We continue our work of building a more tangible sense of community and we take time to be together so that we may better know one another. We maintain a sense of continuity with annual events such as The Chain of Prayer (FUM), the Guatemalan Scholarship fund-raiser, the Christmas party, the July Beach party, the Poe Springs Meeting Retreat, and involvement with annual community events such as Habitat for Humanity's Pass-the-Hat campaign.
We celebrated the 50th anniversary of Friends receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (AFSC) with a public program, a display at our main library, and a publicized peace vigil. Under the guidance of our Peace & Social Concerns Committee, we met with Representative Karen Thurman to discuss traditional Quaker concerns - health care, education, prison reform and prisoner rights, peace tax fund, etc. We continue to test our faithfulness to our testimonies in our involvement with Gainesville Community Ministries and in our membership in the University Ministry Coop.
We take nourishment from potluck dinners, forums, committee work, work days at the Meeting house, singing, Meeting for Healing, bible study and worship sharings. We have started an adult religious education program beginning with Quakerism 101, that gives us the opportunity to go deeper into understanding our Faith and ourselves. Through our Friends in Unity with Nature Committee, we not only connect with the national committee and Friends throughout the country, but we reach out to hold other faith and civic communities, who are concerned about the environment as a spiritual concern, in a circle of Light.
At the center of it all is Meeting for Worship and its sister the Meeting for Business.
Meeting for Worship typically finds around 25-30 members and attenders gathered, and Meeting for Business has grown slightly with 15-20 attending. We are blessed to have three of our young adults attending Guilford College, Devender Sellars having joined us in membership this year and Gregory and Becky Ray having grown up in the Meeting. We have joyfully accepted Karen Tyson into membership and accepted the transfer of memberships for Walter & Mona Morris. We said good-bye to the Ayers family, off to Georgia, and the Lawrence family, moved to Massachusetts.
We continue to nurture our Ocala Friends and carry membership for 14 Friends. We were saddened by the death of Emma Newkirk, continue to carry concerns for Ocala, and are happy when blessed with the fellowship of George Newkirk, the Atkinson family, Jesse Cushman, and other Ocala Friends at Meeting.
As we work this year on our calling to a new Meeting house, we need to place our tender attention on our lean First-Day School and more outreach into the Gainesville Community. We ask that Friends hold us in the Light as we embark on our journey of making our visions for Gainesville Meeting into a living testimony of faith.
Gainesville Monthly Meeting