Spring 2007

Friends Center Director’s Report

Spring, 2007

Friends Center General Programming

             

            A major amount of time this semester has been taken up in response to the January 20 Bryan Hall incident.  Friends Center became involved as we and other departments sought to respond to the crisis. Unfortunately, contrary to the advice given in College Meeting for Worship last fall by one of our seniors (and repeated in the Friends Center newsletter), many of us “reacted” instead of responding with careful and prayerful intention.  I will admit to being among that number in the first few days of confusion and righteous indignation – and I wasn’t alone! 

            In the days following the Bryan brouhaha, it became more obvious that the fight was a complex brew of simmering emotions, youthful indiscretion, past scores, and way too much alcohol.  However, various factions hitched their own agendas to the incident, the media became involved, people circled their wagons, and fault lines developed across campus.  We are still living with that.

            Among the initial and ongoing responses with which Friends Center has been involved:

• Contacting all the students listed in the accounts as being involved and offering campus ministry assistance.
• Meeting with senior administrative staff to help plan the College’s response.
• Responding to media inquiries (including Quakers in the News, Friends Journal, and Inside Higher Education).
• Helping plan and frame the campus and community-wide forum held at New Garden Meeting the Wednesday after the event.
• Clerking the ad-hoc teach-in committee that has planned ongoing opportunities for taking advantage of this “teachable moment.”
• Counseling students affected by the incident.
• Corresponding with hundreds of curious friends, families, acquaintances, and professional colleagues.
• Planning and conducting worship opportunities, small group discussions, and other occasions for response to concerns about the incident.
• Writing articles about the event and reactions to it.
• Working behind the scenes for an alternative reconciliation process.

            The enormity of the situation forced us to jettison many of our plans for fund-raising activities.  Frank Massey and I had a full week planned in Virginia, D.C., and Maryland but were able only to visit Richmond (VA) Friends Meeting before heading back to campus.  Almost all of my correspondence time was taken up in responding to e-mails, phone calls, and event planning.  It was probably Providential that I had cleared my semester calendar, but not for the reasons I had anticipated!

            Still, some good things continued to emerge.  We had a wonderful visit from (Ben) Pink Dandelion, who addressed a good crowd on his recent research and book on the “liturgies” of Quakerism; I brought a keynote address to the FLGBTQC mid-winter conference at The Summit conference center, sharing with them the thrilling story of Quakers in the South; a weeklong trip through Indiana resulted in good contacts with alumni, potential friends of Friends Center, upcoming speakers on campus, and a very good Lilly Endowment conference for schools in their Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation.  In response to a plea from the Shepherd’s Center, I am teaching a six-week course on “Quakers in Conflict.”  For some reason, it is very well attended!

            I attended Southeastern Yearly Meeting (more cultivation), made several trips out and about in North Carolina (including attending a tent revival led by QLSP alumnus Michael Fulp, Jr.!), and made another cultivation trip to Indiana.

            I continue to be involved in program, executive, and visioning committee work for NCYM-FUM.  More will be shared about some of the exciting program committee work later in this report.  Participation in executive and visioning committee work has been more challenging.  The (FUM) Yearly Meeting continues to face daunting challenges around issues of fidelity to Friends’ understanding of the Christian tradition.  Some are advocating division, and fault lines are emerging that make Guilford’s post -1/20 challenges appear to be child’s play. 

            We will be busy over the summer.  Friends Center folks will be attending the Friends Association for Higher Education conference at Earlham College in June; Deborah Shaw will be teaching a course on Thomas Kelly at Woodbrooke in England and traveling in ministry throughout England with Evelyn Jadin (QLSP ’06); I will be speaking at a conference on Friends and the Indians at Wapakoneta, OH and co-leading a good group of students on a work/study trip to Israel and Palestine. There will be the usual summer yearly meeting attendance and planning for the upcoming year.

            Quaker Festival Week (April 15 – 22) culminated with Kent Chabotar’s Ragsdale Open House, at which nearly 100 area Friends attended.   The week was marred tragically by the Virginia Tech killings.  Friends Center and Campus Ministry responded with worship services and vigils that helped the community gather to hold VT and each other in the Light.

