Tuesday May 2 | 11:30 am | Friendly lunch at Books Inc. |
Sunday May 14 | 9:15 am | Quakerism 101 |
Sunday May 14 | 1:30 pm | Meeting for Worship for Business |
Monday May 15 | 6:00 pm | Friends School Committee at the Buskirk's |
Saturday May 20 | 6:00 pm | Quaker Market Dinner |
Sunday May 21 | 1:00 pm | Quaker Earthcare Witness |
Sunday May 21 | 5:00 pm | Deadline for GFM Newsletter Submissions |
Friday May 26 | 6:00 pm | Quaker Study Program and Potluck |
Saturday Jun 17 | Gainesville-Ocala Friends gathering at the Clayton's home in Ocala |
That divine Light which enlightens all men . . . doth often shine in the minds of children very early. John Woolman
The assignment for May 14 is Chapter 1 of Friends for 300 Years by Howard Brinton, (If you have Friends for 350 Years all the better, since the 1952 edition has outdated language). Some of you are reading the Introduction as well, which is great. The questions for the reading are: What did George Fox and other early Friends discover? Have you yourself had similar experiences? If so, how would you describe it/them to members of your Meeting? Why do you believe so many people were attracted to Quakerism despite intense persecution? Are there implications for Friends today? Please have a notebook in which you record your answers and any other thoughts or new knowledge you may want to note from readings, discussions, or lectures. This becomes a journal and a memory jogger (but no one will read it but you). It would be helpful if your notebook has a pocket for hand-outs. Everyone is free to join us. We will be blessed with the presence of Sybil Brennan to add her experience and wisdom to our study.
- Connie Ray
Quaker Market dinners are a fundraising effort for the new meetinghouse. Suggested donations are $10.00 per adult, $5.00 for children over 5 years old, and free for those under 5.
Please join us. Earthcare Witness is also working on organizing some forums throughout the year. We have tentatively scheduled Betty Odum for a presentation based on her book A Prosperous Way Down, probably sometime in June. Brad Thompson will also do a presentation for us later in the summer. Any ideas for a speaker, let us know.
-Arlene Epperson
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
Laura Winefordner
- The Peace & Social Concerns Committee
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
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
People who attended SEYM 2006 from Gainesville Monthly Meeting were: Karen Arrington, Gene and Dick Beardsley, Sybil Brennan, Cheryl Demers, Helen Hooley, Jean Larson, Annie McPherson, George Newkirk, Elizabeth Odum, Connie Ray, Devender Braly-Sellars, Hap Taylor, Brad Thompson, Helen Westie, Laura Winefordner.
I. There is a spirit which I feelCan I, imprisoned, body-bound, touchThe starry robe of God, and from my soul, My tiny Part, reach forth to his great Whole, And spread my Little to the infinite Much, When Truth forever slips from out my clutch, And what I take indeed, I do but dole In cupfuls from a rimless ocean-bowl That holds a million, million million such? And yet, some Thing that moves among these tars, And holds the cosmos in a web of law, Moves too in me: a hunger, a quick thaw Of soul that liquefies the ancient bars, As I, a member of creation, sing The burning oneness binding everything. |
II. That delights to do no evilShall I be good because of some reward,Because the virtuous act pays dividends In candy bars, the approving nods of friends, In many tongues to praise, and hands to applaud, In riches, honors, lavishly outpoured? Or, since to ruin all things earthly tend, Shall I be good to gain the greatest end, The crown of bliss that Heaven may afford? Ask the sweet spring upon the mountain top What makes his sinless water flow so free: Is it the call of some far-distant sea, Or the deep pressure that no crust can stop? No conscious end can drag us out of sin, Unless clear goodness wells up from within. |