Quaker simplicity is one of the fruits of a primary commitment to the Spirit of God. Writing of simplicity, Thomas Kelly reminds us, “Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center-a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.”
Friends are advised to strive for simplicity in the use of their earnings and property, and in their style of living, choosing that which is simple and useful. This does not mean that life is to be poor and bare, destitute of joy and beauty. All that promotes fullness of life and aids in service for God is to be accepted with thanksgiving. Each must determine by the light that is given what promotes and what hinders the compelling search for inner peace.
Do we center our lives in the awareness of the presence of God so that all things take their rightful place?
Do we keep our lives uncluttered with things and activities, and avoid commitments beyond our strength and light? Is the life of our Meeting so ordered that it helps us simplify our personal lives? Do we order our individual lives so as to nourish our spiritual growth?
Are we alert to the dangers and unfairness of gambling, and of games of chance?
Are our lives so filled by the Spirit that we are free of the need to indulge in the addictive use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, or excesses of any kind? Do we choose recreations which strengthen our physical, mental, and spiritual lives and avoid those which may prove harmful to ourselves and others?
Do we keep to a single standard of truth, so that we are free from the use of judicial and other oaths? Are we punctual in keeping promises, prompt in the payment of debts, and just and honorable in all our dealings? Do we keep to simplicity,moderation and honesty in our speech, our manner of living, and our daily work?
The deepening of our experience of the Spirit and the strengthening of the loving bonds of community
among us continue to be the linchpins of the Port Townsend Friends Meeting, and the support we show
one another in times of trouble continue to define the core strength of our Meeting.
One such time of trouble came early in the year when we once again had to face the passing of one of
our beloved members, Lauren Erickson. We were blessed beforehand with the opportunity to
participate in a joyous celebration of her life with Lauren present, shining her Light upon all of us from
her hospital bed in the center of a loving crowd of friends and family —a celebration that was echoed a
couple of months later at her memorial service.
In 2012 we also marked our tenth anniversary as a monthly meeting with a daylong retreat in early
November, where we explored ways to deepen our worship and nurture our Spirits. Whidbey Island
Friend Chris Hall, whose creation of the Way of the Spirit program we have supported, met with us
during the morning and led us in exercises to deepen our listening and share in prayerful ways. Then
Kristi Rozdilsky of University Meeting led a helpful exercise on identifying the achievements and
spiritual development we envision for the coming months and years.
Inspired by the workshop, many of us are now participating in small spiritual nurture groups, which are
meeting regularly to explore personal spiritual paths and growth.
This was also the year that the Whidbey Island Worship Group, which had been under our care, went
through the process of becoming the Whidbey Island Monthly Meeting. Watching and participating in
the maturation of this solid worship community has been a valuable experience for Port Townsend
Friends.
Meeting Demographics
A statistical analysis compiled in October, 2012, by the Records Clerk of membership and attendance
in our first decade is worthy of quoting at length here:
“ …Although we continue to be an active Meeting involved in our community as well as providing
care for our members and nourishing our spiritual life, our membership numbers are at present
declining…rather than continuing to grow as they did at first. We have not been able to support a first
day school and currently we have no children among us.
“…Of more concern is the aging of our members and attenders and the fact that so many of our
members because of age or ill health are no longer able to participate actively with the business of the
Meeting as well as be present at Meeting for Worship. The average age…of our total membership is
66.
“…Because of age, illness or the impact of significant life changes, only twelve members are still able
to participate fully in all aspects of our life as a meeting. We are therefore very grateful for the
attenders who are able and willing to carry responsibilities. Sadly a number of regular attenders who
were very active in the Meeting in years past and who contributed greatly to its vitality are no longer
attending or active. Some are no longer connected. The significance of these difficult changes can be
felt throughout the Meeting.”
We are grateful for the challenges as they remind us of our love for one another and have given us
many opportunities to provide support and sustenance for one another.
With great joy we welcomed the transfer of one new active member, Cathy Thomas. We also sadly
released from membership two members, Ellie Mathews and Carl Youngmann, who stated they were
not active enough to remain members of the Meeting.
Quaker Life
These difficulties notwithstanding, PTFM continued in 2012 actively to bear witness to our Quaker
Testimonies, including our participation in the Winter Shelter, Earth Day, and the Canoe Journey as a
regular part of our year. We remained deeply connected to the wider community of Friends. Our
dedicated Peace and Social Concerns and Adult Education Committees work hard; in 2012 we
sponsored a full schedule of educational and spiritual nurture opportunities both for Friends and for the
community at large. Most notable was FCNL Executive Secretary Diane Randall’s visit, which filled
our meeting room with excited townspeople.
