{"id":181,"date":"2011-02-25T19:52:49","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T19:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.DurhamFriendsMeeting.org\/?p=181"},"modified":"2017-12-05T19:57:44","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T00:57:44","slug":"daphne-clement-introduces-herself-to-durham-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Daphne Clement Introduces Herself to Durham Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Asked for a biography for the December
\nDurham Friends Meeting Newsletter… I sat down
\nto write and found that the threads of my life (like
\nthe threads in the poem below) would not organize
\nthemselves in a linear fashion. To begin by telling
\nyou that I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado,
\nand thus no stranger to cold weather, simply was
\nnot enough of an introduction… and so, I begin with
\nthe poem:<\/p>\n

The Threads of Life–
\n\u201cOnly one end of the threads of life I hold in my hand.
\nThe threads go many ways, linking my life with other lives…
\nOne thread is my centering thread – it is my steadying thread –
\nGod\u2019s hand holds the other end.\u201d
\nHoward Thurman (The Motive) 1950<\/p>\n

These few lines of Howard Thurman\u2019s
\npoetry were the heart of a \u201cGoodbye\u201d card shared
\nwith loved ones and friends in Atlanta, Georgia as I
\ndeparted after living and working there for nine
\nyears. I record them here as I move to Maine both
\nfor continuity and in greeting.<\/p>\n

Ministry:<\/strong>
\nA Hospice Chaplain in Atlanta, Georgia, I was most
\nrecently the Coordinator of Spiritual Care at
\nHospice Atlanta\u2019s 36 bed inpatient unit.
\nAccompanying dying people and their loved ones is
\nvery beautiful, deeply heart felt, soul satisfying
\nwork. Being with the dying led me back toward life
\nand taught me how to pray… really pray, not for any
\nparticular outcome but the kind of prayer that opens
\nto God\u2019s presence amongst us… amongst us all:
\nprayer with Methodists and Southern Baptists,
\ntogether with Jewish people and Muslims and with
\nfolks who have no religion at all.
\nFor many years the brevity of relationship in
\nHospice was made up for by the depth of
\nconnections made; but, in the last year or so I began
\nto imagine my ministry in a more enduring
\ncommunity, in a place to let my roots sink down, as
\nI could never seem to do in Atlanta, which is so
\n\u201cSouthern\u201d and so very hot!<\/p>\n

Becoming a Friend:<\/strong>
\nMy parents attended an Episcopalian Church
\nand as child I loved the beauty of that church and
\nwas confirmed there. But from the time I was old
\nenough to wonder about the theological basis of all
\nthose \u201ccreeds and written prayers\u201d… I longed for the
\nexperience that the early Christians must have
\nshared… wondering what it was that brought
\nChristianity to life for them. Even as a child I
\nimagined the experience must have been light
\nfilled. From my first experience of Friends
\nWorship I sensed the Light of the \u201ccontinuously
\nrenewed immediacy\u201d (Thomas Kelly) of God\u2019s
\npresence in Worship. As I continued to read and
\nstudy it became apparent to me that George Fox
\nwas really on to something… and that \u201csomething\u201d I
\nhad been seeking even as a child.<\/p>\n

Parenting:<\/strong>
\nMy first vocation and early career was single
\nparenting and the education of my three children:
\ntwo older boys (Steven & Ryan) and one daughter
\n(Camille). The two youngest of my children both
\nreceived the benefit of Waldorf education and we
\nwere fortunate to be active members of that
\ncommunity. My two sons are parents now, and
\nwatching them parent reveals to me the worldchanging
\npotential of generations of healthy young
\npeople. My grandchildren make me feel hopeful,
\neven in the face of dispiriting social, political and
\neconomic trends.<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong>
\nAs young adult I was influenced by the
\nsocial\/political movements of the 1960\u2018s, and lived
\nfor a time at the Lama Foundation near Taos\u2019 New
\nMexico. At Lama we honored and practiced many
\nof the great world religions. As I came to
\nunderstand the breadth of faith and practice I came
\nalso to appreciate the breadth of God that unites all
\nreligion. This period of spiritual experimentation
\n(practicing yoga, meditation & prayer, as well as the
\nstudy of the Abrahamic traditions) was later to
\nbecome an invaluable part of my \u2018inter-faith\u2018
\nministry as a Hospice Chaplain.
\nWhile parenting, and managing a small fruit
\ncompany in Boulder, Colorado I simultaneously
\nworked on completing my education, finally
\nreceiving my first degree in the same year that my
\nsecond son graduated from Oberlin College.
\nTwo years later I enrolled at Starr King
\nSchool for the Ministry, the Unitarian Seminary in
\nBerkeley, California. It was while attending
\nseminary that I first read Thomas Kelly, Rufus
\nJones and other Friends and began to faithfully
\nattend Quaker Meeting.
\nWhile in Atlanta I completed a Doctor of
\nMinistry degree in Pastoral Counseling at Columbia
\nTheological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.
\nLooking back, what I learned during those years of
\nstudy surprises me. I learned, or rather practiced
\nwhat Friends have long known and practiced: that
\nwhen we sit together in a worshipful way, hearts
\nopen, listening and attentive, we do not necessarily
\nhave to agree (intellectually, politically, religiously)
\nto find common ground… and upon that common
\nground… often, we find a new and unexpected \u201cway
\nforward\u201d toward the common good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asked for a biography for the December Durham Friends Meeting Newsletter… I sat down to write and found that the threads of my life (like the threads in the poem below) would not organize themselves in a linear fashion. To … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Daphne.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-2V","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}