November 6, Sunday........ Potluck lunch at 11.30. November 11-12, Fri-Sat .. “Peace in the Holy Land” conference. November 13, Sunday....... Forum, Eldering, led by Christine Drennon. November 20, Sunday....... Business Meeting. No Forum. Children visit a Buddhist temple. November 27, Sunday........ Forum, W orship sharing on Giving Thanks. December 4, Sunday ........ Farewell potluck lunch for Craig Bejnar.
Each Tuesday, at 4-5 pm, a silent peace vigil is held at the NE corner of Main Plaza (Commerce and Dwyer or Commerce and Soledad, which is the same thing) near the San Fernando Cathedral.
Clerk: Bill Wilkinson, e-mail:bdwilkinson@earthlink.net
Newsletter Editor: Ken Southwood, e-mail: jksouthwood@grandecom.net
Website: http://www.sanantonioquakers.org
Donations may be made to Friends Meeting of San Antonio, P.O. Box 6127, San Antonio TX 78209.
Meeting telephone, to leave a message: (210)945-8456
Friends Meeting of San Antonio,
7052 N. Vandiver,
PO Box 6127 San Antonio TX 78209
Hurricane Katrina and Rita Survivors’ Benefit ConcertWhen the Katrina disaster struck New Orleans, Sevenoaks Meeting in Kent, England, where Diana Hynard, Janet Southwood’s sister, is a member, made an impromptu collection to send for relief, raising one hundred pounds. Then Duncan Dwinell, the Meeting Treasurer, who is also Head of Music at a Maidstone school, had another idea. This is the result, reported in the newspaper:“An all-jazz concert in aid of the hurricane survivors from New Orleans, re-located to San Antonio, Texas, raised over £500. Held at Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone, Kent last Saturday night, the evening celebrated the unique contribution New Orleans jazz has made to the world of music. Will Michael, a noted jazz performer and teacher, offered his own understanding of how jazz developed over a hundred years ago. With examples from Oscar Peterson, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and the inimitable Louis Armstrong, Will Michael enthralled his audience with his piano skills and jazz style. Oakwood students past and present joined Will for many of the numbers. Drummer Dimitri Sudell, saxophonist Oliver Dover, pianists Tom Entwistle and Tom Slater, guitarist Greg Chambers, bass-player Patrick Fysh, Sam Dunstall, Rob Lee and James Gill, and the school’s own Coconut Grove Steel Band showed the variety of music that has come from those early years in Basin Street. The funds raised will be sent to the Quaker relief project in San Antonio, Texas. Janet Southwood, the local representative there, had e-mailed that Hurricane Rita had forced an additional 4000 evacuees to move in, homeless, jobless and many without family support. Her sister from Hildenborough, Kent, was at the concert. and assured all the audience that she would soon be joining Janet in Texas and would be able to pass on all the good wishes from the evening. Duncan Dwinell, Head of Music at Oakwood Park and organiser of the concert, quoted a remark made on BBC Radio 4 by a New Orleans resident shortly after the first devastating hurricane hit New Orleans: “For over a century the world has tapped its toes to the music this city invented. Now, please, it’s pay-off time!” A cheque for over $1000 will shortly arrive in San Antonio to help the good work already in progress there.” “Tap your toes at Oakwood Park on Saturday and tap your wallets for the survivors of the catastrophe that has hit the Mississippi Delta area and the ‘Ground Zero’ of popular music for generations,” said Duncan in his message announcing the free concert. The “cheque” has arrived. We think George Fox would have liked all that jazz.
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“The grieving mother pitched her tent,
On Prairie Chapel Road...”
It is carefully protected by copyright but, if you can get all the numbers right, you may be able to hear it at
www.ericfolkerth.com/B1082610743/C1309160452/E20050820132720/index.html
The writer says, “ I should note that there were also several Stars of David, and at least one Crescent Moon too...”
One imagines a meeting between two men – say, for example, the president of the United States and the last pope – who have private lines to the Almighty but discover fundamental disagreements over the message each receives. . .”
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., NYT, Sep. 18, 2005.
GUESS WHO?There once was a family of six,Two parents, four kids in the mix. The mother is bright, And to her delight, She finds herself in a fix!
The family is caring and joyful and nice, Written by the Meeting children
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The conference will begin Friday evening with welcome and Middle Eastern fare, followed by the film, "Promises," and discussion.
Highlight of the conference on Saturday will be a live broadcast from Jerusalem with a panel of Israelis and Palestinians, speaking on "Complicity and Potential of American Churches." Other topics addressed in presentations by speakers include:
The conference will include roundtable discussions and networking among denominations to share resources. For us the cost of attending is $45 per person.