We both participate and engage at a leadership level with such organizations as the Friends Committee
on Washington Public Policy, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Friends World
Committee for Consultation, and the Quaker Women’s Theology Conference. Various members and
attenders attend Quarterly and Yearly Meeting, Friends for Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Queer
Concerns Midwinter Gathering, FCWPP’s Quaker Lobby Day in Olympia, and the Friends General
Conference. One of our members even travelled to Kenya in 2012 for the Friends World Gathering, and
brought a report back to the meeting, helping us to feel closely linked to the worldwide Quaker
network.
Looking Forward
The challenges faced by the Port Townsend Friends Meeting remain much the same as they were last
year: a small membership and the lack of a permanent home. But progress is being made on the latter
front, and there is a strong feeling of optimism that movement there could well give rise to an upsurge
in attendance and interest. Overall, despite our small numbers, we feel very fortunate to have each
other and to be a part of the larger Quaker community. Our sense of commitment to one another is
strong. We are a community that actively cares for each other, with many active care committees. Our
worship continues to deepen, and we are possessed of a quiet optimism that the Light will see us
through, with brighter days ahead.
In the past year there is an increasing sense among us that the
richness and fullness we experience in Meeting for Worship and in our
lives together are signs of a growing maturity in the life of our
Meeting. We have found a deeper connection with Spirit in our
worship. In the last 18 months we have mourned together the loss of
four members of our Meeting and two members of our wider Meeting
community, both of whom were spouses of Meeting Members. Despite
these losses we have striven to maintain a balance between our Quaker
witness and the care we have offered one another in our grieving.
Nurturing the Life of the Meeting
The Meeting has come forward for mutual support at difficult times
– in particular maintaining a large number of Care Committees and
planning and carrying out of Memorial Meetings. The manner in which
Meeting rose to meet these challenges has been inspirational for
members, attenders, and the larger circle of families affected by
these milestones. Meeting was nurtured as a whole by the sensitivity
and delicacy with which Memorial Meetings for Worship were conducted
in 2011 for our beloved Friends, Bill Woolf and David Walker, and by
the care taken with Memorial Minutes. Members feel grateful for the
support offered to families needing care through life’s difficult
passages.
Meeting joyfully welcomed four new members- Peter Guerrero, Carla
Main, Michael Buettner and Toni Grove. Midweek Meetings for Worship
continued this year at the home of a beloved member no longer able to
attend Sunday’s worship time and offered Friends a rich opportunity
for spiritual deepening.
Our educational program was re-organized and formalized with
invigorating twice-a -month educational forums that have enriched
members’ understanding of Quaker testimonies and Quaker life in the
spirit. A number of these programs have been recorded for posterity
and many have been publicized and open to the wider community.
Quaker Witness and Outreach
The Meeting continues to bear witness to our Quaker Testimonies.
Our members and attenders took leadership roles in diverse projects.
A large effort was given to the Winter Homeless Shelter (working
alongside other faith groups and volunteers), and the welcome for the
Tribal Canoe Journey. Our work for peace included resistance to
Trident Nuclear Weapons, member participation in weekly Women In
Black silent vigil, a Minute regarding Bangor Trident Base expansion,
and events marking the Iraq Invasion anniversary and Hiroshima Day.
Another Friend continues to take the leadership role in establishing
a Restorative Justice program in our county. Other Friends have
raised funds for Right Sharing of World Resources for micro-lending
programs in Third World countries by collecting stamps. Many Friends
participated in active lobbying with our state and national
legislators.
Nurturing Connections with the Wider Community of
Friends
Members of the Meeting visited regularly with Whidbey Island
Worship Group (which has been under our care) as they sought
clearness and applied to become a Monthly Meeting. We have also
provided support and nurturance to a Whidbey Island Friend as she
works to develop Way of the Spirit on the west coast. Many of our
members attended and assisted with Quarterly and North Pacific Yearly
Meetings where we continue to strengthen close ties. The Meeting has
supported Friends in their leadings to serve as representatives to
Friends Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns,
Friends Committee on National Legislation and Friends Committee on
Washington Public Policy and we continue to develop strong reciprocal
relationships with these organizations. We also maintain a close
connection with pastoral Friends through Quaker Women’s Theological
Conference.
