Ministry on Homeless

University Meeting has had several generations of interest in homelessness. In the early 2000s our member Larry Gaffin, asked to be released and supported in his call to work with homeless people and issues. Part of his work was with the University District Hygiene center which was housed at UFM for several years.

At about the same time, a few homeless men began to sleep nightly under the eaves of our building. UFM rented and had installed a portable toilet in the Peace Park; the city of Seattle insured it. We maintained it for years. In the spring of 2006, it became clear to UFM that the now large group of homeless people sleeping outside our building each night did not have the necessary oversight from UFM.

In an effort to address that lack, an ad hoc committee on homelessness at UFM was formed. In July, after careful consideration, the ad hoc committee suggested that a Subcommittee on Homeless People at UFM be formed for oversight of the current homeless people on our property, to look for future uses for our building and resources to meet the needs of the homeless and to consider appropriate responses to problems that might arise. The subcommittee is under the care of the Peace and Social concerns Committee.

After unsuccessfully trying to organize the existing group of homeless people who were sleeping under the eaves, we were faced with what we considered emergency conditions and closed down the encampment. Then came a search by the subcommittee for what would be an appropriate service to the homeless community in our city.

After much study, reflection, prayer, fact finding, and planning it was the subcommittee's recommendation that UFM invite SHARE (a Seattle based umbrella group that supports homeless men in a variety of ways) to facilitate a 20-man shelter every night in the worship room of UFM. That was accepted by UFM and Bethel Shelter started at UFM on January 8, 2007. It is the tradition of these Shelters to name themselves after their first home; this particular group was named the Bethel Shelter after the Bethel Church.

The Bethel Shelter/UFM was a successful venture, with normal, usually small, ups and downs. The subcommittee was attentive to the needs of the shelter and tried to keep the general UFM community aware of the shelter's progress. Over the summer of 2008, the Shelter fell into disrepair due to a lack of internal leadership and Bethel Shelter closed itself down and went into a serious reorganization. After much work internally with the support of SHARE, they reopened a nightly shelter at UFM at the end of November 2008, with strong internal leadership, a few organizational tweakings and one significant change--it became a coed shelter. We now have a SHARE/ WHEEL shelter at UFM. (WHEEL is the umbrella group in Seattle that supports homeless women.)

At our February Business Meeting, the Subcommittee on Homelessness announced that the Bethel Shelter had renamed itself the University Meeting Shelter in acknowledgement of our two communities' on-going relationship. The University Meeting Shelter is a self-governing body but our two communities interact cordially at Worship on Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and an annual potluck supper. Recently, three members of the shelter community worked with UFM community members at our work party and shared lunch before a UFM retreat. The subcommittee also tries to keep the issues of homelessness in general before the UFM community.

-- Barbara P

Third Retreat: May 16

Our second retreat on January 25 was a wonderful sequel to last year's! More than 70 adults and 6 children participated in the afternoon session with Cathy Whitmore on individual discernment or in the children's program on individual gifts. 26 UFM community members--young and older--and 3 men from the University Shelter group had much fun and accomplished wonderful work on the buildings and grounds. The talent show was foot stomping,laugh out loud fun. Dozens of us marveled at the talent in our community. There was everything from mouth spoons and conch shell blasts to families singing and playing a variety of instruments. We have some mighty fine singing voices among us as well.

Save the new date for the next retreat! We have changed the May retreat to Saturday, May 16 not the 17th as previously announced. As we move through the Year of Discernment, we are heading toward the end goal of figuring out who we are as a community and what we are called to do with our resources. Thus, the third retreat will begin to focus us on corporate discernment. We do not have the day planned out yet, but we think wewill begin in the morning and have a work party/break in the afternoon. We will be working on the content and the rest of the structure in the next couple of months.

Another piece of our discernment work this year will be in the information gathering and threshing about what to do about our buildings. Please join others in the UFM Community for an upcoming information session as we begin to look at what we want to do and can afford to do with our buildings and grounds.

Please let us know if you have any ideas you have for the retreat or the Year of Discernment.

Adult Education Committee Report

The Adult Religious Education (ARE) committee has a complicated ministry to our community. Through regular sessions each Sunday morning, the ARE program works to build community by nurturing increased understanding of Quaker history, process, and activities, and by providing a place and time for people to share their beliefs and feelings.

Traditionally, Quakers have relied on three sources in their search for Truth: (1) Various religious traditions and scriptures, (2) the experiences and work of Quakers over the centuries, and (3) our own experiences in our spiritual seeking and life. If Quakers only cared about the first two, ARE's job would be easy. We could just assign readings and make up study questions.

The experiential side of Quaker spiritual life means ARE must look for ways to approach topics of interest such as homelessness, prison reform, or war where people share their different perspectives in a worshipful way. It is in such sharing that participants synthesize a much deeper human insight into the topic than could be reached by just doing readings.

In search of topics, ARE committee members keep their ears to the community, trying to pick up on our individual and communal needs and interests. Many people within our community are following deep personal leadings in their life and work and often have much to share about how the Light works within and among us to do good works. We try to give them a place to come talk with us about it.

-- Rick E, Adult Education Committee

Threshing Session, March 15

Our meetinghouse is getting old and needs repairs and updates that add up to a large sum. Building and Grounds is doing further evaluation of the needs, while Finance is considering options for how to come up with the money. Because of the importance and complexity of the issues involved, we will have a special Threshing Session on Sunday March 15, after a potluck lunch.

