Friends Meeting of Washington
Minutes
Monthly Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business
February 2016
Are meetings for business held in a spirit of worship, understanding and forbearance? When direction seems lacking, is this seen as a challenge to a more prayerful search for truth? Do we humbly set aside our own preconceived notions as to proper action, seeking instead Divine guidance as to the right course? Is the Meeting aware that it speaks not only through its actions but also through its failure to act?
Do you participate regularly in meetings for business, discharge faithfully your committee responsibilities, and assume your share of financial support of the Meeting?
Advices
The Society of Friends began not as a structured organization, but as a fellowship of Friends of Truth. As the need arose for service to members or others, Meetings were established and named for the times or intervals of their regular sessions, as Monthly Meetings, Quarterly Meetings, or Yearly Meetings. Meetings, in the Society of Friends, are thus both gatherings of persons for a purpose and units of the structure of the Society. All organized Meetings normally have gatherings for worship and other gatherings for the conduct of business.
Meetings for business are held in a spirit of worship. This does not mean they must be overly solemn or devoid of humor. It means they should be conducted in a spirit of inward recollection out of which will come a flexible and informal dignity fitting to the conduct of the work of a Religious Society.
Friends believe that the right and satisfactory decision in any matter is reached when those present understand and consent in the proposed judgment, finding it in accordance with their understanding of the will of God for the Meeting's action. Therefore, they act on a basis of the "sense of the Meeting" rather than by decision of the majority.
- BYM Faith and Practice
Voices
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (I Cor 12:4–7)
It is a responsibility of a Christian community to enable its members to discover what their gifts are and to develop and exercise them to the glory of God.
- Quaker Faith and Practice, of the RSF in Britain
2016/2-1 Welcome of Visitors
Meeting for Business opened at 12:15 pm with 20 persons present. Friends welcomed first time attenders to Meeting for Business Miranda Booth and Michael Wood and second time visitor Ken Haase, a member of Beacon Hill Meeting.
2016/2-2 Clerk’s Report
- We are sad to report the death of beloved member S. Clement Swisher. His memorial meeting will be held on Saturday February 20 at 3 p.m. in the meeting room. Clem will be remembered for his faithfulness, his integrity and his humor.
- The meeting gives thanks to Harry Massey for his many years of service to this Meeting. He turned the loss of his job into the opportunity to go back to North Carolina, which he had wanted to do. He’ll be living near his brother and his brother’s wife and a Friends meeting.
- Since Todd Harvey left the Capital Campaign Committee to go to Nominating Committee, we ask Friends to consider whether they feel led to work in this capacity for the Meeting community.
- The clerk reported that she had a recent meeting with Jim Clay of School for Friends and Jim expressed a desire for the School for Friends and the Meeting to come closer once again.
- Our long-time attender Makai Kellogg, a preschool teacher at School for Friends and Head of Nursery at Friends Meeting of Washington, attended the 15th and 16th Annual White Privilege Conference to develop herself as a social justice educator and anti-racism activist by learning ways to dismantle white privilege as a means of eradicating racism in this country. This year, School for Friends is sending three teachers and the parent clerk of their diversity committee to the conference.
A Friend noted that our First Day School is a vital part of Meeting and suggested that we invited the School for Friends children to the First Day School program here. Adults would be welcome, too.
Another Friend noted that the upper class of School for Friends comes to this Meeting periodically for Meeting for Worship.
- A Special Called Interim Meeting of Baltimore Yearly Meeting was held at FMW recently where a detailed job description was finalized for the Yearly Meeting Secretary.
Major items
2016/2-3 A Concern
Bob Meehan, a member, brought a concern to Meeting for Business. He suggested that there be a called meeting with a concern for our constructions expenses in light of the few people who attend Meeting for Business be held in lieu of Meeting for Worship. The clerk suggested that a time after meeting would be appropriate. We need to assure that parents will be there. A Friend suggested a threshing session rather than a Meeting for Business. A Friend suggested that we have a shortened meeting for worship and then have a called meeting for business. A Friend suggested having one early meeting for worship and then the Meeting for Business. A Friend noted that we have two meetings at 10:30; further, our entire purpose is meeting for worship and should not be truncated. A Friend suggested that we have only one meeting for worship on that date and then meeting for business. A Friend suggested Friends get tired of sitting. Perhaps we could have an experiential element to help ground people and encourage people to stay.
