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H.M.M. Newsletter December 2001
Dear Friends,
The year 2001 is rushing away all too quickly. This month's issue of
the HMM Newsletter highlights a number of upcoming meeting related
events surrounding Christmas and New Years. But we also focus on the
fallout from the terrorism which has faced many peoples in many areas,
some recent, and some longstanding.
In this strange juncture call either "the Christmas Season" or "the
Holiday Season" we are pummelled with consumerism, news reports of war
and terrorism, and the refrain of 'Peace on Earth.'
However, a quote from the 18th century U.S. speaker, Patrick Henry,
echoes the enigma of our times: "They cry: 'Peace! Peace!' but there
is no peace." Not only should 2002 be a time to focus on peace, but to
be aware of the potential erosion of our ability to have a dissenting
voice in a society so focussed on a "war on terrorists." May we enter
2002 unified and strengthened in our determination to seek peace and
justice together.
Tom Edge
Canadian Yearly Meeting: Full of Activity
How has the community of Friends in Canada has made a difference in your life? You might be surprised at their areas of activity and impact.
Our national body (CYM) is made up of 23 Meetings and 26 worship groups. Hamilton Meeting has a high percentage of Friends active in the various standing committees doing work on our behalf.
Some of the achievements of the past year:
provided visible alternatives to people seeking their spiritual community (through HMAC);
developed our links with the faith communities of Canada and abroad (through EcumenicalInterfaith);
contributed to the Quaker presence in the world through participation in Quaker bodies (FWCC, FGC, FUM, FCUN);
developed materials and means of advocacy for sustainable ecology (through Quaker Ecology Action Net);
provided religious education and spiritual formation for our youth (through Religious Education and Young Friends);
developing a uniquely Canadian Faith and Practice to guide our journeys;
counselling and supporting individuals and meetings in times of crisis (through Ministry and Counsel);
enabled travel and service contributions of those ready and able to serve;
supported four Meetings with property improvement grants (Hamilton received $8,000 in 2000);
produced thoughtful and challenging issues of the Canadian Friend magazine;
created a successful CYM Gathering that is spiritually rich and deep. =20
This is what we do with the money, in practical tangible terms that matter to local Friends. You can support the work of Yearly Meeting by giving to a specified donation to the Hamilton Treasurer
(Contact Ian Graham by phone at 3360163 or via email at ian.graham@hwcn.org) or
directly to the Yearly Meeting Office for the Annual Appeal.
The YM Finance Committee has been saying "tell us what it will cost to do the work we are called to do, and let's challenge ourselves to find the resources". YM has budgeted three years of deficits
in the General Fund, equal to about $45,000 or 5% of our reserves for program. We are building our capacity to serve the spiritual, social and advocacy needs of Friends. But our income is not growing
yet. The level of MM giving is at the same level as 1997. We rely on 300 donors out of 1200 adult members and attenders in CYM who give on average $400 per year. 1 in 4 of us contributes about $6 a
week.
Can we increase the participation rate by 50% and each give about $10 a week?
The Yearly Meeting is taking a thoughtful and prayerful approach to charting our future. It has undertaken to:
1. Establish prudent and attainable level of reserves for the YM as a whole.
2. Set up Financial Stewardship Guidelines task group and the Priority Setting Process taskgroup of YM.
3. Simplifying the budgeting process to provide more flexibility, transparency, and control.
4. Expect that balanced budgets come back in 2003/4
5. New goal of raising $35,000 in new money in 2002. =20
6. Ensure that the increased spending is a response to priorities and builds our capacity to deepen spiritually and grow.
7. Spend strategically from reserves in 2001/2002 to strengthen the Society in Canada.
As we said at the start, CYM is very involved in activities for all Canadian meetings, and they have a huge positive impact.
