Jean Anderson Kennison Memorial Minute
September 26, 1915 – August 8, 2004
No written minute can adequately convey Jean Kennison’s contributions to our spiritual community. She served Westport Monthly Meeting as recorded minister, treasurer, clerk, newsletter writer, long-time First Day schoolteacher, soup kitchen worker, and purveyor of green bean casseroles at potlucks. From the time she and Larry joined our Meeting in December, 1970, through his sickness and death in December, 1991, and on until the time of her own death this past year, she faithfully attended business meetings at Sandwich Quarterly Meeting and represented us at Yearly Meeting on almost every committee: Ministry & Counsel, Permanent Board, Finance, Christian Education, Equalization, Nominating, Board of Managers, Prejudice and Poverty, New England Friends Home, United Society of Friends Women and Student Loan. In all her service Jean was wise in her advice and cautious in her decisions, not willing to outrun her Guide.
When new families walked through the door, Jean didn’t see the adults as potential First Day teachers or committee members. She saw parents who needed to sit in meeting for worship and renew themselves while she saw to nurturing our children. At business meeting Jean took careful notes in order to prepare our monthly newsletter, which in her hands also became a form of witness and outreach. Jean was a daughter of the depression in many ways, and this served our finance committee well. Her mathematical mind kept details in their proper places. When it came to financial matters however, Jean lived her life in accordance with her deep belief that if God is calling us to do something, the money will be provided.
Beyond her formal roles in our Meeting, Jean was a wise and trusted elder. Many of us spoke with her individually about our spiritual journeys, our glimmerings of new leadings, or about some family or Friends’ committee difficulty we were facing. She was a source of compassion and affirmation, particularly to the more tentative amongst us. Her grounded counsel is deeply missed.
Jean was one who listened; when she did speak in meeting for worship, her messages confirmed that the Spirit was speaking through her. During worship one could feel the strength of her prayer and ministry. We all hold special personal memories of how Jean’s ministry touched us. However one in particular stands out for all of us. Her recital from memory of “The Innkeepers Wife” at our Christmas Eve worship was much anticipated and savored.
Like her mother who was a church organist, Jean loved music, and rarely missed our Meeting’s 20 minutes of singing before worship every First Day. She especially loved Christmas carols. She considered deeply Friends’ process of altering words to some of the old hymns, valuing both the original meanings as well as continuing revelation. Here, again, she was a model to us of remaining open to change.
She and Larry were pillars of our book sale, our only annual fund-raiser. The occasion also served her family as a yearly reunion, as several of their children became regular book sale helpers. In 2003 with failing eyesight and a magnifying glass, Jean sorted and priced at least half of the approximately 20,000 books we sold. Jean also served as the book sale treasurer, and we all awaited her report of the first day’s receipts which she would announce after meeting for worship.
As Jean lived so she faced her death, which came a few weeks after she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She undertook the process with incredible integrity and a sense of wholeness. She said that she’d come to perceive that “spirituality isn’t something lofty or separate from life. It’s an everyday thing—it’s all around.” She realized this seamlessness in her own life, receiving others easily and speaking openly about her coming death.
On August 8, 2004, at 7:00 in the evening, closely held by her family, a web of Westport Meeting and more distant F/friends , Jean passed away. Her transition from life in this world was as much a ministry to us as those gifts for which she had been recorded so many years before.
Approved by Westport Monthly Meeting, March 20, 2005.