker process is operating with spiritual intention in the everyday work of the committee, in the Meetings for worship, including the monthly meeting for worship with a concern for business, and providing support in this to all committees and individuals. The committee continues to seek divine guidance in how we minister in times of death and what we do in concert with Community, Care and Clearness, Hospitality and Ushers, at these times. Workshops on “Clerking and Committee Work” offered guidance to all committees and all individuals on effective Quaker process.
Nominating committee notes that, while there are an exceptional few who do a great deal of the work of the Meeting, happily there are many in Meeting who are also “putting faith into action” through their participation in Meeting activities. Nominating committee members make a special effort to stay in touch with newcomers to introduce them to service on a committee.
The Staff Oversight and Personnel committee (SOPC) has experienced tension about its role in supervision and nurturing of staff, with differing expectations on the committee about its relationship to staff and differing expectations of staff. The challenge is to address these tensions with openness and tenderness for all involved and to arrive at an understanding all can feel led to accept.
In response to the war in Iraq, the Peace and Social Order committee felt called to make the peace testimony available to non-Quakers, present documentary film series on the war in Iraq, and support the Eyes Wide Open exhibit. The Indian Affairs committee meets under the care of Stony Run’s Peace and Social Order Committee. It consists of members from Stony Run, Homewood and Gunpowder who are led to work for the rights of the American Indian. It has given special focus to support for Leonard Peltier, considered a political prisoner, and the effort to permit the practice of a sweat lodge for incarcerated American Indians as a religious right in Maryland prisons.
The Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture committee (SINC) continued to work with respect for the opinions and concerns of other committee members and the entire Meeting to provide forums for spiritual inquiry and development. It is their fervent hope that they contributed to the spiritual life of the Meeting in this way. They continue to seek to develop and hone their basis for discussions, expand their audience, deepen their inquiry, and listen more attentively to the needs of the Meeting even when not spoken.
The Religious Education committee is pleased with continued good attendance among children of the Meeting and has found the children’s contributions a vital and vibrant part of the community. The committee has had the joy and satisfaction of developing a curriculum for pre-first through upper elementary grades. The commitment of many Friends beyond the committee helps make the Quaker and First Day School experience warm and nurturing, although a lack of teacher volunteers to fill the First Day School positions is of continuing concern.
Global climate change has been a key concern for the committee on Unity with Nature (a joint committee with Homewood Friends Meeting). Its 2001 Minute stresses the need for concrete steps towards decreasing our impact on the environment. A forum on household toxins, monthly vegetarian cooking club, and efforts to make Simple Lunch organic and vegetarian, are some of these steps in action.
The Trustees committee is responsible for investing the Meeting’s money in a manner consistent with the basic tenets of peace and right living, while looking to guarantee that our children have the blessing of a financially and physically sound Meeting. They feel that balance has been struck by concurrence with the Meeting’s wishes to invest in St. Ambrose, GEDCO and Faith Fund.
The members of the Ushers committee remain keenly aware that they are the initial members of the Meeting to come into contact with visitors and first-time attenders. They reach out to welcome them and make them feel comfortable. They also note the benefits of having two meetings for worship, earlier and later, finding that “each has its own personality.” The Library committee, which maintains a collection of Quaker-related books for use by members and attenders, offers “a welcoming environment for community fellowship.”
The words of a member of the Property committee reflect this group’s activities: “Personally, I express my spiritual connection as comfortably in the physical realm as in the realm of words.” The Burial Ground committee reports that their deliberations are spiritually rich and their decisions the outcome of good Quaker process, though there are some matters (fixing gates, fences) that might be done with greater
dispatch.
The Friends School Board of Trustees reports that it is grateful that the Meeting provides the board and the school with spiritual sustenance, and that the meeting’s health and strength allow the board to do its work to the best of its ability. The greatest spiritual challenge facing the Board in the last year was the hiring of the new Head of School, Matthew Micciche, and orienting/transitioning him to our school and community. The selection process was a daunting task, yet one that the Board took on with the Quaker foundation of the school as its guiding force.
Activities during 2005 that were not committee-specific but that added to the spiritual dimension of the community include the continuation of the monthly Quaker Readers’ group, this year exploring conscientious objection, and reconfiguring and resuming the healing prayer group, this time jointly with Homewood Friends Meeting. An ad hoc group that is looking at the best ways to meet Friends’ needs as they age was asked to continue its work, and many have stepped forward to do this. During the summer, many gave of their time and deep sympathy as the Quaker community mourned the tragic, accidental death of Benjamin Huxtable, four-year-old son of the Head of the new Harford Friends School; the memorial service was held at Friends School of Baltimore and hosted by Stony Run.