Letter from Jasmin Habib
Dear Friends,
As I'm sure you are all aware, the situation in Israel/Palestine is rapidly deteriorating and it saddens me that so few voices for peace can be heard at this time. While there are several groups
organising vigils and peace demonstrations (there is a very large demonstration being organised for December 28 by the Women in Black and Women Against the Occupation), I think people who do not
represent either the Jewish or the Palestinian "side" of this conflict must also speak their minds. I do not think that those of us from the region hold much credibility even in the best of times we
are always labeled as "biased" in one way or another.
So I write this as a personal appeal to all of you to write, to call your local and national t.v. and radio stations, your M.P.'s, and whatever social development or professional organisation you
belong to that might be able to respond to the crisis. I have never asked any of you for this kind of action before and I feel awkward asking even now. But I feel it is important to ask. I know that
the Israel/Palestine conflict is really very complicated but even calling in or writing to pose questions about the media's coverage or the government's humanitarian responsibility for the people of
the region might be enough to turn the focus and the scope of the discussion away from this violent means and that violent end and towards the issues of international law, human rights, and
reconciliation.
(signed)
Jasmin Habib
The Dominion of Death
Nurit PeledElhanan
Dylan Thomas wrote a war poem entitled "And Death Shall Have No Dominion."
In Israel, it does. Here death governs: the government of Israel rules over a dominion of death. So the most astonishing thing about yesterday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem and all similar attacks
is that Israelis are astonished. Israeli propaganda and indoctrination manage to keep coverage of these attacks detached from any Israeli reality. The story in the Israeli (and American) media is one
of Arab murderers and Israeli victims, whose only sin was that they asked for seven days of grace. But anyone who can remember back not even one year but just one week or several hours knows the
story is different, that each attack is a link in a chain of horrific bloody events that extends back 34 years and has but one cause: a brutal occupation. An occupation that humiliates, starves,
denies jobs, demolishes homes, destroys crops, murders children, imprisons minors without trial under appalling conditions, lets babies die at checkpoints and spreads lies.
Last week, after the assassination of Abu Hanoud, a journalist from Yediot Ahronot asked me whether I felt "relief." Hadn't I been frightened that "a murderer like that was roaming free"? No, I did
not feel relief, I told her, and I will feel no relief as long as the murderers of Palestinian children continue to roam free. The murders of those children, like the murder of a suspect without
trial or the murder of a tenyearold boy yesterday, shortly before the attack, guarantee that no Israeli child can walk to school safely. Every Israeli child will pay for the deaths of the five
children in Gaza and the others in Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron.
The Palestinians have learned from Israel that every victim must be avenged tenfold, a hundredfold. They have said repeatedly that until there is peace in Ramallah and Jenin there will be no peace in
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. So it is not up to the Palestinians to keep seven days of quiet but up to the Israeli Occupation Force.
On Friday it was reported that politicians from both sides had reached a deal in Jerusalem to allow the reopening of the casino upon which their own livelihood depends. They did it without American
intervention, without highlevel committees, with just the assistance of lawyers and business people, who promised the parties what was required. What this shows is that the conflict is not between
the leaders: when an issue affects them directly (unlike the deaths of children) they are quick to find a solution.
It strengthens my belief that all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, are victims of politicians who gamble the lives of our children on games of honour and prestige. To them, children are worth less
than roulette chips.
But these attacks serve the interests of Israeli policy policy designed to make us forget that the war today is about protecting the settlements and the continuation of the occupation, policy that
drives young Palestinians to commit suicide and take Israeli children with them, animated by Samson's invocation "let me die with the Philistines," policy contrived to make us believe that "they want
Tel Aviv and Jaffa too" and "there is no one to talk to," even as they liquidate all those who might have been able to talk.
