Millville Meeting held two discussions of the State of the Spirit queries, both in Adult First Day discussions. The first session considered Queries 1-3, 5 and 6, as sent out by Yearly Meeting. The second session considered Query 4 related to climate change within an Adult First Day discussion of how Meeting could address climate change issues in general.
This report was approved by Millville Meeting in our Fourth Month Meeting.
A copy will be sent to Upper Susquehanna Quarterly Meeting.
Query 1: In this past year, how has your meeting worked to create and strengthen the reality of a Beloved Community? How has your meeting fostered an environment in which members and attenders of all ages know they are loved, cared for, trusted, and respected?
• Many Friends expressed feeling a strong sense of community and belonging at Meeting. This was fostered through in-person events such as regular meeting for worship, fire-pit gatherings, walking fellowship and programming for our youngest Friends. Technology (e.g., group email lists, phone contacts, Zoom online meetings for some Meetings for Worship, Meetings for Business, and committees; and initial experimenting with hybrid Adult First Day sessions with an OWL camera and laptop screen) also enabled Friends to remain strongly connected and supported during the pandemic. As a Meeting, we remain unsure how best to utilize technology moving forward as we consider issues such as accessibility, proximity to the meetinghouse, our individual and collective carbon footprints, the quality of hybrid worship, and our overall spiritual connectedness.
• Friends feel that Meeting is a safe place for children, partners and people of color despite the lack of racial diversity within our own membership.
• It was noted that not all Friends have felt loved and supported by Meeting over the past year. Some continue to hold tender feelings over past grievances at Greenwood Friends School. There are still broken hearts and spirits that need be addressed. Meeting has not done well acknowledging its part in the pain and angst surrounding this issue. Friends see the issues with GFS in the recent past as a cautionary tale that we must remember for the future.
• Some Friends also feel that Meeting in general has not handled conflict well. We sometimes forget we are equals and tend to go along too easily with statements by individuals perceived as powerful. We can’t continue to do that and walk a Quaker path. Friends must be able to say “I have another thought,” but we often don’t do that. We need to deepen our community in Quaker ways when we experience differences on issues that hit us emotionally.
Query 2: How have you sought to be neighbors and in relationship with other communities?
• Individually, as a Meeting, or through our various committees, Millville Friends have been involved in or supported many local and regional groups, initiatives, and events. Despite these efforts, more could be done to make ourselves better known by other communities. Below are some examples of our involvement with other communities:
• Greenwood Friends School is currently under the care of Millville Monthly Meeting. As a critical part of this care relationship, two Millville Friends currently serve as trustees at the school. Others have been involved in the Quaker Life and COVID committees. The Head of School at GFS delivers monthly reports at Meeting for Business and has invited Friends to participate in a community trip to Europe; periodically Friends join in worship at the school.
• Through the advocacy work of the Peace & Service Committee, Millville Friends support a number of local and regional groups involved in many social issues such as climate change, immigration and racial justice. Through the work of the Peace & Service Committee, Millville Friends also regularly co-host community meals for less fortunate members of our community.
• Meeting participated in Millville’s 250-year celebration by hosting interested community members in the meetinghouse.
• Friends lead a peace vigil at the town square in Bloomsburg.
• Friends write occasional letters to the editor in the local newspaper, the Press Enterprise.
• Friends have arranged to let Millville Public Schools use the meetinghouse as a safe haven in case of an emergency.
• With Meeting support, a Friend uses podcasts and other media to engage a global audience on salient social justice issues, including climate change, queer identity and reparations.
• Millville Monthly Meeting has a strong presence within our broader Quaker community, in particular Upper Susquehanna Quarterly Meeting. For example, a Millville Friend was a longtime clerk of the Quarter and Millville Friends are active in key events such as the annual retreat at Crystal Lake Camps.
• We’ve been getting more traffic on our website over the past year, and more attenders have been coming to Meeting.
Query 3: How has your meeting been called to address issues of racism this past year? What additional concerns and initiatives have your meeting or meeting members been led to address?
• In response to a PYM initiative, the Peace & Service Committee has made addressing racism a priority by leading an Adult First Day discussion of the book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship (McDaniel, Julye) and compiling a large list of resource materials. We have also made an effort to incorporate these issues in our educational programming for younger Friends. At the same time, we recognize that more work could be done in this area, including dialoguing with BIPOC Quakers in other parts of the world.