Stony Run’s connections to the “wider Quaker world” of Baltimore Yearly Meeting (including its excellent camping program), the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the American Friends Service Committee, the McKim Center, Friends School of Baltimore, Friends Care and Broadmead, and Friends General Conference are both deep and wide, through the service of many “Stony Runners” on committees and boards as well as general support. Connections to non-Quaker groups are equally numerous, and all these connections enrich the spiritual life of those who participate and thus of the Meeting as a whole. Friends continue to give attention, through Baltimore Yearly Meeting, to working tenderly with Friends United Meeting around its policy of discrimination against employees and volunteers who are in same-gender relationships.
Many Stony Run Friends observe that the spiritual state of the Meeting is reflected in the ways people assist in various activities and in the ways they commit themselves to help the Meeting enhance the worship and social interactions. Friends also note that more participation in Stony Run committees and more outreach to newcomers from members and attenders alike will enrich the vitality and broaden the inclusiveness of our spiritual community. A Friend giving input from one committee wrote this eloquent statement: “Finding the sacred in the work that we do is one of the most fundamental of the tenets of the Society of Friends. We hope that we will meet the challenge and will continue to be a presence for God and good in the world.”
Respectfully,
The Committee on Ministry and Counsel: Barbara Brocato, Becky Copeland, Elizabeth DuVerlie (clerk), Jolanda Ferguson, Don Gann, Drew Leder, Fred Leonard, Barbara Mallonee, Suzanne O’Hatnick and Lamar Matthew in his role as Executive Secretary of the Meeting. March 2006
SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2004
As is often the case, our strength is also our weakness. As an unprogrammed Meeting, the members take on the responsibilities of the Meeting through committees. They are the lifeblood of the Meeting, where we meet, worship, share fellowship, conduct outreach to the community and serve our own Stony Run community. We have fourteen committees with a broad range of concerns and responsibilities. Most committees are open to attenders as well as to members. Yet it is with great difficulty that the Nominating Committee finds individuals willing to serve on committees. Our challenge as we go forward is to consider how we as a community can address this problem.
Even so, it is true that committees and ad hoc groups are engaged in a most lively way in the nurture of Stony Run's spiritual life, in the well being of our members and in care for our physical plant and for concerns in the world beyond Stony Run. As always, the Meeting saw new initiatives.
A high point for Religious Education was the clothing drive begun among the 4-5 year olds to assist flood victims in Logan WV, the site of an established AFSC program. This led to a highly successful collaboration among the Meeting, Friends School and the AFSC, that collected and distributed more than 3000 pounds of clothing, and could be a model for other joint projects in the world beyond Stony Run.
The Unity with Nature Committee has focused efforts, with endorsement from Meeting for Business, on moving the Meeting toward the use of organic foods, with its implications for environmental, animal, and human welfare. Food staples for the Meeting are now purchased through an organic distributor.
The Peace and Social Order Committee, especially in light of the war in Iraq, has concerned itself with the peaceful prevention of deadly conflict. If "war is not answer" what is? Through a spring and fall film series and other means, the committee has explored the tendency to rush into war and alternative ways of dealing with conflict before it escalates to violence. The committee also focused energies on the need to preserve and rebuild democracy in our country, supporting some 20-25 people involved in voter registration.
The Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture Committee (SINC) conducted First Day Forums at which Friends shared their experience and wisdom on a wide variety of topics. Many newcomers have been introduced to us by this format. This year the Meeting introduced "Fireside Chats" at which elders told their Quaker life stories in a warm, relaxed atmosphere on First Day evenings.
The Committee on Ministry and Counsel reaches out to our close friend and neighbor, Friends School, through the annual orientation to Quakerism for new faculty and staff. Marilyn Clark continues to act as liaison from the Board of Trustees of Friends School to Stony Run.
Ministry and Counsel revised the Newcomer's Packet to include the names of Ministry and Counsel members who are willing to be contacts for those wishing to learn more about the Religious Society of Friends and Stony Run. The Seeker's Table at Simple Lunch has been revived for conversation about Quakerism. Following up on last year's focus on Quaker process in Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, Ministry and Counsel produced a guide to Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business and conducted two sessions on clerking and committee work with emphasis on the process of corporately seeking God's will in our everyday transactions.
