This blog is so hopelessly dated that it had the old times on it - back when we met at 7 Mountain time. Now we meet at 6 Mountain time - that's 7 in Chicago, 8 in New York, and 5 in California.

I promised to make a page of Quaker resources, but I'm thinking now, that might have to wait. A library would be good - things to read, online, about what Quakers are - another thing that would be good, would be a list of available online meetings. One side of me wants to remain as a small worship group, not beholden to anyone, while the other wants to be a Yearly Meeting, with online meetings everywhere, in a loose global alliance.

There is plenty of opposition already. One guy posted on the Quaker website, something to the effect that sitting in a live group waiting on the Spirit could never be replaced by an online meeting. It just couldn't. And I get his point; they aren't the same. I sit on my side of the computer screen, reaching out to these people nationwide or worldwide, and I wouldn't say so much that I couldn't feel the Spirit - I can - but more that the environment makes it a little more difficult to discern what's going on.

Last week we had six, from a variety of places from here in south central New Mexico, to Newfoundland, Canada; Illinois, and a couple of other places. We started in on introductions and never even quite finished; this could have been my fault. But we offered fellowship with a group of Quakers, and I think people appreciated it. All six of us had been there before.

We are especially helpful to homebound Quakers, those for whom it's painful to get in a car and drive maybe an hour to the nearest meeting. Or maybe five minutes, or maybe three hours. In my case it's about two straight across the White Sands and the Tularosa Basin, and another two home, so it would tie up my whole day, and it's too much. But several attenders are like me - traveling is just too long or painful.

Another kind of attender is those who have fallen out of their meeting, for whatever reason. Without judging Quakers, one could say that some meetings reach a point where one person or several have to go. People get intensely involved in their meetings, thus intensely upset when things don't go their way. And yet it could be anyone who has to go. It's not that the excluded ones are usually pro-LGBTQ, or overtly Christian, or anti-abortion, or whatever. They're just excluded from a personal group, for whatever reason.

I'd like to have a resource for all Quakers, online, yes, but also a kind of discussion board, or place where people can work out some of these issues or at least feel good about the way we as a community handle them. It would not be out of line for Cloud Quakers to become more socially or politically active - oppose this or that, or, as a group, for example, agree that blatant racism is uncalled for and unacceptable. I miss the political arm of a meeting, even as I enjoy, basically and primarily, the fellowship of other Quakers. We seek the strength and comfort of a community, where we can say, as a group, that we feel certain ways. And I'm not sure that it would make so much of a difference in the outside world - who cares what Cloud Quakers thinks? - but it would improve my life, or my perception of my religious community - if we could do that.