Friends Center Steering Committee Activity

            The Friends Center steering committee celebrated the clerkship and long committee membership of Dan Allen as he concluded his service in April.  A new clerk has not yet been named.  Three new members were named to the committee:  Martha Dentiste, Mary Farlow, and Tony Lowe.

            With 2007 marking Friends Center’s 25th anniversary, a committee has been formed to help focus the celebration of this milestone.  A date of Saturday, October 27 has tentatively been set for an afternoon of presentations on QLSP, campus ministry, the Quaker Renewal Program, and other Friends Center programs, followed by a gala dinner and keynote.  Fund-raising for Friends Center will certainly be front and center during these observances.

            The steering committee looks forward to working with the Quaker Life and Diversity Committee of the Board on meeting a recently offered $100,000 matching grant to support the work of Friends Center with the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program.

           

Campus Ministry

            College Meeting for Worship, QLSP Friday worship, morning and mid-week worship, Vespers, Taize, and other worship and prayer opportunities on campus continue to attract dedicated attendance.  Deputations teams have been leading worship regularly at Spring Friends Meeting, a team led worship in March at Rocky River Friends Meeting, and another team led worship at First Friends.  Individual QLSP alumni have been asked to lead worship on their own at other Meetings.

            Hillel planned an interfaith Passover seder for the community; Buddhist meditation has been expanded to two nights a week; Sunday night Bible study and Guilford Christian Fellowship activities have gathered a surprisingly male-dominated attendance; GCRO’s bi-weekly campus ministry newsletter has maintained its unbroken string of publication for 17 years; an Easter sunrise service was held on a record cold morning, with the worship moved inside the Hut to take advantage of the roaring fire in the fireplace, as Greensboro was not allowing bonfire permits. 

            Two deserving students have been named as this year’s Judith Weller Harvey Campus Ministry Award recipients:  Tristan Wilson and Erin Burns, co-clerks of GCRO and co-editors of the Caw.  The interfaith council (GCRO) has named officers for next year and begun recruiting members to take over from a stellar group of graduating seniors; they held a planning retreat in late April at Winthrop Friends Meeting, including a breakfast gathering at The Cook Shack in Union Grove, volunteer work at John Robertson’s farm, and lunch at the Amish general store serving the Iredell/Yadkin County Amish community.

            Martha OrHai, next year’s GCRO clerk and Caw editor, has successfully petitioned for an inter-religious theme house next year that will have eight residents from a variety of faith traditions.  I will be their adviser, and they have already planned a number of exciting initiatives for the house and campus community.  Martha will be running the college by the time she graduates in 2010!  She may be the Guilford re-incarnation of Liz Baltaro ’02!

            Partially in response to issues illuminated by 1/20 and by a presentation at the March ministers’ association gathering, Campus Ministry has begun working with students, faculty, and staff on a proposal to offer a small group experience next year tentatively called “Friends Along the Way.”  The program would be offered to entering first-year students (and interested returning students) with an emphasis on being well in college – in body, mind, and spirit.  Regular meetings, mentoring, common readings, and selected disciplines of physical exercise, spiritual formation, and academic support would aim at a holistic approach to enabling students to maintain and increase health and wellness in college.  The campus ministry student worker is focusing on fleshing out this proposal now, aided by Friends Center and the professor and students in a course she is taking on this very subject.

            In another response to 1/20, Friends Center has called together a group of students interested in addressing the issue of alcohol on campus.  They are now working independently and energetically on student-initiated ideas.

           

Adult Programming

            The Quaker Renewal Program’s spring offering of a study of Brian McLaren’s book The Secret Message of Jesus was well received.  The three book study groups at Pine Hill Friends, Deep River Friends, and Asheboro Friends each averaged around 15 participants.  Tony Lowe, Scott Wagoner, and I were the facilitators, and each of us was delighted by the interest, enthusiasm, and curiosity displayed by attenders. 

            Centre Friends Meeting asked Friends Center to lead their spring weekend retreat at Quaker Lake in a mini-version of Quakerism 101.  The programs on Quaker origins, testimonies, and diversity were well-received.

