Friends:
It has been a tremendous privilege to work with the Western Quarterly Meeting community. The relationships I have formed here will carry me well as I begin a new chapter. I am heartened that I will still be working for our wider yearly-meeting community. I won’t be a stranger! In this regard, I will leave you with one parting thought.
Western Quarterly Meeting is not a separate entity from our monthly meetings, lurking in the wilderness of Quaker Land. Western Quarterly Meeting is just a phrase out of many possible phrases meaning, “our community of monthly meetings and one worship group.” We associate through Western Quarterly Meeting because we know we are better together. We need each other as we traverse spiritual landscapes, which are sometimes treacherous. We need each other as we work to make the world a better place. We need each other as we endeavor to raise children who are capable of vulnerability, who seek to grow their minds and hearts, and who strive always to do the right thing. Indeed, our spiritual community does not end at the parking lot of our meetinghouses.
It is the responsibility, therefore, of Western Quarterly Meeting and its Support Committee to focus their attention on our community of monthly meetings. The Quarterly Meeting’s job is, merely, to support the leadings and ministry that rise up from our monthly meetings in whatever way seems most helpful and enhancing. The Quarterly Meeting provides the ground upon which we, having realized that we need each other, can have each other.
Many blessings,
Zachary T. Dutton
Outgoing Coordinator & Youth Activities Coordinator
Comments are closed.