Gainesville Monthly Meeting: Seventh Month, 2002

Seventh Month, 2002

QUERIES for the Seventh Month: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS

Are you working towards the removal of social injustices? Have you attempted to examine objectively their causes, and are you ready to abandon old prejudices and think anew?
What are you doing as individuals or as a meeting to insure equal opportunities in social and economic life and in education for those who suffer discrimination because of gender, race, creed or social class?
Do you take a living interest in the social conditions of the community in which you live?
Do you seek to promote the welfare of those in any kind of need and to secure a just distribution of the resources of the world?
Do you regard your possessions as given to you in trust and do you part with them freely for the needs of others?
Do you recognize that we are a part of the natural world and are you responsible heirs of its resources?
Are you concerned that our increasing power over nature should be used responsibly with reverence for life and with a sense of the continuing creation of God in which we are called to participate?

CALENDAR NOTES

Gainesville Friends Meeting Beach Day is Saturday, July 20 at the Winefordner House in Flagler Beach. Please bring food to share and whatever you want to drink. Refrigerator space is limited, so ice chests and ice will be helpful. If sufficient interest surfaces, overnights Friday and/or Saturday will be available. For overnight reservations or for further information, please contact Laura. Directions and a map are on the back table at the Meetinghouse.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
James 1:17

MEETING NEWS

Please hold Don Smith in the LIGHT as he grieves the death of his father who passed away on Monday, the 24th. The funeral will be held on Tuesday, July 2 in Ocala.

Nature Operations, City of Gainesville, presented a Good Neighbor Award to Bill Mitchell and Jean Larson for their work in the Great Air Potato Round-Up.

Correction: Dan Vaughen is running in the 7th Congressional District, not in the 18th Congressional District, as stated. He wrote to express his thanks for our interest in his campaign.

You are invited to a welcome party for baby Isis and baby Ethan at 6:00 p.m. at the Winefordner's home on Wednesday, July 24. Please bring a covered dish to share. Dessert will be provided. If you want to bring something for the babies, please choose from the following list for each baby: written advice for child-rearing or written wishes for each baby's life or a drawing or poem or a small material gift such as shampoo or a little toy. Contact Gene or Laura for more information.

Gainesville Monthly Meeting joyfully accepts the transfer of the memberships of Sybil Ann Brennan and Bernard J Brennan, IV from Scarsdale Monthly Meeting.

Report from Peace & Social Concerns Committee:

The Peace & Social Concerns Committee met on May 26. The committee first reviewed the letter concerning U.S. policy toward terrorism (and Iraq in particular) approved by the meeting. It was passed on to Clerk Bill Mitchell for his signature before going to the Gainesville Sun. Next, we agreed that committee members will take responsibility for bringing information from and guiding meeting support for the various Quaker organizations:

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)	- Walt and Mona Morris
Quakers UN Office (QUNO)	- Gene Beardsley
Community Coalition against War and Terrorism (CWAT-local)	- Dick Beardsley
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)	- Don Smith

We also discussed our function of keeping the meeting supplied with fresh, vital information concerning peace and social concerns. And finally, we brainstormed the possibility of viewing and discussing popular films that are relevant to faith and social concerns.

Gene Beardsley and Don Smith

Friends Committee on Unity with Nature

Reuben asks that in preparation for our FCUN Forum in September we consider the questions posed by FCUN to help them in their long-range planning.

FCUN Statement of Purpose:

To search and to help others to search for that life which affirms the unity of all Creation.
To apply and to help others apply Friends' practice to live in deep communion with all Life Spirit.
To be guided by and to help others be guided by the Light within us to participate in the healing of the Earth.
To provide resources, networking, and support to Yearly and Monthly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends, and to others of whatever persuasion: to help them search for effective ways to achieve the above objectives.
To provide a reflective and energetic forum that will strengthen and deepen that spiritual unity with nature which values integrity, diversity, and continuity of life on Earth.

FCUN asks if this Statement of Purpose adequately reflects Friend's witness today on the environment? Does it sufficiently address the needs of Friends? FCUN asks how we as a meeting as individuals have been active with FCUN. If we have not been engaged, they ask, why not? What ecological concerns has our meeting addressed? What have 3we done to help others? Have we engaged in Community Action? Are we reading Earth Light, Sierra and or the FCUN organ BeFriending Creation? What specific actions have we as individuals taken in our FCUN witness? I bet if we add up all our contributions, large and small, we will be surprised at the total impact we are making. We will talk about these issues in our forum so that we can offer the feedback FCUN is seeking.

Joan Andrews, editor j6and8@aol.com
converted to HTML by Bill Mitchell, mitchell@math.ufl.edu