July and August 2013 Newsletter
(Seventh and Eighth Months)
(Seventh and Eighth Months)
Meeting for Worship
& First Day School
Sundays at 11:00 a.m.
Midweek Meeting for Worship,
Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.
Advices:
Friends fellowship
begins and is nurtured within the home and Meeting. It reaches greater
fulfillment as we carry our beliefs into the wider community.
Share your Quaker
faith. Take time to learn about other people’s experiences of the Light and, as
you learn, give freely from what you have gained. Respect the experiences and
opinions of others, but do not be afraid to say what you value. Welcome the
diversity of culture, language, and expressions of faith in your Monthly
Meeting, the Yearly Meeting, and the world community of Friends. Encourage
discourse with Friends of pastoral and programmed traditions, and with members
of other faiths.
Friends have
a long history of involvement in public and private education, sharing our
values with the world and nurturing future generations. Be mindful of the needs
of children in your community and of avenues for deepening understanding
between peoples.
Queries:
How does my life
reflect Friends beliefs and thus encourage others to be interested in the
Religious Society of Friends?
Do I respond
openly to inquiries about Quaker experience and belief?
What does our Meeting do to make others
aware of Friends principles and practices?
What are we doing to help people of various
races, cultures, and backgrounds feel at home among us and we among them?
How do we encourage newcomers to return and
participate in activities of the Meeting?
In what ways do we participate in the life
of the interfaith community and in the wider fellowship of Friends?
Simplicity
Advices:
"Life is meant to be lived
from a Center, a divine Center… a life of unhurried peace and power. It is
simple. It is serene. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time."
thomas r. kelly, testament
of devotion, 1941
A life centered in God will be
directed toward keeping communication with God open and unencumbered.
Simplicity is best achieved through a right ordering of priorities, maintaining
humility of spirit, avoiding self-indulgence, resisting the accumulation of
unnecessary possessions, and avoiding over-busy lives.
Elise Boulding writes in My
Part in the Quaker Adventure,
“Simplicity, beauty, and happiness go together if they are a byproduct of a concern for something more important than ourselves.”
“Simplicity, beauty, and happiness go together if they are a byproduct of a concern for something more important than ourselves.”
Queries:
Do I center my life in an
awareness of God’s presence so that all things take their rightful place?
Do I live simply, and promote
the right sharing of the world’s bounty?
Do I keep my life uncluttered
with things and activities, avoiding commitments beyond my strength and light?
How do I maintain simplicity,
moderation, and honesty in my speech, my manner of living, and my daily work?
Do I recognize when I have
enough?
Is the life of our Meeting so
ordered that it helps us to simplify our lives
?
After a
period of worship, Meeting for Business began at 1:09 pm with 17 people
present. The clerk opened with a reading from PYM’s Advices & Queries for
Sixth month on “Social & Civic Responsibility.” The reading was followed by
silent reflection.
Approval of
Previous Month’s Minutes
6-01: Meeting approves the minutes of May 12, 2013, as presented.
College Park
Quarterly Meeting (CPQM) Report
Alice
Sowaal, CPQM Representative, reported on the Spring Session at Ben Lomond
Quaker Center on the 17th-19th of Fifth Month 2013. The session attracted about
100 people, of whom about 15 were teens, two were Young Adult Friends, and
seven were children. Alice noted the theme was “Still Learning - After All
These Years—to Live as Friends” and encompassed many Spirit-centered activities including: a Quaker bookstore, children’s
program, teen program, intergenerational games, community service project, two
interest groups (the history of Quaker Center and discussion on aging), summary
of the State of the Meeting Reports, a report on Ben Lomond Quaker Center
Association, a report on the PYM Youth Program Committee, and an epistle from
the teen committee (the last two of which are posted on the PYM YPC page). Alice
noted that some of the issues addressed at the plenary business sessions drew
attention to the theme, “Still Learning...,” in planned and unplanned
ways. (See
Alice’s full report attached to the archive version
of these minutes.)
