7 Butty Place,
Hamilton, Ontario.
L8S 2R5
Clerk: Roberta McGregor
Sundays: 9.30 a.m. study group
11.00 a.m. Meeting for Worship
Coming Events:
Potluck Supper, Thursday Feb 22, 6 for 6.30 p.m.
followed by PBS Video, A Force More Powerful
Visioning Process: Tentative Dates: Sat/Sun
March 17, & 18, 1.30-5.30 with followup on March 24
The Meeting
And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this small room.
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world's control.
The strength of mutual purpose pleads
More earnestly our common needs,
And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off and leaves us God alone.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Quaker Poet, 1807-1892
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Present: Roberta McGregor (clerk), Mona Callin, Dick Preston, Helen Brink, Denise Barron, Harriet Woodside, Don Woodside, Raj Ramanathapillai, Ian Graham, Rex Barger, Carol Leigh Wehking, Helen Paulin, Hanna Newcombe, John Milton Susan Wortman (recording clerk)
1. Meeting began with silent worship.
2. The minutes of January 4, 2001 were accepted.
3. Business Arising
3.1 Events
3.1.1 There will be a discussion on the nomination process on February 11, following M4W (brown bag).
3.1.2 On Sunday, February 25, several Friends from HMM are going to join a small group of friends who worship in Georgetown/Meadowvale. If anyone would like to join this group, please contact Mona.
3.1.3 The potluck for February will be held on Thursday, February 22, gathering at 6 pm to eat at 6:30. Afterwards, we will be watching (segments from) a PBS video, A Force More Powerful, an excellent presentation on the power of non-violent action.
3.1.4 Future potluck topics were discussed:
The Bridge Program
A Revised Peace Testimony (Hanna and Ian)
Ghandi on Religious Conversion and Violence (Raj)
It was decided to not set dates for these topics until the visioning process unfolds.
3.2 Visioning Process
Ministry and Counsel were asked to investigate and make a recommendation for a facilitator for the visioning process. Don Woodside reported that M&C considered Sue Starr, June Etta Chenard, Duncan Holmes and Lyn Adamson. Based on the criteria of skills, availability, follow up, cost and Quaker knowledge, Lyn Adamson was recommended by M&C. We thank M&C for their careful consideration.
We discussed scheduling for this process and decided on the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, March 17 and 18, from 1:30 to 5:30. A follow up session for implementation and planning will be held the next Saturday morning, March 24. Backup dates, if needed, would be the weekend of March 24, 25 or March 31, April 1.
3.3 Budget
See the budget submitted by our Treasurer, Ian Graham.
{Editors note: some budget information has been removed, contact Ian Graham for full budget details}
The following two minutes were approved:
HMM approves the budget as presented by the Treasurer with the exception of lines 85-88, pending discussion and approval later in this meeting.
Meeting requests the Treasurer to maintain a $5,000 reserve of operating funds (equivalent to approximately one-half year of operating expenses.)
We noted that at a future M4W4B we will discuss further line 37, donations to Wesley Centre.
Thanks to Ian for such careful and thorough work on our budget.
4. Reports
4.1 Peace and Social Action Committee
See PSAC's meeting of February 2, 2001 report.
HMM supports the PSAC's recommendation concerning Project Ploughshares and CFSC, and approves the following minute: HMM will continue to support Project Ploughshares, and convey a statement of our support, with Hanna Newcombe's one page statement, to CFSC and any other appropriate person or office within CYM. HMM will also urge CFSC to reschedule a meeting with Project Ploughshares. Roberta McGregor will write these letters.
HMM also supports the three recommendations of PSAC concerning Peace House. Specifically: HMM supports in principle, with a request for specific wording, the objectives of Peace House. Secondly, HMM will contribute $1,000 to Raj Ramanathapillai and Peace House (budget line 85), and encourages individual donations to this project. Thirdly, HMM endorses applications from Raj to HMAC and CFSC for financial support. Roberta will write a letter to this effect.
Hanna's draft proposal on the peace testimony was circulated for future discussion. HMM F(f)riends are encouraged to read and respond to this draft.
