Threads

Posted on: 4 August 2011

By: AlisonB

2 comments

So I finally made into a session today!  not a full one, but still . . . We were drawing threads together this morning, which sounds nicer than it was really.  Everyone was divided into big groups to thresh some Big Questions, try to discern what BYM might look at tomorrow morning.  My group were wondering if BYM is ready to make a commitment to the low carbon thing, with targets and timetables and accountability and all that.  There was a lot of fear in the room - fear of change, fear of failure, fear of loss and pain.  Lots of the heads-in-sand, making excuses, putting things off, exactly what goes on in my head most of the time, but hard to hear it said out loud.  We're not good at handing this fear over to God I think, we're used to tackling and solving problems ourselves, we imagine we are capable of facing up to this impossible task somehow and the knowledge that we aren't up to it is terrifying.  But we're a people of God aren't we? So I'm praying for strength, for us all, tomorrow and for all that is coming. And I'm praying we'll be open to receive that gift, too - fear might be a motivator, but it's not a good one.  I much prefer what someone reminded us we might think of as being called, called to action.

In the afternoon we approved drafts of QF&P, getting all finickity over text, utterly different in some ways, but it reminded me of the unity I felt within BYM at York and how exciting it was to be part of that process, and that decision, so it was rather good.  Lets trust our process!  And there was lovely ministry at the end about buttons - the buttons that some early Friends shunned as unecessary, wanting to be more plain of dress.  Some laugh now at this, but we were reminded that it was details like this, the refusal of buttons, that pulled Friends together, helped them be steadfast, and maybe our concentration on dots and commas and text was rather like those buttons.

So I'm thinking about things being pulled together, connected (or not) by buttons, separated or linked by commas, that dangling scarf entrancing J in all age worship, the way all his attention, his gaze, his feet, his gorgeous fat little grabby hands were drawn towards it's golden thread.  That kind of joy and purpose would be great!