Hamilton Quaker Meeting, The Religious Society of Friends, (Quakers)
HMM Newsletter
Building Community in Hamilton’s Quaker Meeting

Volume 2001, Month 9    21 September, 2001
Editors: Tom Edge, t.edge@sympatico.ca, Carol Leigh Wehking    Co-clerks: Don Woodside, Dick Preston
Contents
-    Culture of Peace Rally
-    John Calder, Clerk of YM
-    Greening of CYM, Reflections
-    Visioning our Future as Hamilton Meeting
-    Update on Outreach
-    HMM Online
-    Islam and Peace
-    Letters and sayings
-    Calendar
-    Permission form for Use of Photos, Names

Missing: Batman cape
We are missing a black cape and bluish sweater. They were pinned to the bulletin board at some point but have vanished. If anyone knows of the whereabouts of said items, Alexander (aka Batman) would be grateful.
Thanks Kris Wilson-Yang (aka Mom)

"It Takes all Kinds ... to create a Culture of Peace in Hamilton"

Hamilton faithful celebrated a year of progress together Tuesday, September 18th at the Unitarian Church 170 Dundurn Ave. 7-15 p.m.

Many citizens and groups are working to make Hamilton a better, more peaceful place to live. As a means of recognizing their diversity, and their immense contribution to the community, the Hamilton Culture of Peace Network held this public get-together and celebration on Tuesday, September 18th at the First Unitarian Church, 170 Dundurn Avenue South, Hamilton at 7-15 p.m

For further information call:
Ray Cunnington at (905) 523-0355 or Joy Warner at (905) 521- 0017.

        
        
HMM Newsletter    September     2001
    Live Simply, That Others May Simply Live
John Calder, New Clerk of Yearly Meeting Sends Greetings
Greetings Friends,
I have been involved with the Religious Society of Friends since my days in university in the early sixties. I first attended Toronto Meeting while taking part in a workcamp sponsored by the Student Christian Movement. I was first attracted to Friends by their history and later by the quality of life and service I found. I was born in the coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia. After receiving a B.A. at Acadia University my wife Doris and I lived one year in Toronto. The following year I studied for a Diploma in Education at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Doris and I then spent a year teaching at a Teachers Training College in Botswana. We are both interested in human rights, local history and the environment and have worked hard on many projects in connection with these issues over the years. For eight years I served as a commissioner on the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
Following our return to Canada from Botswana in 1967 I taught High School for thirty years. Doris and I have three children. We have been actively involved in the Friends Community in the atlantic region since our return in 1967 and were founding members of New Brunswick Monthly Meeting. I have served on several Yearly Meeting commitees..HMAC, Ministry and Counsel and Program Committee. I have also served as clerk of New Brunswick Monthly Meeting. I look forward to meeting with Friends during my time of service as Clerk of Canadian Yearly Meeting.

In friendship, John Calder New Brunswick MM


Ecology and the Greening of Quakerism at CYM Gathering
Personal reflections of the gathering in Nova Scotia
(by Ian Graham)
It's a cool Friday evening in August, and we just finished the talent nite and scottish folk dancing, a fitting close to a wonderful week of learning, sharing, worshipping and charting the course of the next year of CYM. I am writing you from Windsor NS, Kings Edgehill School, site of our Yearly Meeting gathering. Over 200 people in attendance, its a record for recent years. Even more positive, there are over 20 young adult Friends, (YAFs) aged 18 to say 35 or so, a large group at any time, but this year they discussed and planned how to make a YAF presence part of Quakers in Canada. The CYM Gift oversight cttee held two special interest groups to be able to explore all the ideas for enriching the spiritual life of MMs and Worship Groups and to raise the profile of Quakers. Examples: non-violent protests training, youth drama caravan, clerking training, and much more. The Internet Resources subcttee set up a weblab, with three pcs and printer networked to the internet. The room was in steady use all week. Halifax set up its online community from the lab!

