Monthly Community Meeting
Friends Meeting of Washington
Order of Worship
Monthly Community Meeting
(Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business)
December 8, 2024
Query for Worship Sharing: In these difficult times where so many issues are causing turmoil for so many, we must remember that our meetings for business are meeting for worship. Do we humbly set aside our own preconceived notions as to proper action, seeking instead divine guidance as to the right course?
(BYM Faith & Practice: Decision Making in Friends Meeting (p. 34))
Clerk’s Report, December 2024
Upcoming Events
Shoebox/Backpack Project–Assembling Gifts for unhoused DC residents at FMW | Saturday-Sunday, Dec 14-15. Join us! Many volunteers needed to set up, unload the truck on Saturday morning, welcome and train others, and assemble gifts. For more info and to volunteer, contact CJ Lewis (CJLewis0001@gmail.com), cell: 202-704-4430
Holiday Jazz Concert at FMW, Saturday, December 14, 7:00 pm
Celebrate the holidays with FMW’s own Bruce Jacobs and his MJP Power Trio.
Suggested donation $20. All proceeds to support FMW’s Personal Aid Committee
Register here. For more info, contact Greg Robb (Gregory.Robb@gmail.com)
Violence De-escalation/Active By-stander Intervention training, Quaker House Living Room Sat, Jan 11, 1:30-4:30 pm. As we look toward tumultuous times, we can build our de-escalation and nonviolent intervention skills. Save this date. For more information, contact Ken Forsberg (klforsberg@gmail.com)
Special Christmas Day Meeting for Worship, FMW lobby, 11:00 am
For more information, contact Debby Churchman (DChurchm@yahoo.com)
Winter 2025, Quakerism 101: Introductory class - starts January 14th
FMW’s Winter 2025 Quakerism 101 will begin on January 14. Sessions 1 through 4 will be held on zoom, Tuesdays January 14 to February 3, 7:00-8:30 pm. Session 5 will be held in person at FMW and online, on Sunday, February 9, 12:15-1:45 pm. Outline here. Register here. For more info contact: Ann Herzog (aherzog333@yahoo.com)
FMW Community Highlights & Kudos
On November 21, Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) and its Beyond Gas partners released the results of its 2-year citizen science investigation of health-harming emissions from gas stoves. FMW has followed and supported this work in many way. For more, see the report, press coverage and webinar are here. (BeyondGasDC.org/NO2)
On Sunday, December 1, FMW member Helena Cobban was joined by 35 community members and guests in a presentation and discussion of her recent book “Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters.”
Tenant Updates- Activities at our Meeting House
Many events, and bookings still running ahead of previous years. Here’s the Rentals Report for November.
Business
Minutes of November Meeting for Worship for Business – Approval
Ministry and Worship Annual Report (below) – Diane Randall
Nominating Committee – Michael Beer
All proposed Committee member terms are for three years 1/1/25 - 12/31/27.
All proposed clerk terms are for one year 1/1/25 - 12/31/25
Jason Terry, another term and clerk on F&S
Grant Thompson, clerk F&S
Jim Bell, another term for Nominating
Gregg Rob, clerk for Hospitality
Gene Throw, clerk Library and Records for another year
Rebecca Nelson, clerk Membership
Gray Handley, clerk Ministry and Worship
Kathy Powell, new term on Ministry and Worship
Steve Chase, clerk for Peace and Social Concerns
Margaret Fuener, Personal Aid Committee
Kenneth Palmer, Personal Aid Committee
Hannah Warner, Personal Aid Committee
Amanda Mayer, Personal Aid Committee
Judy Hubbard, another term on Property Committee
Michael Beer, clerk on Nominating Committee
Micah Tsoi, Property Committee
Kathy Powell, new term on Ministry and Worship
CJ Pfutzner, Peace and Social Concerns and co-clerk
Kenneth Palmer, Peace and Social Concerns
Hannah Warner, Peace and Social Concerns
Barbara Briggs, Liaison for Washington Interfaith Network
Elo Wittig, Hospitality Committee
EJ Hardwick, Hospitality Committee
Brian Holland, representative to FUM
Ari Ebi, Marriage and Family Relations
Aaron Johnson, clerk, Personnel Committee in
Justin Conner, new term on Personnel Committee
Resignations
Beth Cogswell from Membership and from Marriage and Family Relations
Ann Herzog from Ministry and Worship
Helen Qubain from Peace and Social Concerns
Marriage and Family Relations Report (below)
Membership Committee – Rebecca Nelson
Samaa Eldadah–second presentation
Anti-war banner for our fence – Peace & Social Concerns
Seek Peace & Pursue it.
