For the February 15, 2026 message at Durham Friends Meeting, Craig Freshley presented a new version of the prayer he has written and re-written, uses regularly in his life.
He asked, What is your prayer? You can hear the entire message HERE.
Beginning November 9 and continuing on the second and Fourth Sundays of every month until March 8, 2026, we will be offering Quaker Basics, 9:30 to 10:15 AM, in the meeting room, and on Zoom. All are welcome.
We will be using chapters from New England Yearly Meeting’s current Faith and Practice, a
proposed chapter on Testimonies and videos and other sources. Please join us for any session, or
for the whole series.
For March 8, please review the Queries for the chapter, found on page 26, and write your own response as an Advice which you will be encouraged to share with the group.
https://neym.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/Testimony%20chapter%2006.23.2025.pdf
and here’s another Quaker Speak video for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H08cyXVYDw
Joyce will lead us in the discussion.
Again, all are welcome to any class, but it does deepen the discussion if you have read in advance.
The Agenda and Materials for the February 15, 2026 Durham Friends Business Meeting can be found HERE.
Durham Monthly Meeting with Attention to Business
AGENDA, February 15, 2026
Opening: Clerk, Sarah Sprogell
Approval of minutes from January 18th MM
Ministry and Counsel: Tess Hartford or Renee Cote
Finance Committee: Nancy Marstaller
Peace and Social Concerns: Ingrid Chalufour
Other
Close with worship
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends Business Meeting Minutes, January 18, 2026, DRAFT 2
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, January 18, 2026, with nine people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and three by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening
Clerk Sarah Sprogell opened the meeting by reading sections of a letter sent to her by the Wabanaki Elder-in-Residence program at the University of Maine, in thanks for monetary support. The letter is very encouraging, and a reminder of the good works that are taking place, particularly if you take a long view.
Newell Lewey (Passamaquoddy/Wolastoqiyik) is serving as the Elder-in-Residence at UMaine-Machias this school year. He attends college-wide meetings and works with professors in various classes to integrate a Wabanaki perspective into the curriculum. Students have been stopping by during his office hours, and two students in particular are keen to get things moving! Newell is an accomplished Passamaquoddy language and cultural teacher. He collaborates with other tribes and also serves as the Culture, Language and Education Division Manager for Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness. He has taught an introductory Wabanaki language, culture and history course at UMaine-Machias for two years before taking on his new role as Elder-in-Residence. The full letter is posted on the bulletin board. Another thank-you letter is posted on the bulletin board.
Meeting expressed its appreciation for the work of Ingrid Chalufour and Ellen Bennett in organizing the New Paths: Working Together on Wabanaki Curriculum Integration day-long conference.
2. Approval of Minutes of December 2025
The Meeting approved the Minutes of the December 21, 2025 Business Meeting, with typos corrected.
3. Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote
M&C is working on coordinating New England Yearly Meeting accompaniment visits. The NEYM committee that organizes these visits is in the process of revisiting its charge and function. Visits are conducted to help meetings that are experiencing challenges.
DFM approached this committee after the February 2025 retreat, at which it was shared that there were unresolved issues within the Meeting. The NEYM accompaniment committee identified two representatives to work with our Meeting, both of whom have made visits.
4. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Craig is giving a concert called “Bob for Food” (singing Bob Dylan songs) raising money for the Good Shepherd Food Bank. The date is March 14th. P&SC is helping to put this event together. All are welcome to help with this event.
5. Nominating Committee Report — Wendy Schlotterbeck
Additional people are needed to oversee technology/Zoom access for the Meeting, as well as supporting our music ministry. Clerks, at their meeting, discussed restarting a list for those to take responsibility for after-worship food, coffee, tea.
It is important to encourage new people to volunteer for these tasks. It is a way to be engaged in the life of the Meeting without a committee assignment. Also, new attenders need to be encouraged to sign the guest book and share email addresses so they can receive the newsletter.
6. Letter to Brunswick Town Council — Doug Bennett
The draft letter follows very closely and attaches the letter we sent to the council in 2022. Our message to the Town Council is the same.
Three suggestions followed:
1. To consider a new name for the park, assemble a group that includes indigenous members.
2. Note that members of this Meeting include residents of Brunswick, Topsham, Lisbon, and Freeport.
3. Reference the Rotarian plaque earlier in the letter.
DFM will send its own letter to the Town Council with corrections, and at the same time, send it to the Brunswick Area Interfaith Council.
Meeting affirmed the letter with three changes. The changes will be incorporated and reviewed by the meeting clerk before being mailed.
Meeting expressed its great appreciation for Doug’s work
7. Website Annual Report — Doug Bennett
Please see report. Please note that goes onto the website is written and provided by other people. Guidelines exist to ensure that postings come through the Meeting, and are reflective of the Meeting’s work.
Meeting expressed its appreciation for Doug’s work on the website.
8. Trustee Annual Report — Sarah Sprogell
Please see report.
Sarah gave a summary of the report. It includes a list of projects and their associated costs, building use by other groups, updates concerning the Lunt Cemetery, the Eileen Babcock estate, and bank accounts.
Trustees were asked to report annually on the number of burials in the cemetery. It was also suggested that a presence on the website about the cemetery, including a plot map and some history, would be a good idea. It was noted that Curtis library has a resource of the histories of local cemeteries. Doug will look into this.
9. Other Business
Clerk closed the Meeting, asking us to go forth to find and shine our light in the darkness.
