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of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) |
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Contents
Everyone Invited to Representative MeetingDecember 4–5, 2004
[NOTE: Click here for a PDF version of this information and the registration form. Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to read and print PDF forms. You may download Acrobat Reader free by clicking here.]
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| Schedule | |
| Saturday | |
| 8:30 A.M. | Registration |
| 9:00–9:45 | Meeting for Worship |
| 9:45–10:30 | Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel |
| 10:45–12 noon | Coordinating Committee Meetings |
| 12–1:15 P.M. | Lunch |
| 1:30–3:30 | Meeting for Business |
| 3:45–5: 15 | Committee Meetings |
| 5:30–6:45 | Dinner |
| 7:00–9:00 | Committee Meetings |
| Sunday | |
| 9–10:00 A.M. | Meeting for Worship |
| 10:15–12:15 | Meeting for Business |
| 12:30–1:30 P.M. | Lunch |
Childcare
Children will be supervised in play areas during the day. Parents are responsible for their children during meals. Please note your needs on the registration form.
Transportation
Airports: Local airports include La Guardia, Kennedy and MacArthur-Islip. To arrange for pick up, please note your needs on the registration form and mail before the November 19 deadline. After this date, you can make alternate arrangements with Classic Car Service by dialing 20 from the airport courtesy phone. From JFK, you can take a L.I. Rail Road train to the Jamaica station and transfer to the Oyster Bay line to Locust Valley. Check with the Local Transportation desk for details.
Train: L.I. Rail Road from Penn Station via the Oyster Bay line to Locust Valley takes 1 hour 10 minutes, $8.75 peak and $6.00 off peak. Friends can be met Saturday and Sunday morning if they arrive on the 9:23 A.M. L.I. Rail Road train and indicate their arrival on their registration form. Friends arriving at other times should call the Arena Car Service; 516-676-1016. The one-mile trip to Friends Academy costs $6.00.
Bus: The closest Greyhound station is Mineola, where you can then take the L.I.R.R. to Locust Valley as above.
Driving Directions to Friends Academy, 270 Duck Pond Road, Locust Valley, NY 11542: Take the Long Island Expressway (I-495) to exit 39, Glen Cove Road. Turn left westbound or right eastbound onto Glen Cove Road north. Continue past Northern Blvd. (Rte. 25A) to Cedar Swamp road exit (approximately 6 miles). Bear right onto Cedar Swamp Rd. (name will change to Glen St.). At large grey stone church on right turn right onto Pearsall Ave. Stay to the right on Pearsall to railroad tracks. Turn right over tracks onto Duck Pond Road. Friends Academy is at the corner of Piping Rock Rd. on the right, approximately 1 mile.
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The state of the meeting report should be a searching self-examination by the meeting and its members of their spiritual strengths and weaknesses and of the efforts made to foster growth in the spiritual life. Reports may cover the full range of interests and concerns but should emphasize those indicative of the spiritual health of the meeting.
– NYYM Faith &Practice |
This is the time of year when the Coordinating Committee for Ministry & Counsel begins the process of preparing the State of Society report. It's been our practice to offer queries to monthly meetings and worship groups to assist in this work.
Please return your state of the meeting report to the yearly meeting office by February 10, 2005. Feel free to e-mail your report to office@nyym.org, or mail it to 15 Rutherford Place, NY NY 10003.
Beatrice Beguin & Ann Davidson, coclerks, CCMC
These visits have given me many opportunities to listen to Friends talk about their faith and practice, their joys, their yearnings, and how they understand their relationships with their Monthly Meeting, their Regional Meeting, and the Yearly Meeting. I have learned a great deal, and feel that I am starting to get a sense of how the structures within the Yearly Meeting relate to movements of the Spirit, both past and present. These insights will prove invaluable as I begin to work with the task group carrying forward the work of the Committee on Committees, which will address what structural changes the Yearly Meeting needs to make to allow for freer movement of the Spirit in our corporate life.
As I have listened to Friends, two themes have been prominent. One is a yearning for deeper spiritual experience and more companioning in that deepening. Even seasoned Friends expressed a hunger for richer spiritual life personally and in the life of their Monthly Meeting. Another is a desire to attract younger families with children, and for help in starting up or building First Day School programs.
