Two More California Outreach Projects
Ah, those Californians!
The Ojai (CA) Worship Group is small, but imaginative. They offer a weekly reading from Quaker authors old and new, in what they call "Dial-a-Thought."
"Dial-a-Thought" is available by phone at: (805) 646-0939
And it is also available online at the Ojai webpage, in RealAudio!
There's a new reading every week. Check it out!
And Allan Abrahamse, in Santa Ana, has another idea. Here's the Introduction to his new; waywillopen.net:
 | Billboards and signs are important ways to signify your presence in your community, but in some urban areas, they are not always an option. |
| An active presence on the Internet is another effective way. More than 75% of the population of the United States has access to the internet, and among folks who would be most interested in Quakers, I imagine the percentage is much higher. |
| With this in mind, I have started a project, waywillopen, to provide free websites to Quaker organizations. |
Free websites?? To find out more, go to
<waywillopen.net>
Allan adds, in an email to Quaker G.O.P.:
<< Sign me up.
I manage
the website for Orange County Friends Meeting, which meets in Santa Ana, Calif.
I'm glad to say our meeting has accepted the challenge of attracting a wider circle of attenders and eventually members, on the not-unreasonable assumption that in a county of 2,000,000+, there ought to be more than 35 people (our membership when we began this effort) interested in what Quakerism has to offer.
We moved from renting a classroom in the Whittier Law School on 1st day only for $100/month to leasing at a much higher cost a suite of offices in the heart of the Santa Ana Hispanic business district. We put up a web site, put ads in all the phone directories. And we're now attracting a steady stream of new visitors, some of whom are coming back. Membership is now at 40. Our up-coming Easter retreat will have 30 attenders, as against about 20 for the last four or five years.
In becoming a little larger we're also becoming a little more diverse. One interesting consequence (interesting to me anyway) is that we've attracted several new attenders who have decidedly more conservative religious beliefs than some of us old 1960's lefties. They believe, for example, in saying prayers and that God will answer them! Recently one rose at the end of meeting to announce that one of her prayers had been granted, and that she was very grateful to the Meeting for its contribution to this good outcome. This was a somewhat startling statement in the context of our meeting.
Although I think our first steps in the direction of growth have been the right ones, but we need to do more, and do it better. I look forward to sharing this concern with a wider circle.
Allan Abrahamse
Long Beach, Calif. >>
That's the Quaker G.O.P. Spirit!