Toward the Future
Because we believe strongly that Quakers have much to offer the
world, our hopes center around the further strengthening of our
Meeting and the resolution of two principal concerns: our decreased
numbers and in particular the absence of young families among us, and
the lack of a permanent Meetinghouse. Nonetheless, we journey forward
with hope and trust in the mutuality of our care and concern for one
another in the coming year, and an abiding faith in the Light which
guides us on.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting finds echoes of our year in Isaac Penington’s writings:
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness: and bearing one with another, and
forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against
another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with
a tender hand. _Isaac Penington, 1667
That lovely word "tender" describes the feeling at worship; we are becoming
more tender. There is a tenderness in the depth of love we sometimes
experience in Meeting. The core of the Meeting is the Meeting for
Worship and Meeting for Business. We support each other in our
leadings, that are rooted and grounded in worship.
We are amazed at how much our small meeting does, putting our hands and feet where we are
led: Members and active attenders took lead roles with supporting the
Tribal Canoe Journey during its overnight stop in Port Townsend
(supplying dinner for 1,200 people); Hiroshima Day events, including
a candlelight vigil on the waterfront across from Indian Island Naval
Weapons Depot, with a faux coffin decorated with pictures depicting
the effects of nuclear weapons and depleted uranium; starting a
restorative justice organization in Jefferson County, beginning with
a presentation to an audience which included the prosecuting attorney
and the sheriff, and building an organization of trained individuals;
cooking and supplying night monitors for our winter homeless shelter;
working on establishing lobby relationships with both state and
federal legislators from our district. This past year, we were
successful in asking Representative Norm Dicks to sign on as
co-sponsor of a resolution declaring support for a diplomatic
resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These things involve
a wider circle of people than those active in the Meeting. Our
numbers are small; ripples are felt from our work.
For such a small Meeting, we have major connections to wider Quaker groups_FCNL, FGC,
FLGBTQC, FWCC, AFSC, FCWPP, and Chris Hall’s ministry. Port Townsend
Friends Meeting established a support group for Chris Hall, who feels
called to a ministry involving starting a Quaker School of the Spirit
for west coast programmed and unprogrammed Friends.
We are very generous. With a small budget, we manage to exceed expectations in donations,
and contribute well to other organizations. We are a corporate body
in the spirit of Quakers; last year there was recognition of
ourselves as a corporate entity, in legal terms. We became a
Washington state nonprofit corporation.
Our Meeting and Whidbey Island Worship Group (which is under our care) have responded to
families of our three members who died_there were impressive
memorials for Peter Bennett (Whidbey), Rusty North (PT) and Bill
Woolf (PT) and good ongoing support for their families. Meeting
continued to support our members with five ongoing care committees
and several clearness committees during the year.
Early in the year, Nominating Committee asked for a threshing session. The session
answered the queries: What is essential to maintain our satisfaction
with our role toward one another, the meeting and the larger
community? Who are we as a meeting? What is our unified vision? Our
answers included: sharing love, tolerance, caring and understanding
with one another; remaining centered; and looking at whether we
should combine some committees.
We held a fruitful discernment session to set recommended FCNL priorities. Important
priorities for us include withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan,
reduction of military spending, work for a world without nuclear
weapons and without depleted uranium, immigration reform,
collaborating with the Native American community to ensure the rights
of their members, clarifying that corporations are not natural
citizens and supporting campaign finance reform, reducing threats of
global warming and increasing implementation of alternate energy
sources.
Later in the year, we spent time looking at where we are in our journey_Friends Meeting:
Past, Present and Future. We started by holding up a mirror to
ourselves as a Meeting_our demographics show an elderly Meeting with
no children. With 30 members, all but two are over 50. At a retreat,
we shared deeply about four queries:
Spiritual: How shall we enrich our spiritual life?
Maintenance: How do we each take an active part in the life of the Meeting?
Pastoral: What kind of care will we be able to give and what kind of care will be asked of
us?
Social Concerns: What concerns might draw us and other in the future? How will we meet
those concerns?
We are working to get past the shoulds and let our Light shine. We’ve been
deepening, lightening, getting more buoyant in a way. We’ve been
maturing as a body, becoming more tender and generous with one
another. We are challenged to renew ourselves in terms of the future
health of our Meeting. Coming challenges include gracefully letting
go of our members, being tender but still candid, and also the
challenge of coming back to life again with new life, young life.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting is still relatively young and we are
learning as we go. One major 2009 theme has been looking inward. We
have six active care committees and were asked to hold a number of
clearness committees for various members and attenders. We held two
creative conflict resolution sessions. We found these shared games
and activities helpful in addressing our hope to view conflict as a
rainstorm that comes and goes, that fulfills a vital purpose and then
moves on. We talked about who we missed (people who are no longer
coming to Meeting) and identified following up on them as one of our
key priorities. Another priority is unmet needs for eldering. Our
third priority is addressing business meeting issues, including
getting lost in details and differences of opinion. Eldering and
nurturing our gifts, gently bringing us back to the spiritual basis
of meeting for business and checking in with people we miss are
ongoing concerns for Ministry and Counsel Committee and the Clerk.
