John Punshon, author of Encounter with Silence and Portrait in Grey, lifted up the School of the Spirit Ministry as one of four reasons for hope in his address at the FUM Triennials earlier this year. John was a friend to Sandra Cronk, as she and Kathryn Damiano conceived of this Ministry in the late 1980s. He wrote in part:

"[The School of the Spirit's] concern is with ministry and preparation for ministry through faithfulness, silent worship, inward preparation and a deepening personal awareness of the inward presence of the Spirit. . . .[Our worship] is a distinctive and immensely powerful way to approach God and has its characteristic and necessary conventions embodied in those who are called to eldership and ministry . . . [T]he School of the Spirit reminds us that we are a corporate body for mutual support as well as a collection of individuals."  

The complete text can be read here. That portion relating to this Ministry can be read here.

 

The prospectus for the next class of the On Being a Spiritual Nurturer program is now available on our website, along with an application form and a scholarship application form.  To download or print these documents, click here.

The program begins in September 2009 and the deadline to receive applications is May 25, 2009. To help with your discernment we are holding two Testing the Waters retreat days:

February 7, 2009 at First Friends Meeting in Greensboro, NC
March 28, 2009 at Alexandria Friends Meeting in VA

The requested donation for each day is $25. To register, please send us an email with your contact information and indicating for which retreat day you are registering.

In the meantime, the current class is fast approaching its final residency in the middle of this month. It will be a poignant time, when we will re-tell our story together, as two disciples re-told their story to a stranger on the road to Emmaus.  The 21 participants from seven yearly meetings, the teachers (Michael Green, Patty Levering, and Carole Treadway), a guest minister (Deborah Fisch), and persons of presence (Carolyn Moon and Matt Drake) will worship, share, and sup together with the expectation that we will recognize Christ Jesus in our midst.  We invite your prayers that each participant will be fully awake during this important stage of their journey.

Our new one-year program The Way of Ministry, co-sponsored with Pendle Hill, has been launched through the grace and mercy of God -- and no small amount of prayer, faith, work, and tears.

It was a joy for the teachers (Marcelle Martin, Laura Melly, and Beckey Phipps), elders (Katharine Jacobsen and Barbarajene Williams), person of presence (Nancy Fennell), two guest ministers (Brian Drayton and Jonathan Vogel-Bourne), and 22 participants from nine yearly meetings and one from the Church of Canada to gather for the first residency at the end of August.

During this residency they enacted and embraced an early Quaker story of corporate faithfulness and travel in the ministry. Led to spread the Quaker message to colonial New England, despite likely persecution, eleven Friends set sail from Portsmouth in 1657 on the Woodhouse -- a boat not designed for ocean voyaging.  Daily, they sought their bearings in worship and heard the consistent encouragement, "Steer a straight course and mind nothing but Me!"  

As the class considered the risks of following similar leadings, one participant admitted, "Never before could I have imagined having such courage, but with this group, I would get on the boat!"

Note: We are aware of the desire for this program to be offered again and we are in the midst of our discernment regarding a second class.

Linda Chidsey and Carolyn Moon will facilitate their annual winter silent retreat at Powell House, the retreat home of New York Yearly Meeting, January 16-19, 2009.

During this 3 day retreat, Friends are invited to enter more fully into the silence and to experience the deeper rhythms in which we might live. This retreat will include the opportunity for solitude, individual and corporate worship, silent meals, and active silence. There will also be opportunities for individual and group spiritual reflection. Come and simply BE with God; listen and attend to the Divine stirrings of the soul.

Linda Chidsey, a member of Housatonic Meeting, is a recorded minister in New York Yearly Meeting. She carries a concern for spiritual nurture and pastoral care. Linda recently served as clerk of NYYM and serves on the School of the Spirit Ministry board.

Carolyn Moon, serving as Linda's elder, is a member of Gwynedd Friends Meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She also serves on our board.

The cost of the long weekend is $260 prior to January 1, and $280 from January 1. To register, click here.

 

When I was the stream,
when I was the forest,
when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot, fin and wing,
when I was the sky itself,
No one ever asked me, did I have a purpose,
no one wondered if there was anything I might need,
for there was nothing
I could not
love.