April Announcements

On the Calendar

• Apr. 6:  LEYM representatives meeting, Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House.
• Apr. 12-14: Merry Stanford and April Allison visit.
• Apr. 14: Friend Marie Pippenaar sings in the Calvin College choir at Grace Episcopal Church at 3:00 p.m. All are invited.
• Apr. 21: Program: Quaker pastor Silas siboe wanjala, a native of Kenya and a graduate of the Earlham School of Religion, will speak on “Peacebuilding in Kenya.”
• Apr. 28: 9:00 a.m. joint meeting of Advancement & Min & Nurture.
  
• May 11: Memorial service for Ray Jansma, Fremont.
• May 18: GPQM Spring Gathering, MI Friends Center.
• June 15-16 (tentative): Workshop/retreat with Merry Stanford and April Allison
• June 30: Open meeting for discussion of finance

News and Notes

• The worship group at the Bradley Indian Mission in Shelbyville will begin to meet every second and fourth First Day. Waiting worship is at 6:00 p.m., followed by a potluck meal.
• The Kaufman Interfaith Institute sponsors several challenging and engaging talks in the next few weeks. On Apr. 8 you can hear interfaith activist Padma Kuppa speak on “Religious Freedom, Predatory Proselytization and the Case for Pluralism” at 7:00 p.m. in the Loosemore Auditorium. On Apr. 16 you can hear a panel discussion on “Death, Dying and Life after Death,” from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Dominican Center at Marywood. On Apr. 23, you can hear a panel discussion on “Dementia in Your Faith Community,” from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Postma Center at Pine Rest. On Apr. 26 and Apr. 27, you can hear a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion at 8:00 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew. From May 5-9 you can see the 15^th Annual Jewish Film Festival at Celebration Cinema North. For more information about any of these programs call 616-331-5702 or visit www.interfaithunderstanding.org.
• Friend Gerard Akkerhuis recommends “Whale Songs and Elephant Loves,” from the March 21 broadcast of the radio program “On Being.” In the program, acoustic biologist Katy Payne, who say she has a “Quaker sensibility,” describes her experiences with two of the most exotic creatures. From the wild coast of Argentina to the rainforests of Africa, she discovered that humpback whales compose ever-changing songs and that elephants communicate across long distances by infrasound. You can hear the program online at http://www.onbeing.org/program/whale-songs-and-elephant-loves/241.
• Join Friends for singing on Apr. 28 after meeting for worship.

April Advices & Queries

LEYM ADVICES AND QUERIES: MEETING FOR BUSINESS

The act of listening to God’s will in Meeting for Business is a way for the Meeting to give back the expression of unconditional love. It requires faith and obedience – faith that God will lead us and that we will obey His leading.

Cleveland Meeting, Eighth Month 15, 2010.

Be faithful in participating in meeting for worship with attention to business. Are our meetings for business held in a spirit of worship? Do we depend on the guidance of God in love and humility? Do we seek the leadings of the Spirit and admit the possibility of error? Do we help one another in our search for unity by listening well and speaking briefly without repetition?

Be tender and considerate of others’ views. Are we careful to meet those with open hearts and minds receptive to creative solutions? Do we allow our personal wishes and insights to take their place alongside those of others? Can we let them be set aside as the Meeting seeks the right way forward, recognizing that the search for unity may call us to accept with grace a decision of the Meeting with which we are not entirely in agreement?

Do we avoid both unnecessarily prolonging and curtailing discussion? Do we prayerfully support the clerk in detecting the movement of the Spirit among us? Do we hold each other and the Meeting in the Light as we conduct our business?

Adapted from Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups (Lake Erie Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends: Ann Arbor, 2012). Available online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf or in printed form in the GRFM library at the Browne Center.