            Given the current conversations in NCYM-FUM about Faith & Practice and the Richmond Declaration of Faith, Friends Center is considering offering a fall QRP course on the Yearly Meeting’s book of discipline.  The course of study would examine faith and life, organization and business procedure, and general doctrinal statements.

            As mentioned before, I am teaching a course on “Quakers in Conflict” for the Greensboro Shepherd’s Center.  Several Friends are in attendance, along with quite an array of other religious traditions.

Friends Center Fund Drive

            Guilford’s Advancement Office has continued to follow up on major prospects identified by Henry Freeman’s report; most have received at least one visit by Advancement and Friends Center staff.  Steering Committee and Board of Trustees members have been marvelous in identifying prospects and arranging cultivation opportunities, some of which have resulted in five-figure gifts!  A very real possibility of a six-figure challenge gift is being nurtured.

            Frank Massey’s and my visit through Baltimore Yearly Meeting was curtailed by the exigencies of the 1/20 events, but we had a productive time at Richmond Friends Meetings.  My trips to Indiana and Florida have been cultivation opportunities that, I hope, will bear fruit one day.  Numerous forays out and about North Carolina, often with Guilford students in tow, have been further attempts at plowing the ground for later generosity.

            I believe we have a real chance of securing gifts and pledges for the $1.5 million needed by the end of the year to begin meeting our obligations under the Lilly Endowment’s sustainability grant and continue the service of Initiative on Faith and Practice staff as they transition to Friends Center in January 2008.  The next $1.5 million needed for maintaining that staff into the future and attending to the needs of expanding QLSP and campus ministry programs will be a challenge!

            With considerable effort by the Advancement Office’s phonathon and work by Friends Center, our Annual Fund goal of $54,000 has been surpassed, with a total as of 4/15 of $58,565, compared to $35,300 this time last year!  Thanks to all for making it happen.

            A generous couple in Friends Homes has promised a $100,000 matching grant to the QLSP endowment this year, with another $100,000 matching grant to follow next year.  Assuming success of raising the matching amount this year, $875,284 has been committed since January 1, 2005 to Friends Center endowment.  Totaling new endowment commitments, Annual Fund totals, bequests, and other gifts and pledges since January 1, 2005,  Friends Center has received $1,484,660.

            The Friends Center steering committee looks forward to supporting the Quaker Life and Diversity Committee in assuring that the $100,000 matching grant is successful this year and that future matching grants will also be met.

Quaker Recruitment and Training

            A glitch in computer programs at the College resulted in the Admission Office’s not collecting data on religious affiliation for many applicants, and we are not clear on the numbers of Quaker prospective students.  Only seven QLSP applications had been received by March 30, compared to seventeen at this time last year.

            Nonetheless, a steady stream of Quaker prospects has been seen this semester, a group of Quaker Leadership Scholars is coming from Westtown for a weekend visit, and anecdotal evidence indicates that the 1/20 incident has not dissuaded students from considering Guilford.  At least two recent Quaker prospects from Northern Friends schools visited, expressing initial skepticism about Guilford, but leaving enthusiastic.  Many recent visitors have been juniors, so 2008, at least, looks bright.

            Friends Center continues to do training in Quaker history and testimony for the ongoing new faculty and staff orientation, give Quaker orientation for new CCE students and student government officers, and provide materials for the new orientation materials for incoming traditional students.  Friends Center’s Quaker Testimony at Guilford is being adapted for use in the campus-based common text for this coming year’s FYE classes (First Year Experience).

            Much concern has been expressed this year, however, about the lack of awareness of Quaker principle regarding discernment and decision-making.  While Kara Richardson’s QLSP project paper on Quaker decision-making and Art Larrabee’s packet of guidelines for clerking and Quaker process are widely distributed, decision-making is included in orientation programs we do, and Friends Center responds to all requests to do training, lack of application of these principles is evident in too many sectors of campus.  Of special concern this semester has been a very troubling tendency to retreat behind self-defined bunkers, refusing conversation and dialogue with others.  The toughness of issues, misperceptions and misinformation, and downright hostility have conspired to discourage the kind of community conversation and deep listening that characterize the best of Quaker process.

