Living Forms; Vital Meetings
Workshop # 23
Walter Hjelt Sullivan and Elaine Emily
Many of us long for deeply faithful communities with powerful worship and vital social ministries. Yet, often, something crucial is missing. How can we kindle a powerful 21st century Quakerism? Committees of Ministers and Elders used to carry these concerns. What vital new forms does current personal experience lead us to?
Percentage of time:
Worship/worship-sharing 30; Lecture 10; Discussion 20; Experiential 40
Open to all
Full Description
This will not be a talking workshop focused on historical lectures and large group discussions about what we think about the problems within the Religious Society of Friends today.
This will be a workshop of experiential exercises designed to help Friends start this search for a new way forward together by looking tenderly at our personal experience of worship, community, and our direct communion with the Divine.
The first 1/3 of each day will be worship. We will meet most often in traditional unprogrammed worship, but sometimes in more playful and nontraditional ways (for example: Meeting to build a paper tower). Each day we will take some time in “twilight worship” to reflect back and to share our experience of the Spirit moving among us during our formal worship time. We will ask the questions:
What qualities and conditions help to deepen our experience of worship in our Meetings?
What gifts of discernment, support, or ministry do I personally bring with me into worship?
What gifts are not mine? What support do I need?
The second 1/3 of each day will be experiential exercises, journaling, and small group work. Currently we imagine that the flow of these activities will cover the following topics:
Sunday: Welcome and getting to know each other
Monday: Stepping stones in our relationships to Quakerism
Tuesday: The qualities of a faithful community
Wednesday: The gifts a community needs to be faithful
Thursday: Looking at the history and its implications for our work
Friday: What we have learned and what next steps we are called to take
We will certainly explore questions like these:
What does a vibrant faith community need?
What do I find in my own Monthly and Yearly Meeting?
What is missing?
What gifts of the Spirit are needed to support a faithful community?
Which ones come easily? Which do not?
What do I need in my own life to be more faithful?
What structures might support me in my journey?
What current structures hinder my exploration?
One morning, we will look briefly at the history of committees for Ministers and Elders and their role in exacerbating conflict among Friends leading up to the Hicksite/Orthodox split in 1827. In preparation for this section, participants are encouraged to read the first half of Conflict Among Friends, by Larry Engle.
In a playful and evocative way, we will explore (and possibly re-write) two chapters of the Bible to see what we can say ourselves about healthy, faithful communities:
Ephesians 4:1-32
Galatians 5: 16-25 (warning: the language of this passage in particular can be troubling, but together we hope to look beyond the words to the fundamental point the author is trying to make and see what meaning it may have for us in our labors.)
At the end of the week, we will review what we have experienced together and from that begin to imagine what structures in our monthly and yearly might support our own faithfulness and what next steps we each might be willing to take.
Other reading that Friends might find helpful on this topic, but that we may or may not look at directly during the week:
On Living With a Concern for Gospel Ministry, by Brian Drayton
Pendle Hill pamphlet #347, “Tall Poppies”, by Martha Paxton Grundy
Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order, by Lloyd Lee Wilson
The last 1/3 of each day will be worship sharing with queries or large group discussion as we are led.
