SUMMER 20087 xii 2007
Salem Quarter Worship & Ministry Committee met on December 7th in the home of Gloria and Bob Horvay, convening in worship at 7:30 pm. Individuals were present from Mickleton, Mullica Hill, and Woodbury Monthly Meetings, as well as the Quarter Coordinator.
After a period of deep worship, we built upon our previous consideration of prayer partners from our Ninth-month session and Lois Dinshah’s articles in Salem Quarter News.
Prayer partnership shares much in common with other intimate relationships. It works best in small numbers. Compatibility is important, but much of the richness comes from distinctive yet complimentary differences between the partners. The relationship starts with a period of testing, and gathers stability over time. The partners should be balanced in their relationship, with no one person always being the mentor, director, or recipient. The partnership may focus on others, but mutual support is vital.
But it was when we recognized that prayer is not limited to spoken words, but can be almost any activity undertaken with intentional focus on the Divine, that we realized we were talking about spiritual partnerships. Early Friends conducted much of their worship and witnessing in partnerships, a practice that appreciably predates committees. Indeed, being dependent and accountable to one or two other Friends may heighten awareness of our partnership with God, an awareness that is easily lost in a room-filling committee occupied with agendas and assignments.
We concluded with a strong sense that our Monthly Meetings’ committees on worship and ministry might benefit from encouraging members and attenders to undertake partnerships with one another in their own and neighboring meetings, whether for prayer, or witness, or worship, or simple fellowship. All of these deepen the love that sustains us individually and as communities.
We intend to meet again on 7 March 2008, the Friday evening before Quarterly Meeting, and we welcome participation from all monthly meetings of Salem Quarter.
For the Committee,
Mario Cavallini, clerkRETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 11:04 PM