Respectfully Submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
Fight Hunger One Bowl, Cup at a Time will be held on February 14, Valentine’s Day, at the Lisbon Falls Baptist Church, on Rte. 196 from 4:00-6:30 P.M.
The cost is $15.00 per person. We need as many people from the board and the supporting churches to make salads, soups, chili, breads, rolls, and pies for this event.
Kim Bolshaw. our representative to LACO, will pick items up from the Meetinghouse on Saturday morning; to contact Kim, text her at 207 808 3007. Thank you.
Message for Durham Friends Meeting worship service, February 8, 2026
Susan Davies is a member of Vassalboro Friends Meeting, and currently serves as Clerk of the Permanent Board, New England Yearly Meeting.
In 1850, the Boston Vigilance Committee organized citizens to resist
enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Although Massachusetts had abolished
slavery nearly 70 years before, the new Fugitive Slave Act required ALL
citizens, of all states, (free, as well as slave states) to help law enforcement to
recover fugitive slaves to return them into bondage. The Boston Vigilance
Committee had been organized by Theodore Parker, a Universalist minister, to
rally citizens to help fugitive slaves to hide, and to refuse to assist with their
recovery. Due to their efforts, from 1850 to the onset of the Civil War in 1861,
only two slaves were captured in Boston and transported back to the South.
On both occasions, Bostonians combatted the actions with mass protests.
Today, 175 years later, the citizens of Minneapolis are compelled to show up,
from a similar sense of outrage at injustice.
Theodore Parker, the Unitarian minister who led the formation of the Boston
Vigilance Committee, was a staunch abolitionist, and also at odds with the
orthodoxy of Unitarianism. His followers described him and themselves as
part of a movement of “prophetic Christian social activism”. Parker was
involved with almost all of the reform movements of the time: the condition of
women, prison reform, the moral and mental destitution of the rich, and the
physical destitution of the poor. In his theology Parker stressed the immediacy
of God and suggested that people experience God intuitively and personally,
and that they should center their religious beliefs on individual experience
(Wikipedia).
Theodore Parker was quoted this Winter in the Southern Poverty Law Center
newsletter, by Bryan Fair:
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a
long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the
curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine
it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards
justice.”
Later the quote was shortened to the familiar phrase: “The arc of the moral
universe is long, but it bends towards justice”, quoted by both Martin
Luther King Jr and Barack Obama, and many others. But this winter Bryan Fair, amended this hopeful and uplifting sentiment by saying:
“I am convinced that the arc of the moral universe will NOT bend
towards justice on its own. We must bend it towards justice.”
I want to explore today the soul of “The Dissident”- -those we intuitively
understand are the ones exerting the greatest leverage to bend the arc of the
moral universe towards justice.
Definition: A dissident is a person who actively challenges an
established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or
institution… In the political sense, in the 20th Century, use of the word
dissident coincides with the rise of authoritarian governments in
countries such as Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the
Soviet Union (and later Russia), North Korea, China.… Wikipedia
For the obvious reasons of the tragedies and oppression we are daily exposed
to in our country, and around the world, I have been preoccupied lately with
the image evoked by George Fox’s words:
The Lord shewed me that the natures of those things which were hurtful
without, were within- in the hearts and minds of wicked men… And I
cried to the Lord, saying, ‘Why should I be thus, seeing I was never
addicted to commit those evils?’ And the Lord answered that it was
needful I should have a sense of all conditions… how else should I
speak to all conditions; and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw
also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite
ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.
And in that I also saw the infinite love of God and I had great
openings.
George Fox was a spiritual and political dissident of extraordinary clarity,
focus and resolve. He was imprisoned eight times in English dungeons and
jails, spending six years of his life in the horrific conditions of the time. And
when he was free and he interrupted church services in his urgency to testify
to the Truth, the people “beat him with hands, Bibles and sticks, and finally
stoned him, after which he was thrown into jail”. He seems never to have
evaded, resisted or avoided the inevitable, furious reactions of the controlling
powers. In 1655, at the age of 31, during one of his long imprisonments, he
wrote on the cell wall,
“I was never in prison that it was not the means of bringing multitudes
out of their prisons.”
His steadfastly and fervently repeated mission was to “lead people to the
Truth”. And lead them he did- his relentless and urgent conviction and
courage led thousands to the movement such that in alarm, Parliament
passed a special law against Quakers that resulted in the imprisonment of
some 4,000 of them.
His message was not based on a concern for justice, poverty, social reform,
per se. It was not based on opinion or causes. It stemmed from a more
profound, reality-shaking, lived experience of the human- divine relationship.
As some of us have heard expressed in vocal ministry he “Lived as if the Truth
were true”. After years of suffering and anguished searching he had finally
exhausted all words and concepts, all pleadings among humans for
trustworthy religious counsel. And then he was lifted up into a completely
transformed understanding of Reality – not through theological argument, or
his own mental reasoning, or evolution of his opinions, but rather through his
living, breathing experience of an Answering God. In his words to his family,
and others:
“I told them that there was an anointing within people, to teach them, and
that the Lord would teach his people himself.” “Your growth in the seed (of Truth) is in the silence”. And “This I knew experimentally”
Praying in his journal, he said “The knowledge of thee in the Spirit is Life, but
the knowledge which is fleshly works death.”
He perceived that “The Life” (the Spirit of the Living Christ, the Inward Teacher)
lay under the burden of corruptions (what Paul Tillich called “the accidental
elements” of our humanness).
