The transformation of the Port Townsend Community Center into a sacred space for our Meeting for Worship begins when the sandwich board announcing the Meeting is set up outside the entrance on each First Day. Friends and attenders come into the building from their homes nearby, or further away from retirement centers and cottages in the surrounding forests, farms in the county and beyond, and even the Whidbey Island Worship Group Friends on occasion. From our weekly corporate worship in silence and our monthly worship service for business, we are drawn by the expectation of experiencing the love and fellowship of Friends and strangers who are drawn to this wellspring of our spiritual life.
The weekly construction of this sacred space is the intentional arrangement of the large, multi-purpose room into a familiar place. A table accommodates the usual Friendly publications, newsletters and announcements, a box of name-tags and a guest book. These have come from a very large, beautifully crafted wooden box on wheels which is rolled into the reception area. When it is unlocked and opened, this box reveals shelves of Quaker books, pamphlets and panels for announcements and art work. There is even a Quaker hat!
In the far corner of this large, bright room, there is a piano where early arrivals gather to sing for a few minutes while others settle into the circles of chairs in the middle. At the rise of Meeting, following sharing of words which did not rise to the level of spoken ministry, followed by announcements, there is a time for socializing with tea, coffee and simple snacks. Between the Meeting for Worship and the monthly business or education meeting, people drift across the street for hot soup, sandwiches or pizza in the local general store or bakery. Even these commercial amenities contribute to this familiar and comfortable feeling of having our own space. The sense of sacredness of place is completed by the sound of bells from the surrounding old churches calling others to Christian worship. We are an integral part of this community in many ways; members participate in such things as the Bay St. Louis Sister City Project (a response to Hurricane Katrina), regular vigils (e.g. Women in Black), the Port Townsend Peace Movement, Veterans for Peace, the annual native peoples Canoe Journey, and the ACLU, to name a few.
As we leave this place we will be thinking about our responsibilities to the Meeting during the coming week; committees will be attending to concerns both local and Quaker affiliated, such as Peace and Social Concerns, Ministry & Counsel, Religious Education Committee, Meetinghouse Committee, Library Committee, Finance Committee, Nominating Committee, Hospitality Committee, care committees, and numerous ad hoc groups such as retreat planners and annual community event organizers for the Quaker part in Earth Day and our countys volunteer Winter Shelter for the Homeless.
Many of us dream of creating this sacred space in a Meetinghouse of our own, a visible place where we could serve the community, hold our potlucks, and have the library readily available. Clearly one of the major tensions among us is whether or not this is the time to seek a place of our own. We are torn between the convictions of some, who find the affordability and flexibility of this very centrally-located public building the answer to their long search for such a place, and the enthusiasm and energy of others for the creation of a Meetinghouse.