‘Worship sharing helps us to listen to each other in a loving, prayerful and spiritual way.’ Photo: Tim Marshall / Unsplash.
‘We thresh… to find the kernel, the root, the way forward, and discern what Love requires of us.’
Sue Glover Frykman meets with Friends in Finland to discuss discernment
Seventeen adults and two children aged five gathered for Finland Yearly Meeting’s (YM’s) autumn gathering at the Ilkko Conference Centre, Tampere, from 15-17 November. The overall theme for the weekend was: ‘Where is my spiritual home?’ The first session was a sharing of thoughts on the theme.
I had been invited to talk about the Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and Middle East Section’s (FWCC EMES’s) forthcoming workplan (2020-22) and to lead two sessions on discernment. Finland YM’s Executive Committee had suggested a specific issue for exploration and discernment in advance. During the Saturday afternoon’s Meeting for Worship for Business, however, what appeared to be a short item on the agenda became something completely different in the worshipful consideration that ensued. Instead of being a quick glance at the situation with the Finland YM archives, currently stored in boxes in a Friend’s garage, it became a concern that needed much deeper exploration. It was therefore suggested in the Business Meeting that this was a much more pressing topic for threshing and discernment – a suggestion that Friends united with.
At the beginning of the evening session I introduced the concept of discernment and explained what a threshing meeting was. My understanding of discernment, based on the Quaker writings that have been published over the years, is that it lies at the heart of all that we do as Friends and is the core of our practice in Meetings for Worship and in Meetings for Worship for Business. Not only that, it is at the centre of how we make decisions in our lives. This can stretch from marriage to employment, our work in the world, and more.
Discernment encompasses the whole procedure of making a decision and involves rational and intuitive processes that get to the heart of the matter. It means consulting with our deep inner wisdom and letting the answer rise up in us. It takes us beyond the rational and the intellectual to a deep and centred place where God is at work in us. It means listening, allowing and letting go. It is what we learn to do and what our faith supports.
One of the best tools that we Quakers have to help us in the discernment process is threshing – where we thresh through to find the kernel, the root, the way forward, and discern what Love requires of us.
A threshing meeting or session can be thought of as a threshold, or intermediate space, before making a decision in a Meeting for Worship for Business. It offers a space in which people can explore and understand a difficult or complex issue. It has been defined as a meeting at which a variety of different, and sometimes controversial, opinions can be openly, and sometimes forcefully, expressed, often in order to smooth the passage of business at a later Business Meeting. It can be arranged in order to share factual information, air views about a controversial subject, express preferences, or ask questions. No decisions are made at threshing meetings. The aim is simply to move towards clarity and a greater understanding of an issue and to separate the ‘grain of truth from the chaff’. Such meetings can also provide an outlet for people to ‘let off steam’ about a subject before taking the matter to Business Meeting. There is no restriction as to how many people can attend a threshing meeting/session. The only rule is that we should respect each other’s contributions and treat each other with respect. Threshing sessions can be held in different ways. Some Meetings like to do it in one big group, while others prefer to split into smaller groups so that everyone’s voice can be heard, or so that people can speak their own language. A threshing meeting or session is usually moderated or facilitated by an experienced Friend, who is asked in advance to take on this role. The facilitator/moderator is responsible for making sure that everyone present has a chance to speak and air their views. It is helpful if someone is asked to take notes at the meeting for future reference.
After introducing the concepts, and clarifying the area of concern, we split into two language groups (Finnish and English) in order to come to a greater clarity and understanding of the question in focus and to look at how we might best deal with the Finland YM archives. It was an adventurous step. Besides responding to the leading to take the structure that was offered to learn a way, Friends also opened themselves up to what might emerge.
It is good to allow time for reflection between a threshing session and a session for more focused discernment. On the Sunday morning I facilitated a worship-sharing session for discernment on the YM’s concern for its archives. Worship sharing helps us to listen to each other in a loving, prayerful and spiritual way. It draws us into a safe sacred space where we can speak openly from our hearts and encounter each other in ‘that which is eternal’. The general rules are: to only speak for a second time when everyone has had a chance to speak once; speak only from our own experience; leave silence between speakers; ensure that all that is said is confidential to the group; do not comment directly on what others have said; listen with attention; and do not lapse into discussion.
During the worship sharing in Finland it became clear that a plan of action was starting to form. When this happened the group went into reflective ‘action mode’ to write up the steps, guidelines and brief for a working group and the kind of report that would be expected from that group at Finland Yearly Meeting next April. This development felt very important for those gathered and everyone engaged in the discernment.
In the evaluation of the weekend, one of the younger participants said that he would take this way of working through a concern away with him, because it was an approach that could be used in many different contexts. All in all, throughout the gathering it felt as though we had been faithful to the call to do what Love requires.
Comments
I love how threashing has been taken into the process for Finnish YM. It is not used enough or even understood well here in BYM anymore. Such an important tool in the Quaker world. I do see that quite a bit of poor discernment comes from not using tools like Threashing Meetings.
By asruth on 2nd January 2020 - 20:35
I have only attended one threshing meeting. It was moving, powerful, and felt that we moved forward as a community in such a way that quite unexpected. I would love to see threshing meetings used more often.
By mkay on 2nd January 2020 - 21:01
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