4 Sunday ...... Potluck lunch at 11.30. 11 Sunday...... Forum – Chaps 1-4 of Chuck Fager’s Without Apology 18 Sunday...... Meeting for Business. Architect may take photographs. 25 Sunday ..... Forum – To be announced.
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: Val Liveoak, e-mail: valliveoak@juno.com
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 for meeting times or to ask for other information: (210) 945-8456.
Quaker Notes from BurundiBurundi now is at peace. There are no gunfire or mortal shells heard in the night, roads are not closed, the government is doing what governments should do. When I was in Burundi, for the first time in three years it was raining heavily so the countryside was a bright green--"kijanibichi" is the word in Swahili which literally means "young grass." People were happily cultivating everywhere, coffee trees (the main cash crop of Burundi) which had formerly been neglected were now nicely pruned and mulched, beans, corn, sweet potatoes etc were growing in abundance. The government is building primary schools (after announcing that primary education is now free--only 28% of the children in Burundi had been going to school). You need to wear seat belts, you need permission to cut down only mature trees (deforestation was blamed partly for the drought conditions), the roads are being repaired.How long will this last? The UN peacekeeping force is beginning to withdraw its troops and as it leaves so will the other UN and other NGO agencies (but AGLI [African Great Lakes Initiative/Friends Peace Teams] will just continue as we always have). The massive funding that has put the country on its feet will quickly dry up. People in Bujumbura who were making $600 per month working for the UN will now have to work (if they can find it) for the government at $100 per month. Will the country survive this transition? Will disgruntled ex-combatants decide to return to the bush and begin a new civil war? I'll let you know in future reports. AGLI's work was just as positive. The first issue I had to deal with was the fact that AGLI had agreed to hire a female assistant for the HROC program (Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities) and the HROC Executive Committee had hired a male. I had already told them that this was not our intent and so they were well aware of the problem. They had two men and one woman apply, but the woman had withdrawn her application. As we explored this, the main reason for her to withdraw was that she lived in Bujumbura with her husband (Clerk of Kamenge Church) and three children. We had asked that the person be based upcountry in Gitega and she was not able to do this. In our discussion we decided to drop this requirement (which really had been more of a recommendation) and Adrien felt sure that the woman would agree. Who is the woman? Her name is Florence Ntakarutimana. Even though she had not officially had her interview and been appointed, Adrien had me meet her at her new home in Kamenge. She had been appointed in December to the HROC Executive Committee by Burundi Yearly Meeting and is a recent graduate of the Great Lakes School of Theology. She is wonderful. Her family and Adrien's family are close friends and Florence and Adrien clearly get along extremely well. She has now been officially appointed and I am sure you will hear more about her in the future. The next problem was the Friends Women's Association. Ferdinand, Cassilde's husband, was in the United States studying in California for his PhD in Theology. He had applied for political asylum and while I was there he was granted this status. Cassilde thought that Ferdinand would soon want her to come to the US to be with him. What would happen to the leadership of FWA? Cassilde told me that she was already preparing a doctor to take over the running of the clinic. Who is this doctor? None other than Alexia Nibona, 1999 Kamenge workcamp participant, niece/daughter (Cassilde raised her up after her father was killed in 1972 when all educated Hutu were assassinated), wife of Charles (who works with THARS), and sister-in-law of our own Adrien Niyongabo!!! Again I couldn't have been more pleased with the resolution of this issue. I went upcountry to visit the Mutaho widows group and I learned a lot more about the Visit to the Gitega Prison. After the original 18 people went, some of them later returned on their own and others from the community when to visit the prisoners. The result was that the prisoners, who had already decided not to return to Mutaho but go somewhere else, realized that they could return to Mutaho. Mi-PAREC was trying to arrange a visit of the prisoners to Mutaho when they were all released. The former prisoners are now at home, but quite dejected and listless. The former commune leader went to one of the pastors to ask him about HROC and how that led the people to come visit them in prison. This was explained to him and he then requested that we do an HROC workshop for the released prisoners. I talked with Adrien about this and we plan to do so. The widow's group also wanted goats. I had not understood the real reason for this. Compared to Kenya, Burundi (and Rwanda) has very little livestock--much of it was killed during the years of fighting. The widow's group, with support from Olympia Meeting, were cultivating collectively a field of beans. In most of this they have put goat manure, but had run out and some of the field was without manure. The difference was clear--the part with the manure would produce 3 to 5 times as much as the unfertilized area. So this was the reason for their request for goats which cost about $25 each--there are now forty-eight Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa members of the group. I then went to Gitega where I met with Felecity Niyonzima, the HIV positive Quaker woman. Except now there were three women. One of these HIV positive women (her husband had died of AIDS) was taking care of 20 children--her own, her brother-in-laws, and two other family members. She has been doing this for ten years, starting when the children were babies to fifteen years old--now they are ten to twenty-five! After much discussion, it was agreed that the HIV positive women would find others in nearby communities (Mutaho, Gitega, Ruyigi, Cangura) and have first an AVP basic workshop with a group of twenty, followed by a HROC workshop. Then the group of women would meet together to develop a third similar workshop which would be geared for HIV positive people. While this is just the first step, this could be a very exciting development. I went to dinner at Adrien's house and he had dropped a line that Odette, his wife, was still running the Circle of Sisters. This has started about three or four years ago when Rachel Fretz, clerk of the AGLI Working Group was in Burundi talking with the Quaker women. This is essentially a women's support group. Odette told me that it was still going strong. Every Tuesday afternoon they meet at Kamenge Church. When they had a hot topic to discuss--talking about their marriages was given as an example--fifty women would show up. At first they had been reluctant to discuss openly their issues and problems, but now, according to Odette, the women are very open with each other. This, I felt, was a very significant development since it costs absolutely nothing, fills a clear need, and has great potential in knitting the society back together. So I have a happy, wonderful time in Burundi. I hope you enjoyed this report. Peace, Dave David Zarembka, Coordinator, African Great Lakes Initiative/Friends Peace Teams Adrien Niyongabo visited Meeting last year and described the Peace Teams work.
