To find the Bivens North Clubhouse, where the party will be held: Drive south on SW 13th St. (US 441), under the viaduct to the 2nd traffic light; turn right (West) between First Union Bank & Sheraton Hotel,into SW 14th Drive, and follow around to the 2nd condominium on left. (There may be some balloons flying.) Park on the SW 14the Drive curb, either side of the street. Walk west on the path where an American flag flies, through the gray gate, around the pool and into the south door of the clubhouse.
The Quaker process Study Group brainstorming session held at the Buskirks in October resulted in the following list of topics to guide us in setting up future Quakerism 102 gatherings. Ministry and Oversight invites your comments, feedback and supporting information.
The November meeting for Business minuted that we will build the new meetinghouse near NW 38th Street. We united in a vision of what we must have (meeting room, kitchen, bathrooms, first day room, utility room), what we want (a second first day room, social room/kitchen, library/office), and started a wish list (separate library and office, space enough to host representative meeting, and possible alternative or additional uses such as an apartment for a Quaker intern, the Millhopper Cooperative or other nursery, after school care, or a nature center). In December we will look at the question of whether we want to pursue the possibility of some sort of joint use with Millhopper Cooperative Nursery.
The sketch below is for a small church from materials provided by Judy Shea. It is included to help us think about functional details for a place of religious assembly. We are beginning to get plans that integrate features of earlier ones. Keep those plans coming, and think about how they fit with the proposed location.
We thank you, Building Committee and Clerk Jean Larson for your hard and productive work.
Gainesville Friends Meeting thanks the SEYM Faith and Practice Committee and commends their spirit-led work on the section on Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business.
Excerpts from that section: "Friends are not to meet (in meetings for business) like a company of people about town or parish business but to wait upon the lord." George Fox...."Meetings for business are meetings for worship. Both are conducted in the same openness to the leading of the Spirit. For our religious community to thrive, it is essential that we nurture our love for one another, maintain our spiritual unity and live in harmony with the Spirit. Ideally, these beliefs underlie every attitude and practice in our meetings as well as in our meetings for business."...."As we wrestle with outward issues, the Inner Light gives us new perspectives and creative responses. On all matters, even the mundane, its presence promises a fresh revelation of truth and a clearer understanding of God's will."
John Graham Pole ends his recent book with:
I hope you've enjoyed reading this book and
practicing the many exercises. I sincerely trust that
from now you will always:
He uses almost 200 pages of exercises, stories and great amounts of accumulated medical information and wisdom to help his readers achieve their highest potential for physical, emotional and spiritual health.
This week I have been grieving for a loss in my life. Prayer, of course, helps. But this morning when I woke before daybreak, I leafed through John's book and stopped at the exercise: " Putting Poetry to Work" on page 104. I am not a poet. But I followed the instructions and wrote until my poem became a grateful prayer. It seemed a miracle to me. He says, Children faced with illness or adversity resort instinctively to art-making - writing, painting, making shapes and songs, playing with all manner of toys - to make sense of the strangeness, pain, and fear. It can help us adults, too, to make sense of the strangeness and pain in our lives. Many of the exercises are designed to help us stay in the now, in the moment, which is, John reminds us, the only moment any of us have.
If you should decide to make a gift of this book to either yourself or a loved one, look over page xix in the introduction. A few basic supplies mentioned there would mean that the gift recipient could snuggle down that evening for some down time. Joan Andrews
old Quaker -
Light entering into
the sound of silence.
Ken Leibman
Please send your contributions to our newsletter to Joan Andrews, Editor: J6and8@aol.com or phone 373-2201 or Gene Beardsley, Special Correspondent: phone 352 462-3201