Here are some of the highlights from the business sessions:
-    a new MM was approved in BC: Penninsula MM has been a 'preparative' meeting under the care of Victoria for many years. This is the first new MM in years, bringing the total to 23.
-    we approved an updating and reorganization of the Organization and Procedure manual, now in small binder format. The new one will be offered in large print and electronic versions too.
-    we approved CYM participation in KAIROS, the re-organized inter-church social justice bodies. CYM is active in most of the ten separate bodies which will continue under KAIROS. The coordinator of CFSC will serve on its board.
-    there was a long soul-searching about the continued support of Project Ploughshares, (HMM's Hannah Newcombe is the CYM delegate). The issue was whether Ploughshares has moved too far from the peace testimony in accepting use of military for peace work. We decided to stay a committed member.
-    we supported continued involvement in the four 'wider Quaker bodies' (Friends General Conference), FUM (Friends United Meeting), FWCC (Friends World Committee for Consultation), FCUN (Friends Committee for Unity with Nature).
-    We decided to develop guidelines to alert CYM when approaching unhealthy imbalance of work and cost. The 2001/02 budgets are ambitious plans that focus on outreach and increased travel among Friends to deepen spiritual roots and knowledge of Quaker ways. Financial reserves are being used to fund this growth, but in future we have to either reduce costs, increase givings, or increase membership to support all the work of Quakers in Canada. Monthly Meetings can support the work we do better collectively, with funds and service.
-    Western Half Yearly Meeting has had a no-interest loans Committee for over 30 years. This year they announced plans to loan $40,000 for a project to build an eco-friendly house. Friends across Canada are invited to participate in this loan fund. (contact: Tom Findley and Nathan Dick)
-    Young Friends presented a report on their concern in the area of biotechnology, especially genetically modified food. They want us to support Bill 27 in Parliament on mandatory labelling of GMO foods and the Treaty to Share the Genetic Commmon.
-    YM minuted its opposition to patenting of life forms and is asking for financial support to this advocacy.
-    the Ecology Working Group had a strong presence throughout the week. Membership is up, projects related to sustainability are launched and a new name was chosen: Quaker Ecology Action Network. QEAN will work closely with Friends Committee on Unity with Nature.

Business sessions were not the only focus or even the main one for all of us. The Quaker Study guest speaker, Tom Baugh, was able to engage us daily in the Quaker, biblical and non-christian spiritual roots to ecological awareness and responsibility. His theme was Seeking Unity With the Fullness of Creation', composed of the following daily presentations:

- The Greening of Religion and Theology - New Cosmologies in an Old Cosmos - Creating Inclusive Compassion - The Greening of Quaker Religious Thought

Special interest groups were offered Tues, Thurs and Friday on a range of topics: Future directions for the Field Secretary, The UN and YOU, Yearly Meeting Gift: the Challenge of outreach, CYM and Sexual Ethics, to name a few.

Next year's YM gathering will be in Winnipeg, at the Mennonite Bible College. Planning is already under way for another great event in the experience of Quakers in Canada. The theme is Building a Culture of Peace. Let's be there!

(Editor: submissions were received from Hannah Newcomb and Mona Callin but technical
difficulties precluded their inclusion in this issue. Watch for them next time.)

Visioning our Future as Hamilton Meeting
At M4W4B on Sept 6/01, HMM agreed to publish the notes from two brown bag discussions held in April and May 2001to about the conduct of meeting for worship for business. These discussions began at the Visioning workshops held on March 17, 18 and 25th, this year. At M4W4B in October we intend to review the proposals put forward in the notes of May 27/01 to consider adopting them. (Don Woodside, Co-clerk)


Summary on Meeting for Worship for Business
April 22, 2001
The discussion was held from 12:45 to 2:15 pm in the Pendle Hill Room. Present were Andy Muller (acting as clerk/facilitator), Harriet Woodside, Susan Wortman, Helen Brink, Don Woodside, Ian Graham, Marie-Louise Trépannier, Helen Paulin and Rex Barger. The discussion was conducted largely in the form of a Claremont dialogue in four rounds.

1.    Check-in

Andy began by suggesting that we might experiment with the idea that "checking in" with each other about our current feelings or problems before settling down to business would help improve our connectedness. He asked that we say what also we hoped to achieve from this meeting.

