H.M.M. Newsletter, April 2000

7 Butty Place, Hamilton, Ontario. L8S 2R5

Clerk: Roberta McGregor

Sunday mornings
9.30 Discussion group
11.00 Meeting for Worship
Coming Events:
April 20 Potluck/Talent Night
(Don't get stressed about the title ! This is just a get-to -know each other evening.)

************ Oil and Oats!

Let's divorce ourselves from oil & oats!
Let's keep our common world afloat
as keepers of the Word & makers!
Let's strike the `Q'!
Let's double the `u'!
From now on, let's be `Wakers'!
[or maybe `qWakers'!]

[Just a thought from a Waker/qWaker-hopeful named Rex.]

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Coffee, Tea & You

Apr. 16 Mona Callin
Apr. 23 Ray Cunnington
Apr. 30 Suzanne Goshko
May 7 Ian Graham
May 14 Grace Inglis
May 21 Darlene James

The Nuclear Silence March 2000

On Thursday, Mar.9, while attending a discussion on nuclear armaments at McMaster University, I was suddenly struck for the nth time on how often we had covered this ground to no avail. I wanted to yell "Stop! Haven't we said this? Haven't we done that?" Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 we certainly had done a lot of talking and I sought another way through Silence but I knew it would be hard to shake off the bureaucrat and the rationalist. I knew the Quakers would understand but the rest would feel a strong compulsion to jump in with both feet. That was it: both FEET! The nuclear club had grown in all those years from two to seven. There was no evidence of a decline in membership as the risk becomes ever greater since the Cuban missile crisis in the early sixties. Sitting in the crowd was a friend who once said "No nukes" which in its very simplicity was far more useful than all the summits in the world. I suspect it was arrived at in the Silence of the moment either through divine inspiration or individual wisdom. I liked No Nukes. Why? I had to be careful not to fall into my own trap by rationalizing. I just like it, that's why. NO NUKES!

Bruce Smith

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VCR DONATION

A big THANK-YOU to Beth Barron for giving us a VCR. I am sure it will prove a useful addition to our facilities.

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News from the Sustainability Group: At our April meeting we started on the consideration of Keith Helmuth's "Preamble to an Ethic of Ecological Sustainability" which appears in the March 2000 issue of the Canadian Friend. It is an excellent basis from which to work on "Friends'Unity with Nature". Keith Helmuth describes Creation as "the original energy and continuing, electro-chemical and bio-physical process...the source of our sense of the sacred". Friends are urged to read it. We also decided to circulate the survey on environmental concerns received from Peggy Land of the Ottawa M. M. We ask that Friends take the time to complete the questionnaire before leaving the Meetinghouse any time they choose between now and the end of May, and we will send them on to Ottawa. The Sustainability Group meets the first Thursday of each month 12 p.m.-1.30 p.m. Everyone who can make it is welcome. Next two meetings: May 4th and June 1st. Tips for April from the Sustainability Group :

Reduce use of chemical cleaners, chlorine bleaches and ice-melters: by returning to vinegar and soda for scouring - vinegar and newsprint for washing windows - milk or lemon juice for removing stains - sand or ashes for slippery walks & driveways.

**************** From: Quaker Books for Friends (http://QuakerBooks.listbot.com)

Love is the Hardest Lesson: A Memoir By Margaret Hope Bacon viii, 145 pages | $10.00 US | Pendle Hill Publications, 1999 | ISBN 0-87574-936-4 [http://www.pendlehill.org]

>From the autumn of 1944 until the end of World War II, the author and her husband, Allen, a conscientious objector, were connected with the Springfield State Hospital, a mental health facility in Sykesville, Maryland. Married in the manner of Friends right out of college, but forbidden to leave the US for alternative service with American Friends Service Committee, the two ended up as attendants in the overcrowded hospital called Sykesville, determined to remain together for the duration of Allen's conscription. It was not a pleasant experience. At the hospital, the couple joined several other conscientious objectors and wives--Amish, Brethrens, Lutherans, Methodists, and others. From beginning to end, they were regularly shunned, slighted, or openly harassed by non-peace advocates at the time of a popular war.

Bacon's book was started as a novel, and before that a series of short stories, perhaps out of a therapeutic need, but she ended up reworking it as a very personal memoir. That fictional heritage has helped the narrative, for she manages to bring a vividness to this bleak place and humanity to its inhabitants. We remember with her the heavy doses of Paraldehyde, the electric-shock treatments, the insulin therapies, the lobotomies, the suicides, the few successes, and the cheerless prospects; but we also remember with her the good hearts and the dispensations of compassion.

