Christopher Sammond’s Travel Calendar
September 26–December 2, 2007
9/26 Participate in AFSC/Mennonite–sponsored meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, New York, NY
9/28 Interim Steering Committee, Meetings for Discernment, Poughkeepsie, NY
9/29 Budget Saturday, Clinton Corners, NY
9/30 Visit Shrewsbury MM, Shrewsbury, NJ
10/7 Visit Poplar Ridge MM, Poplar Ridge, NY,
10/10 Serve as elder at outreach event, “Simple Faith, Radical Witness,” 15th Street MM, New York, NY,
10/12–14 Facilitate annual retreat for Chatham-Summit MM, Powell House
10/15–17 Attend annual Superintendents and Secretaries’ Retreat, Pendle Hill,
10/27 Attend Spiritual Nurture Subcommittee meeting, Poughkeepsie, NY
11/2–3 Lead Worship for Annual Meeting of AFSC Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
11/9–10 NYYM Fall Sessions, Rye, NY
11/10–12 Quaker Leadership Consultation, Lafayette Hill, PA
11/16–18 Attend Friends in the Spirit of Christ retreat, Powell House
11/30–12/2 Facilitate Alumni Retreat for Drawing Out Gifts program, Powell House
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2007 NYYM Fall Sessions Youth Program
WHO: NYYM Teens Grades 7–12
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 9 through 1:30 p.m. Sunday, November 11
WHERE: Purchase Meeting House and School of the Holy Child in Rye, N.Y.
WHY: Have fun with other teens and explore program opportunities for Quaker youth
We need your input—and you—to make the program we have outlined below an exciting experience. This program is very flexible. We will continue to look for your suggestions as to how to make it even better! Contact Kathie Scanlon with panel and discussion ideas at kaths22 [at] verizon.net or Jamie Yarsky with service project ideas at yarskyoneill [at] verizon.net, or Peter Close, Fall Sessions Youth Program coordinator, at woolmanj [at] aol.com for information about how to join our weekly planning conference calls. Friday night movie choice and Saturday night events are wide open for suggestions. You must preregister by completing a Fall Sessions registration form, which you can find at: http://www.nyym.org/events/fallsess07/fallsess07reg.rtf. For more details about the Fall Sessions Program, check the NYYM Web site at www.nyym.org. General questions, call Peter Close at 203-861-0264.
Draft Outline of Activities—activity times may change
Friday 11/9 Purchase Meetinghouse
7:30—Arrive by Car—greet; name whip; games; expectations
8:30–10:30—Movie, Friendly Persuasion
10:30—Environmental snack and movie review
11:00—Evening Song; wind down; lights out in the meeting room dormitory
Saturday 11/10—start at Purchase meetinghouse
8:45—Drop-off at Purchase Meeting for new arrivals
9:30—All up and dressed
9:30–10:30—Simple breakfast and clean-up
10:30—Travel to School of the Holy child
10:45–12:00—Cooperative and AVP Games—Beth Vardy and Judy Meikle
12:00–1:00—Lunch and presentation by John Mascari,’07 Honduras Service Trip participant.
1:00–2:00—Panel on Quaker Programs for Quaker Youth—Kathie Scanlon, Moderator. Speakers will include: Mike Clark, Powell House Youth Program coordinator, Allie Miekle, Purchase Quarter Youth Group clerk, Jamie Yarsky, Long Island Quarter Youth Program coordinator, Ed Doty, executive director, YSOP, as well as Honduras Service Trip participants and a YouthQuake participant. Got other ideas?
2:00–4:00—Service project—Jamie Yarsky, Long Island Quarter Youth Program coordinator. What are your interests and talents you’d like to share with others? A survey has been sent out to NYYM youth for whom we have e-mail addresses looking for ideas for a program that Jamie will put together. If you didn’t receive the e-mail survey, please e-mail Jamie your thoughts at yarskyoneill [at] verizon.net.
4:00–4:15—Snack
4:15–5:30—Discussion—What additional Quaker youth programs would you like to help create?