There was a general hope that we would arrive at useful suggestions for Meeting. One Friends felt that she would gain more insight into Friends' business practices. Another expressed some reservations about the use of "check-ins". Not everyone finds them helpful. One Friend found our present meetings not very different from any other business meeting she had attended. Another reminded us that Friends have long had reservations about how we conduct our business. Yet another said she noticed a big difference between present meetings and meetings of 12 years ago. At the earlier meeings the Clerk would frequently call for silent consideration of issues that were becoming overheated and business that had not been "seasoned" would be sent back for further thought.

We deeply appreciate the work of the current Clerk. We hope that our current discussions will be construed as a positive action by Meeting to maintain business meeting as a central and nourrishing part of Quaker Worship and not in any way as a criticism of the current Clerk or the participants in business meeting.

2. History

Andy noted one Friend had suggested that we must find time to balance getting accurate facts from Friends acting in good faith one the one hand and solving problem and setting policy in a kindly manner on the other. He suggested we review the facts leading up to this series of discussions concerning M4W4B.

Friends agreed that the key problems facing us were first a tendency for business meetings to go on too long (or even to have two business meetings in a month) and second, a dropping off of attendance at M4W4B by some Friends who felt their presence unnecessary and unrewarding. It was suggested that two causes of these problems were (1) lack of clarity on the proper scope of a minute (whether it should give general or detailed direction) and (2) a tendency to want to by-pass the typical decision cycle in which at least two months.are required for business to come to Meeting, be referred for seasoning, and returned to M4W4B for decision.

3. Personal Attitudes

Andy had organized the suggestions from early discussions into three general areas. The first concerned our personal attitudes towards M4W4B. These were

a. strive to speak from a spiritual base, once to a topic, with words well thought out and concise
b. be willing to take the TIME to seek balance between obtaining facts from Friends acting in good faith and solving problems in a kindly manner
c. focus on actions to be taken by Friends rather than simple endorsements
d. distinguish endorsing actions from endorsing persons.

There was some feeling these did not fully address the problems of conflict within Meeting. Conflict is often a sign that people are feeling hurt. When experiencing conflict we must strive to be tender and to remember that God loves both of us. We feel we should add a point e.

e. When conflict emerges we should use it as a signal that we should spend more time attempting to discern the path God means us to follow. This may be done in a number of ways: for example through silence or through a "going around the circle" to allow all those present to contribute their understanding.

Point (e) was viewed as advice for the group, whereas point (a) is more like advice to each of us individually. It was felt that point (c) belonged under "Process" below.


4. Process This was the second of Andy's general areas for discussion. We did not have time to explore it completely.

a. Clerk should thin the agenda.We felt we should return to this issue. While some feel this is central, others see it as imposing too great a strain on the Clerk. We think this suggestion could be better worded. Some felt that a Clerk act as a coach to those with concerns, making sure that the concern is passed on to the relevant group for seasoning.

b. Thresh all business in committee or discussion groups before bringing it to Meeting (i) Delegate pot-luck discussions? (ii) Delegate responsibilities re: use of Meeting house? This seems to meet with general agreement. We need to approve the general direction to be taken by a committee and then trust its good sense in conducting its business. We would expect the committee to report its actions to M4W4B. An example of good practice is the decision by the Sustainability committee to proceed with plans for a "swap" rather than request permission from Business meeting. They were confident that they were following the wishes of Meeting because similar events had occurred in the past.

c. Treat items as "information" where possible
d. Lay down irrelevant committees
e. Consider a Claremont dialog format
f. Sing or "check-in" before settling down to business. A Friend proposed that we should devote that last few minutes of any business meeting to a review of the process, identifying any difficulties that had arisen. Others pointed out that "checking-in" before business and devoting time to analysing process at the end would cut seriously into the time available.

(We felt that points 3a and 3c really belonged in this discussion of process, so here they are again.)
g. strive to speak from a spiritual base, once to a topic, with words well thought out and concise
h. focus on actions to be taken by Friends rather than simple endorsements

We added two further points:
i. it is important to prioritize the items on the business agenda
j. Use silence constructively, particularly in times of conflict.