Other items on the PSAC committee report requiring HMM support or endorsement are deferred to the next meeting, including Peace Summer School (budget line 86.)
4.2 Sustainability Committee
The Energy Audit performed by Green Ventures recommended three types of energy saving changes: minor cost, resulting in significant energy savings, major cost, resulting in minor energy savings and very expensive, resulting in halving our energy consumption. HMM approved $500 for the minor cost changes, as well as for interior painting (budget line 88.)
The Sustainability Committee also presented a list of Suggestions for Making the Meeting House More Environmentally Friendly (see attached.) This was accepted with thanks, and referred to the Maintenance Committee.
**** In an attempt to complete dealing with budget lines 85-88 before the end of M4W4B, as indicated earlier, we jumped to item:
6.2 Harriet Woodside, on behalf of the West Hamilton Interfaith Committee on Child Poverty, presented a request that HMM donate $500 to use as seed money for a local version of the `Operation Christmas Child' which provides boxes of small items to children worldwide (see letter attached.) HMM approves the donation of $500 to this project (budget line 87.)
4.3 Maintenance Committee Report
Please see attached report. Maintenance Committee will set dates for the interior painting bee and let us know when they are.
5. New Business
All new business was deferred to the March M4W4B, including the need to name a `naming committee' to bring forward names for the Nominating Committee, which will be needing 2 new members shortly.
6. Meeting closed with silent worship.
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I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do
everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse
to do the something that I can do.
(Edward Everett Hale)
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After a few weeks in hospital, Gertrude Haller has moved to Idylwyld Manor, a nursing facility very near to Chedoke Hospital. Her address is 449 Sanatorium Rd., Hamilton L9C 2A7
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Sustainability Exchange
From Renate Edge-Giebrecht:
Offer:
1) Odds and Ends of blond Maple tongue and groove wood strips. 30+ pieces. All 2 ½ " wide. Vary from 12 " to 36" in length. Could be used for picture frames, or some other creative endeavor.
Needs:
1) Small (500ml., or 1 litre) plastic containers to freeze individual meals.
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Contributions to the Newsletter
Everyone is welcome to contribute to the newsletter. If you have a concern or interest, we'd like to hear about it. First Day School members are especially welcomed to send in a small report on something they have enjoyed lately, or something they would like to suggest.
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Enough
"Life's simple pleasures are so rich.....I think that the reasons humans habitually over-consume and lust for power are possibly because we haven't attended to achieving the right balance in what we really need to be happy, ( beyond sufficient food and shelter), namely: close personal relationships, a sense of personal belonging in and connection with the natural world, and satisfying creative outlets.
...if we don't keep these needs in right balance, materialism and power-hunger are simply dysfunctional efforts at compensation.
(That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking to it, since it seems to be sticking to me.) It's easy to moralize that we should want less but it somehow makes it easier to understand why we want more.
I wouldn't want us Quakers to fall into the old Puritanical trap of preaching austerity when 'Det ar lagom' says it better, and gently too."
By Alan Atkisson
(submitted by Peggy Land to the Ecology Working Group)
Announcement:
"Hallowing Our Diminishments"
- Intentional Living and Dying
31 March 9 a.m. to 9 p.m
& 1 April 9.30 - 10.40 a.m.
At Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave, Toronto
" When facing death, our nonessentials, facades and outward props and identities are stripped away. We have the glorious opportunity to come into simple, pure, and right relationship with our true Self, which is that self which connects with God. It is good news that we do not need to wait for death to come into this awareness."
A workshop led by Connie McPeak, a hospice nurse since 1979. She has written about her leading in a series of articles in Friends Journal. She is currently clerk of M & C, Cleveland Friends Meeting.
Sponsored by: Meeting of Ministry and Counsel of Toronto Monthly Meeting.
Contact: Ian Russell, at 60 Lowther Ave. Toronto
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Thanks to Denise and Beth Barron we are looking for ideas!
Following the success of our Wall of Faces project, the West Hamilton Interfaith Committee on Child Poverty decided to support activities that will help children in our own community. But, as the year ended, we hadn't found the project we were looking for.
