August Queries & News

LEYM ADVICES AND QUERIES: OUTREACH

Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them. George Fox, Journal, p. 263.

How welcoming is our Meeting to newcomers? In what ways do we orient and include new attenders? Is our place of worship physically accessible to all? What resources about Quakerism and about the Meeting do we share?

Do we reach out to the wider circle of Friends? Do we support and participate in Friends General Conference and Friends World Committee for Consultation, whose missions are to nurture the entire Religious Society of Friends?

Do we work with other religious and social groups in the pursuit of common goals? While remaining faithful to Quaker insights, do we enter openly into the life and witness of other communities of faith, creating together the bonds of friendship?

Are we open to becoming a Meeting of people from different ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds who value and appreciate one another? Do we give sufficient time and effort to a mutual sharing with others about the experience and understanding of Quaker worship, service, and witness? How do we discern the balance between not proselytizing and not hiding our Light under a bushel?

LEYM’s Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups is available online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf.

On the Calendar

• August 18: After meeting for worship, Emma Seif will share her recent experiences at the Interlochen Arts Camp.
• Aug. 21-25: The Occupy Movement will hold an international gathering in Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo Friends Meeting will keep their meetinghouse open around the clock, to provide a quiet place for meditation or reflection, sleeping room for up to 20 people and possibly space for small workshops or meetings. The Kalamazoo Friends will need help to staff the building at all times. Please contact Joe Ossmann to volunteer, at 269-913-4250 or Joe.Ossmann@comcast.net All help will be greatly appreciated.
• August 25: After meeting for worship, there will be singing and a library work party.

News and Notes

• Can you help the Miller-Seif family with food needs? During Jenn’s pregnancy they are requesting help with the following: 50-pound bags of unbleached flour, brown rice, whole oats or quick oats, and Michigan-produced sugar or beet sugar; boxes of whole wheat spaghetti and bags of wide egg noodles; home-canned tomatoes and vegetables; whole-grain cold cereal; dried fruit and items to make granola; canola oil; yeast for bread; denim (10 yards blue, black or grey); heavier muslin (20 yards).

•  Here’s an update on the GRFM Library. Thanks to Amy Ranger for taking the lead with the Meeting’s library and getting us started on some much needed organizing. She is passing that on due to her many Friends obligations. Thanks to Jenn, Pat, and Robert who helped with organizing in July. The southern facing bookshelf is now in alphabetical order by author. The western facing bookshelf is yet to be organized. It houses Pendle Hill pamphlets by number. The sign-out book is found!!! So if you have a book out without logging it, please sign it out. If you have an outstanding book, please return it on the west top shelf so we can enter it into a spreadsheet, which we are creating with Amy's oversight. If you are interested in being a part of this endeavor, ask Judi for ways you can help out.

• Grand Rapids will host an eminent scholar of early Christianity October 15 during the 2013 West Michigan Consortium Conference at Calvin Theological Seminary. This year’s topic is Religious Polemics and Religious Fairness. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Margaret Mitchell, dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a literary historian of ancient Christianity. Her research and teaching span a range of topics in New Testament and early Christian writings up through the end of the 4th century, with a special interest in the Pauline letters, the poetics and politics of ancient biblical interpretation, and the intersection of text, image, and artifact in the fashioning of early Christian culture. More information is avaiable at http://www.gvsu.edu/interfaith. 