Never Again. For Anyone
CEASEFIRE NOW.
January: Membership, Library Records & Handbook, P&SC (held from Oct), Annual Reports of Liaisons w/AFSC and FCNL
February: Spiritual State of the Meeting Report, Healing and Reconciliation
ADDENDA: ATTACHED COMMITTEE REPORTS
Annual Report – 2023/24
Friends Meeting of Washington Ministry and Worship Committee
During the last year, the Ministry and Worship Committee (M&W) has actively supported the numerous meetings for worship convened each week by the Friends Meeting of Washington. While these Meetings support our corporate worship as Quakers, the committee, working with many other committees and Friends, also has sought to enhance our spiritual wellbeing through multiple called meetings for worship focused on urgent concerns, worship sharing sessions, and many activities designed to provide spiritual enrichment, community nourishment, and learning opportunities for members and attenders.
Adult Religious Education
The Ministry and Worship Committee oversees Adult Religious Education, which has included many active initiatives over the last year, with great appreciation to Ann Herzog who facilitates these opportunities. The well-planned and managed core course, Quakerism 101 (Q101), held its fifth course in the Spring and made its content web-available with open access. The Spring Q101 was well attended though the number of participants has declined with each subsequent course, suggesting we may have met the acute need for the time being. Due to low registration numbers for the fall course, this iteration was cancelled. Going forward the course will likely be offered once a year in the winter, starting in mid-January through the end of February as a standard educational offering, not subject to cancellation regardless of advanced registration. Course evaluations of Q101 have been appreciative and provided helpful suggestions. Attendees have noted that Q101 offers deep spiritual growth opportunities for both newcomers and longer-time Friends.
For individuals who seek to continue with a deeper exploration of some topics raised in Q101 (as well as other seekers), a program called “A Deeper Dive into Quakerism”, facilitated by Joe Izzo, has continued to provide a seminar-like experience focused on important early Quaker writers and Quaker history, faith & practice. Like Q101, this opportunity has been an enriching one for all its participants.
In addition to the Q101 course, Adult Religious Education with the Membership Committee invited participants who had paused their attendance of FMW’s Meetings for Worship, to attend the January Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business. A Q&A session with the co-clerks was held after the meeting to enhance inquirers’ understanding about FMW and religious practice in the manner of Friends. Encouragingly, eleven individuals who participated in the session had not attended a Meeting for Business in the past.
This year two new programs were offered and were well received. In May, the Street Sense Theater performed an adaptation of Pericles in our Meeting House with an open invitation. The program helped increase awareness at FMW of the difficulties encountered by our unhoused neighbors. This program attracted over fifty participants, ranging from newcomers at FMW to well-seasoned members and attenders. The Committee hopes that this or a similar performance might be offered annually at FMW.
In September, Jon Watts, Executive Director of Thee Quaker, spoke at a forum that included over thirty attenders and seemed to primarily attract more established Quakers rather than newcomers. Jon talked about his own spiritual journey to founding Thee Quaker, a new Quaker media organization with a mission to be 'publishers of Truth' in the Internet Age. This outreach to a wide audience includes podcasts and videos to tell Friends’ stories from the past to the present and into the future. Thee Quaker also sponsors The Daily Quaker, an inspiration/meditation sent daily to subscribers' email. A synergistic aspect of this engagement is that our Q101 course currently draws on internet accessible Quaker Speak videos for its sessions. Jon Watts was the initiator and developer of Quaker Speak in its first years of operation. Going forward, Thee Quaker and The Daily Quaker Message will also be resources used in the Q101 course.
