Through the Flaming Sword

Each year for some years, Earlham School of Religion and Quaker Hill Conference Center in Richmond, Indiana, co-hosted “Consultations” on some subject of interest to Friends. I attended one of these consultations in 1991 and I found it a wonderful innovation in Quaker discernment. Since then, I have done what I can to foster its wider use among Friends. Here’s how these consultations worked:

Invitations. Participants were invited. Invited were seasoned Friends who had “expertise” in the subject of the consultation or experience and deep interest. Invited also were Friends who were relatively new to Quakerism and showed keen interest in further spiritual nurture in the Quaker way. (This is how I got invited.)

Preparation. Participants were sent queries on the subject and were asked to write brief answers to the queries and bring them with them to the consultation.

Time. The consultation started on Thursday night and ran through Sunday lunch, providing two full days of discernment, plus an introductory evening session and worship on Sunday morning followed by a wrap-up session.

Worship. If I remember correctly, each morning started with open worship. Worship on Sunday morning was programmed.

Presentations. Three Friends gave brief-ish prepared messages on the subject during the weekend. These were followed by discussion.

Observers. Two Friends served as “observers,” keeping notes on Spirit’s movement among us as we deliberated. A document was created after the consultations that included all the materials brought or developed during the process. These are great resources on the various subjects.

Small groups. We had been organized into small groups (of six, if I remember correctly), each with an experienced facilitator. I think some care was made to give each group some diversity of experience and “theological” worldview.

Discernment. We began in small groups, sharing our answers to the queries. I think this might have taken two sessions. Then each small grouo sought to come to a set of answers as a group. This comprised the core of the discernment process. On Saturday evening, in plenary, we tried to come to an agreed-upon Spirit-led set of answers to the queries as a whole group.

The worship, the small group work leading to the plenary, the presentations designed to give context and probe important aspects of the subject, all combined to make the Saturday plenary session a valuable, even powerful, gathering. The programmed worship provided the clerk with an opportunity to give us a minute of exercise, to name how the Holy Spirit had worked within us and among us toward unity, truth, and love of one another.