We seem to be in unity on the importance of point (j). When Meeting seems to have lost its way, a simple request from the Clerk or another Friend that "I think this issue should be considered in silence" can often lead to a deeply felt, genuine resolution of the issue. Often it is a third person who breaks the silence and formulates a resolution.

We have yet to deal with Andy's third area for discussion, namely

5. Actions
a. Prepare "Coles Notes" on M4W4B
b. Obtain leadership training.
c. Report to M4W4B

We agreed to provide M4W4B with a summary of our discussion. We will recommend that a further discussion be held. Andy was asked whether he would be willing to facilitate such a meeting and he said yes. .


Report: Improving our Meetings for Worship for Business
(May 27, 2001)

Present: Andy Muller (facilitator), Rex Barger, Helen Paulin, Beverly Shepard, Mona Callin, Louise Trépannier, Denise Barron, Ian Graham

This summary has been prepared by Andy, to the best of his ability, but it has not been formally discussed or approved by those present.

This was the second of two brown bag lunches on this topic. After reviewing our previous discussions, we focused on recommendations for action by meeting. There are two major recommendations and a number of less comprehensive points.

1. We recommend that Meeting prepare a short guide to our practices in conducting meeting for worship for business (a Coles Notes’). It is sometimes difficult for newcomers to fully understand our customs and seasoned Friends may need reminders. However it is important this guide should be not be viewed as a set of rules, but as our testimony concerning our current practice. We suggest a short handout with pointers to further references. Items to be covered could include
(1)    the concepts of searching for unity in the meeting and of being prepared to wait until way is clear before taking action
(2)    the concept of a “minute” as a record of a decision rather than as a summary of discussion.
(3)    the advice that it is not always necessary to speak at length to a question. One can indicate agreement quickly by saying “this Friend speaks my mind” or, less traditionally, “I agree”.
(4)    a description of the role of the Clerk in (a) selecting items for the agenda and referring items for seasoning before they are placed on the agenda (b) laying out the nature of the decision before meeting, (c) calling for silent worship when it seems a difficulty has been reached or we are forgetting that we are in a meeting for worship, (d) formulating a trial minute, and (e) calling for referral or carrying over of items which on which we do not have unity. This description should note that items (c), (d) and (e) are available to anyone at the meeting, but that the Clerk has a special responsibility to help meeting stay worshipful by employing them.

Meeting may wish to refer the drafting of such a guide to a standing or ad hoc committee.

2. We recommend that Meeting take explicit steps to support the Clerk. New Clerks may be quite unsure about how firm they should be in the roles mentioned above at points (1) 4 (a) through (e). Outgoing clerks could take special care to go over the meetings expectations with the incoming Clerk. Ministry and Counsel could act as a Committee of Care for the Clerk, standing ready to provide advice and assistance. Meeting may wish to acquire specialized literature or finance the Clerk’s attendance at clerking workshops.
Meeting may wish to refer this recommendation to Ministry and Counsel

3. We recommend that the terms of reference for the standing committees be reviewed with an eye to ensuring that all regularly recurring duties (such as preparing reports for CYM, budgets for meeting, etc) are noted.
Meeting may wish to refer this recommendation to the Nominating Committee.

4. We recommend that Meeting for Worship for Business continue to be conducted in the Meeting Room rather than in the Pendle Hill Room. Many of us felt that meeting in the Meeting Room promotes a sense of worship.


One Vision of Hamilton Meeting (from Mar 18, 2001 worship)

“If I had a magic wand to wave, I would conjure up a happy meeting where perhaps 40 people come regularly to Worship, where there are 15 to 20 kids in First Day School, where families delight in deeply sharing and kids and spouses need not be cajoled into attending. Worship would lift our depressions, raise our spirits, and strengthen us to choose the real over the ephemeral, and the simple and undemanding over modern complexity. We would want to see each other more frequently. We would meet for supper groups and excursions regularly. We would support each other in our spiritual journeys.
We would be aware of and respect our Quaker heritage. Our conversations and meetings would be spaced with silence. Our business meetings would discuss only matters which are really important. All of us would remain silent at business meetings until the Spirit leads us to contribute something that is of ourselves yet much beyond ourselves as well.”

