Friends in San Antonio
7052 North Vandiver, San Antonio TX78209
June 2009
7 Sunday ....... Potluck lunch at 11.30. 14 Sunday....... Forum – Josefina Castillo, Coordinator, Austin office, AFSC 21, Sunday...... Meeting for Business. 28, Sunday ..... Forum – Caring for Each Other: Outreach in our Meeting Community, Denise W
Each Thursday, at 4-5 pm, a silent peace vigil is held at the corners of S. Flores and Commerce, one block west of Main Plaza near City Hall.
Clerk: Bill Wilkinson 210)561-9360 e-mail: billwilk3@att.net.
Newsletter Editor: Ken Southwood, (210)828-1513; 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
What are Your Idols?One of the problems I have to deal with at Woodbrooke are the numbers of people who’ve had a bad trip with the hellfire and damnation kind of Christianity, and I cannot get them to see that that is not Christianity. This is the danger. So we’ve got to learn to distinguish between faith on the one hand and the masquerade of religion on the other. This is part of the teaching of Jesus. Jesus knew all about the difference between true inwardness and outward practice. It’s not the outward practice that justifies you but the cleanliness inside as he says in his Sermon on the Mount.Forget all this stuff about the Light and all that. Early Friends were concerned about idolatry. This is what I mean. If you want to deepen your spirit of worship, why don’t you ask yourself what your idols are? Now an idol is something that masquerades as a religious symbol, something that gives you comfort and which is powerless because it makes no demands on you. An idol is that which provides an easy answer to your problems. An idol permits you to continue as you did before without coming to terms with the changes that ought to be made. It offers a projection of your own unconscious wishes. Now play with this text. It’s John 15:16, where Jesus says to his disciples as part of the dialogues of the Last Supper: ”You did not choose me. I have chosen you.” And ask anybody what that conception is. Now if you regard yourself as having been chosen for a privilege, you miss the whole point.. “I have chosen you” means I lay upon you the responsibility and the calling of joining me in my work. It doesn’t mean I’m promoting you. But that is how it is generally understood by that defensive kind of Christianity that cannot get out and meet people where they are. It is used therefore as an idol, and that’s what I mean by idols. Idols help to strengthen our hostility to forces that destroy our sense of security. Now Quakers are very good at being hostile to people . . . nonviolently, of course! The point I’m laying before you is that, if we have a dark side to our personality, if we have hostility, if we have weakness, then that’s going to express itself. And if we want to be spiritually whole, we have to recognize that fact instead of pretending it’s not reality. In the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel they [Quakers] read that marvelous memorable verse, “I have called you friends.” There was no such thing as Quakerism in that time – Quakerism could be an idol. For early Quakers there was only Truth, and that’s why when they wanted a collective name, they called themselves Friends of the Truth. . . And their conception of Truth and how the demands of Truth reached down into every small thing that we do gave rise to our testimonies: to plain speech, to refusal to contribute to the upkeep of the state church, to that curious Quaker dress that was originally a challenge to pride, that became later on, when it was idolatrous, a uniform, and to their devotion to peace. Because the peace testimony, Friends, is not a political testimony only; it is a deeper part of religious conviction. Individually, when we come to Meeting, we center down. We all have a lot of difficulty with that. We never ever stop having difficulty. Friends, if you are new Friends, take comfort. The Quakers have not forgotten to tell you how to do it. We’re all on our own. In every group of people that comes to Woodbrooke, there is always one upstart who says, I used to think that all these Quakers continued in silent worship and they never told me how it was done. I had to flounder around all by myself. But of course that isn’t the way things are. Silence, which is why we value it so much, is a very difficult and wonderful thing. So we center down as best we can. I think the first thing is that Quakers ought to recognize that they are not a special kind of human and they do not have a monopoly of the Light. Friends say the Light’s in everyone and then they think Quakers are superior. Have you noticed that? And I don’t think we’ve got a special privilege for service.
Friends Bulletin, September, 1984. Woodbrooke is a British Quaker Study Center.
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It is Raining in KigaliLaura Shipler Chico, who was with Friends Peace Teams’ AGLI for almost two years in Rwanda, sent David Zarembka the poem below. She said, "Inspired by a friend of mine who told me that every time she heard the rain at night she remembered hiding during the genocide".