I also have heard about much growth in the Spirit. I have heard of some meetings growing, some meetings feeling a deep and nurturing sense of community, of others developing a successful advancement and outreach program, of others finding resonant life through service projects, and of others providing dynamic youth ministry. When I hear of things going well that might be helpful to others in the Yearly Meeting, I have sometimes asked Friends to write about it for Spark. Look for these articles in the future.
In addition to traveling amongst NYYM Friends, I have attended the annual retreat of General Secretaries and Superintendents, the annual retreat of NYYM pastors and ministers, and FGC Central Committee. These are places where I have been able to hold up the character and life of the communities I have been visiting within the larger context of changes within the Yearly Meeting and the wider Society.
As I slowly get more deeply engaged with NYYM, I am becoming more and more excited about the work before us. I believe that we are opening into a vibrant time in the life of this Yearly Meeting, and I feel privileged to be a part of that opening.
Christopher Sammond, NYYM general secretary
It is of course very difficult to confront the reality that something so heinous and devastating could happen in our community. Yet the unfortunate truth is that it has already happened in many Quaker contexts and that if we do not address it forthrightly we are leaving our children at risk. We treasure our children and youth and need to do all that we can to protect them.
Many other Yearly Meetings and other Quaker institutions have been or are engaged in the same work. While for many of these Quaker groups (ourselves included) some of the impetus to take up this work came from the promptings of insurance companies, it is clear to those of us who have researched this unfortunate reality that concern for our children and youth far outweighs any concerns over liability. Creating policies and procedures is imperative for the safety and well being of our children, and certainly timely.
An ad hoc working group has been convened by the clerk of the General Services Coordinating Committee, composed of Friends from JYM, General Services, Personnel, Prisons, AVP, Trustees, Powell House, and myself, as the General Secretary. I am in the process of gathering sample policies and procedures from other organizations, Quaker and otherwise, and will be creating a rough draft of a document to serve as a starting point. These will be sent to members of the ad hoc working group to review and weigh prior to our first meeting, October 30th.
Christopher Sammond, NYYM general secretary
For information or to apply, contact Sue Axtell at axtelsu@earlham.edu; Earlham School of Religion, 228 College Avenue, Richmond IN 47374.
FGC has many ongoing programs: programs dealing with issues on racism, gender identity, our peace testimony and youth concerns, to name just a few. Information and articles, even a section called "Meet the Clerks" (profiles of our administration and program committee clerks and their work) can be found on the FGC Web site, www.fgcquaker.org.
There is also a section called Resources for Monthly Meetings. The link can be found in the left hand side of the FGC home page under Quaker Library. There you will find many excellent articles (some are downloadable) covering a wide range of topics.
All in all, for those who are interested in finding out more about FGC, the Web site is the place to start. There are also your yearly meeting representatives to FGC, who are more than willing to discuss the work they do. Some of the committees we serve on are: Long Range Conference Planning, Ministry & Nurture, Development, Executive Committee, and the Committee on Racial Concerns.
In its effort to network with monthly meetings, FGC is introducing the Monthly Meeting Contact Program. In the past FGC has sent twice-yearly mailings to the attention of the clerk of the monthly meetings. In its place we envision the Monthly Meeting Contact Program serving as a vehicle for direct communication between affiliated monthly meetings and FGC. Volunteer Friends will act as liaisons between their individual meetings and FGC, ensuring that FGC communications reach their intended audience and passing information back to FGC from the monthly meetings. The goal is two-fold: to strengthen the relationship between FGC and its affiliated monthly meetings and to improve the effectiveness of FGC's communication with those meetings. To keep information current and to keep F(f)riends up to date, mailings will be quarterly.
This is just a small portion of what FGC has to offer. Check us out to find out more.
Rick Townsend, clerk, NYYM representatives to FGC
This event will take place in the two-hundred year old Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia on April 16, 2005 at 9:15 A.M.
For all ticket applications and/or questions contact: Sally Rickerman, 121 Watson Mill Road, Landenberg PA 19350; 610-274-8856; or sshhrr@earthlink.net.
In Friendship,
Sally Rickerman, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Demi McGuire and Alison Coleman will help facilitate our sessions. Demi is the Prison Chaplaincy Coordinator for the New York State Council of Churches, Director of the New York State Episcopal Public Policy Network, and the former director of New Yorkers against the Death Penalty. In addition to sharing with us how faith communities are interacting with the prison system she will also give us an update on proposed death penalty legislation. Alison Coleman is Director of Prison Families of New York. She will give us an update on prison family organizing, and on new developments in the mental health care of prisoners.
We will spend some time in song as we share how music has played a role in prison ministry. Bring your voices and musical instruments.
Deborah Saunders (Philadelphia YM) will bring us a prepared message on Sunday that will be followed by worship sharing.
Please register directly with Powell House as soon as possible by visiting www.powellhouse.org, or by calling 518-794-8811.
Helen Garay Toppins, clerk, NYYM Prisons Committee
Jeff Hitchcock, a member of Plainfield, N.J., Meeting and assistant clerk of the NYYM Black Concerns Committee, is asking white Americans to take a close look at their whiteness—and at the unexamined racist assumptions that are deeply rooted in their very identities. He has an easy, succinct style, and the book is packed with interesting information that makes it an eye-opener. That doesn't make it light reading, because the author is tenacious. Gently but persistently, he strips away illusions about white privilege and domination and confronts us with its rules and realities. Racism is not always hatred and bigotry. It is also those measures that uphold privilege and operate to avoid institutional change in the face of demands for change from people of color. Behind the silences and denials of white Americans about race there are many unconscious attitudes. Hitchcock identifies some that may strike a chord with his readers:
Injustice to people of color is the conjoined twin of white privilege and domination. American whites, holding power and privilege in the racialized structure, are continuously shaped and warped by it. Its effect is not benign—it is damaging to both sides. For example, white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto, says the author—white institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it. Now, instead of denying their personal involvement in racial problems, American whites need to reexamine their views of themselves, their us-and-them thinking about people of color, and the white veil that shields them from contact with those who are different.
Hitchcock is cofounder and director of the Center for the Study of White American Culture, where whiteness is studied for its central role in this country's racial structure. White people generally consider themselves to be the norm—the universal American point of view is often a white-culture point of view—but since 1997 whiteness has been a focus of mainstream scholarly study. The book lists some of the traits and assumptions of that culture (self-reliance, objective and linear thinking, work before play, win at all costs, plan for the future, don't show emotion, nuclear family, and many others). They are the synthesis of ideas and values drawn from white European ethnic groups in the United States. And just because it has always been dominant, this culture bears much of the responsibility for race relations as they stand now, as they have been in the past, and as they will be expressed in the future.
Still the author believes that white Americans can move toward a genuinely multiracial future. By uncoupling race and power, they can help to defuse our racial conflicts and avoid their disruptive and sometimes deadly consequences. The United States can live up to its democratic principles and practice what it preaches. Our society is already multiracial in composition. But it needs to be more equitable in function. A truly multiracial society, Hitchcock observes, is not based on social inequities due to race: Multiracial relationships are commonplace, racial tension is not a factor, justice is not influenced by a person's racial status, and each person has equal opportunities. He suggests that American whites take an active part in freeing us all to build such a society, and believes that we could ultimately achieve this by modifying—in effect decentering—the white role in our racial structure. He proposes a model with multiracial and multicultural values at the center, with white culture becoming one among many grouped around. But whatever the model for betterment, all of us need each other to achieve it. This work must be a mutual creation, not built on the terms of any one group. Whites will need the consent of people of color, their approval, and their leadership. That will be a new experience for them.
The author presents his views with restraint—without anger, or even heat. This is a personal work, written about his people as an act of love and an act of concern. He believes that moving forward is critical to our country's future well-being, and asks us all to take up and keep with the journey.
Ann Schillinger, Advancement Committee
Mike Clark gave listeners a preview of the Powell House Youth Program's trip to Honduras in August to give young people a service opportunity in a third world country building fuel efficient stoves and replanting trees. The current use of inefficient stoves leads to the deforestation that causes severe flooding. The Sharing Fund helped fund this program that resulted in 10 stoves built and many more people now knowing how to build their own stoves, 6 sets of tools used and left behind for the community, and dozens of trees planted.
Newton Garver relayed his excitement about the success of the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund in helping young Friends there attend university, an opportunity previously closed to them. The Fund is also seeking grants to provide computer labs and pay for computer instructors at the three Friends high schools in Bolivia, skills that will lead to good paying jobs in this impoverished region.
The Sharing Fund gave a grant to provide dictionaries, study guides, and reading materials for incarcerated teenagers preparing for high school graduation and college admissions.
