Spiritual Life of the Meeting Report Prompts (2024)
Wilmington Monthly Meeting
1. How is Spirit moving in your worship, and how have you nurtured deep, Spirit-led vocal ministry?
Wilmington Monthly Meeting has experienced growth and an awakening as we have been blessed with many new families and attenders who have joined us regularly for worship in the last year. We have received messages from many different speakers, which are often thoughtful and deeply spirit led. Newcomers have shared messages and are encouraged in their ministry. The growing number of children of all ages joining their families for the last 15 minutes of worship is cause for celebration!
Our newly rebranded Quaker Conversations group has also grown, facilitated by Worship and Ministry and meeting on the first First Day of each month. We have discussed vocal ministry, Quaker beliefs, Quaker testimonies to the world, and how Friends experience worship. We have used pamphlets and writings which have been widely read, even by those who did not attend the discussions. Friends reflected that the topics and conversations are spiritually nourishing and allow us to know each other more deeply.
Spirit is also evident in the concerns many share around climate change, peace, and economic inequality in our greater community. The ad hoc Peace and Social Justice committee has grown and engages newcomers as well as seasoned friends in our faith through action.
We used one potluck lunch to ask Friends about their joys, learnings and spiritual yearnings. Responses included positive thoughts about the spiritual health of our community. Friends have found worship to be grounding and calming, setting them up for the coming week. Others felt a lifting of boundaries and constraints in worship. Patiently listening and sitting with challenging messages softens our hearts to others.
We have struggled at times with messages that are difficult to hear or that are delivered in a disruptive fashion that is harmful to our community worship. The meeting clerks and Worship and Ministry have endeavored to address these incidents in a loving, spirit led manner, seeking to balance the needs of individuals with the needs of the community, as well as to attend to those who share they are hurt.
2. How have you fostered an environment in which members and attenders of all ages and abilities know they are loved, cared for, trusted, and respected?
We are engaged through potluck lunches, vibrant social time following worship (with lots of intergenerational conversations), the Meeting’s community workdays, and opportunities to work together for our outreach programs (see #3). We have made an effort to encourage newer attenders to take part in all aspects of meeting life.
Young friends have a wonderful vegetable garden in the summer and eagerly share produce with an appreciative meeting. They have also joined in serving as greeters while we have been worshiping at Wilmington Friends School during a meetinghouse renovation project.
3. How have you sought to be neighbors and in relationship with other communities, and how have you been changed by these connections?
We are re-engaging with our community through using our kitchen to prepare meals to donate to Emmanuel Dining Room, sharing hosting for unhoused families in transition at Family Promise with Friends at Centre and Hockessin Meetings, and strengthening our connections to Wilmington Friends School, especially through families whose children attend the school and welcoming faculty and administrators to join us in worship.
Bringing back the Strawberry Festival last June provided plenty of opportunities for friends of all ages and abilities to join in welcoming our neighbors for a good old fashioned picnic with music, games, and crafts for everyone. We did not charge for food this year, purposely choosing to use the event to increase our engagement with the surrounding community. Many residents and families attended.
Appoquinimink Friends Meeting, an affiliate of Wilmington Monthly Meeting, continues to hold worship twice monthly in the historic Appoquinimink Meeting House (in Odessa, Delaware) and reports a spiritual connection among those in attendance.
4. How have you been called to address issues of social justice, inclusivity, and difference, both within your meeting and in the wider world?
The meeting has grown with friends of increasing diversity (age, race, ethnicity, and gender diversity). We actively seek to welcome all who join us with loving support, wherever they may be on their personal journeys.
The meeting set aside $100,000 for enhancements to the meetinghouse, which would increase its use by and accessibility to the community. Currently, the moneys are being used to remediate all lead-based hazards and to repaint and upgrade our physical structure. The project was expanded to rehabilitate rooms which will be used by a non-profit which provides tutoring and literacy support to struggling students with limited resources in our community.
A second $100,000 was set aside for the purpose of engaging more proactively with our surrounding community. Peace and Social Justice identified three areas of focus: supporting education and literacy programs for children and families in Wilmington; addressing inter-generational wealth inequity, particularly by supporting workforce development opportunities for our neighbors; and addressing climate change locally.
The Meeting accepted the PSJ recommendation to donate $20,000 to the Wilmington Campus of Delaware Technical Community College (located a block from the meetinghouse). The money was specifically earmarked to support students enrolled DTCC’s Workforce Development Program to support formerly incarcerated persons, immigrants/non-English speakers, and Dreamers who are not eligible for governmental support. Moneys were also earmarked to support fees for exams and licenses that are not covered by tuition fees and to support the College’s Emergency Fund for Students.
