Invitation to Discern Next Steps

23 Seventh Month, 2008

Dear Friends:

Quakercamp, a week-long opportunity to be with God and each other under Christ's care and guidance, has been held near Barnesville, Ohio, the past two Junes. Quakercamp offered a very simple structure: morning Bible study and worship; afternoon free time and opportunities for exploring concerns; evening presentations with discussion, leaving ample room for corporate responding to God's immediate guidance. 

At the end of the most recent Quakercamp, we felt God's call to prepare another such opportunity, but perhaps with some changes. We feel a motion to invite others to join in this process of deepening and practicing our faith. We are writing to ask if you feel led to offer suggestions for future gatherings.  We hope you will want to attend as well.  We found Quakercamp a safe and joy-filled place.  We were covered by the Living Christ in our worship.  We learned to know, to respect, to trust, and to nurture each other as we each grew in our awareness of and faithfulness to God.

We believe God is challenging us to go beyond what we have known thus far. We see ourselves called to reach out to others in faith, others both inside and outside of Quakerism.  We wonder if our work together might lead to the healing of cracks and wounds among us, not with the intention of creating a unified Society of Friends but to release our spiritual lives as individuals and as groups from the burdens of suspicion, ignorance, and historical limitations. We find God's quickening in the thought of being part of a groundswell that moves across and among all branches and ages of Friends to strengthen, enrich, and deepen our spiritual lives in Christ.  We realize that working in and with a larger and more diverse group will call for deeper and more extensive spiritual grounding encouraged by sensitive, faithful elders and ministers.

We are trying to discern how future gatherings should be structured to facilitate God's work among us. Should we consider a shorter length (weekend?) or locations other than Stillwater Meetinghouse/Olney School campus? What efforts, if any, should be made to include Friends of many ages?  Should the gathering be more task-oriented, focusing on particular outcomes and topics that would be of interest to Friends of various ages, such as eldership, clerking, transitioning into meeting life as an adult, and taking on leadership roles? 

We are committed to obedience to God's call as we understand it, individually and corporately.  We seek a wider involvement both as we increase our understanding of this vision and as we are obedient in bringing it to fruition.

• Do you share some sense of the life of the vision as we have sketched it?
• What is God quickening in you to add?  What suggestions do you have?
• Do you feel called to help in the planning?  In concrete work once the plans are underway?
• Are there other Friends in your local church/meeting or regional group who feel called to help?

We who are signing this letter are a planning group that expects to meet near Philadelphia 9/20-21.  We welcome your answers to any or all of the above questions. (Please send to Susan Smith at tufiyaat@aol.com by 9/14.)  If any of you feels called to join us at that meeting, we welcome your input in person.  Please let Deborah Haines know at deborah.haines@gmail.com .

In Christ's love,

Ann Armstrong (New England YM), Susan Bailey (Ohio YM), Peter Blood-Patterson (New England YM), Ellen Deacon (Philadelphia YM), Deborah Haines (Baltimore YM),  Shawna & Kevin Roberts (Ohio YM), Becka Haines Rosenberg (Baltimore YM), Susan Smith (Ohio YM), Susan Zeichner (New England YM)