During 2009, we added three new members and our beloved Belle Zimmerman
died. We began a photography project in order to get pictures of all
of our members and attenders for our archives.
Whidbey Island Worship Group is under our care and actively participated with
us in planning the Fall 2009 Quarterly Meeting with the theme of Wild
Earth Wild Mind Wild Heart, culminating in calling a Council of All
Beings.
Another major theme is to look outward as well. We carry concerns on our
hearts, particularly about Palestine, prison issues, and Naval
Magazine Indian Island (a facility based very near Port Townsend). We
are grateful for our vital Peace and Social Concerns Committee. They
take the lead in addressing these concerns.
We have had educational sessions on the situation for prisoners in
Washington state and lobbied our legislators on this issue. One of
our members testified for re-establishing voting rights for
ex-felons. This was one of the few positive bills which passed the
Washington state legislature in 2009, thanks in part to the
continuing lobbying from Friends around the state.
On Nagasaki Day (August 9th), we held a vigil across from the Naval
Magazine Indian Island gate. This is the major armament facility for
the west coast of the United States. We expect to invite other
churches in our area to help us make this an annual event that
recognizes this depot is a deliverer of suffering and death. We
minuted our concern about the navy’s plans to increase military
training in our Hood Canal area.
On Quaker lobby day in Olympia, a member who had lost his job because of
the economic downturn spoke with his legislator, Lynn Kessler,
saying, “I’m one of the people that you need to come up with an
answer for.” The group also talked with her about green issues and
she accepted the FCWPP (Friends Committee on Washington Public
Policy) issue sheet. Her positive response showed us yet again that
it pays to do person-to-person lobbying.
From January through May, we released Friend Bob Schultz to be a circuit
rider for FCNL, providing a travelling minute that read, in part:
The weight of this concern is close to [Bob’s] heart, and has become a
calling for him. He has . . . received our Meeting’s consent that
he be released from his current committee responsibilities so he can
follow this spiritual calling in support of FCNL.”
Bob visited 13 meetings across Washington state, from Lopez Island and
Friday Harbor to the Yakima Valley and Walla Walla, telling FCNL’s
story. Events also included a how-to-lobby workshop, three talks to
non-Quaker community groups and a radio interview. He met with 283
attendees and collected 80 new names of potential FCNL
donor-activists. Our Meeting grew with this shared leading.
We continue to support the region’s Tribal Canoe Journey and Jefferson
County’s ecumenical winter homeless shelter. For a week in January,
we provided two night monitors per night and dinner, breakfast and a
sack lunch for about 25 shelter residents.
We are moving forward slowly in the direction of an owned Meetinghouse.
We made a decision to pursue formal incorporation as a Washington
state nonprofit and as a 501c3. Our Meetinghouse Committee is
following up on responses we received to an article about our
interest in a Meetinghouse which appeared in the newspaper.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting is excited that we are maturing and evolving
as a Meeting. Like a good team of oxen, we are learning to pull
together and throughout this process we celebrate our spiritual
deepening.
During 2008, Port Townsend Friends Meeting grew and deepened, with a number of new
attenders joining our beloved community for worship. Our worship, in
silence and in voice, was rich and deep, with Friends frequently
experiencing a gathered meeting. The clerk ably led us in reviewing
the job descriptions of our committees. Friends joined committees
with a calling to pursue the goals of these committees.
The Religious Education Committee planned a weekend retreat with Stephen Matchett,
inviting Friends from Agate Passage Monthly Meeting, Whidbey Island,
Sequim and Lopez Island worship groups to join us. Going to the
Well: Encountering Early Quaker Writers, with a Focus on Barclay’s
Apology; What Do 17th Century Friends Have to Say to Us Today? brought Friends together
in spiritual inquiry, study of Barclay’s Apology, the Bible
and story sharing.
Friends participated in a half-day of Bible study with Christine Hall, a spiritual
director from the Whidbey Island Worship Group.
Laboring about Owning a Meetinghouse was planned by the Ministry and Counsel and
Meetinghouse Committees as an interactive one-day retreat, including
time for people to draw their ideas for community and/or a
Meetinghouse for Port Townsend Friends Meeting. We spent time looking
at our gifts, joys and fears, and how the Meeting might resolve
conflict. We will continue to seek discernment in relation to a
Meetinghouse.
