Scarsdale Friends Meeting

This past year has been an eventful one in the life of our Meeting, bringing both grief and joy. We have experienced the shock and sorrow of unexpected death and the sadness of departures.   We cherish the memory of those whose warmth, wisdom, and loving action sustained our Meeting through many years.  At the same time, we rejoice that life and love abide, as evidenced by the marriage of two women under the care of our Meeting.

We continue to witness against policies we perceive as wrong, whether within the Religious Society of Friends or in the world at large.  Specifically, we continue to struggle in a loving spirit with the hiring policy of Friends United Meeting, a policy that discriminates on the basis of sexual activity. We continue to bear witness against the war in Iraq. Individually and collectively, we have tried to address issues of injustice and violence at home and abroad, and some of our members continue to minister to the spiritual needs of incarcerated men.

With a keen sense of our limitations we have labored with those in our Meeting who have been undergoing personal and marital difficulties.  And, as always, we have not been entirely free of discord among one another on various matters. Thankfully, these discords often melt away under the warming light of tender consideration.  But at times, as we “try to see what love can do,” we find ourselves less effective than we might wish.

We were distressed to find our trust violated by acts of thievery in the Meetinghouse.  We have attempted, perhaps not very effectively, to address the hurt and mistrust occasioned by these acts. Despite these problems, we have much cause for gratitude as we reflect on this past year and look toward the future of our Meeting. We have welcomed a number of new members and attenders, including children. The repeat attendance of many of our visitors, and their participation in the life of our Meeting, gives us hope that our spiritual community is healthy and that, to good measure, our love is made visible. As our advancement efforts continue to progress.  We need to remain mindful that effective advancement requires more than the greeting of first- or second-time visitors. For the seed to grow, ongoing cultivation is needed.

We rejoice in the successful completion of renovations that have made our Meetinghouse more inviting and more serviceable. Our new kitchen is larger and more efficient, with more durable and clean-able surfaces.  The stairway from building entrance to meeting room is both practically and symbolically more welcoming.  A ramp has been added to enhance accessibility.  We cannot help but reflect with gratitude on the vision, labor, and generosity that have brought this to fruition. This achievement has been an example of Quaker process, including spirit-led, grounded committee work.
Vision and labor are also being applied toward making the Scarsdale Friends Meeting website a useful and friendly tool both for internal communication and for outreach.

With a strong cadre of students and teachers, First Day School continues to play a key role in the life of the Meeting.   Restructuring to accommodate changing needs and resources and the departure, at mid-year, of our religious education coordinator, we have grouped youngsters on the basis of interests rather than age.  At the Christmas party, the First Day School play, an adaptation of The Grinch That Stole Christmas, was a particular delight for all present.
Our Spring and Fall retreats continue to be, for the most part, joyful and nurturing occasions where our appreciation for each other and for our spiritual community is deepened.  Our after-worship social hour has benefitted from a more organized approach that involves the entire Meeting. Interest groups, such as Bible study, the men’s book club and the women’s group, have drawn stalwart participants, nourished friendships, and drawn newcomers into the life of the Meeting.

Our Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business remains vibrant and spirit-led.   A couple of our committees have needed revival; to some extent, that revival appears to be under way.  With a heightened awareness of our ongoing need for loving patience with one another, as well as for disciplined focus, we have labored toward higher ground.

Our Meeting continues to nourish, and to be nourished by, the witness and good works of individual members and attenders. These works and witnesses bring Scarsdale Meeting to the attention of potential attenders.

As the stormclouds of economic distress continue to gather, we are mindful of sufferings, both in the larger community and, at least potentially, within our Meeting.  We will be seeking ways to minister to these sufferings, even as the Meeting, already in an austerity budget, faces the prospect of further belt-tightening.

The core of our religious society, and the wellspring from which we go forth into the world, is the Meeting for Worship — and, more broadly, the spiritual life of our religious community. We seem to have come through, with renewed confidence, a period of some anxiety and unclarity as to what it means to be a noncreedal spiritual community.  The wisdom of the late Friend John Randall has been instructive in this process.  He continually reminded us that to “seek” doesn’t mean that we never “find,” but also that we don’t all have to find the same thing.    We are, at our best, a caring and nurturing community of seekers, gathered with open hearts to wait upon the Spirit.