Coming Together
Wrightstown Meeting
May 2007

Wrightstown Monthly Meeting embarked on a self-study process with the intention of:

• Enhancing the faith experience at WMM
• Understanding the sense of the Meeting on important issues
• Getting better acquainted with others in Meeting who you may not often see

The Meeting gathered three times at the rise of Meeting for Worship, enjoying food and fellowship.  At the first meeting, after an exercise designed to get to know each other better, the survey process was described and surveys handed out.  Surveys were also made available through email and hard copy.  Over 100 surveys were returned and collated by a person outside the Meeting.  At the second gathering the results were presented orally. The third meeting will provide the opportunity for Friends to discuss the survey results and the themes in more depth.  While it is assumed that many committees, with the ongoing help from Coordinating Committee members, will follow through on many action items, the Meeting as whole will discern priorities for strengthening the faith community.

Strengths of the Meeting:  Many felt that social gatherings were a very positive part of being in the Meeting.  There was also a sense that the finances were strong and many people expressed a strong responsibility to support the Meeting financially.  It is clear that friends see worship as the heart of the Meeting experience.  There was also strong support for the presence of children, appreciating their presence in worship, appreciation for a largely positive experience of First-day school, and an appreciation for the nursery school.  People who do not necessarily attend Meeting for Worship generally feel connected to Meeting.  Friends greatly appreciated the beautiful grounds.

Emerging Themes

1. Deepening the worship experience
1. Adult Forums: many ideas for topics, seems to be a hunger to learn and explore spiritual topics together; no consensus on time, which may mean holding them at different times may broaden participation.
2. Conversation about how Friends come to worship, how they settle and how they decide when to speak, and what Friends hope for and how they contribute to deepening worship
3. Conversation about distractions, how to minimize them and/or how to center oneself and focus internally to dissipate distractions.
4. Use of readings is perceived as useful in many ways but Friends prefer they be used occasionally and perhaps in printed materials, but not as part of worship itself.
5. There is a strong sense of individual responsibility to make Meeting for Worship more meaningful, but the Meeting might consider how to help Friends in the meeting to deepen their spiritual lives and make it safe to wrestle with deep spiritual issues.

2. Being a welcoming community
1. Welcoming newcomers: finding a balance that is not too aloof and not too forward.  Explore ways to find out what is comfortable for people and how to be welcoming in an ongoing way. Might ask for ideas from those who are relatively new to Meeting.
2. Young Adult Friends want to feel they are a more integral part of the community.  How do you engage and connect Young Adult Friends? 
3. Single Friends find some of the social events awkward.  How can the Meeting be more sensitive to singles attending social gatherings that include many couples?
4. Tending to conflicts earlier and more intentionally, view this as part of spiritual community and as an opportunity to deepen and grow.  Speaking truth with love.
3. Renovation of facilities
1. Need to clearly state the needs: expressed need for overall sprucing up, better bathrooms, appealing space for First-day school in the meetinghouse, and kitchen upgrades.  High priority on care for the trees and staying on top of repairs and maintenance.
2. Priority on the social hall, addressing mold problem, kitchen upgrade, bathroom upgrade, and overall sprucing up.
3. Meetinghouse addition should be consistent with historical quality; questions about financial viability, size of membership, and timing,  bathrooms and addition for classrooms, identify needs; seat cushions and narrowness of benches are uncomfortable.
4. Meeting for business
1. Could be deeper spiritually
2. Friends want less routine reporting with clearly stated issues.
5. Committee work
1. Without clear length of service, lack an elegant way to get off committees.  Look at how people continue to be called to service or not. 
2. Look at coaching or assisting committee and Meeting clerks in learning clerking skills.  Friends are more inclined to serve when committees function well.
6. Relationship between the Meeting and the nursery school
1. Relationship could be strengthened, though most comments were positive.

Ideas for adult forums included (with longer duration and some outside leaders):
            Bible study, comparative religions, sharing spiritual journeys, Quaker values in living one’s life (affluence, simplicity, raising children, etc), Quakerism, reading Faith and Practice and other spiritual readings, Who are we as Friends?, international outreach, peace and social concerns, ecological initiatives, young adults facing the world, Quakers around the world, how Quakers handle life choices.

Gretchen Castle, Facilitator