Recorder’s Annual
Statistical Report
Bruce
Folsom, Recorder, reported on changes
in our meeting’s membership from May 31, 2012. In the past year, we had one
convincement, four transfers were completed, one release from membership, and
one transfer is still pending. Currently we have 88 members. These statistics
will be provided to Pacific Yearly Meeting which is then used to determine the
annual fees we pay to yearly meeting. (See Bruce’s full report attached to the
archive version of these minutes.)
Requests for Transfer of Membership
Stephen read a letter from Peter Anderson who requested a transfer
of membership from San Francisco Meeting to Redwood Forest Meeting. This
letter will be referred to M&O for their consideration and recommendation.
Annual Meeting of
Corporation
Stephen
convened a brief annual meeting of the San Francisco Friends Meeting,
Incorporated. The meeting was held in the manner of Friends, four officers and
five directors were approved for the board of the corporation. (See the
separate SFFM corporation minutes in the
archive.)
Ministry & Oversight
Committee
David
Matchett, co-clerk, reported that M&O is currently forming a membership
clearness committee for Paula Stinson. Stephen reported that M&O is
proposing a series of queries for Friends to engage in conversation and through
a bulletin board where written responses could be shared. The queries are:
- What role does Meeting for Worship play for you and your family during the week?
- Is there anything you and your family do to prepare for Meeting for Worship on First Days?
- Does the idea of a Sabbath resonate with you and if so how?
- If you needed Meeting in a time of challenge and/or crisis, what was the experience like for you?
Friends considered these queries in silent reflection.
- What role does Meeting for Worship play for you and your family during the week?
- Is there anything you and your family do to prepare for Meeting for Worship on First Days?
- Does the idea of a Sabbath resonate with you and if so how?
- If you needed Meeting in a time of challenge and/or crisis, what was the experience like for you?
Friends considered these queries in silent reflection.
PYM Youth Program Coordinator
Consideration
After a three-year trial of a paid Youth Program coordinator
position, Pacific Yearly Meeting Representative Committee has minuted its
recommendation that the program be continued, and Friends are asked to come to
the annual session having seasoned this recommendation in their meetings. Steve Leeds reported that the Youth
Program Coordinator Supervisory Committee has completed several evaluations and
reports to assess the impact of the program over the past three years. He
distributed a copy of the Summary Evaluation Report and invited Friends to
contact him if there are questions about the report. Friends are encouraged to
share responses and recommendations to Steve and our PYM Rep., Rose Medellin,
to bring to the upcoming plenary at PYM in August. A full
copy of the evaluation report is available online at www.pacificyearlymeeting.org. Clerk Stephen Matchett also indicated
there would be time on next month’s agenda for Friends to voice their
thoughts or concerns.
After a
period of announcements and sharing of joys and concerns, Meeting closed with
worship at 2:13 pm with 18 people in attendance.
Respectfully
submitted,
Blake
Arnall, Recording Clerk
Stephen
Matchett, Clerk of Meeting
Annual
meeting of San Francisco Friends Meeting, Inc.
The annual
meeting of SF Friends Meeting, Inc. was convened at 1:33 pm on Sunday, June 9,
2013, by meeting clerk Stephen Matchett.
20 members were in attendance.
1. Meeting approved holding the meeting of
the corporation after the manner of Friends.
2. Meeting approved the following officers
for 2013-2014: Stephen Matchett (Chair), Krista Barnard (Vice-Chair), Blake
Arnall (Secretary), Amy Baker (Treasurer)
3. Meeting approved the following five
additional directors: Bruce Ames
Folsom, Philip Gerrie, David Matchett, Markley Morris and Rolene Walker.
4. The meeting of the corporation was
adjourned at 1:35 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Blake Arnall,
Secretary
.
Happy Summer
Friends!
I was thinking of
all of you so much over Memorial Day Weekend and wanting to be in Ben Lomond
with many of you. I hope it
was a restorative and inspiring retreat.
I've had an up and
down time over the last month.
