Hamilton Monthly Meeting NEWSLETTER APRIL 2002 (submitted by Gwelda Pogue) Larry Pogue was happy, and very surprised, that friends gathered around the coffee table to sing Happy Birthday for his 86th birthday, with delicious cake, a wonderful time and surprise.
(submitted by Retreatants)
Participants of the Spring Session of the Spiritual Retreat held by HMM in February of this year had many a laugh in creating this message. Starting with one word, each person in the circle spontaneously added one word to the one previously given. We leave you to ponder the results!
(submitted by Mona Callin)
"Of all national assets, archives are the most precious; they are the gift of one generation to another, and the extent of our care of them marks the extent of our civilization."
Sir Arthur Doughty, Dominion Archivist, 1904 - 1935
Would all Friends please look in their desks, filing cabinets, drawers, attics etc. for any materials which should be included in the HMM Archives and pass them on to Robbie McGregor, Robbie Shepard or Mona Callin. The items we are looking for are minutes, reports, early newsletters, oral histories, biographies of HMM Friends, memorial minutes, audiotapes and the like. Thank you for your assistance in this exciting project. (submitted by Ian Graham)
This project of the First Day School was started last year. We'd like to make a push to completion, by asking for photos of each person attending Hamilton Meeting, or with membership in HMM. If you have a favorite photo to contribute, please bring it or mail it to the Meetinghouse, attention Kelly Graham. You can put them in the hanging folder labelled FDS on the lobby counter. Kelly will be around to ask permission to take pics of folks too. When complete, or at the end of April, we will finish the labelling and cover the board with a protective panel.
(submitted by First Day School)
Dear Mr. Chretien,
(submitted by Don Woodside)
Marty Walton
(submitted by Ian Graham)
An extended weekend conference, ÒNurturing the Meeting Community: Attention to the Care of the Meeting,Ó will be held for approximately 160 Friends on September 19-22, 2002 in Rosholt, Wisconsin. The conference is designed for Friends who wish to minister to the needs and issues of its members and attenders in a Spirit-led manner, thus facilitating experiences that serve to enrich and sustain the lives of all in the community. Small conferences are part of FGCÕs core mission to help our meetings experience Spirit-based discernment and provide continuing opportunities to explore how to meet their needs. This conference is sponsored by the FGC Ministry and Nurture Committee. We hope you will join us.
(submitted by Mona Callin)
I am eighty years old.
(submitted by Rick McCutcheon)
Plans for the Quaker Working Party on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (QWP) have moved forward significantly in the past two months. Although the initiative is being coordinated through the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the QWP is actually an international group of Friends who will work together for the rest of this year and the first part of next year to formulate proposals to help to transform the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from violence to nonviolence, from war to peace.
(submitted by Mona Callin)
Is our concern for simplicity relevant to our concern for the national economic situation? If we think of simplicity in terms of doing without certain things, of voluntarily reducing our standard of living, I believe this is almost irrelevant at the economic level in view of the scale of the worldÕs need.
(submitted by Ian Graham)
Hamilton Meeting owns a desktop computer (Pentium II, Win98, monitor, faxmodem, graphics board, with printer) currently residing in the Pendle Hill Room, from the Peace House initiative last summer. It is not getting much use, so I wonder if we should give this some thought? Keep it in the Meeting for library use? For some computer or internet training? For emails for Friends who are not online? Assign to the Recording Clerk for minutes, etc? Donate to a worthy cause? Please give comments to Ian or clerks. It's on the May M4W4B agenda to discuss
(submitted by Mona Callin)
I strongly recommend to Friends the Winter 2002 Volume 14 #9 issue of Friendly Woman. The theme is Spiritual Diversity. (submitted by Kathy Brown)
Our Mother who are within
The deadline for next month's newsletter submissions is Monday May 13th,
of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
7 Butty Place, Hamilton, ON L8S 2R5
www.hwcn.org/link/hmm
quakers@hwcn.org
905-523-8383
Welcome to our newsletter... To start off, here are some acronyms which appear in this issue: FGC, Friends General Conference; CYM, Canadian Yearly Meeting; FUM, Friends United Meeting; M4W4B/MfWfB, Meeting for Worship for Business; EF, Evangelical Friends.
Dates to Remember
-Thursday, April 25: Potluck on Homelessness and Hamilton Social Service Agencies with Jeff Wingard
-Friday, May 3: Meeting for Weeding, 10:00am. Come to help tidy the garden and talk about future plans (call Jean for info: 905-628-6654)
-Monday, May 6: Meeting for Worship for Business, 7:00pm
-Saturday, May 11: Garden Open House/Swap Fest/Plant & Bake Sale
-Thursday, May 23: Potluck with Julia Hitchcock on her experience in Angola
-June 1st weekend: Yonge Street Half-Yearly Meeting, Camp Neekaunis
-June 29 - July 6: FGC 2002 Gathering of Friends, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois
Coffee List
April 28 Jean Johnson May 19 Rick McCutcheon
May 5 Ruth Kitai May 26 Dawn Lepard
May 12 Tony Campbell
Birthday Wishes Appreciated
A Message from the Spiritual Retreat
I am happy to be amazing today. Inspired by birds and crocodiles who are very scaly yet hungry and zestful for life after lunch, I endeavoured to elevate my spirits to consume similarly and hungrily fruitful pineapples. Nevermore shall people despair of jumping emptily through the Buddhist temple when ceremonies are in progress except in deep circumstances uncommonly devoted to God. Quakers enjoy obfuscation and delectation originally, however latterly many potlucks become seasonally, joyfully times where unruly spices are comsumed generously. Many more frogs leap but kangaroos rest deeply. Toads alternatively frisk the intruders at midnight. The circle of love is expanding expotentially with every person who is loving all God's creatures while earnestly lighting candles upstairs. Hope, simplicity and joy flow gently from caring crocodiles equally. Multitudes of Quakers humming songs silently are leading lives of complex innocent beauty. This phenomenon astonishes noisy people gathered humbly to celebrate Easter, while others, namely rabblerousers, noisily decide otherwise. The best practice of crocodiles therefore is emulating silence. Birds soaring swiftly, quickly achieve heaven as they swoop joyfully silently upwards carrying love. Friends, let's joyfully soar also. Once we stop for meditation and coffee this interval refreshes all our needs.
