Clerk: Roberta McGregor
Sundays: 9.30 a.m. study group
11.00 a.m. Meeting for Worship
Coming Events:
A Memorial Meeting for Kathleen Amy (Pitt) Starr will be held at 2:00pm, Saturday May 12, 2001 at Friends Meeting House, 231 Westmount Drive South, Orillia.
Thursday, May 17 -Potluck on implementation of visioning process. M & C will be responsible for the facilitation of this event.
Sunday, May 27 - Brown Bag after M4W: M4W4B - The Sequel. This is a follow up to the M4W4B aspect of the visioning process.
Friday, June 8- Potluck to further develop Hanna Newcombe's Peace Testimony Rewrite
Sunday, June 24, M4W to be held in the Brink's garden.
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Invisible Bonds
What have you done with the day, my dear,
what have you done?
Nothing much. Nothing much.
Wrote to some old friends,
encouraged a niece,
laughed with a grandchild,
took a walk in the fields,
dug weeds in the garden.
Planned a family gathering,
phoned a far-away sister,
wrote a song.
The day has gone. What will remain?
Invisible bonds, invisible bonds.
Lucy Dougall
from Friends Journal, April 2001
(submitted by Mona Callin)
Coffee, Tea and You
May 13 Darlene James
May 20 Jean Johnson 628-6654
May 27 Ruth Kitai
June 3 Janice Lemmond
June 10 Dawn Lepard
June 17 Janice Muller
June 24 Don Woodside
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Free to a Friendly home:
Black carry on bag with wheels. Contact Mona Callin
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Tips for Treading Gently on Terra Firma!
1) Become more conscious of what we eat and where it comes from by reading labels before we buy.
2) Support local ecologically aware farmers and our own health through buying shares in a local C.S.A (Community Shared Agriculture) group.
3) Avoid use of pesticides. (For an informal wake-up call on this point mee the characters in Barbara Kingsolver's recent novel "Prodigal Summer"
(submitted by Helen Paulin)
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Children in Quaker Meeting
I suppose it was on a 1652 Pilgrimage back in 1989 that I first wondered what Quaker Children did during Meeting for Worship.
We were visiting old Meeting houses in Lancashire, and I think it was at Brigflatts, that I saw low wooden gates separating off part of the Meeting room. This area we were told, was for the sheep dogs!
The question resurfaced again recently, for several reasons, but largely because I now have children of my own.
When I read that in 1664, when their parents were arrested, it was the children of Reading Meeting who kept the Meetings for Worship up. I assumed that the children had the limited experience of Meeting gleaned from 20 minutes of Worship each week. This was a mistake. The children were part of the entire Meeting for Worship from their earliest days.
Elfrida Vipont writes in "The story of Quakerism" that "the Quaker child was expected to attend meeting from infancy and to profit by it, in spite of hard benches ill-suited to restless young limbs and lengthy periods of silence."
What a contrast to the experience of young Friends today. Although the children try to be quiet they sit, snuggle, read, play and even munch in Hamilton Meeting. And in that reflective atmosphere they are loved, and welcomed and held in the light.
It is not surprising that my children enjoy coming to Meeting. Even though little Rhiannon does think that you are all asleep! I smile to think some day she may know the struggle to quiet the should- be- meditating mind!
(submitted by Sian Baker)
Friends Journal (June 2000) had several articles and poems about children and
Meeting. I especially liked this one.
Roots
How blessed we are,
In Meeting's silence,
To hear the soft murmurations
Of small children!
A question…a whisper…
The innocently sung notes
Of "I am an acorn…"
And the tapping of a buttoned shoe.
For these are the sweet sounds
Of our Quaker roots
Growing deep.
Sonia Ralston, Birmingham Meeting, West Chester. PA
(submitted by Sian Baker)
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SWAP 2001
It is that time of year again! The first three Sundays in May will provide another chance to re-use and re-cycle our wardrobes and household goods. Bring your offerings to the Pendle Hill Room the first and second Sundays in May. Trading starts the second Sunday and continues on the third week. Leftover items will be delivered to a shelter. The 9.30 a.m. study group will meet int the preschool room or the garden for these three Sundays.
(submitted by Helen Paulin)
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Garden Update
All our shrubs have survived the winter! They are mostly in leaf. We have enjoyed the beautiful display of the redbud tree in bloom.
A garden work party took place on Sunday April 29. Vigorous perennial weeds are pushing through the mulch in some places, and we are tackling them by spreading newspapers and adding more mulch on top. This method was recommended by Ken Parker of Sweet Grass Gardens. We shall be busy with this for a while till we get control of all these weeds, thus avoiding the use of herbicides, etc. Adults and children helped with the work, and participated in a barbeque afterwards. For dessert a special cake had been purchased, with the words "The Greening of Meeting" on, and decorated with realistic flowers, bugs, frogs and cattails.
The patio was straightened and is now ready for coffee, lunches, meetings and picnics. We will be purchasing some benches shortly, which will add to our pleasure.
Last Friday, Margaret Vallins and I drove down to Sweet Grass Gardens and purchased the plants for the Butterfly Garden. On Saturday, Betty Preston, Grace Inglis and I planted them. Other plants will be donated, and yet others will be planted by the First Day School from seeds they have started. We expect to have a very colourful garden by late summer, when everything is in bloom.
Of course butterflies feed on the nectar from flowers, but they also need specific plants to raise their young. We are going to attempt to provide several larval food plants. Dill, parsley and fennel are the preferred plants for the black swallowtail. Nettles are utilised by the red admiral and painted lady, while of course milkweeds are well known as the host plant of the monarch butterfly. In the case of the nettles we shall have a sign warning that they can sting, and both the nettles and milkweeds will be raised in sunken half barrels to limit their root spread. We shall remove the milkweed pods in the fall in consideration for our neighbours.
I have been offered assistance by Joanna Chapman and Brian McKibbin who started the butterfly garden in Dundas in Centennial Park, in the form of young plants and advice. They are also prepared to come and give a slide show and talk if there is any interest for a future potluck.
Please don't hesitate to ask if you want more information on any aspect of the garden.
Jean
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