“This worship in Spirit and in the Truth touches all men and women; they must
come to the Spirit in themselves, and the Truth in the inward parts…they must
come to the Truth in the heart, to what is hidden in the heart, and to a meek
and quiet spirit.”
Fox was not speaking abstractly, nor exhorting people with theological
“concepts” or Biblical phrases (though he practically knew the Bible by heart).
He was urgently testifying about his own lived experience that he had
discovered access to God’s immediacy and relatedness. Christ did not live in
temples and churches– the Spirit of Truth is within, in the heart. His message
was so compelling and astonishing that people were moved and amazed.
The dissident is convicted by a truth that insists on being made manifest.
Dissidents are the agents of a truth that will not allow them to rest. This year’s
draft chapter of Faith & Practice is on Testimony and their simple message is
that TRUTH’s Testimony is the foundation of all witness; Truth is the
proclamation that the Voice of the Inward Teacher is REAL, practical, and everpresent. For Fox, and for those of us who aspire to his lineage, his unshakable
commitment was to proclaiming the saving power that the Truth could be
inwardly known; and when outwardly obeyed it would never fail to yield, in full
measure, all the Fruits of the Spirit:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.
I will close with the affirmation from another great and peaceful dissident,
Vaclav Havel, playwright, and former President of the Czech Republic (1936-
2011), who in 1989 was a leader of the Velvet, or “Gentle” Revolution against
40 years of oppressive communist rule in Czechoslovakia:
“The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.”
From Peace and Social Concerns Committee
UPDATE: February 12, 2026:
The date for the public hearings on the two big “sovereignty bills” has been announced. The
date is: Thursday, February 19, 2026, 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. in the Judiciary Committee
meeting room, State House, Room 438.
10:00 a.m.: LD 395: “An Act to Restore Access to Federal Laws Beneficial to the
Wabanaki Nations”
1:00 p.m.: LD 785: An Act to Enact the Remaining Recommendations of the Task Force
on Changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act”
See the Wabanaki Alliance website for a summary of the bills and talking points:
LD 395: https://www.wabanakialliance.com/ld-395-talking-points/
LD 785: https://www.wabanakialliance.com/ld-785-talking-points/
These bills will be very similar to ones that have come up in previous sessions, so you can dust
off and update those previous testimonies!
To support these bills contact your legislators. You can find them by going to
www.maine.gov and type voter lookup into the search bar. Select Government: eDemocracy:
Voter Information Lookup and enter the name of your town
Important Wabanaki Legislation, January 23, 2026
The Wabanaki Alliance will be having a Lobby Day, likely in February, in conjunction with the
hearings on the two most important bills coming before the legislature this session. We ask you
to contact your legislators in support of these bills.
P&SC will provide more information as we learn the dates and committees that will hold
the hearings.
To support these bills contact your legislators. You can find them by going to
www.maine.gov and type voter lookup into the search bar. Select Government: eDemocracy:
Voter Information Lookup and enter the name of your town.
LD 785 (previously LD 1626 in past legislature), which will incorporate all of the proposed
amendments to the 1980 Settlement Act that haven’t already been passed (which is the majority
of them recommended by a 2019 bipartisan task force); and,
LD 395 (previously LD 2004), which seeks to give the Wabanaki Nations access to all of the
beneficial laws that have been passed for the other 571 federally-recognized Indigenous
Nations, but which have been denied to the Wabanaki since 1980)
This “Bless of Angels” was read by Tess Hartford at the opening of worship on February 1, 2026 at Durham Friends Meeting
A BLESSING OF ANGELS
May the Angels in their beauty bless you.
May they turn toward you streams of blessing.
May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart
To come alive to the eternal within you,
To all the invitations that quietly surround you.
May the Angel of Healing turn your wounds
Into sources of refreshment.
May the Angel of the Imagination enable you
To stand on the true thresholds,
At ease with your ambivalence
And drawn in new direction
Through the glow of your contradictions.
May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes
To the unseen suffering around you.
May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places
Where your life is domesticated and safe,
Take you to the territories of true otherness
Where all that is awkward in you
Can fall into its own rhythm.
May the Angel of Eros introduce you
To the beauty of your senses
To celebrate your inheritance
As a temple of the holy spirit.
May the Angel of Justice disturb you
To take the side of the poor and the wronged.
May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you
In worth and self-respect,
That you may live with the dignity
That presides in your soul.
May the Angel of Death arrive only
When your life is complete
And you have brought every given gift
To the threshold where its infinity can shine.
May all the Angels be your sheltering
And joyful guardians.
– John O’Donohue –
To Bless the Space Between Us
Craig Freshley will sing classic Bob Dylan Songs, and there will be sing-a-long opportunities, at a concert to benefit the Good Shepherd Food Bank. At the Durham Friends Meetinghouse, Saturday, March 14, 7:00 pm.
Make a Mandala with Ezra Smith, then stay for dinner and live music by Fanning the Breeze! Thursday, February 19, 5:30 to 8:00 pm. More information at MakerCafe.org.
Durham Friends Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes, January 19, 2026
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Qat Langlier, Kim Bolshaw, Joyce Gibson. On Zoom: Susan Gilbert, Secretary.
Cards: For Friends.
Program and Devotions: We took turns reading from Blueprints Volume 82, “Love in Many Languages” Lesson 4 “Sharing the Language of Love with Strangers” by Sue McCraken. Scripture: Hebrews 13:1a “Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love.” Sue, a self described introvert, later in life found that by reaching out, just smiling and asking questions on how others were doing connected her with strangers in sharing the language of love.