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PersonalMolly Whiting was in a bad car accident last month. She was lucky, she had no broken bones but had to move back home to be looked after. Jen Osborne is looking for a house. Carol Balliet is giving her some enthusiastic advice. Janaki’s article, “A Day Off in the Life of an Intern,” which we published in this newsletter last month, was published in the June issue of Friends Journal. (Watch these pages for scoops.) Janaki is Jim Spickard’s daughter.Val Liveoak left for Colombia on May 30 for Alternatives to Violence programs and asks for Audrey Miller and herself to be held in the light. They will post an “irregular blog” at www.friendspeaceteams.org. What would George and Margaret have made of this? Sal DiGiacomo has been in Cost Rica protecting turtles and is now hoping to go overseas teaching English as a Foreign Language. Marian is going to Crete ??? A work party of Karl and Frances Frey, Jim Kenney, Steve Ortman and Ken Southwood built two benches for the outer wall of the meetingroom. Julia Eyer and her husband spent much of May in England. She says, “Mike and I spent a month living in a village outside Coventry. We especially enjoyed the hospitality of generous English colleagues as we worked on our research. Our cottage looked out onto a medieval churchyard, and the church bells were a frequent and happy reminder of our location. We walked through the churchyard and the village playground several times a week to get to the bakery, frutier, and butcher shops. I delighted in exploring English cheeses, teatime, amazing Indian food, English history, and hiking on the public footpaths. It was a wonderful time of reflection for both of us.” Christine Drennon was extensively quoted in the Express-News on May 31 on their reasons for wanting to live in a mixed-income neighborhood and for their children to experience this in their schools. A photo of Liza standing at the door of Hawthorne School was shown. The Southwoods enjoyed visiting with their multi-racial kin in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Urbana IL, and Dallas. At the meal after step-grandson’s graduation in Dallas, his grandfather found out it was Janet’s birthday and they gave her gifts and sang “Happy Birthday.” The Southwoods’ granddaughter graduated from McAlister College in St. Paul. But their daughter in Chicago lost many of her possessions to burglars. Bill Lewis’s reaction to the announcement of “One: the Movie”, below, was to fantasize “that Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey would marry. Then she could call herself Oprah Chopra.” We should ask Bill to review the movie for us.
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More on Colombia“Cesar Lopez, a musician in Bogota, is converting discarded AK-47s and other weapons from his war-torn country into guitars. He has plenty material to work with; last year, the Colombian government began an amnesty program and 31,000 paramilitary fighters turned in their weapons. After Lopez transforms the guns, he donates them to rock stars who help spread a national message of nonviolence. ‘The weapon is still present but when you strike the first chord, everything that’s violent about it disappears,‘ he said. ‘That’s the kind of transformation we would like to see in our country.’”From The Week, May 5, sent to us by Edith Speert.
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EventsForum on the second Sundays of June and July will consider Chuck Fager’s Without Apology: The Heroes, the Heritage, and the Hope of Liberal Quakerism , not at 9.00 a.m. In June we shall discuss the first four chapters. (Then, perhaps we should read Ann Coulter’s Godless: the Church of Liberalism?)“ONE: The Movie” will be shown at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, SE side of I410West/I10 intersection at 7.45 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7, Friday, June 9, Saturday, June 10, and Friday, June 16, admission $10. The film asks some of the “big questions of life to people on the street and to many of the world's most renowned and respected spiritual leaders, authors, icons, and celebrated masters including, When is war justifiable? What happens to you after you die? Describe God. What is the meaning of life? How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?”
