PORT TOWNSEND FRIENDS MEETING: STATE OF THE SOCIETY REPORT 2003

In April of 2003 we began our second year as a Monthly Meeting. As we
find our way as a new Meeting, a feeling of understanding, deep care,
and Quaker process is evident.


This year has brought trying times for many in our world. In reaction, we have
searched for ways to take action and to give comfort to others and to
ourselves. We have reflected upon our Quaker Testimonies and
Advices. Our Meeting as a whole and individuals in our Meeting have
been led to participate in national, state and community programs.
We have also experienced a great amount of inward care, love, and
dedication to each other.


Our interest in the world has led us to participate in a variety of activities. The
Meeting has donated time and funds to FCWPP (Friends Committee on
Washington State Public Policy) and to FCNL (Friends Committee on
National Legislation). Two members of our Meeting are on committees
of FCNL. We wrote letters to our local newspapers opposing U.S.
military intervention in Iraq. We also participated in a garage sale
to raise funds for the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund.


We have also been active in our local community. We prepared sack lunches for the
homeless. Individuals from our Meeting have participated in peace
work through Women in Black and the Port Townsend Peace Movement.
A Friend has facilitated dialog with our U.S. Congressional
Representative by arranging several meetings with small groups of
community members as well as a town-hall meeting in Port Townsend.
Another Friend in our Meeting has been instrumental in beginning a
local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in our
county.


Many events within our Meeting have nurtured our growth. We have started worshiping in
song before meeting, twice a month. We are inspired by our continued
association with Whidbey Island Worship Group. Because of the
increase in our numbers, we have moved our monthly potlucks from
members’ homes to a rented hall. We have held smaller "friendly
eight" gatherings and are evaluating this as an added way to
share fellowship with one another. For six weeks we held classes
teaching the basic principles of Quakerism ("Quakerism 101").
We were blessed by visits from Eric Moon, the Brinton Visitor; and
Alan Mountjoy-Venning, our lobbyist for FCWPP. Our Meeting recorded
a letter from a young attender stating his position of conscientious
objection to the military. Two members requested care committees
this year. Both those who received care and those who gave it feel
blessed by the experience. We accepted one new member and two
transfers into our Meeting this year. As of the end of 2003, Port
Townsend Friends Meeting had seventeen members. Twenty to thirty
people gather for worship each week. We have a program for children
and we are beginning a serious dialog about ways we can more
effectively expand the content of our religious education. We feel a
deep respect and love for that of God in the world around us. As we
approach the coming year we desire to deepen our understanding, care,
and Quaker process.

PORT TOWNSEND FRIENDS MEETING: STATE OF THE SOCIETY REPORT 2002

This is our first State of the Society report as a Monthly Meeting of the
Religious Society of Friends. The year has been a transition to a
keen awareness of our identity as Friends grounded in our corporate
worship and historical Quaker testimonies.

Because this has also been a year of national preparation for war, our Quaker
witness for peace has been called forth. We have united as a Meeting
to be a visible Quaker presence in our Port Townsend community,
keeping faith with the historical authenticity of the Quaker
experience and with our new responsibilities as a Monthly Meeting.
For example, we joined the AFSC Board of Directors in civil
disobedience by sending water chlorinators to Iraq; we initiated an
ecumenical forum on "Iraq: Is War the Answer?"; we had
made and distributed locally and regionally a WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER
bumper sticker; we lifted up the principles of nonviolent direct
action in a public presentation; we gave material assistance and
moral support to a member of a Voices in the Wilderness delegation to
Iraq. Through our Peace and Social Concerns Committee we worked for
peace through the many activities of the Port Townsend Peace
Movement: a community peace portrait, peace education events,
legislative lobbying, weekly vigiling (including an all-night vigil
and fast on New Year’s Eve), nonviolent training workshops, and
alternatives to military recruitment at the high school.

We remained engaged in the wider Quaker community through individual
participation and representation in Quarterly Meeting, Yearly
Meeting, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Friends Committee
on Washington State Public Policy, and the new Quaker Outreach
Committee of the American Friends Service Committee.


Together
we studied the literature and practices of Friends by programming
adult education around the FGC Quakerism 101 curriculum. The study
culminated with a joint potluck and forum with Whidbey Island
Worship Group and Agate Passage Preparative Meeting.


We
took under our care Whidbey Island Worship Group and have felt
privileged to do so.