Treasurer’s Report: The silent auction raised $546.50, half of which was sent to Tedford Housing and half to Warm Thy Neighbor. We have $175.20 in our account. $20. raised from Dorothy Curtis’ grape jelly will be sent to LACO. $100. from the Hinshaw family given in thanks for Ed’s Memorial Service will be divided between SASSMM – Sexual Assault Services of Midcoast Maine, and New Beginnings. We will look at Wayfinder Schools for future donations.
Minutes: Susan read the 12.15.’25 Minutes.
Tedford Meal: The January 1 Tedford meal was baked chicken, roasted potatoes, a side vegetable, salad, drinks and dessert. The February 2 Tedford Meal Team C leader is Sarah Sprogell. Durham Friends provide dinner for Tedford House on the first Monday of each month. Contributions of prepared food or money for Tedford meals are always welcome.
Next Meeting: February 16, 2026, 7 PM.
Other Business: We appreciated Dan Henton’s contribution of two extra large lasagna dishes to Ed Hinshaw’s Memorial lunch. Thank you to all who brought food and helped with the clean up. Dorothy Curtis has completed a beautiful, group embroidered quilt for Craig Freshley’s daughter Dana, who is expecting a girl. It will be presented at Meeting for Worship when Craig is present.
Dorothy closed the meeting with a quote from Martin Luther King:
Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
This poem was read at the opening of worship at Durham Friends Meeting on January 25, 2026.
From Jan L. Richardson, The Map You Make Yourself; A Blessing for Women’s Christmas, 2013.
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, January 11, 2026
for Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Celebrated January 19, 2026
Morning Y’all! Today I want to share reflections on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr whose life we celebrate annually in January, on the third Monday, near his birthday, January 15th. This year we will celebrate on January 19th. The title of his last book, published in 1967, offered me a title for my message: Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? But before I begin, here are some interesting facts about him:
It is clear that we live in a chaotic world, yet is it more chaotic than earlier times? Do we have any less of a challenge today as people who profess to follow Christ as the people who were in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s? I will share some stories from my youth in the 60s, as well as a few quotes from Dr. King’s Nobel Prize Lecture (December 11,1964) demonstrating how turbulent times assail us, regardless of the era, implying our work is ongoing and the struggle for peace cannot be abandoned:
“This evening, I would like to use this lofty and historic platform to discuss what appears to me to be the most pressing problem confronting mankind today. Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in chains, and carved highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man’s scientific and technological progress…
Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual “lag” must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul.
This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man’s chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man’s ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war.”
King’s Nobel Lecture continues:
“What the main sections of the civil rights movement in the United States are saying is that the demand for dignity, equality, jobs, and citizenship will not be abandoned or diluted or postponed. If that means resistance and conflict we shall not flinch. We shall not be cowed. We are no longer afraid.” (Mahatma Gandi’s non-violent campaign against the British was quite convincing to King who adopted this strategy for the Civil Rights Movement).
In a real sense nonviolence seeks to redeem the spiritual and moral lag that I spoke of earlier as the chief dilemma of modern man. It seeks to secure moral ends through moral means. Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.
I believe in this method because I think it is the only way to reestablish a broken community. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the conscience of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride, and irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep.
The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: we will take direct action against injustice despite the failure of governmental and other official agencies to act first. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to truth as we see it.”
I do not believe we are living in the worst of times, though life is troubling in every sphere we can imagine, environmentally, socially, spiritually. Yet, I do believe we have the power to sustain ourselves and overcome much of the evil we are experiencing. The organizing power of love can help transform our lives and those we love, by taking right, non-violent actions. (We have plenty of evidence of that today, even in our Meeting) We must remember that our troubled times did not arrive with our current national government, they just seem more devastating because it is our own elected government is orchestrating so much of the chaos!
King expresses the strength of his convictions about love: We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world. In this 1967 book, he offered another quote many use to express the relationship between power of love.
…Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love.
What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. (Chaos or Community, p.37)
Aligned with MLK, Jr, ideas, Brian McLaren, faculty of the Center of Action & Contemplation, co-founded by Father Richard Rhor, encourages us to heed the call to action in non-violent, creative ways, through Christ-like action. McLaren, like King, invites us into a life rooted in contemplation, and in contemplation that always expresses itself in action. And that our actions lead to outcomes that show that the Power of love outlasts and overcomes the love of Power.
I leave you with the hope found in an excerpt from Amanda Gorham’s poem,The Hill We Climb, from Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration:
…We will not march back to what was,
But move to what shall be:
A country that is bruised, but whole,
Benevolent, but bold, fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation,
Because we know our inaction and inertia
Will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain,
If we merge mercy with might
And might with right,
Then Love becomes our legacy,
And change our children’s birthright.
So, let us leave behind a country
better than one we were left. “
Gorham, A. (2021). The Hill We Climb. Inaugural poem read on January 20, 2021.
King, M.L.K., Jr. (1967). Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Harper & Row.
MLK, Jr.’s Nobel Prize Lecture. Oslo, Norway. December 11, 1964.
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/lecture
McLaren, B. Good News for a Fractured World, January 8, 2026 video. https://www.cac.org
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, January 18, 2026
Many years ago, living in Delaware, a tornado tore through a neighborhood near where I was living. The next day I went to look at the wreckage. I had never seen tornado damage up close. It was terrible to see: trees torn up by their roots, cars tossed on end, homes destroyed, piles of debris, jumbles of sticks and paper and car parts, and roof tiles and glass. I saw wreckage that went beyond my imagining.
