Bing Meets Russian Quakerese

RantWoman has PLENTY else on her buffet of vexations today but is called to an accidental encounter of the Language Geek kind. RantWoman poked into the Russian language Quaker Facebook group Kvakery and observed the following moment of malfunctioning international language machinery:

Bing meets Quakerese, translating fromRussian:
Friends, please, keep me in the light-now we will have a very serious meeting on the future of real estate of our gathering


How RantWoman would translate the status in question; What the Russian says.in idiomatic English Quakerese
 Friends, Please hold me in the Light. We are about to have a very difficult meeting about the future of our Meeting's property.


RantWoman would opine about this in Russian except that she is not using her own computer. Besides keyboard setup issues, Mr. JAWS is sort of uncooperative about Russian unless specifically told to deal. Sigh. Whine.

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Christmas presents: minutes AND email.

RantWoman has discovered that her email drafts folder is a little like the closet where one stores Christmas presents one has accumulated over a good spell before the holiday. Here are two such presents, one about minutes and one about email. Readers are invited to note that RantWoman is holding them in the Light as they read.

RantWoman of late has been called, repeatedly to concerns about minutes, specifically the difference between recording decisions and recording minutes of exercise hopefully reflecting the range of comments about some or another issue.

RantWoman is aware that, at least in others' estimation, she is probably overachieving on numerous not preferable dimensions. RantWoman suggests that readers who venture further and find themselves perplexed either trust their Light or feel free to inquire of RantWoman what the heck she is talking about.

With minutes of decision, precision and clarity are greatly to be desired. With minutes of exercise, RantWoman feels called to point out that part of the POINT of the exercise is like tilling a garden with different plants able to make different things of the available material.

RantWoman is holding several minutes of exercise situations for additional discernment. RantWoman takes exception to what has gotten recorded in all of them. RantWoman is clear repeatedly to speak specifically because of a sense of community going astray from Truth if she does not. Hold RantWoman--and community--in the Light.

First, the tilling the garden thoughts came from a conversation involving lots of references to pruning, dislike of thinkings that seem like voting or that seem argumentative or repetitive. RantWoman wanted to speak more of tuning, of pulling different voices into the right chord and harmonies for the situation.

Not to be argumentative, but how are Friends supposed to discern sense of the room if some threads do not get woven into a succession of offerings?
RantWoman also particularly points out that Friends sometimes need to hold thoughts of "helpful" on different timeline. RantWoman sent argumentative email to one of the people behind the "don't be argumentative" votes. RantWoman has acquired some experience working with disaster preparedness topics for very diverse audiences. RantWoman pointed out that certain behaviors which are actually already darned annoying when everyone is warm and dry and the lights are on might be peculiarly helpful in making those assembled think of resources needed for more extreme circumstances. If RantWoman thinks about this thread a few steps further, she suspects a topical query might be what spiritual resources are needed in worlds of White People Adjustment / What really needs to evolve to whip this Climate Change thing conferences?

Not to be argumentative, but RantWoman has been holding the following thoughts:  "Trust the committee" vs test the committee; bring it to the group and let go. When RantWoman drafted this she had in mind 3 situations where what the Business Meeting did with the work of the committee was very different from what the committee did. In the interest of conciseness if RantWoman recalls these situations in form sufficient for blogging, RantWoman promises to examine them in their own entry.


The second challenge on RantWoman's mind is the use of email for Quaker Business. RantWoman is not prepared to lay down her clerkship of the Association of Bad Friends Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation; this can be one problem. The other problem is that every time RantWoman picks up the question of email, it turns all squishy in her hands.

RantWoman adores email BECAUSE it is a record of what was said. RantWoman deeply appreciates being able to use a search bar and find things without having to skim her own impossible handwriting. RantWoman also has personal experience with people who say they dislike email, have work history reasons for being leery of email, but also maybe have a hearing loss and, it turns out, actually do much better by email.

In this vein, RantWoman was thrilled by a Quarterly Meeting plenary a couple Quarterly Meetings ago involving a restorative circle exercise exactly about the pros and cons of email. RantWoman only wishes everyone in her life for whom email is a vexed question had been at the Quarterly Meeting.
For example RantWoman attended a Clerking workshop with Weighty Friends who Teach Clerking. One of the items handed out as if it were holy writ without invitation to discuss was a statement on email seasoned by Milwaukee and Claremont Friends, Friends of a generation who dislike email. 

After the clerking workshop, RantWoman banged out a series of emails to the effect, among other things, that perhaps Friends who cannot imagine God showing up by email may in fact be writing whole generations out of their concept of the divine. RantWoman is grateful that her offerings were well-received in the abstract; applications in practice around RantWoman continue to evolve.


Friends

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What does George Fox say video

Partly a blog as filing cabinet item so RantWoman has some chance of finding this again. Partly a confession: RantWoman would a WHOLE lot rather watch a video than read George Fox's journal, though the video does mke RantWoman think harder about sometime POSSIBLY reading his journal.

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Horrors? Oops. Well. Care and Counsel!

The Bedbugs? (Put bedbugs into the search box to see what RantWoman is talking about) Have the Bedbugs hacked up another missive? The bedbugs in RantWoman's Meeting utterly disclaim and disavow any knowledge as to the provenance of the document below. In fact they are shocked, shocked, and also appalled even to appear in the same paragraph.




RantWoman herself handles the material with trepidation. RantWoman writes in a spirit of love and Truth of people and situations she cares deeply about. RantWoman takes full responsibility for crankiness, excessive zaniness, and the glorious gratitude for all the trouble she has fixating visually in actually sometimes getting unspeakably fixated on SOMETHING.



The RantWoman eye view of the world can see between 0 and 5 of any given object; this can be particularly alarming if RantWoman is seeing 0 of a Mac truck barreling alongside. RantWoman also writes with trepidation lest the, um, unique RantWoman eye view of the world and RantWoman's own overly endowed capacity to muddle and misapprehend somehow distort Divine messages as well.



RantWoman IS a recording clerk. RantWoman is aware that there are themes here entangling several recording clerks. RantWoman is holding that role in the Light. The information below is DATA. Sometimes data adds up one way; sometimes one throws data up on a screen, metaphorical PLEASE, no death by Powerpoint for the shared Light of many. Sometimes RantWoman really would NOT mind finding a whole lot less data to collect.



Needless to say, editing has NOT occurred and any resemblance between the events recorded here and actual Meetings for Worship with attention to Business at any actual Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends are pure conjecture.





Minutes? Hours? of Bad Friend Monthly Meeting of the Society of Irreligious Fiends.



Once upon a time a fashion spread upon the land: We must eradicate every vestige of racism in our community's language and especially in our organizational bylaws. Yea verily, people of color are not tramping down the door coming to us. Some among us make a point to go nearer to others and listen and sometimes to struggle together; some among us wonder whether the reason is obscure Quakerese.



For instance, the word Overseers, lurking with greater or lesser visibility in different Friends communities, reeks of enslavement. The word is a veritable cataclysm of racial signification. We are told, the word Oversight, often seen in close proximity with or as a substitute for "overseers" is no better. So, to eradicate racism we would like to....drum roll please... rename the Oversight / Oops Well Committee. We would like the new name to be Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.



First we will publicize the proposed change in the newsletter of Bad Friend Monthly Meeting. Then we will or won't respond to questions we receive about history and consideration of other choices.



Then we will hand guests attending the White Privilege conference a big sloppy "Thank you for coming to town" kiss and discuss it in Meeting for Business right after the conference. And just to eradicate any whiff of discernment in Business Meeting we will bring a proposed bylaws change with Care and Counsel already enshrined as our choice. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Next we will bring the change back to Meeting for Business where we will hear more than one person express specific concerns about the choice and we will AGAIN hear an inquiry about the word Oversight as opposed to Overseers. We will also hear notice of concerns about the use of oversee / oversight in contexts such as marriages where RantWoman thought it was God who oversees such things.Foreshadowing, RantWoman has decided that what made it into the final bylaws about this concern is not a change, not an improvement and therefore exempt from one very, very picky procedural point.



Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. RantWoman THINKS she has somewhere expressed concern to hear the "why" of different choices, not just some kind of internet poll of what choices are used.



Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.



RantWoman had one conversation where she admitted to having trouble with the word Counsel because members of said committee have in the past offered counsel that misses big points in spectacular ways; RantWoman's counterpart did not inquire as to what RantWoman has in mind. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.



Somewhere in here RantWoman extended an offer to come talk to all of said committee about several things. RantWoman met with one Friend who missed several of RantWoman's points; that Friend is due to go off the committee anyway. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel Care and Counsel



RantWoman had another conversation where "we don't see any reason to change the proposal." LOOK, RantWoman has asked questions about history. RantWoman harbors faint hope that there might be something concise in a b-b-b-book someone has already read. RantWoman finds it really hard to go look things up herself.



RantWoman is still stuck on do we need to change from Oversight, never mind whether she can live with Care and Counsel. But first, RantWoman would be ever, ever, ever so grateful if SOMEONE can just listen to RantWoman's question about history and help look something up, not tell RantWoman she does not need to know, not just chant Care and Counsel, Care and Counsel, Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



RantWoman repeated her offer to come talk to all of the Oops Well Committee, this time with a different emphasis. Instead Care and Counsel Friend was dispatched to visit RantWoman. RantWoman has a fine conversation with Care and Counsel Friend but Care and Counsel Friend again missed several of RantWoman's key points. Care and Counsel Friend is already wearing too many hats anyway and should get to share the task of talking to Rantwoman. Care and Counsel Friend absorbed about the same percentage of RantWoman's concerns as anyone else; it's just that if RantWoman speaks to several people and they all absorb different fractions, the cumulative effect is much stronger than if one Friend missess key points and then a fraction of what that Friend remembers gets lost in the retelling.



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Coumsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



More months pass and Care and Counsel Friend, the principal champion of this effort finally was able to return to Meeting for Business. What is wrong with this picture? If this is such a universal concern, shouldn't one of the other members of the Oops Well Committee be able to present about this? After all, we are all ministers of God, right?



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Coumsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



The week of Meeting for Business, Care and Counsel Friend's husband was in the hospital. Care and Counsel Friend was hurrying and needed to present two minutes, the one about renaming the Oops Well Committee and one with Care and Counsel Friend's Peace and Social Concerns hat on about upholding treaty rights for the Lummi people. RantWoman thinks presenting two such minutes was TOO MUCH and deeply wishes that Care and Counsel Friend had just stuck to the Lummi minute.



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



On the presentation went. Care and Counsel Friend still presented no information in response to RantWoman's question about history. Care and Counsel Friend did present a brief list of other names for this committee, but she presented them so fast that even RantWoman could not track them. RantWoman is used to gleaning information from Mr. JAWS the screen reader at Squirrels on Steroids speeds and RantWoman thought the delivery was too fast. The rest of the room was all more or less chanting Care and Counsel, Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.



Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel.





Look, okay, RantWoman is not of one mind within herself about the topic of whether and what to rename the Oops Well Committee, formerly called Oversight and now after a drum beat of months apparently to be called Care and Counsel.



At this point, SOME of the time RantWoman would like to hear a lot more about bigger more profound ways many in RantWoman's Meeting ARE actually engaging about racism and privilege. This includes:



--one Friend who reads widely of US history and keeps summarizing to such as RantWoman who will listen



--Various small but regular acts of faithfulness connected with for instance voter registration and the Friends Committee on WA Public Policy



--the daughter of a founding member of our Meeting who engages in many community connections in her neighborhood and will talk honestly about her mother's work as a social worker and the relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII.



--RantWoman who has done projects with many people of color whose first language is not English and who MUCH prefer that RantWoman t-t-t-TALK to them rather than write email.



--numerous other points of engagement that RantWoman never minds hearing from.



But back to renaming the committee. Sometimes RantWoman thinks well who cares one way or another about anything to do with racism or privilege? Everyone else is renaming the committee, it's a really important committee and Quakers arriving from elsewhere darn well need to be able to find the committee. So we should all just jump on the bandwagon.



Some of the time, RantWoman hears from Arguing Friend something along the lines of "I only know one Friend of Color who cares about renaming this committee...Well, yeah but very international Friends are way overrepresented among Friends of Color Arguing Friend knows. Just because the history of enslavement in the US is not the driving experience of international Friends does not mean that Friends in the US have nothing to answer about today as far as carryover from enslavement.



Further, RantWoman thinks Friend Who Often Opines about the Issue is more likely to hear from US Friends of Color than is either Arguing Friend or RantWoman. For comparison, RantWoman points to her experience as one flavor of blind person: somehow the presence of the white cane causes all kinds of other people to tell RantWoman things about their experiences that fall into the realm of "I didn't tell you about my day" when the people talking to RantWoman are around sighted people. From paying attention to LOTS of different blind people's experiences, RantWoman also knows to ask sometimes about different issues. Attending to this diversity of experience, RantWoman is frequently very reluctant to speak on behalf of all blind people, a tendency that is no darn help sometimes when simplicity and clarity is needed.



Simplicity? Clarity? You mean RantWoman not just being an obstructionist bitch whose sole goal is to drive Recording Clerks Crazy? Ummmm.



But no more Oversight. Oops Well. Care and Counsel it is. RantWoman feels SO thoroughly purified. Not! But RantWoman has PLENTY else to do and suggests everyone just hold the whole circus in the Light.



(Example attraction from current circuses while tending to statewide transportation issues, secondhand, originally from staff of a Republican state senator, "You mean we have to provide those people sign language interpreters?" Well, yeah, unless you want to get sued and put at risk every dollar of federal transportation funding the state receives.)



Care and Counsel .Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel! Shake those Quaker pom poms. Care and Counsel. Care and Counsel. Set it to Music. Care and Counsel.



And next month we are off to the Racism Exhibit at the Science Museum. Really!

(RantWoman DOES want to see this exhibit and definitely invites interested Friends along; MAYBE RantWoman will be on good enough behavior for everyone to appreciate the excursion.)

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Overseeing. Overlooking. Much Fog and Blur Over Something

RantWoman's Meeting is in the process of seasoning whether to rename the committee currently called Oversight and if so what to call it. Since Oversight is the name listed in organizational bylaws, if there is a change, the bylaws need to be amended too. In addition to multiple references to Oversight committee which would need to be changed, the bylaws also contain:

1. at least one reference to "Overseers" by which is meant members of said committee. RantWoman EXACTLY understands why the word Overseers is a problem. During the era of enslavement in the US, the overseer on a plantation was someone of African descent responsible for working the other slaves and keeping all the enslaved in line.

RantWoman is less clear about the word Oversight and whether it MIGHT be sufficient simply to replace "Overseers" with "members of Oversight committee" in the bylaws. RantWoman WISHES she felt any capacity to go all word nerd and quaker history geek on the problem. Instead RantWoman has raised the question in Meeting for Business and is interested to see what comes backin response.

2. two references to the word "overseeing" in the following contexts: "overseeing marriages" and "overseeing worship groups." In both cases, RantWoman in translator mode would reflexively change these terms to what she considers better Quakerese, something in the vicinity of the examples below.

"overseeing marriages" = "assisting couples in clearness for marriage and the Meeting in clearness to take marriages under the care of Meeting"

"overseeing worship groups" = "support and nurture of worship groups under Meeting's care"

RantWoman has a couple basic objections to the use of "overseeing" in the contexts above. For better or worse, Rantwoman does not hear the same resonance with enslavement in the word "overseeing" as with the word "overseers."

