The Conservative Friend
An Outreach of Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends
2007 Gathering of Conservative Friends
The 2007 General gathering of Conservative Friends was held in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, 22 through 24 June. It
was wonderfully well attended, was blessed with beautiful weather, was
marked by clearly Spirit-led minstry during worship, and brought people
together from across the United States.Click to go to the more extensive photograph album.
The Gathering was hosted by Keystone Fellowship Monthly Meeting, the newest meeting of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Keystone grew from a worship group under the care of Rockingham Monthly Meeting, and has now matured sufficiently to step out on its own.
There were children everywhere. Little children, big children,
quiet children, and dirty, wet, and happy children. Some children
wandered off to sleep in secluded places and gave their parents fits
until they were found. Others tried to feed the swans in the
nearby ponds, and discovered Avian Territoriality first-hand.
Some children discovered that the large next-door dog with the fierce
reputation had a huge and friendly tongue, but no bite. And as
always, the noise and murmuring of children during waiting worship
reminded us that Jesus has told us to suffer them to come unto Him, and among us, too.
There is no business scheduled among the Friends at a Gathering,
although some of us slipped off to hold committee meetings here and
there. The whole point of the Gathering is to worship together,
to eat together, to speak, pray, and chat together, and to build
bridges among us to link us across the larger distances that
Conservative Friends now travel to meet in this way.Worship sessions were held both in a large workshop at the home of a Keystone member, and at the nearby ancient Lampeter Meeting House. This old brick structure accomodated 50 or so Friends at a time, with at least one Friend maintaining the hoary tradition of standing outside with the kids and listening through the open windows.
We camped under stars, stayed in the Mennonite School dormitory nearby,
sat around a bonfire, watched the bats, and marveled at how civilized portable toilets
have become these days. Keystone hosted us, fed us, housed us,
made all the arrangements, drew all the maps, kept us all informed as
to what was happening next, and did it all with astonishing smoothness,
considering that some 80 attendees were scheduled. They did a
wonderful job.On at least three occasions strangers saw our welcoming signs and wandered in to sit with us and worship in the silence and the ministry. Twice they slipped off at rise of meeting before anyone could speak to them, but one memorable stranger drove in while I was standing near the window.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, looking unaccountably tense.“It’s a Quaker meeting.”
“A what?” The grounds, usually empty, were today full of cars. His own now blocked the only exit.
“A Quaker meeting for worship. Go on in and sit down.”
“I can’t go in like this. I’ve been working the goats.” His clothing looked and smelled like it, too. His shorts were sewn together with a leather shoelace.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. There’s no dress code. God doesn’t care what you have on.”“I have to go in. The Holy Spirit told me to stop here. I’m from Tennessee.” He went in and sat near the back. At rise of meeting, he stood, and spoke for some time on his personal contact with God, and how Jesus was continuing to teach him and encouraging him to teach others. He left with contact information in his hands for the Keystone Fellowship, for Ohio Yearly Meeting, and for individual members who he could write or telephone if he had questions. But we learned more from him, perhaps, than he did from us on that day.
I failed to bring my camera for the event, so I am posting photos sent by those of you who were more grounded. Please send more to k.d.roberts@hotmail.com, and I will put up what I can here.
The
next Gathering of Conservative Friends will be held in Barnesville,
Ohio, USA, next year, 2008, hosted by OYM’s Wider Fellowship of
Conservative Friends. The 2009 Gathering hasn’t yet been
scheduled, but stay posted.A recorded minister of Ohio Yearly Meeting has written a report on the Gathering that you can read at his blog. Click on this link to go there.
Your Experiences Go Here--Send Them In
Dear Friends-
I was so grateful to spend the 23 hours (who's counting?) with Friends in Lancaster. I had a sense of being home, safe, loved, understood and cared for. Hearing praises of our Lord, of the Father, testimonies, loving advice, heartfelt song, was like cool clean water on parched lips.
Visiting with new friends was easy, there were no awkward moments for me. There was plenty of laughter, and care, and sharing.
This was part of Kingdom living. All of us, focused on the Lord, living abundantly, happily, rejoicing together in His praises. What arose spontaneously was blessing and mercy.
Thee doesn't need to use this on the site but it is fine if thee does - I am tired after a day's work, and may not be exactly eloquent, but wanted to respond before turning in.
I miss you all.
You would not believe how much space this account still has available. Send in yu own experiences and the rest of your photographs. It helps if they aren't bigger than about 150 Kb, not because we don't have the space, but because this is a very antiquated Macintosh on a very slow dial-up at the end of very many miles of very old copper wire. Uploading five 1-Mb files takes over an hour. Have pity on us.
