A few nights ago, I joined a group of Friends interested in learning how teleseminars and webinars could aid their work. First, Sarah O’Doherty showed us the kind of online classes she offers in her healing practice. Then, Ginny Christensen shared how Friends Council on Education is bringing those involved with Quaker schools together from all over the country without the expense or carbon cost of travel. (There is a place on their site to register for new webinars or to listen to old ones.) Then we all had a fabulous dinner at the home of Laura Melly—who has fostered the life of many Friends institutions and communities, partly through her ability to bring people together—and talked about the exciting possibilities of this technology and our desire to see ourselves and the various groups we support catch up to the 21st century.

I left the evening very excited about the prospect of expanding the number of people I can teach without stretching my family any more or increasing my carbon footprint. I think of the people reading this blog—from the Pacific Northwest, to Winnipeg, to Australia—and imagine some of those folks getting to actually talk to each other (if they wanted. Some may enjoy being anonymous.) I know Friends who are doing a lot of traveling to educate people about climate change, a vexing contradiction, and can see how excited they might be to trade in the Greyhound for a teleseminar. Of course, something is lost when people aren’t in the same room, but Ginny and Sarah both felt that their gatherings were deep and meaningful. I was particularly struck at the kind of work Sarah can do online, since it is probably more comparable to mine than Ginny’s. One (or maybe it was both) of them said they even have silent worship over the phone or computer lines. Sarah said that from doing energy healing, she was clear that distance didn’t matter when it came to energy/spiritual work. I’m still taking that in and imagining the possibilities.