The Records Clerk beautifully completed the entries for our first six years as a
monthly meeting in our new roll book and organized the archives.
In May, we laid down the Religious Education Committee, until such time as children were
coming to the Meeting, and within a few months had a child attending.
Having children as a part of our Meeting is something we have wanted
for a number of years. We are happy to have a child and the
possibility of some other children, but getting a First-day School
committee started has taken longer than we anticipated. As one of our
members, says, “be careful what you wish for.” We also started a
communications committee to oversee our publicity, newsletter and
website, www.quaker.org/port-townsend
.
Members of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee were called to initiate and explore a
number of concerns and projects.
Tax Day turned into a fun, highly interactive leafletting session in front of the post
office, as we knew many of the people coming in and out. In addition,
our picture and an article appeared in the newspaper.
Our work on prioritizing concerns for FCNL was spirit-led and fruitful. We
forwarded the following priorities to FCNL:
- Replace military
interventions with civilian initiatives to pursue national and
global security by peaceful means—end the Iraq war, eliminate
nuclear weapons and remove depleted uranium from the U.S. arsenal.
(Port Townsend Friends live just 2 miles across Port Townsend Bay
from Naval Magazine Indian Island, the west coast transshipment
facility for D.U. and other munitions…) - Provide universal
healthcare insurance coverage for all Americans. - Restore and
protect civil liberties, including elimination of torture. - Rescind legal
provisions that grant publicly held corporations the rights of
citizen “persons.” - Work for energy
independence that relies on conservation and non-nuclear and
non-coal-burning power sources.
In Port Townsend, many are called to work for peace. We participate in the Port Townsend
Peace Movement. A number of collaborative events have grown out of
that movement. Nearly every year, a Port Townsend Peace Portrait is
taken and made into posters and cards. In 2008, the portrait was
taken in Carl Nomura’s field, which has a giant peace symbol plowed
into it. More than 10% of the population turned out to be in the
portrait. A visit to Naval Magazine Indian Island grew out of the
personal connections one of our attenders had been nurturing over a
number of years. Five of our members and attenders were part of a
group of eleven Port Townsend Peace Movement members which was
invited to tour Naval Magazine Indian Island as part of an ongoing
dialogue about depleted uranium and the other munitions stored there.
This tour and dialogue with the base commander was described as “an
extraordinary visit. Commander Whitbred had promised us an hour and
in fact spent four hours with the group. There was candid talk about
the munitions depot’s place in our country’s misguided foreign
policy and the gross disproportionality of the U.S. military spending
in the federal budget. There was a clear sense of meeting with human
beings at the base, not defensive or evasive functionaries.”
Eleven canoes from
2008 Tribal Canoe Journey stopped overnight in Port Townsend in July.
Friends helped in various informal ways to welcome the pullers and
their support teams.
We collaborated with other religious groups on providing a winter shelter for single
adults, including provision of food and night monitoring for our 2
weeks.
We were pleased that Joe Volk, FCNL Executive Director, would take the time in the middle
of a bicycle trip to give an exciting and informative talk on his
trips to China and Iran and what is happening with lobbying in
Washington, D.C. to a room packed with nearly 70 Port Townsend
citizens.
We held a number of meetings about prison reform, including lobbying with Senator
Hargrove on that topic. As a Meeting, we are moving toward some kind
of a post-prison project, with the goal of assisting people who have
been released from prison.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting continues to gather each First Day at the
Community Center in Port Townsend. The attendance varies from 20 to
35. Occasionally young people or children join us, at which time
members provide a children’s program. Before Meeting for Worship we
sing from the Friends hymnal, Worship in Song.
Monthly Meetings for Worship for Business are held on the first First Day
each month. We have monthly potlucks during which time we are often
blessed by a member or attender recounting his or her spiritual
journey. There are special programs planned by our various
committees: Peace and Social Concerns, Adult Education, Ministry and
Counsel, and the Meetinghouse Committee. Attenders and members also
appreciate the Friendly Eights potluck groups as an opportunity to
deepen their connection to the meeting community.
We had one new member join the Society this year, and three members of
other Meetings transferred their membership to us. We have continued
to participate in the wider Quaker community by having
representatives to Friends Committee on National Legislation, Friends
Committee on Washington State Public Policy, Pacific Northwest
Quarterly Meeting, and North Pacific Yearly Meeting. For spring and
fall Quarterly Meetings we ride-share to the Lazy F Ranch near
Ellensburg, Washington and also to the annual Silent Retreat in
January at Gold Bar, Washington.