RantWoman DOES hear something she personally is HIGHLY allergic to, Quakers playing God, implying promises about more than it is humanly reasonable to promise..

RantWoman understands perfectly well that oversight has a more or less neutral administrative meaning. RantWoman understands this because "oversight" exists in RantWoman's mind with a cluster of other words like management, supervision, administration... which cluster and split different in English than the equivalent cluster of words in Russian. These words exist because the functions are needed, with full understanding of the limitations even of one's or one's organization's best efforts. Still, "oversight" gives RantWoman many headaches even without theology.

But when it comes to theology, worship groups are responsible for tending their own spiritual gardens; a committee of onlookers at best tends with a light touch. The phrase "overseeing marriages" even more insistently puts RantWoman in mind of a wonderful quote from George Fox about how we marry none but that is God's work.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/01/marriage-as-god-ordained-for-our-good.html

THAT language,more than anything, is why RantWoman is allergic to the phrase "overseeing marriages." Furthermore RantWoman knows perfectly well that bylaws sometimes get read by people likely to have little interest in uniquely Quaker practices and this is exactly why RantWoman thinks it is quite reasonable to spell out the Quaker distinctives of the matter! In the world of translation, however much one strives for verbal economy, sometimes one gets to substitute a whole bunch of words for one word. RantWoman believes this is such a moment.

Alas, all of this is such Light as has come to RantWoman. RantWoman actually really, Really, REALLY wishes the bylaws changes would not keep coming to Business Meeting until RantWoman hears answers to her questions about history AND there is unity about what if anything to rename the committee in question.

So far, the bylaws changes keep showing up on the Business Meeting agenda but for various reasons not getting acted on. Wordsmithing bylaws in Business Meeting is one of those exercises in applied Quakerism that is either quite charming and educational or really tedious, but RantWoman thinks these suggestions need to be heard out loud and heard in separate Light from the question of what to call the committee now called Oversight!

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Submission--on deadline

RantWoman is submitting the following item for her monthly newsletter. RantWoman notes that the deadline for her Meeting's monthly newsletter is the 20th of the month for the next month. RantWoman notes this with an eye toward Friends wanting to publicize events and activities on schedules that work both for the electronically au courant and for Freinds whose Weighy one frequently wants in the conversaion even when those Friends never go near that electronic stuff.


*******
First, the VERY boiled down version of what RantWoman will submit along with a couple comments about what might be cut if, as RantWoman suspects, this is still too long for our monthly newsletter:


Thank you to UFM’s Spiritual Enrichment fund for money to attend NPYM’s Annual Session.


I love Annual Sesssion. I get credit just for showing up. Friends from small Meetings and Worship Groups in MT, ID, OR, WA feel a spiritual liftjust to be among large numbers of Friends and all I have to do is show up!

At Annual Session Interest Groups provide time for education and discussion about specific topics. I went to a fun one about “The Quaker Language Barrier.” Friends shared all kinds of words used among Friends and talked some about the questions they raise. Among the words Friends mentioned: clerk, seasoning, programmed and unprogrammed. Friends comments wandered quickly to broader communications themes: how does Spirit move across different approaches to electronic communication? How do Friends of different generations feel Divine presence in the midst of challenges of travel and distance? The best part of that discussion for me was hearing that other Meetings are having some of the same conversations I am a part of.

Another rich experience: I served as a worship group leader for the daily small group meetings where Friends meet to reflect on the Annual Session theme, a common set of readings and queries, and events as they unfold at Annual Session. Being a group leader is fairly new for me. I was especially grateful for the email reflections other worship group leaders offered over a couple weeks. I was grateful for the content of the reflections. I was grateful the worship group leaders were willing to have the discussion by email and I was glad other leaders took time as it fit into their schedules to share their thoughts.

I got to meet Mary Klein, the new editor of Western Friend. I also got to thank her very much for help editing my recent article about the White Privilege Conference which may be found in the UFM library or online here as a link on http://westernfriend.org  

Finally, a note about my dorm: My very favorite thing about the suite I shared was that the shower had ferocious, wonderful, wake me up and remind me how glad I am to be alive and living in a first world country water pressure.

To read more about my evolving reflections Friends are invited to visit my blog at http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/search/label/NPYM%202013

  ******* The WAY too long version, minus some tweaks as RantWoman was boiling down     Thank you to UFM’s Spiritual Enrichment fund for money to attend NPYM’s Annual Session. When I request money from UFM’s spiritual enrichment fund to attend an event I always hold two queries no matter what else might come too:

What do I take with me? What of my own spiritual compost heap, what concerns for the community are on my heart, what needs weeding, what needs tending?

What do I bring back? What experiences do I need to share? What new Light has come to me? What do I carry from renewing new ties or from stretching to make new ones? What am I especially grateful for?

Friends interested in what Friends in Residence Becca and Paul Molally Renk brought on the theme “Not by my Strength Alone” can hear for ourselves at an upcoming Adult Education session.

Here are a few personal reflections.

At Annual Session Interest Groups provide time for education and discussion about specific topics. I went to a fun one about “The Quaker Language Barrier.” Friends shared all kinds of words used among Friends and talked some about the questions they raise. Among the words Friends mentioned: clerk, seasoning, programmed and unprogrammed. Friends comments wandered quickly to broader communications themes: how do different Friends view electronic communication? How do Friends of different generations view challenges of travel and distance. The best part of that discussion for me was hearing that other Meetings are having some of the same conversations I am a part of.

Another part of the experience I really valued: I served as a worship group leader for the daily small group meetings where Friends meet to reflect on the Annual Session theme, a common set of readings and queries, and events as they unfold at Annual Session. Being a group leader is fairly new for me. I was especially grateful for the email reflections other worship group leaders offered over a couple weeks. I was grateful for the content of the reflections. I was grateful the worship group leaders were willing to have the discussion by email and I was glad other leaders took time as it fit into their schedules to share their thoughts.

I got to meet Mary Klein, the new editor of Western Friend. I also got to thank her very much for help editing my recent article about the White Privilege Conference which may be found in the UFM library or online here as a link on http://westernfriend.org

Finally, a note about my dorm: I shared a suite with 3 other women. My very favorite thing about our suite was that the shower had ferocious, wonderful, wake me up and remind me how glad I am to be alive and living in a first world country water pressure. Others found the water pressure a bit much and I am sorry for that but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am still digesting this year’s experiences. To read more about my thoughts Friends are invited to visit my blog at http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/search/label/NPYM%202013

Warning: it’s a blog. My personal model of blogging falls somewhere between historical Quaker journal and permanent clearness committee. Historical Quaker journals in their raw state make a good case for the existence of editors. Enough said?

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Why? Perspective

RantWoman, that guy in your Meeting who is about to be done, Done, DONE with 10 years of Department of Corrections supervision, the guy you refer to as The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet, why do you call him that?


--First, it was not always so. RantWoman now shorthands her initial coffee hour conversation over a decade ago with the future Safest Sex Offender on the Planet as "I really need to be in treatment." RantWoman is unsure whether the applicable concept was minimizing or blaming the victim. RantWoman at the time had a lot of both going on around her because of another personal situation. The outline of the proposed participation in a faith community as part of treatment sounded entirely reasonable to RantWoman. But because of RantWoman's personal situation, she was clear simply to make another introduction and to get out of the loop.

--The exact crime the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet pled guilty to is an act of nonpenetrative sex enthusiastically enjoyed by many many pairs of consenting adults everywhere. The problem: things which are wonderful between consenting adults are NEVER okay between an adult and a much younger child.

