SIQM State of Society 2017-2018

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State of Society for Southern Illinois Quaker Meeting, May 2018

The past year for our meeting has been one of continued growth and transition, as we have become settled into our new meeting place at the Dayemi Family Center. We continue to meet regularly for worship on Sundays and we have become more defined in including planned second hour activities after an hour of unprogrammed worship.

Our meeting has established a path of reconciliation, as we have acknowledged some significant changes. We have continued to adjust to our new meeting place and establish how that environment will serve our needs. We have laid down the oversight of travel ministry for Maurine Pyle, and we are now considering how we can further support her, or anyone in our community, in answering a call for ministry. These changes have been the source of a lengthy process of discernment, and we are finding our adjustment process to be gradual and slow.

We have been utilizing Quaker readings and other practices that might be contributing to our inner healing and to our overall religious practice. Kathy Cotton has facilitated monthly religious education based on the Illinois Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice. We have found these readings and the following discussions to be very rewarding and we feel gratitude for the care put into the writing. Our clerk, Tom Hensold, has offered a process for second hour called Attitudinal Healing. This also has appeared to be well received and the meeting has asked for further trials of the process. Our practice of music as part of after-worship activity has typically evolved as a request from our youngest attender, Juniper, who will sometimes dance while the rest of us sing.

We continue a tradition called "Life of the Meeting," a monthly evening gathering for food and fellowship which includes other friends or family members. These gatherings have been informal this year, and there has been some deliberate effort to keep them relaxed and to refrain from including business agendas. Breaking bread together continues to be an important communal activity, both for our first Sundays and for our Life of the Meeting gatherings. In general, our Meeting has been mindful to care for each other and to utilize our strengths and spiritual values to heal from whatever struggles we have felt from our past experiences.

Our meeting has a mainstay of long time members and attenders. Some of our attenders travel extensively and we see them sporadically, but we still feel their presence in or out of our circle. This year we were blessed to be approached for clearness for membership by Michael Batinski. We were inspired by his wisdom and message concerning his spiritual journey and how it led him to our "sacred circle." We are now back to four resident members with Michael’s acceptance into our meeting. We are tremendously excited for Kris Pirmann and Adriane Koontz, who gave birth to their baby Russell in May. We are delighted by the marriages of two past attenders of our meeting, Adam Alexander (to Madeline Wayham) and Justin Leverett (to Marion Edgemeyer), now living in the Pacific Northwest. We hold all in the Light as we celebrate these big life changes and gifts.

We have welcomed some new attenders to our meeting and the Quaker practice of worship. Janis Esch and Bethany Henning have contributed much enthusiasm when sharing our worship and activity. There have also been some attenders, who have recently moved into our region, but travel at least an hour to worship with us.

Community service and ministry has continued to be highly valued among several attenders of our meeting. These include involvement with AFSC, FCNL, community affairs, civic support for refugees, equality issues, protection of women, children and the homeless, youth writing programs, conservation efforts, recovery from addictions, and more. We believe our Quaker presence and values are felt within our community, and those who understand the Quaker testimonies appreciate what that means.

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