1 Sunday ........ Potluck lunch at 11.30. 8, Sunday........ Meeting for Business. 11, Wednesday ... We are reading Ephesians 5&6, 6 pm. 15, Sunday....... Forum – Simplicity - pro and con. Ken Southwood. 22, Sunday ...... Forum – Val Liveoak speaks of her travels. 25, Wednesday ... Ephesians 5&6, 6 pm. 29, Sunday ...... Forum –"What would be the Quaker response to a Zombie Invasion?" (a little tongue in cheek). Erin Sahin.
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: valliveoakATjunoDOTcom
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
Friends Meeting of San Antonio,
7052 N. Vandiver,
PO Box 6127 San Antonio TX 78209
AFSC Gaza - June 13, 2007Earlier today, hundreds of Palestinian peace activists, out of concern for the rising levels of fighting between Hamas and Fatah supporters, joined peaceful demonstrations in Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza City . Responding to the call of the Egyptian mediators in Gaza , young men, women, children, and tribal leaders marched through the streets chanting “stop the killing.”In Gaza City and Rafah the marchers were met with gunfire which resulted in the death of one participant and the wounding of 15 others. Among those fifteen is AFSC staff member Ibrahim Shatali, program coordinator for the youth program in Gaza . Ibrahim joined the Gaza program as one of the student coaches. His determination, hard work and enthusiasm for the program led to a staff position in 2004. In addition to being a great team member, Ibrahim is a concerned community member and a peace activist. In spite of the danger and chaos that Gazans were facing, Ibrahim joined the protest calling for a cease fire and end to violence. He suffered a chest injury and underwent a three hour surgery in Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza city. According to Amal Sabawi, AFSC Gaza youth program director, he is in a stable condition. On Tuesday, June 12th, the members and supporters of Fatah and Hamas attacked one another's headquarters and brought chaos to the streets of Gaza . The fighting was deeply affecting civilians who already had been exposed to extreme suffering due to Israeli military interventions and closures. Private houses had been set ablaze in retaliatory operations. During the last 24 hours our reports tell us that 40 people have been killed and more than 100 injured. Many of the civic organizations in Gaza spoke out, calling for the parties to end the clashes and come to an agreement. “There will be no winners in this situation. And the biggest victim will be Palestinian people and their society” said Amal Sabawi. The surge in violence came during secondary school and university exams in Gaza . In spite of the atmosphere of chaos and fear, approximately 67,000 students attended the exams for the General Certificate of Education, while thousands of university students attended their final exams. The determination of the youth in Gaza to overcome the current difficulties and their unswerving hope is truly inspiring. Compiled by Bill Pierre and Tahija Vikalo of the International Division from conversations with Amal Sabawi. ABC News on that day showed unarmed demonstrators running out into the middle of a gun battle. The day ended, of course, with Hamas in control of Gaza. Learn more about the Quaker Palestine Youth Program at http://afsc.org/middleeast/int/palestine.htm.
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Meeting for Business, JuneBusiness meeting in June was very short, with few items. Vivian Rule acted as clerk in Val Liveoak’s absence. Meeting started after installing the new computerized projector, meaning that the agenda could be prepared visibly on the screen, and committee reports which had been e-mailed to the clerk beforehand could also be shown. The system can later be used for showing DVDs or for multimedia events.Janet Southwood presented the M&O report. As our Meeting Clerk will be traveling again during the coming weeks. Vivian Rule and Janet Southwood will be Acting Clerks in June and July as needed. Since very few Friends have been attending midweek meeting these will not be held for the time being. There will be Bible Study sessions at the meetinghouse at 6.00 pm on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month starting on June 13. Erin Sahin will facilitate the groups. Interested people should contact her for information. Friends are encouraged to consider visiting Hill Country Meeting for worship. Very few people attend there each Sunday, loyal Friends. It is necessary to contact them before planning to go since their scheduling may be uncertain, particularly during the Summer months. Their Meeting Clerk is Catherine Matlock, at cmatlock@ktc.com, Ph# 830-257-5673. Haviland Friends Church in Kansas is a staging center for 60 volunteers who are giving assistance to the victims of the tornado in Greensburg, Kansas. They are in need of financial assistance to continue this work. 1500 people were displaced, including five members of the meeting who lost everything, including farms which were completely destroyed. We plan to be in touch with the Church to find out what help is needed at this time. The committee will ask Outreach Committee to consider having a Thanksgiving Dinner at the meetinghouse this year. Janet followed this with the Naming Committee’s recommendation for a new member of the Nominating Committee, Michelle DiGiacomo,. Janet Wenholz will continue and Ruth Lofgren has agreed to serve for one more year. These appointments were approved. For Outreach, Ken Southwood said that Boyce Rummel is obtaining estimates for the modified roadside signs at the Eisenhauer/Vandiver corner. These estimates and designs will probably be presented for final approval in July. There will be a Bring and Share evening on Friday evening September 7 at 7 pm. Friends are asked to bring anything they would like to show or tell others about, to sing or read, and also to bring finger foods for refreshments. The committee is considering the furnishing of the meetinghouse and also the wording on the Meeting website. Marian Carter reported that the Grounds Committee is considering the design of a path at the northern side of the meetingroom to connect the porch, the conversation area, and the step to the eastern end of the meetingroom. Remaining funds from the designated gift will be used for this. Ruth Lofgren presented a Finance Committee report which recommended rental fees for use of meeting premises by others and other issues regarding this use. Ruth has been consulting other churches on their procedures for these. This will be taken up by Finance, Outreach, and M&O for incorporation into the procedures already formulated and distributed to members for review in July. No action has yet been taken to improve the Meeting phone answering service. It is now not possible to make calls from the telephone.
