What do your scriptures or tradition say about the nature of the Ultimate in your religion?

Isaac Penington, 1653, The Life of a Christian:

“All Truth is a shadow except the last, except the utmost, yet every Truth is true in its kind. It is substance in its own place though it be but a shadow in another place (for it is but a reflection from an intenser substance) and the shadow is a true shadow, as the substance is a true substance.”

Friends World Conference, Oxford, 1952:

“... we are wary of theoretical statements about God... Since individual human experience is limited, individual interpretations of it will necessarily vary. “

Jessamyn West, Introduction to The Quaker Reader, 1962:

“On matters of theology the Quakers were, and are, in the minds of many, pitifully lacking. They had and have no systematized theological abstractions, no creeds, no articles of faith, no catechisms. . The Quakers had and wanted one shelter only, and that was a mutuality of love experienced between God the father and His sons here on earth. Without this, dogma was sacrilegious; with it, it was unnecessary...”

Robert Barclay (1648-1690), Apology.

“But as the description of the light of the sun, or of curious colors, to a blind man, who, though of the largest capacity, cannot so well understand it by the most acute and lively description as a child can by seeing them; so neither can the natural man, of the largest capacity, by the best words. even scripture-words, so well understand the mysteries of God’s kingdom as the least and weakest child who tasteth them by having them revealed inwardly and objectively by the Spirit.”

Jessamyn West, Introduction to The Quaker Reader, 1962.

". . . Quakerism . . . is, like science, primarily a method (p13). . Fox did not love method; he loved God, and the method was important only as it gave him and others a living experience of God.”

“George Fox, says the historian G.M. Trevelyan, was the first to teach that ‘Christian qualities matter much more than Christian dogma’. . .

Do you agree?

Business Meeting

On May 25 the Forum would consider outreach. After a summary of the Outreach Committee’s activities, attenders will be asked to make suggestions: evening entertainments, the website, a Quaker blog, supper groups or other small interest groups, library books, ads in university papers or organizational newsletter, and topics for Forum.

The committee agreed on its members’ responsibilities for greeting visitors, obtaining tea, coffee, sugar, clean towels, detergent, etc., and answering the meeting telephone, booking and opening rooms, maintaining the website, and backing up members who are away.

The Treasurer’s report indicated that expenses in April slightly exceeded contributions. Some uncertainties of interpretation of items will be corrected. Income and expenditure are balanced for the year, all one-time annual expenses having been met.

The Ministry and Oversight Report stated that the committee had “growing interest in and concern about the state of our meeting. This goes beyond what we expressed in our 2007 State of the Meeting Report. It was experienced in the recent Community of Friends forum and has certainly been ongoing in our Ministry and Oversight meetings. We are concerned to be aware of where we are standing and sufficiently sensitive to the needs of the meeting and the individuals in it to take positive steps into the future. We realize that expectations of Meeting and how it meets our needs are as different as we all are. Some are seeking a community of friends, some a spiritual home, many are seeking both of these. Our use of the term “community” can be helpful and unhelpful. As those of us who have been around for a while remember we ended one State of the Meeting Report triumphantly with a quote from Friend Patricia C, “community is messy.”

We have had the happy opportunity of considering an application for membership. This came from Sharon. As usual we let the clearness practice take its course. Sharon said she was convinced that the Religious Society of Friends is solid and satisfying match for the yearnings she has followed for many years to find a spiritual home, grounded in an established faith tradition. Meeting accepted Sharon into membership with a warm welcome into this community of Friends.

The clerkless building committee reported that a Friend has agreed to locate a contractor qualified to install the Meeting sign once the design is complete.

From the Clerk

The Meeting has the following committee openings available for anyone lead to serve:

• Building Committee, Clerk
• Grounds Committee, Clerk
• Adult Education Committee, All positions
• South Central Yearly Meeting, Nominating Committee Member

If interested, or to find out more, contact a member of the Nominating Committee (Ruth L, Michelle D, Janet W.)

Personal

http://www.lisakerpoe.com/

Her work is being exhibited in galleries from Minnesota to England. Late news: she just had an article about her Adinkra Cloth published in a trade magazine. The magazine is Quilting Arts Magazine. The website is: http://www.quiltingarts.com/qamag/qahome.html.

Janet and Ken’s granddaughter, Margot, is an undergraduate and full of activity, running for dorm president, being a big buddy for a grade-schooler, and now with a summer job working with autistic children. Janet fell and broke her right hip. She has had a partial replacement and by the time you receive this she should be home again with daily homevisit therapy. She had a dental appointment. Ken called to cancel it. The receptionist said, “Well, bless her li’l’ heart!”