The Quaker Spiritual Development Program is still very active. Due to changes in interest level, the Spiritual Formation Program was reimagined using a new format and time – while still maintaining a worship sharing component. This new approach, the “2nd Hour”, emerged from a collaboration between the facilitators of the Hospitality Committee’s “A Second Cup” and the Spiritual Formation Program. The “2nd Hour” includes the sharing of spiritual journeys with deep worship sharing. The first session was held in September with 11 attendees. Initial feedback was very positive though the program may evolve if the interests and needs of the participants change.
Meeting for Worship Support
The Committee also focused considerable attention on how to enhance our Meetings for Worship by facilitating settling into silence, welcoming and guiding newcomers, and nurturing spirit-led vocal ministry provided by Friends and attenders. Toward the end of the year, the Committee initiated a post-Meeting interaction opportunity for those who feel called to vocal ministry to discuss the intent and practice of vocal ministry with M&W members. These brief discussions will occur at rise of 10:30 am Meeting with a focus on how one discerns a leading to vocal ministry and how such ministries fit within Quaker practice to enhance silent worship.
In the 10:30 am Meeting for Worship, M&W introduced a system that assigned Head of Meeting welcoming and announcement responsibilities among specific Friends who volunteered. This system continued to feature each committee, in rotation, so that they could welcome worshipers entering the Meeting Room and, during announcements, share information about their work and invite new members from the Facing Bench. While still in a trial phase, this system seems to have helped make welcoming and announcements more uniform while providing a platform for each committee.
In addition, M&W sought to reduce interruption due to late entry during the 10:30 am Meeting for Worship. Benches were set aside near the door so latecomers could seat themselves quickly and quietly. Greeters were asked to linger outside the door for 15 minutes to gently inform latecomers about the value of entering quietly. So far, this has met with mixed success as we balance welcoming all while also trying to honor the silence essential to our worship. Additional assistance from each week’s featured committee would be helpful in this effort, particularly through their greeting of late-arriving worshipers.
The Committee also welcomed and has supported Members led to convene monthly mid-week evening Meetings for Worship for the LGBTQ+ Community, convened each third Wednesday. This meeting is in addition to our regular mid-week Meeting for Worship, the First Day evening Meeting for Worship (with a new convener), and the 9:30 am. First Day Meeting for Worship, which encourages silent worship and includes time for “afterthoughts” – all of which have been held under the care of M&W.
During the year, the Committee also addressed FMW’s support for individuals called to Quaker ministry in our region’s academic institutions. Changes were made in the FMW “Faith and Practice” to clarify how these relationships will be nurtured with M&W guidance.
In support of the Meeting-wide goal of becoming an antiracist meeting, M&W compiled information about all the related activities and efforts underway in our community so that information about them could be widely shared. The Committee has offered to report on these activities on a regular basis to future Meetings for Worship with a Concern for Business. In addition, M&W has co-sponsored several worship sharing sessions, seminars and other activities focused on addressing unconscious racism and privilege. Members of the FMW working group on antiracism convened several sessions for individuals who wished to write statements of complicity with White supremacy which were shared in nonjudgmental support in the sessions. Spiritual Friendship style groups for anti-racism/complicity exploration continue to meet to explore individual and meeting-wide opportunities for understanding how anti-racism work is spiritually nurturing. It is clear that becoming an antiracist meeting is necessary for the spiritual health of our community, while recognizing that it is a very challenging endeavor – both for many of us individually and for our community collectively. M&W would welcome learning about Members’, Attenders’, and Committees’ leadings in service of this objective.
As our community, our nation, and our world confronted fear and anger inducing events during the year – including on-going divisive wars, climate change and consequential elections – the Committee convened or co-convened several worship sharing meetings. The Committee sees this as an ongoing need for the year ahead and welcomes individual or group leadings that involve Quakerly seeking, sharing, and nurturing as we yearn for guidance from the Spirit/Light Within. The Committee also continues to partner and collaborate with many FMW committees and projects to support the work of our shared spiritual mission. Members of M&W facilitated a Workshop on Grief and Loss which provided support and resources to the 21 individuals in attendance. Similar future workshops are anticipated as needs are identified and way opens.
