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Called Meeting: To all Friends of North Pacific Yearly Meeting
On 5/10/2025, there will be a called meeting for worship with attention to business of the Yearly Meeting. The purpose of the called meeting is to decide how NPYM will respond to the University of Montana’s recently-established policy regarding gender. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “called meeting” is one which is not on a group’s regular calendar but is held to handle an item of community business so urgent that it should not wait until the next regular meeting. To our knowledge, NPYM has never had a called meeting, but has recently anticipated the need. At its meeting on 4/5/2025, NPYM’s Coordinating Committee asked the Executive Committee to consider and prepare for possible actions that NPYM might take in response to certain current events—for instance, joining in a lawsuit initiated by another yearly meeting. When it sees that a situation requires timely action, Executive Committee is to call a meeting via Zoom or other conference technology so that NPYM community as a whole can discern what action to take. A situation requiring timely action is now before us. Montana House Bill 121 and the University of Montana The Montana legislature recently enacted Montana House Bill 121 (passed 3/27/2025), which states that any public entity, such as a university, can be sued if it does not take steps to segregate the restrooms by biological sex. The University of Montana has set policies to comply with the new law, and has now informed NPYM that when we come to their campus for our Annual Session in July we must designate all bathrooms in the dorms we use as either “male” or “female.” (Our plan had been to designate all the bathrooms on our floors as “gender-neutral.”) Each participant will be assigned to a specific bathroom, and the bathrooms will be key-carded. Moreover, the University requires NPYM to fill out a participants list which includes a column labeled “Gender,” and the instructions clearly state “The gender column on the participants list refers to biological sex.” House Bill 121 has been stayed by a Montana judge, but no final ruling has been made, and a lengthy appeals process seems certain. Moreover, the University can set its own policies, so a ruling against House Bill 121 might not alter the policy in question. NPYM’s Executive Committee is proceeding on the assumption that the Montana state law and the University of Montana policy will both be in effect this summer. NPYM Minute on Inclusion: Welcoming Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People At Annual Session in 7/2017, NPYM approved a minute stating, in part, that “North Pacific Yearly Meeting understands that the Divine Source is leading our meeting to honor the gender identity and expression of each person, as understood by that person… As part of our evolving struggle to live our testimony of equality, North Pacific Yearly Meeting minutes our commitment to becoming an affirming, safe, and nurturing place for everyone to live fully that which the Spirit is leading them to be.” The full minute can be found at https://npym.org/sites/default/files/Minute%20of%20Inclusion.pdf. The Issues Before Us for the Called Meeting on 5/10 NPYM’s Executive Committee is deeply concerned to meet the needs of all members and attenders and recognizes the tensions that come from balancing those interests. To hold Annual Session in a location that has policies that are in conflict with our witness and leading as Friends would put our trans members and attenders at risk. At the same time, to defy the law and the policy would likely mean we would not be able to return to any location in Montana for the foreseeable future, which would have a considerable impact on Montana Gathering of Friends. It could also have serious implications for the community of Missoula. Therefore, our tasks for the called meeting for worship with attention to business are to:
Meeting Details The 5/10/2025 called meeting will be held via Zoom at 9:30 Pacific Time / 10:30 Mountain Time and will begin with an extended period of worship sharing. NPYM Friends will receive the Zoom link and background information a few days before the meeting, including the best available answers to frequently-asked questions. In the meantime, questions and comments may be directed to the clerk via email: [email protected]. As we approach this discernment, I ask that Friends everywhere hold NPYM and all its people in love. Trusting in this community, and trusting in that of God within it, Paul Christiansen Presiding Clerk, North Pacific Yearly Meeting on behalf of Executive Committee
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Call to Annual Session – Clerk Paul Christiansen
To Friends of North Pacific Yearly Meeting and to Friends everywhere-- In these days when all the world seems to tremble, we gather as Friends and we tremble too. But we do not tremble in fear or despair. Our trembling is the quaking that comes the moment before we break the silence of worship and speak. Our trembling is the Spirit stirring us to speak and act. We are called to let the Inward Voice ring through us with such clear conviction that we rise in courage and sing. The 2025 Annual Session of North Pacific Yearly Meeting will be held in Missoula, Montana, from July 9 to 13, with an online business-only plenary held beforehand. Our Friends in Residence, Keith Runyan and Nora Lissette and their one-year-old child Juniper, along with your NPYM clerks, invite you to explore what it means to live the theme of this Annual Session: Sing Loud. In selecting this theme, the Friends in Residence and the clerks were inspired by the words of the Sufi poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī: God picks up the reed-flute world and blows. Each note is a need coming through one of us a passion, a longing-pain. Remember the lips where the wind-breath note originated, and let your note be clear. Don’t try to end it. Be your note. I’ll show you how it’s enough. Go up on the roof at night in this city of the soul. Let everyone climb on their roofs and sing their notes! Sing loud! —Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (translated by Coleman Barks) We are called to live in the brave faith that our prophetic voice is the most powerful force available to us in our times. As Keith wrote in his call to the 2024 Spring Gathering of Quaker Earthcare Witness, “It is the voice of King, of Gandhi, of Fox, Fell, and Woolman, of Rumi, of Peace Pilgrim, of Christ, and Dorothy Day. It is this voice that began Quakerism. It is this force that brought Cromwell to the table and the British empire to its knees.” So how can we let our lives speak? How can we let our lives sing? What habits are we being asked to break? What is the song the world is waiting for? Hoping for? Hungry for? And the Spirit will say, “The silence of your worship is holy so that breaking it is more holy still. And now is the time. Break the silence. This is a new song, given to you in this moment, for this moment. Lift your voices and Sing Loud.” Sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Sing till Earth and Heaven ring. Sing the Spirit’s new song as its words are written in on our hearts. Sing well or sing badly. Sing as you are. Sing the new song loud enough to cut through the noise of the chaos of the world. Sing the new song loud enough that those suffering can hear us and take heart. Sing loud, even if we do not know what verse comes next. Sing loud, for we have something worth singing about. Sing loud to remind the world what Love has done and what Love will do. |
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