Now that we know our leaders are capable of peace when there is an economic motive, we must demand that they make peace when lesser things, like the lives of our children, are at stake. Until all the
parents of Israel and Palestine rise up against the politicians and demand they curb their lust for conquest and bloodshed, the underground realm of buried children will continue to grow. Since the
beginning of time, mothers have cried out in a clear voice for life and against death. Today, we must rise up against the transformation of our children into murderers and murdered, raise our
children not to support evil machinations, and force the politicians who say, with Abner and Joab, "Let the young men arise and play before us" to make way for those who can sit at the negotiating
table and agree to a true and just peace, who are prepared to engage in dialogue not with the aim of tricking and manipulating the other side, not to humiliate the other and force him to his knees,
but to reach a solution that considers the other, a solution free of racism and lies. Otherwise death shall continue to have dominion over us.
I suggest that parents who have not yet lost their children look beneath their feet and heed the voices rising from the kingdom of death, upon which they step day by day and hour by hour, for only
there does everyone understand that there is no difference between one life and another, that it matters little what is the colour of your skin or the colour of your ID, or which flag flies over
which hill and which direction you face when you pray.
In the kingdom of death Israeli children lie beside Palestinian children, soldiers of the occupying army beside suicide bombers, and no one remembers who was David and who was Goliath, for they have
faced the sober truth and realized that they were cheated and lied to, that politicians without feeling or conscience gambled away their lives as they continue to gamble with the lives of us all. We
have given them the power, through democratic elections, to turn our home into an arena of neverending murder. Only if we stop them can we return to a normal life in this place, and then death will
have no dominion.
Nurit PeledElhanan
Yediot Ahronot, Dec 1, 2001
Six Dead, Numerous Injured in Night of Israeli Violence: Quaker School Attacked in Ramallah
The Palestine Monitor newspaper reported on 14 December 2001 that the latest Israeli attacks against the Palestinians began the previous night at around 7 pm when helicopters fired five missiles in
central Ramallah. Here is their report of the effects of the attack:
One of the missiles exploded in the Quakers "Friends Boys Schools", causing destruction and damage to eight classrooms, negating claims that Israeli military operates with "surgical precision",
unless of course the school was a target. Thankfully the school was empty and no one was injured; it could have been so much worse.
In the village of Salfeet, near Nablus, three Israel helicopters and 30 tanks and armoured vehicles attacked at 2:30am, killing 6 Palestinians, and destroying 3 homes. The death of one of the
murdered, Rezek Shaban Harzallah, is particularly horrific, as Israeli troops entered his house, and shot him in front of his wife and children an execution. The soldiers also injured his wife and
two of his brothers.
Dura, near Hebron was also invaded by Israeli troops under a barrage of shelling and gunfire. Eight people were arrested. The Abu Sneneiah neighbourhood, in Hebron was also reinvaded, and arrests
made. The same tactics were used in the towns of AmMatan and Assira Shamaliyah, both near Nablus, where Israeli soldiers invaded the towns under cover of missiles and live ammunition, entered homes,
arrested scores of people, and withdrew.
In the south of the Gaza Strip Khan Younis refugee camp also came under attack when 20 tanks and other vehicles and four bulldozers entered the camp and destroyed 15 more houses. These deaths,
arrests, invasion, destruction and military aggression all took place in less than a 12hour period. Not only do they illustrate the incredible military force being used against civilian towns and
villages, it also indicates Sharon's complete contempt for the US delegation led by Anthony Zinni, and Sharon's intentions to reestablish full occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Dr. Nurit PeledElhanan is a longtime Israeli peace activist and recent winner of a peace award from the European Parliament. Nurit was the mother of Smadar Elhanan, 13 years old when she was killed
by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997.
Translated by Edeet Ravel, Montreal. Jewish Peace News (JPN) is a service provided by A Jewish Voice for Peace. JPN's editors are Adam Gutride, Mitchell Plitnick, Lincoln Shlensky and Alistair
Welchman.
A Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a San Francisco, California Bay Area grassroots organization dedicated to the human, civil and economic rights of Jews, Palestinians, and all peoples in the Middle
East. For more information about JVP, please visit their web site at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Report on the Called Meeting about the War in Afghanistan, held Sunday 25 November 2001.
