Meeting for Worship
& First Day School
Sundays at 11:00 a.m.
Midweek Meeting for Worship, Wednesdays
at 6:00 p.m.
The Meeting Community
Meetings for Worship and
Business are the center of our spiritual community. There, as we come to know
each other in the Spirit, we build the “beloved community.”
Mutual respect and care in
the Meeting form the foundation from which we can test, support, and exercise
leadings of the Spirit. At its best, the Meeting community provides a framework
for us to learn and practice mutual care, which strengthens us as we act in the
world.
All members of the Meeting
community should share in the care of one another.While respecting privacy, we
must be aware of and sensitive to each other’s needs. We must also be willing
to ask for assistance when we are in need.
Do I strive to be inclusive in
my relationships within the Meeting?
Do I care for the reputation of
others, refraining from gossip or disparaging remarks?
Am I committed to the difficult
work of forgiveness, and affirming God’s love for the whole community?
How are love and unity
maintained among us?
Do we practice the art of
listening, even beyond words?
How have we been sensitive to
the personal needs and difficulties of members and attenders, young and old?
Do we visit one another in our
homes and keep in touch with distant members?
San Francisco Monthly Meeting
November (Eleventh Month) Meeting for Business
11/10/2013
November (Eleventh Month) Meeting for Business
11/10/2013
After a period of worship, Meeting for Business began at 1:01 pm with 18 people present. The clerk read from the PYM Advices & Queries for Eleventh Month on “Peace.” The reading was followed by reflection and spoken ministry.
Approval of Previous Month’s Minutes
11-01: Meeting approves the minutes of October 13, 2013, as
presented.
Membership Matter
Stephen Matchett, meeting
clerk, re-read the report of Paula Stinson’s membership clearness committee,
which Ministry & Oversight Committee’ brought last month with its recommendation
of acceptance.
11-02: Meeting approves Paula Stinson's membership. Marian
Chatfield Taylor (convenor) and Philip Gerrie will compose a welcoming committee.
Naming Committee
Owain Elliott-Sowaal
reported for the Naming Committee, comprised of Anne Marie Snell and himself.
They propose the following individuals for service on the Nominating Committee:
David Ackerly and Ann Hitch Collins (continuing members in 2014) for co-clerks,
and Arthur Koch, Jan Hartsough and Ruth Sheldon each for a two-year Nominating
Committee term through 12/31/2015. (Kate Frankel is the other continuing member
of Nominating.) Meeting will season these nominations for a month.
College Park Quarterly Meeting - Fall Session Report
Alice Elliott-Sowaal, our
Quarterly Meeting representative, reported on the fall session held at Sierra
Friends Center in October on the theme of “Taking Stock.” Attendees included 88
adults, 12 teens, and 6 children. Activities on the theme included a plenary
dialog on the mission or purpose of Quakerism, and a follow-up interest group.
Participants also heard a proposal to split Pacific Yearly meeting into two
smaller bodies. Grass Valley Friend Tristan Anderson, who suffered a brain
injury at the hands of the Israeli defense force during a protest against the
occupation of the Palestinian territories, talked about how he is doing and the
status of his court case. The teen group sponsored an interest group on
transgender and gender-identity issues, and raised the question whether gender-segregated
sleeping arrangements for teens at meeting sessions are excluding of some
individuals. Alice read a portion of a letter from the teen group of Baltimore
Yearly Meeting suggesting that these arrangements also call into question the
integrity of young Friends’ stated commitment to refrain from sexual activity
at retreats. Discernment on this issue will continue. An interest group provided information about home funerals
and “green” burials, as Friends consider ways to bring death back into the home
(the parlor that gave funeral parlors their name) rather than hospitalizations
and mortuaries. Some Friends are proposing to start a green Quaker cemetery at
Sierra Friends Center.
San Francisco Meeting will
be hosting the upcoming winter session of CPQM here at the meetinghouse on
Saturday, January 18 (including teen overnights on Friday and Saturday). We
will need to assign an arrangements coordinator soon to work with the planners
of that session.
Ministry & Oversight Committee Report
David Matchett, co-clerk,
reported that Jeff Mead has withdrawn his request to lay down his membership.
Members of M&O will continue to meet with him about the concerns that
prompted his original request.
M&O will be reviewing
Friends’ responses to the queries presented at last month’s business meeting
and on subsequent Sundays, and will report back on them to Meeting.
The Retreats subcommittee
continues to meet. They are currently planning the Annual Meeting Retreat (May
23-26, 2014). If you have ideas or would like to help, please contact clerk Bob
Kovsky.
Property & Finance Committee
Amy Baker, treasurer,
presented the proposed 2014 budget (attached to archive copy of these minutes),
explaining certain highlighted items. Meeting will season this proposal for a
month.
San Francisco Friends School Quaker Life Committee
Krista Barnard, one of
Meeting's Quaker Life Committee representatives, reported that the Friends
School is completing a “self-study” required periodically for continued
membership in the Friends Council on Education, looking at the school's
governance and curriculum to determine how they draw from Quaker values and
educational philosophy. The committee has been assisting in this review. In
addition, each year,the school focuses on a specific testimony, last year's
being Stewardship and the current one being Integrity. A set of queries on the
chosen testimony, devised by the prior year's graduating eighth graders, are
posted in each classroom and serve as a focus for reflection and discussion
throughout the year. The current ones are:
How do my words and actions reflect the truth of my
inner voice?