Whidbey Island Worship Group is under our care and two of our members are
active in a Care Circle there. We have sporadic interaction with the
Sequim Worship Group, although they politely declined our offer to
hold them under our care.
This past year has been one of loss for our Meeting: the death of one
active attender, several have lost loved ones, and some have moved
away.
We continue to move forward with leadings we have as individuals and as
a meeting. As a Spirit-led community, we are active in our local
community of Port Townsend, participating in the WAVE food drive, the
COAST Winter Homeless Shelter, Earth Day activities, the Native
American Canoe Journey, the Port Townsend Peace Movement, Women in
Black and Sister City projects.
During the first week of December, we were pleased to host two Vermont
Quakers – Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox – on their Peace for Earth
Walk from Vancouver, British Columbia to San Diego, California.
Their visit and message were inspiring and energizing to our meeting
and helped strengthen our connection to others in the area who share
our concern for our precious Planet Earth. We provided hospitality,
sponsored several presentations, and sold books about Quakerism and
Earth Care. We were honored to walk with them as they "walked
their talk."
Freda, our Peace Dove, sculpted by Phoebe Huffman and tiled with words of
Peace in more than 40 languages, has been traveling in the Pacific
Northwest since last April. She was presented at the Fall Quarter,
ready to visit other Meetings. A traveling Minute accompanies her,
along with a booklet explaining Freda’s creation. Our peace work
includes promoting and providing the FCNL signs and posters: "WAR
IS NOT THE ANSWER."
Our Meeting seems to be maturing in many ways. Having come from
scattered, disparate connections and memberships, we are becoming a
cohesive whole. Meetings for Worship for Business flow smoothly,
with the active participation of members and attenders. We look
forward to a follow-up on our retreat of April 2007. In preparation
for this, Ministry and Counsel Members, aided by the Retreat
Committee, have interviewed members and attenders, taking into
account that some people are more comfortable sharing one-on-one than
in an open meeting. The Meetinghouse Committee has presented us with
queries to help process feelings and thoughts about a Meetinghouse of
our own. The Nominating Committee has also interviewed each member
and attender in order to present us with a slate of officers and
committee members for the coming year. And we now have an official
roll book for the Records Clerk to maintain.
Our corporate worship is central to the life of our Meeting. It sustains
us spiritually and when we experience a truly gathered meeting, we
are immeasurably strengthened. We feel deeply how much love we have
for one another; how our beloved community has made us a real
instrument of the Spirit.
The transformation of the Port Townsend Community Center into a sacred
space for our Meeting for Worship begins when the sandwich board
announcing the Meeting is set up outside the entrance on each First
Day. Friends and attenders come into the building from their homes
nearby, or further away from retirement centers and cottages in the
surrounding forests, farms in the county and beyond, and even the
Whidbey Island Worship Group Friends on occasion. From our weekly
corporate worship in silence and our monthly worship service for
business, we are drawn by the expectation of experiencing the love
and fellowship of Friends and strangers who are drawn to this
wellspring of our spiritual life.
The weekly construction of this sacred space is the intentional
arrangement of the large, multi-purpose room into a familiar place. A
table accommodates the usual Friendly publications, newsletters and
announcements, a box of name-tags and a guest book. These have come
from a very large, beautifully crafted wooden box on wheels which is
rolled into the reception area. When it is unlocked and opened, this
box reveals shelves of Quaker books, pamphlets and panels for
announcements and art work. There is even a Quaker hat!
In the far corner of this large, bright room, there is a piano where
early arrivals gather to sing for a few minutes while others settle
into the circles of chairs in the middle. At the rise of Meeting,
following sharing of words which did not rise to the level of spoken
ministry, followed by announcements, there is a time for socializing
with tea, coffee and simple snacks. Between the Meeting for Worship
and the monthly business or education meeting, people drift across
the street for hot soup, sandwiches or pizza in the local general
store or bakery. Even these commercial amenities contribute to this
familiar and comfortable feeling of having our own space. The sense
of sacredness of place is completed by the sound of bells from the
surrounding old churches calling others to Christian worship. We are
an integral part of this community in many ways; members participate
in such things as the Bay St. Louis Sister City Project (a response
to Hurricane Katrina), regular vigils (e.g. Women in Black), the Port
Townsend Peace Movement, Veterans for Peace, the annual native
peoples Canoe Journey, and the ACLU, to name a few.
