All posts by Chuck Fager

Another Day, Another Split Attempt– The New Target: North Carolina YM

I suppose it was just too good to last.

In August, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM, or NCYM) considered and rejected a plan to split the yearly meeting.

Instead, it decided to reorganize, offering two sub-associations for meeting to move to, within a revised and shrunken Yearly meeting. NCYM would become a kind of umbrella holding company, mainly concerned with managing endowment funds and real estate.

This decision was challenged at the November Representative session: the pastor of New Hope Friends called for reviving the split plan. But there was no interest in, or discussion of that idea. (A week later, New Hope decided to leave NCYM.)

That same day, plans for revising and managing the reorganized finances & YM structure were approved.

So far, so good. The foul atmosphere of heresy-hunting and attempted purges which had choked the body for two years seemed to have dissipated.

But . . . .

BREAKING: Split Over LGBT Said Imminent for Northwest Yearly Meeting

From sources in the Northwest, we have been sent the text of a plan to split Northwest Yearly Meeting (NWYM), over the issue of affirmation of LGBT persons.

This issue has been intensely debated across NWYM since the summer of 2015, when the yearly meeting elders announced a decision to expel West Hills Friends in Portland from NWYM because of its openly affirming stance. But after several meetings appealed, the power players in the yearly meeting were unable to agree to act on that decision until now.

John Lewis vs. Little Hands: Talk vs. Action

In light of recent events, permit me to share a photograph or two. Selma, Alabama, March 1965. I stood on the church steps behind John Lewis, Hosea Williams & Andrew Young. Then John & Hosea marched over the Pettus Bridge & were beaten & teargassed; John got his head busted, was almost killed. I got … Continue reading John Lewis vs. Little Hands: Talk vs. Action →

Push & Pushback in the Northwest “Showdown”

Northwest Yearly Meeting is notorious for its institutional culture of secrecy; indeed, I think they could teach the CIA some tricks.

So imagine my surprise when a clandestine collective which can be called “Quaki-Leaks” passed along some emails hacked from the listserve for NWYM pastors. There were other posts,but these offer an illuminating glimpse of what goes on behind one of the numerous veils that shroud much (too much, in my view) of NWYM’s proceedings.

The posts dealt with the impending midyear session this weekend, and its hot issue of what to do about gay-friendly meetings. The samples presented here offer three distinct views of the situation, with some qualifying comments by the NWYM Superintendent. We’ll finish with some brief comments.

First up is a Friend who dislikes the petition, because he hopes to avoid a purge. We’ll let him explain: