In the Quaker lexicon is the phrase "to lay it down". Sometimes we talk about laying down a committee. Other times we talk about laying down a leading. Very occasionally we talk about laying down a whole Meeting. This language is different than the secular notion of ending or terminating a committee or a position, because with all things Quaker it implies that there is discernment and faithfulness involved. The idea is that that The Holy One both leads us into or gives life to a thing and will in due time lead us out of, or allow for the death of a thing. As written about in a previous post, we are not to "out run" a leading, to stay at something beyond the time that the Creator intends for us to carry out this activity. The idea here is that both the beginning and the end are Divinely determined - not just driven by one's own thinking, will or ego.
How then might one discern to lay something down? If the thing no longer has life or vitality this might be regarded as a sign. If a new leading or a new direction has arisen to supersede the old path. Sometimes a thing begins to feel heavy and a burden. Sometimes it seems as if the path forward has nothing but obstacles and difficulties and is "no longer open". Friends sometimes speak of a "door closing" and that when one door closes another may open.
One of the most famous stories about laying something down is the apocryphal story of William Penn speaking to George Fox. In this story William Penn was, as was the way of men of title wearing a sword. But he was troubled by this as he sensed it did not fit the Quaker testimony on nonviolence, and so he asks George Fox if he should still be wearing his sword. Fox is said to have replied: "Wear thoust sword as long as thoust can." Meaning it is up to you, your conscience will guide you. This I think speaks loudly about a Quaker sensibility that a time will come when a thing will come clear and nothing else will be possible.
I think Friends would be well served to examine carefully our committee structure and to see if some committees are perhaps ready to be laid down, to not simply assume that because we have already had such a committee for a long time, because it is "traditional" to have that committee that it is still rightly ordered to proceed with it. Many a Friends Meeting as it shrank in size has struggled to keep and fill all its committees when it would have been better served to pare down the number of committees so there more energy and vitality on each committee. The sense of stress and over stretchedness maybe in deed a sign of something ready to be laid down.
I once witnessed the nominating committee of the Yearly Meeting come and report that they recommended that they be laid down because they had struggled mightly to fill many committee positions and had not been able to do so. They felt they had been faithful in their work but that the way was closed and they wished to name it as so. The crisis this caused on the floor of the yearly meeting led to an ad hoc committee being formed on the spot to address the situation and many Friends stepping forward to fill unfilled positions. By their faithfulness the energy was shifted and a new way forward was found. This was profound faithfulness, that ego would not have allowed for. It points to a profound truth about laying something down: it takes courage.
Quakers are greying terribly, the average age is now in the 70's. Many Meetings are shrinking terribly and are struggling to have enough members to pay the upkeep of the building. The truth is...we are now facing, as are many churches all across America, that many of our Meetings will need to be laid down in the next decade. How can Friends discern to lay down a Meeting? How could it serve a greater good? Here are some queries that occur to me:
When is the ownership of a building a burden rather than a support to a worshipping body?
Is our worship still vital with this number?
Are there circumstances we can forsee that might grow this Meeting again?
What other good works could be done with the Building? - as tenants or as recipients of a gift?
If we sold our building what other good works could we empower with the money?
Does it feel energizing or deadening to consider releasing our building?
How would my life be different if I did not attend this Meeting?