It is raining in KigaliThe mud is caked like bloodOn our eyelashes In our ears The rain is pounding the thirsty earth The roar of water On metal And my skin remembers hiding Under the roof The water pounding Coming closer closer Closer My breath drowning In that suspended moment That lasts until today it is here in my blood Running
Running
It is raining in Kigali
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Personal NewsVivian and Gary’s daughter, Molly, graduated with a degree in English and the whole family spent a couple of weeks in Vancouver, BC.Susan, Marian’s daughter, is being cared for by hospice staff. Her brother John came down from Indiana last month to help her prepare her records. Daphn Bohl says, “Hi everyone, Harvey was 8 months old on Mother’s Day. He’s growing so fast! He’s about 16.5 lbs and well over 2 feet (but you try measuring an active infant!). His first tooth just came in, and he seems to have finally mastered sitting without support. He gave us another scare in April with a fever of 103.6, but he recovered quickly. He’s not crawling yet, but can cross half a room by rolling over, and enjoys twisting around in a circle on his belly. He is constantly observing everyone and everything. He watches our dog Toto’s antics with glee… Harvey has a great sense of humor in general! To say he is the joy of our lives is an understatement.” We just heard that Temple R has now attained the rank of major. He is a surgeon. Janet and Ken’s grandaughter is moving back to St. Paul MN. She’s rented an apartment on the “John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks' Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936 .“ We don’t think a still goes with the apartment. The San Antonio Express-News published an article by Christine D. In this she praises the River North development project for its potential to beautify the area. But, she asks, for whose benefit does it act? She suggests that development here should rather aim at targeting “the root causes of poverty, job loss, and failing education.”
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JOINT SERVICE PROJECTWestern Quaker Workcamps, by AFSC and Intermountain Yearly Meeting, are organizing workcamps this summer in Mexico:El Desemboque de los Seris: from June 25 to July 2, 2009 or thereabouts for the Seri New Year. Economic development, food security and cultural survival all come together at this traditional celebration of the coming of the summer rains, the ripening of the cactus fruits and the harvest of the mesquite beans. Throw in feasting and dancing for a real party.
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And in South Dakota:Wambli, South Dakota: from July 8 to 16, and July 19 to August 2, 2009 with the Oglala Lakota on Pine Ridge: A return to pick up on the work we did last summer on Kennedy Hall. Mike Gray is Project Coordinator. Registration forms for all projects can be found on the right margin at http://www.afsc.org/central/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/17843.
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SimplicityKabir, a fifteenth century Muslim, born a poor weaver in Benares, India: “Reading book after book, the whole world died. And none ever became learned, He who can decipher just a syllable of ‘love’ is the true pandit.”“. . . impressed by the terrible evils which are unleashed by religious intolerance (and perhaps not unmindful of political considerations) [Moghul emperor] Akbar summoned holy men from the Hindus and the Jains, the Christians and the Jews, the Zoroastrians, even Mandaeans from Persia, along with Sunni and Shia Muslims. Out of their discussions he attempted to formulate a simple belief in God. . . . This belief in God, so Akbar hoped, could be a simple, basic moral guide for the elite in his empire of so many religions.”
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“Hey, I can do this!”Hey, maybe you can; in fact you probably could, and hopefully will.Can you think of some skills and/or tools that you can donate to the Meeting? The Building Committee has a list of tasks to match up with your stuff! For example, some skills needed: electrician needed to install smoke alarms, and fix that annoying light that keeps falling down in the foyer to the meetingroom; cleaner/woodworker to help preserve the benches on the porch. If you can help with these tasks, let someone know on the building committee(Bill O, Ken, Carol B, James) or maybe just offer some of your skills for a future use, that too is most welcome. To put your skills/tools on a list for future use, contact the building committee clerk by email: willoco@yahoo.com. Thank you in advance! Building Committee Clerk And here’s something else you can do to help a committee – occasionally bring something for refreshments after meeting. The Outreach Committee has many other responsibilities and would appreciate support.
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The Five and Dimer“The Quaker John Woolworth, when he traveled south on evangelizing missions a century before Lincoln's time, paid house slaves what they would receive if they were free when they served him meals or did other household chores.”
New York Review of Books
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The Faithful Approve of TortureThe more often you go to church, the more you approve of torture. . . Shouldn't it be the opposite? After all, who would Jesus torture?. . . Instead, more than half of people who attend worship at least once a week, or 54%, said that using torture on suspected terrorists was "often" or "sometimes" justified. White evangelical Protestants were the church-going group most likely to approve of torture. By contrast, those who are unaffiliated with a religious organization and didn't attend worship were most opposed to torture -- only 42% of those people approved of using torture. . .
