On Saturday, after much tender, emotional, and very difficult testimony over the course of several Meetings for Worship for Business, IMYM Friends were unable to come to unity on whether or not to continue the Joint Service Project.

Nineteen years ago, Intermountain Yearly Meeting was on the verge of wholly disengaging with American Friends Service Committee. It was a broken relationship, and both sides sought to rebuild it. The Joint Service Project was born of that desire to connect IMYM Friends with AFSC, and for IMYM Friends to have an opportunity to deepen their spiritual lives through service to others.

The JSP was modeled on the AFSC workcamps of the post-war era, where youth, families and adults worked side by side with communities in need. JSP built strong relationships with indigenous communities in the US and Mexico, returning year after year to the same communities. In more recent years, the JSP’s coordinator, Mike Gray, also worked to help those communities find viable means to make a living through traditional crafts and foods.

For many years, the JSP provided Friends in IMYM, as well as Friends and non-Quakers from elsewhere, an opportunity to serve communities in a Spirit-led structure. More recently, participation from IMYM youth in particular, but also IMYM as a whole, has waned. AFSC has been working to simplify its focus, and two years ago, determined it was unlikely they would be continuing as a partner in the Joint Service Project. AFSC has moved away from offering workcamps, and the JSP had served its purpose of healing the rift between AFSC and IMYM.

In 2009, IMYM’s JSP oversight committee began exploring alternatives to partnering with AFSC. At that time, some Friends in IMYM raised concerns about the current structure and current leadership of the JSP. The oversight committee put together both a transition plan and a five-year plan (mentioned in Friday’s blog post.)

As part of Saturday’s deliberations, the clerk tested a minute stating that IMYM would accept the oversight committee’s proposal for 2010 as a transitional year for the JSP, renamed Western Quaker Workcamps, as they began a partnership with William Penn House. The year would include time to evaluate what the project is, and what Friends want it to be. Mike Gray would continue as coordinator. This minute did not find unity. Next the clerks tested a minute stating that Friends were unable to find unity on the JSP, and it would therefore be laid down as the end of September 2009. The JSP oversight committee would then establish a working group to consider next steps for the possibility of some form of service project for IMYM. As a growing number of Friends announced they would stand aside, it became clear that the only minute which expressed the state of Friends was simply that IMYM could not find unity.

The testimony of Friends over the course of these several meetings was too rich to summarize in whole. Instead I have lifted out some of the unanswered questions which left Friends unable to reach unity.

• Have IMYM Friends truly listened to discover if they are called to participate in a service project? Why haven’t more IMYM Friends participated in recent years? Are IMYM Friends avoiding a calling to deeper work on issues of poverty and race?
• What does it mean to work among minority communities in need in far-off places? Is this a colonial model that is not in keeping with Friends’ expressed values?
• How does the current model address race and class issues? Is it in ways that change participants?
• Where do Friends’ testimonies on peace, equality and integrity lead us with regard to domestic violence?
• Does the expenditure of funds justify the number of participants? Is there a more cost-effective model?
• If IMYM youth feel they cannot afford to participate in a work project, how can we change that?
• Does the service project require the continuance of current staff in order to provide a service experience for Friends?
• Is the workcamp the right model for the 21st Century?
• How are Friends called to serve? In our neighborhoods, in our communities, or elsewhere? Both? What is the value of each?
• If we don’t have the service project, how do we as Friends work to heal the broken relationships between us “newcomers” and Native American populations?
• What is the role of service in the spiritual life of Friends in IMYM?
• Can we heal our community and have a service project?

Amidst discussion of the JSP, Friends heard epistles from the Children’s Yearly Meeting and the Junior and Senior Young Friends Yearly Meetings. The registrars also reported briefly, sharing that 358 Friends from twelve states were in attendance at IMYM’s gathering this year. 185 Friends attended the Early Days sessions. IMYM contributed roughly $11,000 in waivers for Friends in select volunteer positions and for scholarships.

Friends also approved a budget that included funding for two Friends to travel to FGC’s Central Committee meetings, a line item to send a new IMYM clerk to Pendle Hill for the clerking workshop, funding for five Senior Young Friends to travel to IMYM’s Coordinating Committee to plan to pilot year of the Quaker camp, and additional funds for Western Friend. Finance Committee also made a recommendation that IMYM Meetings be asked to season how Friends sit with eroding the reserve to support the work IMYM is led to do. While the future of the JSP remains unclear, so does IMYM’s financial picture.

After an emotional and difficult day, Friends were more than ready to laugh and enjoy the considerable talents of IMYM Friends at Creativity Night. Wonderful skits and stories shook the rafters with laughter, while songs, poetry and readings also moved Friends in other ways. (Best of all, the whole thing was finished by 9:30pm!)

Sunday morning, the dining hall was filled with bustling Quakers making their bag lunches and bidding farewell to Friends. Those who remained enjoyed one last opportunity to join in small worship sharing groups (or scurried off to finish packing.) Friends then gathered for Meeting for Worship in the plenary hall. Deep silence gave way to many messages reflecting great hope for the future, and pain at the community’s inability to find unity on the future of the Joint Service Project. One Friend expressed great joy at the opportunity to struggle with such deep questions with such a beloved community. This was a sense shared by many of those present.

One last round of farewell hugs and laughter, and the dusty parking lot was mostly empty by noon. IMYM Friends will meet once again at Ghost Ranch in June of 2010.