SALT MARCH
On Saturday, February 5th, 2005, there will be a San Antonio public
march in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March in India. Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, will lead the march, which will begin at 10:00 A.M. at the downtown SAMM shelter. (910 W. Commerce St.) it will end at the Arneson River Theater. It is approximately a 45 minute walk. An inspirational program will begin at the Arneson River Theater at 11:15 A.m. and Arun Gandhi will speak at 12:00 Noon. The activities at the Arneson Theater will include performances by musicians, poets, and other speakers. Cooperating Organizations will be available at the site as well, including a Friends Meeting table.
DEDICATION OF PEACE POLE
A Peace Pole will be dedicated at the First Unitarian Universalist Church,
7150 IH 10 West. Sunday, February 6 at 1:00 pm. Contact 344-4695.
DANCES OF UNIVERSAL PEACE
These will be held on Monday, February 7 at 7 pm at the Center for
Spirituality and the Arts on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word. For more information call Covita Moroney at 494-3674. Learn more about Dances of Universal Peace at their Web site.
NONVIOLENCE 101
An 8-week class will be offered by the San Antonio peaceCENTER,
February 8-March 29 at Cafe Revolucion, 527 El Paso Street, Tuesday evenings
from 7-9 pm. Come learn about famous peacemakers, strategies, set-backs, and
successes of nonviolence in modern history. The nonviolence of Gandhi, Dorothy Day, MLK, feminism, politics, patriotism, and the planet will be explored. Expect great conversation -- and good food!! A study guide is available, 1st chapter to be read BEFORE the 1st class, on-line at www.salsa.net/peace/conv/index.html. For directions call Cafe Revolución at 223-9293. Register at 224.HOPE.
FORUM ON NONVIOLENCE
Four Sundays, starting February 13, 9:30 am. A discussion on ways we are moving towards peace in San Antonio. At the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 150 IH 10 West, contact 344-4695. http://www.salsa.net/peace/snv/events.html
BHAGAVAT GEETA AND NONVIOLENCE
Feb 13 at the India Community Center, 9114 Summer Wind. Contact: 493-3486
THE I OF THE STORM
Nonviolence/conflict resolution training, Thursdays Feb. 17,24, Mar 3,10,17, 7-8:30 p.m., at 1723 Broadway Unity Church of SA. Contact: 824-7351
THE MEANING OF THE PASSION
Mondays Feb 28, Mar 7,14, at the Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ, 7-9 p.m. Contact: 732-9927
Eyes Wide OpenThe AFSC “Eyes Wide Open” display will be held at St. Mary’s University on February 11-13, from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. each day. This is a major display which has been traveling the country for two years, including a time at the national Cathedral in Washington DC.. In the open are displayed shoes for Americans and Iraqis killed in the war, a pair of boots for each named American soldier and 1000 pairs of shoes to represent all the Iraqis killed. Many of the pairs of boots are adorned by flowers and Bibles placed by relatives. The display occupies a space of about a quarter of a football field.Inside there will be a video, panels, and lists of names of Iraqis, providing information about the war. The outside display must be moved into storage each night and placed out again each morning, requiring 25-30 volunteers. During the day about 10-15 volunteers will be on duty looking after the display and answering questions. There will be t-shirts, bracelets, and buttons for sale, handled by Meeting. Bill Wilkinson is seeking support from churches and organizations. He will coordinate the activities The peaceCENTER is supportive and $700 has already been raised towards the $1000 needed for AFSC’s expenses. The exhibit is organized by the Chicago AFSC office and two representatives will accompany the materials. Diverse volunteers are sought – the display is commemorative and spiritual rather than political. A Press Conference to introduce the Exhibition will be held on Friday, February 11th at 10 AM in the University Center at St. Mary's University. Dean Karen Johnson and Dr. Carol Redfield will open the exhibition. Bill Wilkinson will describe the exhibition. The public is welcome to the press conference and the Exhibition that will be at various locations on campus. Volunteers will be available to direct you to the exhibits. To get there, Drive in the Culebra entrance to campus. Before you turn right, the University Center is located on your right. Parking is available on your left and in front of the Bill Greehey Convocation Center, across the street from the University Center. On Saturday and Sunday, enter campus through the 36th Street gate and follow the signs to the University Center. |
The committee invites Friends to contribute pasta to provide a month’s supply to Catholic Worker House. Friends are asked to speak to members of the committee if they wish to provide any other supplies.
For the Meetinghouse Development Committee, Ken Southwood reported that revised estimates, incorporating economies, are expected from two builders very soon. Bill Watson, our original builder, has withdrawn due to pressure of work. He regrets this, as well as terminating the good relationship he has had with us. A forum, business meeting, and corporation meeting, must be held as soon as the committee has had time to consider the estimates.
