Eighth Month, 2001

QUERIES for the Eighth Month: CIVIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• What are you doing as individuals or as a meeting to carry your share of responsibility in the government of your community, state and nation?
• Are you conscientious in fulfilling all obligations of state and society that are not contrary to the leading of God?
• Do you do all in your power to assure freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and equal educational opportunities for all?
• Are you free from the use of judicial oaths, thus emphasizing by simple affirmation that your statement is only a part of your usual integrity of speech?
• What are you doing as individuals or as a meeting to understand and remove the causes of war, and develop the conditions and institutions of peace?

CALENDAR NOTES

• A Video entitled The Hidden Jesus: Mark Tully, a BBC journalist, travels into the Egyptian desert to visit the oldest Christian monastery and the St. Anthony monks who live there. We will learn about an astonishing library of Christian writings, some of which have been suppressed, and recent archaeological discoveries that suggest a Jesus different from conventional notions.
• Break Bread with us at the Buskirk's welcoming table. After dinner, Morrie Trimmer will lead a discussion on the involvement of Quakers in the social movements of this past century. This was postponed from July due to illness.

A Psalm of David (Chapter 143, Verse 8)

Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

MEETING NEWS

• Help! We need a TV, preferably color, for the meetinghouse.
• Thaddeus Papke and Julia Porter were married under the care of the meeting on May 26th, 2001. They celebrated their marriage with a very special trip to Iceland, Britain, Wales and France. In Iceland they explored the sites spoken of in the Icelandic Sagas such as Egil's Saga. They saw the place where the 1000-year-old Icelandic Parliament, the Althing, had its start. In Britain they went to Stonehenge. While there, they attended Salisbury Friend's Meeting the first Sunday and Bath Friends Meeting, the second. Julia reports that they were warmly welcomed and felt right at home in Meetings very similar to ours. Their hosts expressed surprise that their American visitors came from an unprogrammed meeting, their assumption having been that all Quakers in the United States have programmed meetings. The Papkes then went to Wales and visited the old castles and hiked the countryside through great flocks of sheep as they followed the path of the King Arthur Legends and the Mebinogion Saga. Their third Sunday was spent on a train rolling through France. Julia said that the disappointment of their trip was Paris where in the famous parks they were permitted only to sit on wrought iron benches without even touching the grass!

  Welcome home, Julia and Thaddeus.

July Minutes from Meeting for Worship for Business:

Gainesville Meeting thanks Laura Winefordner for hosting the beach party.

Gainesville Friends Meeting requests that our members as well as our House and Hospitality committee, when buying coffee, be mindful of our concern for the conditions of the workers and the effect on the environment.

From Walter and Mona Morris

Greetings to Gainesville Mtg !!
July, 5, 2001

We arrived safely in Maine and found that winter had been kind to our cabin - only minor problems -- the mice, etc. We learned that not completely turning off the propane gas tank kept the pilot light lit in our oven for the entire time, costing 2/3 tank of gas but effectively keeping the mice out of the stove. Expensive mice deterrent!!

We will be spending a good portion of the summer doing some major renovation of our son and daughter's two family house, so we won't be getting into too much mischief.

We received seventh month Newsletter, and join all in holding Ken in the light, as well as think of Gainesville Monthly Meeting - the latest plans for Mtg. house are really great.

See you all in October,
Walter and Mona

Dear Walter and Mona,
Thanks for the letter. You leave a BIG EMPTY SPACE when you're not here.

Other News

Carol French Doughty and Bo Nilsson were married June 3 in Bächaskog Castle, Hässleholm, Sweden. Carol's parents, Paul and Polly Doughty, attended the wedding.

Please hold Morrie Trimmer in the LIGHT as he recovers from pneumonia.

Some of us have been thinking about how the meetinghouse - and its parking - will fit into our new lot.