5:30–6:45—Dinner
7:00—Back to Purchase meetinghouse
7:15—Evening Activity Ideas under Discussion:
Meeting with Attention to Ice Cream
Movie? Dance? Talent Show?
Night Animals with Ted Gilman in the Purchase graveyard
Campfire and marshmallow roast
10:00—Quaker midnight snack and Tales for the Crypt
11:00—Lights out
Sunday 11/11 Purchase meetinghouse
8:00–9:00—Breakfast
9:00–10:00—Meeting for worship
10:00–11:00—Singing, games and snack break
11:00–12:30—Meeting for teen business, ideas for Spring Sessions Youth Program hosted by Nine Partners Quarter, and clean-up
12:30–1:30—Lunch and goodbyes
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Fall Sessions: Walk with Us
A homeless teenaged girl finds herself pregnant with triplets. Her boyfriend turns to one of the resources in their beleaguered North Philadelphia neighborhood—two Quaker women who left suburban and rural homes to live in multiracial community. When the young mother moves in, just until the babies (three beautiful boys) come, the author begins a journey of accompaniment that tests her faithfulness and calls her to the witness of which Walk with Us is a part.
Elizabeth Gordon, the author, will be our featured speaker Friday night at Fall Sessions, Elizabeth felt called to work for racial healing while attending New Paltz Meeting. Clearness for membership helped her discern that she was led to move to inner-city Philadelphia, where she attended Unity Meeting and served for three years as clerk of PYM’s Women’s Gathering Group. She lives now in northeastern Pennsylvania, where she teaches college writing, works as a writing coach, and attends Binghamton Meeting. Elizabeth read from the book at the Black Concerns Committee meeting at Silver Bay this summer.
For information visit www.walkwithus.info.
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The First Meeting for Discernment
- How is the Spirit moving in your monthly meeting?
- What concerns have been laid upon your heart and into the collective care of your monthly meeting?
- How is the Spirit moving in the yearly meeting?
- What are we as a body called to at this time?
At this year’s Summer Sessions, Friends approved creating Meetings for Discernment as a replacement for the Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel. The first one will be held on March 15, 2008. The second will be a designated day of Summer Sessions at Silver Bay.
These meetings are a rare opportunity for us to practice our faith as Friends, listening together as to how the Spirit is moving in the YM. They also provide a venue for extended discernment on issues that require larger blocks of time than are normally available at YM business sessions. Through prayer and listening, Meetings for Discernment will connect as many Friends as possible, from all over our yearly meeting. Twice in the next year, we will have opportunity to bring seasoned concerns from our own meetings and to hear about leadings from other monthly meetings.
The recommendation NYYM approved said, "Significant blocks of time will be given to the Friends gathered, so that they can labor in God's time for discernment." We expect that younger faces will be part of the gathering; new concerns will be considered; more Friends will participate. The meeting is our opportunity to come together in extended worship. We’ll listen to what is arising in monthly meetings. We’ll "inform the body of the Yearly Meeting how best to serve all Friends on concerns that have arisen," and recommend right action.
At this time the Interim Steering Committee for Meetings for Discernment asks that every meeting select at least one Friend to attend these meetings. The term is three years. We urge meetings to appoint Friends who are under the weight of Quaker process, those people Friends go to for ministry and service, those who enjoy this kind of laboring together and who are in touch with the life of the monthly meeting. This may also be a time for Friends to come forward who have been less visible in Yearly Meeting affairs than in their local meetings.
These Friends should be:
- well seasoned in the life of their monthly meeting, and willing to bring forward their meeting’s concerns
- willing to engage in and be nurtured by an extended session of a meeting for worship
- willing to be a resource to their community, or bring back from the MFD information on who in the larger community is grappling with a similar concern
- willing to carry the discernment and actions of the Meetings for Discernment back to their monthly meeting
- willing to take responsibility for communicating concerns that arise on the floor of the Yearly Meeting sessions to their monthly meeting
In other words, it's an assignment that will entail communication, centered worship, and an awareness of movements of the Spirit.
While we ask for monthly meetings to appoint at least one Friend, please understand that all Friends are welcome, and encouraged, to join us in this worship and work.