Meeting agreed to hold a potluck on to meet with a Burundi Friend, Adrien Nyonggabo. He will be speaking about the humanitarian crisis in Africa at St, Philips College at 3.30 pm on that day.
Craig Bejnar, our Treasurer, reported that donations of $39,878,000 and $11,777 respectively had been received for the General and Building funds. The donation to the general fund is intended for paying down the mortgage, but could be used for the builder’s expenses if necessary. Apart from this, contributions exceeded expenses for the year in both funds. He presented the draft budget for 2005, totaling $33,450 and $280,000 for the General and Building funds respectively. Mortgage payments show an increase of about $4,000, as full 12 payments are required in 2005. Utilities and building maintenance expenses are expected to increase with the completion of the new building.
The nominations from the Nominating Committee were approved. It is expected that the Property and Education committees will each split into Building, Grounds, Adult Education, and First Day School committees as before. Ruth Lofgren volunteered to clerk both the latter committees. It was noted that the newsletter editor, librarian, and webmaster are supervised by the Outreach Committee but are not formally members of it.
Quarterly MeetingA Spring Quarterly Meeting will be held in Austin on Saturday February 5. It will be brief and will mainly concern the program for Yearly meeting. For information, call Bill Wilkinson, (210)520-9316; e-mail: bdwilkinson@earthlink.net
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The Grace of Great Things“By great things, I mean the subjects around which the circle of seekers has always gathered. . . the genes and ecosystems of biology, ... the logic of systems. . ., the shapes and colors of music and art. . . Great things such as these are the vital nexus of community in education. . . When we are at our best, it is because the grace of great things has evoked from us the virtues that give educational community its finest form:*We invite diversity into our community not because it is politically correct but because diverse viewpoints are demanded by the manifold mysteries of great things. * We embrace ambiguity not because we are confused or indecisive but because we understand the inadequacy of our concepts to embrace the vastness of great things. * We welcome creative conflict not because we are angry or hostile but because conflict is required to correct our biases and prejudices about the nature of great things. * We practice honesty not only because we owe it to one another but because to lie about what we have seen would be to betray the truth of great things. * We experience humility not because we have fought and lost but because humility is the only lens through which great things can be seen – and once we have them, humility is the only posture possible. * We become free men and women through education not because we have privileged information but because tyranny in any form can be overcome only by the grace of great things (Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach). Parker Palmer describes himself as a fellow-traveler of the Quakers.
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Donations at the simple meal on February 6 will go to Right Sharing of World Resources, which will be helping survivors.
“RSWR is working in south India. Funds will be provided immediately to help past RSWR partners directly affected by the tsunami. Funds will then be provided for development after immediate relief and clean-up. This will be very similar to our regular support of incomegenerating projects, with those persons affected by the tsunami given particular consideration.
The RSWR representative in Tamil Nadu (Dr. R. Kannan) has sent specific requests for funds from three current project partners, one past partner, and three NGOs with which we have communicated, but not funded. It has not yet been decided how to manage the funds in Tamil Nadu, but the NGO(s) we collaborate with will be well known to us, with a strong record of effective work.
The RSWR Board will be releasing funds from our budget. We also are soliciting funds to make our relief effort as effective and expansive as possible. 100% of donated funds will go directly to our relief effort. Please send contributions, with a memo that the gift is restricted to the RSWR relief effort, to the RSWR office at Right Sharing of World Resources, 232 College Avenue, Richmond, Indiana 47374-5360. Or see www.rswr.org.”
AFSC staff are impressed with the work of their Indonesian partner, the Society for Health, Education, Environment, and Peace (SHEEP). During the next few months AFSC and SHEEP will concentrate on the coastal city of Meulaboh, which was the closest to the epicenter. 43,000 were killed. The first SHEEP team to reach Meulaboh had to travel three days overland. SHEEP’s post is serving 8500 people. SHEEP teams will concentrate on medical and food needs and on mental health counseling.
Many SHEEP workers are Achenese students, who work as translators and provide knowledge of local communities and their cultures. More than 200 students have volunteered. SHEEP thinks of its teams as “peace cadres” and will be looking at how their relief efforts can begin to contribute to long term peace-building in the region, which has been a center of violent conflict. Before the tsunami, SHEEP staff members had worked with AFSC for five years to build local capacity for community peace work.
Additional AFSC staff should soon be in place to begin planning work for the long-term recovery phase and to assess how AFSC can best support the people of Aceh in their work for peace. To donate, send check to AFSC Development, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 or go to www.afsc.org/tsunami/default.htm
“‘He has only lost his body,’ Mr. Ramza said of the corpse he was addressing after the man was wrapped in a plastic bag. ‘His soul is still there. I was talking to his soul.’ . . .