A Friend noted that this item is not on our agenda and that one reason people don’t come to meeting for business is because we discuss other things and then their reports are not heard because people leave. When we change times of meeting it is very disruptive and encourage we start using the forum before the threshing session. A Friend suggested that there is not a decision that is before us this month or in March so rather than tie the hands of the Trustees in advance we should discuss this later.
Bob Meehan noted that his intention was merely to put his concern on the agenda during the March Meeting.
The clerks and trustees will come forward to with a more concrete proposal.
2016/2-4 Ministry and Worship Committee
Gene Throwe, clerk of the Ministry and Worship Committee, gave a short update on the Spiritual State of the Meeting process. The survey, which will be going out this week, promises to be challenging, focusing on the spirituality in the Meeting to help form the questions that will be asked in focus groups at a later time.
A Friend noted that other meetings throughout Baltimore Yearly Meeting go through this process as well and we should use those resources.
2016/2-5 Membership Committee
Janet Dinsmore, clerk of the Membership Committee, presented its annual report, a copy of which is attached. In particular, they asked Friends to volunteer as welcomers to new Members. In addition, she feels many people would be Quakers if they understood who we were. She wondered if some day we could have a banner that says: “Are you a Quaker? We believe. . . . .”
The clerk noted that the spiritual state of the meeting and membership are connected. Last year we heard a desire for more connectedness. She has recommended to the Ministry and Worship Committee that one of the focus groups focus on connectedness. A Friend noted in his work as a chaplain at a university that many young people are repelled by organized religion and but share our beliefs. A Friend noted that language is often a barrier. A Friend noted that this is a perennial issue and reminded Friends of Quaker Quest. A Friend noted that in the 1980s we had an Advancement and Outreach committee which we no longer have.
The Meeting ACCEPTED the report.
2016/2-3 Nominating Committee
Todd Harvey, clerk of Nominating, brought forward the following names in nomination:
Jim Steen, member, to Personnel Committee (until Dec. 31, 2018).
Chris Mitchell, attender, to Finance and Stewardship Committee (until Dec. 31, 2018). He is applying for membership.
The meeting was asked to put forward Kate Steger, attender, as our nomination to the Friends Nonprofit Housing board (until Dec. 31, 2018). The Friends Nonprofit Housing board makes the decision.
The Meeting APPROVED the nominations.
Kate Steger, attender, as co-clerk of Hospitality Committee (until Dec. 31, 2016). It will be held over for a month as a waiver is needed as she is not a member.
Betsy Bramon, attender, to Healing and Reconciliation Committee (until Dec. 31, 2018). It will be held over a month as a waiver is needed as she is not a member. It is her second standing committee. She is considering membership. She believes working within the committee will help her decide as to whether she will become a member.
A Friend noted that Betsy Bramon recounted her spiritual journey recently and she seems very thoughtful.
The committee noted that it is part of their nomination process to ask attenders about membership.
2016/2-4 Library Committee
Faith Williams, clerk of the Library Committee, presented its annual report, a copy of which is attached. They noted the on-line catalogue and the future chaos that will occur once the renovation begins. Friends are encouraged to ask members of the Committee for help in finding books if they cannot find them on their own.
The Meeting ACCEPTED the report with thanks.
2016/2-5 Milestones
J. E. McNeil was asked to prepare a memorial minute for S. Clement Swisher.
Molly Tully or Michael Cronin will be asked to prepare a memorial minute for member Bill Lee.
Susan S. Ellis moved away a long time ago and died about a year ago. Hayden Wetzel was asked to prepare a memorial minute for her. A memorial meeting was held for her here.
2016/2-6 Other business
The clerk presented a brief report from Marsha Holiday on a meeting with Jenn Fredette, a pastoral care counselor, to explore next steps towards training in pastoral care within the meeting, a copy of which is attached. The goal is workshops in September.
We all need to reach out to each other.
