Mount Toby Meetinghouse is located in Leverett, Massachusetts.  The Meetinghouse was designed and built in 1964, located on 112 acres donated by a member.    There was an addition added in 1997.  It is a spacious and roomy one story L-shape building with the meetingroom at one end.  It has a Scandinavian, utilitarian, 60’s vibe to it. The Mount Toby Meeting community had lots of input with the architect and designed the building for “functional simplicity.”  At that time, the community made a decision to create the meetingroom with windows above eye level, so that there could be “gathered Meetings” with few distractions.  The Mount Toby members contributed a lot of the building labor.  The Meetinghouse is very functional, but it is definitely not the most aesthetically pleasing meetinghouse in Massachusetts! What I saw, as a photographer, was lots of grey linoleum, utilitarian shelving, and beige carpeting with windows that do not show the surroundings to the greatest advantage.  I know meetinghouses are precious to those who worship in them, and I am sorry, Mount Toby, but that is my opinion.  So my photography was a challenge!!!

However, what the Meeting lacked in visual appeal was made up for in the evidence of a thriving, vibrant, active and engaged worship community, which was very appealing to me.  The evidence was everywhere.  This community really works.  In 1667 Isaac Pennington said this of Quaker community:

 Our life is love and peace and tenderness, and bearing one with another; and forgoing one against  another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.

The “community” in a Quaker Meeting is a very important aspect of meeting life, and is one of the five original Quaker Testimonies: Simplicity, Integrity, Equality, Community and Peace.  (See blog entries for Amesbury and Adams, August of 2014.)  As I have traveled from meetinghouse to meetinghouse, I usually ask what is the best aspect of the meeting.  The answer I usually get is “The Community.”  There are three facets of community that are important in Quakerism. 

The first characteristic of community is the social aspect.  In the early days of Quakerism the meeting would provide food, money and shelter to needy individuals or families who may be experiencing economic hardship, imprisonment or worse arising out of persecution or prejudice against Quakers.  Historically, there have always been Committees on Suffering, which provide support and assistance to those members who are suffering hardship as a consequence of actions taken in accordance with Quaker principles.  These committees are still active today in some places.  In all Quaker communities, however, help is usually provided to anyone who needs help, in whatever form they need it.  Meetings are very caring communities.

There are other facets of community, however, which are unique to Quakerism.  Though Quakers believe each person has their own relationship with God and each person communicates directly with God in Meeting for Worship, Quaker Meeting is really corporate worship.  In a Meeting for Worship, Friends are collectively seeking the Light.  A meeting that is especially spirit-filled is described as a covered, or gathered meeting.  These terms signify that the love of God is covering the group, and the whole unit encounters the Light amongst them. In the tract called “A Gathered Meeting,” Thomas Kelly describes it this way:

In the practice of group worship on the basis of silence come special times when the electric hush and solemnity and depth of power steals over the worshippers.  A blanket of divine covering comes over the room, a stillness that can be felt is over all, and the worshippers are gathered into a unity and synthesis of life which is amazing indeed.

These kinds of meetings are very powerful experiences, and they tend to bind a group together, which in turn strengthens the social experience of the members.

Finally there is the practical aspect of the community.  As a group, members conduct memorial services, weddings, and run the business of the meeting. They also decide how they will proceed as a group in acting on their values.   In the early days, the Quaker meeting community provided control of individuals, often monitoring their behavior to make sure it stayed within Quakerly tenets.  This no longer happens, but when asked, the community will provide guidance and assistance to individuals who have a particular need.  Some people have asked me why there is not anarchy in “Quakerdom” if each person is following their own leading?  Community in a Quaker Meeting helps prevent this, providing guidance and assistance to individual seekers.

All of these “community things” ran through my head as I photographed at Mount Toby.  The building was just a building, but the sense of spiritual connectedness and caring among a group of people was evident all around me:  for the conception of the building, for the labor provided to build the meetinghouse, for providing help and care for each other, for their respect of individual differences and needs, for their weekly worship together, this community really seems to work. This year, Mount Toby celebrated 50 years of community.  As many as 100 people attend Meeting each Sunday, and the numbers are growing, so they must be doing something right…

The picture is of the Mount Toby Meetingroom. 

Mount Toby Meetinghouse

Have you ever been to Woolman Hill?  If not, you should add it to your bucket list.  It is a pure delight.

Woolman Hill is a Quaker retreat center located in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.  They host educational activities and provide space for overnight group retreats, workshops and sabbaticals.  They also have some cabins scattered about their grounds for personal use, personal retreats, relaxing times, or just plain fun.  I stayed overnight in the Sunrise cabin.  The calendar date showed that “Fall” was just one day old, but the air felt like deep Fall.  There was definitely a nip in the air.  But with a roof and a wood stove, it was warm, safe, comfortable and relaxing.  Life simplified in a good way.

Today, North Dartmouth Friends Meeting is located on Woolman Hill.  In the early 1990’s, the last few remaining members of North Dartmouth Friends Meeting offered their Meetinghouse to Woolman Hill.  In 1996 the Meetinghouse, which was built in 1849, was disassembled, loaded onto two trucks, and moved.  In 2001, the new foundation was poured and reconstruction begun.  The very old Meetinghouse now has a new life.   It is used for mid-week worship, with an average attendance of 10. And it is available to the many groups and individuals who come to Woolman Hill for retreats, conferences, weddings, and other events.  It is part of the complex of buildings Woolman Hill has available for its mission of fostering spiritual connection within, with others, and with the natural world.  The Meetinghouse is in beautiful, pristine condition.  It is square and plain, with lots of window light, old wood and old benches.   When you walk in, it has the delicious smell of fine old wood.  The creative thinking used to re-imagine, move, re-create, and develop new uses for an old building is wonderful.  It is recycling at its best. 

