The Ministry and Counsel Committee of IYM(C) met daily, Third through Seventh Days, with an additional meeting on Seventh Day. In this timetogether we shared how our spiritual lives have deepened, reviewed our on-going work, and considered new concerns brought to us.
Several meetings report being enriched and invigorated by new attenders. Weshare a concern for inclusiveness, noting that our announcements may assume unity or knowledge which is not actually there. M&C continues to discuss how to welcome and include newcomers to Yearly Meeting, having heard thecomment: “You are all used to one another, but you’re not used to reaching out.”
We received a report from our subcommittee on child safety practices. They have compiled the resources from the 2016 program and had begun writing possible practices and guidelines for yearly meeting. With the addition of another member, this committee, which we are calling the Ad-hoc Committee on Child Safety Practices, under the care of Ministry and Counsel, now consists of: Penny Majors, Liz Oppenheimer and Sonja Sponheim.
We continue to look at our Advices and Queries. One meeting reports that only the Advice, and not the Query, is read for consideration.
The Scattergood Friends School Committee approached M&C with the following: After the 2014 IYM Session, the YM Clerk sent monthly meetings a query formulated by the SFS Committee: “What relationship shall the yearly meeting have with the school in the future? What charge does the yearly meeting give to the School Committee for the school?” Meetings were invited to respond and thoughtful conversations occurred. The results of these conversations were neither shared with the School Committee nor at Yearly Meeting. The School Committee asked for guidance in following up on these conversations. We spent some time with these questions in our meeting. Weare sorry that the conversations were not compiled and shared with the widermeeting. We believe that visitation in both directions would go a long way in understating and increasing the relationship between monthly meetings and Scattergood Friends School.
We had a discussion of the challenges faced by the Entertainment Committee. A concern had been expressed that the school is not adequately clean. Notingthat Des Moines Friends help clean Bear Creek Meetinghouse in preparationfor MidYear Meeting, it was suggested having a clean-up day at Scattergoodprior to yearly meeting. We do not know whether M&C is where this ideamight be seasoned. There is a concern that people may be discouraged from volunteering for entertainment committee because there are high expectations and Friends might not be understanding when expectations are not met.
M&C affirms that it is important that each monthly meeting be represented at our meetings during yearly meeting sessions. We have been missing members for several years. When the appointed M&C members cannot attend the annual sessions, we urge the monthly meeting to name a substitute. We are troubled that there are only two men on our committee and wonder whether this reflects the gender balance on monthly meeting ministry and counsel committees.
We listened with care to the State of the Meeting reports and tenderly held meetings’ joys and struggles. We return them to the Yearly Meeting clerk with the recommendation that they be read during these annual sessions.
On behalf of the Ministry & Counsel Committee,
Lorene Ludy, clerk