To register, call Carol Balliet at 3100067, Palestinians for Peace and Democracy, at 210-413-9509 or email dmayer@yahoo.com .
PersonalJanaki Spickard-Keeler is now an intern at William Penn House in Washington DC. She says, “I’m excited to have the opportunity this year to learn more about Quakerism and Quaker social action, to live in a city again, and to be able to engage in more direct political activism. In Texas I did some work with Anti-death penalty groups, and I hope to be able to continue with that here. I already love William Penn House and look forward to meeting many of its friends.” She joins Patricia Coffman, now Patricia Newkirk, from this meeting, and Byron Sandford, from Hill Country Meeting. We might feel that Texans are taking over, but Janaki is too cosmopolitan for that.Janet Southwood’s sister, Diana Hynard, visited from England in October and invited her and Ken to visit Las Vegas with her. Her daughter married there (at the Little Church of the West) two years ago. They went to the Grand Canyon, which was grand, and returned with their savings intact, having resisted any temptation to risk them. Craig Bejnar has told us that he will leave San Antonio in January to move close to his ailing father out west. We shall miss him very much. We shall say a special farewell to him at the potluck lunch on Sunday December fourth. Carol Balliet has been busy moving house (more accurately, moving from house to house). Michelle DiGiacomo has a new position as senior children’s librarian at a new public library north of 410, next door to a lot of green. Her brother, Sal, arrived in town last month. He has been accepted for a Peace Corps stint in the Caribbean, starting next September. So he has to find a job until then. A tree fell on Mark Hickman’s job in October. It was an old, hollow, liveoak and destroyed the butterfly exhibit. Mark is pondering what to do next – this year’s work would have ended in November anyway.
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Our “Bring and Share” evening was again popular. Val Liveoak told of her first visit to Sri Lanka, its beauty, and the start of the violent troubles there which convinced her to go into peace work. Leilah Powell spoke of her mother and their regular fun visits to New Orleans when she was young. Margaret Mayberry read a story about a spider with personality who lived in her bathroom.
Ruth Lofgren showed some embroidery which she had learned to do as a child in Utah. When she had learned all the stitches, she was allowed to use the treadle sewing machine, though her feet did not reach the treadle. Daphne Bohl showed examples of her crossstitch work Ken Southwood read his account of his and Janet’s journey through America in 1955 and spoke of the preposterousness of falling in love.
Carl ???? (Hah, we don’t know it!) showed a child’s coloring book which he and a friend had designed and drawn, a story of a squirrel and a duckling searching for their meaning. Mark Hickman and Diane ??? (Hah, we don’t know this either!) read some of their poems and Janet Southwood MC’d the whole occasion.
Some of the older children visited the San Antonio Hindu temple with Professor Peggy Starkey and her class, seeing priests conduct rituals before Ganesha, the elephant-headed god.
Denise Wilkinson made a preliminary report for Nominating Committee. The report, when complete, will be presented for approval in December after seasoning (and is contained at the end of this newsletter.)
Carol Balliet, for Peace and Social Concerns, proposed that the list of donations be modified by reducing the amount for FCNL, and including $100 for Quakerhouse, Fayetteville, NC. It was suggested that Quaker Peace Teams was in need of a one-time infusion of funds. The committee’s final proposals will be presented next month.
Ken Southwood reported for Meetinghouse Development, saying that the new meetingroom is almost complete. The C of O is expected before October 30. The key will differ from the present keys but the current master will fit both. We shall have more storage room and will need to decide what to store where.
There are other features not included in the contract, namely an assisted listening system (for the hard of hearing, HOHs, or auditorially challenged), a new roadside sign, extension of the kitchen counters and cupboards, further library shelving, a path down to the meetingroom steps, and the uses of the existing rooms. It was agreed that the MHDC should consider these and report back in December, after which the Building Committee will be responsible. Bob Harris has provided sketches for two benches (made of meetinghouse cedar scrap) to be attached to the exterior wall. We plan to make these ourselves at a workparty. He wishes to be present at an early meeting for worship and wishes to make a date for Lake Flato staff to come to see the building.
Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by those who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.
We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value -- I mean what are we talking about? . . . Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:
When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith . . . this is not only not moral, but immoral.
When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount, stuff like we must never return violence for violence and those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.
When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists -- and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.
When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral.
We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. . .
I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. . .
This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.
Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith. And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus the greatest failure of faith.
There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed?
