REPORT ON THE 338TH ANNUAL SESSION OF BALTIMORE YEARLY MEETING
Held at Frostburg State University Eighth Month 3 - 9, 2009
Howard Fullerton, Presiding Clerk
'The Business of our Lives: Putting our Faith into Practice'
2. Paul Luckenbaugh, acting as 'reading clerk' on Tuesday read the following from Britain Yearly Meeting, 1960:
No organization or plan can produce a good yearly meeting if those who attend come for an inadequate reason. When the Religious Society of Friends gathers for its annual assembly, it does so because it seeks to come to know the mind of God on the various affairs to be brought forward. We are ordinary people with the shortcomings of ordinary people and there is laid upon us the necessity of patience with one another in all our gatherings and especially in Yearly Meeting, and the willingness to accept the imperfect, arising from our human limitations. When, therefore, we find our Yearly Meeting falling short of the standard which it could reach, whether in worship or in deliberation, it behooves each of us to listen more intently for the voice of the Spirit and to seek the more earnestly that every contribution, be it the spoken word or in silence, is that which is in accord with the Divine leading. In our worship at Yearly Meeting it is laid upon us with special weight to listen. It is not our ministry that is required in worship, nor our inspiration in deliberations, but we seek to hear the true word of God Speaking through our frail humanity and leading us to the place where He would have us be. This is the right holding of Yearly Meeting.
3. Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) accepted and warmly welcomed Abingdon Friends Meeting (Abingdon, Virginia) as a member Monthly Meeting in BYM. Abingdon is unusual because it was not formed as a Preparative Meeting, but began on its own at a retirement community in Abingdon.
4. David Zarembka, assisted by daughter Joy and wife Gladys Kamonya, spoke to the gathering on Tuesday evening about the work of Friends Peace Teams with the African Great Lakes Initiative. We were warmly invited to participate in work camps in Kenya. David asked those assembled to see Friends in Africa not as 'other' but as part of our family. He urged us to learn more, to engage more, and to care more about the sufferings of Friends in Africa and the amazing work many of them are doing in peace-building.
5. The Friends in Education Committee as a standing committee was laid down, to be resurrected as a working group under the care of Advancement & Outreach (A&O). Further, A&O agreed to take Friends Meeting School under its Spiritual Care. This will not be a financial care, but the Yearly Meeting will appoint two board members. Note that Friends Meeting School 'untied the ribbon' (they re-use the same ribbon for each new 'opening') on its new building Friday, September 11th. The expanded school includes a new 9th grade this year.
It was approved that BYM will only appoint 4 (versus 6) Sandy Spring Friends School (SSFS) Board Members. SSFS will continue to have a majority Quaker Board.
6. The three camps (Catoctin, Opequon, and Shiloh) and Teen Adventure had good camping experiences this year. Shiloh was under-enrolled.
7. FWCC (Friends World Committee for Consultation) will be holding its annual meeting in Reistertown Maryland March 18th-21st). Contact Sheila Bach for more information at how you can perhaps help.
8. Ann Riggs, sojourning at Annapolis, will be serving as the Principle of Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya. She presented a slide show of the college, where students complete 'certificates' (similar to an Associates Degree) or Bachelor's Degrees. They are seeking Friends to volunteer to teach semester-long courses and short two-week Intensives. The college is currently seeking accredation, which will require updating their library and their computer labs.
9. Sheila Bach presented the draft Faith & Practice as it has been completed to date. Anyone interested can order a copy from the literature table for $5.00. The draft has been self-published in book form as that is much cheaper than continuing to make copies. Input is requested from all who read it. Contact info is in the back of the draft.
10. Saturday morning began with a memorial meeting for Miriam Green of Baltimore/Homewood; Lois Smith Vaught (2 months shy of her 107th birthday) of Sandy Spring; Margery Larrabee, formerly of Friends Meeting of Washington; and Susan Rose of Patapsco.
11. Mary Lord and J. E. McNeil presented the Friends United Meeting (FUM) report. FUM is suffering from 'persistent cash-flow problems.' The staff in Richmond is working at reduced pay, and in some cases, at reduced hours as well. Regarding the 'personnel policy,' the General Board is at a standstill. There is no unity on the board for changing it at this time and the policy will remain in the new edition of the handbook. However, individual Yearly Meetings within FUM do show some movement. Stay tuned.
12. BYM has a line item in its budget termed 'undesignated reserve,' which contains, on paper, money to be held for FUM. In 2010 $7,000 will be added to that line. Stewardship & Finance is committed to building up the Yearly Meeting's unrestricted reserves. Currently they stand at $10,000. In 2010, assuming all other goals are met, they anticipate a larger than normal contribution of $16,000 to the reserve fund. To do this while at the same time increasing salaries to be in keeping with other not-for-profits of our size, some committee budgets have been reduced, and donations are hoped for. Further questions should be addressed to Stewardship & Finance clerk Natalie Finnegar or to Treasurer Marion Ballard.
13. Please seek out the BYM website and Advancement & Outreach's 'Q-Tube Project' link to You Tube to see and hear what members of BYM believe and how they came to believe it!
14. Deborah Haines (Alexandria), the Yearly Meeting Recording Clerk, is stepping down after six years of service to our Yearly Meeting. Ramona Buck, of Patapsco, will begin service at the 339th session next year.
15. Last, but certainly not least, the Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns has asked each Monthly Meeting to consider the following query and to send them their response:
Historically Friends held a called meeting for worship to celebrate the religious commitment and spiritual union of two of their members. There was no legal or civil component to these earliest marriages, because the state did not sanction marriage between two Friends in a Quaker meetinghouse. Today many of our Friends are in a similar position. No legal jurisdiction within the boundaries of our yearly meeting will sanction marriage between two Friends of the same gender.
Is it time to return to this earlier practice of separation of church and state? In accordance with our testimony to equality, should we offer the same marriage under the care of meeting-no more no less-to all couples, while encouraging couples who are legally able, to have a separate civil ceremony?
Susan Kaul, Yearly Meeting Representative