• Recent demographic shifts have brought more Spanish speakers into our community. Friends have had some outreach to these communities through involvement in other organizations such as the Good Samaritan in Danville; we recognize that more direct work is still needed.
• Friends discussed whether to sponsor immigrants in need, but no unity was reached.
• There are BIPOC students at Bloomsburg University who have lost family and friends to violence. An effort was made to establish a support initiative for these students with the aid of university administrators.
• Friends acknowledge other important issues that could use additional time and outreach. For example, Friends could be more supportive of local public schools that often fail to educate students about critical social issues.
Query 4: How has the Spirit guided your work on climate change? How has your meeting addressed the five action areas identified in the climate change sprint report? (.pdf) Has your Meeting appointed a Climate Witness Liaison?
1. Activism/Advocacy
• PYM has not made a clear distinction between advocacy and lobbying.
• Millville Friends have worked this past year on climate-related issues with two organizations, FCNL and Citizen Climate Lobby (CCL). CCL is a bi-partisan citizen’s organization that lobbies Congress to put a price on carbon.
• Friends have supported the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI, a consortium of 10 New England and Mid-Atlantic states, including now Pennsylvania, that are committed to reducing their carbon emissions through a regional cap. Friends have sent letters in support of RGGI to elected officials.
2. Education
• Friends are deeply committed to educating ourselves about the connection between people and the natural world. We wish to move beyond singular events like Earth Day to better understand changes in our regional biosphere (e.g., more floods) resulting from climate change.
• A Friend expressed deep concern that communities are not preparing adequately for approaching climate-related disasters. How do we adapt our lives to make sure we’re prepared for climate change? Much of this planning will take place at the community level and involves things like 72-hour kits, evacuation plans and crisis management. This Friend is preparing for this reality by volunteering with the Red Cross.
3. Reducing Carbon Footprint
• Millville Friends realized this past year that the electricity for the meetinghouse had been contracted from a non-renewable source despite previous efforts to use renewable sources. After several brief discussions, Friends switched over to renewable electricity.
• Friends have expressed interest in purchasing carbon offsets to cover our collective carbon footprint.
4. Financing
• Friends are interested in investments that derive profits from sustainable businesses. This effort will be driven by the Finance Committee.
5. Mourning Loss and Instilling Hope
• Meeting has not yet taken concerted steps to think collectively about mourning loss and instilling hope in relation to climate change. Friends referenced a couple of resources dealing with these issues: Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and a 12-step program of mourning from the Good Grief Network.
• Friends support the Peace & Service Committee being active in this area.
• Two interactive Adult First Day sessions focused on ideas from the book Braiding Sweetgrass, including making our own sweetgrass braids. These were well attended opportunities for acknowledging loss and envisioning hopeful actions.
• What as individuals are we expected to do? What is the best approach for tackling climate change?
o Friends should weigh the benefits of individual efforts (e.g., installing residential solar panels) with more systemic changes that have the potential to impact entire communities and our way of thinking.
o Friends should consider applying local education efforts to educate ourselves and others in a more practical way. For example, it may be a good time to use the Inflation Reduction Act to educate ourselves about solar farms.
o Are there things we can do as a Meeting that is more direct action? For example: guerilla gardening or going out and planting perennials to green the public community and provide food options.
o At least one Friend expressed a reservation for individual benchmarks. Large corporations like BP encouraged individual carbon footprints as a way to distract people. Prioritizing initiatives affecting the wider community could have a much greater effect. There are lots of ideas that could be meaningful to the community and also connect us to the community. For example, we have an event in place (plant sale) to educate the community and connect us to parts of the wider community such as Greenwood Friends School. We need to first discern as a Meeting to understand who we are before we decide on specific initiatives.
Query 5: What learnings and yearnings particular to your meeting would you like to share?
• Millville Friends are trying to decide how to use technology for online and hybrid meetings that are as inclusive as possible.
• With the Quaker Cloud going out of business, we are challenged to find another web host.
• Some Friends are looking to develop a community that can deepen everyone’s spiritual life.
Query 6: What are things the Yearly Meeting might do to support your meeting?
• Help with the website.
• Friends acknowledge that we rarely take advantage of resources provided by PYM because of our distance to Philadelphia. The PYM website offers resources we have found useful, including YouTube videos. PYM online events are also useful for us.