Nikki and Austin will be married on October 18! Jen is back in town, her dissertation approved, so she’s off to Rwanda this summer. Sebastian and his friends came and did some community service work at the meetinghouse, clearing all the weeds from the courtyard – and other things. Ask him.

David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post that “there are few visible traces of the genocide [in Rwanda] that began in April 1994. It's not that Rwandans have forgotten, but that they seem to have willed themselves to live in the present. That makes this place feel different from other post-conflict states I know, such as Iraq and Lebanon, where the past and present are congealed in a wound that never heals.”

Val, who has worked with AVP there, comments, “Yes and no. It is accurate as far as I know about the apparent mood of the country. Asking anyone if they are Hutu or Tutsi is, I think, illegal. I doubt the post 1994 identity cards carry any indication of ethnicity. The 1994 genocide was one in a wave of successive genocides ever since independence. One of the reasons folks working with Friends programs are working so hard at peacebuilding is that they hope to avert another wave. In the countryside (I don´t know about cities.) Tutsis still live mostly in Internally Displaced People´s camps, and are still too afraid of their Hutu neighbor to return to their houses. The same is true in Burundi. So their children are being raised apart from each other, with a sense of difference even if stories of past events are not recounted at home. This can set the stage for at least bitterness and sow the seeds for a new round of genocide in another 10-15 years.”

The health of Susan, Marian’s daughter, continues to deteriorate. Please bear her, and Marian, in your hearts.

Shariah Law

For most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world. Today, when we invoke the harsh punishments prescribed by Shariah for a handful of offenses, it sometimes seems as if we need Shariah as Westerners have long needed Islam: as a canvas on which to project our ideas of the horrible, and as a foil to make us look good.

New York Times, March 16, 2008.

HROC WORKSHOP IN RURENGERA

A HROC workshop took place on May 13-15, 2008 in Rurengera. Rurengera is in Mutaho commune, located in central Burundi. The particularity of this workshop was that participants were next door neighbors from one community mixed with IDP [internally displaced people] camp residents who normally come from that same community but are now staying in Mutaho IDP camp. 21 participants attended though only 20 were invited. They were 10 men and 11 women. Five facilitators (Joseph, Sebastien, Dorcas, Pascasie, and Eraste) conducted this workshop.

On day one, it was so obvious that participants did not want to express themselves too much and some could not even smile or laugh. As the workshop went on, they started not to fear each other any more and their faces were brighter.

When we entered in the “Loss, Grief and Mourning” session, tough matters came to the surface. We need to remember that all these participants know each other because they belong to the same community even though some are now staying in the IDP camp. In fact, whatever was done or happened to one of them was known by almost everybody. That is why the sharing became so fluid and deep. They mentioned their relatives who got killed, their belongings which got stolen or destroyed in 1993.

It was expected that a workshop of this kind would be this emotional as folks are gathered close to where the horrible events took place. Consequently, the facilitators provided needed services for those who struggled with their emotions.

There were two participants (one from the IDP - a Tutsi and another from the village - a Hutu) who conjointly asked for more time to work on the issue that was between them since the 1993 war. Here is what happened. When the war started, the Hutu man came to the Tutsi family. He had been sent by a group of other Hutu who were hunting Tutsi to check if there would be still Tutsi males hiding in the house, especially the brother-in-law of the Tutsi woman. In case there would be any male found, he had to catch him and take him to the group. Only the woman and her kids were there. So, when he arrived in front of the house, he pushed roughly on the door, his eyes open like a monster. The woman and kids got terribly frightened. Shocked by the act and trying to protect the kids, the woman took her hoe as a weapon and went to fight against the man. As he was too strong, he took away the hoe and started beating her. Leaving her rolling on the ground, he checked in the rooms and nobody was found. He went back furious!

Well, the two folks asked for a special time (they were taken to another location for more privacy) and one of the facilitators led the dialogue. They finally succeeded to reach a com-mon agreement. It was with big smile that the y came back to join the group, sharing that they are healed from carrying such a big burden for years. Anyway, there was another shivering that occurred in the room when it was revealed that it was Pastor Sebastien (a Tutsi and HROC facilitator) who was wanted that time and he was among the facilitators of that workshop!!

On the last day of the workshop, participants were more open, joyful, and interactive. They even expressed that they would feel happy to stay for one more day. Below are some of the many quotes from participants.

