Over on Friends Journal site, some recent stats on Friends mostly in the US and Canada. Written by Margaret Fraser, the head of FWCC, a group that tries to unite the different bodies of Friends, it’s a bit of cold water for most of us. Official numbers are down in most places despite whatever official optimism might exist. Favorite line: “Perhaps those who leave are noticed less.” I’m sure P.R. hacks in various Quaker organizations are burning the midnight oil writing response letters to the editor spinning the numbers to say things are looking up.
She points to a sad decline both in yearly meetings affiliated with Friends United Meeting and in those affiliated with Friends General Conference. A curiosity is that this decline is not seen in three of the four yearly meetings that are dual affiliated. These blended yearly meetings are going through various degrees of identity crisis and hand-wringing over their status and yet their own membership numbers are strong. Could it be that serious theological wrestling and complicated spiritual identities create healthier religious bodies than monocultural groupings?
The big news is in the south: “Hispanic Friends Churches” in Mexico and Central America are booming, with spillover in el Norte as workers move north to get jobs. There’s surprisingly little interaction between these newly-arrived Spanish-speaking Friends and the the old Main Line Quaker establishment (maybe not surprising really, but still sad). I’ll leave you with a challenge Margaret gives readers:
One question that often puzzles me is why so many Hispanic Friends
congregations are meeting in churches belonging to other denominations.
I would love to see established Friends meetings with their own
property sharing space with Hispanic Friends. It would be an
opportunity to share growth and challenges together.
Okay — here’s one possible response to Margaret Fraser’s question.
In our meetinghouse, we regularly rent to other groups. I think we would be delighted to host another Quaker group if there was one in SF. However, I don’t think we would rent our space to a group that officially excluded LGBT people. Many of the Hispanic Friends are coming from evangelical yearly meetings that openly or quietly discriminate against homosexual people. Would they be willing to rent in our building that from time to time has a sign out front expressing our thirty plus years of support for same-sex marriage? I don’t know. I’m sure that Hispanic Friends are not a monolithic entity any more than any other kind of Friends. But I’ve thought about this before and I wonder.
Hi Robin,
I think it’s understandable to be frightened of anti-queer theology and practice, because I certainly am. But is it fear of evangelical Friends or fear of Hispanic Friends? Do the two always go together? And is there possibly some misunderstanding here that says Hispanic Friends don’t like queer people? How can anyone know until it is tried? Because I’d venture to say that Friends process should be able to peacefully handle these differences among themselves… otherwise, how can Friends expect the rest of the world to handle its conflicts?
Robin,
Allison is right for asking “How can anyone know until it is tried?”
In Northern Yearly Meeting, we’re “sister” Yearly Meeting to El Salvador Yearly Meeting. One time when representatives visited our annual sessions, two women stayed in the group dorm with Liz and I. We’d put our beds together, and the women didn’t seem to mind, or even notice.
What *did* happen was that one NYM Friend asked us not to do that, and to not be demonstrative.
Mind you, the most “demonstrative” Liz and I are is to hold hands, hug when we’ve been apart (but no more than friends might). Perhaps a peck on the cheek or lips.
When the El Salvadoran Friends were asked about this concern, they said they believed homosexuality to be wrong, but offered Jesus’s love to everyone equally. They didn’t mind being in the dorm with us, with our beds together. And El Salvador Yearly Meeting continues sending visitors to our Yearly Meeting and we continue to send visitors to theirs.
While I certainly can see how it might be good for allies to ask the questions you ask, you do need to ask it of the groups you invite. I would also suggest specifically inviting the queer community to the Meeting for Worship for Business when the community discusses any invitation so that you’re sure their Light is added to the discernment. Another thing that’s happened is there’s been some homophobia on the part of the NYM El Salvador visitation planning committee in terms of committee membership; for a while they had a ‘policy’ of not letting queer people travel. Again, I think that was because of homophobia inside of NYM rather than in ESYM.
I would love to share a Meeting House with Hispanic Friends because I agree that serious theological wrestling, as well as a very healthy (and healthy as in appropriate, not robust) dose of diversity, are good for any spiritual community.
Jeanne
Let me repeat that I’m just wondering.
And that I know that Hispanic does not equal homophobic, any more than white equals homophobic, or Christian equals homophobic, except of course that there are individuals who are each of these. And of course that all of us participate in a racist and homophobic, etc. system. I’m frankly offended by the implication that I don’t know this.
It’s not been tried, but then there isn’t another Quaker group in this area to try it with. I appreciate Jeanne’s example of your yearly meeting, because I had heard that there had been difficulties in both directions.
Also, I don’t think I’ve been to a meeting for business in SF that didn’t have gay, lesbian and/or bisexual members present. (Not all of them would identify as queer, and not all of them would choose to speak for the whole community, but that’s another discussion.)