Our Junior Friends developed their own First Day program by choosing from
the resources and experience of the Meeting, from appreciating poetry
to understanding civil liberties and conscientious objection. One
Junior Friend coordinates the care of the young children, by
providing a First Day activities box and scheduling First Day
volunteers.

As a worshipping community our Meeting has been enriched by the pastoral
care given to two members who experienced health crises.

In October 2002, fifteen Friends transferred from other Monthly Meetings
to become the initial membership of Port Townsend Friends Meeting.
In February 2003, we celebrated the acceptance of our first new
member. On that occasion we experienced the significant meaning of
being a Monthly Meeting.


We mourned the death of Lu Chawla, who was a member of Port Townsend
Friends Meeting.

In preparing this report, Ministry and Counsel asked for the personal
reflections of individual members and as a conclusion shares the
following:

"That our little fledgling Meeting is so well organized, so attentive to
the needs of its members and that we love each other so well fills me
with awe, wonder, and tears of gratitude. Through the Meeting’s love
and constant help I have experienced God’s presence in a powerful
way."


"We are a vibrant, loving, growing, inclusive, and active Quaker
community now…and every week, nearly, I see more and more new
people (or former Friends) drawn to this joyful Meeting. For this, I
am deeply grateful, as I think all of us are!"

PORT TOWNSEND WORSHIP GROUP: STATE OF THE MEETING 2001

The Port Townsend Worship Group meets for worship every First Day at
10AM at the Port Townsend Community Center and holds a meeting for
worship for business once each month.  Over the past year the
group has grown from eight to ten each First Day to 18 to 20.  
The First Day School has grown from one youth to three youths and one
preschooler.   The third Friday of each month the group
meets in homes for a potluck supper and an adult education
discussion; most recently an FCNL board member presented the current
work of the FCNL and its building restoration project. Every fourth
First Day, there is an adult education forum after meeting for
worship; for example, the Friends Bulletin essay "No Creed Is
Not the Same As No Theology" by Robert Griswold was discussed;
and Friends, who recently retired to Port Townsend,  shared
their experiences of being directors of the Quaker Hospitality Center
in Kigali, Rwanda, from 1996-98.


With University Friends
Meeting, the Worship Group celebrated the Religious Society of
Friends membership of Lauren and David Erickson and junior membership
of Emma Erickson. The Worship Group participated in the
clearness process as well as the welcoming for the Erickson’s.

In
August, Worship Group members, who were AFSC relief workers in Gaza,
attended a special invitation consultation on the Middle East
convened by the AFSC They reported to the Worship Group. After
September 11, the Worship Group signed the AFSC "No More
Victims" full- page ad in The New York Times, and the
clerk had published the FCNL statement in the weekly newspaper The
Leader.


Worship Group members
participate in a weekly Tuesday peace vigil, holding the banner
"Islam is Not the Enemy/War is Not the Answer."

The
Worship Group worked with Bellingham Friends Meeting to plan jointly
the spring 2002 Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting.

The
Worship Group gave material and spiritual support to a member as she
mounted a campaign to save two young Kosovar students from
deportation so that they could continue their education at Peninsula
Junior College. She stepped forward to be the guardian of the
seventeen-year old student. They both now live with her.

The
primary focus of the Worship Group over the past twelve months has
been a careful discernment toward assuming the responsibility of
being a Monthly Meeting. The process began with group
discussions, which led to a threshing session and then a consensus to
apply to University Friends Meeting for further clearness and
support. At the request of University Friends Meeting, the
Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting appointed in September 2001 a
Visiting Committee to continue with Port Townsend Worship Group
the discernment process. The Worship Group on three
separate occasions hosted members of the Visiting Committee or the
entire Visiting Committee. Now in April 2002 the Worship Group is
looking forward to its recognition by Pacific Northwest Quarterly
Meeting as Port Townsend Monthly Meeting.

Port Townsend Friends (Quakers) look to establish a Meetinghouse

The Port Townsend Friends Meeting is exploring the idea of obtaining a space that will
serve our needs for worship and provide a multi-use facility for the community. We are inviting
interested individuals, and groups, to consider supporting and/or joining us in this project.

Many ideas have been put forward as to what other needs could be served by this project.
Some of the ideas included a permanent home for the Port Townsend Peace Library, a shared
worship space, social service facilities during the week, to a permanent homeless shelter.