How do I hold to my beliefs yet keep my mind open to
new truths?
Do we strive to honor the light of all living things?
We extend a special
invitation to Friends School families and staff to attend our Sunday meeting
for worship twice a year. The next one of these will be November 24. Krista
also reported attending her first schoolwide meeting for worship, held the
first Wednesday of each month during the school year, where she was impressed
by the students' level of discipline and valuing of the silence.
Rausch Street Committee
Philip Gerrie, Rausch Street
Committee co-clerk, reported that title to the Rausch Street property has been
officially transferred to the meeting. A plan is in place to develop a lease
with the current tenants. The committee is seeking a ‘seed money’ grant of
$30,000 to assess and plan for renovations.
Food Pantry
Philip Gerrie, as food
pantry coordinator (a project under the care of Peace & Social Concerns
Committee), reported the program is going well with consistent volunteers,
however more help is always welcome, particularly from Friends willing to do
bread pickup, or to be trained as either a set-up or clean-up coordinator.
After a
period of announcements and sharing of joys and concerns, Meeting closed with
worship at 2:35 pm with 18 people in attendance.
Respectfully submitted,
Blake Arnall, Recording Clerk Stephen
Matchett, Clerk of Meeting
AFSC News
AFSC News
Deportations
Since the beginning of the
Obama Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported
approximately 2 million people. In Alameda County alone, ICE deports about
1,000 people every month. Many immigration activists have decided recently to
build a new movement to stop the busses that ICE uses to send people away. The
activists held their first action in Arizona and
followed with another here in San Francisco in October. AFSC’s Pablo Paredes, and his high school
students participated in San Francisco. You can see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0aISHaPWs-I
Hunger Strike
Following the 60
day hunger strike by prisoners, the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
continues to push for policy changes. On October 9th, the Senate and Assembly
Public Safety Committees held the first of several legislative hearings. The
following week, the UN Rapporteur
on Torture visited both Los Angeles and the Bay Area, speaking out and hearing
from survivors of solitary confinement as well as their family members.
Hundreds of people turned out at these events and an important new relationship
has been formed.
Socially Responsible Investing
Socially
responsible investors have historically not had access to research and
reporting on abuses and violations of human rights by corporations doing
business in Israel/ Palestine. In an effort to provide some of that missing
information, the Middle East program of the American Friends Service Committee
together with Jewish Voice for Peace have created a new quarterly newsletter.
To subscribe: www.InvestmentScreen.org/News
News from Friends
December 2013 News from Ben Lomond Quaker Center
It’s not too late! You can
still register for the Music and Dance
Retreat for only $60-$140 per person taking place from December 6-8th and
have a weekend filled with a variety of singing and dancing opportunities. Bring
your kids and grandkids, or just yourself, and join
us for a few days of fun making music together and dancing with a
professionally called contra dance on Saturday night with live music. Find out
more and register online at http://www.quakercenter.org/music-and-dance-retreat/
“Ring it in,
ring in the new year” as you watch the sunrise on January 1st from the Casa de
Luz. During Quaker Center's tradition of greeting the dawn of the new year with
meeting for worship we experience the pitch darkness of the redwood forest and
what is revealed and transformed as the sun rises. This is the culmination of
our annual Year End Retreat. This year Rachel Findley will facilitate an
exploration of the transformation of John
Woolman: The Place of Prayer Is a Precious Habitation from Dec. 27th –
January 1st. More information and online registration are available on the
Quaker Center website at http://www.quakercenter.org/year-end-retreat-2013/
Quarterly and Yearly Meeting News
Pacific Yearly Meeting
Quarterly and Yearly Meeting News
Pacific Yearly Meeting
The upcoming Pacific Yearly
Meeting session will be July 14-19,
2014 at Walker
Creek Ranch in Petaluma,
CA
College Park Quarterly Meeting
The upcoming College Park
Quarterly Meeting will be January 18 (Saturday) at San Francisco
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.
Visit http://groups.google.com/group/sfquakers/about
to join or learn more.
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
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
|
1
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship, Community potluck following
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2
|
3
7p Property & Finance Mtg
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4
8:40a-9:15a SFFS Community Meeting for Worship†
6p Meeting for Worship
7p Ministry & Oversight Mtg
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5
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
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6
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7
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
8
11a Meeting for Worship
1p Meeting for Business
|
9
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10
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11
6p Meeting for Worship
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12
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
13
|
14
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
15
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship
|
16
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17
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18
6p Meeting for Worship
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19
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
20
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12
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
22
9:15 Non-Violent Comm. Practice Group
11a Meeting for Worship
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23
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24
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25
6p Meeting for Worship
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26
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
27
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28
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
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26
9am Extended Meeting for Worship
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27
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28
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29
6p Meeting for Worship
|
30
12p Peace Vigil‡
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
|
31
|
1
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
|
‡Federal Building, Golden Gate Ave. and Larkin St. †San Francisco
Friends School, 250 Valencia St.
