Beloved Friends:
Many of you have inspired me through your tireless efforts in the Spirit to also help souls get along better. I have often gone within to try to escape, to rest, or even ignore that mission by obsessing on other things. I notice that the more I am asked to embrace change, the more I can get obsoletely stubborn about things which have served as anchors to my character. The more I learn to let the Holy Spirit be my Anchor, the less I seem to suck my thumb. Yet I’ve also felt tired of pressure to change old habits and feel sympathy for Friends who still may have some unwillingness to change the title of a “Ministry and Oversight” committee to something more universally acceptable, such as “Ministry.”
Friend’s tradition of seasoning any controversial proposal has many merits. I raise these Queries for Friends to consider: Has “seasoning” of this question become an unconscious smokescreen for stonewalling? Might I be hoping that postponement will just allow people to forget it or give up on the painful conversation? How can we better search our souls for more empathy with people whose experience with the matter we are considering (in this case, terms such as “oversight” and “overseer”) has been personally and/or generationally traumatic?
I pray that we will all be tendered to and humbled by any little or large changes we can make for interracial healing. How do you feel about this? How can we heal with this? What canst thou say, Friend? ~~~
– Barbara and Ed Christwitz of Lake County Friends WorshipGroup, Lakeport, CA (PacYM)