The long-standing Quaker practice of convening “Friendly 8’s” was re-launched this year with a scheduling structure based on participants availability. Multiple groups were formed and many have met regularly with resulting reports of positive spiritual and social support for attendees. One group reported two members who were in a Friendly 8’s group together decades ago have been reengaged and are pleased to see this rebirth of the practice.
The Committee expressed deep appreciation to Greg Robb for his long service on the Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee. Gene Throwe was identified by the Committee as potentially the next FMW member to serve on this BYM Committee.
Spiritual State of the Meeting
As it compiled this year’s Spiritual State of the Meeting report for submission to BYM, the Committee undertook extensive consultations and sought input from all the members and attenders of our community. We were gratified to have a high response rate either through an on-line survey tool, group sharing sessions, or in direct interactions with committee members. Detailed recommendations received by M&W were shared with the appropriate FMW committees so that they might respond to the relevant suggestions and opportunities provided by respondents. For additional details related to this report, M&W recommends individuals review its content.
Memorial Meetings
The committee oversaw Memorial Meetings for Worship for several beloved Friends, whom we continue to miss physically as their spirits remain with us. These include the following Memorial Meetings, held in good order, for: Hayden Wetzel (07/02/2023); Janet Dinsmore (09/17/2023); Sue Swisher (01/20/2024 held at Goodwin House where she resided); Bob Meehan (05/04/2024).
Welcoming Newcomers
This year, with assistance from our diligent FMW Secretary, the Committee began sending a welcome letter and brochure on what FMW offers, via email, to new attendees who provided their address and invited more contact. Initially, letters were sent to individuals who had attended at some time over the last two years. Subsequently, letters have been and are being sent to new attendees each quarter. To date, about 300 of these letters have been conveyed. In addition to the welcoming letters, the Committee worked with Friends and staff to develop “newcomer welcome bags” (using Kenyan shopping totes). Over the year, many newcomers have obtained name badges as regular attendees. However, the Committee recognizes that much more can be done to welcome newcomers and share our Quaker faith and practices. In this regard, M&W celebrates the welcoming efforts undertaken with enthusiasm by many individuals and committees within our beloved community. In particular, M&W welcomes and looks forward to working with the newly formed Advancement and Outreach Group.
Committee members: Gray Handley (Clerk), Debby Churchman, Joe Izzo, John Meyer, Kathy Powell, Diane Randall, Elise Storck. Ann Herzog, Viticia Thames, and Raymond Patch also served on the Committee during this past year.
Report of Marriage and Family Relations Committee
December 2024
The purpose of the committee is to assist with weddings and baby welcoming ceremonies (“baby welcomings”). Our activities during 2024 include:
Marriage under the Care of the Meeting.
The committee oversaw the marriage of Michael Wood and Danya Clark on June 22, 2024 in good order.
Meeting for Business (MFB) approved the marriage of Hannah Bristol and Marie McGrath, as recommended by the committee. The marriage will be held on May 31, 2025 at the Meeting.
Baby Welcomings
The committee assisted with several baby welcomings this year, including:
Magnolia Andrews Mayer and James Juniper Mayer on February 11, 2024; and
Viviana and Elio Tucker-Ray on April 4, 2024, and
Olmo Rengifo Mitjans on October 16, 2024.
Outstanding Tasks
The marriage procedures manual is still in need of simplification. The committee has not yet completed this task, due to lack of capacity.
Outstanding Recommendations:
Several years ago, the Meeting for Business approved recommendations for a restructuring of committees to ease the workload on active members. It was recommended that Marriage and Family Relations Committee should be merged with Ministry and Worship Committee and then activated as a sub-committee when needed.
If the Marriage and Family Relations Committee continues as a stand-alone committee, consideration should be given to meeting only as needed rather than monthly.
Martha Solt, Basil Kiwan
Co-Clerks
