Port Townsend Friends Meeting continues to gather each First Day at the Community Center in Port Townsend. The attendance varies from 20 to 35. Occasionally young people or children join us, at which time members provide a children's program. Before Meeting for Worship we sing from the Friends hymnal, Worship in Song.
Monthly Meetings for Worship for Business are held on the first First Day each month. We have monthly potlucks during which time we are often blessed by a member or attender recounting his or her spiritual journey. There are special programs planned by our various committees: Peace and Social Concerns, Adult Education, Ministry and Counsel, and the Meetinghouse Committee. Attenders and members also appreciate the Friendly Eights potluck groups as an opportunity to deepen their connection to the meeting community.
We had one new member join the Society this year, and three members of other Meetings transferred their membership to us. We have continued to participate in the wider Quaker community by having representatives to Friends Committee on National Legislation, Friends Committee on Washington State Public Policy, Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting, and North Pacific Yearly Meeting. For spring and fall Quarterly Meetings we ride-share to the Lazy F Ranch near Ellensburg, Washington and also to the annual Silent Retreat in January at Gold Bar, Washington.
Whidbey Island Worship Group is under our care and two of our members are active in a Care Circle there. We have sporadic interaction with the Sequim Worship Group, although they politely declined our offer to hold them under our care.
This past year has been one of loss for our Meeting: the death of one active attender, several have lost loved ones, and some have moved away.
We continue to move forward with leadings we have as individuals and as a meeting. As a Spirit-led community, we are active in our local community of Port Townsend, participating in the WAVE food drive, the COAST Winter Homeless Shelter, Earth Day activities, the Native American Canoe Journey, the Port Townsend Peace Movement, Women in Black and Sister City projects.
During the first week of December, we were pleased to host two Vermont Quakers - Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox - on their Peace for Earth Walk from Vancouver, British Columbia to San Diego, California. Their visit and message were inspiring and energizing to our meeting and helped strengthen our connection to others in the area who share our concern for our precious Planet Earth. We provided hospitality, sponsored several presentations, and sold books about Quakerism and Earth Care. We were honored to walk with them as they "walked their talk."
Freda, our Peace Dove, sculpted by Phoebe Huffman and tiled with words of Peace in more than 40 languages, has been traveling in the Pacific Northwest since last April. She was presented at the Fall Quarter, ready to visit other Meetings. A traveling Minute accompanies her, along with a booklet explaining Freda's creation. Our peace work includes promoting and providing the FCNL signs and posters: "WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER."
Our Meeting seems to be maturing in many ways. Having come from scattered, disparate connections and memberships, we are becoming a cohesive whole. Meetings for Worship for Business flow smoothly, with the active participation of members and attenders. We look forward to a follow-up on our retreat of April 2007. In preparation for this, Ministry and Counsel Members, aided by the Retreat Committee, have interviewed members and attenders, taking into account that some people are more comfortable sharing one-on-one than in an open meeting. The Meetinghouse Committee has presented us with queries to help process feelings and thoughts about a Meetinghouse of our own. The Nominating Committee has also interviewed each member and attender in order to present us with a slate of officers and committee members for the coming year. And we now have an official roll book for the Records Clerk to maintain.
Our corporate worship is central to the life of our Meeting. It sustains us spiritually and when we experience a truly gathered meeting, we are immeasurably strengthened. We feel deeply how much love we have for one another; how our beloved community has made us a real instrument of the Spirit.