After a thoughtful and moving two hour meeting concerning our feelings about, and an exploration of various possible responses to, the war in Afghanistan and other future developments, we came to the
following decisions:
MINUTE:
Hamilton Monthly Meeting asks Nominating Committee to consider and propose three names, to form a group who would go to Ottawa, to deliver our concerns as Quakers about the war in Afghanistan and
possible future developments, to the Ministry of oreign Affairs. The substance of the content of the message would have been generated by meeting as a whole, but they also would be empowered by
meeting to speak from the spirit.
MINUTE:
Responses at the local level were also discussed, and will be collected by Rex Barger, Ruth and Reuven Kitai, who will thresh them further and bring them to M4W4B when possible.
All F/friends!!
Everyone is invited to our intergenerational New Year's Eve Party which begins at 9 p.m. at the Meeting House.
This is a wonderful way to welcome the new year. Often people drop by for part of the evening. Invite your friends of all ages to come. In past years we have enjoyed playing games,
circle dancing, singing, and chatting.
There is a $1.00 donation per person to cover expenses. Please bring a simple "cold nibbley" finger foodsomething to share with everyone.
If you need a ride, contact Don or Harriet Woodside (905) 5228048.
Gertrude Haller is one of the longeststanding members of Hamilton Monthly Meeting. She lives at Idylwild Manor, a nursing home near Chedoke Hospital. Gertrude would like to have a Meeting for Worship
in her room on a weekday afternoon early in the winter. If you would like to be part of this Meeting for Worship, please let Harriet know.
Hosts and Volunteers needed
If you are willing to help prepare and/or host a Fellowship Dinner at McMaster on January 17, 2002, please contact Harriet. These dinners are weekly events and they are organized by the
Chaplaincy Centre. Students come for a homecooked meal and hospitality.
CARMA
CARMA, the Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Civil Liberties and Freedoms, along with several other organizations, sponsored a March and Festival of Peace on December 15th, as part of a CanadaWide Call
for Action. If you missed it, be sure to participate in upcoming activities.
New book: "Waiting for the Sun" donated to library
Harriet Woodside
One of the many pleasant spinoffs from hosting Representative Meeting is a book! It is written by Alison Lohans, the wife of Stewart Raby. Stewart stayed with the Woodsides on that weekend. "Waiting
for the Sun" is a recently published children's book. It is about Mollie, a young girl who can hardly wait for the arrival of her new baby brother or sister.
Several f/Friends have now read "Waiting for the Sun" and every one has commented on the unusual illustrations. They are a combination of photographs and computergenerated art. They catch you off
guard because they look both real and drawn so you find yourself looking at them in great detail in order to figure out what is what.
Stewart and Alison asked that the book go to our HMM library. Look for its bright cover and very human story about birth, disappointment, and pleasure.
The Fall of the Towers
By Hannah Newcombe
The fall of the towers has been foretold. Not anticipated just then, but foretold in theories and parables.
The story of the Tower of Babylon, when the Lord punished the mortal sin of human pride.
The Tower in the Tarot cards, complete with flames and people jumping out of windows. It too means the end of Pride.
Pride precedes the Fall.
Lifeboat Ethics: in scarcity, defend your wealth and let the poor drown. Beware: they can upset your lifeboat.
Now an elevator into a space station is foretold in a radio science program. Will pride never end?
When will they ever learn when will we ever learn.
Organization and Procedure Manual Available: A useful reference for understanding Quaker roles and structure
HMM have copies of Canadian Yearly Meeting's Organization and Procedure manual available for purchase. Price is $15. This is the manual that describes our ways of setting up Meetings, meeting for
business, membership, marriage, deaths, and a history of CYM. It is most useful as a reference in understanding the roles and structures of Quakers in Canada at the local and the national level.
