York Monthly Meeting
Spiritual State of the Meeting Report ~ 2006

            Our Meeting did more in 2006 than ever before in terms of outreach and financial support: i.e.: donations to AFSC and FCNL, camp scholarships for young people to attend Quaker camp, meals for needy people at the Majestic restaurant, donations to Access York, Our Daily Bread, and Helping Hands for the Homeless. We also undertook the following outreach activities: Oysterfest, native plant project, Steam Plant situation, and First Night. Two concerns from this outward activity are how are we led to balance sharing our resources, both financial and energetic, with our responsibility to the needs of the Meeting, both physical and spiritual.

A painting project and the loss of a strong leader brought to light communication issues in the Meeting. People seem to have varying levels of acceptance of differences and may feel isolated by personal responsibilities to the extent that they don’t seek help from other members of the community or doubt that help would be forthcoming. A parallel issue is the observation that speaking truth is sometimes done without sufficient love and concern for the other. Can we take the time and effort to make sure that what was said and what was heard are the same message? Do we ask for God's guidance as we seek for how best to serve the communities inside and outside the Meeting rather than relying on our own mental decision making process?

The attendance of families with babies and young children has brought joy and energy to our meeting. We face not only the challenge of providing an education program for these children and supporting those in the meeting who are actually doing the teaching and working with the children, but also supporting and encouraging each of us on our spiritual journeys. That includes members and attenders who come infrequently as well as welcoming new people. Phone calls have been appreciated in the past. Personal contact is effective. Could we call people at least twice a year to invite them to some event and let them know we're thinking of them? Quakerism 101 "refresher" class was very helpful and it would be good to continue doing this every so often to remind us of our Quaker roots and traditions and to build on these.

A visitor mentioned one attraction for her is that Quakers are a piece of living history. She visits different churches in order to explore various ways to hear God better and feels that God speaks well here. This is a powerful reminder to us to live in that Power and Spirit of those early testimonies and experiences and seek and trust Its guidance today whenever confronted with how to respond to the needs and problems we see around us.