The theme was announced by none other than Wayne Lamb, pastor of Chatham NC Friends and self-proclaimed scourge of liberal Carolina Quakers. “It’s June 6,” he boomed to the Representative meeting of North Carolina Yearly Meeting-FUM (NCYM), crowded into Pine Hill Meeting in Ararat NC. Then, for emphasis: “June 6, 1944,” he repeated, then added: … Continue reading D-Day for Carolina Quakers–Dodging Some Bullets — But NOT All
What does “Integrity” mean in relation to North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends?
Does it mean taking seriously the four times that Faith & Practice says that it is NOT a CREED and thinking for oneself? Or is it picking out a few phrases from it and trying to make them the “absolute authority” for an organized purge of officers, committees, and meetings–something that same Faith & Practice does NOT authorize anywhere??
Is it attacking meetings which have honest issues about the fairness of their treatment in the yearly meeting, and reflect that in the partial payment of askings?
Or is there integrity in making widespread public threats about withholding ALL askings as of April 15, 2015 unless there was a purge by that date of disfavored meetings — and then abandoning the threat when the deadline passes and it doesn’t work?
Is it shown in getting creeds from other Quaker branches, purchasing most study resources and programs from Baptists, ignoring practically every Quaker in history and almost all the yearly meeting programs (except, of course, Quaker Lake) — and then demanding that other meetings be forbidden from freely associating with other kinds of Quakers, on their own time, and with their own funds?
And is there integrity in pursuing heresy inside this yearly meeting while making detailed plans to secede and form a separate body, one which will abandon just about every Quaker distinctive there is?
Recently, we took concrete steps to align our expenses with current and anticipated revenues. But that is only the first phase of a community-wide, multi-year effort that will include revenue-generating initiatives under new and inspired enrollment and marketing leadership. We have a powerful story to tell
— Guilford is 274 above the lowest of the Forbes Financial Grades list. Does hovering 24 places above the bottom 250 mean it has a thin cushion? Or a frayed and disintegrating safety net?
— Guilford is, to repeat Moody’s, “tuition dependent,” and in many ways in a “weak market position,” with “limited pricing power.”
— If the school doesn’t find at least 200 more full-time students to increase tuition income, can it absorb another round (or two) of staff cuts without spinning into the “death spiral”? (The projection for enrollment next year? Flat.)
— Its plight is very similar to that of scores of other small liberal arts colleges, all of whom face “increased competition from cheaper public higher education . . . .”
As Robin Mohr, the younger Friend who coined the “Convergent” label put it, the idea appeals to “Friends from the politically liberal end of the evangelical branch, the Christian end of the unprogrammed branch, and the more outgoing end of the Conservative branch.”
But what has happened repeatedly is that the “politically (and theologically) liberal end of the evangelical branch” gets lopped off, and those involved either hunker down, or join an exodus.