--Here we trot out LOTS of psychological terminology and measurement tools and invoke Science. The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet's offense was a crime of opportunity, a child he was around because of a dating relationship. The Safest Sex Offender ... never sought out other victims. The Safest Sex Offender underwent lots of psychological and physiological testing as part of his treatment. One of the conditions of our Meeting's willingness to work with the future Safest Sex Offender on the planet was that he signed a release allowing a practicing clinical psychologist in our community access to MANY treatment documents. This was never stated explicitly in Business Meeting as a requirement; the psychologist simply took steps about the release; RantWoman would say that this work was key to community confidence at a number of points.

So for example, many test endured by our offender were outlined in sometimes exquisite detail in Meeting for Business. All of the tests indicated no predatory inclination whatsoever. In other words, the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet fits the profile of others with very low risk of re-offense. On top of that, the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet is in an age group where, if reoffense has not occurred so far, it is very unlikely due to age alone.

--A key moment in our Meeting's walk with the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet was that he wrote a letter that was read in Business Meeting specifically acknowledging responsibility for his actions. RantWoman does not remember whether the alternate weeks schedule of attendance at our two worship hours arose before or after the letter, but RantWoman does remember a sense that the letter was important in the evolution of things.


--At this point, the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet has unquestionably done his work about the matter of acceptable adult behavior. Plus he has spent the last 10 years in therapy groups filling his head with information about the ways guys mess up and dire consequences for messups. The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet has a Lifetime Safety Plan with a certain amount of boilerplate text reminding him and everyone else that he is always at risk of reoffense; he takes VERY seriously the terms of his Lifetime Safety Plan including commitment to stay away from places frequented by children unless he is with someone familiar with his offense, to limit incidental contact in public, not to date women with minor children, and not to be in homes where there are minor children unless the children's parents (RantWoman would edit to say parent, guardian or caregiver) are aware of his offense.

Here we get to a collision between the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet's safety plan and other realities: the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet and several members of the RantFamily all live in the same neighborhood. There is never going to be more than casual incidental contact between the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet and say, Irrepressible Nephew and his parents. The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet is not, for instance, going to be hanging out at Little Sister's household watching soccer in Spanish. But we all might bump into each other and members of Little Sister's household are attuned enough to people's behaviors that some of them might wonder about the Safest Sex Offender's moving away from incidental contact.

The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet is of course going to use his judgment about need to disclose his status, but RantWoman had to put her foot down: there are good reasons, like other people's worse issues why the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet's old offense, adjudicated, treated to the best of his and the DoC's ability is NOT necessarily the worst problem of anyone's day. Nephew and his parents are empowered as best as they and RantWoman can help bring about,in ways that SHOULD detect not only issues caused by the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet, but also issues caused by all the other sex offenders out there. RantWoman thinks too much detail in connection with just living in the same neighborhood will not be helpful to anyone.

--RantWoman weighs all this with another point: there is an advantage to "everyone" knowing of one's situation. No one is going to ask the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet to watch their children. LOTS of eyes can also be a guard against both new offenses and possible false accusations. In other words, the past is never over, but the Safest Sex Offender is highly motivated not to re-offend. People who have been worshipping with him, talking about him in Business Meeting, etc. are highly motivated to watch for anything that even faintly looks like a new offense; fellow worshippers are also highly motivated to keep an eye out for false accusation. How could he not be the Safest Sex Offender on the planet?

--RantWoman has even been known to say that she has slightly fewer worries about the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet than she does about someone else she interacts with. That individual has never been accused of inappropriate BEHAVIOR. He loudly and flamboyantly proclaims interest in specific categories of pornography. His name pops out of search engines in connection with lawsuits about his tastes. RantWoman generally says "Thank you SO much for telling me; I SO wish I did not need to know" RantWoman also advises this guy and does everything she can to ensure that this guy is never, ever, under any circumstances alone with a child. But people like this are one reason RantWoman really, really favors keeping the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet in perspective.



RantWoman has a lot to say about other elements of community safety; that gets to be said in another post. In the meantime, another self-interview question:

RantWoman, what do you think it means that all those people have been willing to watch one sex offender but we cannot find enough adults to staff our childcare programs?

Good question. Not one that RantWoman remembers ever getting articulated in a public forum but here is what rises for RantWoman.

--Actually a large number of people willing to watch--and at first worship elsewhere with--one sex offender might be neither here nor there as far as staffing the children's programs. Some adults are not gifted / led to work with children in the first place. Adults worshipping elsewhere at another time are still available if willing on First Days to help with children. RantWoman sees a good well-staffed children's program as vital for a worshipping community but is unsure that fewer people watching one sex offender would automatically translate into more adults available to work with children.

--RantWoman sees the large number of people willing to watch one sex offender as a large number of people willing to include him somehow in community. RantWoman also sees this large number as people willing to provide eyes both to guard against future offenses and to help create a sense of safety for people restimulated in his presence.

RantWoman hears in the question about all those people willing to watch one offender thoughts about whether RantWoman's Meeting a little bit lost perspective as far as monitoring zeal. The thought as definitely occurred to RantWoman, especially late into the Safest Sex Offender's program. For better or worse the thought has never made it out of RantWoman's mouth and especially not in anything like acceptable Quakerese. The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet, for what it's worth has also been putting up with our Meeting about the whole issue.

RantWoman is enough of a wonk to think of some kind of study noting actual new offenses and any relationship between likelihood of offense and features of different congregations' monitoring might be an interesting exercise. But that is a conversation for another day.

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Oops, Well? Phonetically Infelicitous? Anyway, not yet.

Oops well

RantWoman takes note:
The word "oversight" is included in the following list.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/49834/14-words-are-their-own-opposites

RantWoman for sheer geek nerd delight in connection with another matter reread her Meeting's bylaws and discovered that the word Oversight appears about 14 times throughout the 3-page document. Even worse, the word "Overseers" also appears.

Just in time for the recently-ended White Privilege Conference, #wpc14, the latest edition of our Meeting's monthly newsletter includes the following item:

Oversight Committee is considering changing our name. We have discussed potential names including Care and Counsel.

Why?

Let’s consider the query from North Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice, 1986:

“Do you endeavor to cleanse yourself of every vestige of racial prejudice, and firmly but lovingly oppose it in your home, among your friends and acquaintances, and in business?”
Here is one Thesaurus definition: oversight - a mistake resulting from inattention, or an unintentional omission resulting from failure to notice something.We may be making a mistake resulting from failure to notice that the terms overseer and oversight have hurtful connotations to some people. In an online discussion about ending racism among Friends one Quaker says:“I was on Nominating Committeefor a Friends group, and we really were hoping a certain African American Friend would bewilling to serve on our Overseers Committee. The Friend in question gave me and my fellow Nominating Committee person (both of us white) a long look and then, as best I can recall, thanked us for thinking of him, expressed his affection for both the organization and the committee in question, and then said there was really no way he could even consider serving on a committee with such a name.

”Perhaps “Overseers” conjures up images of slavery more readily than “Oversight.” But why risk using hurtful language? Vanessa Julye, who led sessions for UFM on racism several years ago, in an article entitled “Racism Hurtsand Challenges Everyone” asks us: “Most of the racism I have encountered in Quakerism has been subtle. It is present in the language and some of our traditions. When we celebrate our history and traditions, is it done in a manner which is inclusive? Do we use terms, or focus on certain aspects of history, leaving out the painful parts? “

Here is a second Thesaurus definition of oversight: “management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group.”Depicting oversight as management, also made us question our name. It feels less like what wedo than a name such as Care and Counsel.

There are many precedents for name changes. The National Congress of American Indians issued a resolution opposing continued usage of Native team names, mascots, and logos. Wikipedia notes that over 70 sports teams have changed their names, including the Eastern Washington Savages who became the Eagles in 1973. Similarly, when Stokely Carmichael coined the phrase “black power” in 1966, “Negro” was how most black Americans described themselves.

By the mid-1980s even the U.S. Supreme Court had largely substituted black or African American. Many Friends Meetings have changed the name of their Oversight Committees. We hope Friends will help us think about this issue and consider changing the UFM bylaws to allow a name change for our committee.

