INLAND VALLEY FRIENDS’ MEETING
Riverside California
April 2, 2009

Friends gathered following meeting for worship for a Quaker dialogue on the state of the meeting.  This dialogue was facilitated by the question: “Where have you seen love manifest in the life of the meeting?”  Our responses are woven into the following narrative:

We started the year pretty much as an older meeting, with our traditional concerns.  Now, with the new attenders, both with and without children, we see a shift to a new community – we are changing, our worship is changing, a larger meeting is different; 30 vs. 15 is very different.  We will need to adjust to this increase; there will be an evolution of the meeting.  Our meeting is at a point of tremendous opportunity.  For many years, we have wanted more young children in the meeting.  We have waited with great expectations.  Now that this wish has been realized, the
revelation is that kids come with parents, and the parents are also a great blessing.

The children know when they are just tolerated and when they are appreciated.  There is a great outpouring of love from adults to the children and from them to us.  They are feeling that they can go to
members of the meeting – they feel free to make contact.  This is a unique thing.  This is the way in which the meeting has reached out to the children.  The opportunity has come with the potential, the
experience and the love to match.  Our entry for the Quarterly directory this year will go to three pages.  Sharing Quakerism and what it means with new attenders and their children has added a new dimension.  It is incredible how well the new member fit in.  They came looking for something and they seem to have found it.  They are taking on leadership roles.  Our expansion of the children’s’ program required that we rent an extra room.  For the first time we have a working curriculum for the
children.  It fills us with joy to see both the children and their parents.  We are busting out like cornucopia – like fruit spilling out, with love and joy.

A newcomer remarked that it was very reassuring to find the meeting.  In the past his family has been split by the need for action on work for peace and justice vs. the need for quiet contemplative-spiritual worship.  They find both needs are fulfilled here.  His hopes that Inland Valley Friends would be the right fit are being met.  They feel very grateful for what they have found in this meeting

The loss of an attender was a great blow.  The struggle with his death and the long illness was very difficult.  Our Quaker community found the strength to be there for his family.  There was a great out pouring of love.  We are grateful for these positive responses in the face of hardship.  We felt a great outpouring of love from the meeting to the family.

Another remarked that meeting has been such a home and refuge, such place of love.  “I know I will obtain the love and help I need without asking.”  Suddenly the appearance of new families with children has given us new eyes to see – It is not just the new rhythms, but also a new freshness –
we are in a new spring, not the autumn of our existence.  The meeting has turned inward toward meeting the needs of its members, whereas it used to be more outward - looking to meet the needs of the outside world.  Our ongoing effort to speak to the spirit has seemed to be successful.

Newcomers are seeking this experience, and we are finding the means to facilitate this seeking.  We had a double baby welcoming under the care of the meeting and we also expressed our support for a gay member’s marriage.  Our metaphor of the meeting as a pond is changing.  It now feels as if we are on the shores of a pretty good sized lake!