Request for Archival Materials
Names and Faces Board
First Day School Letter to the Prime Minister, March 17, 2002
We are writing to you about what our country is doing in Afghanistan. It used to be we were very proud of our countryÕs peacekeeping role. Now we are sad because Canada is helping America bomb the poor people of Afghanistan. We should spend more money on food, housing and healthcare instead of bombs and weapons. At school the teachers tell us not to fight, but to talk it out. DidnÕt your teachers tell you that? IsnÕt that what you should be doing? We are sad to see all the ads to join the military forces. Do you want our young people to die? Guys from the army have even come to do demonstrations at school.
Bombs are like pollution, they hurt everyone around the world, not just the people where the bombing takes place. Have you ever heard the saying What you do comes back to you? ItÕs true. Thank you very much for your time.
Children of the Religious Society of Friends, Hamilton Monthly Meeting,
Helen, 9 yrs., Kelly, 12 yrs., Alex, 6 yrs., Rhiannon, 5 yrs., Kendra, 10 yrs.
Mending the Web of Life
Paying attention requires courage, to see and accept what is, to see the light and shadow, the pain and the joy. Once, at an FGC Central Committee meeting, I had an experience that brought me in touch with the whole of reality. As a group, (about 100 of us), we had gone through much struggle on some big interrelated issues, and reached eventual clarity about right action. I looked around at these dear friends, and saw what imperfect vessels we all were. Cracked teacups. Each one beautiful in original design, each one flawed, with chips, pieces missing, warps and encrustations present, yet each one able to hold a little water. I felt love, real love for this group of people. We so clearly were what we were, we did the best we could with what we had, and we didnÕt create perfection. We were allowing the best to come forward, knowing that the living water we carried was in every case shaped and touched by the imperfect vessels we were. We had listened for truth, had paid attention, and after much risk, much work, much courageous pursuit of what was right, we knew what we were to do together. That was a beautiful moment for me.
A Conference: Nurturing the Meeting Community
Barbara Hirshkowitz, Publications Coordinator, Friends General Conference
1216 Arch Street 2B, Philadelphia, PA 19107 * (215) 561-1700
E-mail: barbarah@fgcquaker.org * www.fgcquaker.org
Lament of a Refugee: A Poem by Isabel Showler
I used to be a Canadian.
I belonged to a country where human life and
human dignity were respected.
We did not send people to be tortured or killed in
a far country.
We do now.
I used to be a Canadian
I lived in a country of clear lakes and streams,
Of fresh, clean air,
Of waving fields, of healthful grain.
Now our waters are dirtied, our air is polluted.
And they wonÕt tell us what they do to our grain!
I used to be a Canadian.
I lived in a country that promoted peace.
We sent our people all over the world.
To help people live in peace. Not any more!
Now our neighbour says, ÒI think IÕll do a little bombing.Ó
And we say, ÒMe too! Me too!Ó
ÒI want to play with the big boys!
I want the big boys toys!Ó
I used to be a Canadian!
What am I now?
My country has disappeared from beneath my feet.
I am a refugee from the "war on terrorism."
Update on Quaker Working Party
The current plan, which always stands to be corrected in such a volatile political environment, has the group meeting in the first week of June in Jordan for an initial briefing, followed by three weeks of meetings, research and experiences in Palestine and Israel. If all goes well, I shall be back in Hamilton by the first week of July.
Our goal is to have a completed draft document by January 1st, 2003, which would then be distributed to Meetings (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly) for endorsement in one form or another (still to be worked out). ItÕs a big project and I am glad to be able to work with Friends on something with as much urgency and timeliness as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I look forward to sharing with Hamilton Friends and Attenders on a regular basis about this project as it unfolds.
On Simplicity
L. Hugh Doncaster, 1976, in Quaker Faith and Practice, Britain Yearly Meeting
A Question to Consider
Recommended Reading...
The Lord's prayer restated
Thy queendom come,
Thy process be done
On Earth as it is in me.
Help me provide my daily bread,
And lead me not into alienation,
But deliver me from fear.
For Thine is the wisdom,
And the power,
And the mystery
Forever. Blessed be.
(Author unknown)
Contact Information
Remember that submissions for next month's newsletter can be emailed to me at:
peace and blessings,
tamara
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