Durham Friends Monthly Meeting, May 21, 2017
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends convened in worship on Sunday, May 21, 2017 at 12:30 with 10 people present. Clerk Sarah Sprogell opened by reading the opening paragraph, page 117, of ‘A Peculiar People” from the Interim Faith and Practice of NEYM.
- Approval given for the temporary service of Martha Hinshaw Sheldon as Recording clerk.
2. Ministry and Counsel report given by Ron Turcotte.
a) Ron reported on the May 7 Listening Session on how the Meeting community is doing in the 6 months’ discernment period to help evaluate the life of the meeting without a paid pastor. Issues that arose from the survey are ongoing concerns about how we offer Pastoral care and outreach. A follow up survey will be distributed with 2 questions: Continue as we are or search for a pastor. A summary report and recommendations will be presented at the June Monthly Meeting.
b) A report was given on the All Maine Gathering and Falmouth Quarter May 6. New England Yearly Meeting will be looking at the functions of the Quarterly Meeting in the coming year. In today’s modern world is the Quarterly Meeting needed in the same way?
c) Approval was given to send a letter of appreciation to the leaders of the Quarterly Meeting program on white privilege.
3. The Christian Education report was given by Tess Hartford.
a) Tess shared information on the June 4th Children’s day and Meeting open house. Details and more information will be sent out soon.
b) Brambles on the trail the youth have been working on will be cleared this summer.
c) Five graduates will be honored this spring: Ketty Stinson, Hannah and M Schlotterbeck, Mitch Newlin, and Rachel Wood.
d) Preliminary information and discussion followed on having gravel or crushed stone put down in the horse barn for use in inclement weather. Bid options were presented and shared with Trustees to consider.
e) The committee will be conducting an informal evaluation of Wendy’s youth ministry in the Meeting.
f) Martha is to send an informational note on Adult Sunday School to be included in the next newsletter. The current book is ‘Le Flambeau School of Driving’ by Peggy Senger Morrison who is the founder of Freedom Friends Church in Oregon and has a blog called ‘A Silly Poor Gospel’.
4. Approval was given to a suggestion that the Meeting have a special collection to support Ugandans Safe Passage Sunday June 4th. This is a group mentioned in worship by Diane Dicranian. This group provides safe passage to LBGT Ugandans and their allies, who are under the threat of persecution.
5. Trustees report was given by Leslie Manning.
a) The committee is finalizing the solar project with the work to begin May 30th.
b) Appreciation was expressed for the work of volunteers who helped on ‘Love Your Meeting’ cleanup days May 12 and 13.
c) Further projects to be done are replacing basement window sills, cleaning black mold, painting the fellowship room ceiling, and clearing out the area behind the horse shed of brush and trash. These projects to be done this summer.
d) Work on the cemeteries (3) is another project on the Trustees list. Updating the plot map and putting the map on the Meeting web site will allow for easy access and is another form of outreach.
e) The Durham Comprehensive Plan may lead to making the trails available to the public.
f) This report accepted and approved.
6. A NEYM Friend sent a gift of $2,000 to Durham Friends and other NEYM Meetings to do with as they wish. The Clerks Committee discussed how best to use this gift, and recommend that we donate the money to a local group serving new Mainers in the Lewiston area. This recommendation was approved.
7. New Business. Ron Turcotte presented information on the Hope Gateway program for communities seeking to grow in hope. This is a yearlong program to train 4 to 5 people in a faith community in outreach and engaging the wider community. Ron will write up more information to be included in the next newsletter to allow for further discussion and threshing.
8. The meeting ended with a time of silent listening to final movements of Spirit.
Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, Recording Clerk, pro tem