>From one perspective, this is a book about war and peace, fairness and injustice, loyalty and betrayal, meanness and benevolence, and disease and the horrible things we do in the name of medical science. But Bacon has given her memoir a meaningful literary poise. It could easily have been a startling expose of the horrors of the era's mental institutions; it could have been a simple tale about the wife of a conscientious objector during a popular war; it could have been a story with villains and heroes, sexuality and madness, ending in nightmares, bitterness, escape, and reversion. Instead, it is a balanced treatment of people in service in a fallen world and the persistent triumph of love over evil.

For all the beauty of Bacon's memoir, her readers will wish that Pendle Hill editors would treat their books with the same conscientiousness expressed by the writers. At least some of the critical dates could have been fixed before going to press.

Readers will also want to read more about the life of this gifted writer and Friend in service. Bacon has written several histories of Quaker women [available from Pendle Hill Publications]. Now that she is herself a grandmother, still married to the same man, Bacon ought to catch us up with the rest of her life as a modern Quaker woman. Until that time, though, we still have her wonderful gift in this memoir of a difficult period for Quakers in unity with our tradition's peace testimony.

Are you reading the Louisiana Quaker e-Letter? The Louisiana Quaker e-Letter is a free monthly newsletter with short, topical, thoughtful essays of interest to Christian Friends (Quakers) and with a recommended "Book for the Month." Fiction and satire occasionally find their way into the newsletter, too. The e-mail list is carefully supervised. Subscribe at:

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======================================= Book reviews in Quaker Books for Friends are archived in The Louisiana Quaker. Available only on the Internet, The Louisiana Quaker is a Christian webzine featuring essays, experimental fiction, online serial novels--and much more. Visit The Louisiana Quaker web site at: http://members.aol.com/laquaker

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend. ======================================= Copyright (c) by Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. =======================================

(submitted by Ian Graham)

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Library Report

There have been a few additions to the library during the year - particularly in the area of material for First Day School, and environmental concerns. In addition some books were donated and included. With funds a little more fluid now, the library committee would welcome reviews of books - perhaps in the newsletter- that might be relevant to a Quaker Library. Suggestions about appropriate books with short summaries, would be welcomed by the library committee. Once again we are concerned about borrowed books that are not returned. Please search at home to see if you have any outstanding books and return them to the library. It might be wise to introduce first time attenders to pamphlets to acquaint themselves with Quakerism, rather than issuing them with library materials immediately.

(submitted by Ruth Kitai)

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Yonge St. Half Yearly Meeting, June 2-4, 2000, at Camp Neekaunis.

Theme for the weekend: LISTEN! SEEK! SERVE!

If you haven't set aside this weekend on your calendar, now is the time! YSHYM cannot function without the members of its constituent Monthly Meetings. These are Hamilton, Toronto, Yonge St. and Simcoe-Muskoka. Come to beautiful Camp Neekaunis in the spring, for a weekend of friendship, spiritual refreshment, and fun, in the tranquil surroundings of Georgian Bay.

Watch out for the registration forms which will be available soon. Yonge St. Half Yearly Meeting is YOU!!!!!

*************** A Poem from Helen Paulin

When my grandaughter Elise was not very much bigger than my great-grandaughter Kaslo whom Friends so kindly welcomed a few weeks ago, I wrote a little poem which I've been asked to share. I called it

"Grandchildren"

Two twigs talked to each other the whole afternoon When a small girl breathed life to them as she played.

Down by the lake, the waves danced with her sister.

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Donations are requested to purchase a Quaker Bench on the Waterfront Trail, Millenium Project, to open in July 2000.

Also requested: your suggestions for the wording for a plaque to go on the bench. We have only 80 characters including spaces. Please submit your ideas to Larry Pogue or Don Woodside.

Airshow / Warshow Protest Info.:

As was mentioned in the minutes, business meeting was unable to find unity in supporting the coalition of groups that is forming to protest the celebration of militarism which occurs at the Hamilton Airshow, which will be held on Farthers Day weekend. Never the less several members of meeting are active members of this group. To keep up to date on this issue check the website at: www.hwcn.org/~aa492/warshow.html (submitted by John Milton)

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First Day School - Preschool Group activities.

In early March, the First Day School had a very enjoyable and educational trip to the Westfield Heritage Village, to the maple syrup exhibit. We saw three ways of making the syrup: from the first nation's way of pouring the sap into a hollowed out log, and placing hot stones into the liquid to evaporate the water, to the large kettle suspended over an open fire which was used by the pioneer settlers, to the modern wood fired evaporators used today in maple syrup producing areas. Most of us enjoyed pancakes and maple syrup afterwords. The freshly fallen snow, and a horse and wagon ride added to the pleasure of the trip. Next trip will be to the tree planting along the new Waterfront trail which will be on May 7. All are welcome, even if not involved with FDS. Call Shirley Schellenberg for outing details. Come spend time with our young friends - they are worth knowing.

In between, the preschoolers make birthday cards for our Friends in the Meeting, listen to stories and play. They are gradually getting to know each other and to enjoy the time together.

(submitted by Jean Johnson)