Re: When is a Quaker a Quaker?

Ian Davis wrote,

>2ijd: It was the use of "instead" which left me thinking
>2 : Marshall had terminated membership in FUM and then at a
>2 : later time decided to join the Conservative meeting,
>2 : coupled with the indication that he had formerly
>2 : participated in GPYM. But either way, my reading was that
>2 : he was for some time participating in GPYM and then
>2 : switched to joining Omaha Monthly meeting.

Bill Samuel responded,

> bs: He was attending the sessions of two yearly meetings at a
> : time when he was not a member of any Friends meeting.
> : When he moved and joined a meeting that was a member of
> : one of those, he made clear that this was not a statement
> : against the other yearly meeting.
> :
> : In fact, there is only one meeting where he lives so he
> : made no real choice between or among meetings, but simply
> : joined the local meeting in his location, feeling
> : comfortable with both the monthly and yearly meeting. And
> : in joining it, he was not leaving any meeting, since he
> : was not a Friend and hadn't been for a number of years -
> : and previously had been a member of a YM other than the
> : two to which he had referred.

Maybe I ought to clear this up.

I never terminated a membership in any FUM church or monthly
meeting.

I resigned from Mountain View (Denver) Monthly Meeting, which is
part of Intermountain Yearly Meeting (an independent unprogrammed YM),
in the mid-1990s. I did so with deep sadness and regret.

For some years after that, I attended the annual sessions both of
Nebraska (now Great Plains) YM (FUM) and of Iowa YM (Conservative).
This is what Bill was referring to.

The clerk of Central City MM, which is part of Nebraska/Great
Plains YM, told me that if I wished to apply for membership there I'd
be warmly welcomed. I was quite tempted, because they are a wonderful
group! And I was even more tempted after moving from Denver to Omaha,
because I could have made it work. Central City is a short enough
drive from Omaha that I could drive there for worship and business
once a month without much strain. And there are enough similar-minded
folks in Omaha that we could have organized a small worship group here
under the care of Central City in the space of a year or two.

In the end, I chose to apply for membership in Omaha MM, a part
of Iowa (Conservative), instead. But in applying to Omaha MM, I made
it clear both to Omaha MM and to Great Plains YM that I felt led to
continue attending Great Plains YM as opportunites permitted. And I
have indeed done so.

> bs: His words were confusing, because there was no reason for
> : the other YM to feel he had made a choice against it (and
> : I feel confident GPYM would have felt no offense even if
> : Marshall hadn't made a point of telling them he was not
> : trying to give them offense).

But there *was* a reason for Great Plains to feel I'd made a choice
against it: Central City had invited me to apply for membership, and
in the end I'd declined their invitation.

Knowing the hard feelings that still arise at times between some
(by no means all) Conservative Friends and some (by no means all) FUM
Friends in these parts, I didn't want Great Plains and Central City
folks to think I'd fallen into that sort of mentality and *spurned*
their invitation. I wanted them to understand what I was doing as a
positive act of citizenship rather than as a negative one of choosing
sides.

All the best,
Marshall Massey <mmassey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.

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