- “These teachings have helped me so much for I had become that careless because of what I lost. I could not undertake any activity that would inquire effort from me for I was saying that there was no need. Since the war took away my dear loved ones, I decided to get drunk every single day. It is painful, I tell you! It is now that I have been in this workshop that I stopped this bad behavior because I understood what was wrong with me. I promise you that I am going back to work instead”.

- “Alcohol had become my refugee. Every single night I came home, my wife and kids had to hide themselves. Breaking the pot on fire (before the food would be ready) had become my easy thing to do. You know, I deprived several meals to my family. I am ashamed! It is time for me to change and I am going to do it. I want to be a tree of trust for my family. More, I will tell those with whom I shared beer to stop and plant the tree of trust”.

- “I enjoyed the games. I am no shy any more!”

- “The time I spent in this workshop will remain unforgettable for me. Those I used to fear and get afraid from have been the ones I talked to, shared food with and at the end we were good friends. It is possible to rebuild again our neighborhood as people who remained in the village and those who are in the IDP camp”.

- “I gained very consistent skills to help myself and especially my children”.

- (The woman talking is a Hutu woman married to a Tutsi) “The example from our two friends touched so deep my soul that I feel I want to pull out my own stuff too. When the war was hot and we were fleeing in the bushes, a Hutu woman told me: ‘Why are you still tying that evil child on your back (meaning that the child whose father is a Tutsi is an evil). Take him down and throw him away!’ Did she forget that he was my child? Did she mean that my loving husband was an evil? Since that time, I decided not to be with that woman and had been holding such hate, anger against her. But, this workshop taught me how to let it go. I want to meet with the woman and tell her how what she said wounded me and that I have been able to forgive”.

We closed the workshop with a demand from participants to be invited again. It was also asked that many workshops would be conducted for more folks in Rurengera.

Conservation

The life of a CFL lamp may be up to 85% shorter if it is only turned on for a few minutes at a time, reducing its lifespan to the level of an incandescent lamp. The US Energy Star program says leaving them on at least 15 minutes at a time should eliminate this problem.

Compared to incandescent lamps of the same light, CFLs use less energy and last about ten times as long. A CFL can save over $30 in electricity costs over the lamp's lifetime compared to an incandescent lamp and save 2000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.

But don’t use them in an enclosed fixture as heat build up may cause the lamp to fail.

FOR NAUGHT

They told our youth that if bravely they fought,
They could not lose and the war would be short,
And we’ve been there for years and the war’s not won,
And likely we’ll be there for years to come.

They took the children straight out of the schools,
They were used to following those adult rules,
So they didn’t question, for glory bound,
And they fired their bullets, round after round.

For friend or foe it’s a needless slaughter,
Each one of them someone’s son or daughter,
And all are told if they’re hurt or they’ve died,
They’ve done their duty, with God on their side.

If a recruit objects for any reason,
He will be punished and they’ll call it treason,
And when the day comes and we have departed,
We’ll still not have finished what we have started.

Events

At the end of May, there was a meeting for worship in the meetinghouse to celebrate the forthcoming wedding of Christopher Wolfe, son of Art and Shirley Wolfe, and Jillian Miner. Art and Shirley are longtime Quakers from Ann Arbor and close friends of Janet and Ken. The wedding was not under the care of this Meeting but held the next day in Jillian’s mother’s Methodist church in SA. The families, particularly Art and Shirley, considered this meeting for worship to be a special Quaker part of the weekend.

The forum on June 8 will be on Session 3 of Gates’ Opening the Scriptures, showing how early Friends’ spiritual experiences drew on biblical references. Session 3 is about the Quaker experience of the Light. “Light” is not just a metaphor, it is the Light of Christ, it is active, it moves people to action, it reveals, it teaches. It is a process, requiring attention, opening the heart, waiting in the Light, sub-mitting to the Truth, and accepting the need for transformation and empowerment.

Bric a Brac

Truth in Advertising, Quaker Style

Ad for Evangelical Quakers:

Ad for Hicksite Quakers [that’s us!]:

What is it About?

Karen Armstrong at the 2008 Technology, Entertainment, Design conference.

And what practice? It could be retiring into a cell for lifelong contemplation. Or attending mass and confession regularly. Or performing the Haj. Or helping the homeless in Calcutta. Or contributing to church expenses. Or to monks’ begging bowls. Or perhaps attending church regularly. All are suitable if done by “humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls” who, said Penn, “are everywhere of one religion.”