Denise spoke to me, as HMM's representative on the Committee, after Meeting for Worship a few weeks ago and said she had a suggestion. Her daughter, Beth, had given her a brochure about "Operation Christmas Child." This is a popular drive asking individuals and groups to fill shoe boxes with small, mainly practical, items for children. These are sent to, and distributed in, selected overseas communities. The organizer, Samaritan's Purse, is based in Calgary and is a "Christian relief and evangelism organization." (from a brochure)
Denise asked, "Why can't we do something like this in Hamilton?" Denise gave me her brochure and I took it to our Committee meeting on January 9th. Everyone had the same reaction that I had: this is just the activity we have been looking for. This is because we can involve individuals of all ages, it can be done as a one-time, flexible project and, most importantly, it will benefit children in our community.
Our members quickly thought of ways to adapt the "shoe box" concept. Some suggested that the container itself could be practical (a cloth lunch bag, a backpack). Several felt we could ask for donations of items from local businesses. We began thinking about who the recipients of the boxes might be (shelters? a specific school?).
We agreed to ask our faith communities for ideas and to bring these to our next meeting which is in early March. Please take a few minutes to talk to your family and friends., jot your thoughts down, and hand or email them to me. Once you begin to mull this over, I think you'll find the possibilities endless.
(submitted by Harriet Woodside)
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Coffee and Tea Rota
Feb 18 Carol Leigh Wehking
Feb 25 Harriet Woodside
Mar 4 Kris Wilson-Yang
Mar 11 Dick Preston
Mar 18 Lynda Archer
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FROM MIDDLETOWN NY,
TIMES HERALD RECORD,
SAT. FEB 17TH 2001
Bruderhofs caught in raid ULSTER COUNTY:
Members of mid-Hudson Christian Bruderhof communities are worried about
their delegation in Iraq.
By Alan Snel, The Times Herald-Record, asnel@th-record.com
Six members of an Ulster County religious group were in Baghdad, continuing their mission of helping children with leukemia yesterday when U.S.-led air strikes rocked four targets south and one north of the Iraqi capital. Bruderhof community members in Ulster County said they're worried about their delegation, which has found itself in the middle of an air raid. "We feel they're in danger," said Ian Winter, a spokesman for the Christian Bruderhof communities in Rifton and Ulster Park in central Ulster County.
The Bruderhofs are religious pacifists who have sent delegations to Baghdad on previous humanitarian missions. Members at Bruderhof communities in Ulster County are hoping they can contact their fellow members in Iraq via e-mail or telephone. About 400 Bruderhof members live in Rifton, six miles north of New Paltz. Another 400 live in Ulster Park, south of Kingston.
Winter lambasted the bombings, which U.S. President George W. Bush called a"routine mission to enforce the no-fly zone." The bombings, the first of their type in two years, were described by a military official as a "self-defense measure." The strike involved 24 aircraft hitting five Iraqi targets. "We're shocked and dismayed over the escalation of this conflict," Winter said from the Ulster Park Bruderhof community. "Such actions can only inflict more suffering upon the Iraqi people who are already suffering from 10-year sanctions."
The U.S. bombing hit home for another reason, Winter said. Only a few weeks ago, a Bruderhof community in Pennsylvania played host to a blind, 6-year-old Iraqi girl suffering from leukemia. The girl's grandmother accompanied the child. "Her country can't get the medicines," Winter lamented. "Who's suffering?" he asked" "Not Saddam Hussein. It's the kids, the elderly, the people, the weak." The Bruderhof delegation in Baghdad was visiting homes, cleaning hospitals and aiding children in leukemia wards, Winter said.
One Bruderhof woman had even become affiliated with an Iraqi women's group, he said. "Saddam probably is a tyrant, but we stand in solidarity with the suffering," Winter said. "The people have a right to life as we do, especially the children." Winter cited statistics that maintain 250 Iraqis have died daily since 1998 because of sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the Gulf War. "Never before have sanctions been put on so severely," Winter said. "To us, it's a shock. I question a policy like this. There has to be a different way."
This is a communication from my ex-brother-in-law, Martin Johnson, a member of one of the Hutterite Communities, known as Bruderhofs. A team from this community is Iraq at the moment. (Jean)
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