The first gathering will be held on March 15, 2008, at Rochester meetinghouse. Details will be made available next year. More information in general about Meetings for Discernment is available in the 2007 Advance Report of the Transition Working Group, which can be found on the Yearly Meeting Web site at www.nyym.org/pubs/yb07-08 in the Advance Reports section.
Interim Steering Committee: Ernie Buscemi; Fred Dettmer; Lee Haring, clerk; Melanie-Claire Mallison; Paula McClure; Christopher Sammond; Deb Wood
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January Spark Theme Is Racism
Friends the theme for the January issue of Spark will be Racism. Please get your articles into the NYYM office by December 7, 2007. You may send your articles to office [at] nyym.org and to paul [at] nyym.org, or you may mail them to NYYM, 15 Rutherford Pl., New York NY 10003.
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Awakening the Dreamer—A Symposium on Sustainability
Friends in Unity With Nature of Manhattan and Friends Seminary will cosponsor the symposium, Awakening the Dreamer, at Fifteenth Street meetinghouse from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 20, 2007.
The symposium presents a new insight into the nature of our time and the opportunity to shape and impact the direction of the world with our everyday choices and actions. Using video clips from some of the world's most respected thinkers, along with inspiring short films, leading-edge information, and dynamic group interactions, the symposium explores the link between three of humanity's most critical concerns: environmental sustainability, social justice, and spiritual fulfillment.
Invited to attend are students, parents and faculty from Friends Seminary, Friends Academy, and Brooklyn Friends School, the New York Quarter, and the public at large. It is hoped that with these populations of adults, young people, Quakers and non-Friends, a type of synergy may begin to develop in our region to find collaborative solutions that affect us locally and as a global community.
Friends Seminary students and parents will appreciate that Awakening the Dreamer is a follow-up to the theme of the past Peace Week—the environment and its relationship to peace—and the work the 5th through 12th graders did on measuring their ecological footprint.
We also plan to have handouts about Quakerism as a way to root oneself in a Community of others who have an Earth witness commitment. This will be an important opportunity to reach non-Friends and do some outreach while they are in our midst.
Information: Janet Soderberg, Friends in Unity with Nature, 212-727-3475, or Hollister Knowlton, h.knowlton [at] comcast.net.
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Telling Our Stories—Strengthening Our Community
Telling Our Stories—Strengthening Our Community: A One-Day Retreat on Sharing Our Spiritual Experiences will be held at Amawalk Meeting on October 21, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
All Friends are encouraged to join with Purchase Quarterly Meeting when we gather for this retreat. Ernie Buscemi, member of Morningside Monthly Meeting and serving as New York Yearly Meeting presiding clerk, will facilitate. During this interactive retreat we will build community by telling our stories to one another, melting away the assumptions and bringing our corporate expectations closer to the Eternal. We will worship, answer queries, worship-share, laugh, and move: weaving the threads of community together.
To register or for more information please contact Janet Hough at 914-769-6885 or janet.hough [at] verizon.net. There is no charge for this retreat, but registration is requested, so that we can provide adequate food. Childcare can be guaranteed only for those who register by Sunday, October 14. For late registration, with or without children, please enquire. We will welcome you if space is available.
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Showing of War for Sale at Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting will have a free showing of the film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, directed by Robert Greenwald, Saturday, October 20, 2007, at 7 p.m. The meetinghouse is at 249 Hooker Ave, at the corner of Whittier Blvd.
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Quaker Witness: Peace and Social Justice Calendar
Saturday, October 20: Brooklyn Meeting Movie Night, 7 p.m.
Rory Kennedy’s HBO film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib will be screened at Brooklyn Meeting, 110 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn. Mara Komoska will host and facilitate a post-film discussion. She represents both Brooklyn Monthly Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting at the National Religious Coalition against Torture. Contact: maramia8888 [at] hotmail.com.
Saturday, October 27: Regional March for Peace,part of the National Day of Protest against the War in Iraq organized by United for Peace and Justice www.unitedforpeace.org (212-868-5545).