Bonnie Raitt and AFSC

Bonnie was raised in Los Angeles in a climate of respect for the arts, Quaker traditions, and a commitment to social activism. Her support of AFSC is a family tradition she is proud to uphold.

On the next episode of This Brave Nation, a new web series from The Nation magazine and the Brave New Foundation, Bonnie talks about her work and the next generation of activists with organizer Delores Huerta. The free webisode will be available on or after Sunday, June 8.

Learn more and watch the episode:

http://support.afsc.org/site/R?i= 8OypvzhsN1_2aDARC-xFhw..

From The Quaker Bedside Book, 1952:

Dr. Johnson: A...We see... there are other [biblical] recommendations, which I warrant you the Quaker will not take literally; as, for instance, From him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away. Let a man whose credit is bad come to a Quaker, and say, Well, Sir, lend me a hundred pounds ; he’ll find him as unwilling as any other man. P230

Again, Boswell on Johnson: I told him I had been that morning [July 31 1763] at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I heard a woman preach.

JOHNSON: Sir, a woman ‘s preaching is like a dog ‘s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all. p231.

But consider Elizabeth Fry, a generation later:

The ladies feasted on Aunt ‘s face as tho it was a pineapple. So wrote... an affectionate and sometimes delicately amused niece of Elizabeth Fry, accompanying her on some of the progresses through the prisons and courts of Western Europe... They were almost royal progresses, for by the 1840s the name of Mrs. Fry, Quaker prison reformer, had resounded from country to country as the symbol of new ideas on the treatment of criminals.... She met, as her niece observed, a strange variety of high and low and good and naughty - but they all seem equally caught and attracted by our Aunt... Those who come first from curiosity continue in her train as tho bound by some spell, and aid her in everything. Such love seemed to flow from everybody towards the beloved Aunt.... The Duke of Argyll, ... after encountering her, wrote: She was the only very great human being I have ever met with whom it was impossible to be disappointed. p208

A Personal Story

Their priest had sent them to an undertaker who wouldn't take them because they had no money. They were distraught. What could they do? My wardmate was moved by pity and said, alright, he'd take care of it. They had no friends, he said, and nobody came to the funeral service so he and his Protestant men sat in the Catholic chapel and sang hymns with them. Afterwards they parted without paying anything and he put it out of his mind.

A year afterwards there was another great noise in his shopfront establishment, this time of singing and shouting. He sent one of his men to find out what it was. It was the Jamaican family again, dancing into the shop, clapping and singing:

"We've got the money, we've got the money!"

Granda would have liked that.

This new book, by Quaker novelist Nicholson Baker is causing quite a stir. Baker has created a compelling work of nonfiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy — a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II. Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. This book is already listed on The New York Times bestseller list and has been favorably reviewed by many periodicals.

Mark Kurlansky (author of Nonviolence: the History of a Dangerous Idea) says about the book, “People are going to get really angry at Baker for criticizing their favorite war. But he hasn't fashioned his tale from gossip. It is documented, with copious notes and attributions.

The grace of these well-ordered snapshots is that there is no diatribe; you are left to put things together yourself. Read Human Smoke. It may be one of the most important books you will ever read. It could help the world to understand that there is no Just War, there is just war -- and that wars are not caused by isolationists and peaceniks but by the promoters of warfare.”

Posted by QuakerBooks on April 15, 2008

Illegal Children

[Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics show that such roundups are on the rise, from fewer than 500 in 2002 to more than 3,600 in 2006. By a huge margin, these were mostly aimed at people lacking proper documentation, as opposed to those who had committed a crime.]

A study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research center, has documented the raids' negative effect on children. It found that the number of children separated from their parents was significant. For every two undocumented workers arrested, one child was left behind. In the wake of ICE raids, children were found to suffer from health disorders, psychological trauma and economic instability. The Urban Institute noted that most were in fact U.S. citizens or legal residents.

According to the Pew Center, there are 5 million children with at least one undocumented parent. In 2005, two-thirds of these (64 percent) were U.S. citizens, 37 percent were 5 and younger and 65 percent were 10 and younger. So it follows that the immigration raids are directly affecting some of the youngest and most vulnerable.”

Other Religions

We are asked to remain rooted in our own tradition but to ennoble and enrich something in us by being open to the beauty of other traditions. A Christian bishop calls this "grounded openness"; a Rabbi calls this "developing our inner faith"; a Muslim scholar says that interfaith appreciation is about completion, not conversion.

Family names are omitted from this newsletter to preserve privacy from internet searches.

Query for June