Regeneration

I went to Meeting this Sunday with Mom, and it was a strange Meeting. One of the Friends had died on Friday, and the Meeting was just finding out about it that day, for the most part. I overheard the news, without knowing the man personally, before Meeting began, and as a result, I spent much of the time looking around the room, looking at all the old people in the room.

Our Meeting is a small one. Though the numbers are probably larger on paper, it's usually a gathering of 15 to 20 people on Sundays, barring Meetings for business and major religious holidays. I was one of three people under forty in the room, and the other two were from Philadelphia, PA and somewhere in Florida. Even when I was little and mostly just read Nancy Drew books in the windowseat, I still remember a predominance of older folks at Meeting. Meeting is held in a big yellow house on a street of other big houses, and there is a potluck after every Meeting. They have begun having events like movies at the Meetinghouse, inviting the public in to see what things are all about and to raise awareness for issues we hold dear...peace, charity, equality. It's neat, I think, that in an evermore bureaucratized, controlled society, Quakers have carved out and defended a niche for themselves, where things can be taken back to the basics...caring for your fellow man and working to better the world.

With Friend Lewis' passing, I feel all the more inspired to attend Meeting more regularly, and get more involved. It's such a lovely religion, and one that should have someone to carry the torch. On Sunday, it seemed like it would be so easy for the Worcester Meeting to slip away, to just fade into nothing. Looking at all these dignified, strong, activist elder Friends, who have lived so long under the Quaker doctrine, I felt fully what a loss it would be to allow the Meeting to disappear.