            On a brighter note, registration for the Fast Track Quaker history course this semester was over-subscribed; April Baker is teaching an independent study section of Quaker history; Frank Massey will teach a new course on Quaker spirituality in the fall; my semester-long Quaker history course in the fall is filling up rapidly.

            Guilford continues to advertise openings in the major Quaker journals and through FAHE.  No indication at present about new Quaker faculty and staff.

Report on QLSP and the Initiative on Faith & Practice (from Scott Pierce Coleman)

QLSP has retained the central elements of its cyclical life this semester.  The Worship and Nurture committee has planned some fine meetings for worship, ranging from unprogrammed gatherings to Bible-based sermons from Sekinah Hamlin (Guilford’s director of multicultural affairs) and our own Leah McKinney ‘08.  Approximately every other Sunday, a member of the program travels to Spring Meeting to bring a message there.  (Max Carter has also taken recent QLSP alums to speak at other NCYM meetings within the past month.) 

The first-years are spending the semester engaged in what Scott Pierce Coleman refers to as “the preaching project,” a series of hour-long opportunities for each member of the group to lead worship by inviting the others to share in his/her experience of sacred space.  The second-years have been practicing the arts of deep listening, prayerful support and corporate discernment through the clearness committee process with Deborah Shaw.  Our two third-year groups have brought their conference-planning through Quaker business process to its culmination – one group presenting “Exploring Our Roots,” a weekend for building community at Guilford through a careful exploration of our diverse childhoods; the other completing its year-long examination of our use (and misuse) of food.  Meanwhile, the fourth-years have spent the semester engaged in internal (Frank Massey) and external (Max Carter) examinations of what it means to pursue Quaker ministry in the world after they graduate.

The applications committee is currently reading twelve applications from Friends around the country (although few come from the programmed tradition), looking toward a first-year group strong in service for next year.  Applications are also coming in from Guilford Quakers currently finishing their first year of college, as we prepare to add a new section of second-years for next year, increasing the overall size of QLSP from 48 to approximately 56.  We are likely to strengthen our membership of FUM Quakers in a small way through this outreach, but QLSP will continue to be dominated by FGC Quakers for the foreseeable future.

While some aspects of this semester have felt normal, however, the time since January has also been a period of intense wrestling for the program.  On the one hand, it is becoming clear that our young women are generally much more actively engaged in ministry than our young men (who are much more likely to lose their scholarship due to low GPAs at the start of their sophomore year).  As a result, Frank Massey and Scott Pierce Coleman will be taking the eight rising senior men on a retreat later this spring to induct them into their responsibilities as elders of the program. 

On the other hand, the Bryan Incident has been a source of spiritual struggle for many of the students in QLSP, individually and corporately.  We have sought to respond to the Bryan Incident – and in the process strengthen the Guilford community’s sense of what we might mean by the term “Quaker Values” – but we have found it very difficult to gather around a common desire to listen for God’s will.  Our discernment is therefore on-going.

The Initiative on Faith and Practice is nearing the end of its independent life, this being its last truly active semester.  We are currently tentatively planning to bring Mary Rose O’Reilly to campus in September for a gathering with Guilford faculty on the subject of self-care.  That will likely be the capstone activity for IFP.  The staff intend to spend the rest of the semester mostly focused on creating institutional memory about what we have learned over the past six years.

The Initiative will survive in a number of on-going projects, many of them to be housed within Friends Center, whose staff will (at least temporarily) grow from two to five for the next three years.  Those projects include:  1) a re-invigorated QLSP; 2) a program to develop pastoral leadership among Guilford students called “Ministry and Spiritual Gifts,” directed by Frank Massey; and 3) on-going outreach to students, faculty and staff in gifts discernment and clearness committees.

The goals of the Initiative will also survive, hopefully, in a college-wide program known as “the Guilford Challenge,” which is still in the development stage.  If the Guilford Challenge comes to life as currently envisioned, every student at the college will engage in real, on-going vocational reflection about his or her personal mission at Guilford and beyond.

Max L. Carter, director

Friends Center

Fourth-month, 2007