Medford Monthly Meeting is currently a Meeting of about 40 active souls, mostly retired, who continue to conduct Meeting affairs in the traditional form. After meeting exclusively on zoom during Covid, we now meet both in person and by zoom. Zoom has allowed the participation of one California Friend with local roots, a couple of others who live a half hour drive away and, occasionally, a Friend living in India. We have no first day school and just a few children, one of whom is a member. We have very active committees on race, climate, peace and social issues, and outreach, as well as property. – see attached report from the Racial Justice Group. Starting this spring Outreach is beginning the first in a planned series of programs. Our endowment and dues are more than sufficient to maintain the property and support a part time secretary as well as other efforts.
Medford Meeting has faced challenges over the last year, many, but not all, due to Covid. The pandemic has caused us to meet virtually not only for worship but for meetings of committees and interest groups. While less satisfying than meeting in person, zoom meetings have allowed participation of people from far away, local people who don’t drive at night, and others who would not have felt comfortable gathering in person. The meetinghouse could not accommodate the groups that normally rent our space and opportunities for outreach were limited. Despite this limitation, the meeting did take advantage of zoom to host two social gatherings with nearby Jacob’s Chapel AME Church and organized a Braver Angels workshop that included ten people from our meeting and 20 other Quakers from around the country. These are only two of many examples.
Another challenge results from the diminished number of people actively involved in the meeting. There are fewer people to draw from in staffing committees and interest groups that carry out the many activities of the meeting. Despite this, as stated above, the meeting continues to be very active.
A third challenge occurs within the meeting where members have expressed the need for more spiritual preparation and sense of community. Ministry & Counsel is actively searching for new ways to address this concern. We have begun, for example, to address a felt lack of spiritual vibrancy with a program on listening to each other in Creative Listening sessions that 22 members attended in four separate groups. The hope is that there will be a follow up. Spiritual development could be seen as the main focus of the Meeting at present. One Friend has felt the need to lead a program on the Beatitudes.
There is a wide range of theological views from non-theist to Christ centered to those for whom theology is a dead or divisive issue. But there is a concomitant inability to clearly state what Quakerism is to those who do not willingly seek it out on their own. We continue to grapple with the fact that our community is almost entirely white and middle class.
We have good relations with the Medford Leas Worship Group, which is affiliated with the meeting through Ministry and Counsel. The Worship Group provides an opportunity for worship for Friends who can no longer travel to meeting as well as other Medford Leas residents who are interested in Friends’ worship. A downside is that some Friends who could come to the meetinghouse choose to attend the worship group, depriving the meeting from their participation. On the other hand, Medford Leas itself provides a trickle of new Friends who attend and join our Meeting. We participate with an active Quarter and several Friends are quite active at the Yearly Meeting and other Friends organizations, most of which, like PYM, the Quarter, Friends Journal, FCNL are supported financially. Our participation in annual sessions is quite low, however and the Yearly Meeting still feels distant.
The challenges of Covid, dwindling numbers, and the search for spiritual vitality are offset by a determination to concentrate on who we are together as a community, supporting and nurturing each other with a commitment to living faithfully knowing that the inner light will guide us.
April 3, 2022 — Roberta Foss, Clerk