[A draft minute specifically proposing to change the name to Care and Counsel was included with the agenda for this month's Business Meeting; RantWoman does not in the least repent of the part she played in Business Meeting not getting to this item.]

RantWoman opines:
(RantWoman THINKS she is going to maintain enough discipline not to spell out all the reasons she herself could be thoroughly delighted just to call this the "Oops Well" committee right now. RantWoman urges readers, Lead RantWoman not into temptation.)

--Well, gee, it's nice to see this just in time for the White Privilege Conference, but i hope changing the name of Oversight is not the only thing we do to re-examine issues of racism

--Rantwoman definitely unites with the thought of changing our name but HATES "Care and Counsel" for two reasons:

--Confusion with the Care Subcommittee. The Care subcommittee (of what is now known as Oversight) helps arrange committees of support for Friends with individual specific needs. Rantwoman means to write more of this topic elsewhere.

--Counsel implies more training and perspicacity than the Nominating process at our Meeting by itself generates. Pretty much does not matter what words might come with Counsel;RantWoman does not like the word Counsel because it sets up unrealistic expectations. One nearby Meeting calls this committee Community Spiritual Life, a name RantWoman is not crazy about but it works for them.

--RantWoman thinks "Care and Counsel" promises way more than can be assured. Precisely because RantWoman is prepared to live with people doing their best in Faith, Rantwoman really likes the thought of Community,Faith and Discipline committee. (Okay, this first came to RantWoman as the Faith, Community, and Discipline Committee. Can anyone see the phonetically infelicitous acronym that results?)

But the most important point: RantWoman wants the whole community, not just the soon-to-be-renamed committee to grapple with the theology and historical associations of the different words. Can you say "Word nerd?" Hold RantWoman in the Light while she tries to stay centered about this. In any case, the Friend presenting is not available until the June business meeting.

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TATu Make Love Not War

RantWoman is celebrating the occasion of her Profanity to Quakerese filter suddenly lurching into operation recently while RantWoman was tending to her own spiritual practice in pursuit of more music, swimming, and massage in her life. To wit, RantWoman has been led to render a considerably more vulgar Russian phrase simply as "Make Love Not War." How did RantWoman get there?

It dawned on RantWoman that Youtube has a search bar and suddenly RantWoman needed to reprise a cultural moment from 2003 just before the beginning of Gulf War II. The occasion: a US tour of the Russian pop-duo TATu, "This one loves That One" also known as "we're not lesbians, we just play them on TV." TATu are famous for kissing on camera.

RantWoman notes that in general Russians of both genders kiss others of their gender more often and more innocently than, say, people from the US. RantWoman has decided just not to opine about why it's controversial when TATu do it. One of the duo's first media events was a performance on Good Morning America. The news was full of impending war; the US literally was about to start bombing, and TATu appeared on Good Morning America wearing T-shirts they themselves decorated with the offending phrase which RantWoman is rendering as "Make Love Not War." It appears not to have occurred to ABC that Russian-speaking guests might need Russian-speaking backup for the regular network censor and no one caught that the slogans on TATu's t-shirts is obscene.


A performance, with T-shirts, which is why this is a link, not an imbed with mention of various "things are not as they seem" elements,:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=AmVYK0FbbCY&feature=endscreen

By the time TATu performed on Jay Leno later the same day, the matter of the profanity was caught. Sigh. That's why the next night, the band performed wearing T-shirts that said "Censored." The band appeared on Jimmie Kimmel--after Don King and Monica Lewinsky. Again, RantWoman is not commenting on numerous presentation points. The offending slogan appears briefly, scrawled on the host's hand with a LONG bleep while the slogan is explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtqPabaelUI





The wonders of YouTube are not necessarily helpful if one is prone to free associative wanderings anyway. Here are clips, first in Russian with Spanish subtitles and then in English of TATu appearing on a Russian TV show "100 questions for Adults." RantWoman is posting the clips for comments on parenting and art and career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4pfQfH9xb0




Part 2, both English and Spanish subtitles


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jnyStF4b4s





Part 3, English subtitles, no Spanish, about blasphemy, art, sin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNncN7rnmW4





Part 4, no subtitles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE7fegjjMJM





RantWoman sort of kind of apologizes for leaving her monolingual readers hanging but suggests that if you click on the links, the wonders of Youtube might help find subtitles which do seem to be available for some segments.

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August Woolman

RantWoman is a VERY bad Friend.


For one thing, RantWoman is looking to upgrade one or more of her electronic gizmos. RantWoman would prefer one not produced by Chinese slaves, but...

For another thing, RantWoman is utterly delighted by the account supplied at our most recent meeting by another member of the group that is reading John Woolman's journal, of the 1730 session of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. John Woolman would have been 10 years old but history does not record whehter he witnessed the Friend who stood up in session in a traditional Quaker cloak, gave a speech against slavery, and said people who kept slaves might as well do as he was doing. At the end of his speech, he threw off his cloak to reveal full military regalia, drew a sword , and stabbed a hollowed out book in which he had placed a bladder of some kind of red liquid that splattered all over Friends nearby.

But more than being a fan of flamboyant protest in almost any era, RantWoman is thinking ahead. The Woolman reading group has agreed to prepare three Adult Education sessions at the beginning of November. RantWoman is pretty sure the group will be delivered of slightly different titles than what has come to RantWoman:

Disease, Pestilence, Ecological Stresses and Transportation Difficulties in the age of John Woolman

How do you say "John Woolman is a crashing Boor and a real drag to be around" in 18th century Quakerese: reflections from the journals of the slow to convert and those unimpressed by John Woolman. (RantWoman, more's the pity, has no capacity actually to research this, but...
The Actual Life and Ministry of John Woolman


Stay tuned?



For next month we will be reading Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. RantWoman is delighted by the variety of e-formats in which it is available: http://www.archive.org/stream/considerationson00wool/considerationson00wool_djvu.txt

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How they do it in Canada

RantWoman notes with interest several things about this post from the Canadian YM Annual Session and other things CYM:

http://www.quaker.ca/Committees/hmac/blog/cym-2012-camrose-ab-bible-study-monday-morning

--What CYM calls its two variants of what RantWoman takes to be Worship Sharing

--Worship Sharing departing from Bible study and it appears from a challenging passage at that.

--Blogging the course of Annual Session. RantWoman in many contexts finds this kind of dispatch helpful in her h olding in her care even ts sh e is un able for one reason  or another she is unable to attend in person.

--The YM website includes links to several CYM blogosphere publishers of Truth.

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FOCUS points

RantWoman: "...two or three bullet points..."

RantWoman was raised in one of those big western states where even the music teacher's kid can eat the Second Amendment for Breakfast, where one of the state's Monthly Meetings once sang a song at Annual Session Community Night about an uprising led by cows with guns. So RantWoman is a little stuck on "bullet points."

Other Friend: "RantWoman, NOT bullet points. We're pacifists, remember. ...What about FOCUS points?"

Uhhhh, Friend, Focus? Focus! What a concept....but thee really has not reckoned with the RantWoman visual experience. F O C U S...what an idea!

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When "Spiritual Overseers" isn't Bad Friend enough

Mwraaap! Mwraaap! Mwraaap! Mwraaap! Mwraaap! Red Alert! RantWoman's bad Quaker vocabulary alarm is blaring away. Mwraaap! Mwraaap!
Mwraaap! Mwraaap!

Dear Friend,

The Cliff Notes version: Please try to find a different way when closing Meeting for Worship to describe the charge of Worship and Ministry committee other than "spiritual overseers." If you need assistance arriving at alternate language, RantWoman would be happy to sit in worship with you while you discern about the matter.

1. It's Meeting for Worship under the care of the Holy Spirit. We are all ministers of God. We DO NOT HAVE spiritual overseers.

