Michener Lecture 2025

Tending the Soil of Our Faith Community

presented by Susan Taylor

Speaking from the silence and from her experience, Susan Taylor will lead us in exploring what contributes to the vitality and the power of Quaker community grounded in Spirit. As the soil in which a seed is planted influences greatly the health of a plant, so to do the elements of the foundation of a faith community contribute to its health. What soil is necessary for a flourishing Quaker faith community? What might we add to the compost? What have we learned about what prevents true community from flourishing, or even sprouting?

In the seminar following the lecture, Friends will be invited to share their experiences of tending the soil of Quaker community in a Listening Circle: a format similar to worship sharing that gives room for sharing, listening, and worship-grounded discussion where all are affirmed. We hope to discover new ideas, feel spiritually enriched, and experience the connectedness that builds community.

As an active Quaker from birth, Susan Taylor has always taken to heart the life-informing truth of “that of God” in everyone. The transformative power of Love throughout a variety of relationships in Susan’s life has opened her to exploring with Friends ways in which Quaker meetings can work to provide a sense of belonging for people who do not yet feel at home within the Religious Society of Friends. She has learned that many people — who identify as Brown, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BBIPOC), who identify as LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities and others — don’t feel they can be themselves in many Friends’ meetings. From her volunteer multiracial community gardening experience in Tallahassee, she wonders what is vital for the community’s soil for The Seed to grow into visibly vital, resilient, and growing Quaker communities that help build nonviolent, loving, communities where needs of all people are abundantly and equitably met.

Susan is a member of Tallahassee Friends Meeting and Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM). She has served on committees of both her meeting and SEYM, has also been meeting Clerk and SEYM Clerk. With Tallahassee Friends, she currently serves as Interim Meeting Clerk, and as a member of the Peace and Social Concerns and the Children’s Spiritual Nurture Committees. In SEYM, she is serving on the Committee for Ministry on Racism. She is Clerk of the Nominating Committee for the Representatives Council of Friends General Conference (FGC).

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