2016/2-7 AFSC liaison
Jean Capps, AFSC liaison, reported on their recent activities, a copy of which is attached. She noted that David Etheridge and Joan Gildemeister have worked with AFSC for many years. She noted that it was started in 1917 for conscientious objectors. During the time period up to the second world war, the Nazis allowed them to take people out of Germany because AFSC had fed German children. They received with the British Yearly Meeting a Noble Peace Prize. Because of this they can nominate potential Noble Peace Prizes. Anyone of the Meeting can submit names to AFSC to nominate someone. They continue to work in human rights and education issues. In particular, they are working with FCNL on peacemaking. Next year is their 100th anniversary.
There is a space for someone else as a meeting liaison.
A Friend noted that Ron Coleman at the Holocaust Museum is willing to come to meeting to bring a presentation about Friends’ involvement in the Holocaust.
A Friend noted that the Noble Peace Prize was to the Religious Society of Friends as a whole, which AFSC accepted on our behalf.
A Friend noted that the AFSC is no longer listed in the Combined Federal Campaign Fund and he hopes they will try to get listed again. Jean Capps noted that she was told that AFSC is not involved with U.S. humanitarian efforts because they do not want to take money from the U. S. government. She will be looking at this and other issues.
2016/2-8 FCNL liaison
Elaine Wilson, FCNL liaison, reported on the big news from FNCL, a copy of which is attached. Among other things, they are working on a capital campaign. Ruth Flower is retiring in March and her witness of her faith will be missed, although she will continue as a consultant. In addition, there is a bi-partisan bill to create permanently mandated funding for Genocide and Atrocities Prevention at the State Department and other US agencies in part because of the work done on the most recent lobbying day in November. Friends are asked to bring this to the attention of their Congressional representatives.
A Friend noted that the capital campaign in part is to renovate the house of our late member Betty Morris.
The Meeting closed with a period of silence at 2 p.m. with 18 in attendance, to reconvene as way opens on March 13, 2016.
ATTACHMENTS
2016 Annual Report of the Membership Committee: Janet Dinsmore¸ clerk, Marcia Reecer, Joe Izzo, Rob Farr, Judy Hubbard, Gray Handley
Responsible for the Meeting’s membership matters, the Committee reviews application letters; meets with interested seekers to explore their spiritual journeys and readiness to join the Meeting; recommends approval when appropriate to the Meeting for Business; and appoints welcomers for the new member. Other duties include processing requests for associate members when children are born or adopted; processing requests for transfers including sojourner requests; and reaching out to absent members.
As we have often observed, it is a special privilege to hear about the spiritual journeys of individuals seeking membership. Clearness sessions are frequently moving and inspiring. While clarity is often reached after one interview, applicants new to Quaker process are sometimes advised to attend Inquirers’ Class and become more familiar with Quaker writings before moving forward with membership.
While many believe the ranks of Quaker Meetings would swell if more people were aware of the Society of Friends, the average number of individuals who join us each remains fairly small. We feel enriched and delighted by each who joined us in 2015:
- Bertrand Rossert
- Neil Froemming
- Scott Breeze
- Anita Drever-Orvis
- Dante Nicholas Bucci
New Associate members:
- Osa June Appleforsberg
- Tate McLeod Appleforsberg
Outgoing Transfers:
- Marika Cutler
- Ann Procter
Resignation:
- Kevin Camp
A Request: The Committee is seeking names of attenders and members who would like to serve as welcomers for new members—share a meal or coffee at home or at a restaurant, invite a group of FMWers for potluck, basically arrange any kind of welcoming social event that introduces the new member to more folks in the community.
We extend a special thank you to Marcia Reecer who served as co-clerk throughout 2015, and to Debby Churchman, who cheerfully provides records and helpful information on a wealth of membership matters. This year, we will be giving renewed attention to non-resident, associate, and out-of-touch members and will report progress as soon as possible. Submitted by Janet Dinsmore, Clerk
LIBRARY COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT, Feb. 2016
I. Introduction
The library continues to face challenges in 2016. The new construction will make changes in the Library as well as the Parlor. Some of the shelves will be removed during the construction and we will need to move books into other parts to the building.
Meanwhile the Committee has continued to maintain the collection. We continue to add books to the library, catalog the collection, clear the cabinets and the shelves of duplicates and old supplies, and examine the shelves to identify out-of-scope materials.
II. Finding Books in the Collection and Checking Them Out
First, find the library website, either by finding Library Committee under Committees and clicking on it, or by going to “About Us” and clicking on “Our Library.”
