Care to hear some of the pain, uncertainty and hope being experienced by those of us who have been ‘set off’ from Indiana Yearly Meeting? Then read Stephanie Crumley-Effinger’s marvelous message from this past First Day at West Richmond Friends (formerly IYM): “Camping Out at the Borderland: Reflections on Life in a Liminal Time.”  She weaves her message around the story of Orpah, Naomi and Ruth in Ruth 1:1-14. 

 Stephanie is a member of West Richmond and has been a recorded minister in IYM (what now of that recording?). She was Earlham College’s Director of Campus Ministry until 2000, and today is Director of Supervised Ministry at the Earlham School of Religion.  Through it all she has been part of the glue that held together the diversity of Quaker churches that once made up Indiana Yearly Meeting. This message is her reflection on how it feels when the centrifugal forces become too great.

 “We stand in this liminal time, at a threshold and border,” she says. 

 Also worth reading about the IYM situation are two recent blog posts from Josh Brown, the pastor at West Richmond Friends: “The Ghost of Denominations Past”, and “What I’d Really Like.” Josh is trying to figure out where those Indiana Friends who are no longer part of a yearly meeting should go next. Or better: he’s trying to figure out where all of us should go next.