Travel Among Friends
By David and Virginia Wood
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hat is it like to travel among Friends? We had our first extensive experience last spring/summer in a three month trip to Alaska and western Canada and we had some learning experiences we would like to share. It all began at Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting; the clerk reporting that although the yearly meeting would not be able to send representatives to our sister yearly meeting, Central Alaska Friends Conference, it was hoped that if there were Friends traveling to Alaska they would visit Alaskan Friends. As it happened, we had both retired earlier in the summer and were thinking about a vacation trip to Alaska, so it seemed like a good opportunity. Then Deborah Fisch, the Traveling Ministry coordinator for FGC, suggested we visit Friends in North Dakota and western Canada, and she set up these visits.
Our planning became even more complex as we tried to match ferry schedules with the worship groups we wanted to visit. Plans changed even more as we received e-mails during the trip about additional Friends or worship groups to visit. Home hospitality turned out to be more dependable than the campgrounds which we had intended to use. Spring was late in coming and the snow was deep!
Most of the meetings we visited in western Canada and Alaska were relatively small with a few seasoned Friends, more who were new to Quakerism, and many children. Meetings were isolated from each other and we met a number of individual Friends who were even more isolated. Canadian Friends might have to travel over 2,000 miles to their yearly meeting sessions, and many Alaskan Friends were not connected by highways. Nevertheless there was great interest in religious education for the children, fellowship, and the opportunity to grow spiritually. We met adults and teens who would like to develop spiritual friendships via e-mail or letters. In addition to meetings for worship, we were able to participate with meetings in a prison visit, serving a meal in a soup kitchen, and a number of meetings on religious education. We also went bird watching, sea kyaking, canoeing and for a swim in a hot spring with Friends.
Upon setting out on our journey we had felt some hesitancy as to whether Friends would welcome us or feel that we were intruding. Instead we were greeted by welcoming faces and a body of people eager to hear from us about news of Friends both near and far. For us names and places had become real. We had a deeper understanding of what it means to be an "isolated Friend," to be a part of the wider fellowship of Friends, and to grow in faith by sharing ones faith. Before we returned to Ohio we had worshiped with seven meetings and five worship groups, visited with seven individual Friends, enjoyed six pot lucks, and still did the sightseeing, hiking and backpacking we had originally intended. A Friend expressed appreciation to us "for taking the time to visit." We express our appreciation to those same Friends for providing us with the opportunity to visit. We hope others will visit these isolated meetings and Friends, though perhaps with fewer but longer visits.
David and Virginia Wood, Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
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