This week’s Advice and Query: 18: How can we make the meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and strangers are welcome?  Seek to know one another in the things which are eternal, bear the burden of each other’s failings and pray for one another.  As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives, ready to give help and to receive it, our meeting can be a channel for God’s love and forgiveness.

This week’s Advice and Query: 17:  Do you respect that of God in everyone though it may be expressed in unfamiliar ways of be difficult to discern?  Each of us has a particular experience of God and each must find the way to be true to it.  When words are strange or disturbing to you, try to sense where they come from and what has nourished the lives of others.  Listen patiently and seek the truth which other people’s opinions may contain for you.  Avoid hurtful criticism and provocative language.  Do not allow the strength of your convictions to betray you into making statements or allegations that are unfair or untrue.  Think it possible that you may be mistaken.

This week’s Advice and Query: 16. Do you welcome the diversity of culture, language and expressions of faith in our yearly meeting and in the world community of Friends?  Seek to increase your understanding and to gain from this rich heritage and wide range of spiritual insights.  Uphold your won and other yearly meetings in your prayers.

This week’s Advice and Query: 15. Do you take part as often as you can in meeting for church affairs?  Are you familiar enough with our church government to contribute to its disciplined process?  Do you consider difficult questions with an informed mind as well as a generous and loving spirit?  Are you prepared to let your insights and personal wishes take their place alongside those of others or be set aside as the  meeting seeks the right way forward?  If you cannot attend, uphold the meeting prayerfully.

This Week’s Advice and Query: 14.  Are you meeting for church affairs held in a spirit of worship and in dependence on the guidance of God?  Remember that we do not seek a majority decision nor even consensus.  As we wait patiently for divine guidance our experience is that the right way will open and we shall be led into unity.

This week’s Advice and Query: 13. Do not assume that vocal ministry is never to be your part.  Faithfulness and sincerity in speaking, even very briefly, may open the way to fuller ministry from others.  When prompted to speak, wait patiently to know that the leading and the time are right, but do not let a sense of your own unworthiness hold you back.  Pray that your ministry may arise from deep experience, and trust that words will be given to you.  Try to speak audibly and distinctly, and with sensitivity to the needs of others.  Beware of speaking predictably or too often, and of making additions towards the end of a meeting when it was well left before.