One image has particularly stayed with me: a house sawed in half. One side was obliterated, shredded to pieces the size of matchsticks, nothing recognizable. The remaining side was completely undisturbed. You could look at rooms missing a wall or two, but all their contents were still there, still in place, every chair, every picture, every pillow, every delicate vase, every pencil on a desk. How could there be so much chaos and so much calm side by side?
That memory has come back to me in recent months as a vivid image of the world in which we – all of us – are living. Where do you see yourself? Mostly, myself, I am in the undisturbed side of the house, the untouched side. My daily life goes on in normal ways. I see friends and family, I cook, I read, I go to meetings of various organizations, that go about their ordinary affairs. It’s a very normal life in this part of the house, every delicate vase and every pencil in its place.
But I can’t help but see that there’s a wall missing, or perhaps two walls. I can feel a little breeze, a worrying breeze because I’m exposed to the elements. The bedroom next to the one where I sleep is simply gone, torn to matchsticks. Looking out where that wall used to be I see utter chaos, cars upended, trees uprooted.
Out the windows of the calm side of the house I see other people going about their ordinary lives, working, playing, going to school. And through the missing walls of the chaotic side of the house I see people fired from their jobs for speaking the truth or just for being themselves. I see torture in jails, and people shot in their own cars. I see destruction of organizations. I hear lies. I see lies declared truth. I see theft and fraud, and not just in secret, but theft and fraud openly practiced and justified. I see war, and not just war but war justified.
I can turn my head and see the calm side of the house; or I can turn back and see the chaos. I’m doing that every day. This is a newish experience, and a disturbing one. It’s a disorienting one. Perhaps you’re having this experience, too.
I know this divided life is unstable. As Lincoln warned, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” A house missing a wall here or a wall there cannot stand for very long. It cannot provide shelter for very many, and not even shelter for the few for very long. This divided house is no longer safe for anyone. We can no longer trust its integrity – we can’t trust that it won’t completely collapse – and soon. This unstable, divided house makes me anxious, often angry, constantly dismayed.
Day by day I find myself putting my mental energy into trying to hold the house together and upright. But it’s not enough. It’s exhausting to live in such a divided world. How did this storm happen?
We often give major storms a name: Agnes, Katrina, Sandy. We talk about the damage from Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Agnes. I have no doubt we would all suggest the same name for the current storm that is sawing our lives in half, a normal half and a wreckage half.
But we also know that major storms arise in the midst of certain broader weather conditions. For a hurricane to form, there needs to be warm ocean water and moist, humid air. Tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms in warm, moist, unstable air along and ahead of cold fronts.
How about this tornado? I find myself thinking about that in this half-wrecked house.
I know it isn’t simply the doing of one person. No one person could do this. Others have to be involved, too. I think about these things: complicity, corruption, cowardice and complacency.
Some people are actively complicit in creating the storm that causes the wreckage. They share responsibility for tearing things apart. They, too, do the doing.
Some people see active benefit in allowing the wreckage. They don’t need to do much except encourage the wreckage. Perhaps they provide donations or provide a little assistance in other ways. They know they will profit from the wrecking. That’s why their part is corruption. They reap benefits while others suffer.
Complicity, corruption, and there’s also cowardice. Some people contribute by doing nothing. They just stand aside, avert their gaze. They see they won’t be hurt too much. Their non-action lets others suffer. There’s cowardice in that.
Others are simply complacent: they don’t look, they don’t see beyond their own lives.
Complicity, corruption, cowardice, complacency: those are the weather conditions that breed the storm. Active engagement, profiteering, doing nothing. They all involve looking out for oneself, a narrow selfishness. They all involve looking away from what happens to others. “I’m alright, Jack.” I’m just looking out for number one. If we get an air mass, a culture, that’s too much of that narrow selfishness, we can get a tornado that saws our house in half. These are our times.
We can add cynicism to the ingredients of the airmass. Cynicism is the abandonment of hope. It, too, helps create this tornado through our republic.
You can talk about that weather mass in other ways. You can call it an excess of liberty. Every person can do as he pleases: Seek profits. Help friends and harm enemies. Let the consequences fall where they may. What happens to others is not my business.
What I’m trying to say has been said by others, in ways worth repeating.
In a Christmas Carol, Scrooge starts by saying “I mind my own business”, and ends by saying “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” He turns from the narrow view to the wider one.
That’s not just a cheerful Christmas message; it’s a lesson for our times. And it is just a more modern way of saying what Jesus said: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s not just Christians. In The Peloponnesian Wars, Thucydides quotes Pericles as saying “Not until the uninjured are as indignant as the injured, will peace, freedom and justice return to Athens.”
Ellen and I regularly read Sherrilyn Ifill, who holds an Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University Law School. She is also a former director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She understands that ‘humanity is her business,’ and ours, too.
In a recent column she wryly notes that the storm we are all now experiencing is a kind of storm all too familiar to Black communities. As we approach Martin Luther King day, we need to remember that lynchings happened, race riots happened, disenfranchisement happened, discrimination happened, “separate but equal” happened not just because of Bull Connor, and Strom Thurmond, and George Wallace but because of complicity, corruption and cowardice on the part of many, many others; they happened because too many took the narrow view and let the storm tear apart others houses. Too many were complicit or corrupt, cowardly or complacent.
