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How can Quakers carry our vision forward into the future? It’s going to take generosity and planning.
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Transcript:
Terry Nance: So many funds exist that we draw on-if you’re active at all… the funds that we may draw on to keep our meetinghouses in shape, certainly the funds that we draw on to keep our big Quaker educational institutions moving forward come from the generosity of Quakers who never lived to see the benefits of their resources. I’m reminded of that phrase that what hope really is is to plant trees under whose shade you’ll never sit, and I think that is part of the way I see investing for Quakers. We have a clear vision of the way in which we would like the world to be as we move forward, and quite frankly we need to put a little skin in the game to make sure that we have some say in how that will happen going forward.
Investing in the Future of Quakerism
Jeff Perkins: Within Quakerism, the individual has an important role to play within corporate worship. The same is true within our meeting communities in terms of each of us individually have a role in supporting the life of our faith community, whether that’s through serving on a committee, and also financially serving the needs of the meeting.
How Do Quaker Meetings and Churches Operate Financially?
Terry Nance: With a hope and a prayer, mostly. If you ever have been a part of the guiding committees of a meeting, the question about how to keep it running financially is always top of mind, even though the finance committee makes its yearly pitch, saying, “We’re getting to the end of the year; please;if you haven’t made your donations, come in.”
Jeff Perkins: So at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, Friends are encouraged each week through an announcement to contribute to the needs of the meeting. We have a contribution box prominently placed in the entryway to the meetinghouse. We also encourage Friends to give through appeal letters several times a year, and during business meeting, we talk about the budget and the importance of community members contributing to the financial needs of the meeting through contributions.
Supporting a Vision for the Future of Friends
Beth Henricks: Quakerism-at its best-is really something the world needs today. It is a place that I can be on a journey, and I can be loved and accepted and supported wherever I am on that journey, and that I come together with a group of people that have diverse backgrounds, diverse belief systems, and yet we can be in community together. And so I just think the world is calling out for that.
Shannon Isaacs: The offerings that Quakerism offers of kindness, of community, of deep spirituality are all things that I want to exist in the future, and that I think serve the needs of the world in really important ways.
Beth Henricks: Who we can be and how we can connect people to the Spirit has never been more needed, more important. We need to do everything that we can, including our financial commitment to bringing that about.
Building a Culture of Giving
Shannon Isaacs: Fundamentally money is the ability to do good. It’s the ability to make justice happen in the world. It’s the ability to support compassion between people. It’s the ability to support powerful ministries, it’s the ability to make the world a better place.
More: fdsj.nl/planned-giving
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The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.