Witness Coordinating Committee also received several requests for funds from worthwhile programs such as a restorative justice program in a county in the Farmington-Scipio Region and one that works with Hispanic veterans and their families in New York City. WCC is hoping that increased sharing fund donations at the end of the year will enable us to speak to these and other important concerns. You'll help, won't you?
Anita Paul, clerk, Witness Coordinating Committee
We continue to receive generous support in spite of modest fund-raising: one Friend sent a check to cover a month's current expenses in Bolivia! We also received a large donation from a contributor in England, and a goodly sum from Harrogate Meeting in Yorkshire. BQEF continues to increase its geographic appeal. Several meetings in the US have added their support.
BQEF took two giant steps this summer: On August 1 Vickey Kaiser (Fredonia Meeting) began working half–time as communications coordinator of BQEF; and on September 1 BQEF submitted its first grant proposal, a request for a substantial portion of the cost of installing computer labs in the three Quaker secondary schools in Bolivia. We've now submitted a total of four proposals, and several more are in the works.
The project for upgrading computer instruction in the three Bolivian Friends secondary schools includes installing computer labs, each with a server and nine PCs, as well as staff time (at $2 per hour—a generous wage in Bolivia) for the increased instruction. We have also budgeted for a site visit by a US Quaker computer person next summer (when Bolivian schools are in session), to help them strengthen the curriculum. The total project cost is about $30,000, most of which we hope to have covered by grants.
The priority for computer instruction is a choice made in Bolivia, and we are using it to introduce ourselves to Quaker foundations as well as to the Bolivian Quaker schools. The three comprehensive schools are fully utilized, with lower grades in the morning and upper grades after lunch. Upgrading the computer instruction means that one room is withdrawn from general scheduling and dedicated to computer instruction, and therefore can be used in the morning as well as the afternoon for the extra hours of instruction that the program requires. When it comes to upgrading English something similar will be required, since English is now taught only one period a week, even to secondary students.
In the pipeline are other important steps. One is a Web site for BQEF, being developed by Andro Gagné of Rochester Meeting. Perhaps it will be launched when you read this—you can try at www.bqef.org. Others are a new brochure, a fall newsletter, further grant applications, and a trip to Bolivia in November 2004 to coordinate first-hand planning for the next steps. Infrastructure as well as instructional enhancement and scholarships are big challenges. Setting up the computer labs is the easy part of the infrastructure problems: some of the buildings are so dilapidated that they have been condemned and need to be totally replaced if the school is to continue to function.
More exciting news: we have begun a list of people who might like to accompany Newton to Bolivia in August or October of 2005 and get to meet Bolivian Quakers in person—let us know if you would like to be added to that list (with your preference between August and October). For donation information please contact, BQEF, 11253 Boston Road, East Concord NY 14055-9711.
A joint project of the small Ramallah Friends Meeting and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, with added participation by AFSC and Baltimore, North Carolina, and Indiana Yearly Meetings, the restored meetinghouse sits on a small park-like lot, near the middle of the city, the only building with greenery, amid large commercial buildings crowded together with no space between.
Waleed Zaru, the local Friend overseeing the reconstruction, has written, "It is beyond doubt that one takes pleasure in carrying out this work. It has been so long since I have felt good about anything. . . . These feelings are shared by a great number from the community, Muslims and Christians alike." Thom Jeavons, general secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, has termed the effort an "amazing" accomplishment, in light of the difficulties that had to be overcome.
As the first phase of the project, the physical restoration of the meetinghouse, has neared completion, the second phase—development of the meetinghouse and its annex as a center for peace—is now beginning. Although a budget for the second phase has not yet been worked out, Thom Jeavons notes that there will be a continuing need to provide funds for maintenance of the meetinghouse and annex, in addition to funds that will be required for the work of the peace center. "Every contribution is welcome, and deeply appreciated," he says.
NYYM's Peace Concerns Committee, acting in response to minutes of support previously approved by the Ithaca Monthly Meeting and the Farmington/Scipio Regional Meeting approved sending a gift of $500 to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for the Ramallah Friends Meeting Project. The committee is also working on a minute to go to Representative Meeting in December.
Mac Larsen, Ithaca Meeting
We may call on our government to reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, but what are we, as meetings and individuals doing? The Right Sharing Committee has decided to encourage all Friends to replace their incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which consume only about one fourth the amount of electricity. We urge each meeting's building and grounds committee to adopt a policy of replacing the incandescents, as they burn out, with compact fluorescents. And we will give each meeting one compact fluorescent bulb as an incentive to start. Look for yours at Representative Meetings and Yearly Meeting.
The amount of electricity Friends will save in this way is not large, but think of the symbolism. By becoming more conscious of the power we consume, and more careful to use less, we will be making a statement of our concern for peace and sustainability. To paraphrase John Woolman, consider the light fixtures in your houses, whether the seeds of war can find root therein.
Mary Eagleson, clerk, Right Sharing of World Resources
A few hours later, lots of local children crowded around our youth, laughing, grabbing hands, chattering away. Some had come politely into the house, drawing pictures and exchanging them with a couple of Powell House teens. Others had started to play soccer in the small yard next door with more of our group. Impromptu language classes erupted in bouts of giggling and smiles. The breeze cooled us as we looked across the steep hills covered with metal and adobe houses glowing in the slanted afternoon sunlight. A new stove sat in the corner of the kitchen. An elderly woman who had watched the entire process now proclaimed that she could build her own stove without any help. The mother smiled, looking appreciative and happy. Dogs barked all over the hillsides, chickens clucked, and roosters crowed. A few people stayed behind for the finishing touches or to play in the dusty streets with the neighborhood kids as more of the group walked back down the steep road accompanied by a chorus of farewells.
After a cool shower, a warm supper, and some time in the plaza enjoying the evening and new friends, we gathered that night to share our experiences of the day. One youth commented that he had assumed people in Honduras would have less than he had and would be less happy. They do have much less, he observed, but they are still happy, happier than many middle-class people in the United States.
A Typical Day
Each day in Suyapa began with the 6:00 A.M. call to prayer. Breakfasts awaited us at the Comedor María, where we enjoyed beans, cream, white cheese, eggs, corn tortillas, fried plantains, and sweet black coffee or warm milk. On stove days, the group would divide and walk to work with the Honduran technicians Orlando, Rolando, and Augusto. The youth delighted in finding their own lunch at the street vendors who sell a variety of hot food.
Each evening in Suyapa, we would return to Comedor María, where Doña Gloria would be waiting for us with a variety of traditional Honduran meals. After our repast we'd gather in the small town plaza. Games of soccer, catch, and cops and robbers would ensue with young Suyapans. The less energetic of us engaged in conversations about life in the States and life in Honduras. Then it was back to Verbum Dei, where we were staying, for an all-group gathering. We worshiped together, and each person would share about his or her day. Finally the evening would end with a game of Hearts or journal entries or letters home and lights out around 9:30 P.M.
The Numbers
Twelve people went on the trip. We ranged from 6 years old to 46. We came from six monthly meetings. We donated money for 11 stoves and built 10. We used and donated six sets of tools. We planted several dozen trees one morning. We visited two different watershed areas that together supply drinking water for the 1,200,000 people in the Tegucigalpa area.
The People
People are so nice. They are so welcoming!
Central Americans take hospitality seriously. They want visitors to appreciate their country and to enjoy their visit. Families welcomed us into their homes. Cold bottles of Coke would appear, or fresh corn on the cob, just as refreshment was needed. And our youth were genuine, sincere, and open to that hospitality. Sharing themselves, laughing at their own mistakes, working hard, they entered into the lives of the families. We were trusted with babies to hold. We learned personal stories. Most of all, we were present with people for whom being present was important.
Sunday morning we spent some time with a Catholic youth group as they began a daylong workshop. We learned songs (in Spanish with motions!), did a name game, and learned a new game called "Cap" that is sure to become a PoHo favorite. The Spirit was felt by many of us in this gathering and throughout the days in Honduras.
The technicians we worked with and the people who provided services went way beyond what we would have expected in helping us and making us feel welcome.
The Work Projects
I could stay here and build stoves forever!
We worked with technicians from AHDESA (Honduran Development Agency) to build Justa stoves and plant trees. Our first day was spent in the Guacerique watershed, where we planted trees in a former cornfield in the mountains. While we dug holes for the foot-high trees and patted soil back on their root packs, we admired the full-size trees planted 10 years earlier just up the hillside. The trees provide firewood for the farmer. They also slow down the rain that falls in the mountain so that groundwater is replenished, erosion is lessened, and drinking water sources are protected.
