Quaker Bio
On the porch of Green Street Meeting
Eileen Flanagan was first introduced to Quakerism as a student at Friends' Central School in Philadelphia. When she left the Roman Catholic Church at eighteen, she apparently told friends that she would become a Quaker some day, but she wasn't ready yet (something she totally doesn't remember). In her late twenties, she became a regular attender at Bethesda Friends Meeting, which led her to become a resident student and then a staff member at Pendle Hill.
Today Eileen serves as assistant clerk of Chestnut Hill Meeting in Philadelphia. She has taught Discerning Our Calls for the Pendle Hill Resident Study Program, spoken in the Pendle Hill lecture series, and offered workshops for Pendle Hill, Friends General Conference Gathering, and FGC's Traveling Ministries Program, as well as for a variety of meetings and Friends schools. As a parent at Greene Street Friends School, she has served as a member of the School Committee, the Diversity Committee, and as clerk of the Religious Life Committee.
Some Quaker meetings support the ministry of a member through a minute of religious service and a committee that anchors the Friend's work. Chestnut Hill Meeting approved the following minute at the meeting for business held February 17, 2008:
Chestnut Hill Meeting recognizes that our member Eileen Flanagan carries an ongoing concern for helping people to trust God and to listen to God’s guidance. For a number of years Eileen has faithfully served Friends in and beyond our meeting as well as persons of other faith backgrounds by facilitating retreats and workshops and by communicating with a wider audience in print and on-line.
Now as way opens for Eileen to engage in these activities more frequently, publicly, and intentionally, we unite in support of her leading to help Friends experience discernment directly in their lives and their meetings and develop the faith to follow the guidance they receive; and to introduce this elemental aspect of Quaker faith and practice to the world beyond the Society of Friends. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Society of Friends and to share Quaker experience with those outside the Society of Friends by supporting Eileen’s work. Having received the blessing of her ministry among us, we will support her call to a wider ministry with prayer and the grounding and testing of ongoing oversight. We commend Eileen to all, in the hope that she will be kindly received wherever she serves.