Time to march again, my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience, time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness.
Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
We found it difficult to choose among Robin Meyer’s paragraphs. You might have made different choices.
“These quotes are by the children from the Quaker meeting house" (Emma/Samuel/Audrey W/ Liza Drennon/Scarlet).
"Simplicity is not a bulldozer coming to make the ground flat it is making the Best of what you have" (Audrey Whitworth).
"I like to be simple" (Samuel).
"Simplicity is to be simple, so the new meeting house is simple because it is a square and squares are simple" (Liza).
I think you don’t need fancy stuff like stain glass windows and big steeple to worship or pray to god" (Emma).
And, summarizing:
“The reason why the meeting house is square and not shaped like a cross is because the sides of the square are equal and we want to be equal.”
Thank you, all, for those thoughts.
And the meetingroom is “substantially” complete, as certified by Bob Harris, our architect. The Certificate of Occupancy will be issued by the beginning of November. The railing was the last important item to be completed. Small, insubstantial, matters remain. We shall be meeting in it in November.
ECONOMIC & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Mark R. Warren’s book, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to revitalize American Democracy, is the author’s search for models that actually seemed to be working to revitalize American Democracy. He found the “Industrial Areas Foundation” (IAF) in Texas and the Southwest, in his own words, “to be having a significant degree of success.”
RACE RELATIONS We now have the biography of Bayard Rustin by John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: the Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. The author tries to restore Bayard Rustin, an African American Quaker, to his rightful place in American history as “one of the most brilliant and influential strategists of the peace and civil rights movements”
Jeff Hitchock, a white studies expert, tries, in Lifting the White Veil: an Exploration of White American Culture in a Multiracial Context, to approach race relations, and the hope for building a truly multiracial nation, by saying that “white” people have to understand the concept of a “white race” and what it’s culture is first..
It’s the Little Things: Everyday Interactions that Anger, Annoy and Divide the Races, is an eye-opener by Lena Williams. She starts by telling the story of her first visit to the circus as a five year old. A clown gave balloons only to the white children in the audience. She realized even then that it was her brown face that kept her from getting a balloon. A book about the little things. The racial slights and indignities delivered and suffered by both sides of the black-white divide.” Thought provoking and told with humor.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS No Guns Allowed is a Berenstain Bears book by Stan and Jan Berenstain. In it the teachers and principal of the Bear Country School are concerned about the “growing problem of the culture of violence”. Knowing that just banning guns and “trash” talk won't work, they decide to get the whole community involved in finding solutions.
2.) knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc. make up "a mess."
3.) can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."
4.) knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in: "Going to town, be back directly."
5.) even as a baby, knows that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl on the middle of the table.
6.) knows exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
7.) knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. (If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin'!)
8.) grows up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road", can be 1 mile or 20.
9.) both knows and understands the difference between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and po' white trash.
10.) would never assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
More next time.
“Cofiwch fod pob un ohonom yn unigryw, yn werthfawr, yn blentyn i Dduw” Cynghorion a holiadau."
These are the same advice, in English and Welsh, from Britain Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice. Many Welsh became early Quakers and moved to Pennsylvania, giving rise to place names such as Bryn Mawr. Yet it took hundreds of years before Britain Yearly Meeting was led to use the Welsh language in its Faith and Practice, by which time most Welsh had lost the tongue.
Jan Hoffman speaks of this event in the process of revising the document:
“I was moved by a story told me about the process in Britain Yearly Meeting — and this is just one example of a new corporate awareness coming out of the revision process. None of the first drafts of the revision contained any selections in Welsh. During worship at one of the Yearly Meeting sessions considering the almost final draft, a message was given in Welsh, then some words in English about what a gift it would be to see Welsh — a language through which ministry was offered in that Yearly Meeting — in the Faith and Practice. In the final draft, the advices and queries appear in Welsh and there are several selections in Welsh. This story makes me wonder if French is a language in which ministry is offered in Canadian Yearly Meeting and if so, might this be reflected in a Faith and Practice of your own?” (www.quaker.ca/cfriend)
Most English have almost no idea of how to pronounce, or understand, Welsh, so it is safe to assume that when the advice is read in an English Meeting, it is read in English. It is a loss as it has a wonderfully rich sound. The year of the change was 1994.
Corn should be fed to the hundreds of hungry people in our world, not to our automobiles.
As the article says, the use of corn as fuel will give our farmers another market to sell to. But children die every day of starvation. Let’s feed these children first, before we even consider feeding our insatiable automobiles.”
Letter to the Christian Science Monitor Margret Hofman, Austin, Texas.