There will be a Quaker contingent and a Quaker information table.We will assemble at 12 noon, north of Union Square on Broadway. The march begins at 1 p.m. down Broadway to Foley Square. We will have a Quaker information table at Foley Square. If you are interested in connecting with other Quakers who are participating, please contact Helen Garay Toppins at office [at] nyym.org.
There will also be feeder marches:
Brooklyn Feeder March—Info: Brooklyn for Peace (718) 624-5921, bfp [at] brooklynpeace.org; www.brooklynpeace.org
10 a.m. – Rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn
10:30 – March across the Brooklyn Bridge
11:30 – Take subway to Union Square to link with giant peace march
Bergen County (NJ) Feeder March –
10:30 a.m. - Meet at the foot of the George Washington Bridge on Hudson Terrace in Fort Lee.
After marching to Manhattan, we will join a feeder march from 179th St. to 168th St. We will take public transportation downtown to join with the United for Peace and Justice NYC Mobilization. Information: www.bergenjustice.net; info [at] bergenjustice.net; 201-808-6004.
Saturday, November 17, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Workshop on Conscientious Objection to Military Taxation,Nadine Hoover, facilitator. Brooklyn Meeting, 110 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
The day will include both discussion and drafting of our individual statements of conscience on these issues. The New York Yearly Meeting office has agreed to store these statements. Contact Heloise Rathbone, hcrathbone [at] gmail.com, for more information.
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Coming Up at Pendle Hill
Here are some upcoming workshops and retreats at Pendle Hill.
October 22–26, 2007—Faith to Follow: Responding to Call, a Pendle Hill short course with Viv Hawkins
November 2–4—Inquirers Weekend: An Introduction to Basic Quakerism, a Pendle Hill weekend with Jean-Marie Barch and Michael Cronin
January 25–27, 2008—Insight Meditation and Worship: A Quaker-Buddhist Encounter, a weekend with Mary Grace Orr and Sallie King
March 7–9, 2008—Spirit-Led Eldering, a weekend with Margery Mears Larrabee
Information: Pendle Hill, 338 Plush Mill Rd., Wallingford PA 19086; 800-742-3150; 610-566-4507 x122; shirley [at] pendlehill.org; www.pendlehill.org.
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Simply Awesome Youth Seminar at William Penn House
FromNovember 2–5, 2007, all high school youth are invited to attend this powerful weekend workshop while connecting with other youth and with the Quaker Peace Testimony as a guide for living in our troubled times. This weekend seminar will empower all youth to find ways to influence the world now and in the future.
The suggested donation for room, board and participation in all events is $50, but please do not let the cost be a barrier to participation.
Information about the event, including agenda and registration form: www.williampennhouse.org. William Penn House, 515 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington DC 20003; 202-543-5560
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Interfaith Peace-Builders Delegations for 2008
Join Interfaith Peace-Builders for a unique opportunity to learn about the current situation in Israel/Palestine and the effects of the Israeli occupation. Your on-the-ground experience will enrich your understanding of the conflict as you meet courageous Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and justice, and witness the current realities of life in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Delegates return to North America energized and transformed.
Attend one of our four delegations for 2008 to learn directly from Israelis and Palestinians, be an eyewitness to the reality of the occupation, support those working for peace, and enrich your education and advocacy efforts in your home community. Some delegations are sponsored by American Friends Service Committee.
- Voices of the Peacemakers: Palestinians and Israelis Chart a Shared Future—March 29–April 12, 2008
- Legacies of 1948: 60 Years of Searching for Justice —May 24–June 7, 2008
- Investing in Peace: Models for Addressing an Ongoing Occupation—July 26–August 9, 2008
- Trees of Peace: 2008 Olive Harvest Delegation— October–November 2008 (exact dates pending)
Information: Interfaith Peace-Builders, 1326 9th St. NW, Washington DC 20001; 202-244-0821; fax 202-232-0143; office [at] ifpbdel.org; www.ifpbdel.org.