2. The term "overseer" is offensive to many Friends of African American descent because it harkens back to slavery and the person, often an African American who frequently brutally fulfilled the task from the plantation owner of keeping everyone in line.

RantWoman appreciates your energy in trying to give a good account of and to help worshippers locate members of Worship and Ministry Committee. The God as Plantation Owner model of Divine presence is not necessarily inconsistent with RantWoman's experience either. Still, the word "overseer" evokes slavery. RantWoman is pretty sure a large majority of Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends disavowed slavery centuries ago.

RantWoman not only is not the least bit nostalgic, if she ever took a break from checks on Friends fulminating beyond Light, RantWoman is pretty sure it would be easy to find many modern manifestations of slavery in need of searing attention from the RantWoman spiritual blowtorch. That is only one reason RantWoman feels some sense of urgency and urges you again to seek some other term besides "spiritual overseers."

In the Light

RantWoman.
(Truth in advertising: RantWoman found it really satisfying to pen this tirade. However, RantWoman neglected to mention this concern today when she needed to call this Friend about something else. Siiigh. Even RantWoman's WonderQuaker persona sometimes falters, has to season its messages,... wobbles sort of pathetically.)


On the other hand, the Really Bad Friend Dial-a-Tirade version:

Dear Friends,

If RantWoman were a nice centered, Friend with even a whisper of capacity to "keep low," she would send this link about the spiritual gift of confrontation http://www.fgcquaker.org/library/fosteringmeetings/0223.html  and simply ask you please, when closing Meeting for Worship, to find a different way to describe the charge of Worship and Ministry committee other than "spiritual overseers."

If that "keeping low" version of RantWoman shows up, someone please take her temperature. Consider a DNA test to be sure some kinder genetler Friend Gone Bad has not tried to steal her identity.

RantWoman has been reading over at the Association of Bad Friends about use of the terms Overseers and Oversight among Friends. RantWoman would not in the least mind having at her electronic fingertips some kind of concise summary of history about Quaker practice and usage of those terms; RantWoman suspects it might also be topical to consider usage of the term "Ministry and Counsel."

Historical groundedness is not RantWoman's strong suit.

RantWoman also was amused by a digression over at Association of Bad Friends about oversight in the sense of "Oops well." RantWoman was amused; RantWoman peculiarly does not feel called to delve deeply into possibly overample applicability of this sense of the term in her own experience.

RantWoman read further of the term Overseer. Unfortunately RantWoman is a true Bad Friend. RantWoman does not remember reading of "overseer" in terms of "one who cracks the whip." RantWoman confesses, she can easily see a need for that function--even if the term "overseer" is offensive.

RantWoman thus proposes that the term Overseers be replaced: RantWoman operates a highly non-profitable, multiethnic, multilingual, multinational, multiconfessional flogging bureau. The Flogging Bureau is all about non-consensual floggings and there are innumerable ways to earn its services. RantWoman's Flogging Bureau is perpetually overbooked which may be why it could easily add a Quaker affiliate.

In that case, RantWoman recommends that overseers due for "terminology upgrade" get their orders in early....

Meanwhile, RantWoman will shut up and pray for the right moment...

and RantWoman will be served up....
The Gospel According to Star Trek!
http://hystery.blogspot.com/2012/01/dream-of-confused-quakers-star-trek.html#!/2012/01/dream-of-confused-quakers-star-trek.html

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Trauma Struggle Recovery

From Today's Blogroll, oddly linked in RantWoman's mind by factors tempting RantWoman to focus only on individualism instead of shared struggle:

A quote at http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2011/12/quote-of-day.html

Without the context of a political movement, it has never been possible to advance the study of psychological trauma. The fate of this field of knowledge depends on the fate of the same political movement that has inspired and sustained it over the last century. In the late nineteenth century the goal of that movement was the establishment of secular democracy. In the early twentieth century its goal was the abolition of war. In the late twentieth century its goal was the liberation of women. All of these goals remain. All are, in the end, inseparably connected.
-- Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., in

from Judith Herman's bookd Trauma and Recovery
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0465087302

RantWoman means no disrespect at all to the liberation of women, but RantWoman finds boiling all the technological and ecological concerns of the late twentieth century down to this sentence a little disconcerting.

Despite the shared / overlapping struggles theme, RantWoman's individualism temptation here has to do with reading, time, needing to steep herself in the right community of people who have read and interacted with the book. WHINE.

Given the wine above about direct unmediated interaction with the text above, RantWoman has a lot of darn nerve even commenting in the specific case. In general, when RantWoman reads some kinds of trauma recovery literature, RantWoman has more than once come away very grateful for practical insights and also hungry for some spark of sustaining spirit.

RantWoman is unclear that Clothe Yourself in righteousness and get spiritually naked is what she has in mind.

http://www.clotheyourselfinrighteousness.com/the-quaker-revolution/

RantWoman appreciates:
--a healthy sense of confession, a concept RantWoman finds more chimerical among Friends than, say, among the baptists of her youth

--The more radical than thou search for self-definitionof thinking youth in every generation.

RantWoman is a little fussy about:
--dissing people who take in Bosnian refugees because doing what one is called to often proves transformative for those so called.

--it's one short video but again rantWoman misses a more explicit connection between the individual and the community, realizing that of God in relations among people, that stuff about peacemaking that is really hard and that RantWoman could barely even think of undertaking in her youth despite obvious and persistent need for same.

Okay, okay, RantWoman has only been doing spiritual striptease all over her blog for awhile now, not obviously to social effect but still.

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An Apology for True RantWoman Blog Tagging and Vocabulary

RantWoman supposes it might sound tighter and more literary if God delivered from her keyboard tidier parables, but RantWoman is a Friend in progress.

RantWoman is not in a position to comment about whether her readers care about the logic of some of RantWoman's more obscure blog tags. In case anyone besides RantWoman does,

Salt and Light Machine: the most recent addition. RantWoman's tag for refletions specifically related to the upcoming World Gathering of Friends.
en español
en español

Compost: RantWoman's processing of a number of matters involving God, mentors, and occasionally actual compost. RantWoman apologizes but she still has not gotten around to the Composting Quakerism podcast.

Charm School: RantWoman branches out from reflections on one Friend to utter Charm, eloquence, and possibly telling too much of the Truth about workings of God, numbers of Friends and a specific prottracted conflict exercise.

Fufferings: RantWoman knows that the term originally is a typography presentation of the word Sufferings, usually in reference to early Friends sufferings for Truth. For RantWoman, Fufferings tends to refer to some kind of ailment or other difficulty of the corporeal sort.

Safest: RantWoman's commentary about her Meeting's walk with a low-level sex offender who has worshipped among us for a number of years. As of this writing, the tag includes items related specifically to this individual, survivor stories of various sorts, informational items about experience in other Friends Meetings and lately a few links about what other denominations' websites say about the topic. RantWoman probably should make this tag into some distinct categories but RantWoman does not promise to do so.

Remarkable: Items related to another member of RantWoman's community.

There are a number of other tags which probably need commentary. RantWoman invites her readers to ask.

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Queries for Adult Education November 27

How can we as a community and as individuals support UFM members and attenders experiencing economic difficulties?

Thoughts and queries which may help guide our discussion:

From Pendle Hill pamphlet number 259, Stewardship of Wealth by Kingdon Swayne: “The concept of stewardship as I use it here goes far beyond its common use as shorthand for charitable giving. It expresses both the notion that what is mine legally is not really mine, and its corollary that my custody of wealth imposes on me an obligation to use it responsibly…ultimately , none of us owns anything.”

Swayne paraphrases John Woolman: “Be content with a small income and conveniences that are not costly, to lead a life free from “much entanglements”. Look to the sources of conflict and oppression in our possessions. Turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of universal love.”