A Threshing Session is a time when we gather to listen to each other without the goal of making an immediate decision. This Threshing Session is likely to begin with a presentation of information, but some information will also be made available earlier so that we have a chance to ask questions and give thought to our personal reactions.

Meanwhile, please think about how much you can increase your contributions in this troubled economy - or what type and amount of volunteer activity you can commit to. B&G will be putting out information about the kinds of work needed and will be looking for feedback about how much we may count on volunteers. Alternatives could involve selling Quaker House or even the meetinghouse. This is an extremely important issue, so mark your calendar.

--Beth B

Discernment

From early days the Society of Friends has greatly valued those leadings of the Spirit which result in individual and corporate concerns. It has learned, however, that concerns vary in merit, depending on the validity of the inspiration and the care with which it is carried out.

(Faith & Practice, NPYM, 1993, p.78.)

To weigh concerns and discover how a concern may be carried forward, Friends have come to value discernment: individually, by the individual within the community, and by the community. Some leadings may be meant for an individual; while at other times the Meeting community finds itself ready to unite with a concern after a process of testing. The testing process may include consulting with trusted and wise Friends, a clearness committee, referral to a committee of the Meeting, and consideration in Meeting for Business. The Monthly Meeting may agree to recognize the particular ministry of a member.

In earlier times, a Meeting may have offered practical support, such as caring for a farm or for children, releasing a Friend led to travel in the ministry. Now, a Meeting may agree to receive financial contributions to support the work. The discernment process begins with attention to what we as individuals or as a Meeting are spiritually led to be and do now. Then, we may identify resources and gifts available for carrying forward a concern.

Accepting new concerns and activities often requires choices and may result in laying down other work; this is hard. But experience teaches that a healthy worshiping community is best engaged in ways that strengthen both the meeting and good works in the wider community.

As Thomas Kelly wrote in his essay "The Eternal Now and Social Concern" (A Testament of Devotion, 1941),

I wish I might emphasize how a life becomes simplified when dominated by faithfulness to a few concerns. Too many of us have too many irons in the fire … the concern-oriented life is ordered and organized from within and we learn to say No as well as Yes by attending to the guidance of inner responsibility.

UFM is engaged in a corporate process of "attending to the guidance of inner responsibility." Our Year of Discernment offers rich opportunities for participation in this work. Retreats, committee discussions, clearness committees, a threshing session on finances, a blog site, and a wonderful collection of Friendly writing contribute to the depth of our shared experience. I warmly recommend that everyone in our beloved community explore these offerings.

-- Asia B, member of The Year of Discernment Steering Committee

Pictures from the Second Retreat

Education Committee Report

The Education Committee is responsible for the First Day School Program of the preschool and school-age children. This year, our work has included:

• Recruiting and supporting preschool teachers and second adult volunteers during the 9:30 and 11:00 Meetings for Worship
  
• Recruiting and supporting school-age teachers during the 11:00 Meetings for Worship
  
• Filling in as substitutes for the above roles as needed

Special projects this year include: 1) Updating background checks on all teachers and volunteers, 2) Updating first-aid equipment in the preschool, 3) A small thank-you party for our second adult volunteers, 4) Preliminary considerations for creating a preschool curriculum, and 5) The First Day School students had a bake sale in November, 2008 and raised $22.50. They will donate half of the money to Tent City and half to Paws.

The committee currently has 3 active members, and 1 member who participates as time and scheduling permits. We invite preschool and school-age teachers to be ex-officio members. The Committee has met 12 times since the last committee report (Aug 2007). The Committee has seen many changes this year, affecting our children, teachers, and adult volunteers.

Children

Children in the meeting experienced two major changes this year. First, the Committee implemented a change in how children participate in Meeting in November 2007. Both preschool and school-age children now return to their parents in the Meeting room at the end of Meeting. We believe that this change has given First Day School a more visible role in the Meeting. When children enter the Meeting room at the end of Meeting, it both encourages attenders to connect with the children and participate in their Quaker upbringing, and enables attenders to easily connect children with their parents, making Meeting a safer environment for children.

Second, the Committee decided after much deliberation to change from preschool at both 9:30 and 11:00, to only offer preschool during 11:00 in June 2008. For many months prior to this change, Education Committee was having difficulty finding second adult volunteers to participate in the 9:30 preschool. Also, the 9:30 preschool has sporadic attendance. The change has taken a large burden off of the Committee, and as far as we are aware, has not negatively influence the Meeting.

Teachers

In recent years, pre-school teachers have been Quest interns and we lose their services at the end of each year. Since the last report, Rebecca F taught our preschool program until September 2008, and Megan J and Riana H are currently teaching. They all have been wonderful with our preschoolers. The teaching staff of the school-age children has seen many changes over the last year. We are very grateful for the time and effort Carole I, Katherine S and Delilah L put into the children's program and were very sad to see them go. Bob E and Polly K have thankfully just volunteered to replace our departing teachers, and will join Kathy K and Helen K in teaching First Day School once a month.

Adult Volunteers

Since Jan ‘07, second adults in the preschool now volunteer for the same day of the month, on a recurring basis. This change has taken a lot of burden off of the Committee and has reduced the number of times we need to fill in as substitute second adults. Our second-adult volunteers are a vital part of our children's program and we are ever grateful for their participation.

Costs

UFM budget for stipends for school-age teachers and preschool teachers for our First Day School and for modest program costs for equipment and materials. Teachers in the school-age group have not accepted any payment in recent years. We have been paying stipends to preschool teachers.