1. In July 2021 PYM approved minutes of action to be taken on anti-racism and climate change. How has your meeting been called to address these issues? What other concerns and initiatives has your meeting been led to address this past year?
Our meeting community has made slow but steady progress in engaging with issues around racism. In 2017, the meeting approved a minute committing to addressing racism, which led to a working group, and finally to a standing Addressing Racism Committee (ARC). This committee, along with our Adult Class Committee, our Peace & Social Concerns Committee (P&SC), our Library Committee, as well as other committees and individuals, have organized classes, guest speakers, and book discussion groups to educate about and discuss individual and systemic racism. P&SC conducted a survey to identify which aspects of racism our community felt the strongest leading to engage with in order to generate specific actions and initiatives. From that survey the issues of criminal justice, voting rights, and education stood out as areas our meeting was most strongly drawn to work on. Our meeting has joined POWER, an interfaith multi-racial people’s movement, and several members are actively involved. In the coming year we hope to see more focused plans in these specific areas. In particular, ARC will be soon bringing forth a proposal rooted in the practice of offering reparations.
The climate crisis is one of two issues that our P&SC committee has chosen to focus on, bringing us information about the topic and ways to support action to protect the climate. Our care for Eileen Flanagan’s minute of religious service continued this year as that minute was renewed for a second three-year span. Eileen’s calling to work in the area of environmental justice, as well as the support of that work, continue to bring us joy and fortify our connection to the underlying issues.
2. How has your meeting evolved as a spiritual community given the ongoing opportunities and challenges of the pandemic?
In terms of our worship, 2021 brought the challenges of implementing hybrid worship (connecting our Zoom worship with those gathered for worship in the meetinghouse) when the meetinghouse reopened in the spring and maintaining it with significant volunteer help over the rest of the year. An online survey gave us a sense of the meeting about how to balance our desire for connection against disruptions caused by the technology necessary to make this connection. With experimentation and many technical glitches along the way, we have now reached a relatively stable model for hybrid worship, and there was a period in the fall when attendance was nearly balanced between online and in-person participation. Within this hybrid format, we have often experienced grounded worship with ministry that demonstrates a spiritual connection between online and in-person worshippers. Our new practice of hybrid worship has awakened us to the greater opportunities for accessibility and inclusivity that technology provides. Our worship is now graced with the participation of those who live far away for all or part of the year or who face physical challenges to in-person attendance. For some, the combined technologies of the microphone and closed captioning allow them to hear messages clearly for the first time. For these reasons, we remain committed to continuing online access to our meetings for worship into the future.
At the same time, we recognize that hybrid worship has not satisfied the spiritual needs of everyone in our community, and we continue to look for ways to identify and address those unmet needs. We hold an ongoing concern about how the connection to Zoom affects worship in the meetinghouse, and how to nurture a spiritual connection between those online and those in the meetinghouse.
Beyond worship, COVID has affected every aspect of our meeting’s life. We have grappled. with how to be both welcoming of visitors and care for the comfort and safety of our long- term members. We look for ways to support our families with children and keep them connected to us. We are pushed to be creative in finding ways to foster community without our beloved community lunches. For the year ahead, we see a major challenge in getting most people to come back to worship in person, while still offering a hybrid option for those who cannot attend in person or prefer to attend on Zoom.
3. What practices and strategies are employed by your meeting to help members and attenders of all ages prepare for worship – whether in meeting for worship or in meeting for business?
In June our Worship and Ministry Committee was blessed with the opportunity to meet in person as a committee for the first time in a year for an outdoor retreat on the topic Why Am I a Quaker? Our sharing of personal spiritual journeys to Quakerism was powerful and nourishing. It was a desire to extend opportunities for this kind of deep personal sharing that led us to offer a series of four Adult Classes in the fall to engage with these topics: Quaker belief, ideas of God, meeting for worship, and Quaker thinking about Christmas. These classes were well attended, with up to 30 participants. As many as 14 people presented, sharing their personal spiritual journeys and practices. We found these classes to be significant in terms of providing a forum for discussion and felt that they contributed to deepening vocal ministry.
In addition, our bimonthly Bible-study group continues to meet online, using the “Friendly Bible Study” method. We also continue to offer weekly virtual midweek meetings for worship followed by time exploring the PhYM Faith and Practice. Some in our meeting find support from extended worship, and we seek ways to increase the opportunity to participate in spiritual support or friendship groups.
4. What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local community and beyond?
Perhaps what is most needed is a unity of purpose. As individuals, we are often called to stand up for our values on different issues and in different ways. Many members of our community already devote tremendous passion, time, and energy toward addressing the pressing problems in our world. To strengthen our communal witness, we must: 1) communicate the value of acting as a meeting community in addition to our work as individuals; 2) identify the areas where there is a strong leading by the group; and 3) draw on the time and gifts of individuals to nurture the leading into a plan of action.
Respectfully submitted, Rebecca Heider Clerk, Worship and Ministry Committee Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting
