I have been blessed in having been a member of four Friends meetings, lived in an intentional Quaker community and served as staff for the American Friends Services Committee (AFSC).  These opportunities exposed me to many Quakers all over the eastern part of our Country. I traveled to meetings in my role at AFSC and stayed in the homes of many Quakers. What I learned from these many encounters with Friends and their meetings for worship was how varied our approach to Seeking the Light is, yet grounded in our deeply held belief that there is that of God in each of us.

Each monthly meeting I belonged to had its own unique focus. One meeting was filled with activists who were engaged in various forms of civil disobedience and living below the income level required to pay income taxes.  Another meeting was very traditional and focused a great deal on discernment, clearness committees and nurturing Spiritual growth. One meeting was newly organized and focused on developing community among the members and attenders.

Through all of these wonderful experiences I came to realize it is not an either/or, but a both when it comes to worship focus or action/service focus. George Fox, John Woolman, Margaret Fell and other leaders of our tradition were clearly engaged in both practices. They followed what I refer to as the Jesus model: reflection through prayer waiting for a leading and then action carrying out that leading. We sit in corporate silence to prepare the way for the gifts of divine wisdom. Many times those leadings are calling us to act in some way that is service to our brothers and sisters.   

I am writing all of this now as a result of a conversation with Cathy Barney about our meeting and what our focus as a congregation must be in these unsettling times. For me it is both nurture and action. We develop our spiritual gifts of prayer, discernment, individual spiritual growth and we build our capacity to act as we will be called to do in the face of adversity and threats to those in our meeting and communities who are vulnerable.

For 350 years Friends have carried out their testimonies by listening for divine guidance and then individually and corporately taking action to further the Kingdom of God as they have discerned in their time and place. I believe we are called by that tradition and our role as a beloved community to do the same now, in our time and place as history unfolds around us.