Minutes April 2022 Meeting for Business
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
April 17, 2022
Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Auberta Galusha, Alison Levie, Gabrielle Isenbrand, Edward Cady, Priscilla Tracy, Juliet Wright, and Michael Wajda.
We gathered in the Senior Center for meeting for worship with attention to business again wearing masks for safety during the pandemic. The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the clerk read the following quote from John Pushon:
“The meeting for business cannot be understood in isolation; it is part of a spiritual discipline.”
John Punshon, 1987, cited from Britain’s Faith & Practice (3rd edition); 2.85
The recording clerk read the minutes of our March 20, 2022 meeting for business for information.
2022-09. The meeting requested an update from Michael Wajda on his leading to help nurture deeply anchored meetings for worship and business in the Religious Society of Friends. Michael met with a group of ten Friends on December 1, 2021, which included Timmy Bullock, Priscilla Tracy, and Alison Levie from our meeting. The purpose of that meeting was to consider next steps with his calling.
Michael is clear that his call remains strong with him and that he needs to attend to his own deep faithfulness all along the way. So far, what has emerged is an interest in hosting an in-person extended meeting for worship at Woolman Hill.
Michael has been in conversations with Margaret Cooley about hosting such a day of extended worship and it appears likely that such a meeting will be held on May 14, 2022. The day will be modeled after a longtime practice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting where such extended worship opportunities are offered every couple of months at various locations around the yearly meeting.
Essentially Friends will gather in the Woolman Hill meeting house at 9:30 a.m. for three hours or so of expectant waiting worship. While three hours may sound like a long time, Friends who have been practicing this kind of extended worship have often been surprised how quickly it seems to go by. Friends are free to get up and move around, to lie down on the benches, to use the bathroom, even to take a walk outside and rejoin the worship as led. Following the worship, Friends eat their own brown bag lunch. After lunch, Friends either return to worship or gather for some worship-sharing about their experiences of the morning. The day will close by 3:00 p.m. Friends will be welcome to come for the morning only, and/or to stay for lunch, or to stay for the whole day. Michael will know soon if way has opened for May 14.
Assuming this extended worship opportunity happens, Michael would like to know if he could include in the materials circulated by Woolman Hill that his ministry is under the care of Bennington Meeting. The meeting approved listing Michael’s ministry with these extended meetings under its care.
2022-10. The meeting has been holding a question of how and when to consider future directions for the meeting, including the use of our finances. We decided to postpone this consideration to a future meeting.
2022-11. Our clerk raised a question of whether we still want to be wearing masks when we gather and when we will feel safe to return to our regular shared (not bring your own) potlucks.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
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Jan 21 2024