NEWSLETTER November 2005

Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

7 Butty Place
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 2R5
www.quaker.ca/hamilton
quakers@hwcn.org
Telephone: 905.523.8383

Refreshment List

Nov 13 Dick
Nov 27 Mona C
Nov 29 Carol Leigh
Dec 4 Glenna
Dec 11 Ray
Dec 18 Christina

Please plan to stay for the First Day School annual Christmas play after Meeting for Worship on December 11th.

Larry Pogue

Larry Pogue passed away on November 2, 2005. There will be a Memorial Service for him on Sunday, December 4th, at 1pm after Meeting for Worship. We hope you will join us and celebrate Larry's life.

From the Treasurer

Friends are reminded to make their donations before December 31st so that the Treasurer can meet this year's planned budget. Please include your address so that tax receipts can be sent to you in the New Year.

Greetings from Australia

Caroleigh and Glenna are glad to be home again from Australia, where they delivered greetings from Hamilton Friends to Friends at the Surry Hills Meeting in Sydney, and through Anne Ashford to Hobart Friends. we bring greetings back from these Friends as well.

Also, they have been in touch with Helen Gould, whom some Hamilton Friends remember from her sojourn with us nearly thirty years ago. She remembers Hamilton Friends fondly. She and Steve are thriving (despite her recent broken leg) and both children are grown up and making their marks in the world.

Volunteer Needed

We need someone to take over the task of updating the Meeting address book. It has recently been done, and is usually done every one to two years, as needed. There are two other smaller tasks associated with it; forwarding new addresses to the newsletter, and submitting our addresses to the Canadian Friend. For more information, please speak to Mona C. If you are interested, let Nominating Committee (John, Robbie M and Mona C) know.

Right Relationships and Sexual Harrassment and Abuse

From Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel of Canadian Yearly Meeting

Dear Friends;

The responsibilities for continuing the work on issues of right relationships and of sexual harassment and abuse will be transferred, according to the attached minute 45 of Yearly Meeting 2005, from Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel to a specially-appointed ad hoc committee made up of Friends selected specifically for this important work. Until such time as the committee meets and can choose its own name, we refer to this committee as the Ad Hoc Committee on Right Relationships. From the time that such a committee is established, the formulation of policies and documents in these areas will be done by that committee.

Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups and interested Friends are encouraged to carefully review the draft document, The Nurturing of Children in Our Care, and prepare feedback, if they have not done so already. Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel will continue to receive any comments or minutes on The Nurturing of Children in Our Care until such time as Yearly Meeting appoints the Ad Hoc Committee on Right Relationships and the committee chooses a clerk. Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel will then pass on everything it has received in response to The Nurturing of Children in Our Care to the Committee's clerk.

CYM Nominating Committee will include a request for nominations to the Ad Hoc Committee on Right Relationships in the regular nominations package, which will be mailed in early January. However, we encourage Friends to begin thinking now about who within your Meetings and Worship Groups might feel led to serve CYM in this way.

In Friendship,
Beverly Shepard, Clerk of Canadian Yearly Meeting
Rob Hughes, Clerk of Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel
Susan Stevenson, Clerk of CYM Nominating Committee

Queries

from the Consultation and Renewal Working Group (C'n'R)

A list: to consider first:

  1. Is your Monthly Meeting or Worship Group a central and life-transforming commitment, or is it one of the activities that competes for your attention, allegiance and money?
  2. How can we openly engage with the diverse Quaker theology within our Yearly Meeting?
  3. What does our Quaker faith ask us to DO?
  4. Where do you experience a "gathered meeting"? What would foster it?
B list: to consider after the A list:
  1. How can our Quaker practice involve everyone in every stage of life, from childhood to old age?
  2. How does the structure of our organization shape your experience of Quakerism? for example bottom-up/top-down, local/regional, national/international.
  3. How can we be faithful to our concern for the environment, live this out with increasing integrity, and maintain a Canadian Yearly Meeting?
  4. How do relationships of Canadian Friends with other Quaker, Christian, non-Christian and interfaith groups enrich the life of your Monthly Meeting or Worship Group?
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