The last weekend of July proved much more than a recording of my gifts of ministry during the Wilmington Yearly Meeting annual sessions in Maryville, TN. I expanded the depth and the breadth of my Beloved Community, completed an ancestral Quaker circle, shared a moment with younger, inspiring Quaker ministers, and parsed relevant wisdom.

The words from Ephesians 4:11-18 – telling the truth in love, how the whole body is knit together with each part building up the whole in love and to live from the heart, not the mind – that I read during the recording celebration resonated all weekend as we gathered as a Beloved Community.

Nine members of Cincinnati Friends Meeting (CFM), the most of any monthly meeting, attended the gathering. Several held critical roles in sessions and others came to support me and experience yearly meeting. CFM Minister and Public Friend, Jim Newby, is a core teacher and a member of the training and recording committee. Judy Leasure, recording clerk of the yearly meeting, was accompanied by her loyal spouse, Paul, the first person with whom I spoke at Cincinnati Friends. Clerk of Ministry and Counsel Carole Barnhart, Ministry and Counsel Members Linda Daigle and Kathy Stewart, and CFM Member Noah Robertson carpooled to Tennessee.

It was extra poignant as two of my mentors, Jim Newby, who held the leading (see footnote) for my nurture position at Cincinnati Friends, and Dan Kasztelan, who introduced me to spiritual nurture, participated in sessions. Dan, currently Friends United Meeting Director of Communications, was minister at Cincinnati Friends from 1999-2008 and has been my counselor Friend during the training and recording process.

The Saturday service and celebration closed a circle for me that began eleven generations ago with my matrnal ancestor, Dorothea Scott Gotherson, a Quaker minister in the time of George Fox. A reference in his journal suggests they met. Dorothea wrote a plea, A Call to Repentance, in 1661 to Charles II in rebuke of courtly behavior. The 1652 Pilgrims viewed her small tome in the Religious Society of Friends Library in London in April. Although I have known about her since childhood, she has become my guardian lately.

During a small group after Saturday’s Bible study, I expressed the opinion that being a Quaker – learning to sit in silence, deep listening, prayer  and discernment – is hard work. The theme of the yearly meeting gathering, “Becoming the Quakers the World Needs,” that guided presentations and worship made that more clear. Kelly Crouch’s Bible study on Quaker perfection, Chip Wood’s talk on teaching in Tanzania, Miriam Speaight’s focus on George Fox’s miracles, and Lucy Enge’s closing message explored the processes Quakers engage to be in relationship with Spirit/God and the world.

Kelly suggested we “can’t escape the flesh, but we can tap into Spirit”, alluding to Paul’s letter to the Romans. He said Thomas Kelley summed it up well explaining we can live on two levels: time and timelessness. According to Henri Nouwen, Kelly said spending time in silent worship and prayer empties us so Spirit “can intercede with sighs too deep for words. Hope is unseen, but our participation is necessary. Personal agency,” the about-to-be-recorded minister said, “is Quaker perfection.” Mysticism is the medium where that and unity happen. By “reviving mysticism” we, too, can unite factions as Paul dissolved cultural markers between Jews and early Christians. What we (Quakers) bring to the world, Kelly said, “is tapping into the center and spending more time in worship.”

Peace Lecturer Chip Wood, who grew up in Maryville Friends Church, thought he was on a trajectory until he wasn’t, which happened more than once. Injury and illness transformed his prayer life to the point of “in the moment we can trust the treasure we are looking for is in the ground where we stand,” he said paraphrasing Henri Nouwen. He was led to teach in Tanzania, where he learned a number of ways to create peace in oneself and with others:

– Learn to express love in a way people receive it; and

– Approach others fully present, making sure they feel safe, secure and loved.

“We are all desperate for love and security,” he reiterated. His time with the poorest people in one of the poorest nations taught him that creating real and right relationships is a process.

Previously Recorded Minister, Miriam Speaight, bravely shared about George’s Fox’s miracles and the unpublished book where he recorded them. In 1932, she said, Henry Cadbury found catalog references to them at the Religious Society of Friends LIbrary in London, which included a letter Fox wrote to Lady Claypool, Oliver Cromwell’s depressed daughter, to “be cool in thine own mind.” The letter was shared with others struggling with depression. Cadbury published the book in 1973, which was revised in 2000.

Fox, Miriam said, was aware that God was the source of his healing power “and told the Valiant 60 (early Quaker leaders and activists) to go out and heal. There was a large-scale ministry of healing.” As a Reiki master with a science degree, Miriam explained that healing happens when we are in an alpha state, the level where Jesus operated, creativity resides, and children live. “Silent practice,” another process, she said “can take you to this level, which is available for healing.” We have the ability to heal ourselves and others when we “wake up the life force.” She cited four of Jesus’s 26 miracles as examples of this deeper level of being.

Earlham School of Religion Student Lucy Enge, newly recorded, shared the closing message on becoming, borrowing from the annual session theme. In this process, she said, “The kingdom is now if we lift up our own inner lights and those of our neighbors.” In this way, we “encounter each other anew and can step out of the mindset of traditions and buildings and walk with those suffering to move beyond what’s safe.

“Step into the brave, uncomfortable spaces – that will be our becoming.” Lucy concluded.

I am grateful to have shared the training and recording process with Lucy and Katie Terrell. They brought so much to our sessions. Kelly Crouch completed an earlier session, but was celebrated with us in Tennessee. All three of my peers give me much hope for the future of Quakerism and the world.

Footnote: A Quaker leading is a thought or feeling that comes from a place deep within where God lives.