by Deb First Member Quaker House Steering Committee
Forty-five years ago, I planned to attend Meeting for Worship for the second time. My usual procedures for going anywhere- simplest (have something to eat. Write the directions) to adaptive (was it snowing? Did I need an umbrella?) were this time accompanied by an unfamiliar sensation – a feeling that almost anything might happen once worship began. And so it did. And so continues my still-surprising and warmly welcomed anticipation that Meeting for Worship will be a time of unpredictability , surprise and grace.
As Quaker House at Chautauqua has emerged out of the ministry of Chautauqua Summer Meeting and the wholly-present work of those who breathed life into those ministries, this strangely familiar sensation connects me to the very practical work of this new creation. What will this little home for Chautauqua Meeting become? Who will minister there and what life will be changed because of a word, a teaching, a living example? Our committees all have sturdy agendas yet Steering Committee members approach each meeting with the expectation that something unexpectedly, enrichingly wonderful is likely to emerge.
I once thought that creating the place for welcome and worship at Chautauqua would be a process of orderly organization and careful attention, and so it is and must be. The mystery held within a spiritually-grounded anticipation has led to miracle and wonder, and to our nourishment from deeper waters. While we are in those deeper waters, being challenged, stretched and tipped-over a bit by our committee work, we come to know the joyful astonishment that accompanies a good spiritual workout.
Years after that second Meeting for Worship, I taped up an Annie Dillard quote:
“ it is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets…”
Spiritual anticipation is like that.