Contact Ian Graham.(phone 3360163 or email at ian.graham@hwcn.org)
U.S. SENATE VOTES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT.
The United States Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday (Dec. 7) to block U.S. participation in a new international criminal court that they fear could stage politically motivated trials of American
troops and government officials.
The vote added the wording, introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican from North Carolina, to the U.S. defense spending bill. Helms said his amendment, backed by veterans and other military
groups, would "protect these soldiers and their civilian leaders from an unaccountable kangaroo court." Opponents retorted that if the United States does not join in establishing the court, "Our men
and women in uniform will be subjected to terrible rules. You've got to be a player." Richard Dicker, who directs the international justice program of Human Rights Watch, called the Senate vote "a
low point in the U.S. Senate's commitment to strengthening international human rights." The new court, to be established as a permanent body at The Hague, Netherlands, was created by a 1998 treaty
that President Clinton signed but the Senate has not ratified. It would try people, not governments, for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Supporters say it could prosecute terrorists, but it could not prosecute crimes committed before the court existed. As of Nov. 30, 47 nations have ratified the treaty, 13 short of the number needed
to empower the court. U.S.President Bush, who has criticized the treaty, has said he will not send it to the Senate for ratification without changes. Helms' amendment would bar U.S. cooperation with
the court, including use of federal funds or the sharing of classified information.
It would give the president the power to use "all means necessary and appropriate" to free any American detained by the court. It also would limit U.S. involvement in overseas peacekeeping missions
unless the United Nations exempts American troops from rosecution by the court. Additionally, it would restrict foreign aid to other countries that fail to sign accords preventing American troops
within their borders from being delivered to the court. Countries that have already ratified the court treaty include U.S. NATO allies Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
Glossary of some Quaker Acronyms
HMM Hamilton Monthly Meeting
HYM HalfYearly Meeting
CYM Canadian Yearly Meeeting
HMAC Home Mission and Advancement Committee (of CYM)
PSAC Peace and social action committee (of HMM)
M4W4B Meeting for Worship for Business
Terrorism, war & other crimes against humanity!
The United Nations was born over 50 years ago with great hope that we would learn to resolve our differences without killing each other. We haven't yet learned; but let's not give up. Let's keep
trying! Home owners are probably at least somewhat aware that they must be ever alert for signs of decay ∓ of the need for repair. All the residents share that responsibility. The more caretakers
there are, the more likely trouble will be spotted earlyon when it's easier to remedy.
The Earth is our home, our commonwealth. All 6 billion of us are responsible for its condition (even though we're only guests). We are also responsible for doing our part to live in harmony with each
other while we're here.
We're supposed to be one big happy family! Because each one of us has the capacity to make worthwhile contributions to our commonweal, we need to treat each other with respect. But, one problem is,
because our 'home' is so huge ∓ there are so many of us, we each get only a tiny glimpse of the everchanging 'big picture'. We all need to help each other enlarge our perceptions from our various
unique viewpoints.
And there is another problem. We sometimes assume that, because we seem to have such good agreement on the concrete aspects of our 'home', we assume we have equal agreement on our more abstract
ideas. We often feel so sure that we are right, we set our ideas in concrete. But any rigidity of position courts conflict. We could avoid much conflict ∓ bloodshed if we would keep our concepts
pliable ∓ our attitudes humble. When I encounter ideas that contradict my own, I find it very helpful to assume that their holders are not my opponents, but that, instead, they have presented me
with a wonderful opportunity to finetune my own tiny glimpse of the 'big picture'. I assume that their experiences are both as valid ∓ as invalid as mine. If we are not able to quickly find common
ground, we can at least listen to each other compassionately in an effort to more fully understand.
Collaborative problemsolving is quite a different process from the usual adversarial methods of conflict resolution found in our hurtingsociety. And note: our hurt society also causes hurts; people
who hurt others always hurt themselves eventually.