As we leave this place we will be thinking about our responsibilities to
the Meeting during the coming week; committees will be attending to
concerns both local and Quaker affiliated, such as Peace and Social
Concerns, Ministry & Counsel, Religious Education Committee,
Meetinghouse Committee, Library Committee, Finance Committee,
Nominating Committee, Hospitality Committee, care committees, and
numerous ad hoc groups such as retreat planners and annual community
event organizers for the Quaker part in Earth Day and our countys
volunteer Winter Shelter for the Homeless.
Many of us dream of creating this sacred space in a Meetinghouse of our
own, a visible place where we could serve the community, hold our
potlucks, and have the library readily available. Clearly one of the
major tensions among us is whether or not this is the time to seek a
place of our own. We are torn between the convictions of some, who
find the affordability and flexibility of this very centrally-located
public building the answer to their long search for such a place, and
the enthusiasm and energy of others for the creation of a
Meetinghouse.
Friends began to use queries to ascertain the state of Society only a few
years after its founding in England. The first set of such questions
to be asked of monthly meetings read as follows:
Which Friends in service to the Society, in their respective regions,
departed this life since the last Yearly Meeting?
Which Friends, imprisoned on account of their testimony, died in prison
since the last Yearly Meeting?
How among Friends did Truth advance since last Yearly Meeting and how do
they fare in relation to peace and unity?
Faith and Practice, North Pacific Yearly Meeting
During the calendar year 2005, Port Townsend Friends Meeting pondered many
such queries. While we can report that no one from our meeting has been
imprisoned on account of their testimony during the year, we are concerned
about others whose testimony has resulted in imprisonment.
Friends in Port Townsend were busy in many spirit-led activities as we
discerned the way forward. Each week on First Day Friends gather at
the Port Townsend Community Center for silent worship. Singing
precedes worship every week. Our meeting now lists 23 members, but
is joined by many regular attenders and guests to bring our weekly
attendance to about thirty. In light of our continued growth, we
have moved to the larger room at the community center. This room not
only allows for more chairs, but is more open and pleasant. A new
wooden cabinet on wheels was constructed by three of our meeting’s
carpenters to house our library, and allow for its display each week.
What a convenience just to roll our portable library/office out each
First Day morning and to open its shelves and "desk top"
for use by our members and attenders! Our new phone number provides
information on worship times.
Mary Welch, a founding member of the meeting, departed this life on
February 18, 2006. She was a teacher and proponent of peace who
inspired many. A memorial was held to celebrate her life on February
24, 2006, in Sequim, Washington.
Two new members joined the meeting: Phoebe Huffman by
convincement in March 2005, and Katy Festinger by transfer from Mendocino
Monthly Meeting (California) in June 2005.
Following a meeting retreat held in mid-January 2005, a meetinghouse committee
was established to further our interest in finding a permanent
meeting place. By the end of 2005, a fund had been started to
receive donations and pledges. As we considered a potential move into a
physical space of our own, we continued to hold in the light the beloved
community we have come to be for one another.
In October, a mid-week meeting for worship began, and is well attended.
Throughout the year we have learned from each other and grown as a meeting
community. At our monthly potlucks we have heard the spiritual
journeys of several Friends. In addition, we have discussed many
other topics of spirituality and peace at potlucks and at monthly
education presentations, including “Experimenting with the Light”
and Yearly Meeting structure. We have crafted poems together, and
celebrated in many ways. Book groups have met to discuss Quaker
related books. Other informal gatherings have brought Friends
together to share food and conversation. Care committees have met
with Friends to help them through difficult times. We have grown as
a meeting, not only in numbers, but in our depth and understanding of
Quaker values.
Olympic Conscientious Objectors Group became its own organization through the
efforts of many who attend meeting. They have established a presence
in the local high schools, and are a point of contact for young
people who are seeking an alternative to military enlistment.
Gathering together on Easter Sunday 2005, Friends from Port Townsend Friends
Meeting decorated tiles that would be glazed with the word ‘peace’ in dozens of
languages and put on a ceramic dove. Thus, Freda, the “Peace Dove” was born.
Freda, who was crafted by Friend Phoebe Huffman, made her debut at the Quaker booth
at the local Earth Day festival in April. Since then she has been to
many venues inspiring peace and hope. More words of peace–like
‘justice, ‘ human rights,’ , ‘diplomacy,’ ‘honesty,’ ‘respect,’ and
‘earthcare’–also found their way onto tile-covered "peace
balls.” These peace balls, inspired by Friend Bob Schultz, have
made their way to Yearly Meeting Annual Session, and to FCNL and the
William Penn House in Washington, D.C. Following a leading of Friend
Mary Welch, shortly before her death, a "peace ball" from
the Meeting is soon to be sent to Kosovo, in cooperation with young
Kosovars Leart Zherka and Jetmir Bakija, whom Mary had befriended and
richly supported.
