Comment by Bill Samuel on 5th mo. 20, 2013 at 10:15am

May the NAF be a body through which the living water flows into our society.

Comment by Jim Wilson on 5th mo. 20, 2013 at 3:28pm

Sounds promising.  I am curious; is the NAF intended to be an Indiana Association, or does it plan outreach beyond that?

Comment by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 20, 2013 at 7:00pm

A composite answer to Jim Wilson's question from NAF folks including Margaret Fraser, Michael Sherman, Annie Glen and Leigh Ruddick Eason. 

We are moving slowly and deliberately; small steps. Members of many of these meetings are bruised from the IYM schism and want first to find their way back to trusting a new organization. 

First, have invited meetings that are leaving Indiana YM. (That means already there are monthly meetings in NAF in Ohio and Michigan.) Next, individuals who are members of meetings that are either staying in Indiana YM or going independent but not joining the New Association. That's where we are today. We are also in conversation with a couple of independent meetings in the midwest, inviting them to check us out to see if they might like to join. We probably won't go much further than that this year because we don't want to destabilize other yearly meetings.

We have about 800 members now; and we hear that another meeting will be making a decision next weekend about possibly joining us, which would bring us up to fourteen. We expect that to increase steadily. We are very diverse, theologically, and many of us don't know each other, so we are trying to lay some foundations. Considering where things stood at the beginning of the year, it's very encouraging. One of the things we will be looking at is the way in which we might do clearness for people wanting to join from beyond the Indiana/ Ohio/ Michigan area.

The hope is to provide a home for Friends near and far who are willing to worship and fellowship as well as associate with us. But that is one person's voice only.

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