Summer is waning, school is beginning and we are getting ready for the next All-Meeting Retreat. University Meeting needs to make several decisions this year and we need as many voices in the conversation as we can gather. The coming Retreat will be, in part, another step in the decision making process.
We have to decide how to manage our financial and physical plant resources so that UFM can continue to provide a spiritual and community home. Good stewardship demands that we care for the resources we own and share. Our community has to revisit and recommit to the choices that were made by previous generations in UFM. There is no one charged with reminding us that it is time to decide to combine Oversight and Worship and Ministry Committees or keep Quaker House or rent the Meeting House to outside groups. [Note: these are only examples of decisions that have been made in the past, they are not necessarily what we will be discussing]
When events jolt us into awareness that something is wrong, we have to take that opportunity to look, consider deeply and discern what we are led to do-again. I hope this happens for the rest of University Meeting's existence. It keeps us from becoming complacent and it means that UFM is alive to what the Spirit has in store for us.A more complete schedule will be published in the October Gleamings and on the UFM Website at the same time. Of course, there will be worship, treats, time to chat with others, lunch, house and garden work parties, small and large group gatherings and perhaps a skit.
Please contact the Year of Discernment Steering Committee to sign up for the retreat or look for the sign-up sheets outside the office door beginning in early October.
--Dorsey G for the Year of Discernment Steering Committee
Asia B, Rick E, Ashley W and David W
Updates from University Friends Meeting's Year of Discernment
A Year of Discernment for University Friends Meeting
What is it?
This will be a year to discern how we become a community:
o that people love and want to serve,
o that allows all members to feel that their work fits into the big picture of the meeting,
o that offers members a universal sense of both caring for and being cared for,
o and that efficiently identifies and recognizes the talents of each member so that we are all left with ample time to deepen our spirituality and community-building.
We hope to be joyful, intentional and corporate in our discernment, to listen to each other and to the Divine, and to listen and share our leadings with one another as we seek a deeper spirituality.
What it isn't
The year of discernment will not be a time to stop our work. We hope it will be a time of excitement and refreshment because work feels different from the usual. We will not be “laying down” committees or asking committees to stop doing certain things. We have also come to realize that work which may seem less essential is often work which people love, and that has led into some close community for the people doing it.
Rather, committees will be asked to examine their work and their mission with questions such as: how is the work connected to the big picture of UFM's work; how can the work be more enriching and fulfilling to committee members; how can (does) the committee build community?
Structural Aspects of the Discernment Year
The structural aspects of the year of discernment will have two parts: the creation of a steering committee to guide the process, and some modest reorganizing of committees to make better use of UFM's existing resources.
Steering Committee
Nominating Committee will nominate, and bring forward for the approval of meeting for business, a “Discernment Year Steering Committee.” This committee will oversee the preparation, implementation and analysis of the discernment process and prepare a proposal for the actions that will follow the year of discernment. Nominating Committee hopes that the steering committee would be approved by February and would immediately begin the preparation phase of their work.
Preparation - February through May 2008 (with some aspects carrying over into implementation). Engage the community in an analysis of what is the essential work and how it gets done and/or ask individual committees to consider the essential aspects of their work. Are there other ways to do it? Are there other committees with which they could be cooperating? Work with various committees (Oversight, W&M, Friends Center, Adult Religious Education) to organize the activities of discernment that will take place throughout the year.
Implementation - June 2008 through May 2009. See that spiritual nurturing and community building are taking place. Check in on the discernment processes; help with questions and queries. The Steering Committee could work with the various committees and groups within the meeting to be the guide for these processes, not the “doer.” Implementation could include the proposal of mid-course corrections, if needed.
Analysis - March through May 2009 (or some later period, if proposed by the steering committee). Engage the community in analysis of where we are and what we have discerned. Pull together proposals for the next steps.
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