The books in the Library have been cataloged on http://www.LibraryThing.com [1]. The FMW Library catalog is viewable at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/FMWLibrary [2] or on mobile devices at http://www.librarything.com/m/ [3] by entering the collection name FMWLibrary. The Library Committee has also printed out lists of the books in the collection with call numbers arranged alphabetically by author and by title and made these available in the Library. A subject list is being created. These are more reliable than the card catalog, now out of date and no longer in the library.
Library Thing is a wonderful application through which people can find other libraries with similar books, read reviews of books and can even review them themselves.
The library website will have a list of “Tags” used in the library, which will help with subjects.
Some of the books you are interested in may be in a different part of the meetinghouse. Ask a committee member.
Information on checking out and returning books is posted in the library and will be on the library website. Try to return books within three weeks so that others may use them too. We are working on a better way of keeping track of checked out books.
III. Size, Growth and Scope of the Collection
As of the beginning of January 2016, the Library held 2163 books in the collection, about 28 more than last year at this time. Additions to the collection came mainly from donations this year. We will continue to seek suggestions from the community and look for new titles relating to Quakerism to add to the collection.
During construction, donations can be problematic. Please talk to committee members first.
The Library’s scope for collecting includes Quaker history and biography, spirituality, LGBTQ spirituality, mysticism, social justice, and non-violence.
IV. Kindles and E-Books
The library owns 5 Kindle paperwhites which are available to be used by reading groups in the meeting and have already been. Ask the librarians about this if you are interested.
The Library has also added more links to electronic versions of classic Quaker titles to the Library’s homepage, including John Woolman’s Journal, Robert Barclay’s Apology, and Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks. We have included a basic introduction to Quakerism website, and a link to another Quaker library which has even more material. If people need assistance downloading these to their own Kindles or other e-book readers, please contact Library Committee members
V. Membership
We could always use assistance and actively welcome new members. If you have an interest, please approach one of the committee members.
Members of the Library Committee:
Abby Thomsen (emeritus)
Patrick Lynam (emeritus)
Gene Throwe gthrowe@gmail.com [4]
Judy Hubbard hubbard.judy@gmail.com [5]
Frank Weiss frankgreyhound@hotmail.com [6]
Michael North (Meeting Librarian) , belgrade18@yahoo.com [7]
Faith Williams (Clerk), faithmw@gmail.com [8]
or feel free to send an e-mail to the clerk via the Library’s homepage on the FMW website: http://www.quakersdc.org/library [9] or faithmw@gmail.com [8]
February 2016
Representatives of the Ministry and Worship, Personal Aid, and Healing and Reconciliation Committees met on January 30 with a counselor from the Center for Pastoral Counseling to talk about a program for deepening pastoral care at Friends Meeting of Washington. We will be interviewing additional counselors this spring in the hope of offering the meeting community a program of pastoral care workshops and trainings beginning in September.
If you are interested in joining the planning group or taking workshops or trainings, please contact Marsha Holliday (hollidaymsd@yahoo.com [10]).
Report to Meeting for Business on American Friends Service Committee February 2016
Jean Meyer Capps, AFSC Liaison
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was founded in 1917 during World War I to give young conscientious objectors ways to serve without joining the military or taking lives. They drove ambulances, ministered to the wounded and stayed on in Europe after the armistice to rebuild war-ravaged communities. Since then, AFSC has responded in numerous ways to human suffering such as:
- Feeding thousands of children in Germany and Austria after World War I
- Helping distressed Appalachian mining communities find alternative means to make a living in the 1930s
- Negotiating with the Gestapo in Germany to aid Jewish refugees
- After World War II, sending aid teams to India, China, and Japan
- Giving aid to civilians on both sides of the Vietnam War and providing draft counseling to thousands of young men
- Sponsoring conferences for young diplomats in emerging African democracies
- Establishing economic development programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from the 1970s to the present
- Providing extensive support to the modern U.S. civil rights movement and public school desegregation
- Working with numerous communities such as Native Americans, immigrants, migrant workers, prisoners, and low-income families on education and justice issues
- Building peaceful communities all over the world
Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee
Along with British Quakers, AFSC received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, which recognized. Each recipient or organizational recipient is entitled to serve on the Nobel Nomination committee. Our former member Gerri Williams has served on this committee, now known as Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Task Group. Gerri has one more year to serve. -The Task Group has launched a website, http://quakernobel.org/ [11].