The Justa stove is a wood-burning cook stove that saves 50–70% of the firewood used in the typical stoves in Honduran homes. It takes the smoke out of the kitchen thus improving the health of the women and children. The internal baffle system causes 80% of the ash to settle out of the smoke before it goes up the chimney, reducing pollution even further. It uses locally produced materials. A technician with family assistance builds two stoves a day.
We saw several of the stoves in use. The smiles and smoke-free kitchens were testimonials to the value of the project. Many people approached us on the street to ask about getting help with a stove. The stove costs about $60 to build, which is as much as many families make in a month. It pays for itself just in firewood savings very quickly, but the initial cost is more than many families can afford.
After three days of hands-on learning, our youth and María really wanted to head out on their own to build stoves throughout the community. Unfortunately, our time in Honduras was nearly over by then. We look forward to returning to Honduras.
Chris DeRoller, Powell House youth director
Native American peoples feel that such business practices constitute "ecocide," taking advantage of the poverty and sometimes lack of information and education of Native peoples to build industries on their lands that will cause harm to those lands and the people that live there.
We plan to address these issues in a study group, and hope the study group will open a way for us to find a role in assisting our Haudenosaunee neighbors in dealing with these health issues.
Susan Wolf, clerk, Indian Affairs
Friends have always rejected capital punishment as a sentencing option. We now have the opportunity to keep this evil out of New York. The voices of the various faith communities count heavily on this issue. Canada abolished the death penalty when over 70% of its people supported it. The impetus was the opposition of the faith communities. It is time for our community to make its historic testimony heard.
The death penalty, with a life without parole option, was restored in New York in 1995 after Governor Cuomo had repeatedly tried to enact life without parole without the death penalty. This option assures those who are concerned about community safety that we can protect the community from the truly dangerous. The life option also permits the possibility of correcting errors in both the guilt and penalty phases of a trial, as well as allowing the possibility of clemency or pardon when appropriate.
Friends who have not participated in the criminal justice process may be under the impression that witnesses are accurate when certain, and truthful when they swear to tell the truth. Those of us who have experienced the criminal justice process from the prosecution, defense, jury and/or witness perspectives are less sure. One has only to look at the sensationalized "Central Park Jogger" case to know that a terrible crime against a blameless victim demands that someone be fed into the system. Today, we know that the five teenagers who confessed were neither participants nor bystanders when that crime was committed. Their lives were shaped by the horror of their imprisonment, but at least they are still alive with the possibility of healing.
The state of New York tried to "do it right" when it came to the death penalty. Counsel and investigative resources were provided to the tune of $170 million over the last nine years. Still, at the time the statute was found to be unconstitutional, three of the four people on death row were from one county (Suffolk) and all were men. It is hard to imagine that this geographic disparity was the result of Suffolk being the most murderous county in the state. Historically, New York's track record on race and the death penalty is appalling. Eighty percent of those executed at Sing-Sing between 1945 and 1963 were African-Americans.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, the death penalty is twice cursed. It raises anger, not repentance, in those accused and charged. It defines and burdens all involved in the process, survivors, witnesses, judges, jurors, police, and executioners. It is a colossal fraud upon victims who are led to believe that they will somehow see their pain diminished by the fate of the condemned. It also draws out the litigation on the penalty issue, leaving victims with uncertainty about punishment for extraordinary long periods of time.
What can Friends do? We can encourage further study by the Assembly and education of our friends and neighbors, consistent with our historic testimony against this barbaric practice. We can reach out to the families and friends of victims of homicide, as they struggle with their pain and anger. We can make personal statements against the death penalty, such as that found in the "Declaration of Life." We can sponsor and cosponsor forums to discuss the community concerns and alternatives to the death penalty.
S. Jean Smith, Manhattan
718-246-0005
Jeff Hitchcock, assistant clerk, Black Concerns Committee
We wish to use Covenant Donations now for the Proportional Shares to help Friends understand there is a difference now that we have a revised practice of Friendly Discernment in the Financial Services Committee. We urge Friends to help us with this communication challenge to their monthly meetings.
Ministry and Counsel CC and General Services CC have already provided expense cuts in a belt-tightening mode as asked by Financial Services to help reduce the shortfall, and these are included in the budget printed here. Both Witness CC and Nurture CC are working through expense reductions for their constituent committees. We trust that the shortfall will become more manageable for next year with these additional cuts.
