Third Month, 2004

QUERIES for the Third Month: PARTICIPATION IN MEETINGS

• Do your resident members attend meetings regularly and punctually?
• To what extent are your meetings for worship attended by persons not in membership, and are they welcomed and encouraged to continue attendance?
• Are your meetings for business held in the spirit of love, understanding and forbearance? Do you seek the right course of action in a patient search for unity?
• Do you take your share in them?
• Do you maintain your respect for others as persons however strongly you may differ in opinion?
• Do you help in the financial support of the meeting?

CALENDAR NOTES

• CHAIN OF PRAYER OBSERVANCE: BOUND TOGETHER IN LOVE
  • 9:30 - View Native American-inspired art work - mixed media works of art of Native American philosophy: clay, graphics and fiber by artist Carolee Jandreau
  • 1:00 - Meeting for Worship
  • 2:00 - Finger food
  • 2:30 - Introduction
  • 1:15 - Native American Concerns - Patricia Ulrey
  • 1:30 - Drumming and Singing with Earth-heart: Drum, Rattle, and Song
  • 2:45 - John Graham-Pole Special
  • 4:00 - Stone Soup and Salad Bar
  The stone soup will be started in a crock-pot in the morning and left to cook until suppertime. If you are going to be on time for the stone-soup making, bring vegetables for the soup. If you're going to be a little late, bring salad. If you're going to be later still, bring a desert! More about Chain of Prayer on next page.

  Friends United Meeting sponsors the annual Chain of Prayer. Each of FUM's affiliate meetings chooses a First Day during the designated 3 month period on which to carry the chain of prayer so that it girds the planet. It is a time for spiritual renewal and joyful fellowship. March 7 is our day to pray for a sister Meeting and FUM's ministries worldwide.

  "Bound Together in Love"
  As God's chosen people,
  holy and dearly loved,
  clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
  
  Bear with each other
  and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
  
  
  And over all these virtues put on love,
  which binds them all together in perfect unity.
  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
  since as members of one body you were called to peace.
  
  And be thankful.
  
  Colossians 3:12-15

• Join us for a day of Fellowship, Food and Fun: Gathering for Gainesville, Jacksonville, and Ocala Friends at the Peace Education Center at Graham Fl.

  We will gather at 11:00 a.m., join in Meeting for Worship 11:30 - 12:30, share potluck at 1:00 and then separate into work projects and interest groups (including horseshoes). Closing at 3:30.

  Directions: Take 301 to CR 18 (Gate station) -left to Y fork - go left to 1st drive on left. Telephone (352) 468 -3295

• Nurture Body and Soul among Friends. Our topic: Religious faith rests on the experience of God's presence. Based on Pendle Hill pamphlet number 330, Search for the Real Jesus.
• Bible Seminar, Please read the last two chapters of Proverbs, chapters 30-31 in preparation.
• This is a Nursing Home Outreach organization dedicated to bringing friendship and support to the patients.

MEETING NEWS

• The State of the Meeting report has been approved and sent to SEYM.
• Please hold Yasha Toda in the LIGHT as he recovers from knee surgery. Go Yasha!
• Prison inmates are asking for books: art books (illustration, anatomy), legal books, dictionaries (Spanish and English), political, computer, thrillers, mysteries, westerns, novels. Jody Binks is collecting the books and delivering them. Call Jody at 378-5096 for more information.
• The Great Air Potato Roundup was a Pounding Success! January 31 saw 11 Quakers, 7 Girl Scouts, 5 Boy Scouts, 2 Royal Park Creek neighbors and a set of grandparents with their two grandchildren combing the new Meeting House site for air potatoes.

  We started at 9 a.m. and by 12 noon had gathered 648 pounds of air potatoes, which filled 3 residential size trash containers. The City of Gainesville Department of Nature Operations provided gathering buckets, trash containers and pickup service. The smallest potato was collected by Nic Bolen; the ugliest, by Alec Musen; the most adorable (a teddy bear), by Gloria; the weirdest, by Ken Musen; and the largest by our own Jean Larsen. In addition to rounding up those vast quantities of air potatoes, the volunteers collected 239 pounds of trash that included a tire, and orange cone road marker and a piece of sheet metal. The trash collection is a head start on the Great American Cleanup that will be scheduled later this Spring.

  Judy Shea

• Toward A New Meetinghouse: Let us hold our dream of a new Meetinghouse in the LIGHT as we search our hearts for the will to bring our dream to fulfillment! It's up to us!