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Noah Baker Merrill
Becoming the Quakers the World Needs
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Connecticut for educators, students and other civic leaders focusing on how our systems of education might be transformed to foster racial justice and healing of multi-generational harm as an alternative to the devastating effects of current realities.
and more support each other in carrying the spiritual treasures of our tradition into our wider communities, sharing with humility and boldness what we have to share and learning alongside others who like us are called to seek and to nurture the Beloved Community, here and now.
We’re living out this invitation in many ways. The image to the left is of another group of New England Friends – this time in Boston – taking part on September 12 in an interfaith witness as part of the 
Trying what Love will do
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Friends Climate Witness Continues
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Seeking a Just Peace in Israel-Palestine
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“Choosing Love in a Season of Fear”: New England Quakers Respond to the Paris Attacks
Nov 16, 2015
The recent violence in Paris again shakes us awake to the horror and chaos that is the routine reality for people across the Middle East, and in so many corners of our world. Growing millions seek safe haven from escalating suffering caused by war, injustice and climate change. We know God loves each of us, even when we are terrified, even when we hate. We know God loves us always, even when we struggle to love each other.
Our hearts are breaking for the peoples of Syria & Iraq; the peoples of Lebanon, Turkey, and France. We mourn the loss of life and livelihood, the shattered hopes of peoples and nations, the brokenness of relationships. We yearn for a world where all people are recognized as beloved children of God.
The Quaker faith communities in the six New England states share in this season of fear, confusion, anger and grief for our world. In our own country, the unrelenting litany of killings of African Americans and our nation’s entanglement with the sins of racism present a convicting challenge to our consciences. Our hearts are also with those struggling for justice and recognition in our own country; our prayers are with all who suffer and are in fear. We grieve that even in our own faith communities we often struggle to speak and work with integrity toward racial justice and healing.
We have no easy answers. New England Quakers recognize that we share in the privilege, separation and inaction that are the potent seeds and sustenance of racism, violence and hatred in our world. Too often we are afraid to do the necessary healing work to confront the prejudice and privilege that corrupts our country. We must renew our commitment to love and to share the Light of God’s Love. We find meaning in the season of Advent, a time when Christians await the birth of new Life in a suffering world. As darkness in our region deepens and the nights grow long and cold, Advent calls us to trust and participate anew in the coming of the Light.
Facing the horrors of war, racism and hatred, the One who is Love calls us to love. A naive hope falls lifeless in the shallow soil of fear, anger and chaos; but we can help each other unearth a different kind of hope – a deep and living hope beyond despair. We can choose to live in the recognition that the wholeness and peace God dreams for our world is already present with us, and is still on its way. Moment by moment, concrete acts done with patience set us free to live in courageous love. As we choose this path, we help release each other from the captivity of hopelessness and fear. This is how the Light is born anew among us; this is how Love triumphs.
In this way, we can be God’s hands in our world.
In this season:
- We encourage each other and all of our neighbors – especially our fellow Christians and people of faith – to act with simple courage to welcome and accompany immigrants, refugees and the most vulnerable in whatever ways are available to us.
- We commit ourselves and call on others – especially religious leaders – to counter racist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic speech, policies and acts with words and deeds that strengthen relationship, understanding and partnership in our communities. When we encounter fear and anxiety in our workplaces, our homes and our schools – with every person we meet – each of us can choose to respond with that love that casts out fear.
- We commit ourselves and encourage others to sustained and increasing advocacy to oppose further violence and military action by our own country in the name of security, and to pursue effective peaceful means to bring an end to suffering and to address injustice. The current chaos and deepening tragedy across the Middle East arises from the undeniable failure of war and violence to bring lasting peace. We encourage Quakers and others to support the work of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (fcnl.org(link is external)) and the American Friends Service Committee (afsc.org(link is external)) toward creating shared security.
- We urge our federal, state and local governments as well as humanitarian aid organizations to significantly increase efforts to aid and accompany refugees and immigrants in our communities, and to offer sanctuary to those fleeing war and chaos. We have a responsibility to support those with such desperate needs at this time, even as many public voices call for increasing isolation and distrust in the name of security, building walls and acting out of fear.
- We call on public officials and candidates for public office – especially all candidates for the office of President of the United States – to search their hearts and consciences for ways their voices can bring people of diverse faiths and backgrounds together, rather than dividing and isolating communities from one another. When we sow the wind with fear, we reap the whirlwind of insecurity, suffering and chaos. Our world needs a harvest of hope.
In this season, may we remember that the choices we make between love and fear truly matter.
Fritz Weiss, Presiding Clerk
Noah Baker Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
It Started with $5
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Dear Friends,
I can still remember the first time I chose to make a financial contribution to the ministry of our yearly meeting.