Update on Outreach
(Ian Graham, John Milton, Harriet Woodside)
Events since last spring
We selected three focus areas last winter: campus presence, visibility at local events, new attenders program. Since then we have supported the protesters at the Hamilton Air Show with food and fellowship, and billeting. McMaster's student 'clubfest' included our table with display on Hamilton Meeting and Quaker social justice concerns. There have been three sessions for new attenders on exploring Quakerism, which we call QuakerLite. The website is now active again. You can search here for the calendar of events and past and current minutes and Newsletters. The HMM 'intranet' is an online place for the meeting and friends of the meeting. It is available to share ideas, useful sources of information on Quakerism, personal reflections on issues. Anyone can post to the calendar on this site. Items left there will be reviewed and posted to the public site if appropriate. The intranet, or online community, is at www.communityzero.com/hquakers, where you register first, since this is an internal site. The public site is at www.hwcn.org/link/hmm.

Future Outreach plans We are proposing to host a student meal at McMaster as part of the campus chaplaincy program. Sponsoring groups prepare a potluck meal for 20 to 30 students and liven up their day a bit with some conversation and home cooking! All those interested, please contact one of the cttee about helping out. The First Day School is participating in the Packs to School project, started by the Child Poverty Coalition (WHICCP: pronounced wickup), with plans to get out and meet kids from other churches. All members of HMM are encouraged to bring in school supplies to fill the 200 backpacks that have been sourced by WHICCP for distribution to need school kids in September.

“

It seems that there is a place where love and stillness,
faith, peace, prayer are the same.”

HMM Online Community
Here are the procedures for joining the HQuakers online community. The content on the site is not moderated, since it is a forum for discussion and inquiry. Access is limited to our Quaker community.
How to get to the site? Point your web browser to www.hwcn.org/link/hmm.

How to get into the site: HMM MEMBERS/ATTENDERS have two options, easy’ and easier’!
A) EASY OPTION: RECEIVE NOTIFICATION:
1.    To ensure that site users are known in advance, we send you an email with invitation key and the site address.
2.    Clik on the site address. At the welcome page (Q-dove logo), click on JOIN THIS Community. Compose your username and password, and fill in personal address information, most of which can be suppressed from the member list at your option (name is minimum).
B) EASIER OPTION: ASK US TO JOIN YOU Send email to quakers@hwcn.org and ask to be joined to cz/hquakers. The administrator will subscribe you and send you an email with your temporary id and password. You can change the password once you log on.

Others interested in Quakers and Hamilton Quakers in particular, please contact us.

Islam and Peace

Dear Friends,

I am planning to contact my MP to ask that at all costs that the Canadian government keep the personal rights and freedoms of our Arab-Canadians, landed immigrants, refugee applicants protected in the event that Tuesday's destruction is found to be associated with Muslim/Arab extremists. It is my greatest fear that these folk will be harmed in this country, if the "Cousins" demand retaliation.

I hope that individual Friends can offer a secure and non-threatening face to our Muslim community members on a daily basis, as we meet in the workplace and elsewhere.

I also ask that Friends consider that the individuals who conducted these event have come from despair, and very possibly from generations of life in the presence
of war and want. This action is not consistent with Islam (or any other philosophy). I hope that those in Meeting with more knowledge than I can support this assertion.

Pax, Kris

Letters
A column each issue where you can print open letters to our readers.

“Friends can offer a secure and non-threatening face to our Muslim community members on a daily basis”

There have certainly been times where I have found/reached/achieved - no word seems adeqate - wait, maybe "met" is a better word, stillness. Sometimes it seems to sneak up on me, sometimes I work at it and find it. Sometimes it seems like it is just me, sometimes definitely a Thou (as in M. Buber)And while it is wondrous, and does lead to the suffusing of peace and usefulness in my life, I find that I run from it too. I found it terrifying to know myself completely known, accepted and loved. Intimacy is not one of my strong points, and there ain't no place to hide from God. Being fully aware of that in stillness is difficult me. Too much fear/shame come up and bring me back to myself. It is an unhealthy self-centeredness, as opposed to being in that center. I must confess, it terrifies me, as much as I long for it, when I really start getting too close, I find myself retreating into noise, activity, the world. I know it is fairly typical, at least I have read/talked to other people who have had the same experience, but it still bugs me. And it seems that there is a place where love and stillness, faith, peace, prayer are the same. Where the body, mind, heart and spirit are one and there is no separation.