‘I am not afraid of it, of ghosts or something,’ said one searcher, Muzahar, 26, a fisherman, who also lost five members of his family. ‘If a ghost comes to haunt me, I will just ask where his body is so I can pick him up.’”
The Gathering will include the usual array of workshops on everything from anger to dance to peacemaking to quilting to yoga, worship, opportunities all day; afternoon activities including singing and naps; as well as programs for children, high schoolers and adult young Friends.
Featured presenters will include Bishop Spong (New Christianity for a New World), Jonathan Voge;l-Borne of New England YM, Native American Jean Bosserman, and musical duo Trout Fishing in America (This is musical program, not activity. But, of course, you can go trout fishing too).
The Gathering willl be held in Virginia because of a leading to go to a state with a particularly draconian “defense of marriage” act offensive to the legal rights of gay and lesbian couples. “We expect that the Spirit will open up opportunities for all of us to witness together to our truth about the spiritual and social equality of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and straight people and the sanctity of same-gender unions.”
Financial assistance is available at www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/financial-aid or Friends are welcome to contact Helen Davison at the FGC office, 215-561-1700 or by email at gathering@fgcquaker.org.
goose down and riddles
and donkeys that bray
into the low hills
rough wind and tough day --
dancing off moonbeams
that shine past the night,
hill people won’t quit
when the money gets tight.
sweet lies and tired sighs
and well-hidden frowns --
tougher than welfare,
hill people fall down
into cracks in the speeches
that vote seekers fake,
promising hope
while the hill people ache.
with a new load of bills,
ponies and asses
on their broad backs
carry these hills.
with preachers and coffins,
the old people pray
down in the valley
till fear blows away.
moonshine as warm
as chill in the bones --
deep into winter,
these old hills still dream.
promises come and promises go.
ridge trees stand gaunt
and proud in the snow.
Also collecting nonperishable food items to contribute the day of the Walk. After Meeting for Worship that day. Contact Denise Wilkinson to get a sponsor envelope or for further information.
Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, will meet at Tempe, Arizona, this year, on April 14-17. The keynote speaker will be Loida Fernandez Gonzalez The theme is “Called to Go Forth With Joy,” Isaiah 55.12.The meeting is open to all interested Friends. For information, visit www.fwccamericas.org.
Somebody, probably a wayward child, broke the faucet by the gateway. Probably by standing on it to climb on the wall. Marian Carter discovered it when she arrived on Sunday morning. We got new parts, Dmitri Spickard-Keeler fixed it before meeting was over, and Hank Drennon installed a strong cover on it.
Several Friends joined the Martin Luther King march, behind the symbolic garbage truck. They carried the Meeting banner, remembering Bayard Rustin’s part in King’s nonviolent campaign, and AFSC’s support, including arranging for King’s visit to India to lay a wreath at Gandhi’s monument.
At the commemoration of Gandhi’s Salt March on February 5th, Meeting will have a table at the Arneson River Theater. To help, call Janet Southwood at 828-1513.
Outreach has scheduled two evening events. On Friday, March 4th, at 7.00 pm at the meetinghouse Ken Southwood will repeat his “Joy of Race” slides, which he will later show at Yearly Meeting.(“back by popular request,” said Janet. We will not comment.) This has to be in the evening when it is dark, as we have no blinds. On Friday, April 15, also at the meetinghouse at 7.00 pm, we’ll have another evening of sharing, when Friends and their friends do their “Show and Tell (or read, or mime, or sing, or act)” performance. The last two were very well liked. Friends are asked to bring snacks to these evenings to share, if convenient. Come one, come all.
For our February potluck on the 6th we shall be sharing a simple meal. Friends are asked to bring rice and/or green vegetables, (cabbage, bean sprouts, green beans, etc) which will remind us of the daily menu of many families in Asia. There will be bread and peanut butter available for little people. Donations of money given that day will be sent to the Quaker organization, Right Sharing of World Resources (see above).
A young soldier in uniform who attended meeting at that time, made the first contribution for a Building Fund. The meeting agreed that we needed a meetinghouse of our own, and the planning and saving began. . . . We hope to be using our new meeting room before next winter. . . In the last century, San Antonio was better known as a military town with its five bases. Between 1956 and 1961, periodic meetings for worship were held at Fort Sam Houston for non-combatants who wanted to get out of the army.
The strong Mexican/Spanish culture and the great number of retired military personnel in the San Antonio area present a challenge for us Quakers. San Antonio needs the acceptance of diversity, peace and non-violence as much as anywhere. We hope to recruit Quakers to strengthen San Antonio Friends Meeting and provide a greater Quaker presence in this city.”
Bernadette Zars found our e-mail address and sent a message to tell us of a Syrian highschool boy here for a year. His host family could no longer care for him and Bernadette, back in Damascus, had the bright idea of asking Meeting to help. One family seriously considered it but had to withdraw.
Bernadette’s parents were once in San Antonio but moved away. Bernadette is enjoying the friendship and life of Damascus.
We’re happy to feature Mark Hickman’s poetry along with that of William Blake and John Donne this month! Mark is fortunate to know it. The others have the misfortune not to.
David Bristol has a new granddaughter, 7 lbs 6 oz. “We were all at the movie, "Life Aquatic" when strong contraction started; maybe something about all that underwater stuff. Jody and baby home now both looking great; they're sleeping. I think maybe I am going to get to take Quinn to the zoo tomorrow, I mean if it's not raining, of course. Blessings, David” David’s experience of fatherhood included rushing off to the hospital “in Saigon in the middle of the night having worked our way, very carefully, through about 4 armed check points only to discovered the hospital gate locked and the ancient keeper of the keys sleeping on a mat under an awning off the hospital.” The baby arrived urgently. Bay, the mother of their three children, said, 'David, you better get back in the car.' David who at the time was running around the car yelling for someone, anyone to open the gate, followed these explicit clear directions. David assisted a breach birth, in the dark, groping and praying for help. David, of course, is a veterinarian, and we’re all mammals, after all. But he had promised himself this time that wouldn’t happen again.
For Meetings:
1. What are the customs among Friends that are spirit-lead and faith-based and which are those that come from a white/British/middle class/American culture? What is truly Quaker and what is ethnically and culturally specific?
2. Are all Meeting events and gatherings, formal and informal, accessible to all members and attenders? (Is there child care, equalization freely offered, transportation assistance, physical accessibility, and are gatherings held in an emotionally/culturally neutral or positive setting?)
3. What action is our Meeting taking to assure everyone in our local community has equal opportunities in education, housing, employment, business and the professions?
4. Is our Meeting visibly present in local community efforts to end institutionalized racism? How can our Meeting be more present?
For Individuals:
1. Do I endeavor to cleanse myself of racial prejudice, and firmly but lovingly oppose it in my home, among my friends and acquaintances, and in business?
2. For me as a white Friend, as a Friend of color or as a Friend of a different culture from most Friends in my Meeting, am I comfortable in expressing my concerns about racism to other Friends? How can Friends help me to be more comfortable?
3. In what ways do I feel threatened by the criticisms of people of color toward common behaviors and actions of white people in our society? How can I address these feelings in a way that helps to increase positive communication among the different races and cultures in our society?
4. Do I clearly perceive the privileges I enjoy as a white person in the Society of Friends and in a racist society? How can I work to equalize opportunities for all?
5. What assumptions do I make based on clothing, self-expression, speech, financial contribution, committee work, age, skin color, political beliefs, hair, family status, etc.? Where do these assumptions come from? Are they consistent with Friends’ testimonies?
For the Wider Society of Friends:
1. Is there a need to become more diverse within the Religious Society of Friends? Why or why not?
2. Many Friends of color say that they feel unwelcome in Quaker Meeting. What is our response to this? Are we content with our response?
3. Are issues of race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, language, nationality, and other facets of identity openly and honestly talked about within the Meeting on an on-going basis? Are they talked about with the children and young adults of the Meeting?
4. What cultures, attitudes, and values are reflected in the books, literature, wall hangings, and other Meeting property? Are these messages consistent with Friends' testimonies? Do they accurately reflect the Meeting?
5. How can we recognize the historical role of Quakers in promoting equality while still grappling with the reality of racism in the Society of Friends in the present?
February 5 Saturday ..... Salt March, 7 pm, led by Arun Gandhi. February 6 Sunday ....... Simple Meal, donations to Right Sharing of World Resources, followed by Discussion of Meetingroom Construction Dedication of Peace Pole,1.00 pm, February 7 Monday ....... Dances of Universal Peace, 7 pm. February 8 Tuesday ...... Nonviolence 101, 7 pm, first of 8-week class February 11-13, Fri - Sun ..... AFSC Eyes Wide Open Exhibit, St. Mary’s University February 13, Sunday...... Forum - None today. Eyes Wide Open. At the U-U church - Nonviolence, first of four forums. Bhagavat Geeta and Nonviolence, India Community Center, February 17, Thursday ... The I of the Storm, 1723 Broadway Unity of SA. February 20, Sunday...... Business and corporation meetings. February 27, Sunday...... Forum - Queries on Racism. At the U-U church - Nonviolence, second of four forums. February 28, Monday ..... The Meaning of the Passion, Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ, 7-9 p.m.
Each Thursday, 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://lonestar.texas.net/~colby/quakersa.htm.
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