March (Third Month) 2015 Meeting Newsletter

65 Ninth Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

415-431-7440

http://sfquakers.org/

March 2015 Newsletter
(Third Month)

Meeting for Worship

& First Day School

Sundays at 11:00 a.m.

Midweek Meeting for Worship, Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.

Meeting for Worship for Business

Advices:

Come to Meeting with hearts and minds prepared to be open and faithful to the leadings of the Spirit. Then the conduct of business will lead to truth, unity, and love.

When a matter is before the Meeting for Business, each person present contributes to the corporate search for a decision that accords with the will of God. Inaction is a form of action. Silent worship in the Meeting for Business contributes to the process of achieving unity.

Listen attentively to others’ words and use the silence between messages to reflect carefully on what you might contribute. When you are clear, speak simply what is in your heart, without repeating what has already been offered.While making your insights clear, lay aside personal opinions and attend to what God requires.

Queries:

Do I attend Meeting for Business regularly?

Do I speak in Meeting for Business only when I am led to speak?

Is the Meeting for Business held as a Meeting for Worship in which we seek divine guidance for our actions?

Are we tender and considerate of different views, coming to a decision only when we have found unity?

Do we give prayerful support for our clerks that they may be sensitive to the movement of the Spirit among us?

San Francisco Monthly Meeting
February (Second Month) Meeting for Business

Meeting for Business began at approximately 1:06 pm with a period of silent worship with 26 people in attendance.

2-1 Meeting approves Minutes of January 12, 2015, with the following corrections: correcting the spelling of Lorin Gillin’s last name and the change of “Community Business District,” as published, to “Community Benefit District”.

Clerk’s Report: The Clerk read notes of thanks for donations and greetings from Ruth Frasier.  We participated in a read-around on membership from Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice to see how our Yearly Meeting defines membership and to bring some more insight to what membership means. There was reflection on the reading.

Property and Finance: Amy Baker (Treasurer) presented the final position of the 2014 budget we ended up being $1,311 under on a total budget of over $120,000. Thanks go to Amy who has been working in the Treasurer capacity for 10 of the past 12 years and is stepping down. Nominating Committee will be looking at filling this position. Anyone interested should speak to Nominating Committee.

Ministry and Oversight: Larry Pettit gave the report for Ministry and Oversight and brought forward two new requests for membership and one request for release. Larry read both the recommendation from her visiting committee for and the letter of transfer for Lydia Clothier Conklin Cohen from Sacramento Monthly Meeting.  He also read the letter of transfer for Gail Cornwall from University Friend’s Meeting as well as the recommendation letter from her visiting committee. We will be seasoning the transfers for the month. Larry also read Amy Lyman’s request for release from membership. This release will be seasoned for the month.

SFFS Quaker Life Committee:  David Matchett reported for the committee. While there isn’t a formal method of communication for this committee, David wanted to report on his experience in working with the school and “bridging these cultures,” and hopes to report regularly in the future.

Rausch Street Committee: Philip Gerrie reported on the work that is still being finalized. We have been able to stay within our budget and a photo tour will be available when construction is completed so the community can see the results.

Peace and Social Concerns: David Breitzman reported on behalf of the committee and shared the joy of the status of projects under the care of the meeting. Last month's second hour with attender Devin McCutcheon was successful. A second hour in February will feature attender Cheryl Hendrickson on education in the prisons. The food pantry is getting new donations from the new market in the neighborhood and is helping to build community that has a depth of sharing. Friday Food Sharing has attracted a lot of young adult volunteers and is planning an upcoming fundraiser in March.

Nominating: Clerk Beth Bird submitted a report via e-mail that was read aloud stating the work of the committee will start soon and, in particular, a search for a new Treasurer is underway now that the current Treasurer will be retiring after ten years of service in this role.

The meeting closed with Joys and Concerns and silent worship at 3:08 p.m. Twenty-two people were present.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Marie Snell, Recording Clerk                               
Chad Stephenson, Clerk of Meeting

Meeting News

Newsletter Committee News

Our redesigned website (http://www.sfquakers.org) has gone up and it is made for the 21st century, with a focus on newcomers to Meeting, including an interactive Google Map to our Meetinghouse, a section for first-time attenders, a guide to regular Meeting events, and a link to our newsletter. New features include videos from the QuakerSpeak video series about our faith practice, a 150-year history of Quakers in San Francisco (thanks to historian/archivist/member Bruce Folsom), and a link to our new Twitter feed (@sfquakers) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sfquakers). We hope this outreach will better serve the Meetings communications for better inreach and outreach for our Quaker community. We look forward to improvements to the site in the future--please feel free to contact us with suggestions at news@sfquakers.org.