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PersonalFrancesca Barreh has good news! Her husband, Idriss, is coming home from Djibouti on July 10. For the first time she sounded so happy.Jim Jacobs says, “For several months, I have been designing a book on Hieronymus Bosch, written by a German Anthroposophist who is dead now. His wife, an English artist, is very old and we are trying to finish her husband's book before she dies. It's been a lot of work, involving finding the paintings referenced at their respective museums, getting permissions and photographs or scans necessary to reproduce them, having the text translated and edited, doing page layout, proofreading, color- correcting, etc.” Karl Fey has an art show opening at the Joan Grona Gallery in July for Contemporary Arts Month. It is entitled, 'Blocks 'n Pieces' and he hopes you will be able to stop by. It opens on Thursday, July 5th from 6 - 9 pm, and it will also be on view for first Friday and for regular business hours until August 11th. Carol Balliet will be taking her real estate broker’s exam on July 11. It qualifies her to be boss. With a colleague, Jen Osborne is hoping to do research in Africa with FPT’s African Great Lakes Program. He will be doing his dissertation on Healing and Rebuilding Our Community (HROC) workshops (pending AGLI's permission). She will be studying women's health documentation in Rwanda ("just" as research; dissertation focus will be determined later). They have to obtain grants for the travel – any ideas? Patricia Newkirk, now at Penn House in Washington, hopes to come back here for a visit in November at Thanksgiving. Pam Wilkinson has been in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the Youth Orchestra before going on to Adrian College in the fall. Vivian Rule and Gary Whiting took the three girls, Amanda, Molly, and Clara, to Italy. Vivian says, “First we were in Rome, where we spent the bulk of our time wandering ancient ruins with hoards of other tourists from all over the world, and regular babel of japanese and german and spanish and english and french and other stuff swirling all around us. Then we went on to Florence, more crowds of tourists, roads with no cars but also no greenery, art museums, cathedrals. Next we stayed in La Spezia on the Ligurian coast and walked along cliffs overlooking blue blue sea and beautiful gardens with lots of grape vines and olive trees, birds swooping about. Finally we saw Venice, amazing to see the sinking city, the hand-blown glass art, St. Marko's wondrous tile floors, water lapping just outside the buildings. Manda took many pictures of sculptures and flowers and architectural glories. Last weekend Gary and I decided we needed a vacation after our vacation. It was a rough re-entry into our daily lives, and we were feeling rather jangled, so we drove down to the coast and spent a night at Sea Rim State Park, sleeping on a mattress in the old green van with the ocean swelling and murmuring around us all through the darkness. It was very nice.”
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Bric A BracAt Brackenridge Park in early June, near where the river almost touches the zoo fence - the usual ducks, mallards, dowdy ducks and handsome drakes, a colorful woodduck drake, domestic whites keeping to themselves, and several landbound Muscovies, grossly ungraceful; a rookery of hundreds of white egrets, dipping and whirling among the trees, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, one black (a Little Blue Heron?), and a Common Egret disdainfully ignoring a small boy’s thrown breadcrumbs; a grackle stabbing at a too impertinent sparrow, a small fuffle of feathers, murder before our eyes, until the sparrow, suddenly reassembled, flew off into a tree; two pairs of Yellow-crowned Night Herons meditating next an iron bridge; and a pair of rock squirrels sitting immobile but near their hole-in-the-ground as a young grey squirrel tried to bluff them into moving aside.Meanwhile, the city/state/feds seem to have scoured the state for road contractors and are digging up and widening roads, creating new sidewalks, building new flyovers, access roads, ramps, lanes, and bridges, and festooning the sky with airy pillarborne concrete ribbons. All adorned by barriers, ROAD CLOSED signs, LEFT LANE CLOSED signs, WORK IN PROGRESS signs, fences, plastic orange nets, piles of dirt, leftover clunks, blocks of grey concrete, drab concrete barriers, mechanical shovels, bulldozers, cranes, cement mixers, concrete molds, closed ramps, new ramps, old signs to nowhere and new signs to somewhere. It will be wonderful, perhaps, when finished. But only because it will be quicker to go from A to B. Marian Carter said, three weeks ago, “If you plan to write in the newsletter about the book exchange, $320 will be realized - $295 from Amazon and $25 from Half Price.” And she’s sticking to it. Dana Clark worked to form the San Antonio Peace Choir. She says, “ An article I wrote about that work has been added to the website of independent film makers and spiritual activists Kell Kearnes and Cynthia Lukas. Kell created the much-acclaimed PBS documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “In Remembrance of Martin.”) Please go to their website to read the Peace Choir article: http://theconsciousnessofthechrist.com/ article2.htm. Working with the Peace Choir was something I could do with my whole heart, for it seemed to bring together every passion I had ever entertained.” With the Lewis and Clark (Musical) Expedition she sings everything from originals to old jazz tunes, to blues, at the Radius at 411 E. Martin on Mondays. Friends Journal carries a request from Friends General Conference for photographs of meetinghouses “and the surrounding environment” for a permanent art display at its offices in Philadelphia (without people!) We shall be looking into this.