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Quaker Youth Pilgrimage
The Quaker Youth Pilgrimage enables young Friends ages 16–18 to learn about Quaker history and process, develop a stronger relationship with God, and experience the diversity of Friends' traditions and worship while traveling, living, and working together for a month during the summer.
Next summer's Quaker Youth Pilgrimage will travel to Scotland, Ireland, and England from July 18–August 15,2008. The deadline for applications is November 30, 2007. For more information: http://fwccamericas.org/about_us/programs/youth.shtml
Bob Baldridge, Fifteenth Street Meeting
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New at Powell House—a Children’s Program
Beginning September 2007
This year Katherine Wood will be instituting a theme-based Children’s Program during adult and intergenerational conferences. Based on the testimonies of Peace, Simplicity, Equality, and Integrity, this Children’s Program will include children between the ages of 4 and 12. We will explore the testimonies through various media including indoor and outdoor activities and games, arts and crafts, discussion, and different approaches to worship. The aim of the Children’s Program is to encourage and inspire children’s ability/desire to “live better in [the world]” and “excite their endeavors to mend it” (William Penn). How they understand God, and how that understanding applies for them, is crucial, as that is the source of the Testimonies.
There is currently a list of about 15 Childcare Workers for children under four years of age. Powell House is looking forward to the untapped potential that this program is sure to bring.
Katherine Wood, a member of Purchase MM, is a graduate of Guilford College with a degree in psychology. She has had extensive experience working with children over the span of almost 30 years. Her core interest in children and youth is their journey of spiritual discovery and what that means to them.
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Notes from Yearly Meeting on Ministry & Counsel
This is a summary of the notes taken during the Yearly Meeting on Ministry & Counsel during Summer Sessions, July 24, 2007.
18 Friends gathered to worship together and share joys and concerns from 11 monthly meetings. Clerk Deborah Wood read the section of Faith and Practice on the Yearly Meeting on Ministry & Counsel.
One theme that was brought by several Friends was meetinghouses. Some meetings have historic buildings that require energy, time, and money to maintain. Those with building projects are faced with similar demands on the human and financial resources of the meeting. However, no one suggested abandoning their meeting home!
Several Friends said that their meetings are small and aging. Meetings are seeking ways to attract younger members. At some meetings, visitors come but don’t stay. Some First Day schools are small. One meeting reported that there is a lesson plan for each week that can be implemented when children do come. Newcomers need attention, and meetings need to find ways of deepening their spiritual lives. In one meeting, some Friends are concerned about NYYM’s relationship with FUM.
On the other hand, one meeting has young adult Friends returning to the meeting, and a thriving First Day school.
Two meetings report healing following resolution of conflicts; another reports that the meeting has become more grounded lately. Adult religious education has helped deepen the life of the spirit in at least one meeting. Several meetings offer support for concerns of individual members, one offering clearness committees for this ministry.
Some meetings are reaching out to the neighborhood and community where they are located. This can take the form of identifying problems that can be addressed by the meeting, and letting the community know about Quaker witness.
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Revisions to NYYM Queries
The Committee to Revise Faith and Practice is considering some revision of the Queries, to make them more useful for individual Friends in their devotions. It's a long and slow process, which we don't want to rush. After we have seasoned our work, we will share it with others.
Lee Haring, clerk, Committee to Revise Faith and Practice
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Taking the Mystery out of the NYYM Nominations Process
(And Encouraging you to join a Committee)
The New York Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee has the primary responsibility to bring forth names of nominees for committees to Yearly Meeting Sessions, which approves the nominations. The Nominating Committee members would like all Yearly Meeting Friends who are interested, appropriately qualified, and willing to be active members, to be able to serve on any Yearly Meeting committee of their choice.
The purpose of this article is to shed light on the nominations process. The process is intended to be as open and unrestricted as possible, while protecting the personal sensitivities of Friends who generously offer to stand as nominees. Due to Friends’ unique practices in Meeting with a Concern for Business, certain aspects of the nomination process differ somewhat from those of other (non-Quaker) organizations.