July Announcements & Queries

News and Notes

• Can you help the Miller-Seif family with food needs? During Jenn’s pregnancy they are requesting help with the following: 50-pound bags of unbleached flour, brown rice, whole oats or quick oats, and Michigan-produced sugar or beet sugar; boxes of whole wheat spaghetti and bags of wide egg noodles; home-canned tomatoes and vegetables; whole-grain cold cereal; dried fruit and items to make granola; canola oil; yeast for bread; denim (10 yards blue, black or grey); heavier muslin (20 yards).
• Would you like to work to make love visible? LEYM is sponsoring workdays with Habitat for Humanity on July 24-25, in conjunction with LEYM Annual Sessions in Bluffton, OH. The work will be done in a Habitat ReStore in Lima, OH, and a Habitat house in Delphos, OH. There will be small and large jobs, something for everyone age 16 and over. Organizers hope to have childcare for little ones. Housing and meals will be arranged; costs will be low. Please send an early indication of interest, with names and ages listed, to Nancy Taylor, 324 Hilldale Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48105, or contact Nancy at netaylor@tds.net, 734-995-6803. More details about the work project are available at www.habitatlima.org.
• FGC seeks mentors for new meetings. As part of supporting new meetings and worship groups, the FGC New Meetings Project is seeking seasoned, faithful Friends to serve as members of mentoring teams. Friends who can bring an experiential understanding that the Spirit can teach us together, invite people more deeply into God’s presence, and teach the Quaker way, should speak to Mike Holaday for more details about the NMP and the mentoring teams. There’ll be a Mentoring Teams retreat November 15-17, 2013, at Quaker Hill Conference Center in Richmond, IN. 

LEYM ADVICES AND QUERIES: THE MEETING COMMUNITY

Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.” Isaac Penington, 1667, Letters, ed. John Barclay. 

How do we weave our Meeting into a community? Do all adults and children in our Meeting receive our loving care and encouragement to share in the life of our Meeting and to live as Friends? Do we truly welcome newcomers and include them in our faith community?

As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives, are we ready to both give and receive help? How does our Meeting keep in contact with all of its members and attenders?

Are love and unity maintained among us? Do we foster knowing one another in “that which is eternal”? How do we come to clearness in dealing with troublesome differences between us, living our faith and acting in love? Do we listen to the Spirit which can draw us together in humility and mutual trust?   

Do we uphold Friends in their efforts to develop stable and loving relationships? In what ways does the Meeting assist couples and families to communicate, grow together, and rear children in a loving and spiritually nurturing environment?

Do we support Friends as they meet life’s challenges such as birth, illness, marriage, divorce, old age, and death? Are we able to ask for support during difficult periods? Can we approach old age with acceptance and anticipation, discerning the right time to relinquish long-term responsibilities? Do we arrange the practical matters (regarding possessions, location of documents, burial, etc.) that will arise when we die so that our families and Meeting are not unduly burdened? Are we comfortable with the relationships we will leave behind when we depart?

LEYM’s Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groupsis available online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf.

 

June Query & Announcements

LEYM ADVICES AND QUERIES: PARTICIPATION IN MEETING

Do you give sufficient time to sharing with others in the meeting, both newcomers and long-time members, your understanding of worship, of service, and of commitment to the Society’s witness? Britain YM, QF&P, 1.02, 20.

What are we doing to recognize and nurture the skills and spiritual gifts of adults and children in our Meeting? Do we encourage attenders to take part in committees, attend business meeting, and participate in the activities of the Meeting? Do we encourage them to pursue membership when they are ready?

Do we accept our share of responsibility for carrying out the Meeting’s work? Do we support the Meeting financially and in other ways, according to our resources and abilities? How do we share our gifts and what do we hold back from offering?

When faced with personal or corporate decisions, do we join with others in seeking clearness, in asking for God’s guidance, and in offering appropriate counsel to one another?

How do we celebrate the presence of children and young people in the Meeting, nurturing and learning from the gifts they bring? Are we involved in the support, care, and religious education of our Meeting’s children? How do we learn from them and accept our responsibilities toward them?

LEYM’s Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups is available online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf.

On the Calendar

• June 13: Sewing circle meets at Roberta Rossi’s. Call Roberta or Judi Buchman for details.
• June 15-16: Workshop/retreat with Merry Stanford, April Allison and Peter Wood. See below for details.
• June 27: Sewing circle meets at the Green House, 315 Eastern Ave., at 1:00 pm. Judi Buchman has details.