The period for nominating a candidate the next year has opened; anyone can nominate, and the forms, which include the criteria for the Nobel prize, are on the site. Gerri encourages FMW to reach out to their networks for candidates. Candidates can be any nationality. Gerri can be reached at willard2738@gmail.com [12] for additional information or suggestions on Nobel Candidates.
AFSC’s Office of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington, DC partnered with the Friends Committee on National Legislation this year to articulate a Quaker vision for U.S. foreign policy grounded in our shared security as a global community [13]. AFSC worked with dozens of partners to bring the shared security frame into advocacy efforts on Syria, Israel-Palestine, North Korea (DPRK), Somalia, and the U.S.-Mexico border, and even applied it effectively to domestic concerns such as immigration, criminal justice, and economic policies.
Friends Meeting of Washington appoints one to three liaison persons each year. Until recently David Etheridge and Joan Gildemeister have devoted significant volunteer time working with AFSC at the local and regional level. Liaison persons decide among themselves how to distribute the responsibilities of maintaining contact with the National AFSC office and the material it makes available.
AFSC’s Middle Atlantic Regional office (in Baltimore), and the local DC Peace and Economic Justice Program (AFSC-DC). At least one of the liaison persons will be appointed to the Program Committee of AFSC-DC, which helps guide and support this local AFSC program. David Etheridge currently serves in this position.
AFSC’s Southern Region Office supports programs in justice reform and restorative justice in Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans and in in West Virginia.
AFSC-DC office activities
Human Rights in DCPS and Community:
Full partners with DC public schools with programs at Dunbar and Wilson HS, approximatively 65 youths weekly working on Human Rights education. Request for 3 more groups at Dunbar and to expand human rights education for to younger groups through an organization called MOMIES. Additional volunteers are needed. AFSC-DC representative Jean-Louis Peta Ikambana was scheduled to meet with FMW’s Peace and Social Concern committee during their February committee meeting.
Human Rights City report (2015) was prepared with a group of community leaders and academics to prepare and presented on December 10, 2015 to the Director of the DC Office of Human Rights and on the radio December 22. Planning a gathering of all US Human Rights Cities in May (25-26) 2016. Taking leading role.
Youth Human Rights Advocacy on International Human Rights Day Dunbar youths met with City Officials to advocate for community issues, including paid Family Leave legislation. Youths will testify again in February and March at a City Council. The third annual Youth Human Rights Summit was held at the AFSC-DC office from June 22 to June 26, 2015 and was financed in part with a grant from Bethesda Friends Meeting. Participants in these programs have worked on human trafficking and support for raising the minimum wage. The 2015 Human Rights City report was submitted to the DC Office of Human Rights on behalf of the Mayor and City Council on December 10, 2015.
National Office
AFSC’s national office in Philadelphia working on multiple issues including Peace Building, Immigrant Rights, Addressing problems with Prisons, Ending Discrimination and Just Economics. Information on their programs is available on their website; afsc.org.
AFSC’s 100th anniversary (2017) plan
The national office is looking for meetings around the country to volunteer to host exhibits and events throughout the year. I will likely come back to the Meeting with suggestions on how we might participate in the anniversary celebration.
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Annual Report
February 2016
FCNL has been undergoing some changes and is embarked on a major Capital Campaign.
Ruth Flower the Associate Executive Secretary for Legislative Program will be retiring at the end of March. She has been a leader at FCNL for over 25 years on domestic issues. She is featured on a QuakerSpeak video speaking about how her faith grounds her in her advocacy work. She will remain as a consultant on Native American policy affairs.
There are new faces coming in to the Legislative Policy area: Amelia Kegan and Jose Voss.
There is a new Friend in Washington this winter and spring, Doug McCown who comes to FCNL from Portland, ME.
The development office is now fully staffed from being seriously understaffed a year ago. (3 positions were open at one time!) This is where I have been volunteering for 3 years now.
Thursday Feb 11 there was a breakthrough on the lobbying effort that was the focus of the November 2015 Lobby days: to create permanent mandated funding for Genocide and Atrocities Prevention at the State Department and other US agencies. This is a major war prevention effort. On Thursday the bill was introduced at the Senate, with a bipartisan group of senators sponsoring the bill. This has been a major effort on the part of Theo Sitther and Allyson Neville-Morgan. We are all being encouraged to contact our Senators (If we have them!) to ask them to support this bill.
Action Alerts: Current bills that FCNL is working on are the Sentencing Reform Act in a real attempt to influence the problem of mass incarceration. The Spring Lobby Weekend March 12-15 will be focusing on this issue.
Capital Campaign:
The goal of the campaign is to raise $15 million over 5 years. The funds will be used to increase the advocacy work by young people, helping train more young activists. Funds will support the Friend in Washington program where older Friends from around the country with specific expertise are brought to FCNL to work on particular projects. They will support the grassroots lobbying network of FCNL and will fund the renovation of the building at 215 C street next to the current office building to afford more space for the growing staff and the needs of visitors and committees of FCNL.
- Elaine Wilson
(This ends the Minutes and Attachments from Meeting for Business)
March 2: Come to the Meeting House at 5:30 to help prepare sandwiches to take to our vulnerable neighbors on the street with the Grate Patrol.
March 5: Come to So Others Might Eat to prepare breakfast for our vulnerable neighbors. SOME is located at 71 O Street, NW. There is a small parking lot next to the building. All are welcome.
March 10 – 13: Beyond Crime & Punishment Pendle Hill, the Quaker retreat center in Wallingford PA near Philadelphia, is sponsoring a restorative justice conference called “Beyond
Crime & Punishment: Fostering Transformative Justice in Our Communities.” As we work to end mass incarceration and the New Jim Crow underlying it, how can we establish and nurture
alternatives that repair and heal harms? In schools, prisons, workplaces, community centers, and as alternatives to our criminal justice paradigm of convict and punish, restorative practices are being used to shut down the school-to-prison pipeline, welcome returning citizens, and heal intergenerational wounds through truth and reconciliation. Presenters include Joy DeGruy, Kay Pranis, Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, Rev. Nelson and Joyce Hobson Johnson. Some scholarship funds are available. Pendle Hill is at 338 Plush Mill Road in Wallingford PA. For more information, see www.pendlehill.org [14]
March 12: Interim Meeting, Langley Hill Friends Meeting (McLean, VA) Get to know Yearly Meeting Committees and Friends from other Meetings! Be a part of important decision making. Join Friends for morning committee meetings and the afternoon’s Interim Business Meeting. Langley Hill Friends Meeting is hosting the Third Month Interim Meeting. Friends will begin gathering at 10:00 am. Lunch will be provided, and the afternoon Business Meeting will be held with dinner following the rise of Meeting. Check the Yearly Meeting website for more information [15].
March 12 to 15: FCNL’s Spring Lobby Weekend Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Spring Lobby Weekend, which is focused on ending mass incarceration and the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, will be from noon on Saturday, March 12, to Tuesday evening, March 15. The Spring Lobby Weekend is a wonderful opportunity for young adults to learn to lobby, understand more about mass incarceration, and connect with hundreds of other young activists. Registration and program details are at www.fcnl.org/slw [16]. For more information: Andrew Silva, andrew@fcnl.org [17]
March 13: BYM Travelers’ Gathering, Langley Hill Friends Meeting (McLean, VA) Do you travel among Friends? Have you ever wanted to? Join us for the BYM Travelers’ Gathering. Hosted by the Working Group on Intervisitation. Learn more and ask questions about traveling ministry, travel minutes, intervisitation and the “ministry of presence”, and listening and connecting with other Friends. The Gathering will begin at 12:30pm. Simple lunch will be provided. Registration is not necessary, but if you can, please RSVP to bymintervisitation@gmail.com [18] so we can have a head count.
March 19: Concert, Rise Again Annie Patterson and Peter Blood, Quaker authors of the much-beloved songbook, Rise Up Singing, are launching their new book--Rise Again--with a concert here in March. It's being sponsored by Langley Hill and Alexandria Friends Meeting. Here's the website: https://riseupandsing.org/events/rise-again-alexandria [19]
March 19 – 20: Junior Young Friends Conference, Richmond Friends Meeting (Richmond, VA) It’s the first JYF con of 2016! Please arrive at 10 am with sleeping bag, pad, pillow, change of clothes and toiletries. Please remember that the deadline to register and be guaranteed a slot is one week before the conference (March 11). Any one registering after that date will be placed on a waiting list and may not be able to attend. For more information, contact Jocelyn Dowling, Youth Programs Manager [20]. To register, go to the JYF Registration page on the Yearly Meeting website [21].
March 19-20: REtreat for Religious Educators, Richmond Friends Meeting (Richmond, VA) BYM Religious Education Committee is offering its third REtreat for religious educators. This year, we are undertaking a special task. We will begin the writing of a Core Curriculum on Quaker Education, a topic which was suggested to us by the BYM Vision Implementation Committee. We will consider what every Quaker needs to know about religion at every stage of life. We will be hosted by Richmond Friends Meeting. Registration and meals will be $50 and child care will be available at $25 for each family. For child care, please register by March 4. Financial aid is available. To register, go to https://bym-rsforg.presencehost.net/events/ymevents/16retreat.html [22]. Contact Marsha Holliday (202-544-2629 or hollidaymsd@yahoo.com [10]) or Windy Cooler (301-486-4504 or windycooler@gmail.com [23]) for information or questions.
March 20: Friendly Sing-Along, Roanoke Friends Meeting (Roanoke, VA) Who said Quakers don’t sing? Come to our next Sing-In and see for yourself on Sunday, March 20, 2016 at Roanoke Meeting, 505 Day Ave SW, Roanoke, VA 240165. Both shy and sure singers are welcome! This gathering is not about bringing strong singers together—it’s about joining our voices together in a community singing with love. Meeting for Worship at 10:30, followed by potluck lunch and then singing. Contact Elise Hansard for further details or overnight accommodations at ehansard@verizon.net [24].
March 20 to 27: Present in Every Moment Pendle Hill, the Quaker retreat center in Wallingford PA, near Philadelphia is sponsoring a 7-day Mindfulness Meditation retreat called “Present in Every Moment: Waking Up to Love and Compassion in Our Lives.” The leaders are Mary Grace Orr and Anne Briggs. Some scholarship funds are available. Pendle Hill is at 338 Plush Mill Road in Wallingford, PA. For details, see www.pendlehill.org [14]
April 1 – 3: Young Friends Conference, Location to be announced Young Friends should plant to begin arriving at 7:00 pm on Friday. For information, check the Young Friends website (https://bym-rsforg.presencehost.net/what_we_do/yfs/yfcon.html [25]) or contact Jocelyn Dowling [26]. (301-774-7663) Please remember that the deadline to register and be guaranteed a slot is two weeks before the conference (March 18). Any one registering after that date will be placed on a waiting list and may not be able to attend.
April 2: Peace and Social Concerns 2016 Networking Day, Sandy Spring Friends School (Sandy Spring, MD) The Yearly Meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee has scheduled a 2016 Networking Day. In the morning, key-note speaker Colman McCarthy, a long-time journalist and peace-educator, will talk briefly about the best ways to motivate children and youth to get involved. Coffee, bagels, and lunch will be provided. The remainder of the time will give attenders the chance to join more than one workshop on issues of interest. A donation will be requested, but not required, to assist with Networking Day costs.
April 14 to 17: 2016 White Privilege Conference All Friends are encouraged to join FGC’s Ministry on Racism and the Quaker group at WPC17, April 14 to 17, in Philadelphia, PA at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Registration opened Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 18. WPC was established and is organized by African American Professor Dr. Eddie Moore. The conference strives to empower and equip a variety of attenders to work for equity and justice through self and social transformation. FGC is sponsoring a group discount for the White Privilege Conference for a fifth year. FGC has supported nearly 200 Quakers over five years in attending WPC. These Friends took advantage of a 55% discount on registration. Baltimore Yearly Meeting is also a sponsor this year. Friends interested in attending the White Privilege Conference and receiving the FGC group discount can sign up to receive further instructions and reminders here: https://www.fgcquaker.org/interested-2016-white-privilege-conference [27] In order to receive the FGC discount friends MUST complete pre-registration with FGC prior to registering for the conference. Folks with questions can e-mail: richies@fgcquaker.org [28] or ministryonracismsupportspecialist@fgcquaker.org [29]
THINKING ABOUT RACE (March 2016) – Another “Hard Look at How We See Race”
This anecdote is from Jennifer Eberhardt, PhD, a professor at Stanford University (and an African-American), whose specialty is research on bias. It appears in “A Hard Look at How We See Race,” by Sam Scott, published in Utne Reader, Winter 2015, originally published in the September/October 2015 issue of Stanford Magazine http://www.utne.com/politics/social-psychology-racial-disparity-zm0z15wzdeh.aspx?PageId=8#ArticleContent [30]
“Eight years ago, she was flying back to California from Harvard, where her husband was teaching winter term, when the middle of their three sons pointed out a man he said looked like his dad.
