Talking about Blogging In Meeting for Worship

Today in Meeting for Worship I sat down and right away I was quaking and really deep. I did not feel like everyone else was a long with me but I did not care. I was periodically called back to this deep since.

The second message of the day was about what if God was a blogger. God isn’t “God the Father” God is “God the Blogger.” This really stuck me. Some later gave ministry about how when people are in a community they become open and this person sort of said that if all we did was read we would be able to be open in the same way. I disagreed right away but sat with it for a long while.

I started to dismiss the whole ministry thing and then I started having a major feeling that something needed to be said but was sure it was not ministry. I thought most of my feelings were around having to leave this meeting in just three weeks and me grieving.

The strong feeling of ministry came back a last time right before meeting ended and I did not know what to do so I grabbed on to Kristina to try to settle myself but it was not helping so when meeting closed I sat there and took my time in closing for myself. During Afterthoughts I contemplated on what to say and then I just stood up (after being prompted by Kristina) and let spirit talk through me. I talked about how there is a group of people online that have created a community to look at Quakerism and that for me it is my part of my spiritual practice to get on QuakerQuaker.org every morning after I check my email.

-----

This is the first time that I have spoken in this meeting. I have grown up in this meeting and I think this is part of the reason. Kody and I had this conversation with my dad when he was here this last week about why we do not minister in the meetings we grow up in (maybe a post for later).

I am a member of Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting

Last week was my called meeting for worship for the concern for business. It was extremely nice. Because it was the only business the assistant clerk stood up right before meeting was dismissed and explained the process I had gone through and then asked if there where and problems with this. No one had any problems and no one had brought any forward so it was extremely quick and easy. It was a little hard for me to sit in the meeting because I felt like meeting for worship should not have ended yet even though the time allotment was done.

After the meeting was done I was trying not to stop my worship so that I could got continue worshipping with my friend Kristina but it was almost impossible to get to the other side of the room because people wanted to congratulated me.

Today was the actual welcoming and it was nice as well but again I did not really want worship to end because I knew what was happening afterwards. I was excited but I was also being shy around it because i have been in this meeting since I was three and a half.

The welcoming potluck was fun. My meeting does a membership certificate so I now have a certificate with all the members that were at meeting this week and will take it back in two weeks when I get back from Koinonia and Pacific Yearly Meeting.

Worship on the Train

My sister and I took the Coast Starlight Amtrak train to FGC Gathering. I knew there were close to 40 other Quakers on the train and I thought it would be wonderful to all meet in one spot so we could see who else was on the train.

So on Friday June 30th I talked to some other Quakers about having Meeting for Worship in the empty room down stairs on the last car. A small group of us went down to look at the compartment and the conductor was down there and over heard our conversation. He was interested and agreed that it would be nice and possible to do it in the empty room. Then we asked him if we could make an announcement since we were spread out through out the train. He had to think about it because they are not allowed to make religious announcements. He agreed on "At 3:45 Friends are going to have a Meeting in the last car down stairs and everyone is invited." this way if you are a Quaker you would know what we meant.

Through out the day we make three different announcements/ reminders. We had to move meeting back a little from the first announcement because of lunch reservations.

The car had no windows and the lights did not turn on so we had to put a bag in the door so that light could get in. The car had been the smoking car when smoking was allowed a few years back. About 35 people showed up. We sat on the floor and almost all had back supports. About 5 people sat in the middle of the car and 5 or so people stood in the hall because they had little/ young kids who need to be moving.

Because we were in a small room not totally comfortable but making the chose to sit there, a lot of the messages were about use being willing to take some time away from the comfort of the train and sitting down where we could not see where we were and even if we were really moving until the train jerks around.

For me it was another reminder of how much choice I have on when I want to step out of my comfort zone. Sitting in a car where I am not sure where I am but I know I will end up in Tacoma Washington was a metaphor of my life at the moment; I know I am going to be at Pendle Hill in August but I am not sure about the time between now and then and how it will all play out but I do not really care because I know it will happen. I did not really care that I was sitting on the floor in a little stuffy room because I was sitting in the spirit and everything was going to work out. The conditions were a distraction at first but then it dissipated because everyone was there because they wanted to be.

After about 45 minutes of worship I closed it and thanked friends for coming and joining. We went around the room and introduced ourselves and what meeting we are from. There was on Friend from New Mexico and then the rest of us were from California. We had two non-Quakers join us and leave halfway through.

It was wonderful to know how many of us were on the train (plus more that could not join because of age or mobility) and know we would be on the train for as long as it took us and that we did not really care how long it would take, until we arrived in the middle of the night.

More on Gathering to come soon.