Prayer from Earthcare for Friends - A Study Guide for Individuals and Faith Communities

Oh Spirit/Creator, hear my intention
To take time each day to be aware of your beautiful Creation!
Help me to hear and listen to your Word by slowing down.
Hear my cry of too much business in my life.
Help me to discern the ways to act on behalf of the Creation.
Help me find my voice to speak out against the destruction of the earth.

Oh Spirit/Creator, hear my call.
Give me courage to make change and I will honor your Creation every day.

Contributed by Arlene Epperson

MEETING NEWS

Laura Winefordner

Legislative Priorities From Gainesville Friends Meeting

 - The Peace & Social Concerns Committee  

1. Remove all U.S. military forces and bases from Iraq, and fulfill U.S. moral and legal obligations to reconstruct Iraq through appropriate multinational, national, and Iraqi agencies. 
2. Promote a framework for national and international security that includes peaceful prevention and resolution of deadly conflicts, active pursuit of arms control and disarmament, adherence to international law, support for the United Nations, and participation in multilateral efforts to address the root causes of war and of terrorism.
3. Change federal budget, tax, and fiscal policies to reduce military spending, meet pressing human needs, and address structural economic violence. 
4. Promote long-term protection of the environment and eliminate a critical cause of violent conflict by reducing oil consumption and accelerating development and use of renewable energy sources. 
5. Don't even consider attacking Iran!

Yearly Gathering of Southeastern Yearly Meeting

In plenary sessions we approved three new sections of our Faith and Practice. We approved two minutes about Iraq: the "Sensible Transition to an Enduring Peace" from Friends Committee for National Legislation, and one calling for the withdrawal of United States troops as soon as possible. We approved a minute protesting the illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of counter-military recruitment activity in Palm Beach. We approved a minute expressing strong opposition to Friends United Meeting's personnel policy, the pain among us caused by this policy, and our lack of unity about affiliation at this time. We approved sending our FUM "dues" earmarked for the Kimosi Hospital in Kenya. We approved two minutes to broadcast these minutes with an explanation to FUM as to why our "dues" are being earmarked.

Next year our apportionment will be increased 12.7% to $7,274. Some meetings have said they will make up our increase. Devender Braly-Sellars and Jessamyn Doan reported on the Youth Gathering that they attended in Lancaster, England. The representative from Friends World Committee for Consultation reported that at the last meeting of the Section of the Americas in Chiapas, there were 15 worship groups, all of which were bilingual with Anglos and Hispanics mixed for the first time.

The representative from American Friends Service Committee brought fair-trade olive oil from farmers in Palestine. We hope to get some for sale in the meetinghouse. It is, by the way, the best-tasting oil I've ever had.

Lillian Hall, from Managua, informed us that the T-shirts we have for sale for our meetinghouse are made in sweatshops. She suggested fair trade T-shirts made by women in a cooperative in Nicaragua. I will explore options and get details.

The gathering was a time of spiritual refreshment, fellowship, painful laboring, and a rousing, laughing, musical, intergenerational experience in our Friday night contra dancing. These are just a few highlights. A full report, some of the minutes, and approved Faith and Practice sections will be on the shelves under the clock. Help yourselves.

- Connie Ray

From the Facing Bench: More on SEYM

Centering and entering into a deep silence of prayer and meditation has never been difficult for me. After all, I remember suggesting that one could do that while on the New York City subway, while hearing the clanking of fates in a prison, or even together with young children. It's a matter of practice, I think.

Several times I felt the joy that others were experiencing at seeing one another, so all I did was smile in welcome to new arrivals. I felt happy to be among Friends at SEYM, and all the many exchanges of hugs and views are an enriching part of the gathering. The quiet and rejuvenation felt in the lovely place was good for the soul. The laughter made our hearts lighter, and the nurturing of caring and food shall sustain the group beyond the few days of meeting together in worship, at committee meetings, or as a body at the five Plenary sessions that were expressly designed to be "Worship with a Concern for Business."

Susan Taylor, our clerk, set the tone for each session and began several of them reading the epistles from other yearly meetings. Greetings were shared, as were the flavors of other parts of the Quaker world from wooded camps to views of farmland in all four directions. The lengthy worship and sharing of ideas, on our affiliation or possible disaffiliation with Friends United Meeting (FUM), as well as concern about our budget, consideration of an administrative secretary's new full-time hours, and laying down of a successful Cuban project reigned inside across from the facing bench . . . and just beyond outside was the shearing of almost every head and beard for the profit of a hairdressing school program in Nicaragua. That was beyond the entrance hall, which was lined with books to exchange, to read, or to buy, and pamphlets to learn from. The topic of our government's surveillance of Quakers was also on the agenda. Children, 28 of 168, told us, from the stage behind the facing bench, how wonderful the short week had been for them as they gave us a taste of their music, games, drawings, and minutes not so different from our own including the pleasure experienced in intergenerational circle dancing the night before.

While sitting on the facing bench and looking out across at Friends, I experienced feelings of wonder and warmth. Yes, the facing bench is a hard place, like a rock. But it has a soft covering of caring comfort and so it was hard and soft in turn and even simultaneously.

Sybil Brennan

From the Naylor Sonnets