Possibilities

 

Steven has brought to my attention some online communication from the Quaker Universalist Fellowship, which like us 1) meets online, 2) is considering affiliation with FGC or perhaps a Yearly Meeting, and 3) has noticed the spirit with which Quakers find and use zoom.

I would like to point out that, although COVID caused hundreds if not thousands of Quakers to find and use zoom, we were here before COVID. The need among isolated people for some kind of online fellowship existed before COVID and will still be here if there is a beautiful vaccine tomorrow. If zoom meetings cause Quakers to be a little less geographically limited then in the big picture that is probably good for Quakerism and certainly for the Quakers I know.

Now, as for aligning with or joining a Monthly Meeting or a Yearly Meeting, I am a little more hesitant. Karl has suggested a weekend gathering that would allow us to explore our needs as a community and figure out what we could do about them. One thing we could do would be to talk about them a lot more. And I have no doubt: there are people out there who need as much of Quakerism as we could offer them.

As of now, we have decided nothing; we have no plans for expansion or change. We are a worship group; we are a community; we meet at 6:00 US Mountain Time every First Day (Sunday). That's it. I am grateful for our small meeting as it is and if the entrepreneurial spirit never arises to take advantage of the zoom boom, I'm ok with that. I also feel that we could use the structure we have (this blog, our facebook, our e-mail) to get bigger if members support that idea. It's a busy season, though, and I'm busier than most. Carrying on, itself, is sometimes my biggest challenge.