Meeting raised money, including a garage sale, to support Friend Beth Cahape
in attending Pendle Hill. She has been sojourning at Pendle Hill for
the year starting in September.
In addition to being active in the local meeting, Friends have
participated in activities at Yearly Meeting, Quarterly Meeting,
clerking workshops, FGC, FCNL and Pendle Hill. Many have been active
in planning the Spring 2006 Quarterly Meeting (along with Friends
from Whidbey Island Worship Group). Others have been involved in
planning for the upcoming Friends General Conference Gathering to be
held in Tacoma next summer.
In summary, the past year has been a time of growth, both in numbers
participating in the life of our meeting community and in the depth
and variety of our discernments about our corporate life. Our
meeting fares well in these times of war and conflicts, and we pray
for peace.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting approaches the end of our third year as a monthly
meeting in a spirit of gratitude, joy, and expectation. We have grown during this last year,
in our inward spiritual life as a loving community of Friends,
in our membership, and in the organizing structures and activities that
support and constitute our life as a community.
Our meetings for worship, held at the Port Townsend Community Center, regularly include an average of
25 to 30 Friends and attenders. Two new members joined our meeting this year:
Suzanne DeWeese, an attender since infancy, was accepted into membership
on the eve of her departure for Oberlin College; Belle Zimmerman, a spiritual
seeker in her ninth decade came to us after long associations with Methodist and
Mennonite faith communities. Also joining us this year were Hazel and Jeff
Johnson, as transferring Friends from Salmon Bay Meeting.
Fellowship and adult religious education have flourished during this year. Our monthly
potlucks and adult education sessions have provided opportunities for the sharing of
individual spiritual journeys, of visits to Pendle Hill, and of overseas travel by members
of our community to Cuba and Japan; we shared “gifts from the heart at Christmas” in
poetry, song and stories at our December potluck. The fellowship enjoyed early in the
year in Friendly Eights potlucks is now nurtured in two thriving book groups, where we
study Friends’ teachings by John Woolman, Patricia Loring and others, as well as the
works of Biblical scholars like Elaine Pagels and novelists Jan deHartog and Wendell
Berry. We provide education as needed for visiting children, but have no regular
children’s program because departures for college and overseas exchange living have left
us temporarily without younger participants in the meeting community.
Our Ministry and Counsel Committee has been active in overseeing a number of care and
clearness committees and the Whidbey Island Worship Group, and in clarifying roles for
officers and committees. Some responsibilities carried by Ministry and Counsel during
most of 2004 were passed along to new committees, one for Religious Education, another
for Hospitality. Finance and Nominating Committees work at a quickened pace to
support the life of the meeting. Several members of the meeting participated in Arthur
Larrabee’s October clerking workshop at University Friends Meeting.
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee has been active. Under its oversight, a new
Conscientious Objection Working Group of a dozen participants is at work to aid those in
our region who seek conscientious objector status because of their religious convictions.
This group has already hosted several training sessions and will soon begin regional
publicity about their services. In April, the meeting organized a booth at our
community’s Earth Day fair, complete with a new banner, posters, literature, and a game
wheel, and plans are underway for a similar contribution to the 2005 fair. Individual
meeting members were active during the year in voter registration and anti-war activities,
as well as with Women in Black.
Our activities in the larger Quaker world continue with individual and group
commitments to, or learning sessions about, the Friends Committee on National
Legislation, the Friends World Committee on Consultation, Young Friends, Pendle Hill,
and our Yearly and Quarterly meetings. We also support both new and seasoned
f/Friends to participate in these organizations with scholarships and travel assistance. A
scholarship fund has been established to assist one Friend in her leading to sojourn at
Pendle Hill next fall for a year-long residency of study and writing.
Our first-ever meeting retreat was held in the Rosewind Commonhouse in mid-January,
2005. Following a report from an ad-hoc Meetinghouse Feasibility Committee, the
purpose of our retreat was to enter into a worshipful discernment process about having an
owned meetinghouse. A central theme in the worship-sharing at this retreat was our firm
commitment to the continued spiritual health of our community, and to taking care that
this process and potential move into a physical space of our own not harm the beloved
community we have come to be for one another. The meeting subsequently approved a
minute affirming our desire to work toward an owned meetinghouse and to propose a
plan for moving forward.
We continue our journey into this new year in a spirit of thanksgiving and hope.
(Note: This report covers the calendar year 2004, but in the interest of being informative
on recent developments, it also reflects activities of the early months of 2005.)