We are open to many ideas and possibilities for a shared facility. Do you have unused or
underused property or buildings? Are you looking to co-develop a joint use facility? Do you
have expertise or services that you would be willing to donate? Are you looking for a space to
teach, worship or serve? Maybe you have other ideas that you would like to nourish. If so,
please contact Jeff Johnson, Clerk of Meetinghouse Committee, Port Townsend Friends Meeting,
at (360) 385-6000.

Port Townsend Friends Meeting is part of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
We currently meet for worship at the Port Townsend Community Center each Sunday at 10 AM.
All are welcome to join us in worship. A basic tenet of our faith is that there is that of God in
everyone and everything. We often refer to this presence as The Light. This belief has led us to
our testimonies of peace, social justice, equality and the right use and sharing of the worlds
resources.

We have been an active part of the Port Townsend community since the early 1960’s
when Bill and Eleanor Nelson started a Quaker Worship Group in their home. Since then, we
have grown to become an established Quaker Meeting and feel that it is time to explore options
for a permanent Port Townsend Friends Meeting home.

Port Townsend Friends Meeting responses on Faith and Practice section on the Monthly Meeting

We thank the Faith and Practice Committee for all the work they have done to bring this
chapter to us for review. Much of the document needs no changes. What
follows are two sets of comments about the entire document and then
some comments about certain sections of the document, some of which
answer questions which the Discipline Committee asked.
Capitalizing "Meeting"
Not sure if Meeting is capitalized consistently and it should be. (This
is not something we were checking at the beginning.) On page 18,
penultimate paragraph, 3rd line, should be Meeting
committees (not capitalized there). We note that in the first
paragraph of the document, there are 2 instances of meeting not being
capitalized. We think they should be capitalized, as they refer to a
Meeting for Worship and a Meeting which is an organized unit of the
Society of Friends. And it was confusing to encounter meeting
capitalized twice and not capitalized twice in the first paragraph…


Quotations:
When Faith and Practice was originally written, many woman Friend
quotations were not very available. Many more are now available in
the book, Hidden in Plain Sight. The Discipline Committee
should have a copy of this book and be consulting it so that we can
have a larger diversity of quote authors. 100% of the quotes offered
are from men. That needs to be changed! We would especially recommend
getting rid of the John Woolman quote (even though it’s so much fun
doing the math), as the quote also refers to something outdated.
Difficulties within the quote include "adjourning" a meeting and
the use of "man" rather than "person." We also recommend
leaving out the definition of "adjourned Meeting" unless that
term is actually being used somewhere in the Yearly Meeting.


Recording Clerk: The Recording Clerk is a crucial part of all NPYM Monthly
Meetings, but Faith and Practice seems to have lost giving a good
description of the job and the duties. This position should be
prioritized and much of the description of assistant clerk should be
deleted. A few Meetings have assistant clerks, most don’t. (If the
description is changed to include assistant clerks as rising clerks,
then the old description should be kept as well, since our Meeting
sometimes has an assistant clerk who is available to clerk Meeting in
the absence of the clerk, but is not a rising clerk.)

Page 4: Under formulation of Minutes:
Needs to say: "the minute is written down and read back to the Meeting by
the Clerk or Recording Clerk" (not Assistant Clerk) or it
will not reflect what our Meeting does.

Page 7: 2nd paragraph (the one that starts "Organization…")
should say "a small Meeting may be able to function with only a
Clerk and Recording Clerk and with the Meeting acting as a
committee of the whole." It seems likely that the Meeting would
also need a Treasurer.

Page 8, 7th paragraph. In our Meeting, the Recording Clerk
signs the minutes. The Clerk does not (although the clerk reviews the
draft minutes before they are sent out). The Clerk signs other
official papers.

Bottom of page 8 is the only mention in the entire chapter of a recording
clerk. However, this is NOT a good description of the recording
clerk’s job and seems to be mixed up with this concept of assistant
clerk which we don’t use. The Recording Clerk should be the next
officer listed after the Clerk and the description of this job should
not be combined with any other officers. We would not ask the
Recording Clerk to clerk a Meeting in the absence of the Clerk, since
we would then need to find someone else to take the minutes. Taking
the minutes is a very important job. These minutes need to accurately
reflect what happened and to include items written according to
Friends’ practice and jargon. Once approved, the minutes become
part of the archival record of the Meeting and are referred to when
looking for previous decisions of the Meeting. We also do not include
names of Friends who spoke when discussing a decision, but say, "a
Friend said…" Our Recording Clerk and our Records Clerk use BYM
Handbook of Records from Baltimore Yearly Meeting and
we have linked to it online from the Port Townsend Friends Meeting
website. (www.quaker.org/port-townsend)
It would be great to refer to it in Faith and Practice and provide
the link on the NPYM website. And the Discipline Committee would
probably find many helpful descriptions there. Another thing that
needs to be attended to is electronic records vs. hard copy records.
Port Townsend Friends Meeting is keeping both.