We now rely on all the numbers in our Proposed Budget 2005 as discerned in worship as "real world expectations," especially on the income from our regions/quarters and their constituent meetings rather than assigned numbers using mathematical calculations based on the membership rolls. We hope that Covenant Donations are a minimum expectation and that Friends will seek additional contributions from meetings whenever affordable as led by the Spirit.
A "deficit budget" is not a comfortable financial position for us to take as a YM. Continuing a deficit budget beyond this one year would not be prudent or responsible stewardship of the gifts that God grants us to do the work of the YM. Our unrestricted operating balance is needed to pay our bills and fixed expenses throughout the year as our income is skewed so heavily toward the year end. Most of our expenses are spread rather evenly throughout the year except for the surge in the third quarter for the summer sessions at Silver Bay before our heaviest income flow in the fourth quarter.
Please remember that our budget is only a financial plan. We are a faith community that carefully prepares it. Then we rely on Friends under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to provide the fuel that makes the YM go: the volunteer work, the work of our dedicated staff, and, of course, the Covenant Donations from our meetings.
For the Financial Services Committee,
Tom Martin, clerk
| New York Yearly Meeting Proposed 2005 Operating Budget 1 NOTE: This is an updated version, which Financial Services provided after the printed version of Spark went to press. |
Throughout the morning it was routine, much like the previous seven such meetings I had attended. For 2 hours we reviewed each line of proposed expense, but, after adjustments as per the most recent information, we were unable to find a meaningful reduction to the overall expense total that I had so hoped might be found—to make our work easier, of course.
Our practice on previous Budget Saturdays had been to chip in and send out for pizza, continuing our work without a break. Not this time. Those in our circle that day wanted a real break, anticipating the tough afternoon's work to follow. We walked down Madison Avenue for sandwiches, and, along the way there was good fellowship in good conversations and, finally, the fuel for our bodies required for the next session. Not exactly Sabbath rest.
Now the serious discernment work was on us, not someone else or some other committee. Just how were we going to find the income to fund the 11+% increase in the expenses? We read aloud each letter the Committee had received from monthly meetings, seven in all, detailing disappointments in this year's donations and concern for next year's. Could the assessment be reduced since there were many Friends on fixed incomes? Could there be another designation for such members, to eliminate them from the membership count? Listening to the words and listening carefully behind the words, I felt the Spirit speaking to us through the letters. Others in the circle must have heeded the same as we fell into silent worship. From the silence I suggested, "Now are we ready now to get to the Friendly Discernment of the proportional shares?" Clearly not. Several Friends present had minutes or reports for us, and each needed to be heard. Some read specific minutes approved in worship and others offered reports, each a ministry on the financial condition of the meetings in their region or quarter of how the meetings were faring and what the prospects were for next year. After each a period of silence followed similar to worship sharing. We continued gathering the information needed in preparation to discern God's will.
Next we looked for trends in the membership numbers just tabulated by the Office from the reports of the monthly meeting recorders. Again temptation popped up: Why not just do the math? Take the easy way? Just divide the income needed, adjust by "Friendly Discernment" or even negotiation, and call it a day? That was clearly not where we were being led. Not giving in we stayed at the table even though we did not know where God was leading us. I sensed the mood of the circle had become seriously somber, gloomy even. How could we do the impossible? We could never balance this budget—no way. Could I really expect the best? Could I be faithful? Was it on me to do something? After all I was the clerk. Could I trust the process?
We were almost ready, but with newcomers to our circle we needed to be clear on Friendly Discernment, our practice. We answered questions about it and discussed the discarded prior methods of calculations—the "headcount tax" with the adjustments guided by statistics from the NY State Labor Department to take into account variations in income levels across the seven regions of the YM. All this to make the shares as fair as could be using mathematics. No way. Not today.
Using another important discipline we reviewed the history of donations from meetings. Over the years five of the regions were able to meet or come close to their shares, while two did not. How did that make Friends in those two regions feel? How about Friends whose meetings did meet their shares while others did not? I sensed Friends in the circle were experiencing the same concern, and it was uncomfortable. It was not the way of Friends.
