Report from Iowa Yearly Meeting - 2000

By Terry Matz

The theme of this years Iowa Yearly Meeting, held at Scattergood School July 25-30, was "The Spiritual Life of Yearly Meeting—Learning from Our Stories and Experiences."

Deborah Saunders, a Friend from Philadelphia Yearly Meet- ing, spoke several times to the gathering, weaving stories of her own experience, from Scripture and from Quaker history. In Thursday's session "Bible Stories, Our Stories," Deborah juxtaposed Scripture passages about light with excerpts from early Friends history to highlight Friends' responsibilities and challenges as Children of Light. For example, She used Matthew 5:14, in which Jesus says we are the light of the world that can't be hidden, to remind us that we have all the gifts we need within our meetings; we have only to learn to recognize them. At the Thursday evening collection, a panel of Friends representing diverse family groups shared their stories of spiritual life in their homes. Despite the differences in their paths their moving stories shared the common thread of seeking and living in the light.

On Friday, Breeze Luetke-Stahlman shared her story of her trip with Pastors for Peace to bring raw pharmaceuticals to Cuba that was informative, moving and entertaining. It was well worth hearing again, and filled with experiences not in her original presentation to Penn Valley — including the story about a "marriage proposal" she received in Mexico from a stranger wanting to go to the US!

Two programs focused on Scattergood School — a discussion about the future of Scattergood and a tour of the school. The discussion raised the question: How do we get more IYM teens interested in the school? Discussion also took place on summer uses of the facilities such as elder hostels or a Midwestern Pendle-Hill- type conference center. After touring the classrooms for pottery, weaving and woodworking and hearing about the number of hours per week devoted to projects in art and adventures such as bike trips and travel to Mexico, many of the adults proclaimed themselves ready to enter Scattergood!

Deborah Saunders began the Friday collection, "Where is our Spiritual Home?" by sharing the story of her spiritual journey from one spiritual home to another and how she had gained something from each — an understanding of commitment from one, an appreciation of Scripture from another. Using an illustration from Scattergood's history, when it had sheltered refugees before and during WWII despite some community opposition, she challenged Friends to confront prejudice and racism in the present. Her confrontational and evangelical presentation caused deep and differing reactions and inspired many thoughtful discussions.

On Sunday before Meeting for Worship, Deborah Fisch's report on her work with the Traveling Ministry was read. It fit into the theme perfectly because it was less a report of her activities than of the spiritual learning that had taken place during her work. After several Friends spoke to praise her, John Griffith reminded us (and I'm paraphrasing here) that every one of us has an equally moving and important story to tell about our spiritual journeys no matter what our life's work is — a fitting message to end an Iowa Yearly Meeting whose theme celebrated our experiences.