Our Meeting does its best to encourage a life of spiritual awareness. We recognize that this can be manifest in diverse ways. To some it is represented by living up to the ideals taught by Jesus and to others it is a less defined holistic approach to the celebration of creation. To some, this journey toward spiritual awareness is enough of a reason to be a Quaker, while others believe that how we are led toward making things change is our primary concern.
Looking at this past year in review it seems our efforts have followed two related pathways. First, we enjoyed a series of especially meaningful, centered, clearly spoken Meetings for Worship attended by a steadily increasing number of people. We have tried to make these meetings obvious to our surrounding community by working to overcome the perception that our meetinghouse is somehow not an active place of worship. Second, we have tried to foster a sense of community within our meeting. We have meals together on a regular basis, have group discussions about various topics, and avail ourselves of special events put together by our own people and by other related organizations. We have walked to commemorate Harriet Tubman,learned more about the life of John Woolman, sang together, sewed quilts together, planted trees and shrubs and picked up sticks together.
Challenges remain. Growing our membership while continuing to protect the health of those who choose to attend in person is concerning. We need to continue making meaningful the religious experience of Meeting and work to understand where we may be faltering. We need children to attend our First Day School. Finally, we need to offer up our talents freely and seek out in others those talents which they are willing to share.