Washington Post, May 1
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More SimplicityQuaker writer Fran Taber tells us that the early Friends did not have a testimony for simplicity. She writes that they “came upon a faith which cut to the root of the way they saw life, radically reorienting it. They saw that all they did must flow directly from what they experienced as true, to keep the knowledge clear and the doing true, they stripped away anything which seemed to get in the way .. and it is this radical process of stripping for clear-seeing which we now term simplicity.” (Frances Irene Taber, Finding the Taproot of Simplicity).It’s not about living poorly, it’s about clearing clutter. So what about this – the book Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos, by Cynthia Townley Ewer. America's leading housekeeping expert shows you how to de-clutter, organize, and clean your home, with easy-to-remember tips for every jobs, from keeping your bathroom clean and doing the laundry to sorting out paperwork and organizing the family photo album. Where there is hope, there is help. You can win the chore wars! And live simply.
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Humanitarian CrimeOne day, Dan Millis found the body of a fourteen-year-old girl from El Salvador, dead of thirst in the Arizona desert. He put out bottles full of water for any other persons who might wander by. Authorities saw the bottles & charged Millis with littering. Millis took the case to court...You can read about it on this website: www.nomoredeaths.org.
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PovertyIf you are poor,
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PerfectionIn tenth century Basra a circle of [Muslim] scholars known as the “Brethren of Purity” expressed their aims in words which would be scarcely thinkable today. “If one could combine Arabic faith and Jewish intelligence,” said one, “with an Iraqi education, Christian conduct, Greek knowledge, Indian mysticism, and a Sufi way of life, this would be the perfection of humanity.” That dream still stands as one of the greatest of all declarations of faith in an international civilization.
Scarcely thinkable, indeed.
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A Tongue TwisterHerbert Hoover attended Meeting in Washington when he was president. The presence of President and Secret Servicemen made some self-conscious. One impressive-looking man spoke earnestly, “Their young men shall see women and their old men shall dream dreams.”
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Energy LegislationThe House Committee on Energy and Commerce is beginning debate on a draft energy bill. The President of Common Cause reports that “major energy interests contributed more than twice as much to Energy and Commerce committee members' campaigns, on average, than to other members of Congress. Committee members received an average of $107,230 in campaign cash from the energy sector in the last election, while their non-committee counterparts collected an average of $46,539, a difference of over 130 percent..Electric utilities like Southern Company and Duke Energy, had the most pronounced targeting of its campaign contributions. The average Energy and Commerce committee member received $49,495 from electric utility interests alone in the 2008 cycle, while a non-committee member received an average of $18,579, a difference of over 160 percent. . . Members of Congress, particularly those on the Energy and Commerce committee, have already accepted the campaign contributions . . .”
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Questions:Who was the first American woman to earn a Ph.D.?Answer: Helen Maghill White, Quaker, earned a doctoral degree from Swarthmore College in 1877. Who was the first Quaker doctor in Pennsylvania? Answer: Hannah Longshore. What famous TV personality was a Quaker? Answer: Edward R. Murrow. His family had been Quakers for many generations. How did the practice of female Friends Ministers come about? Answer: Because in a Friends Meeting, any woman that felt the moving and prompting of the Holy Spirit was free to stand and speak. What did Herbert Hoover persuade President Wilson to include in the Armistice with Germany at the end of WWI? Answer: He persuaded Wilson to include a clause committing the allies to the principle of supplying food to the defeated enemies. To see the sources of these questions, go to Who? What?: Quaker Trivia, by Linda R. Willard in our library.
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Explorer-ScoutsThe Explorers program, a “coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence. . . ‘This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,’ said . . . a sheriff’s deputy. . .Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, ‘Separate your feet!’ as she moved to handcuff her suspect.. . .”
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The Quaker Community"The Quaker way of life is one of community: Friends gather together for worship, for service, to support each other spiritually and in other ways, and to reach collective decisions on the issues which arise in community life. For Friends, religion is not just a matter of individual experience, but something we enter into together, acting as a body in our worship, our witness, and our business; holding each other in mutual care, love and attention."- From the new draft section, Organization and Structure of Meetings, prepared by Illinois YM’s Faith and Practice Committee Two forums in June relate to this community. Denise will lead a discussion on Caring for Each Other: Outreach in our Meeting Community on the 28th. She will be encouraging us to think about our outreach to each other and how we can better share our community responsibilities. Regarding a different community outreach, Josefina Castillo will be coming from Austin on the 14th to tell us about recent and future activities of the Austin office of the Service Committee. She is unlikely to know what cuts in programs must be expected. Bill W has just returned from an AFSC Finance Committee meeting in Philadelphia and will be at the board meeting on that weekend to consider Finance’s recommendations. Bill is very impressed with the skills and knowledge combined in the committee but these do not magically override the economic situation.