As a young adult traveling in the ministry, living with student loans and an uncertain future, my resources were limited. Like many of us, I grew up with a sense of not enough. I told myself I had nothing to give, that I’d give when I was older, that I’d give next year. But as I clicked the “donate” button, I realized I was choosing to align what resources I did control with this spiritual movement that was changing my life.
For me, it started with five dollars.
Those two cups of coffee a month that I was willing to sacrifice opened a new dimension of relationship with our community of Friends. Giving financially has become a spiritual discipline for me, a practice of abundance. Like becoming a member in my local meeting, giving money is another way I join the Quaker movement as together we bear the fruit of Love in the world.
As 2015 approaches, our hearts turn to what’s most important – and hopefully away from email. I’m looking forward to a time of retreat, reflection and prayer as the old year turns to new. My bags are almost packed.
But before I go, I’m going to make an end-of-year gift to help sustain our shared work together in the coming year.
Here’s what this message is really about:
Financial support is just a small part of the many ways we accompany one another on this journey of faithfulness. But it’s an important part.
I believe giving financially is one more way we affirm the sacredness of every aspect and every moment of our lives, as we walk together in the Light.
In this time of global challenge and change, the world needs a way of life that doesn’t draw lines between “spiritual” and “worldly” concerns. We need an integrated approach that invites our whole lives to be filled with and guided by the Spirit. And this is something Friends have tried to practice for a long time.
In this season, I’m reminded that it’s vital to bring all of my life – including my relationship with money – into the Light.
Might this be true for you, too?
If you’ve already given this year, thank you.
If you haven’t given a gift – or haven’t even considered it this year – I hope you’ll join me in making a contribution in any amount by tomorrow night.
In this new year, may our lives and our local meetings be a blessing in our world.
In faith and service,
Noah Baker Merrill
Putney (VT) Friends Meeting
Secretary
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
Read The New England Friend online.
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DEAR FRIENDS,I’m pleased to share with you the latest online edition of The New England Friend. Read The New England Friend online One of the great joys of my work is getting to see new Life rising up in so many corners of our Quaker community. In a season when our society and our world seem besieged by conflict, violence and injustice, I find hope in the ways our meetings–at our best–can serve as circles of Light. I keep hearing stories of how we are helping one another find courage, seek deeper relationship with our neighbors and with Creation, and join with others to build the world of wholeness and right relationship that Jesus called the Reign of Heaven–and what Martin Luther King, Jr. called The Beloved Community. As the demonstrations seeking deep change in response to the laying bare of systemic injustices mount across the country, and with the release of the Senate report on torture making visible the tragic costs of failing to acknowledge that of God in one another, I believe recommitting ourselves to living our faith as Friends is ever more important. We need each other’s help to be faithful, to consider the implications of Ferguson and Guantanamo in the lives of each one of us. Friends, how is the Spirit shaking our assumptions, calling us to pray, to serve, to witness, to speak, to act? How can we share that news with one another, strengthening connections and helping each other find courage and humility to learn, to grow, and to live? In this online content, you’ll find news from the growing edges of the Quaker movement in our region, including exciting updates giving you a glimpse of new explorations in several of our diverse local meetings. As you’ll read below, New England Friends are helping to kindle new collaborations in support of Quaker religious education, and partnering with Friends organizations like Quaker Voluntary Service and Friends World Committee for Consultation to bring the richness of the global community of Friends to enliven our life together in New England, in worship and in witness. I hope you’ll also check out the updates on our work to improve our Yearly Meeting’s staffing and organizational structure to better support the life of the Spirit among us. Finally, we’ve included a summary of highlights from this past summer’s Annual Sessions, held for the first time in our 354-year history in Vermont. The full Minutes of business sessions are posted online. It would be wonderful to welcome even more of our Quaker family next summer at Sessions in Vermont, August 1-6, 2015. Below are two events I’d like to especially highlight in the coming months, with more information to be posted to the online calendar and shared with local meetings soon. The conversation will be more complete with your meeting’s participation!
Finally, we want to hear from you. Do you have:
Please send an email to Office Manager Sara Hubner at office@neym.org(link sends e-mail) or call the office at 508-754-6760 to learn more about submissions, suggest upcoming themes and share how the Light is at work in your meeting.
In faith and friendship,
Noah Baker Merrill |
How Quakers Can Transform The World
Noah Baker Merrill expresses how Quakers can transform the world in this QuakerSpeak video:
PFM Member Recommended To Serve As NEYM Field Secretary
From NEYM’s Webpage:
With joy and anticipation, Permanent Board will bring the name of Noah Baker Merrill to NEYM Annual Sessions in early August for approval as Yearly Meeting secretary, beginning January 1, 2013.