Sherrilyn Ifill recently wrote, “Anti-democracy measures do not simply arrive and takeover healthy democracies. They are workshopped first – most often on the most vulnerable communities. In this country, with its unique history and the deep narratives of white supremacy that is part of our public discourse, this will almost always be Black communities first.” She is reminding us that we are all now experiencing what once a minority experienced as we looked away. This current storm is not one-of-a-kind; it’s just wider in scope. https://sherrilyn.substack.com/p/whether-it-is-ice-or-local-police.
1600 years ago, St. Augustine wrote a profound treatise about the situation we face. Today we call the book The City of God. He wrote it following the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. In The City of God, Augustine shows us not two parts of a house, one wrecked and one undisturbed, but two cities: the City of God and the Earthly City, or the City of Man. A godly city and a sinful one. For Augustine, the choice of where to live is before each of us every day. The Earthly City is a place of human strivings, usually selfish strivings for worldly things: money, fame and honor. The City of God, on the other hand, is a City built in relationship to God, one that looks toward eternal things, ultimately salvation. The City of Man, he believed, will be destroyed, but the City of God will last forever. Where do we choose to live?
Martin Luther King taught something very similar in challenging us to build the Beloved Community. The Beloved Community is a society built on justice, equality, love, and peace, where poverty, racism, and hate are eliminated, and all people live in harmony, sharing the earth’s resources.
This conception envisions an inclusive world where conflict is resolved nonviolently through understanding, fostering a universal sisterhood and brotherhood through unconditional love (agape). It’s a world where we care as much about our neighbors as we care about ourselves.
It takes constant effort from all of us. It takes facing down the tornado that’s tearing through our republic. It takes us all refusing to practice, or even to put up with, complicity, corruption, cowardice, complacency, or cynicism.
Tomorrow, we celebrate the life and good works of Martin Luther King, Jr. Let us be joyful in working together to build the Beloved Community – even though it’s tornado weather.
Also posted on River View Friend
The agenda and materials for the January 18, 2026 DFM Business Meeting are HERE
AGENDA, Durham Monthly Meeting with Attention to Business, January 18, 2025
Opening: Clerk Sarah Sprogell
Approval of minutes from December 21st MM
Ministry and Counsel: Tess or Renee
Peace and Social Concerns: Ingrid, for fundraising concert
Nominating Committee: Wendy
Letter to Brunswick Town Council: Doug
Website Annual Report: Doug
Trustee Annual Report: Sarah
Other
Close with worship
These three prayers, written by Ed Hinshaw, were read at his memorial service on January 10, 2026;
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Thursday, January 22, 2026
5:30-6:30 Make Paper Valentines with Nancy & Nancy
Potato prints. Doilies. Scissors. WhooHoo! ❤️
6:30-8:00 Cafe with Live Music by the Peterson String Band
Details
5:30-6:30 Make Paper Valentines with Nancy & Nancy
Potato prints. Doilies. Scissors.
Your Valentine Leaders, Nancy Marstaller and Nancy Bouffard
6:30-8:00 Cafe with Live Music by The Peterson String Band
Falmouth Quarter will meet in person and on zoom on January 24th at Portland Friends Meeting from 9:30 until about 3:00. Here’s the zoom link.
The theme for the day is Expanding the Commons – working with the abundance in our communities. You are invited to come, and to bring a friend.
· Doug Gwynn will join us and will start the day by sharing an understanding of what we mean by the Commons today.
· During the morning Wendy Schlotterback will share her story of bringing a new Mainer home from ICE detention in Brownsville Texas, highlighting the resources shared by the community which made this possible.
· Lunch – soup augmented by whatever you might bring
· After lunch, Andy Grannall will share a story of the community’s response to the needs of the grounds keeper at Portland Friends Meeting.
· Informed by these stories, we will explore who are we in the commons with? What do we possess that is for the community (our privilege, … our communities, our knowledge)? What do you need?
The theme arose from a concern raised at the October Quarterly Meeting about strengthening the mutual aid in our communities as we are impacted by current events. As we held this concern, we recognized that we are both givers and receivers of care. We all have gifts to offer as well as moments when we need support, and we value each of those exchanges on equal ground. And We expect messiness, confusion, and discomfort, and we also choose courage and trust. This led us to reframe the concern to focus on the Commons.
The schedule will be
And below is how Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) describes itself:
Mission: Answering God’s call to universal love, FWCC brings Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications, and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world.
History: In 1937, FWCC was formed to help bring Quakers together across theological and cultural diversity. Peace work before and during World War I brought Friends together across the Atlantic, which gave purpose to their continuing connections.
The concept of a world organisation to express the sense of world fellowship of Friends arose as an important part of the evolution of the Religious Society of Friends in the first two decades of the twentieth century. This was partly influenced by the 1920 Friends World Conference in London and the Young Friends Gathering in England. At that time, there was no other organisation which linked together yearly meetings and other Quaker bodies around the world, and so the vision of an organisation arose to keep Friends connected and in touch with each other across the diverse spectrum of the Society.
Purpose: The primary task of FWCC is to help Friends appreciate and develop unity within the diversity of the Quaker family.
There are differences of language, culture, and tradition, and in the emphasis placed on different aspects of our common Christian and Quaker heritage and witness. Friends worship in a variety of ways, and by increasing understanding of these differences, FWCC helps Friends both deepen and enlarge their own understanding of their faith and life as Quakers.
How we do this: FWCC operates collaboratively as one organisation, comprising the World Office and four Section offices. The five offices are independently incorporated and have separate budgets and programmes, but work cooperatively to bring Friends together across the world. The World Office encourages cross-Section engagement, while respecting the autonomy of individual yearly meetings and other Quaker organisations.