From Faith and Practice (NPYM): Mutual Care: “Our need for love and care, and our response to this need in others, make up a rich part of our lives. In an exchange truly grounded in love, each of us is both giver and receiver, ready to help and accept help. Neither pride nor fear keeps ups from the unconditional love and care of God manifested through others. Let neither comfort nor self-centerdness blind us to need of others.

We listen to one another with openness of heart and in good faith, aware that greater wisdom than our own is required to meet our human needs. We lift up our hearts to the Source of all wisdom and power.

Are we charitable with each other?

Are we sensitive to each other’s personal needs and difficulties and do we assist in useful ways?”

Other queries:


How can (or does) UFM model John Woolman’s statement: “…Of all we call ours, we are most accountable to God and the public for our estates: In this we are but stewards, and to hoard up all to ourselves is great injustice as well as ingratitude.”

With limited resources, how can UFM best discern how best to use our resources?

Can you think of examples in which stewardship at UFM seemed Spirit-led?

How can we better serve those in our community in financial need?
==========

RantWoman feels endlessly blessed with prodigious capacity to rant and ramble, but RantWoman is doing the best she can to post the queries unadorned and to wait until after Sunday to inflict upon the world what churns up out of her own practical and spiritual compost heap

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Holding Space

This item about Quaker practices around listening absolutely falls in RantWoman's put it in the blog as filing cabinet column, and not just because it is on the internet instead of in some dusty pamphlet for RantWoman to sneeze over:

http://chronicler-3.blogspot.com/2011/11/holding-space.html

RantWoman is interested in both the theological language used to formulate the eldering or spiritual support discussed and the process elements involved in the meeting described here. RantWoman, of decidedly not straightforward faith admits to a certain program evaluator's reflex about "does it work?" But if one thinks of RantWoman's recent "this I know experimentally" item, what do we mean, "does it work?"

RantWoman also notes with care the convenor's acknowledgment of his need to care for himself spiritually. RantWoman has no official training in counseling, spiritual direction, pastoral attention to the life of a community. Instead RantWoman keeps stumbling into situations where such gifts are highly topical, where something in RantWoman's experience speaks to the situation EVEN when what speaks to RantWoman is a sense of being out of her depth, needing more care than can be had with only superificial increments of time.

Scratch that: RantWoman may be out of her depth, but RantWoman of late frequently also hears others about her even more at sea than RantWoman, at sea to the point they cannot even interact with RantWoman's points. RantWoman is meditating about"we are all ministers of God" and how we are called to care of each other with or without any specific academic or cultural credentials, with or without a tradition of some in a community being recognized for seeking and achieving training in specific areas.

RantWoman so wishes she felt like George Fox on Pendle Hill about all this. RantWoman would even settle for clarity about how to proceed among her own Meeting.

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Explicit: "Should"

RantWoman started out to post about Full Moon Meeting for worship and whether holding Full Moon Meeting for Worship instantly qualifies one for status as a Bad Friend. RantWoman started this before one full moon nad it has lingered in Drafts just past another full moon.

RantWoman regrets to announce that MERELY holding Full Moon Meeting for Worship, in RantWoman's estimation, is NOT enough to qualify one for status as a Bad Friend. RantWoman is acutely aware however that in proclaiming this point she is deviating seriously from the New Testament primitive Christianity Revived world of early Friends. Tough!

RantWoman is perfectly well aware that penning her comment in that tone might most definitely lead others to proclaim exactly that comment qualification for membership in the Association of Bad Friends. Tough.

Rantwoman is more than legalistic enough to point out that one is ONLY allowed to nominate oneself to the Association of Bad Friends.

RantWoman has to be true to movements of Spirit in her life and heart. RantWoman keeps finding herself rebelling against all that New Testament stuff about the God depicted there being enough and people having no need of anything else or anything from previous generations. New Testament characters may have bought the concept that Christ alone is enough. RantWoman for her part is fond of the book of Eccliastes and, horrors, RantWoman hears things in full moon worshuip and tending to the seasons and cycles of time that she really needs to stay oriented. RantWoman also already has a rather long list of ways to qualify for the Association of Bad Friends even without this sort of heterodoxy about observance of ways to mark time.

For instance, RantWoman is relieved to learn via Facebook that at the Association of Bad Friends one can get eldered even if the main occasion for eldering over at AssBadFriends is insufficient silliness! RantWoman will do the best she can to get back to this point. But first...

RantWoman is reflecting on two "once a generation", the World Gathering of Friends in Kenya and revision of the NPYM Faith and Practice.

RantWoman is mentally composing queries for a Friend from her Meeting who plans to attend the world Gathering to pose for our Meeting:

From Really Good Questions Friend, given all our diversity, what holds us together? RantWoman would not QUITE go so far as to characterize her Yearly Meeting as a den of Goddess-friendly, queer-marrying, Buddha-citing heterodoxy, but RantWoman is pretty sure other Friends might and RantWoman wants to uphold the Light of Friends from our Yearly Meeting venturing into the wider maelstrom.

What do we want our Friend to take with her? What might we put into a "briefing book" to help her prepare or give her something to fus with on the plane over? Are there specific Bible passages that speak to Salt and Light meets Full Moon Worship or to that Jewish Buddhist universalist listen with respect to everyone's spiritual language thing?

What do we want the Open Places Friend from our Meeting to bring back? RantWoman is pretty sure there will be much to hear in terms of living with climate change, global challenges, and being a Friend in hostile environments. RantWoman is all ears.

The other once a generation exercise on RantWoman's mind is revising our Book of Discipline. This is proving less straightforward than simply coming up with queries.

For one thing the task of structuring how the chapter on the Monthly Meeting gets seasoned has been delegated to our Worship and Ministry committee. RantWoman is pointedly AGAIN NOT COMMENTING on Worship and Ministry committee NOT INCLUDING RantWoman in its work. RantWoman guesses she is supposed to feel heard because the discussion resulted in articulation again of a request to bring a write-up of our discussion to Meeting for Business where there are likely to be at least SOME Friends younger than RantWoman.

RantWoman has a continuing concern in discussions of the Faith and Practice chapter on The Monthly Meeting: RantWoman continues to be the youngest person in the room (Today, the youngest person from her Meeting because Ashley W of Freedom Friends was also present) in discussions at Adult Education about this chapter. RantWoman thought the discussion might invite itself to a couple places known to be full of younger Friends. RantWoman was dumb enough to mention the idea to someone first; if RantWoman were a teensy bit surer of her Light about this topic, it might have been smoother just to do it.. Bad Friend.

RantWoman was interested to hear one voice known for thoughtful considerations also express concern in this generational shift direction. RantWoman notes that this concern was more about who is going to take care of aging Friends than about a sense of mission and something to share with the world. RantWoman apologizes if the following mental excursion is telling too much of the Truth, but perhaps God can carry RantWoman's intent. Yeah, sure, there are a lot of aging people who are going to need more care than RantWoman at least is happy about acknowledging. But RantWoman is unsure that being young in our age is entirely a picnic. RantWoman continues to listen to God and to what we all have to say to one another. But that is RantWoman and talking into what RantWoman hears is, um, no slam dunk.

RantWoman further notes a reference to the council of Nicea at one point when discussion in Adult Ed grew too Talmudical so RantWoman at least holds out hope for a sense of God alive in the actions of Friends.

The most Talmudical part of the session in Adult Education was about the sentence "Friends should come to Meeting for Business expecting that their minds will be changed." Some Friends felt it sufficient to say should come to Meeting for Business expecting that their minds MIGHT be changed. Either way, will or might are matters of faith; what is the matter of practice if one starts with the "Friends should come to Meeting for Business?"

RantWoman has a lingering thought about what gets written being sufficient for this time and what might be needed forever being a different thing.

