For the past few days, I have been reading updates about the editorial board meeting for the Quaker Youth Book Project.
I am excited about this book project for several reasons. One is the people who are on the editorial board. I first heard about the book project when Sarah H announced that she was on the editorial board. Although we are both members of Freedom Friends Church, I hadn't met her yet because she started attending after I moved to Seattle. I was excited for her, though, and I was glad when I did eventually meet her at the Quaker Women's Theology Conference.
Since then, I have had the pleasure of meeting three other members of the editorial board: Katrina M, Angelina C, and Wess D. Next week, John L will be coming up to Seattle so I will get to meet him as well. I have to say, they seem like a very fun group and I am a little envious that they all get to work together (not that I need any more to do!).
I am also excited about the book because there is a possibility that something I wrote may be included. After months of putting it off, I finally sent off some pieces I had written. Although I write all the time for work and on this blog, most of my writing is not published under my own name, and I would be thrilled to be part of the the final product.
I am really happy that the editorial board meeting in Oregon. Although I couldn't make it down to Oregon for the QUIP Annual Meeting, it is nice to know that they are so close by.
On the whole, I am excited about Friends in the Pacific Northwest. I think it is a place with unusually close ties between the different branches of Friends. There are also some awesome young Quaker leaders here. I feel fortunate to know some of them, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the Religious Society of Friends.
Showing posts with label Quaker Youth Book Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quaker Youth Book Project. Show all posts
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Come Together, Right Now
One of the best things about having friends come to visit is that I get to feel like I am on vacation too while they are here. My friend Sarah H came to stay with me for the weekend and I we had such a good time!
I had heard about Sarah long before I met her. Sarah is also a member of Freedom Friends Church, but we missed each other by a few months because she started attending Freedom Friends a few months after I moved to Seattle. We finally met at the Quaker Women's Theology Conference and I have been lucky enough to see her several times since then.
Sarah came up to Seattle to spread the word about the Quaker Youth Book Project. She is a member of the very impressive editorial board for the project and they are all going out to various meetings and churches to inform Friends age 15 to 35 about how to submit their writing, art, and photography for publication.
Sarah was elated when she found out that another member of the editorial board, Katrina M, is now living in Seattle. I am always happy to meet friends of friends, so we all congregated at my house on Friday night and went out for Chinese food. Because all Quakers know each other within a degree or two, I shouldn't have been surprised that Katrina is also friends with my roommate.
The next day, Sarah, Katrina, Katrina's cousin Erica, my roommate, and I all headed downtown to go on the underground tour. We all enjoyed learning about the history of Seattle, but I think the funniest moment for us was when our tour guide turned to my roommate and said, "You know, I went to a Quaker college and just about all of the guys there had a beard like yours." Sarah responded, "We're all Quakers!" and Katrina quickly established that she and the tour guide knew the same family in Indiana.
After the tour was over, I left Sarah to wander around downtown and went to catch the bus to go to choir practice. As I was leaving, I stopped to thank the tour guide and overheard him telling a friend about the Quaker connection.
On the bus a few minutes later, I couldn't stop smiling. I was amused by the proof that the Quaker world was so small, and happy to spend time with Sarah, but I was also filled with a greater sense of joy. It is so comforting to me to spend time with other Quakers my own age. It makes me feel less alone or crazy to talk with others about how God influences their decisions and to hear them talk in terms of callings and leadings. These are people who care about the future of the Religious Society of Friends and their place in it. It is also pretty fun to spend time with others who get as excited as I do about a local band singing about Mary Dyer!
The next night, I hosted a potluck for Young Adult Friends so that Sarah could tell them about the book project. We got started talking about upcoming events and I mentioned the FWCC Annual Meeting and the Convergent Friends gathering that I am planning to attend. One of the YAFs commented that I seemed really involved and my roommate quipped that I am a Quaker lightning rod. Sarah thought that was hilarious and referred to me as a Quaker lightning rod for the rest of the weekend.
At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about being compared to a lightning rod. It is flattering, but attracting lightning seems a little on the dangerous side. And I have been getting more attention lately than I really feel comfortable with. But at the same time, it is exciting to be the conduit for people to come together, like Friends did over the weekend.