The World Office uniquely represents all Friends at the global level through its participation with the Quaker United Nations Offices in Geneva and New York, offering Quakers the chance to contribute to world affairs. FWCC’s consultation extends to those of other faiths through work with the World Council of Churches, the Conference of Secretaries of the Christian World Communions, and participation in global ecumenical and interfaith work.
Strategic Priorities
Rooted in a faith based theory of change, inspired by Matthew 13:1–23, FWCC has six priorities as follows:
1. Taking action on the outcomes of the World Plenary Meeting
2. Young Adult Friend Leadership and spiritual nurture
3. Visibility of Quakers to the world
4. Nurturing Quaker worship
5. Addressing the digital divide
6. Sharing resources
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, January 4, 2026
The end of the myth – the end of a storyline
I sit in my little comfy chair looking out over the field of snow onto the frozen tidal river. I wonder how we’ve all survived. How we’ve managed to keep our humanity in tact during this past year’s constant assault on our sense of justice, equilibrium, and plain old morality.
I know I have done my fair share of crying from frustration and sadness. My gut is constantly inflamed, roiling with swallowed anger. My sleep regularly interrupted with unsettling dreams tinged with cruelty.
I do contribute to lessen the suffering through money and time but I wonder how much my nervous system can take before my health really takes a dive.
This is the story line in which we are currently living, especially as Quakers, members of the Society of Friends, with a history of pacifism and abolition of slavery. Love thy neighbor, no exceptions, our banner proclaims. I believe this in my core being.
2025 has shown us what I believe to be the pinnacle of hubris and cruelty by our current leadership. But in many respects, it’s the same old story. A repetition of humanity’s pattern of suppression, violence and power grabbing.
These were the conditions under which Mary of Nazareth bore her first son, Jesus. I don’t pretend to know or understand the complexities of the numerous struggles for power there and in those times, but I do know it was brutal. Crucifixions by the reigning Roman Empire happened frequently and publicly as a warning to the Jews to stay in line.
And out of this struggle the “Jesus Movement” emerged. A movement professing loving one’s neighbor, no exceptions, rose up, led by a young carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth. I can speak of this to you today only because I just finished a book about the “Jesus Movement” written by a dedicated historian. A professor of religious studies who has written many books about the birth and rise of Christianity in the ancient world. And he participated in a number of archaeological digs in Galilee, produced films and documentaries about those years of strife and the movement proclaiming that peace and love were the way of God.
I’m not suggesting that this will happen here and now but I do suggest that this story gives me hope that humanity can rise above the despair and direness of the oppression and move us into a place of peace and relative tranquility.
But what of this story? The story whose beginning we just celebrated on Christmas Day – the story of a young woman, a virgin we’re told, who with her betrothed must find refuge in a manger for her to give birth to the child that will be humanity’s savior, a gift from God, in fact, the son of God.
The book I just finished is called The Lost Mary by James D. Tabor. He spent ten years researching Jesus’s mother, having felt confounded by her near erasure from the sacred texts after she gives birth. Only to show up again 30 years layer at the foot of the cross at elder son’s crucifixion. Who was this woman, Professor Tabor wondered, really, who was Jesus’s mother?
From his research into the woman who gave birth to Jesus, we find out that Mary was not from Nazareth but from the capitol of Galilee, Sepphoris, some short kilometers south of the town of Nazareth. And that she was born into a family of means, with a royal lineage, traced from the Kingdom of David, as well as a priestly lineage – from Aaron, Israel’s first priest. With this information in mind, it is unlikely that she gave birth to Jesus in a manger or barn. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that Jesus was the oldest of 8 children that Mary bore and raised. James being the second child who took over the “Jesus Movement” after Jesus’s crucifixion.
This makes sense to me. And I can imagine it and relate to it. Mary, the head of a bustling household, busy mothering her brood. Ensuring her children’s nurturing and education. That is what a mother looks like to me, and has throughout millenia.
Professor Tabor writes about Mary’s erasure from the human condition by virtue of the story line we’ve been given of not just the immaculate conception but also that she remained a virgin even after the birth of Jesus. He speculates that the powers that be in the early Christian movement had no use for Mary once she had given birth to the Savior and therefore relegated her to a place unattainable by mortal women.
Despite feeling the truth in this new version of the story of Mary and Jesus, I still believe in the holiness of Jesus, not only his message of peace and love, but his healing abilities. And like many Quakers, I’ve had my own lived experience with Jesus. His presence has come to me in times of great hurt and sorrow bringing light and hope.
But what of this erasure of Mary, the mother of eight? What about the version we’ve been fed that has served to continue the subjugation of both women and men. Because we mustn’t forget the damage done to men by the story of the Virgin Mary. They have also suffered by the binary depiction of women. Good or bad; virgin or whore, don’t mess with any in between possibilities.
The myth of Mary, now dashed, validates the misgivings I had around this story. I just plain didn’t buy it. And that made me uneasy, I was trying to wear the mantle of Christianity but without saying the word “virgin” associated with Jesus’s mother. I couldn’t logically understand what being a virgin had anything to do with anything. Of course, I know that this storyline is directly linked to subjugation of women.
And this is where I take up the theme of 2026 and new beginnings.
We have been lied to by a multitude of people and entities, over centuries. But this past year has felt, to me, particularly insulting and devastating – mostly because of the immoral and cruel actions by our leadership that are in plain view. I know that I can no longer pretend that our system works towards justice and egalitarianism.
