Category Archives: Hard-Core Quaker

Is North Carolina Yearly Meeting Giving Peace A Chance?

But as we have seen, NCYM is not the same. In August, when it rejected the split-in-two plan, the YM agreed to “reorganize” around two distinct sub-associations, with the NCYM structure as a kind of skeletal holding company managing common assets and property and not much more. So the other significant item presented to the body on Saturday was a tentative list of meetings under the two new provisional headings of the “Authority” group and the “Autonomy” group.

There were approximately a dozen meetings in the “Autonomy” grouping, and 37 in the “Authority” section. (I say “approximately,” because there are a few meetings which don’t wish to be put in either group, and their status is still to be worked out.)

The “Authority” group will function under the pending revision of NCYM’s Faith & Practice, which had inserted into it a year ago a provision making the yearly meeting supreme over the meetings.

The “autonomy” group members will decide what Faith & Practice they want, if any, but most seem inclined to go with the yearly meeting document minus the “supreme authority” insertion.
Within each group, funds, committees & programs will be handled separately .

How will these groups function?

North Carolina Yearly Meeting: Zombie Apocalypse Coming?

Already the impact on the YM of all this struggle is evident, particularly in the latest news release from the YM office. For instance, staff slots are opening up: the staff at Quaker Lake Camp now needs to be replaced.

Further, the YM interim Superintendent, Don Farlow, is stepping down, and the notice for his successor is for another interim, and on a part-time basis. Further, the job description indicates as a major duty, to “Assist in the implementation of NCYM Procedural Plan for Reorganization”; and that as a part-timer, the new hire will “Work no more than 3 days per week with no speaking engagements on Sunday mornings (except to address the reorganization of NCYM).” Might this language give a hint about the YM leadership’s attitude toward the zombie split plan?

And not least, there’s the budget. A proposed 2017 budget is also online now, and the total for next year is $431,624, down by $53000 from the 2016 total of $484,654, a cut of 12 per cent. And the 2017 total will also be subject to further shrinkage if Hopewell and any other meetings jump ship.

Staff turnover, budget cuts, potential membership decline: all the signs of what we call the Blockbuster Video Effect are in evidence at NCYM. Confronting a zombie split plan will only add to the pressure. Sad.

Northwest Update: The Expulsion Plot Thickens

When it comes to West Hills Friends in Portland, Oregon, expelled from its association for becoming LGBT welcoming, , the main positions are pretty well laid out:

— If the expulsion is overturned (West Hills can stay), then some are clear NWYM is headed for hell in a handbasket, and they may head for the door.

— If West Hills is indeed forced out, then some others are sure the YM will be barreling toward Hades in a Prius, and they may look for an exit.

— If there’s no decision?

(This last is the only possibility that’s much interesting to me. That’s because there have been numerous times in Quaker history when yearly meetings have been in conflict, and decided to stay together and live/work them through. Taking such a path in NWYM might also provoke some attrition, but would be both novel and for many, uplifting — even Christian.)

Cloudy Skies for Friends General Conference — Part II

Nevertheless the Gathering has taken on, not only the work of facilitating fellowship and worship; but it now includes, on practically every hand, an extensive experience of imposed improvement. Indeed, it’s becoming like a week in rehab.
Let me count some of the ways: The Gathering tells me what kind of soap and shampoo to use, what kind of water not to drink. It bids me to mind and shrink my carbon footprint, insists we take naps on Wednesday afternoon, and shames those who insist on gathering and talking instead. It instructs me on bathroom etiquette, and the hazards of proliferating pronouns.

And this is not to mention that it has shouldered the even heavier burden of curing all my (must be) retrograde attitudes: racism, sexism, homo- and trans-phobia, cultural appropriation, plus the myriad ways I am personally destroying the planet, with classism on the rise but not quite there yet, — with the advisement that any demurral is a sure sign of guilt on one or more scores, with no appeal.

Oh — and when someone raises their arm in the dining hall, I am to shut up and sink into a “transforming” silence.

FGC’s one ecumenical triumph: the food line. Many options for finicky Friends; no hectoring, no coercion. You’d even think we had paid for this.
These things did not happen all at once; rather bit by bit. But now their burgeoning has almost totally obscured the presence among them of an older, much more sucessful alternative, namely that regarding diet. In the cafeteria, FGC’s Food Committee has done remarkably successful work at making conveniently, quietly, and non-intrusively available a wide range of dishes for the nearly infinite variety of Friendly food fetishes. I am grateful to them three times every day.

For me the shift from fellowship and worship to hectoring and paternalism has passed a key point: one I was a devotee of the Gathering; now I am a customer. And not a very contented one. I’ve skipped a couple in recent years. And as for next summer — I’m just not sure.

Update-Northwest YM Gay Expulsion: The Power In Posing The Question

With the trial balloon of a joint statement being shot full of holes; the Administrative Council met on October 13, and set December 9-10 for a special meeting of meeting representatives (to include one “young Friend” from each group) to deal with the matter.

And at this point, we come back to the opening question about how what is called “Quaker process” can be, er, managed.

Basically, it’s quite simple, and based on this precedent: once a decision has been made, to change or repeal it requires that the body “reach unity” to do so.

So the technique comes down to how the decision is presented.

The Case of Pumpkin Spice Cake
For instance: suppose a meeting decided at one business session to serve pumpkin spice cake at the Fall Festival. But then at the next business meeting, some said they couldn’t stand pumpkin spice anything. To remove the pumpkin spice cake, the meeting would need to “reach unity” to reverse its earlier decision.

But what if the Clerk was a big fan of pumpkin spice cake, and wanted to make sure it stayed on the menu?

And what if the Clerk knew there were strong divided feelings about the matter?

Then the Clerk could pose the question in a way that would ensure her desired outcome. How?

Simple: The Clerk could ask:

“Does the meeting wish to RESCIND the decision to have pumpkin spice cake?”

[The ensuing discussion is divided.]

Clerk: “It’s clear there is NO UNITY to change the menu.”

[Ergo, Pumpkin Spice cake stays.]