An Invitation to Seeking Faithfulness through Worshipful Resistance
“That is to say that each generation of young Friends by its experiments must discover for itself the truths on which the Society is built if it is to use those truths and to continue and to enlarge the work of the Society.” (Young Friends Committee, 1926, cf Faith & Practice, 2018, p. 123)
At the last day of Annual Sessions, our Young Adult Friends shared their concerns regarding migrant family detention in Pennsylvania. In response to their concern, we invited them to begin an ongoing conversation towards a greater, mutual understanding. We pledged our “… spiritual, financial, and logistical support” to these Friends. From that pledge grew a day-long event of worshipful resistance at the Berks Residential Center, as well as an alternative peaceful multigenerational action at Reading Monthly Meeting. This is our faith-in-action. More importantly, it is an expression of our yearly meeting’s willingness to-be-teachable: to be open and available to shared, on-going interpersonal revelation. Our yearly meeting has a history of benefitting from the work of Young Adult Friends:
In 1913, a group of Philadelphia young adult Friends from each branch (i.e., Hicksite & Orthodox) began to meet regularly to study the separation and issued a report the next year stating that it was not a matter of doctrine but of authority that had caused the separation. (Faith & Practice, 2018, p. 89)
Those Young Adult Friends took the first steps to ending our Great Schism. We are challenged presently to address peacefully our present-day differences that divide, even separate our blessed community into factions and opposing camps. Come to March Sessions. Be a part of our collective efforts to labor faithfully for the shared good of our yearly meeting. Be an agent of peaceful, meaningful change within our yearly meeting and in the wider world. Be Friendly. Be teachable. Be present and together. Let us follow the leadings of our Young Adult Friends.
With the hope of Peace Within & Among Us,
Christopher A. Lucca,
Alternate Clerk Serving As Presiding Clerk
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
