The FGC Development Committee was making two presentations to Cambridge Friends Meeting, and asked me to say a few words about the Traveling Ministries Program. As that would necessitate a trip to the Boston area, it was arranged that I also offer something to the pre-meeting forum. The topic was both the first query of NEYM and "my personal spiritual journey". My preparation included pondering the first query, that has four parts.

I've read eighteenth and nineteenth ccentury quarterly meeting minutes where it was obvious that the queries were answered with "yes", "no", and "we could do better". I think the queries offer more to us than that (which is why on occasion I've tried to word them so they can't be answered "yes" or "no"). It seems to me that the queries presupposed a number of assumptions that the faith community held in common, and then were used for an internal audit, so to speak. However, today, we don't always hold these basic assumptions in common, so the exercise becomes somewhat different. In my meeting the query response tends to be the summary of a spectrum of opinions/ statements made by folks who attended that monthly meeting and participated in what is essentially worship sharing on the topic of the query. Our efforts to create a statement that is an accurate reflection of our core beliefs on the topic, rather than a sampling of individual beliefs, has foundered.

So with this background, I responded to the query from my own experience, and invited the group to do likewise. The four parts of the query are:

Do you live in thankful awareness of God's constant presence in your life? Are you sensitive and obedient to leadings of the Holy Spirit? Do you seek to follow Jesus, who shows us the way? Do you nurture your spiritual life with prayer and silent waiting and with regular study of the Bible and other devotional literature?

These are pretty good questions. Each one could be delved into with fruitfulness for a whole day's workshop! I discovered that with Christmas travel I had neglected my spiritual practices. Living actively with these questions brought me back to the Center.

It was very helpful to have Michael Wajda serving as an elder for the work. His work began as soon as he was asked to serve in this capacity, holding me, the Friends Meeting at Cambridge, and the work in prayer. It was wonderful to have him sitting next to me, continuing to hold all of us in God's love, praying that I be able to faithfully say whatever was given to me. I feel blessed to be able to praticipate in this movement of the Spirit among Friends in these days.

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