UPDATE: NCYM Divorce Proposal – More Documents, More Questions Members of the “Gang of 9” pastors who drafted a “divorce” proposal for North Carolina YM have made available more documents from their sessions. These are below, along with some initial questions that remain unanswered. Some members of the group assert that they attempted to be … Continue reading UPDATE: NCYM Divorce Proposal – More Documents, More Questions
Meeting secretly since early April, a self-appointed group of nine pastors in North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM) has been negotiating a proposal to break up the YM, and sent an approved draft to the NCYM Executive Committee early last month.
The group reportedly regarded itself as representative of three “wings” of NCYM, the liberal meetings, “centrists,” and evangelical. Yearly Meeting officials and staff were also present at the meetings.
The full text of the proposal is below. Note that it was signed only by seven of the group; two participants strongly objected to the plan and “stood aside” from its approval.
A participant in the sessions stated that for the most part they proceeded amicably, but with differences clearly drawn. It was also said that letters were sent to pastors in other meetings about the sessions; but how widely these notices actually circulated is in question. . . .
Agony For Carolina Quakers: More On Its Sad Saturday When it comes to guessing what will happen at Saturday’s Session of North Carolina Yearly Meeting’s Representative body, pick your rumor — there are plenty of them. But let’s not call them rumors; “scenarios” is more elegant: — First, it could yield the long-sought (by some) … Continue reading Agony For Carolina Quakers: More On Its Sad Saturday
This Saturday, June 4, another tense scene will unfold in North Carolina’s ongoing Quaker soap opera: NC Yearly Meeting-FUM (NCYM) will hold its spring Representative Body session.
For the past two years, these Seventh Day (Saturday) assemblies have staged one melodrama after another, all focused on a single burning (well, smoldering) question: Will NCYM purge the handful of liberal meetings?
While much of the rest of the U.S. population is involved in or watching Memorial Day events centered on those killed in our wars, I hope Quakers will make room for a different approach to this observance.
To be sure, Friends have much to remember, and many to memorialize in regard to war also. For one thing, there were many Quakers who, despite what is called the Peace testimony, felt obliged to take up arms in one war or another; their number is large, and we are best advised not to deceive ourselves about that.
At the same time, in all these wars, where Quakers were present, significant numbers of them have stuck to the testimony and declined involvement in combat. The specifics vary with the wars, and personalities; the stories are quite varied. But many underwent awful ordeals, and not a few paid for their testimony with their lives.
Reflecting on what I know of this, my thoughts turned to the most lethal of U.S. wars (so far), the Civil War of 1861-1865.