Anand was in the UK for 3 weeks attending various family functions. I
had a hard time being here on my own trying to not let fear take up residence,
especially when hearing gunshots at night. It's been good to have him back and
feel safer.
While he was gone
I had the chance to attend a 4-day workshop run by a facilitator from
California trained in Core Energetics. It was an amazing experience of
emotional and physical release.
The participants were 13 nuns and 3 married women and helped me
tremendously.
The AVP Program
here has continued the work we recently started in prisons. Several of the comments after the
first workshop held in a women's prison stated that participants felt they
would not be in prison if they'd had a chance to participate in the workshop
earlier in their life. It is
so encouraging to know the impact the workshop has had and feel the encouragement
of the prison administrator.
Anand and I are
planning to come to the US in December and look forward to being with many of
you in early January.
Hugs,
Heidi
We are saddened to learn
of the death of Jan deBeers at age 90 at Friends House in Santa Rosa on June 7,
widow of our late member Jack deBeers and a friend to many in Meeting.
Please hold in the Light
our member Ruth Fraser and her family in England as her daughter Jo undergoes
chemotherapy for recently diagnosed non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
NVC Study Group
The next NVC
Study Group will be on the fourth Sunday in July, July 28, 2013. The group
will gather in the kitchen of
the San Francisco Meetinghouse at 9:15AM with
the goal of starting at 9:30AM. There will be childcare available. Everyone is welcome,
you can jump in anytime. We will continue reading Chapter 5, "Taking
Responsibility For Our Feelings", beginning on page 55. The plan is
to read, do a related exercise and have time for worship sharing.
Some Friends
have asked where to purchase the book, Nonviolent
Communication: A
Language for Life, by Marshall Rosenberg. It can
be ordered directly from the Center for Nonviolent Communication <https://www.<cnvc.org/catalog/general-nvc> and it is
available from Amazon, even in a Kindle edition. We are also using
the Nonviolent Communication Companion Workbook by Lucy Leu. The related Workbook section in July will be
Chapter 5, pages 87 - 96.
Sunday 8/4: Second-Hour on
Bolivia
The first Sunday in August we are expecting a visit
from Bolivian Quaker educator Alicia Lucasi, fresh from attending Pacific
Yearly Meeting, who will join us in San Francisco for worship, potluck lunch
and a second-hour presentation on the work of the Bolivian Quaker Education
Fund (BQEF). Alicia Lucasi went from harvesting quinoa on the Altiplano at the
age of ten to earning a degree in education administration. A former
beneficiary of BQEF’s scholarship program, she now works in the BQE-Bolivia
office in La Paz, and recently finished a two-year stint as director of
BQE-Bolivia's Student Residence in the remote mountainous village of Sorata, La
Paz.
There are more than 30,000 Quakers in Bolivia,
nearly all Aymara. Quaker presence there dates from the 1920s and the
missionary work of North American evangelical Friends from Indiana and the
Pacific Northwest. Liberal Quaker involvement began in the 1990s, with a series
of study tours that led to exchange visits and, among other things, the
formation of BQEF in 2001. Bolivian Friends are passionate about education, and
intensely interested in vibrant connections with Friends in the North and
elsewhere. Please plan to stay after the potluck on August 4 and
hear Alicia Lucasi’s inspiring story about her life-changing work and the work
of BQEF.
July 2013 News from Ben Lomond Quaker Center
Do you know any high school age teens who are interested in nonviolent direct action, peace, and
adventure? Make it possible
for them to attend Peace
Action Camp from July 21st - 27th at the LaJolla Friends Meetinghouse. Rising 10th - 12th grade teens will
explore border issues as they relate to Friends' testimonies around peace,
justice and environmental stewardship with inward and outward nonviolence,
including nonviolent direct action, community service, and outdoor adventure.
Camp fun isn't just for kids! Everyone is welcome to our annual Family
Work Camp from Sunday, August 4th through Friday, August 9th. We will work each morning and until
lunch time, and then spend our afternoons and evenings enjoying the redwood forest,
taking naps, playing music and singing, doing crafts, playing games, and even
take a few outings nearby. Put your hands and hearts to work on
improvements to Quaker Center facilities while building community across
generations.