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BrevityA shy young English Friend was deeply in love with the daughter of a nearby Quaker family. . . . for eleven years without proposing. Meantime he built an attractive house with gardens, rockery, and outbuildings, and when it was all finished he invited the family of his beloved maiden to come and see his home. . . He took her to see the outbuildings. As they leaned over, looking into the pigpen, he turned to her affectionately and said, “Anna, shall we keep a pig?” The proposal was effective and a very happy married life followed. It was this same Anna who, many years later, at a wedding, rose during the silence in the meeting and said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?”From the Poleys’ Friendly Anecdotes. They seem to have been well matched. Gary Whiting would have bowled Vivian Rule over with a proposal like that. The Poleys have another marriage story: Once after George Walton had spoken at Swarthmore, William Speakman came up at the close of meeting and said, “Thanks for what thee said; it always does my wife good to hear thee.”
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QuakerBooksThe Spring FGC QuakerBooks catalog has arrived. New this year is An Introduction to Quakerism by Ben Pink Dandelion (a British Friend), with a photo of Liveoak Meeting’s meetingroom on the cover. It “balances a history of the theology of . . . Friends with an overview of present day practice.” Older is Daily Readings from Quaker Sprituality with writings from Fox and Woolman through Kenneth Boulding to Jessamyn West.There are five pamphlets, Twelve Quakers and God/Worship/Pacifism/Evil/ Simplicity, each giving the experience of twelve British Quakers. Quakerism 101 by Shirley Dodson offers a “core understanding of Quakerism for new attenders.” Listening Spirituality, Vols 1 & 2 cover personal and corporate spiritual experience among Friends. Benjamin Lloyd’s Turnaround envisions a 21st century Society of Friends. There are sections devoted to books on Peace and Nonviolence, Prison Reform and Restorative Justice, Environmental Concerns, Quaker Scientists, Death and Dying, and Books for Young Adults and for Children. Altogether 130 books are listed. To learn more, go to http://www.quakerbooks.org/.
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William Penn House, WashingtonPenn House lies in a residential area in Capitol Hill directly east of the Capitol Building, two blocks from the Supreme Court. Leaving the front door onto East Capitol, the Capitol Building is seen a few blocks west, at the end of the road. The transition from Federal Government to residential is abrupt. Great and impressive governmental buildings suddenly give way to row houses of every facade and size. Some are large and wide, four stories with porticos. Others are barely 12-13 feet wide, just enough for the front door to enter directly into the living room, with only two stories. Here and there is a one-storey house. And, also, here and there is a row of houses built by the same builder to the same design. But, mostly, each house is designed to its builder’s idea, nestling against the wall of the house next door with different doors, steps, and windows.Regardless of any original attempt at uniformity, the present owners all express their individuality in the colors they have chosen. In a single block there are grey-painted houses with white trim, sky-blue with grey trim, white with white trim, cream with blue trim, white with green trim . . . And in front of each, a small yard, eight feet from sidewalk to front door, with a bush or two, perhaps a doghouse or a patio table with four chairs. And, in early March, some optimistic daffodil or crocus shoots showing their perky points amidst the winterborne refuse of early spring. The sidewalks are brick, with root-raised radial waves reaching out from each tree, meaning that we must pay attention to where our feet are treading. Early in the morning gentlemen in black suits and long black overcoats stride towards the center of government just down the road. In the afternoon and evening people walk their dogs or their babies. A greasy-spoon restaurant at the corner provides friendly service and good food for a full complement of a miscellany of customers. A neighborhood grocery run by Asians packs more things into the small space of what must have been the front room of a house than you would think possible. A pharmacy across the road has no shelves and caters, in a White neighborhood, to an entirely Black clientele, as does the clinic listed in the Penn directory. Nearby is an award-winning high school; when school is out the neighborhood is full of Black teens. Not a White teen or a Latino in sight. Near the high school is the Eastern Market*, a brick building, WITH stalls on which are set out cuts of meat, flowers, candies, vegetables and fruit, flowers, and delicatessen. A plaque outside one of the doors tells of its designer, Adolph Cluss, and its building in 1873. Each weekend, a two-day outdoor flea and farmer’s market takes place here, outside, along the sidewalk and in the open space on the other side of the road. Here you can buy African masks, Nepali ornaments, antique and new furniture, jewelry, clothes, books, paintings, and, of