Gifts of Ministry Among Friends

As Friends, we often say that “we are all ministers,” but too rarely do we prepare ourselves to recognize, welcome, and nurture spiritual gifts among us. These gifts aren’t rewards for good behavior but evidence of God’s grace, poured out among us to invite us into love, to encourage us to faith, and to build up the Kingdom of Heaven. They are also a powerful antidote to isolation, polarization, despair and other deep ills of this troubled moment. But there is a paradox in spiritual gifting: although the Spirit showers these gifts universally, each one is distinct in the light and the shadow it casts in our lives.

Queries as we prepare to gather:

How is the Spirit currently moving in the lives of Sandy Spring Friends?

How might Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting prepare to hold and support the gifts, leadings and ministries that appear and grow among its members?

What responsibility is there to attend to the little miracles that the Spirit is working in and through our fellow Friends and to help give those miracles life and being within the Meeting and beyond?

Adria Gulizia is a lawyer, mediator, teacher, and mother. She carries a concern for how Friends’ traditional faith and practice translate into an increasingly unstable, atomized, and uncertain world. In her ministry activities and in her daily life, Adria is passionate about inviting all into deeper relationship with the Spirit of Christ, which spoke so strongly to early Friends and continues to speak today. She is a member of Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting (New York Yearly Meeting), the Friends of Jesus Fellowship, and the Board of Advisors of Earlham School of Religion, which she currently serves as clerk. She has facilitated workshops on a variety of topics, including spiritual gifts, listening as a practice of pastoral care, and Friends’ traditional commitment to the Lamb’s War.

Adria’s writing has been published by Friends Journal, Pendle Hill Pamphlets, and Illuminate, a Bible study curriculum written by and for Friends. Her blog, “In the Shadow of Babylon,” can be found at shadowofbabylon.com. She is currently collaborating with Joann Neuroth on a two-part course through School of the Spirit called God’s Promise Fulfilled: Encountering and Embodying Grace in the Shadow of Empire, which will launch in 2025. Adria was also recently featured on Pendle Hill’s podcast, The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, in the episode “Inviting Ourselves to Be Challenged.”