I have decided that I do like the analogy, though, because for a lightning rod to work correctly, it has to be grounded. I was thinking about that today and feeling grateful for all of the things in my life that keep me grounded. I am blessed to have the help of generous friends, a strong family, two active faith communities, and an incredible God to keep my feet on the ground. With all of that to rely on, I feel ready to face the storms ahead.
[For pictures of our adventures, see Sarah's blog post about her trip]
I had heard about Sarah long before I met her. Sarah is also a member of Freedom Friends Church, but we missed each other by a few months because she started attending Freedom Friends a few months after I moved to Seattle. We finally met at the Quaker Women's Theology Conference and I have been lucky enough to see her several times since then.
Sarah came up to Seattle to spread the word about the Quaker Youth Book Project. She is a member of the very impressive editorial board for the project and they are all going out to various meetings and churches to inform Friends age 15 to 35 about how to submit their writing, art, and photography for publication.
Sarah was elated when she found out that another member of the editorial board, Katrina M, is now living in Seattle. I am always happy to meet friends of friends, so we all congregated at my house on Friday night and went out for Chinese food. Because all Quakers know each other within a degree or two, I shouldn't have been surprised that Katrina is also friends with my roommate.
The next day, Sarah, Katrina, Katrina's cousin Erica, my roommate, and I all headed downtown to go on the underground tour. We all enjoyed learning about the history of Seattle, but I think the funniest moment for us was when our tour guide turned to my roommate and said, "You know, I went to a Quaker college and just about all of the guys there had a beard like yours." Sarah responded, "We're all Quakers!" and Katrina quickly established that she and the tour guide knew the same family in Indiana.
After the tour was over, I left Sarah to wander around downtown and went to catch the bus to go to choir practice. As I was leaving, I stopped to thank the tour guide and overheard him telling a friend about the Quaker connection.
On the bus a few minutes later, I couldn't stop smiling. I was amused by the proof that the Quaker world was so small, and happy to spend time with Sarah, but I was also filled with a greater sense of joy. It is so comforting to me to spend time with other Quakers my own age. It makes me feel less alone or crazy to talk with others about how God influences their decisions and to hear them talk in terms of callings and leadings. These are people who care about the future of the Religious Society of Friends and their place in it. It is also pretty fun to spend time with others who get as excited as I do about a local band singing about Mary Dyer!
The next night, I hosted a potluck for Young Adult Friends so that Sarah could tell them about the book project. We got started talking about upcoming events and I mentioned the FWCC Annual Meeting and the Convergent Friends gathering that I am planning to attend. One of the YAFs commented that I seemed really involved and my roommate quipped that I am a Quaker lightning rod. Sarah thought that was hilarious and referred to me as a Quaker lightning rod for the rest of the weekend.
At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about being compared to a lightning rod. It is flattering, but attracting lightning seems a little on the dangerous side. And I have been getting more attention lately than I really feel comfortable with. But at the same time, it is exciting to be the conduit for people to come together, like Friends did over the weekend.
I have decided that I do like the analogy, though, because for a lightning rod to work correctly, it has to be grounded. I was thinking about that today and feeling grateful for all of the things in my life that keep me grounded. I am blessed to have the help of generous friends, a strong family, two active faith communities, and an incredible God to keep my feet on the ground. With all of that to rely on, I feel ready to face the storms ahead.
[For pictures of our adventures, see Sarah's blog post about her trip]
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
With Love
For someone who claims to be a writer, I sometimes have the hardest time getting writing projects together. My friend Sarah H is on the editorial board for the Quaker Youth Book Project, so I have known about that project for quite some time now. I assured Sarah when I saw her in July that I was planning to submit some writing, but now it's November and I am still trying to decide what to submit.
Most of my Quaker-related writing has been for this blog, so I thought a good place to start would be with some posts that I particularly liked. A few months ago, I created a special "Quaker Youth Book Project" folder on my computer and put a few files in there. Then I ignored them.