Meetings can purchase an Annual Pass to Quaker Center for $1200
and send one person to every Quaker
Center program including our summer camps! Register for all Quaker Center
programs online, http://www.quakercenter.org/programs/register.
July 2013 News from AFSC
Decision Time on Two Prison Issues
Overcrowding
Two pressing prison issues will come to a
head in June and July which Friends should be apprised of. One is that the
appeals court has refused Governor Brown’s attempts to end the court order
requiring him to reduce the prison population by another 9,000 prisoners. This
means he has to proceed, though he is doing so very reluctantly. Californians
United for a Responsible Budget, (CURB) a coalition in which AFSC plays an
active role, has put together proposals that could easily implement the court
requirements, save the state hundreds of millions of dollars, and help
prisoners transition more realistically back to society. Unfortunately the
Governor’s plans rely more heavily on adding more capacity, often in the form
of greater use of private prisons, and only tepid attempts at releasing elderly
and seriously infirm people back to the community. He also recommends greater use of good time credits, a
positive incentive for people to prepare for release, but excludes many
categories of prisoners who should be given these incentives.
This would be a good time to write to the
Governor urging him to look at the CURB proposal and work with legislators to
implement these proposals. Go to www.curbprisonspending.org for
details. Be sure your message includes a plea that no new prisons be built when
we know that their recidivism rates are over 70%, and we need more realistic
solutions.
Indefinite Isolation
Secondly, prisoners in solitary confinement
are planning to resume their hunger strike to protest the use of indefinite
isolation. The date for the renewed strike is July 8. Many events are being
planned around the state so support the prisoners. For events near you go to http://www.stoptortureca.org/# AFSC has partnered with the National
Religious Campaign Against Torture to raise awareness about solitary
confinement, as a form of torture, among faith communities. We have materials, films and speakers
to offer. Please contact Laura
Magnani, (415) 565-0201 Ext. 11 at AFSC, lmagnani@afsc.org
to schedule something.
NRCAT: Torture is a Moral Issue
The National Religious Campaign Against
Torture has distributed this request. Apologies for the late distribution:
Dear Friends:
Please call your Representative now.
Later today and tomorrow the House will vote on amendments to the FY 2014 National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). During this process, the House will vote
on an amendment by Representatives Smith and Gibson that would prohibit the use
of indefinite military detention without trial for people detained in the
United States because of a suspected affiliation with terrorism. Also,
the House will vote on a separate amendment by Representative Smith that would
provide a framework for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Please call the Capitol Switchboard at
202-224-3121 and ask to speak with your
Israel/Palestine
AFSC program director for Israel/Palestine
organizing, Dalit Baum, is due back from four months in Jerusalem at the end of
June. Now is the time to invite
her to come to speak to your group. It isn’t easy to get on her schedule
because she is always in demand so check with the calendar gurus in your
Meeting/Church and call Dalit (pronounced Daleet) at (415) 565-0201 Ext. 26.
Representative.
Pacific Yearly Meeting
The upcoming Pacific Yearly Meeting session
will be July 29 - Aug 3, 2013, at
Mount Madonna Center, in Watsonville CA
College Park Quarterly Meeting
Report on Spring 2013 College Park Quarterly Meeting
This weekend gathering at Ben Lomond Quaker Center on
the 17th-19th of Fifth Month 2013 attracted about 100
people, of whom about 15 were teens, two were Young Adult Friends, and seven
were children.
This gathering encompassed many of the Spirit-centered
activities that are present at other CPQM gatherings: there was a Quaker
bookstore, children’s program, teen program, intergenerational games (instead
of “talent night”), community service project (removing an invasive species—French
Broom), and vegetarian meals. There were also two interest groups: the history
of Quaker Center (which is posted on the Quaker Center website) and discussion
on aging, which focused both on practical concerns, as well as spiritual ones
about our selves and our families. A summary of the State of the Meeting
Reports was also read, and a report was given from Ben Lomond Quaker Center
Association. Further, a report was given by the PYM Youth Program Committee and
an epistle was read from the teen committee (both of which are posted on the
PYM YPC page).