I cannot describe what happened next or even when it happened. I can only say that in this worshipful environment we were led to go around the circle and ask each region/quarter to give the number that their constituent meetings could actually give, that is, a number that would be a reach and yet be okay, a number that would be a good goal, a number that could be met at 100%, and might even be a minimum for the region/quarter? We could call these "Covenant Donations," allowing each region an opportunity to meet the 100% as agreed. No more second class regions/quarters—everybody pulling together. Every region rooting for the others it seemed. No competition. No personalities. No negotiation. No calculations. No statistics. For the first time in my many years of serving on the Financial Services Committee I had the feeling of joy in our work. Responding to the Spirit moving among us felt good, and it was right.
After the closing silent worship, Friends seemed relieved and buoyed by where and how we had been led, through the doom and even despair, finally to a resounding blessing. Me too. Way had opened. Thank you Friends.
Tom Martin, clerk, Financial Services
| NOTE: Letters to the editor are presented when space is available. Letters raise and explore topics of concern to NYYM Friends. As in any Quaker forum, views here are uncensored, should be expressed briefly and gently, and may discomfort some Friends. The Communications Committee welcomes unsolicited manuscripts of opinion or reporting and will publish material that seems provocative and timely. |
Dear Friends,
We Friends like to think of ourselves as humane, thoughtful, considerate people, so I have always found it disquieting that many people who work for Quaker institutions and organizations think that we are not very good employers. We often pay poorly and demand long hours under less than optimum conditions. We too often take people for granted and are insensitive to their needs. When I served on the boards of two different Yearly Meeting institutions I found this to be true in a number of instances.
As registrar for the Representative Meeting cancelled last December because of snow, I have had reason to see that we treat the volunteer servants of our meetings and of Yearly Meeting with something of the same inconsiderateness. And the problem seems to be increasing.
A few statistics will illustrate what I am speaking of. In 1990 86% of Friends registering for Representative Meeting did so before the deadline. This time less than 50% had done so. The deadline is not some arbitrarily chosen day, designed to annoy people, nor a mere assertion of "authority." It allows the host committee to know how to prepare, how many meals will have to be ordered, how many sleeping places need to be found, how much money will be available for copying, supplies, childcare, and all the many incidentals that putting on a meeting of this magnitude requires.
This time the majority of registrations came in during the ten days before the event was to have taken place. Many were hard to read or incomplete, requiring me to try to find addresses and phone numbers (extremely important as it turned out, when we had to notify Friends that we were cancelling) for those Friends who had not bothered to write them down. Many came with apologies, which were appreciated, but which did not lessen the amount of extra work that was required.
As clerk of Sessions Committee and those of us on the host committee struggled to reach Friends to let them know that the weather was forcing us to cancel, we became aware that there were a number of Friends who had been intending to come but who had never bothered to register at all.
There has been an increasing difficulty finding volunteers to do the work of our Yearly Meeting. I hope Friends will consider whether the practice of thoughtfulness toward those who serve us might be contributing to this problem.
Joan Oltman, Purchase Meeting
This column is prepared from information about membership received from the local meeting recorders.
NEW MEMBERS
Mary Doyle – Nine Partners
Richard S. Francis – Wilton
Joyce Heaton – Nine Partners
Mathew Liporati – Manhasset
Michelle L. McAtee - Westbury
David S. Myers – Westbury
Jacob W. Myers – Westbury
Bruce Simon – Summit
TRANSFERS
Mara Mia Komoska, to Brooklyn from Peconic Bay
DEATHS
Constance Baird, member of Chappaqua, on August 28, 2004.
Lindley Clark, member of Rahway-Plainfield, on June 7, 2004.
Robert Hawxhurst, member of Conscience Bay, on August 17, 2004.
Alfred H. Hicks, member of Westbury, on October 1, 2004.
Alice Underhill Mitchell, member of Jericho, on June 17, 2004
Alan Pike, member of Syracuse, on August 15, 2004
MARRIAGES/COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS
Andrew Ross Heimer and Melodie Lee Higginbotham, members of Ridgewood Monthly Meeting, on August 25, 2004.
Peter Stewart Kirkaldy and Marjorie Millan Lyons, under the care of Binghamton Community Friends, on July 31, 2004.
Jorge Madlener and Midori Kurihana, under the care of Catskill Monthly Meeting, on August 29, 2004.
BIRTHS/ADOPTIONS
Andrew Smith Brancato, on February 15, 2004, to Valerie Smith, member of Jericho Meeting, and Mark F. Brancato.
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