-Chad (web servant)

News from Friends

2015 March News from Ben Lomond Quaker Center

Join Doug Gwyn for Conversation with Christ: Quaker Meditations on the Gospel of John from

March 20th to 22nd. “Listen in” on conversations in John, learn what early Friends heard in them, and

enter into your own “conversation with Christ” through guided meditations. Register online at

http://www.quakercenter.org/gospel-of-john/

Sometimes we get so focused on world affairs that we forget what God has in store for us, individually

and as a community. Jim Anderson, Marilee Eusebio, Diego Navarro, Kathy and Bob Runyan

will facilitate a week of Living into Beloved Community, from April 6-11th (Monday - Saturday).

Our days will be filled with Bible study, worship, Quaker readings, periods of writing and reflection,

and shared enjoyment as we seek to know what it means to be, and bring forth, blessed community.

How do we live into it, and create meetings of vital spiritual presence and power? This program has

more limited capacity than most, so please register early at

http://www.quakercenter.org/living_into_beloved_community/

Whether or not you even expect to be a clerk, you take part in the clerking process every time you take

part in Quaker decision-making. Take advantage of this opportunity to work with Arthur Larrabee,

who has served as clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and led over 150 clerking workshops. Join us

from May 29 – 31 for Clerking: Serving the Community with Joy and Confidence. You will gain a

stronger connection between the core of our Quaker theology and our business structures, and better

understand the experience of coming to unity. We expect this workshop to fill, so please register

early at http://www.quakercenter.org/clerking-serving-the-community-with-joy-and-confidence/

Quarterly and Yearly Meeting News

College Park Quarterly Meeting

The upcoming College Park Quarterly Meeting session will be 5/15 – 5/17 at Ben Lomond Quaker Center

Pacific Yearly Meeting
The upcoming Pacific Yearly Meeting session will be 7/13 – 7/18 at Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma CA

Google Groups for SF Quakers

The group named "San Francisco Monthly Meeting" is for sharing announcements or other news with the meeting community. If you wish to be added to the group, please send a request to clerk@sfquakers.org . You will also need to create a free Google user ID and password, if you don’t already have one, you can create one at https://accounts.google.com/signup?service=mail . The address of the group is sfquakers@googlegroups.com

Our redesigned website (http://www.sfquakers.org) has gone up and it is made for the 21st century, with a focus on newcomers to Meeting, including an interactive Google Map to our Meetinghouse, a section for first-time attenders, a guide to regular Meeting events, and a link to our newsletter. New features include videos from the QuakerSpeak video series about our faith practice, a 150-year history of Quakers in San Francisco (thanks to historian/archivist/member Bruce Folsom), and a link to our new Twitter feed (@sfquakers) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sfquakers). We hope this outreach will better serve the Meetings communications for better inreach and outreach for our Quaker community. We look forward to improvements to the site in the future--please feel free to contact us with suggestions at news@sfquakers.org.

A Google group for Bay Area Quakers is 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: http://groups.google.com/support

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), Chad Stephenson (web servant), and Catherine Fox (production)

Calendar of Events for March 2015

(all events at 65 9th St., unless noted; *see details elsewhere in newsletter)

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
1 9:30a Bible Study 11a Meeting for Worship, Community Potluck following	2	3 7p Property & Finance Mtg	4 1:10p SFFS Meeting for Worship† 6p Meeting for Worship 7p Ministry & Oversight Mtg	5 12p Peace Vigil‡ 7p Potluck & Quaker Study	6	7 10:30a-1p Food Pantry
8 11a Meeting for Worship 1p Meeting for Business	9	10	11 1:10p SFFS 6p Meeting for Worship	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	17	18 6p Meeting for Worship	19 12p Peace Vigil‡ 7p Potluck & Quaker Study	20	21 10:30a-1p Food Pantry
22 11a Meeting for Worship	23	24	25 6p Meeting for Worship	26 12p Peace Vigil‡ 7p Potluck & Quaker Study	27	28 10:30a-1p Food Pantry
29 9:15a Non-Violent Comm. Practice Group 9:30a Bible Study 11a Meeting for Worship	30	31	1 6p Meeting for Worship	2 12p Peace Vigil‡ 7p Potluck & Quaker Study	3	4 10:30a-1p Food Pantry

†San Francisco Friends School, 250 Valencia St.  ‡Federal Building, Golden Gate Ave. and Larkin St.