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Bric A BracIn the kingdom of Bhutan there is a turning away from the concept of Gross National Product to Gross National Happiness. They have devised a set of indices for this, e.g., frequency of prayer and meditation, feelings of selfishness, jealousy, calm, compassion, generosity and frustration. These and others are combined by mathematical formulae. For psychological wellbeing, for instance, this involves “one sum of squared distances from cutoffs for indicators.”Sounds as if there’s both good and bad about this. Do they employ happimetricians? Kevin Lewis and Dana Clark are a local music duo currently expanding to a five-piece band. After moving to San Antonio she became Local Task Force Leader for A Season for Nonviolence, making it her project to produce two compilation CDs of music from New Thought singer-songwriters: “Increase the Peace” and “Peace Is Our Birthright.” Sales of these CDs still benefit the Peace Center. While working with a coalition of social action groups, Lewis and Clark organized and participated in numerous community events. They staged many performances of the Peace Choir that Dana founded, and provided music for a rally with Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, at the Arneson River Theater. On 9-11-2006 they organized the music for the Centennial Celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha, at which over 150 singers and musicians performed together. Dana was nominated for the 2007 Martin Luther King Distinguished Achievement Award for her work with the Peace Choir. To see their current gigs, go to: www.myspace.com/lewisandclarkmusic. Johanna Justin-Jinich, 21, a Wesleyan University student, who was murdered by a stalker, had attended a Quaker boarding- preparatory school, the Westtown School, where her mother and uncle had also graduated. John Baird, headmaster, said “Johanna was respected for her original thinking and willingness to delve deeply into a variety of subjects. . . Teachers described her as both fearless and highly disciplined. She had academic success in all areas, but she was an especially gifted writer who was particularly interested in public health issues affecting women.” Joy Zarembka, daughter of a White American father and Black Kenyan mother, looked into children of such marriages in different countries. To her surprise, she found that, “In general, I was 'black' in the United States, 'mixed race' in Britain, ‘white’ in Kenya, 'coloured' in Zimbabwe', and 'brown' in Jamaica." Her father, David, says, “In other words, if Barack Obama, the first ‘Black’ President of the United States would decide to run for president of Kenya after his four or eight years as President of the US (Kenya is talking about dual citizenship and if Obama ran in Kenya, he would clearly win by a landslide), Obama would then become the first ‘White’ President of Kenya.” We hear that our neighbor, the hair salon, closed in the middle of May. We also hear that La Fiesta may be planning to build on its land facing Vandiver.
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May Business MeetingThe clerk opened with the advice:“Use your capabilities and your possessions not as ends in themselves but as God’s gifts entrusted to you. Share them with others; use them with humility, courtesy, and affection.” He next spoke of a problem regarding whether Meetingroom windows should be open or closed during meeting when the air conditioner is running, with environmental and financial costs, and asked Friends to consider this. The Treasurer’s report showed the reduction in budget lines for Miscellaneous and Grounds and that income is currently ahead of expenditure but that contributions to SCYM, and Quaker and local organizations have not yet been made. Meeting approved the signing of a contract for purchase of the building next our parking lot for $125,000, for which funding has been found. Thanks were expressed for this and for the committee’s careful work. An engineer’s study will be completed before the sale is finalized. This approval authorizes the Meeting corporation to approve signature of the contract in accordance with the bylaws. [This has been done.] The Building Committee report was approved with a recommendation that the committee discuss the distribution of keys. The Outreach Committee produced much discussion of its responsibilities, which were described as becoming “onerous.” The committee was asked to reconsider these with a light to discontinuing unnecessary items, inviting volunteers for some or to dividing responsibilities with other committees. Friends agreed to plan a forum on this subject.
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Not noticing, we hurry, until daisies trip us.
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“There really ought to be a law to prevent converts from one church in Christendom to another from writing a book about it for at least three years, which might give them time to reflect that, however awful their old love was, it did train them to know our Lord and to say our prayers.” R.L. in The Manchester Guardian Weekly.
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Yoga, anyone?Yoga classes will be held in the meetinghouse on Monday and Thursday afternoons. To sign up, call Laura Donohue at 896-5901.
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Query for JuneHow are love and unity maintained among us?Do we practice the art of listening even beyond words?
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