course, fresh fruit, flowers, and vegetables. Local coffee shops thrive. Penn House itself is a floor taller than the surrounding houses, four floors including the attic (which must have been the servants’ quarters), with a copper facade on its bow window. The first floor has the offices and a meetingroom. The second has a kitchen, dining room, and lounge which residents can use and where meeting for worship is held every day at 7.30 a.m. The third floor is entirely devoted to bedrooms, each with six to ten bunkbeds. On the fourth, and in the basement, live the interns and Patricia Newkirk, the Assistant Director. Every day visitors arrive, for workcamps, seminars, meetings with congressbodies, or just for sightseeing. At the weekend the house may be suddenly full of teenagers from a Quaker, or perhaps Episcopalian, school. Breakfast is a noisy occasion. Or a Mennonite couple from Oregon arrive to speak to their congressman, while other visitors are sightseers. The House runs 50+ work camps and seminars for children and adults each year. The work camps place volunteers in soup kitchens and shelters and rehabilitates homes. The seminars focus on peace and social justice. The janitor is Senegalese, the workcamp director Nigerian-Swedish, the program coordinator American, and the interns Kenyan and American, and the visitors from almost everywhere. The director, Byron Sandford, and the assistant director Patricia Newkirk are Texans. *Eastern Market burned out in June.
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SilenceThis is Nelson DeMille, reviewing Thomas Parry’s novel, Silence:“This is catnip for true fans of the mystery/suspense genre.” Here is something for the Outreach Committee! Mixing metaphors, perhaps, but DeMille has the touch. Suppose a poster at the Eisenhauer corner –
OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE!
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AFSC’s Immigration Opinion SurveyAs the Senate reconsiders immigration reform this week, the Immigration Opinion Survey conducted for AFSC, the year’s largest opinion study on the U.S. public’s views on immigration topics, finds that the public is strongly in favor of immigration reform that includes a path to permanent residency for the undocumented and keeps families together.The 2007 Immigration Opinion Survey also shows that the U.S. public believes the immigration system is broken and that building more border fences is not the answer. The survey, which interviewed 1,200 people nationwide from May 24 to June 16, also found strong support for the following statements about immigration topics:
"We are a nation of immigrants." (84% agreement) “Congress should listen to the people in this country and craft less punitive and more family-friendly reform legislation that gives people who have built a life in this country a clear path to legal residency,” says Esther Nieves, director of immigrant and refugee rights for the American Friends Service Committee. “We need to stop scape-goating immigrants for our problems and spending billions on border fences and enforcement, which are only creating a humanitarian disaster on the U.S.-Mexico border, and find humane and effective alternatives instead.” Esther Nieves is one of three experts featured in a new online dialogue focusing on the problems of migration. Questions and responses will be posted by the end of the month: http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/150191/1/ You are asked to submit questions and comments on how much we really understand about what causes people to move from one country to another, the impacts migrants have on their new countries, and the ramifications for their old countries? OneWorld has brought together experts and advocates to help answer your questions. From this page you can launch into all the OneWorld sites, Africa, Canada, Latin America, South East Europe, South Asia, UK.
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ForumsWe find out, at the end of each month, what the forum topics are for the next one. So, recently, when there was a distinct shortage we, in our alter ego as Ken Southwood, offered to do one. Twice. To avoid any more of this, please suggest topics to Barbara Miles, Stephen Whitworth, or Val Liveoak, preferably with someone to lead them.
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FiddlingBritish Friend William K. Sessions suggests that Quaker stories can be devised by just taking another and inserting the word “Quaker,” e.g.,A new teacher at a Quaker school was airing his knowledge of psychology: “Everyone who thinks they are stupid, stand up. After a pause Johnny stood up. Teacher: “Do you really think you’re stupid?” Johnny: “No, sir, but I don’t like seeing you standing there all by yourself.”
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Friends Query for JulyOur sense of community does not depend on us all professing identical beliefs for it grows from worshiping together, knowing one another, loving one another, accepting responsibilities, sharing and working together.How can we further foster a meeting community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and visitors are made welcome?
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