“Eberhardt was bemused. The stranger was probably the only black male on the plane, but he was crowned with long dreadlocks, not exactly a ringer for her decidedly bald husband. But before she could quiz him for the connection, the 5-year-old added, ‘I hope he doesn’t rob the plane.’
“Even with her vast knowledge of the insidiousness of bias, Eberhardt was floored. Her son grew up in one of the most educated areas in the country, watched little television and hardly seemed to notice race. And yet he had connected blackness and crime and his father, the parent he was probably closer to at the time.
“ ‘He didn’t know why he said it. And he didn’t know why he thought it,’ she says. ‘But at 5, you already have what you need, to come to that conclusion.’”
This column is prepared by the BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) and sent to the designated liaisons at each Monthly and Preparative Meeting for publication in their newsletter or other means of dissemination. The WGR meets most months on the third Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Locations vary to allow access to more Friends. If you would like to attend, on a regular or a drop-in basis, contact clerk David Etheridge, david.etheridge@verizon.net [31].
In the Alarming News department: We had a little incident a couple of weeks ago at the Meeting House. Our wonderful handyman, Jon DeWitt, decided to make himself a piece of toast. This was a mistake, as it involved using our dysfunctional toaster. One of its four slots does still apply heat to at least one side of a piece of bread, it’s true--and applies it, and applies it, and keeps on applying it until you unplug the darn thing to make it give up the toast.
So that was his first mistake. His second mistake was to walk away from the kitchen and get caught up in another project. He worked. The toaster toasted. This went on for long enough for vast, billowing clouds of smoke to start emitting from the machine, setting off the fire alarm.
It was at this moment that the doorbell rang. I answered it, wondering if Ken were testing the fire alarms and how soon he’d be done with it. At the door was a small group coming for a site visit to scope out our space. As we wandered towards the Assembly Room, noting the smoke coming to greet us, I asked where they were from. Turns out, they were visiting from the Environmental Protection Agency. !!!
They were very nice about the smoke, thank you, and even booked the space, coming back the next week to work up a strategy for Flint, MI. Holding these good people in the Light, as they struggle to find a way to solve the water problems in that city and around the country.
Grateful for them, and grateful for the good people at FMW who have kept our doors open through the various snow and ice storms. On the Sunday of Snowzilla, wonderful Friend Michael North tromped across the street to the Meeting House, found a shovel, and cleared a space around the front door. One of our neighbors joined him, as did the other Friends who made their way to Meeting that morning for worship. Thanks, everyone!
Also, huge thanks to Mary Campbell, who almost single-handedly organized a special called Interim Meeting at FMW to consider the job description for the Yearly Meeting Secretary. She set out to help convene this two-hour meeting, but soon found that a number of other BYM committees were planning to meet the same day, and needed space in our Meeting House to do so, not to mention bagels. Mary leaned in, and secured help from Bill Strein, Martha Solt, Alex Mathews, Jim Bell, Susan Bien, Malachy Kilbride and moi. Together, we pulled off an Interim Triumph. Done!
Meanwhile, welcome home to all our traveling Friends—Meg Greene (from the Ivory Coast), Phil Sedlak (from Ghana), Mike Duvall (from Tunisia), Jim Bell (from Senegal), Ann Herzog and Bill Thompson (from the Yucatan Peninsula), and Neil Froemming (from Antarctica). Gene Throwe is taking off soon for Iceland, Mary Campbell and Bill Strein are going to Belgium, and Faith Williams is returning to Hong Kong. Is anyone staying in DC???
In other news, we hold in the Light our dear member Shannon Zimmerman and dear attender Liz Sullivan, whose fathers passed away recently. In happier news, attender Jennifer Forrest recently bought her very first house. She’s thinking of getting chickens…
- Debby
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