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May Meeting for BusinessThe meeting opened with silent worship. After acceptance of prior Meeting minutes, the clerk reported her intent to circulate minutes by e-mail and postal mail, and asks that corrections be made as soon as possible.The clerk presented the treasurer’s report for April, noting that there was no unusual activity to report. A member of Ministry and Oversight noted that Meeting for Worship has been well-attended and that the quality of worship is deep. The Committee reminds Friends that Margaret Mayberry will host a mid-summer mid-week meeting during July. The Clerk attended a very useful clerking workshop at Pendle Hill, from which she hopes to share some of the insights at future Meetings for Business. The Committee is still discussing the use of the meeting rooms, and hopes for more events such as the recent presentation by Jonathan Hook. The Committee also reported that the architect has asked to photograph the Meetingroom on Sunday June 18th. More information is being gathered. A report from the Building Committee described several items under discussion. First, the west wall of the original building is cracking and appears to have a structural problem. The builder has patched the wall several times but has not fixed the problem. The Committee proposes to hire Arredondo Engineering to make an inspection to determine whether the problem stems from the design or the construction. This inspection will cost $225.00, but will help meeting decide how to proceed with the repairs. A committee budget of $1000 to proceed was approved. The second concern regards signage on the front corner of the property. The Committee proposes construction of an L-shaped wall, with a height of four feet, each leg being six feet. The proposed design would be similar to the existing stonework. A Friend inquired as to whether the wall would impede the view of the corner, and voiced concerns about the expense of the proposal. The Clerk noted that City codes limit signs to a height of three feet within 25 feet of the street on residential property. Another Friend felt that a wall with an appropriate sign would reduce the maintenance burden of the busy corner. Meeting agreed that the Committee should consult with the Grounds Committee to season the proposal and return it to the meeting. The third item concerns the washing of concrete walkways, walls and eaves on the older portions of the meeting house. A bleach treatment, costing up to $800.00, will clean mildew and retard new growth. A Friend asked that the Committee consider possible alternatives to strong chemicals. Friends agreed that further decisions be left to the Committee, with the recognition that ongoing maintenance is an important duty requiring expenditures The Meeting closed with silent worship.
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Other Advices“Humility exalteth man to the heaven of glory and power, whilst pride abaseth him to the depths of wretchedness and degradation.” --Baha’ism: Epistle to the Son of the Wolf“The good man does not grieve that others do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs.” --Confucianism: Analects 1.16 “Whoever proclaims himself good, know, goodness approaches him not.” --Sikhism: Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani M5 “Do not walk boisterously upon the earth; verily thou wilt not make a hole in the earth, nor yet reach the mountains in stature.” --Islam: Qur’an 17.39 “Son of Being! How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of me.” --Baha’ism: Arabic Hidden Words 26 “The best of men are those who are useful to others.” --Islam: Hadith of Bukhari From God’s BIG Instruction Book, Juliet Mabey.
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God and the AgeReligion can hardly help being affected by its social setting. In describing spiritual experience or accounting for the nature of the absolute, the origin of the universe, death, or the nature of existence, people must first draw on the language and concepts available to them. The concepts of God as King and of Jesus as Lord or as shepherd, could not have been used by the aborigines of Australia, the Inuit of Greenland, or the forest dwellers of Brazil, who knew of no kings, lords, nor shepherds. They could draw only on nature, and their own psyches and society, to conceive of the transcendent. For animists familiar with human purpose, the fall of a tree or sickness was seen as the result of the fickle purpose of invisible spirits. Could the concept of “God” as love for enemies have been conceived by an isolated people without the experience of despised neighbors such as the Samaritans and Romans?Yet as the world changes the concepts of godhood do not pass away easily. Great switches are required of people, to change their allegiance from old to new conceptions and loyalties. In a revolutionary nation born of the rejection of kingdom and lordship, modern Americans still use the concepts of earlier centuries and other nations. A car sticker reads, “Every knee shall bow,” surely an alien idea for modern political Americans. Americans do not think of God as President, with legislators and supreme court, nor of Jesus as cowboy. With new conceptions of the universe and the Big Bang, we do not think of God Physicist, God Mathematician, or God Evolutionist, though we may acknowledge some, if not all, of these inherent faculties. For many, God has the absolute power of a sovereign king, not those of a president. Some concepts are universal. Love will never have been strange, though its application to all humanity, even enemies, was once new. Fatherhood and motherhood are universal though not all cultures considered them part of the forces controlling the world. In a democratic, scientific, and rapidly changing age, what conception of God might emerge? We might think it is that of Friends, conceiving of God as inward dwelling Spirit to be found and honored in everyone, open to new inspiration, and with little creed subject to challenge by new scientific findings? So, is our concept of God the result of the founding of the Society of Friends in a turbulent age in which democracy and science were strengthening? It seems perhaps even more appropriate in an age of globalization.
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