Friends’ Method of Reaching Decisions—Page 3 and following


The document currently jumps from Unity to Serious Differences of
Opinion. In between those two should be a discussion of "standing
aside," including being minuted as standing aside and the idea that
once the decision has been made and people minuted as standing aside,
the Meeting wholeheartedly supports the decision. (People don’t try
to derail the decision.)
It might be good to put the section on threshing sessions ahead of the
section on serious differences of opinion as well—as this discusses
getting lots of opinions and what to do when the Meeting faces an
issue with differences of opinion.

State of the Society Report—Page 6
This section does not accurately reflect practice. Several Meetings simply
ask for a volunteer to write the report, which then comes to Ministry
and Counsel and Business Meeting for approval. At Pacific Northwest
Quarterly Meeting, the reports are posted, but not necessarily read
and they are given to the QM Committee on M+O.

Leadership (page 7)
We agree that it would be useful to advise Friends to be tender with one
another and especially toward those in leadership positions.

Officers—Page 7ff
The important officers are Clerk, Recording Clerk and Treasurer. We also
have a Records Clerk/Archivist/Historian (called a Recorder on pg
9—not a term we have heard), and a Webkeeper. We recommend
describing Clerk, Recording Clerk, Treasurer and Records Clerk and
then mentioning that assistants can also be appointed if needed. It
seems like an accountant would be found if the Treasurer needs
assistance. If it is felt necessary to list Corresponding Clerk, that
should be in a separate section, not combined with Recording Clerk.
In the description of Clerk, the clerk should ask a past clerk or
someone who seems skilled at clerking to clerk the Meeting during
a planned absence or when led to express an opinion on a
controversial matter.

Committees—Page 9ff Page 9 2nd paragraph under committees: We have seen several
instances when a committee was laid down because people could not be
found to serve on that committee and re-instituted when people were
found. (The function of that committee was parceled out to other
committees in the interim.)

Page 10–Ministry and Counsel is our preferred name for the “Ministry
and Oversight” function and we have a Ministry and Counsel
Committee. We prefer not to use the word oversight, which is
reminiscent of the overseers who were managing the slaves in this
country. We also think it unnecessary to put in the historical note
saying that this term was used historically in a different manner.
Care Committees should definitely be included. Our Meeting has at
least 6 care committees for members with needs. This is something
which has grown up since Faith and Practice was written. (pg. 13)

Citing other documents in Faith and Practice —Page 13
It would be a good idea for Faith and Practice to cite the NPYM website
and link to documents which are referenced in Faith and Practice,
such as the New England YM document on Clearness Committees (and if
that document is unavailable, find one that is, or quote the
important parts in Faith and Practice).

Released Friend –page 14
We recommend using terms which are being used in NPYM.
Released Friend: This terminology should be prioritized and included in the
definitions and index, with Liberated Friend perhaps still mentioned
if that term is used somewhere in NPYM. We are familiar with several
instances of releasing Friends in different NPYM meetings; one Friend
came to us asking to be released and said Faith and Practice did not
describe this concept—a Friend who had read all of Faith and
Practice found it for us under “Liberated Friend.”

We also recommend separating concerns from released Friend, or probably
including a section defining concerns or mentioning them in the
Friends Method of Reaching Decisions section—it is often someone or
a committee bringing a concern that makes for memorable
decision-making and sometimes carries the Meeting into a ministry
without necessarily releasing one person to carry that ministry.

Recorded Ministers-page 15
We need to add that we do record ministers who feel called to do prison
visiting.
Traveling Minutes
It is not our practice to forward a traveling minute for Presiding Clerk
of YM endorsement when the person is traveling outside the YM.
Children –Page 17-We are anticipating that the children’s safety section
will be at the end of this section.
Youth page 17-18
Somewhere in here we should talk about supporting youth to come together
regionally, at Quarterly, Yearly, ski trip and possibly other times.
It fits with page 18, 2nd paragraph comment about living
up to their ideals and people of their own age group.