Dear Friends,
I’ve been attending meeting now for a little over a year, and I would like to formally become a member of the Byberry Friends. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been acutely aware of my own personal spiritual nature, and have spent my time, mostly as an artist, attempting to explore and express it though a visual medium. After attending meeting for over a year I feel that the Religious Society of Friends is the only religious organization that has thoroughly resonated with me on both a personal and spiritual level enough to pursue membership.
I feel that my attendance at the local Byberry Meeting has given me a safe and quite place to reflect on my inner thoughts, allowing me to center my spiritual being in a vast and captivating universe. I feel that the Religious Society of Friends has also expanded my social conscience by, not only making me more aware of my fellow (hu)man, but also the social injustice that surrounds me, while providing me many avenues to address such issues. The Society’s dedication to social justice, peace, and equality is something that I would be honored to be associated with.
I find the history of the Quakers, especially its art history, extremely fascinating, rich, engaging and something that I would love to continue to learn more about. As an artist, activist, feminist, and humanist I believe that the Religious Society of Friends best reflects my personal and spiritual sensibilities. As one of the younger attendees of the meeting I would like to contribute whatever I can to help continue the compassionate and loving spirit that I have encountered in my attendance at Byberry Friends Meeting.
I would also love to share my love, not only for the arts, but creativity in general, in order to help nurture the growing art community within the Religious Society of Friends, specifically by participating more directly with
The Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts. My ministry, as a member of the Society of Friends, would be sharing my passion for the arts and human creativity, specifically regarding how creativity relates to the cathartic expression of our inner human experience. I would like to help foster within others, both Quakers and Non-Quakers, the idea that creativity is an innate and universal aspect of mankind, while also examining how creative expression can highlight the infinite possibilities of humankind. By reexamine what creativity actually is, through creative play, perhaps we can enhance our understanding of the creative power behind the natural world, which is responsible for building the human organism through the creative process of evolution, in order to better understand our role on this planet as wholly evolved, and creative, beings.
Thank You For Your Time And Consideration.
Respectfully,
Chuck Angeline