News and Notes

• Would you like to work to make love visible? LEYM is sponsoring workdays with Habitat for Humanity on July 24-25, in conjunction with LEYM Annual Sessions in Bluffton, OH. The work will be done in a Habitat ReStore in Lima, OH, and a Habitat house in Delphos, OH. There will be small and large jobs, something for everyone age 16 and over. Organizers hope to have childcare for little ones. Housing and meals will be arranged; costs will be low. Please send an early indication of interest, with names and ages listed, to Nancy Taylor, Ann Arbor, MI. More details about the work project are available at www.habitatlima.org.
• FGC seeks mentors for new meetings. As part of supporting new meetings and worship groups, the FGC New Meetings Project is seeking seasoned, faithful Friends to serve as members of mentoring teams. Friends who can bring an experiential understanding that the Spirit can teach us together, invite people more deeply into God’s presence, and teach the Quaker way, should speak to Mike Holaday for more details about the NMP and the mentoring teams. There’ll be a Mentoring Teams retreat November 15-17, 2013, at Quaker Hill Conference Center in Richmond, IN.
• You can sign a petition to close the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by visiting www.change.org/petitions. 
• During the workshop/retreat with Merry Stanford, Friends will gather at the Browne Center for worship, prayer and discussion. To be eligible, a person must have attended meeting for worship during the past year and participated in an individual meeting with Merry and April. He or she must also commit to being present for the whole of the retreat. Eligible individuals have received an email explaining how to register. Attendees should bring a brown-bag lunch on both Saturday and Sunday, and a dish to pass for dinner on Saturday; the main dish (roast chicken) will be provided by the Miller-Seif family. 

Minute Addressed to Friends School in Detroit Board of Trustees and Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting, From Birmingham Friends Meeting

May 27, 2013

Dear Friends:

We wish to share the following minute, approved by Birmingham Friends Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends on May 26, 2013. This minute borrows some language from the minute passed by Red Cedar Friends Meeting on February 10, 2013.

Minute:

Birmingham Friends Monthly Meeting wishes to express both its appreciation for the many contributions of Friends School in Detroit and its long history of providing much benefit to the lives of students and families in Detroit and southeast Michigan. We recognize the sacrifices and investments that so many Friends have made through the years in furthering the work of Friends School. We have a strong concern for the current students, teachers and staff members living in the uncertainty of the situation. It is apparent that some Friends have given as much of themselves as they humanly can, and now need to draw back from participation.

Birmingham Friends Meeting has deep concerns about the current sustainability of the school as it faces recurring financial crises. The strategic plan recently prepared by the Board of Trustees does not appear to reflect a future that will significantly alter the existing financial problems of the school. We reluctantly encourage serious consideration of laying down Friends School in Detroit at the close of the 2012-2013 school year. The decision to mindfully lay down the school could thereby release energy for other work with youth that may blossom among Friends.

On behalf of Birmingham Friends Monthly Meeting, Ellen Barnes, Clerk

May Announcements

During the workshop/retreat with Merry Stanford, Friends will gather at the Browne Center for worship, prayer and discussion. To be eligible, a person must have attended meeting for worship during the past year and participated in an individual meeting with Merry and April. He or she must also commit to being present for the whole of the retreat. Eligible individuals have received an email explaining how to register. Attendees should bring a brown-bag lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. Dinner on Saturday will be provided by the Miller-Seif family.

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 attending and 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 differing views. As difficult problems arise, are we careful to meet them with open hearts, with minds receptive to creative solutions? Can we allow our personal wishes and insights to take their places alongside those of others or even to be set aside as the meeting seeks the right way forward? Do we recognize that the search for unity may require that we accept with grace a decision of the meeting with which we are not entirely in agreement?

Do we avoid feeling pressed by time, neither unnecessarily prolonging nor curtailing discussion? Do we maintain prayerful support for the clerk that he or she may be sensitive to the movement of the Spirit among us? Do we hold each other and the whole meeting in the Light as we conduct our business?

LEYM’s Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups is available online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf.