Friends and Clerking: FGConnections, Spring 2004
A Vignette
By Beckey Phipps
It’s been a bitterly cold winter in New England. We had record snowfalls in December followed by frigid temperatures in January and freezing rain in February. Most mornings the windows in the room where I spend morning prayer time are frosted over. Sometimes the ice crystals form into beautiful feathery patterns on the glass. On the morning after I returned from clerking the FGC Religious Education Committee meeting in Austin, Texas, (where the weather was spring-like) I found an unusual pattern on the frosted pane. It was a realistic representation of branches, like a silvery woodcutting. I kept turning to look at it, again and again.
In the Gospel according to John, Jesus describes the relationship between himself and the apostles as vine and branches, and God is the Vineyardist (John 15:1). We are given the opportunity, through faithful living, to be fruitful branches on the vine. All of Creation thrives in fruitfulness, and thus God thrives, too, through our response. I reflected on our committee’s work that weekend. I believed we were thriving together in the Spirit, we were fruitful, we were cheerful and playful.
We are a far-flung community on the RE Committee. Our members come from Friends’ meetings in Canada and every region of the United States, West to East and North to South. We gather four times a year for intense periods of worship, discernment, consultation, and activity. One of my responsibilities as clerk is to center us again and again in worship and mindfulness of who our work serves, the Vineyardist and the branches (Friends General Conference). One of the joys of serving with religious educators is the creative playfulness that can be derived from engaging with children and teenagers. It is not unusual, after long hours of hard work for committee members to become a little wacky, even hilarious. Did you know that the Greek work hilarote¯, means gladness or cheerfulness? In Paul’s Letter to the Romans (12:8), he asks the members of the new Christian church to be cheerful in their exercise of compassion. I was grateful for the committee’s humor and cheerfulness.
We came to Austin with a full agenda, some challenging items held over from our meeting. It was also time for our annual budget process to begin, we had on-going committee work for the upcoming Religious Educators Institute in August 2004, and reports on numerous ongoing projects. And we’d been given new responsibility for considering how we would reach the goals of FGC’s Long Term Plan.
In the weeks leading up to the January meeting in Austin I applied myself to prayer for the committee, praying more than I ever had before, feeling all over again the tenderness from our September meeting. I prayed over the items of the agenda and I prayed for each committee member. I felt such joy, gratitude, and affection for each of these gifted educators who give so generously of their time—spending these weekends responding to the needs of the Friends we serve through FGC. I’ve learned so much from them, I have found myself laughing and sometimes crying as I saw children and Young Friends through their eyes, their experiences.
As the weekend progressed, we moved through agenda items in a calm progression that surprised some of us. The items that were difficult months ago had been seasoned and we felt unity to go forward, our consciousness raised, more sensitive to each other and those we serve. A highpoint of the weekend was the Saturday night program we offered Austin Friends. They asked us to offer some insights on how to integrate the children of the meeting into the life of the community, with a special concern for Young Friends. Marlou Carlson led us in a time of listening to our hosts concerns, a time of sharing our experiences and wisdom in response, and, finally, an intergenerational worship that culminated in placing origami boats upon a make-believe ocean. Friends of all ages shared and commemorated dozens of inner and outer journeys of faith, love, loss, and adventure.
I came away from the weekend in Austin rejoicing in the pleasures of serving as clerk. Feeling further strengthened in my experience of God’s presence in our midst. And knowing that prayer had prepared me and opened me to sensing how God was moving among us. The branches I found etched in the frosted window left me feeling a sense of wonder and commemorated our faithfulness, our fruitfulness.
