The place was extremely familiar to me, the event I was going to was not. For weeks I had been talking with people and making connections before attending the North Pacific Yearly Meeting for Quakers. I was looking forward to the event. I had never attended either yearly meeting for my area but was excited to promote the Quaker Youth Book Project and to talk about the Editorial Board I’m on. As I approached the south side of the Oregon State University campus where it was being held, I thought to myself, “How am I going to find this group?” Then I realized, “How hard can it be to find 200-300 Quakers?” and I replied to myself, “Well, I don’t know, they’re pretty silent.” Pulling into a parking lot, I figured I would just drive around until I saw all the peace bumper stickers. It didn’t take long. Fully loaded down, I then found my way to the main auditorium where I used to sing on a regular basis with the University Singers when I attended college there. Even just walking around brought back lots of memories.
People were still in their worship groups when I arrived so after commandeering space for my display, I found the registration room where some Friends were working away. After hearing it was my first time attending, they assured me they were very friendly and as if to prove the point, an acquaintance from the Women’s Theology Conference started taking me around and introducing me to the people she thought I should know, the main one as it turns out, I was already acquainted with. At lunch, I found the “Young Friends” table, also not hard, and talked with their clerks about the project. They were a friendly group and very nice. We even compared our nose piercings.
The adult yearly meeting folks were polite though I did feel a little awkward as I only knew a few people there and their way of speaking and their theology is something I have only really heard about and rarely experienced. Sitting in on a meeting about the Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice, one man stopped the discussion, and started in on a clarification of Quaker Practice. Inside, my jaw just dropped and I thought to myself, “You REALLY talk like that? I thought that was just a caricature. Apparently not.” I was suddenly very glad the Quaker church I attend has consciously worked hard on not using language like that. Not so much because it’s wrong, because it’s not, but it just keeps things so much simpler. But they were nice people and I enjoyed seeing the few I knew. At business meeting they introduced me, and for most of the rest of the meeting, I looked through the Friends Journal of which my friend is the editor. It was something fun to do in the midst of hearing minutes on war and the environment.
The thing that impressed me the most was after dinner when I joined the young adult business meeting to talk about the book and answer any questions they had. I really liked how they handled the meeting and at the end, they invited me to join them for their open worship. This was the part I liked the most, young adults choosing for themselves with no older adults to sit quietly together and to speak the truth to each other. It was a beautiful thing.
My highlight of the day was the “Community Night”, the yearly meeting’s talent show. It was hilariously funny as they displayed their talents and made fun of their Quaker Ways which was particularly humorous to me as I’d seen those ways all day. My favorite was the rock band with invisible instruments singing about “Foxy George”.
Altogether, it was a good day and I gained yet another perspective of the Quaker I hadn’t yet seen. Thank you for having me! I look forward to seeing you all again!