The theme for this gathering was "Still Learning -
After All These Years—to Live as Friends," and this theme arose in many
planned and unplanned manners. Here I will discuss three.
One planned way in which all present worshiped about the
theme of “Still Learning-After All These Years—to Live as Friends,” was during
worship sharing. The queries, composed by teens, asked us to worship and share
about the best years of our lives and the role of Spirit at those times.
Another planned way in which this theme arose was during
a report regarding what it means to have a corporation “under the care of”
Quarterly Meeting. CPQM has three corporations under its care: Friends
Association of Services for the Elderly (FASE), which is the board for Friends
House; College Park Friends Educational Association (CPFEA), which is the board
for John Woolman School; and the Ben Lomond Quaker Center Association (BLQCA),
which is the board for Quaker Center. A member of Ministry and Oversight gave a
presentation on this issue, and much ministry ensued. We learned many Quaker
organizations have moved from being under the care of Meetings, and that they
have still done excellent work and maintained Quaker values.
An unplanned way in which we dwelled with our theme was
during a plenary, when a long-time Friend (and former Clerk of CPQM) asked that
our Presiding Clerk represent CPQM in signing a statement against torture; he
had been working with an interfaith group to end torture, and those of other
faiths were having their “higher ups”—my term for bishops, rabbis, imams—sign a
statement, which would itself be sent along to political “higher ups.”
Why was this worthy petition not signed by our Presiding
Clerk, Eric Moon? Though all present were adamantly opposed to torture (and
thus in favor of the petition), the question arose as to whether the focus of
Quarterly Meeting should be the consideration of (and minuting of such
considerations regarding) political statements about this and other highly
relevant and current issues regarding immigration, health care, prison reform,
to name a few. Wouldn’t this lead to spending all of our time in plenary sessions
considering such issues, minuting our concerns, and signing such petitions?
Further, should CPQM mold itself to a hierarchical model
in which our Presiding Clerk is a “higher up,” who can “represent” not only
those present in plenary, but also those doing childcare and dinner prep at the
moment, as well as those many hundreds of Friends who are members of Monthly
Meetings in the geographical area covered by CPQM, but who, for many reasons,
are not present?
In short, what is the purpose of CPQM and the plearies
therein? Here are some quotes from Faith and Practice about CPQM:
Quarterly meetings foster
intervisitation on a local level, especially with worship groups and preparative
meetings….
Their main purposes are to
strengthen the life and fellowship of Monthly Meetings and other Friends groups
in their area, to offer increased opportunities for worshiping together, and to
consider spiritual and worldly matters of local or broader concern. They offer
youth an opportunity to build closer relationships….
Responsibilities, functions
and actions may be referred to Quarterly Meetings by their constituent Monthly
Meetigns and/or by the Yearly Meeitng. These include, but are not limited to:
strengthening the spiritual
life and fellowship of Meetings and individual Friends (including younger
Friends);
compiling and sharing and
sharing State of the Meeting Reports;
considering and acting on
concerns and forwarding those they have approved to yearly Meeting.
They prepare and endorse
travel minutes and facility presentations by traveling Friends.
They establish projects to
further Friends’ concerns at the regional level and committees to administer
them.
They carry out such other
functions as are appropriate to the Religious Society of Friends in their area.
(126–7)
We were reminded that there are many ways in which those
Friends doing worthy political work can use CPQM to garner further support for
that work: through interest groups, poster presentations, email to CPQM reps,
and requests that CQPM reps take issues back to the Monthly Meeting Business
Meetings. It was recommended that this petition be brought back to Monthly
Business Meetings.
(And it is my understanding that several months ago,
SFMM’s Peace and Social Concerns considered this petition, brought it to
Business Meeting, and signed the petition against torture that was under
consideration.)