Members of Nominating Committee itself are appointed by each regional meeting, with the number of appointees based on number of Friends in each Region. (Note that members do not nominate themselves, are notsubject to approval by the Yearly Meeting, and are allocated in proportion to the general geographic distribution of members.) Nominal terms of appointment for Nominating Committee members are three years with one renewal, like other committees, although this is ultimately up to each Region. Current Nominating Committee members are listed in the NYYM Yearbook.
The usual annual cycle of activities of Nominating Committees is as follows:
November: Nominating Committee meets at Fall Sessions and distributes nominations materials to its members. Each Nominating Committee member will take responsibility for soliciting nominations for about three or four NYYM committees.
January–February: Letters are sent to clerks of all NYYM committees with nominated members, requesting recommendations from the committee for new members for the following year and indicating which current members are eligible for renewed appointments.
February–March: Letters are sent to active committee members who are eligible for a (typically) three-year extension of their terms, to determine if they are willing to extend their service. Members who have served (typically) for three years and are rotating off of a committee are sent a letter of thanks for their service.
March–April: New committee volunteers are invited to stand as candidates for nomination to the committee and are selected from the general membership of the Yearly Meeting. This is done by a letter of invitation with a return (yellow) postcard. These cards are used to confirm that candidates have in fact agreed to serve and to obtain current address and contact information. This process is sometimes expedited by using e–mail.
May–June: Nominating Committee meets to bring approve a slate of nominees and to identify any open slots that still need to be filled.
July: Early in the week of Summer Sessions (at Silver Bay), the committee meets again to finalize the list of nominees, and to assemble all nominees in the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda nominations are posted for all to see and consider prior to the meeting for business at which nominees are brought up for approval. Normally, it is preferred that Friends review the list of nominees and express any reservations privately to the nominees themselves, or to the Nominating Committee, prior to general Sessions. Occasionally a Friend may raise a concern in Sessions, and ask that a nomination be reconsidered. The Yearly Meeting Session actually “approves” all nominees for appointment when the Consent Agenda is accepted. After this, the new committee clerks are notified of their new members, and the cycle starts again!
Nominees for most Yearly Meeting committees are required to be members of a monthly meeting of NYYM. Occasionally, nominees with membership in another yearly meeting are accepted for certain positions. Many Young Adult Friends are highly mobile and are actively seeking their leadings, so the Young Adult Concerns Committee may include nonmember attenders. Nonmembers (as well as Friends) may be co-opted by a committee when they have unique skills or particular interests of value to the committee; the action of co-opting is taken by each committee itself, not by the Nominating Committee.
Usually, each of approximately 50 Yearly Meeting Committees will need about three new members, and so about 150 new nominations will be made each year. Most committees have staggered three-year terms (termed “classes”; most 2008 nominations will thus be for the “Class of 2011”). In the Yearbook, the first year of a member’s current committee membership is shown in parentheses after the person’s name, indicating whether they are eligible for reappointment.
A brief summary of the primary committees, for which vacancies are filled each year, is provided below. Committees vary in their frequency of meeting, the amount of work that they accomplish by phone or e-mail vs. face-to-face meetings, and the degree of experience needed. The at-large members of the four "coordinating committees" (General Services, Witness, Nurture, and Ministry) normally prefer experienced ("seasoned") Friends, and involve more travel. The reader is referred to the current Yearly Meeting Handbook (http://www.nyym.org/pubs/Handbook/toc.shtml) for specific statements concerning the purpose and activities of each committee.
- Black Concerns Committee
- Communications Committee
- Conflict Transformation Committee
- Epistle Committee
- FGC Representatives
- Financial Services Committee
- FUM Triennial Representatives
- General Services Coordinating Committee (members at large)
- Indian Affairs Committee
- Junior Yearly Meeting Committee
- Ministry Coordinating Committee (members at large)
- Nurture Coordinating Committee.
- Oakwood Friends School Board
- Peace Concerns Committee
- Powell House Board
- Committee to Revise Faith & Practice
- Sessions Committee (members at large)
- Sufferings Committee
- Witness Coordinating Committee
- World Ministries Committee
- Young Adult Concerns Committee
In addition to these committees, Nominating Committee seeks nominees for a number of other individual appointments and specialized position that may also be found in the Yearbook (see pages in parentheses in the index, for current committee members). Generally, these positions require special skills or experience.