Terrorism ∓ war are particularly hurtful because they not only kill people, they also do much longterm damage to the Earth, our mother, our only 'home'. That is why I consider terrorism ∓ war
both to be crimes against humanitybut not the only ones. Any time any one of us does anything that damages our beautiful common 'home', we are committing a crime against humanity. I suspect that
we're all guilty of, at least, some relatively minor crimes. If that is true, what should we do? Who among us is qualified to judge us, to jail us, to guard us, to punish us?
And how do people who respect all life deal with those who don't (yet)? Surely, our technology has already developed adequate means for stopping some forms of violence without actually killing the
perpetrators (∓ with no 'collateral damage'). Perhaps we could also divert the huge amounts of money now being invested in weapons research to the development of devices to prevent or better
control serious violence as peacefully as possible. But we must not neglect the much surer methods of prevention. We _must_ learn how to help develop Selfdirected, Effective, Empowering, Keen,
Earnest, Responsible (SEEKER) world citizens within the myriad of local mutualsupport communities that we so desperately need.
We do better at maintaining our precious premises, this land we live on, and to keep trying to enhance life's dance in every way we can!
Rex Barger, Hamilton, Ontario
Quakerism 101 Course soon available in Hamilton to be offered in Winter 2002
For the first time in Hamilton, Quakerism 101, the classic course in the fundamentals of Quakerism will be offered in Hamilton. The course is designed to familiarize new members and attenders with
the faith and practice of Friends, and to strengthen the understanding of longtime members. Quakerism 101 is intended both as an opportunity for spiritual growth and an intellectually stimulating
course. In addition to facetoface opportunities for discussing Quaker fundamentals, there will also be an online discussion forum on www.communityzero.com/hquaker.
Topics covered in the six sessions include:
the experience of early Friends
The Light within
Quaker Universalism
Worship and Ministry
Living the Light: Quaker Witness
Getting Down to Business
It is designed for six two hour sessions held once or twice a month. Reading assignments of sixty pages or less are given for each unit. The course was developed in Philadelphia YM in the mid 1980s
and has been presented widely. Course materials and reading lists have continually been updated for Quakerism 101. The main author, Shirley Dodson, coordinates the Adult Religious Education program
for Philadelphia YM and is a graduate of Earlham School of Religion, a Quaker college in Indiana.
Cost for copying, etc (about $15 each) will be shared by group participants. Books may be purchased, or borrowed from others in the Meeting or the HMM Library. The total cost of books if purchased
new is about $75.
Although the start date has not been set, Quakerism 101 is expected to be held in early February. The group will meet in January to decide a suitable timetable.We will try to keep the group to under
8 people, as that is a workable class size that allows for interaction.
If you want to get started, the first two readings are in Friends for Three Hundred Years (Chapter 1) and The Journal of George Fox, Nickalls, 1995, (Preface and Ch 1, 2.) Both titles should be in
the HMM Library.
Interested in Quakerism 101? To register see Ian Graham, or phone him 905 3360163, or email at
Upcoming 2002 dates for your Calendar
See the Calendar on www.hwcn.org/link/hmm for the latest dates and updates.
January 2002
Jan 6 Called Meeting for Discernment of Three Friends Peace Witness to Ottawa
Jan 6 First Day School Outing: winter sports
Jan 7 Meeting For Worship For Business
Jan 13 QuakerLite 1 p.m. after worship
Jan 17 Hamilton MM sponsoring Students' Fellowship Dinner at Mac
Jan 24 Potluck and presentation on Civil War in Sri Lanka, with Raj Ramanathapillai.
February 2002
Feb Start of Quakerism 101 course
Feb/Mar Potluck and presentation on Teaching Peace in Angola, with Julia Hitchcock. (Date to be confirmed)
Reminder of Coffee List
Please be sure to check the Coffee List, located in the Meeting house
kitchen, for the Coffee List, to see when you are preparing tea and
coffee for the Meeting. Thank you.
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