Earlier this week, I finally printed out a few of the posts and sat down to edit them. I thought it would be nice to put two posts together, contrasting Freedom Friends Church and University Friends Meeting. But when I got to the piece I had written about University Friends, I felt like I was crossing out more than I was leaving. So much has changed since I wrote it.
I had written all about how I felt like no one knew who I was at University Friends, how unwelcoming they were to young adults, and how I felt that sometimes Friends were doing more editing than listening. This simply has not been my experience at University Friends lately.
A Friend who helped to found our Young Adult Friend group recently visited meeting for worship after a long absence. After meeting she asked, "when did the YAF population at the meeting explode?" It's true. A few weeks ago, I counted ten Friends between the ages of 18 and 35 at meeting, and none of them were there for the first time. Most weeks, we have young visitors and many of them visit repeatedly.
In this Year of Discernment, University Friends Meeting is trying to answer two questions: Who are we as a community? and What are we called to do? When I first started working with the other members of the Steering Committee, I didn't feel like the "we" in those questions applied to me. I was a member of another meeting, and I felt like my role in the process of discernment was to provide an outsider perspective.
This has changed too. Even before I formally became a sojourning member of University Friends Meeting, I began to realize that this was my community too. I have been honored and a little embarrased by the warm welcome I have received from so many members of the meeting. They have given me so many gifts and I feel grateful to have them as friends as well as Friends.
A message from meeting on Sunday has stayed with me through the week. A Friend said that he was struggling with what he was called to do and mentioned, almost as an aside, that he was called to love. This rang true to me. We are called to love. In fact, we are commanded to love God and to love our neighbor.
Today, it occurred to me that this message provides one answer to the questions that University Friends is asking. Who are we as a community? Friends. What are we called to do? Love. I know that there is still a lot of work to do and I doubt that University Friends will be able to simplify in the way that some hope by the end of this Year of Discernment. But if we can do all of the things we are doing with love, maybe that will be enough.
Most of my Quaker-related writing has been for this blog, so I thought a good place to start would be with some posts that I particularly liked. A few months ago, I created a special "Quaker Youth Book Project" folder on my computer and put a few files in there. Then I ignored them.
Earlier this week, I finally printed out a few of the posts and sat down to edit them. I thought it would be nice to put two posts together, contrasting Freedom Friends Church and University Friends Meeting. But when I got to the piece I had written about University Friends, I felt like I was crossing out more than I was leaving. So much has changed since I wrote it.
I had written all about how I felt like no one knew who I was at University Friends, how unwelcoming they were to young adults, and how I felt that sometimes Friends were doing more editing than listening. This simply has not been my experience at University Friends lately.
A Friend who helped to found our Young Adult Friend group recently visited meeting for worship after a long absence. After meeting she asked, "when did the YAF population at the meeting explode?" It's true. A few weeks ago, I counted ten Friends between the ages of 18 and 35 at meeting, and none of them were there for the first time. Most weeks, we have young visitors and many of them visit repeatedly.
In this Year of Discernment, University Friends Meeting is trying to answer two questions: Who are we as a community? and What are we called to do? When I first started working with the other members of the Steering Committee, I didn't feel like the "we" in those questions applied to me. I was a member of another meeting, and I felt like my role in the process of discernment was to provide an outsider perspective.
This has changed too. Even before I formally became a sojourning member of University Friends Meeting, I began to realize that this was my community too. I have been honored and a little embarrased by the warm welcome I have received from so many members of the meeting. They have given me so many gifts and I feel grateful to have them as friends as well as Friends.
A message from meeting on Sunday has stayed with me through the week. A Friend said that he was struggling with what he was called to do and mentioned, almost as an aside, that he was called to love. This rang true to me. We are called to love. In fact, we are commanded to love God and to love our neighbor.
Today, it occurred to me that this message provides one answer to the questions that University Friends is asking. Who are we as a community? Friends. What are we called to do? Love. I know that there is still a lot of work to do and I doubt that University Friends will be able to simplify in the way that some hope by the end of this Year of Discernment. But if we can do all of the things we are doing with love, maybe that will be enough.
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