The Nominating Committee encourages all interested prospective nominees, and particularly Young Friends, to make themselves known! If you are interested in being considered as a candidate for nomination to a Yearly Meeting Committee, please send e-mail to Tim Johnson, clerk, at johnsontl [at] aol.com, or send postal mail to the home address listed in the Yearbook, or to Nominating Committee c/o the Yearly Meeting office. Monthly meeting clerks are encouraged to post this article as a reference for those who may need longer to consider their interests, and to encourage Friends to participate in Yearly Meeting committee work. An interest check-off form is in preparation and will be available by Fall Sessions.
Tim Johnson, interim clerk, NYYM Nominating Committee
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Prison Volunteers Needed
Believe it or not, attending one of our Quaker Worship Groups at Sing Sing or Otisville is a very fulfilling spiritual experience. You'll meet and get to know some unusual men (white, black and all shades of brown) who have overcome their deprived backgrounds to transform themselves into highly motivated, Spirit-seeking leaders and mentors for the younger prisoners. All this while living in a very difficult environment. Many of them are truly inspirational. And fun.
But how do our worship groups benefit the "inside" attenders? Prisons, for the men who live there, are a dangerous, violent, and noisy environment. To survive, they must maintain a tough-guy persona and learn to trust no one. Our worship groups provide a sanctuary, where in a relatively quiet, safe environment, they can let their hair down, talk about their feelings and spiritual needs, and receive help and support from each other. The bond they form in these groups then carries over into their everyday lives, making prison a more bearable place.
At the end of each worship session, we all stand in a circle holding hands and repeat our "mantra"—Fellowship and Community. Which pretty much sums up the reason for our being there.
If you are interested in experiencing one of the worship groups before making any kind of commitment, we can arrange for permission from the authorities for a one-time visit. Just contact me at 914-738-2312 or bort-brown [at] att.net. You just might love it!
Bill Bortree, clerk, Purchase Quarter Prison Ministry Committee
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New AFSC Exhibit: The Cost of War
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is presenting a new exhibit, The Cost of War: funding a war abroad versus human needs at home. For information: http://www.afsc.org/cost/.
To volunteer please call 212-598-0958.
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Gay-Friendly Church Directory
A few months ago Brooklyn Monthly Meeting learned of a Web site that lists gay-friendly churches. Brooklyn Meeting is now listed at this address: http://www.gaychurch.org/Find_a_Church/united_states/us_new_york.htm.
Brooklyn Meeting’s Ministry & Counsel Committee requested that the Meeting's LGBTQ Concerns Committee inform the monthly meetings of NYYM and invite them to list their meetings.
To list your meeting on www.gaychurch.org all you need do is send an e-mail to galipfoundation [at] earthlink.net with “list my meeting” in the subject line. In the body of the e-mail add your meeting’s name, address, a contact e-mail address, and your Web site URL. They will then link to your site.
Gaychurch.org is dedicated to ministering to the gay and lesbian Christian community and friends of the community. It features one of the largest gay- and lesbian-welcoming Christian church directories and bulletin boards in the world.
For any questions e-mail mpagurel [at] netscape.net.
Inga Schwarzkopf, clerk, Brooklyn Monthly Meeting
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Honolulu Monthly Meeting: Friends in Residence Wanted
Honolulu Friends Meeting is looking for two energetic, committed Quakers to be Friends in Residence for two years at the meetinghouse, starting in May or June, 2008. They should be financially self-supporting and have their own health insurance. Duties are varied, with one day off a week and four weeks' vacation per year. A modest honorarium and round-trip airfare are provided. For further information, contact Honolulu Monthly Meeting, 2426 Oahu Ave., Honolulu HI 96822-1967; quakers [at] pixi.com.
A more detailed description, which will be updated as more information becomes available, can be found at Honolulu Monthly Meeting's Web site, www.pixi.com/~quakers/.
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