A Friendly Letter

Eight-Plus Appeals of Northwest Welcoming Meeting’s Expulsion

Procedurally, the course is straightforward: the appeals will be considered and acted on by the NWYm Administrative Council.

But on what timetable? Here the response of YM officials has also been straightforward: No Comment. No timetable has been acknowledged. So it could take a month — it could take a year.

This stonewalling reinforces a complaint heard in most of the appeals, about a lack of transparency and accountability by NWYM’s top councils. For those below, a strict deadline was imposed and requests for flexibility denied.

But for those above? They will act when they are good and ready, and those subject to it will take the decision, when it comes, and that will be that.

This corporate attitude also echoes the way the expulsion of West Hills was handled: announced just after the end of its annual sessions, when Friends were scattered and enroute home.

Most of the internal appeals couched their complaints about this “lack of transparency” and accountability at the top in very euphemized terms.

But this outsider can be more blunt: as Quaker process, it stinks.

“He’s Got The Whole World In His [VERY WHITE] Hands”

I went to the website of a Friends church out west today, seeking information about a dispute of which readers have heard a good deal here.

Didn’t find any, but while browsing, saw an image that seemed very striking, for the church’s Vacation Bible School:

The caption for it was — as thee might expect, “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.”

Some of us might know that the song which gave rise to this meme is one of the classic black spirituals.

But maybe many of us don’t.

Wikipedia says it was first published a 1927 collection, Spirituals Triumphant. And while the song has been recorded by numerous artists of various backgrounds, I’m old enough to remember 1958, when a British teenager, Laurie London, became a one-hit wonder when his version, a smash in the UK, managed the then-unthinkable and crossed the Atlantic to hit #2 on the U.S. pop charts.

Laurie London, whose popstar career was very short; he was last spotted running a pub near London.
I say this because after pondering the image above, I couldn’t help but notice that the hands in it (or at lest the wrists), are quite noticeably caucasian — er, white.

It made me wonder: The hands for the whole world are like that? Hmmmm.

How widespread, I wondered was this probably unconscious, or at least unthinking, notion?

“We Expelled Nobody!” Says Carolina Executive Committee. Really?

“Under our Faith and Practice, the Executive Committee has the ability to make any decision not inconsistent with its described authority. Although its described authority is vague, my years of service on the Executive Committee have, if anything, taught me that the widely accepted exercise of the Executive Committee’s authority is much broader. A decision of the Executive Committee, though, is “subordinate to” the Representative Body.”

To which I say, Whoa, Nelly!

This “vaguely described” authority is too “vague” and sweeping for me. And letting the committee take unto itself the prerogative of deciding that this or that meeting has forfeited its membership in the yearly meeting, with no warrant, no notice, no standards and no procedural guides, is a recipe for big trouble.

Appeal! Groundswell in Northwest Over A Welcoming Meeting’s Ouster

“When dealing with disciplinary actions involving individuals or regarding a crisis within a local meeting, confidentiality makes sense. However, when dealing with conflict and disagreement that has arisen between whole churches and that is likely to affect the whole of the Yearly Meeting, confidentiality can serve as a hindrance, leading to speculation and accusations that spread through a wildfire of whispers and rumors and leave us with an onslaught of unanswerable questions that only serve to fuel the fire further. The lack of transparency in this process has contributed greatly to the “shattering” experience for all and has created a growing mistrust not only of leadership but of each other—meeting to meeting, individual to individual. West Hills Friends Church was open and public with their lengthy discernment process and subsequent conclusion. Because of this, absolute confidentiality was not warranted, and we believe a different outcome was entirely possible had this process between the elders and West Hills been more open. . . .”

Breaking– Carolina Bombshell: Three NC Meetings Expelled! Will It Stand?

Already questions are being raised as to whether the Executive Committee was authorized to take such actions. There is nothing in the list of duties for the Committee in the YM Faith & Practice (p. 97-99) giving it such jurisdiction or authority.

New Garden and Poplar Ridge are the two largest meetings in NCYM. Holly Spring is also a sizable group.

Holly Spring and Poplar Ridge have been leaders in the efforts to divide or purge NCYM in the past year. As reported here in March, Poplar Ridge has prepared and circulated an outline & creed for a breakaway yearly meeting, with a strict evangelical character and an enforced creed.