- Sept. 9-11: LEYM Spiritual Formation retreat on “Healing in the Manner of Friends,” presented by Richard Lee. Weber Retreat Center, Adrian MI. More information at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com.
- Sept. 17: Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting meeting for business. Friends School (1100 St. Aubin St., Detroit). 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. For carpooling, contact Scot Miller (269-792-9183).
- Sept. 18: Program. Jasiu Milanowski will be the speaker. At the Browne Center, following Meeting for Worship. 11:45 a.m.
- Sept. 30-Oct. 2: LEYM Fall Youth Retreat. Belville, Ohio. For youth 5-14, parents and others. More information at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com.
- Oct. 16: Program: "How I came to Quakerism" & review of the new Handbook. At the Browne Center, following Meeting for Worship. 11:45 a.m.
- Nov. 20: Program. AFSC Jail Ministries. Speaker TBD. At the Browne Center, following Meeting for Worship. 11:45 a.m.
- Manitou Worship Group For information, please contact Doris Loll at 231-882-7062.
- Fremont Worship Group For information, please contact Theresa Lindsay at theresa.lindsay52@gmail.com.
- Holland Friends Meeting
- Bring your old Handbooks to the Nov. 6 potluck & we'll have a "build your own" session with newly-revised inserts.
- Scot Miller is interested in organizing a Quakerism discussion group and is looking for suggestions for a book or topic to center on for a first meeting, to be held in October. No details have been set yet. If you have suggestions, please pass them along to Scot.
- We mentioned last month that a committee was appointed to survey the membership on the subject of space for our Meeting. Mike Holaday has copies of the survey form. Please take this opportunity to give guidance to the meeting on the subject of meeting space!
The focus for September: To strengthen and foster growth in individual and collective discernment. Following Meeting for Worship on Sept. 25, before singing, the committee invites all to briefly discuss the ministry that was shared in the meeting.
Quakers on the Net: Confronting Hard Truths:
The following is excerpted with modification from “Daring to Confront the Hard Truths,” posted Aug. 20, 2011, in Comrade Kevin’s Chrestomathy (http://caberetic.blogspot.com):
I’m not sure what it is about religious gatherings and the greater organizations to which they belong. They seem to be compelled to sweep as much as they can under the rug. Quakers, of which I am a member, function on a curious premise. We have long fuses with people and notoriously short fuses around politics. This may be because it’s easy to argue about something that is abstract and safe. When real people with whom we have real interactions are involved, we often take the path of least resistance. But ultimately, someone’s got to step up and draw the line. People have postulated for years why this is, and I have a theory or two.
One of them is the dread fear of litigation. Bad press in any form should be avoided. This goes for government agencies, public school systems, and organized religion. It is true that we live in a society where we’d rather pay someone to help us resolve disputes with someone else than step in and do healing and reconciliation ourselves.
Trust and care is what we’re seeking. We have always been in search of these. But the larger we grow as a people, the farther that divide grows. Even in a relatively moderate sized city, we are all too busy running to very specific places on specific paths, such that the only people we really see are those with whom we work closely. And there’s this: It’s less problematic to talk about an issue when we’re certain our position will be validated by others. My father, for example, was proof positive that it is easier to argue about irrelevant topics first, in place of the greater issues that are at the real heart of the matter.
We owe it to ourselves to place the focus where it needs to be, especially if that places us in uncomfortable states. These would have us do the difficult work of looking within ourselves first. Nothing can ever really proceed if brave inward listening is not part of the greater plan. We should not obscure truth by hairsplitting or by speaking only to that which promises little to no pain or even less emotional involvement. We are not robots. We are thinking, feeling, intuitive beings. We now need to act like it.
