Agate Passage Friends Meeting,  

State of the Meeting Report - 2006

 

If  those of us who gather for Meeting for Worship each Sunday at  Agate Passage Meeting had to choose only one theme for our “State” this year it might be COMMUNITY.  

 

On Sunday mornings we have felt larger than usual if we have had twenty people worshiping together, but the quality of that worship has not only been rich in silence and ministry,  but it has made us feel that rather than friction, we are each part of a deep-running community of persons who support, care about, listen to, and honor each other. 

 

Last fall when we went to welcome a new member with a potluck dinner almost all of our active persons gathered for the potluck, and the dominant theme of the affair was how grateful we were that we were a part of this community.

 

Because there are so few of us the tasks to be done to keep a meeting vital and effective need to be divided up between us rather heavily.  Willingly we volunteer to keep our meeting affairs going and effective.  

 

Most of our activities in the community have centered around making our opposition to the Iraq war known.  As a meeting, we have done several things in order to express our support for Lt. Ehren Watada  and the stand he has taken against returning to fight in Iraq.  We canceled a business meeting one March Sunday afternoon so that those of us who wanted to could freely attend a demonstration in Seattle against the war, and many of us took up that chance.  Also many of us have joined with other local groups to swell the ranks of those opposing the war.   We are now discussing all the things we can do and will to support the troops in ways that will let them know we hope to support U.S. troops by facilitating ways to meet  their needs while in Iraq and bring them home from Iraq as soon as possible. 

 

Because many of us are becoming older, this year we have done a good deal of thinking as a group about what we want our meeting to do at the time of our deaths.  Our Ministry and Counsel committee has planned several events to help us think about what is important to us at such a time in our lives.   We also traveled to Westport Washington to the Memorial Service of one of our active members who moved away from  us and died some two years after his departure.

 

We are, however, better organized this year to meet the needs of our youngest members.  The last Sunday of each month is a time when we invite the children connected to the meeting to join us for a special program geared to meet their religious education needs. There are usually only about five children who join us, but we are confident that when they are with us, they  form an image of  Quaker adults who care about them and make sure they learn and are happy when they are with us.

 

We have not been able to stretch ourselves into traveling much to firm up our connections to the wider circle of The Religious Society of Friends in this area, but we recognize you also care about us as we try to stretch ourselves into being more mature as a Meeting both in the faith and practice of our Quaker testimonies. 

 

Judy Brown,  Clerk.

April 2007

(First draft -subject to revision)