DES MOINES VALLEY FRIENDS
STATE OF THE MEETING 2023
We continue to offer “blended” meetings for worship, Second Hours and meetings for worship with
attention to business, making it possible for Friends near and far to join either at the meetinghouse or
on-screen. Many of our members and attenders also took advantage of virtual options to attend
both Annual Sessions and Midyear Meeting of IYM(C).
We have experienced several opportunities over the past year to come together as a community in
support of our members and attenders experiencing a variety of needs. We also continue to collaborate
with meetings in several other states and in Canada to support an Afghan refugee family whose eldest
son graduated from Scattergood Friends School and Farm a few years ago. Just as this report was being
written, we received the exciting news that the family will likely soon be reunited in Canada!
Over the past year, we have begun discussions on such topics as reproductive rights, Indigenous
history and rights and white privilege/structural racism. We will continue to try to gain a sense of our
meeting regarding these and other issues of concern and to ascertain the Meeting’s role in engaging on
such issues.
We struggle with finding enough people with time to devote to our committees and the other work
of the Meeting. Dwindling and aging membership contribute to this dilemma, as do individual concerns
that consume our time and energy in other directions. This concern spills over into difficulty in finding
people to fill positions with IYM(C). While we are mindful of these concerns, we are especially grateful
to those who make it a priority to do this work on behalf of all of us.
At the same time, we are blessed by both visits and regular attendance from several younger
people, which is both encouraging and nurturing to our community.
The departure of AFSC’s regional office from Friends House has left us with a number of concerns
that are intertwined with the challenges of maintaining the physical structure of the meetinghouse. We
are grateful for the faithful representation of our meeting members who serve on the Friends House
Board (past and present).
Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting continues to benefit from our longstanding warm connection
with the nearby Bear Creek Friends Meeting.
We continue to find nourishment by gathering in worshipful silence together and in working
together on behalf of both our meeting and the wider community/world.