Noah and his wife Natalie are members of Putney (VT) Monthly Meeting, where Noah has been released* for service in the ministry. Noah already has a long history of service, ministry and listening intently to where and what he is being called. Noah has worked for the American Friends Service Committee in Providence, in Philadelphia and in Washington, filling a variety of roles including community organizing, policy advocacy and technology consulting. With Natalie he co-founded and was program director for Direct Aid Iraq, an organization devoted to advocacy and material support for Iraqi refugees.
Noah is a writer, with articles in Friends Journal, Quaker Life, Spirit Rising and other publications. He maintains a web page and blog. And he is a gifted vocal minister, both in unprogrammed worship and in prepared messages. Noah was selected to give the plenary message on behalf of the Section of the Americas at the recent Sixth World Conference of Friends. This fall he’ll be traveling in the ministry supporting Friends World Committee for Consultation’s theme: “Let the Living Waters Flow: Friends Serving God’s Purposes.”
Demonstrating his belief that Quakers hold an untapped power to create positive change, Noah is a founding board member of Quaker Voluntary Service, an organization seeking to orient young adult Friends toward lives committed to service and justice, grounded and sustained by their Quaker faith.
In conversation, Noah displays a remarkable breadth of knowledge including Quaker history and current practice around the world. And he brings a tender sensitivity to the spiritual needs of the individual, the monthly meeting, the quarter, and the Yearly Meeting. He has a remarkable depth of understanding of the issues and the potential of NEYM, and of the role that the Yearly Meeting Secretary plays in these issues.
Most of all, interactions with Noah demonstrate his quiet energy and his sense of connection to the living tradition of Quakerism, past and future, and to the vision that we can make a difference in the world. In Noah’s words: “My small part in this work is encouraging the life of the Spirit among Friends, helping us together … to live more fully into the promise that if we are faithful, we can be made channels of Love’s life-giving work.”
—Bruce Neumann, on behalf of the Yearly Meeting Secretary Search Committee
Search Committee: Deana Chase, James Grumbach, Dwight Lopes, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Jackie Stillwell, Donn Weinholz, Hannah Zwirner and Bruce Neumann, clerk.
*A Released Friend is one whose leading to carry out a particular ministry has met with approval from a Meeting which then promises to provide such support as would enable the Friend to follow that leading. In Noah’s case, he is released to speak, preach, write, lead workshops, and generally nurture the life of the Spirit.
Putney Friends Focus on the 2012 World Conference of Friends — June 10
On Sunday, June 10, two members of Putney Friends Meeting will report on their experience this April attending the 2012 World Conference of Friends in Kenya. Noah Baker-Merrill and Rosemary Zimmerman will share photos and stories from the conference, which was the largest worldwide conference of Friends since 1967. The Conference included Quakers from many parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and North America engaging the theme of “Being Salt and Light: Friends Living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World.”
Noah and Rosemary will start their presentation around noon, after a light potluck at the close of the late morning Meeting for Worship. They will also focus on the concluding statement of the conference, the Kabarak Call For Peace and Eco-Justice.
In addition, at 9:30 am on Sunday the Adult Religious Education committee will host an open discussion in the Fellowship room of the Salt and Light booklet created as a preparation document for the World Conference. This booklet can be downloaded or viewed online at the World Conference of Friends website.
For those who cannot make either of these events on Sunday, you can watch an earlier report by Noah Baker Merrill to Putney Friends Meeting about the conference.
Noah Baker Merrill also led worship on one of the days of the Conference. Click here for the full text of his ministry and click below on the short video clip of the conclusion of Noah’s talk at the conference. To access the texts of other talks and sermons at the Conference, check out this webpage.
Please join us at Putney Friends Meeting this Sunday, June 10, to hear about this inspiring World Conference of Friends!
PFM Member Writes Article On Occupy Movement For AFSC
At the invitation of the American Friends Service Committee, PFM member Noah Baker Merrill has written an article on the growing Occupy Together movement. This thoughtful piece was recently posted on the AFSC website and is called “Occupy Together: We Are All Moses.”
Here are just the first two paragraphs:
On what was perhaps the worst night of violence against peaceful demonstrators during the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, I searched reports and images shared on Facebook and Twitter, blogs and news sites, poring over messages from friends in the Middle East. I tried like so many others to piece together a clearer sense of the movement that had come this far, of where it might be headed, and what it might mean for the world. The power of those hours, the waiting, watching, and praying of those weeks, and the jubilation felt by and for the people of the Arab world, remains closely with me. A deep turning, long in coming and with so much farther still to go, was breaking through.
Now, as the Occupy Together movement emerges across the United States, I have a similar sense of this turning beginning to happen among us in a new way. It’s a time to listen carefully, a time to seek understanding, and a time to respond.
