FCUN meeting: Video on environmental issues.
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MEETING NEWS
At our next business meeting, the Ministry and Oversight Committee plans to thank the South Eastern Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice Committee for their fine work on the Faith and Practice of SEYM. Copies of the document, Meetings for Worship with a Concern for Business will be available at the Meetinghouse.
We ask all to hold Phil Buskirk in The Light as he undergoes surgery November 1 and under takes the rehabilitation of his right shoulder.
The marriage of Annie McPherson and David Cook scheduled for Saturday, November 25 has been postponed.
We received Traci Darnell into membership with a party hosted by the Buskirks on October 13. A graduate student at U of F, Traci inspired us with an account of her dissertation in landscape ecology. She is going to Chile in December to study the distribution of a little ground-hopping, people-friendly bird called the Chucao Tapaculo. The study will assess the value of habitat corridors for reducing impacts on forest birds of habitat fragmentation. One of her study techniques will be to go out into the forest at dawn to play birdcalls on a tape recorder. She will then record the number of bird responses. Thanks, Tracy for sharing your adventure with us and for joining us in our efforts to protect our wildlife. We welcome you as a Friend.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn because they shall be comforted
Matthew 5:3-4
News from AFSC
John Lepke sends us this news item about the AFSC in Sarajevo:
The American Friends Service Committee works to prevent war and also aids those who suffer the aftermath of armed conflict. Sometimes we help with a basic packet of seeds.
AFSC launched a community garden project on the outskirts of war-torn Sarajevo. The garden is tended by members of different -- and mistrusting -- national groups. Today, cabbages, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, corn, carrots, and garlic flourish. AFSC pays for equipment and fertilizer. The participants do the rest.
The benefits of the gardens go beyond the food they produce. One participant, whose family was widely dispersed by the war, said, "When you are old, you want your children near you. But they are not here. Working in the garden is helpful, and I am very glad to be in a mixed group." Community gardening is a powerful force for positive change.
Your planned gift with AFSC will promote peaceful relationships into the 21st century. If you have a question about your existing planned gift with AFSC or making a new gift, please call 1-888-588-2372, ext.3, or e-mail GiftPlanning@afsc.org.
Meditation XVII by John Donne
No man is an Island, entire of its self; Every man is a piece of the Continent, A part of the main; If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, As well as if a promontory were, As well as if a manor of thy friends or thine own were; Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in Mankind And therefore never send to know For whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
Thanks to Dick Beardsley for this adaptation of an idea from SIMPLICITY: Notes, Stories and Exercises for Developing Unimaginable Wealth by Mark A Burch.
Letter to a Child in the 22nd Century
Prepare a letter or a time capsule to be opened by your great, great grandchild or that of a friend. Visualize this child opening your letter as he or she stands somewhere in the 22nd century. This is as opportunity to develop a sense of your intimate connection with future generations. The following points may help you focus on this connection as you compose the letter.
* Describe to the future child what the world was like for you at the end of the 20th century. * What do you imagine the world of 2100 AD to be like?
* What are your concerns for the world that the child will inherit and how do you express those concerns so as to assure his or her future?
* Based on your experience of life in the 20th century, what would you pass along on how to live a sustainable lifestyle?
QUAKER ECO-BULLETIN-14
and 1st issue of QUAKER ECO-WITNESS
NEWS
: To subscribe, unsubscribe or comment, please e-mail
qew@springmail.com.
Action item: Post card campaign to show Congress there is faith-based support for international agreements and policies to address climate change, a project of the National Council of Churches. Contact Ed Dreby, drebymans@igc.org, who will send as many post cards as you can use. (The text of cards to be sent to two Senators and one Representative is given on page 2 of QEB#14.)
NOVEMBER TIPS FOR KEEPING GREEN:
As heating season approaches, let us remember that clean appliances are safer and use less energy. Dust or vacuum coils of refrigerators, wash (or change) furnace filters regularly, get chimneys inspected and have furnaces serviced. Remember: Cleanliness is Next to Godliness.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth Matthew 5: 5.
The purpose of the October Forum was to review the issues and to urge everyone to VOTE. For those who missed the Forum, these are some of the issues discussed:
Local issues pertaining to Alachua County: The Legacy Lands and Alachua County Forever bond referendum, if passed, will allow the County to issue bonds to buy wetlands and other environmentally significant lands.
Charter amendment #1: This will allow Alachua County to mandate limits on pollution of air and water that are stricter than those of towns and cities within its jurisdiction.
Universal Health Care: Voters will have an opportunity to express their opinion in this nonbinding ballot.
NEW IN OUR LIBRARY:
A Plain Life: Walking My Belief by Scott Savage
.Scott tells about his 120 mile, week-long walk to surrender his driver's license on the very day it expires. Why he walked that walk only makes sense in the context of what his wife, Mary Ann, calls a search for "a full and authentic life, not a virtual life" for their family.
I visited the Savage family this past summer in Barnesville, Ohio where they created "The Center for Plain Living" and organized the Second Luddite Congress, attended by 350 folks from all over the country. They met in a huge 1878 Quaker meeting- house where the Savages worship with other "Wilburites." Scott and Mary Ann's journey from high-tech jobs in middle-class America (what he calls "the sheer physical ugliness of modern life") to the hard benches of the meeting house and the pleasures of "family-sized gardens, horse-and-buggy travel, long silences, worshipful community, modest home-made clothing, hard physical work, and a constantly deepening affection for the land where we have finally put down roots" is told in this book. Along the way he meditates on the Beatitudes and reflects on life, worship and so much more......Please read this book! By the way, even his Wilburite friends thought he was nuts when he revealed his plan. Did I mention that he did this in the cold of winter?
-- Tony Criscuolo
Thanks, Tony -- and thank you for telling me about this book. It is written in a "homespun" style and I found myself underrating it until Scott starts including his experience, one verse per chapter, with the Beatitudes. From then on I found myself drawn into the prayerful state from which he writes. Joan Andrews, editor
Matthew 5: 6
Progress Towards our new meetinghouse
The Picnic will be November 4 at the lot. Bring bag lunches, folding chairs or blankets to sit on; wear long, loose light clothing and sturdy shoes to walk around the property and view the access points for electricity, water and sewer, and the two most likely spots locating a new meetinghouse. After our tour, we'll gather for lunch, (water and some lemonade will be provided). Then we'll gather around a table with the survey on it, and share thoughts on the best location for the meetinghouse.
We'll bring our visions to the forum the next day at 12:30, where the focus will be first on locating the meetinghouse, and second on other desired/doable uses of the property, especially as they influence the decision on what and where to build.
Special thanks to family and friends of David Wilson who, through donations in his memory to the building fund, are helping a new meeting house to become a reality.
Here is some information on the new lot, including a map showing how to find it.
The sketch below was contributed by Connie Ray. Send word to the Building Committee about the features you like so that we can add them our notebook, which is kept in the meetinghouse.
Please send your contributions to our newsletter to Joan Andrews,Editor:
Joan Andrews, editor j6and8@aol.com
Gene Beardsley, Special Correspondent:
Converted to HTML by Bill Mitchell, mitchell@math.ufl.edu