State of Society 2007
The breath of God embraces us.
We are a diverse spiritual community, not ethnically or racially but in spiritual orientation and personality. Some of us have difficulty even with the word “God,” while others experience a vibrant and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. Some of us are led to charism* …, while others’ prayers are more cerebral, and still others’ prayers are mainly action.
Some of us are in stages of life or in spiritual places that permit us to come only to meeting for worship, while others live the life of the meeting and the wider body of Friends with most of their waking hours. Some of us have pastoral and community needs that are as plain as our ages, while others have less evident needs. All of us, though, have spiritual, pastoral, and community needs.
We are united by the enduring desire to live into this Sacredness, which is greater than any one of us individually. In this Sacredness we strive to embrace one another in community despite our diversity, and we hope and pray that we can move toward embracing one another because of our diversity.
Like green shoots in the brown farm fields of early spring, the new life in our meeting reminds us of our common root.
The breath of God embraces us.
*From the Greek, charis—grace; the divine influence on the receiver’s heart, and its reflection in his or her life.