To all Friends everywhere,
Greetings from Friends of Wilmington Yearly Meeting, who gathered in Maryville, Tennessee, from July 25–28, 2024. We were gathered from East Tennessee, southwest and central Ohio, and other places as well, to be enriched together in fellowship, workshops, business, recreation, refreshments, and the simple act of being in each other’s company. We were encouraged by our scripture for the gathering—Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Our theme was “Becoming the Quakers the World Needs.” We discovered, throughout our four days together, that we kept on being exactly that. Many of our presentations touched directly, not on theories of HOW to be the Quakers the world needs, but stories of where that is already happening.
One example was Gary Farlow’s workshop on “Ministry of Meetinghouse.” Gary spoke about the long process that Xenia Friends Meeting went through to figure out how to make their meetinghouse a space that could help meet the needs of their neighborhood on the south side of Xenia, Ohio, even though the members of Xenia Friends felt themselves to be too few in number and too lacking in energy and strength to meet those needs directly. Though many of the ideas that were generated at their first community meeting failed to advance—because members of the community organizations present were already working at maximum capacity and could not take on another project—they eventually entered into partnership with another worship group that now actively shares their space with them.
President Corey Cockerill’s report on Wilmington College showed us a number of ways in which the college is striving to become what the world needs. She spoke about the college’s new strategic plan, which includes elevating the school’s core values, many of which are based on Quaker testimonies. She also reported on the reconstitution of the college’s prison education program. Wilmington was an educator inside Ohio prisons for nearly forty years before federal and state grants for prisoner education were reduced and then ended. When those grants were restored in the summer of 2023, Wilmington was the first Ohio college to offer the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction a proposal for prison education. The department accepted the proposal and Wilmington College resumed its prison education program this spring.
As the USFW speaker on Friday night, Karla Jay spoke about her family’s experience as immigrants, and how Friends communities in California and Boston stepped in to help when her father, a widower with four young children, needed material support. In her current position as Global Ministries Coordinator for Friends United Meeting, she sees some of these same needs—for housing, for translating, for English education—among the immigrant community in Richmond, Indiana, where she now lives. Richmond churches and FUM’s newly-formed Latino Friends in North America committee are partnering to provide greater support to this community, particularly to several families of Cuban refugees accepted into the United States through a recent refugee parole program. Karla believes that Friends in Indiana (and elsewhere) can be the support system that Latino immigrants need.
In a related vein, we had an experience of welcoming our neighbors who might sit beside us in the same pew. This year, Wilmington Yearly Meeting recorded four persons for their gift of gospel ministry. In celebration, each of these persons brought with them family and Meeting members who were completely new to Yearly Meeting—somewhere between fifteen to twenty people who were, even if members of the Yearly Meeting, essentially “guests.” Veterans of Yearly Meeting found places for them to sit and eat, engaged them in conversation, shared stories and sometimes answered questions, and did not allow them to be outside the circle of participants.
In alignment with that ministry of spreading welcome, one of our items of business was to accept a volunteer coordinator for a ministry of traveling Friends within Wilmington Yearly Meeting—to find people called to visit other Meetings to build relationships among us, with no agenda other than encouragement.
We also took a few hours to remember the Quakers the world once needed. For our celebration of George Fox’s 400th birthday, Paul Buckley brought us an honest yet tender eulogy for George Fox through the eyes of William Penn. After the fun of the birthday party, playing hymns with bells, and a lively round of Quaker Jeopardy, Paul’s message brought us to a larger and closer understanding of George’s life.
In those moments where we were not talking or hearing about the ways we already are being the Quakers the world needs, we were considering ways to discover what that means for ourselves and our Yearly Meeting. Whether it was hearing and discussing Frederick Buechner’s idea that “your vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger,” or a small group discussion on how we can—and whether we can—become perfect as Christ commands, we were encouraged to deeply consider the ways our giftedness can serve the needs of this world.
On Saturday afternoon, our friend J.P. Lund gave us an example of deep gladness meeting deep hunger when he played for us his original piano composition, “The Amazing Variations,” in which he used the melodic elements of the hymns “Amazing Grace” and “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” reflecting them through a prism of blues, jazz, classical and other musical styles to create a piece of music which was comforting, comfortable, and joy-inducing.
We were likewise encouraged by our Peace Lecturer, Chip Woods, to always remain open to the unexpected callings of God’s Holy Spirit, and to be willing to accept a call into situations outside of our comfort zone where we may find truly deep satisfaction.
In our Saturday evening presentation, Miriam Speaight talked about George Fox’s history as a miracle worker, which she saw as a fulfillment of Jesus’s exhortation to his disciples to go and heal others. As Christians and as followers of George Fox, we have a legacy of healing one another to carry on, she said—and our silence and way of worship, which move us into different segments of our brain, prepare us to do this work.
At our memorial service on Saturday, we remembered twelve Friends. Neil Snarr stood out as one Friend whom almost everyone in attendance had known, because of his energy and activities within the Yearly Meeting, at Wilmington College, and within Wilmington Monthly Meeting. Neil was often an encourager, occasionally irritating, and yet someone whom we knew, without question, lived his life trying to figure out what the world needed and how to answer that need. He did that, one speaker noted, with an energy that seemed to indicate that he was given 48 hours for every 24 the rest of us received. We remembered him fondly as an embodiment of our theme.
We hope this finds your Meeting discovering your own places within God’s Light and leading.
On behalf of Wilmington Yearly Meeting,
the 2024 WYM Epistle Committee
Jonathan Goff
Dan Kasztelan
Miriam Speaight
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