Margret is a member of Austin meeting.
“Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state, and religious freedom cannot exist in any land where the state controls religion.”
- Samuel James Ervin Jr., lawyer, judge, and senator (1896-1985).
Birmingham/England/UK/1-Sep-05/…
But the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has been trying out a different idea. . . King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided to make his nation’s priority not its GDP but its GNH, or gross national happiness. . .
Bhutanese officials at the meeting described a variety of initiatives aimed at creating the conditions that are most likely to improve the quality of life in the most equitable way. Bhutan, which had no public education system in 1960, now has schools at all levels around the country and rotates teachers from urban to rural regions to be sure there is equal access to the best teachers, officials said.
Another goal, they said, is to sustain traditions while advancing. People entering hospitals with nonacute problems can choose Western or traditional medicine.
The more that various effects of a policy are considered, the more likely a country is to achieve a good balance, said Sangay Wangchuk, the head of Bhutan’s national parks agency, citing agricultural policies as an example.
Bhutan’s effort, in part, is aimed at avoiding the pattern seen in the study at Harvard, in which relative wealth becomes more important than the quality of life. ‘The goal of life should not be limited to production, consumption, and more production and consumption,’ said Thakur S. Powdyel, a senior official at the Bhutanese Ministry of Education.
‘There is no necessary relationship between the level of possession and the level of well-being.’” Canada, Australia, Britain, and New Zealand are starting to develop similar indices. But some attenders at the conference “gently criticized [Bhutan] . . . for dealing with a Nepalese-speaking minority mainly by driving tens of thousands of them out of the country.. .”
“‘Bhutan is not a pure Shangri-La, so idyllic and away from all those flaws and foibles,’ conceded Karma Pedey, a Bhutanese educator dressed in a short dragon-covered jacket and a floor-length rainbow-striped traditional skirt” It must increase his happiness by being able to describe this as a “foible.”
The conference, in Nova Scotia, was attended by 400 people from more than a dozen countries and Bhutanese teachers, monks, officials, and others.
Taken from NYT 10/5/05
Position / Name / Through
Trustees (1 year):
Clerk Ken Southwood 12/06
Secretary Ruth Lofgren 12/06
Treasurer Bill Wilkinson 12/06
At Large David Bristol 12/06
At Large Carol Redfield 12/06
Monthly Meeting (1 year):
Clerk Val Liveoak 12/07
Rec. Clerk Leilah Powell 12/06
Corr. Clerk Remain Unfilled
Treasurer Bill Wilkinson 12/06
Recorder OPEN 12/06
Ministry and Oversight (4 years):
Clerk Janet Southwood 12/09
Member Christine Drennon 12/07
Member Vivian Rule 12/07
Member Marian Carter 12/08
Outreach (2 years):
Clerk Ken Southwood 12/07
Member Julia Eyer 12/06
Member Charles Goebel 12/07
Member Margaret Mayberry 12/07
Librarian Michelle DiGiacomo 12/07
Newsletter Ken Southwood 12/07
Directory Ken Southwood 12/07
Webmaster Colby Glass indef
South Central Yearly Meeting (2 years):
Representative Denise Wilkinson 12/07
Representative Carol Balliet 12/06
Nominating(3 years):
Clerk
Member
Member Ruth Lofgren 12/06
Building(2 years):
Clerk Boyce Rummel 12/07
Member Carol Balliet 12/07
Member Ken Southwood 12/07
Member Jen Moran 12/07
Grounds (2 years):
Clerk Laura Claghorn 12/06
Member Julia Eyer 12/07
Member Marian Carter 12/07
Member Tina Travieso 12/07
First Day School (2 years):
Clerk Gary Whiting 12/07
Member Denise Wilkinson 12/07
Member Stephen Whitworth 12/06
Member OPEN
Adult Education (2 years):
Clerk Val Liveoakn 12/06
Member Barbara Miles 12/06
Member Daphne Bohlr 12/07
Member OPEN 12/06
Peace and Social Concerns (2 years):
Clerk Carol Balliet 12/06
Member Julie Bajusz 12/07
Member Jim Spickard 12/06
Member Carol Redfield 12/07
FCNL Rep. Carol Balliet 12/07
Finance (2 years):
Clerk Ruth Lofgren 12/07
Member Dan Hogenauer 12/07
Member Bill Wilkinson? 12/07
Member Laura Claghorn 12/06
Furnishings (1 year)
Member Marian Carter 12/06
Member Jim Spickard 12/06
Members Margaret Mayberry 12/06