Jennifer via the Internet Q-Light Forum




Worth Passing Along:

"War kills children, babies, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles and aunts. It kills animals, and people and hurts the environment.”

Evelyna Kay, age 5

Calendar of events
This month the calendar of events is an appendix to the newsletter. If you are receiving the newsletter by email (hurrah for you as it saves us money and trees) you can go to the calendar section of the HMM website or HQuakers. At HQuakers you can enter dates you want to publicize to our membership. You can print out the dates, just like you see them here, or in calendar view by week or month.

Calgary Meeting Cookbooks for Sale. $10 for 150 pages of yummy recipes. Help them buy Assistive Listening Device. See Ian G.

A rabbi asked his students: "At what moment does night turn into day?"
The first answered: "When, from a distance, you can distinguish a donkey from a goat"
“Or a fig tree from a date tree." said the second.
The rabbi said: "Night will begin to turn into day when you can look into the eyes of any man or any woman and call them your brother or sister. Until then dawn
has not broken.”

Sustainable Ecology Minute from Yearly Meeting 2001

At our Garden Open House we distributed a lovely hand-calligraphed scroll of this moving statement of Canadian Friends for championing the cause of the Earth.
If you did not get one, there are still some available in the Meetinghouse.

Hamilton Quakers Calling Cards still available in the lobby.

Permission to Use Photos and Names

In order to better share the spirit and life of the Hamilton Monthly Meeting through photos and stories in the newsletter and on the HMM website, the Outreach Committee is asking for you to complete the
form (below) which would allow the Meeting to use photos, and/or post such information as coffee lists and duty rosters which might include your name.

It is important to return this form so that we have your permission to include photos or text. Please use one form per person (adult or child). You can copy or download from this newsletter on the HMM website. Thanks.

I, ____________________, give Hamilton Quaker Meeting the right to use the information checked below, in forms and media related to Hamilton Monthly Meeting (newsletter, website, form letters, etc.) and I DO / DO NOT (circle one) wish to inspect or approve the finished product before its use.

This completed form is valid until Dec 31, 2002 when it must be renewed; or until you request prior to that date, in writing to the Outlook Committee to revoke the permission.

Check all that apply:

__ photos where I am identified by name (i.e. a caption such as "Mary Smith of HMM"
__ photos where I am identified by first name only (i.e. a caption: "Mary of HMM" )
__ photos where I am not identified but visible (i.e. a caption:" participants at the HMM Open House" )
__ my name (e.g. "Mary Smith")
__ my email address (e.g. "MarySmith@sommething.com)
__ my home address (e.g. 123 Somewhere Street, Town, PC)
__ my phone number (e.g. 905 555-1212)

There are many possible combinations of these pieces of information. For example, if you are ok with having your name and email published on the website in the contact list, for example, but not with your phone, then please state that here. If you have specific concerns, or limitations, please write them here:


This procedure is being followed to make ensure we do not expose any member of our community to publicity or identification that they do not want for themselves. It is a precaution that may reduce the likelihood of junk mail, junk e-mail, or other unwanted attention. (This form does not include the Meeting directory in print format
On the other hand, we would like to be visible and accessible in our community and on the internet as a friendly, welcoming and interesting faith community of Quakers
Please return a signed and dated form for each member of your household, and return by mail or in person to the Meetinghouse (Outreach folder in lobby), or send by email to quakers@hwcn.org
Each person age 16 or older should sign and date their own form. Those under age 16 should have their form signed by their parent or guardian

Signed _______________________ Date: ___________

If on behalf of dependent, check relationship: parent __ guardian __