Though all present appeared to be in unity that the petition
not be signed by the Presiding Clerk, a collection of queries (something to the
effect of the following) were raised at the end of the session by someone who
was himself in favor of the petition not being signed:
Is there a time when a
political issue similar to the one presented today is properly presented to CPQM during a plenary? Perhaps if one or
more of our members underwent torture? What, however, would justify such partiality?
These queries ask us to consider the connections among
the local and global, the communal and personal, the political and spiritual.
Indeed, the Spirit was with us as we were led to worship
about how we—after all these years—are still learning how to live as Friends.
The upcoming College Park Quarterly Meeting
session will be October 18 - 20 (Fri-Sun)
at Sierra Friends Center
Google Groups for SF Quakers
This is the group to send your late breaking announcements or
share other news with the meeting community. You can sign up via the web: http://groups.google.com/group/sfquakers. You will need
to create a free Google user ID and password, if you don’t already have one.
A group for young adult Friends in San Francisco is at http://groups.google.com/group/youngsfmeeting
A group for parents in the San Francisco Meeting is at http://groups.google.com/group/sf-crec-parents
A Google Group for Bay Area Quakers is now available at http://groups.google.com/group/bayareaquakers. The group is
for Bay Area Quaker meetings, churches, and organizations, as well as
individual Friends, to share news of events and activities that would be of
interest to Quakers and the general public. Events do not need to be strictly
Quaker. For more information, contact Tom Yamaguchi, tomyamaguchi@mac.com
Help on using Google Groups is also available at:
Submissions to the newsletter are due by the next-to-last First
Day (Sunday) of each month in the News Committee mailbox at the meetinghouse,
or by e-mail to news@sfquakers.org. This newsletter is also
available for reading or downloading on our website at http://www.sfquakers.org/news.html.
Members of the News Committee are Kate McCarley (clerk, editor),
Eli Bishop (web servant), Catherine Fox (production), and Noel Schwerin
(distribution)
(all events at 65 9th St., unless
noted; *see details elsewhere in newsletter)
Sunday
|
Monday
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Tuesday
|
Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
|
30
9am Extended Meeting for
Worship
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1
|
2
|
3
6p Meeting for Worship
|
4
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
5
|
6
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
7
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship, Community potluck following
|
8
.
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9
7p Property & Finance Mtg
|
10
6p Meeting for Worship
7p Ministry & Oversight Mtg
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11
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
12
|
13
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
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14
11a Meeting for Worship
1p Meeting for Business
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15
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16
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17
6p Meeting for Worship
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18
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
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19
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20
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
21
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship
|
22
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23
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24
6p Meeting for Worship
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25
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
26
|
27
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
28
9:15 Non-Violent
Comm. Practice Group
11a Meeting for Worship
|
29
|
30
|
31
6p Meeting for Worship
|
1
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker
Study
|
2
|
3
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
‡Federal Building, Golden Gate Ave. and Larkin St. †San Francisco
Friends School, 250 Valencia St.
(all events at 65 9th St., unless noted;
*see details elsewhere in newsletter)
Sunday
|
Monday
|
Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
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28
9:15 Non-Violent Comm. Practice
Group
11a Meeting for Worship
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29
|
30
|
31
6p Meeting for Worship
|
1
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
2
|
3
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
4
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship, Community potluck following
1p Talk on Bolivia
from Alicia Lucasi
|
5
.
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6
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7
|
8
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
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9
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10
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
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11
11a Meeting for Worship
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12
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13
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14
6p Meeting for Worship
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15
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
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16
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17
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
18
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship
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19
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20
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21
6p Meeting for Worship
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22
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
23
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24
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
25
9:15 Non-Violent
Comm. Practice Group
11a Meeting for Worship
|
26
|
27
|
28
6p Meeting for Worship
|
29
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
30
|
31
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
‡Federal Building, Golden Gate Ave. and Larkin St. †San Francisco
Friends School, 250 Valencia St.