Overseers' attention is on the spiritual nurture of the individuals at Stony Run, responding to individual needs, often through Clearness Committees. Overseers held a special forum on end of life issues and started Fourth Friday lunches as an opportunity for members to socialize.
Other nurturing activities include the ad-hoc monthly Tuesday evening study group that provides education and fellowship, Simple Lunch, coordinated by Hospitality, offering another regular opportunity for fellowship, and the Healing Prayer Group that meets monthly under the care of Ministry and Counsel to pray for those seeking healing for themselves or others.
FRAUC (Funds Review and Use Committee) determined that the income from the Elder Care Fund should go to Friends Care for its outreach program involving senior citizens of limited means.
Early Meeting, Little Meeting and our later Meeting for Worship form the core of our spiritual nurture of the Stony Run community. Early Meeting at Stony Run thrives as a small and predominantly silent gathering. This Meeting continues to provide essential space for one seeking a quieter or more intimate setting in which to worship. Little Meeting is held roughly every other week for the youngest of our community and provides a good foundation to prepare them for Meeting for Worship.
The eleven o'clock Meeting for Worship continues to attract an age-diverse group of worshippers, many of whom are families with children who attend First Day School. Many come to this Meeting in anticipation of the vocal ministry of which they are almost invariably assured. The quality of that ministry-and its counterpart silence-is, on the whole, worshipful and at times compelling. This is not to say there isn't the occasional "popcorn" meeting or some spoken message given which, within Friends' practice, might not properly be called vocal ministry: the airing of personal concerns or the delivering of messages that are not received during the actual silence of corporate worship. While certainly not a great problem or one unique to Stony Run, it has been a voiced concern. Holding more First Day Forums in which we all could learn more about discerning the impetus to speak (or not to speak) has been proposed as a possible way of improving the quality of vocal ministry as well as the silence.
Much of the organizational work of the Meeting is conducted through the monthly Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, sometimes referred to as Business Meeting. With the transition of one Meeting clerk to the next in June, attention to fostering a worshipful process continued. Careful preparation of the agenda and advance planning with those committees or organizations planning to bring business forward also help with smooth functioning. Changing the meeting's time to adjust to varying needs and avoid nighttime driving during the winter months has worked well, with slight increases in attendance noted when the changes occur (first Sundays after simple lunch in July and the months without daylight saving time; first Tuesday evenings the other months). Attendance has averaged 32 (minimum 21 and maximum 39), low numbers for such a large meeting, but seemingly inevitable given the demands of busy lives.
Over the course of the year, major decisions included approval of a minute stating that the Meeting is not in unity with Friends United Meeting's policy toward gays and lesbians and recommending that BYM withdraw financial support of FUM . The Meeting also reviewed and clarified its procedure for what to do when it receives large gifts. The Meeting has given its support to several important initiatives: the development of a child care center in the Roberts room for families connected with Friends School, entailing some construction in the lower level; the Ad Hoc Peace Action group's two film series relating to non-violent approaches to conflict; and creation of an ad hoc group to consider Stony Run's support for and involvement in services for the aging. These major items as well as more routine ones have been decided with relative smoothness and right order, reflecting a tenderness for each other growing out of a worshipfulness process and the guidance of the clerks.
As we reflect on the work of our committees and of the Meeting, we can see in some measure that our committees look inward toward the spiritual nurture of our Stony Run family and at the same time are mindful of inviting the world in and supporting engagement in the issues of our time. We must always ask ourselves, "are we Light bearers?" Do we deal tenderly with others and are we continually seeking to serve in the world? Again, a most practical question is why do we have difficulty attracting enough members to our committees? In the coming year we will try as a community to address this issue.
FUM Policy Concern
Mar. 05 - 6: The following Minute was proposed and approved: Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends, Stony Run appreciates the work that the Baltimore Yearly Meeting representative committee has invested in consideration of the disposition of funds in the amount of $17,400 initially proposed for FUM for 2005. We recommend use of the funds for intervisitation with FUM Yearly Meetings, and urge that BYM undertake this as an action of BYM as a whole.
Interchange, Spring 2005
Deaths: John Lamb on November 26, 2004; Margaret Randol
on December 18, 2004.
Marriage and Ceremonies of Commitment: Julia Barss &
Ashley Gordon McColgan, September 11, 2004; Deborah Feaster &
Sears, December 6, 2003; Mary Stuart & Michael Weinrich, January
2, 2004.
Now on the Web!