Seventh Month, 2004

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

• CELEBRATE COMMUNITY: Beach Day at the Windfordner's beach cottage on Flagler Beach. Overnight if desired. Share food. Information and map at the Meetinghouse.. Call Laura.
• Continuing our study of the Minor Prophets.
• Join us for a special evening of sharing food, and fellowship with Karen and Jim Porter in their home. Our topic is about balancing inward guidance and corporate authority. Study guides available on the back table at the Meetinghouse.
  This has been moved to the meetinghouse.
• A service of remembrance, including a period of Friends worship, will begin at 3 pm on Saturday, July 17, at the chapel in the Village, where Reuben resided. (For those who may not know, the Village is located at 8000 NW 27th Blvd, across from Santa Fe CC. Turn left at the traffic light into the property. Go back a couple of drives to the main administrative building, on the left. Its main entrance may still be under repair so you may want to allow a few extra minutes to find your way.)

  Those who wish to follow the funeral procession for the interment at Forest Meadows West may do so.

MEETING NEWS

This fundraiser has been Postponed on account of the memorial service for Reuben Keppel.

Come support our new meetinghouse fundraiser with an ALL AMERICAN fun-filled event. Festive food and special entertainment. Plenty of delicious goodies for Vegetarians. Music and entertainment provided by our own dynamic father/son duo: Don and Chris.

PLEASE BRING A FRIEND!

MENU

Meeting for Business

• Gainesville Monthly Meeting minutes its appreciation to Marilyn Muller for her work as corresponding clerk. (I have one word to describe it: super-cala-fragalistic-expialadotious. Editor)

• On June 15, in Campina,Brazil, Betty Odum delivered the keynote speech, The Prosperous Way Down, at the 4th Biennial International Workshop: Advances in Energy Studies. Betty brought back the heartening report that these engineers and scientists are greatly concerned with trade, farm communities and dividing resources more fairly.

• You are always in our hearts and minds, Judy . We thought of you especially on First Day, June 13 when we saw the completed plans for the new meetinghouse and knew that our present meetinghouse was sold. Many of us felt excited and grateful. In Meeting for Worship, the suggestion was made that our new meetinghouse be called Gainesville Friends Meeting and Center for Peace. This resonated with many of us. Later, ideas included a Training Center for Peaceful Resolution of Conflict and/or a place for schools to consult for peace. You, Judy, have been an integral part of the new energy that is making this happen in our meeting. You have worked from the beginning of this building project to bring it about and you work so tirelessly for peace that our new meetinghouse will stand as a testimony to your devotion. We thank you. We miss you. We see your heart surrounded by love and LIGHT.

• Items needed for Quaker-Market Student Sale. On Saturday, August 14th, Quaker Market is holding yard sale marketing to the returning students to raise money for the new meetinghouse. Please save items that may be of interest to students including household items in good condition and working electrical appliances. Some nearly new or "retro" clothing should be marketable. Please bring your items to the meetinghouse between Sunday July 18th and August 8th. Also, we will need volunteers the day of the sale for 2-hour shifts beginning at 8 am until 2 or 3 p.m. Volunteer bakers are also needed. Any assistance will be gratefully appreciated.
  - Sheree Sims

• Our Meeting will be represented at Friends General Conference (July 3-10 in Amherst, Massachusetts) by Gene and Dick Beardsley and Hap Taylor. Sybil Ann Brennan will be attending as a presenter.

• Go Gators! Becky Ray has started an internship with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. Starting in August she will attend evening classes at George Washington University Elliot School of International Studies while she continues interning for practical application. Her living expenses are paid and she will obtain a student loan for her tuition. We are proud of you, Becky!

Letters

• Rustin Levenson writes: "....I thank you for welcoming my sons Moss and especially Cormac while they were students at UF.  Moss is now a TV editor in New York working for Discovery TV, NOW with Bill Moyers, and other shows.  Cormac has spent the last six months in Scotland and will be attending graduate school in Ethics at Duke University in the fall.  We are doing our own fund raising at the Miami Friends Meeting.  Would you be so kind as to post this at your meeting house and call it to Friends attention?"
  (The flyer is posted on bulletin board.)

• Lynn  Sterba, a member of our meeting, writes from Houston TX, "I have really enjoyed the newsletter and the ideas for the new meeting house.  I hope I will get to see it someday. ...I hope you are all well and happy and that the Meeting is also thriving.  I think of all of you so often - with love. Thanks much.