Arthur Larrabee's Quaker Model for Leadership

I'm at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting summer sessions for the first time. It's comfortingly similar to Pacific Yearly Meeting, though with some striking differences I'm still thinking about. Meanwhile, here is a summary of the talk by Arthur Larrabee, General Secretary for PhYM, on the Yearly Meeting's theme this year, "Powerful Beyond Measure: Trusting the Call to Leadership."

Arthur Larrabee’s Top Six Recommendations for Quaker Leaders

as delivered at evening plenary to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 7/29/2011

1. Think globally about your meeting (or organization).
What is God’s big idea for us? Take time for retreat & reflection. Consider not just the temporal health but also the spiritual health. Consider our diversity and our oneness.

2. Share with us the fruits of your big-picture thinking.
Then release those thoughts back to the meeting. By releasing, we welcome the Spirit to come among us.

3. Take risks.
Be vulnerable in service to the meeting. Ideas and truth will inevitably trigger resistance. We need leaders to be fearless. Don’t fear rejection of ideas. Accept the result either way with equanimity.

4. Be spiritually grounded.
We expect you to be Spirit-led and open to the Spirit.

5. Test and season your ideas with the community.
The community’s temporal and spiritual input is necessary for discernment. The Quaker model is not the “power over” model of leadership.

6. Find primary satisfaction as a leader in the success of your meeting or organization.
We don’t expect you to be egoless or not want recognition of your gifts and skills. However, we expect you to measure your success by the success of the community.
- - -
To conclude, Arthur said, “Quakers have always had leaders… We need to be clear about what we expect of our leaders. With shared expectations, we’ll know what will make for trustworthy leadership."

Gratitude for Grace

As I wrote in a 2008 post about another family mealtime grace, "Our family usually has mealtime grace at dinner. Each member of the family gets a turn to choose how to pray: silence, sing a song from a prescribed list, or speak a prayer. (Six Year Old [now 9] sometimes chooses laughter, but that's another story.)"

Yesterday evening at dinner, I noticed that we hadn't had our usual family grace. I decided not to say anything, but to wait and see what happened.

Midway through the meal, Twelve Year Old said, "We didn't have grace. It's Nine Year Old's turn."

Who promptly chose a moment of silence, concluded by quietly saying, "Amen."

I am grateful that this practice is sticking!

Amended report, plus Unity and Minute on Friday!

My previous post about the Pacific Yearly Meeting discernment about the youth program coordinator proposal was a bit off. Unity may have been stated by the clerk at the Tuesday plenary on the topic, but it wasn't actually there -- yet.

Today, Friday 7/31, unity was found to create the position for a trial period of three years, though at least one Friend stood aside from the decision.

It was a long and at times painful discussion. Very often Friends reminded one another to speak their truth and in love. I want to nominate a couple of Friends for Minister of the Week! I'll see if I can write a little about it later.

Anyway, that's about all the coherence I can muster right now. I just printed the final draft of the PacYM epistle; I ended up as clerk of the epistle committee. I'll publish it once it's accepted (and possibly edited) at the final plenary on Saturday.

Environmental Sabbath

At the winter session of College park Quarterly Meeting on 1/17, in worship sharing a Friend came up with the idea of having an environmental sabbath. This would be a day without, or with greatly reduced use of, the modern conveniences that result in greenhouse gas emissions -- cars... electricity... email.

If several people in a Friends meeting agreed to do it on the same day of the week or month, it would be a spiritual discipline shared by a community. That would both enable participants to support one another, and it would give one the sense of greater impact because it's not just an individual or single household, but a collection of people making a change.

Kind of like The Compact, or Buy Nothing Day.

This is worth thinking about some more.

Quick Quaker Talks: An Experiment at SF Friends Meeting

If you'd been to San Francisco Friends Meeting over the holidays, you'd have heard me announce that the meeting's Ministry and Oversight Committee is trying an experiment in January, tentatively entitled "Quick Quaker Talks." These will be brief discussions at the end of meeting for worship.

The plan is that for about 15 or 20 minutes following meeting for worship and announcements, a couple of experienced Quakers will give their take on some frequently asked Quaker questions—FAQQ! Then we'll have time for others to chime in with their experiences—and their questions. All are welcome.

My current plan is to kick off the series this Sunday (1/4) by asking, "How do Quakers know when to speak in meeting for worship?"

Though subject to change, here are the suggested future topics:

• 1/11: Why do Quakers meet for silent worship rather than meditate alone?
• 1/18: What do Quakers think of Jesus? Are Quakers Christian?
• 1/25: What are the Quaker testimonies and what do they "testify" to, anyway?

It's our hope that this experiment will allow us to get to know one another, our spiritual lives, and our faith tradition a little better. Since it's an experiment, we can always change it "as Way opens."

Originally posted to San Francisco Meeting's email group. Essentially, we're doing "inreach" to our own meeting in a miniature version of the Quaker Quest series pioneered by London Friends, and now promoted in the U.S. by Friends General Conference.

Update, 1/6/09: We had seven people participate for the debut event. There was one person there for the first time, a Haverford student home on break in San Francisco who had been to our meeting a time or two, a person who had attended about a dozen meetings elsewhere, an attender from our meeting who's been coming for about two years or so, two members of Ministry and Oversight, and me. It was a good discussion, going far past the fifteen minutes alloted, probably more like 30 or 35. There was opportunity for sharing and discussion as well as questions. The one drawback: The potluck lunch was mostly gone by the time we were finished. Next time, we may plan to get food first, then have a discussion table. Either that or we talk quicker and end sooner.

Signs of a Healthy Quaker Meeting

Meetings/congregations are healthy when…

1. They resolve conflict and tension with attempts at healing and reconciliation.


2. They have vision, direction, goals, follow-through and implementation.


3. They have a missions mindset rather than an institutional or maintenance mindset.


4. They welcome new ideas, creativity, and new leadership.


5. They tend to elevate “Quaker faith” over “Quaker culture.”


6. They provide adequate opportunities for people to grow spiritually and they provide a safe place for people to seek and ask questions.


7. They foster healthy emotional systems and people, creating space for emotionally unhealthy people.


8. They are solution-focused rather than problem-focused.


9. They focus on the essentials and forsake the non-essentials.


10. They have an ability to deal directly with one another in times of disagreement, change, and conflict.

Adapted directly from a post by Paul L. on Showers of Blessings, “Symptoms of a Crippled Meeting” that was inspired by, or perhaps reprinted from, a post on Quaker Renewal Forum. (The QRF post is no longer available.)