In the multigeneration, march of time and difference vein, the question of disability wandered into the conversation. Unfortunately it wandered in as "Everyone has a disability" which is true but trivializes our differences. RantWoman thinks SOMETHING needs to get written into Faith and Practice about this, but RantWoman is unclear that it needs to get written in the chapter on the monthly meeting.

Drat. Now RantWoman gets to season what she herself feels further called to do and what there might be other hands for as well. Uhhhh....

At the time this was originally drafted, RantWoman was led to include the link for The 2011 Swarthmore Lecture

http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.com/2011/10/swarthmore-lecture-2011.html

RantWoman apologizes but at this second she is not led either to re-read the item to figure out why she was led to include it here or to write any kind of abstract.

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Adult Religious Education Guidelines

RantWoman is, among other things discerning about whether to cling to her decidedly nonvoluntary (posts still pending;stay tuned) "floating free on Grace" state or to take up the cause of Adult Religious Education committee, lately faltering due to sudden resignations of its two newly appointed co-clerks.

RantWoman is dipping her toe in realizing two sessions that were already half prepared. RantWoman is starting with basics like the guidelines currently in use.

RantWoman received the guidelines below this week from Conflict is a Gift of God Friend. RantWoman especially wants to appreciate and deeply esteem Conflict is a Gift of God Friend for his gifts creating space for God and community to flower with each other in our Meeting's Adult Religious Education sessions.

RantWoman has been dutifully studying the writings of weighty Quakers about applause and expressions of gratitude for the labors of specific Friends. RantWoman finds herself thinking of a famous old quote "Thee was favored and thee was faithful." Conflict...Friend IS gifted about fostering dialogue, those who attend are favored with the gifts of ongoing ever opening interaction, and all are faithful for the realization of these gifts in discussion at Adult Ed.

RantWoman for once thought to ask for permission to post in her blog. Conflict...Friend said the document has already been widely distributed, though he also expressed a wish that RantWoman would edit or excerpt and perhaps include essay reflections on study and learning. RantWoman is clear that the internet needs the document as is, as a specimen of guidelines for such sessions. RantWoman has also lately been being true to her Light / plainly Getting in People's faces about the issue of accessible to RantWoman independently and wants to cover her bases about info channels. There are HOURS of painful conversations involved in this being true to one's Light / evoking learning in one's Meeting activity but that is another post entirely. Editing or excerpting is also presently beyond RantWoman's Light.

Upon a fast reread, RantWoman is led to reflect also on how this document might be received by, say, a state legislator invited to discuss tax policy. RantWoman finds in this thought yet another reason for now to preserve the document as is for first pass in her blog.

BY way of a small additional increment of reflection on study and learning, RantWoman does not have cable and needs cheap ways to engage with the quest for Truth. RantWoman also is a choir director's kid, so about 5 hours / week, not counting bus travel, engaged specifically in religious community activities does not seem too much to RantWoman, even ON TOP of personal study and reflection. Apparently many in RantWoman's Meeting balance their time differently to the point of wanting to spend only an hour or two on religious community activities outside Meeting for Worship. RantWoman is posting this mainly as a point for reflection!


Guidelines for presenters for Adult Education sessions
at University Friends Meeting

We appreciate your willingness to lead a session of our program. Whatever your subject, we ask that you stay within the following guidelines for spiritual education:

A. Worship discussion:
All sessions are a Quaker process called “Worship-discussion”; it is a conversation that arises out of silent worship, under the Spirit, and is based on deep listening. We ask that you limit the total of any presentation you offer to about 30 minutes (whether all in one stream or in bits interspersed throughout the hour); we allow for question¬ing and various opinions/experiences, but it is not debate. Your answers are separate from the presen¬ta¬tion. The session ends with silent reflexion, at least 3 minutes or more. If you prefer, a member of Ad. Rel. Ed. Committee will introduce you and monitor time.

i. the religious/spiritual approach: We are Seekers of Truth, Children of the Light, not interested in dogma; we hold things in the Light together, look at them, discern and learn

ii. “authority”: The Great Mystery, the Creator, Eternal Spirit of Life and Love, the Holy One, The Light –whatever name you use-- is the only final authority; we humans understand through our filters, so many approaches are right if they lead us toward God. We expect you to respect the great diversity of theolo¬gi¬cal expression in our Meeting as well as differing spiritual needs. We will try to respect your way of expressing your experience.

iii. dialog: always allow time for questions and accept others’ opinions and insights – it’s best to leave a short silence between speakers. You may ask someone to moderate for you.

B. Adult education principles
Education for adults is not “study” in the traditional sense: it eschews lecture and pro¬blem/ correct answer approaches. It may include practice of skills but prefers Socratic reasoning processes, narrative and shar¬ing of personal experience (feelings, thoughts as well as events), but is not traditional “teaching”.

i. applicability, “reality”: Learner must see some relation to one’s own life, have some response that uses the learning

ii. student-centered: program exists for the learner, not for the speaker’s ego or pet hypothe¬ses; follows group’s interests rather than presenter’s.

iii. practical vs. theoretical: no “angels on the head of pins” or “pie-in-the-sky by-and-by”; not what might have happened (or even what should have happened) but what did happen, what is going on, what can we do differently?

C. Quaker guidelines
i. Any subject may be held in the Light: we seek those aspects that unite all human expe¬ri¬ence and celebrate each one’s sacred value and uniqueness; we “meet in that which is Eternal.”

ii. There is more concern with the why/what-for than the who or which

iii. We value that which leads to harmony & love, peace, equality, integrity, simplicity, community; and challenge that which leads away from these values. The beginning point of all Quaker theology is that “there is that of God in every person.”
For 2010-11 we are trying to tie every program to Integrity: how can we walk our talk?

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Peculiar Invitation

Dear Seriously Weighty Friends

So, um, I am decompressing from everything to do with recent Meeting for Business figuring out what I need my clearness committee to help me debrief about.

I am resisting the temptation to send email several directions without running things through the sarcasm filter several times.

I am meditating about what to blog about and what of certain emails I might be led just to dump into blog posts. This inclination is likely to be limited by time constraints, but...

And I have a problem: there are several seriously weighty friends who might come up in, um, challenging terms. My blog convention is as much as possible to use Noms De Blog for lots of reasons. Characters may
appear under more than one name. Most of the time characters have not been offered a choice about what nom de blog I assign, but I decided to experiment this time:

--Promising NOT to blog is not likely.

--I do not guarantee that either of you will appear but if you do, you deserve noms de blog.

My question: do you have the slightest interest in choosing the nom de blog for which I offer comments OR
 Are you content to see what I come up with?

How are you led?

In the Light

RantWoman




RantWoman penned the above inquiry to two seriously weighty Friends in the same household. One wants to preview choices before posts occur. The other told RantWoman to pick. At first RantWoman did not have clear leading but then an option occurred.

In both cases, the Seriously Weighty Friends are among several engaging in several annoying behaviors which, among other things, RantWoman in froth at the mouth mode has no problem calling ableism. RantWoman would have to choose serial noms de blog such as Put it Off Until It's More Convenient Friend #1, #2, #3, Make Decisions on My Behalf Friend #1, #2, #3 or, in Quakerese Are We Seasoning the Right Question Friends #1, #2,...#n, #n+1

RantWoman understands perfectly well the point about respect for people's time but examining the point caused RantWoman in Be True to Your Light mode to apply to bracing effect to recent events and her own time. RantWoman is grateful for what arose.

RantWoman is also grateful for Seriously Weighty Mentor Friend who responded as writing drew out more points RantWoman needs to articulate. RantWoman is also grateful that such efforts sucked up time RantWoman might be inappropriately tempted to use to ill effect. RantWoman is VERY humble about the degree to which her soul needs HELLLLP right now and even more tender about what is flowing her way.

Alas, RantWoman also understands why, on a recent survey about the experiences of people with disabilities, she was checking "Would Rather Not Answer" uncomfortably often on the survey section about her faith community.

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