Because there is not an active meeting community at the Meetinghouse, I am going to take this opportunity to talk a little bit more about my own photographic process. If you are not bored by this description, you can find further details of my process in the blog on East Sandwich Preparative Meetinghouse, written in May of 2014.

When I first read the book called The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori, I felt as if I was recognizing my own photographic practice there on the printed page.   The author talks about four essential elements in the process of making a photograph.   First is the muse, which is the sense of inspiration. Second is hara, the still and grounded place within. Third is the chi, which is the energy within both the photographer and within the subject.  Lastly, the resonance between subject and the photographer which arises from the chi.

When I walk into a Meetinghouse, I feel a sense of resonance from somewhere deep inside.  I feel a deep connection and internal shifting especially after meditating and connecting with the still point inside me.  Then the energy begins to flow.  When that happens, I work non-stop.  The pictures just begin to present themselves, though there are some pictures that I know I must take to relate to the story I am telling.  But I also just “see” some things that scream at me to “take this picture.”  And so I do. 

Though technique definitely comes into play and is always in the back of my mind, this is not an intellectual exercise.  Photography is a spiritual practice for me.  It is a letting go of self, it is being in the moment, it is staying attuned to the flashes of perception that come, and it is remaining keyed into the resonance that I feel with the subject matter.  At some point in the day, I will know that I am done.  Suddenly, I feel the energy go, the resonance wane.  And then I know I am finished for the day.  It is time to pack and go.  I feel a sense of completion, and I always say a word of thanks for the light (and the Light), the day, and for the opportunity given to me to photograph in a beautiful building. 

The picture is one of those that just called out to me: Take me!

North Dartmouth Meetinghouse

The Berkshires are a great place to visit, and I entertained myself quite well for several days in between Meetinghouse photography.  One of the Meetinghouses I photographed was the home of South Berkshire Friends Meeting in Great Barrington, MA.

The Friends in this area have followed a traditional route to becoming a Monthly Meeting.  In the 1950’s they began as a worship group, with interested people meeting in homes.  In 1955 they became a preparative meeting under the guidance of an established meeting.  And in 1984, the group became an independent monthly meeting, conducting its own business as South Berkshire Monthly Meeting.

At that time, they began to search for a building they could call home.  In 1999, they bought 20 acres of land with a house on it.  The house was remodeled with a meetingroom addition.  Today, South Berkshire Meeting is a one-story building with a wide sweep of lawn, a beaver pond and a mountain just beyond. This is not a traditional Quaker building, yet the Meetingroom still feels ‘Quakerly’. 

The story of the unfolding process of becoming a full-fledged Meeting, finding a place to call home and remodeling a building to suit their needs speaks to me of the long and winding road of Quaker decision making.

If I were a comedian, I am certain I could write a laugh-out-loud, funny parody of the Quaker decision making process.  But I am most definitely not a comedian, so I will write about it with the same earnestness and sincerity with which Quakers approach their decision making process.  It is a wonderful, awe-inspiring and creative way of approaching decisions.  And at the same time, it is difficult, laborious, and frustratingly slow.

Quaker decision making is based on finding “unity” in the Truth of God’s plan.  In Quaker parlance, it is described as “laboring in the Spirit until they can discern a truth that exceeds the reach of any one individual” (An Introduction to Quaker Testimonies by American Friends Service Committee, 2011).  This is very different than majority vote.  It is also different from consensus, in which all people agree.  Here, everyone may not agree on the final outcome, but they all agree to move forward with the final decision. During Quaker process, when a concern is deliberated, each person’s opinion and insight is sought and valued.  Sometimes all the individual opinions are as one, and the way forward is clear.  However, as in any group of individuals, there are most often differing opinions.  Sometimes one new idea can lead the entire group to a different decision, and sometimes one new idea can hold up the entire process.  The Clerk of the Meeting often has a key role in listening and then stating “the sense of the Meeting.” The dissenters may stand aside at this point for the sake of unity.  If not, the process continues until unity is found.  This can often take place over a long period of time.  Worship is interspersed throughout the process as all members of the group seek to leave ego behind and center on finding unity in the Truth of God’s perceived plan.  As always in Quaker process, snags are inevitable.  Sometimes, the smallest word or detail can delay finding unity.  Sometimes one deeply held dissenting opinion causes friction during the process.  But when a decision is finally made, it is usually a solid, well-considered, and creative outcome which all stand behind in unity. 

I am certain that any Quaker who has been in a Business Meeting can identify with “hitting a snag.” In South Berkshire, the lengthy decision making process hit a snag while considering the question of whether to have benches or chairs in the new Meetingroom.  Deliberations were long, arduous, and difficult.  It shook the unity of the community.  Today, chairs are in the Meetingroom.  It still feels like a Quaker Meetingroom even without benches.  And I have to tell you….the chairs are very, very comfortable.  

The picture is of the South Berkshire Friends Meetingroom with the comfortable chairs.  The windows overlook their beautiful grounds.   On the right is their nod to Quaker benchdom.  

South Berkshire Friends Meeting