So where is the hope for 2026? The hope lies in the truth and the truth of the corruption in our country and the world at large is undeniable. But once we have shed our naivete we can move towards a more responsible vision of a structure that benefits all of us. A vision that allows us to love our neighbor, no exceptions. 2025 has shown us, in no uncertain terms, the devastation caused by the unequal distribution of power and money.
As we dismantle myths, we dismantle entrenched ideas of how to operate which can bring a fresh and new perspective around potentiality. We strip away the untruths to uncover the truths about ourselves. We have long obscured our capacity to love, our yearning for peace and inclusivity, with individualism and ego focused goals.
So armed with the truth we can move toward revision.
Because I did not buy into the myth of the Virgin Mary I had to find my way forward as a woman outside of this construct. I had to try out new ways of thinking and new ways of acting. This required a deep dive into my core being as a human and all the complexities involved in my humanness.
I had to take a deep dive into what I believed about myself and my capabilities, my innate talents and what I could learn and cultivate. I had to throw out myths and belief systems that no longer served me. I had to ask the questions: How should I treat myself and how should I treat others, how should I treat where I live and the land on which I live? How would I earn a living and what would I spend my money on? Who would I allow into my life? What would I watch and read and eat?
As an individual human, I am a microcosm of our country. And I believe truly that as the dust settles around the destruction of the governing systems these are the questions we must ask ourselves and others.
How do we want to revise how we look at our place on this earth. This is a question for all of us as we move forward.
I, of course have no answers. Yet that does not diminish my hope for our future. If the Jesus movement could rise up out of the death and destruction wreaked by the Roman Empire, a ground swell of love and peace could move us all in the direction of self reflection and transformation on an individual level to then be transposed at the national and international level.
But I come back to the ground level, the level of mothers and families and children.
And I would point to Mother Mary, who kept her children safe during the Roman rampage and supported her son Jesus as he led a movement that proclaimed that love and peace were holy messages, that the kingdom of God could be found in each of our hearts and here on earth.
In this message I do not claim to give you answers but I do claim to give you a sense of solidarity in the struggle to revision and rework. The solidarity born of our shared humanity to make this place, this gift from God, a better place.
The January 2026 Durham Friends Meeting Newsletter is HERE.
Durham Friends Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes, December 15, 2025, Hybrid Meeting and Annual Christmas Party held at Dorthy Curtis’ Home
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Sarah Sprogell, Kim Bolshaw On Zoom: Susan Gilbert, Secretary, Wendy Schlotterbeck,
Cards: For Friends.
Program and Devotions: Dorothy read the beautifully illustrated book “Winter’s Gift” by Jane Monroe Donovan. An elder man is cutting firewood, experiencing loneliness after the recent loss of his wife. Out in the snowy landscape of his remote farmhouse at Christmastime, he sees a dark shape nearby. A wild horse, separated from her herd is lying down, exhausted in the wind and snow. A wolf howls nearby. Getting the mare to her feet, the man leads her to his barn, providing blankets and water and carrots. He sleeps nearby, in hay bales. In the morning he discovers the mare has given birth to a foal, dark, with a perfect white star on his forehead. The man finds in this a special gift and for the first time in a long time, looks forward with hope.
Treasurer’s Report: We had a balance of 518.70. $418.50 was raised in the silent auction and will be sent to Tedford Housing, half for their housing program and half for Warm Thy Neighbor. There are still auction donations yet to be collected, and that unknown amount will be sent on when received.
After sending the money to Tedford, we have $100.20 in our account.
Minutes: Susan read her 11.17. ’25 Minutes.
Tedford Meal: The Dec. 1 Tedford meal was barbecued pulled turkey, sweet pickles, cole slaw, homemade apple sauce, and ice cream. The Jan.5 Teadford meal Team B leader is Nancy Marstaller, (207) 725-4294. Durham Friends provide dinner for Tedford House on the first Monday of each month. Contributions of prepared food or money for Tedford meals are always welcome.
Next Meeting: January 19, 2026.
Other Business: Nancy drove by the new Tedford housing facility, which is near Cook’s Corner in Brunswick. Sarah attended the ribbon cutting ceremony November 20. She described the L shaped facility with one wing for families, one for single people, with the administration/staff located in the center. Each family apartment has beds, private bath and kitchen area. The single person rooms sleep four with shared bath. Sarah noted beautiful art in every room, murals, a quilt from Harpswell displayed, and views of nature and a playground outside the facility. Jo Ann Jacobus requested the WS provide a vegetable platter for the “Gathering Place,” ”a “safe, welcoming, and comfortable space for people to gather in downtown Brunswick, offering guests respect, encouragement, help with the practical”. Kim will provide the vegetables and Wendy will deliver. Wendy delivered Ed Hinshaw’s clothing and shoes to “The Warming Center”. They were very grateful. There will be a memorial for Ed on Jan.10 at 11 AM. WS will provide finger food refreshments such as small bun sandwiches of egg salad and tuna, and a vegetable tray.
Dorothy closed the meeting with a Christmas poem:
ON CHRISTMAS EVE.
While the lighted Christmas candles
Burn so cheerfully and bright,
O Father dear, in heaven above,
We pray this prayer tonight:
Above us set the Christmas star,
And let us hear the angels sing,
Announcing Him come from afar
Peace and Happiness to bring.
Oh, may we find and follow Him
Born in a dark, chill manger,
Oh, may we love Him in our hearts-
This Christ, on earth a stranger.
From “Childrens Prayers” passed down from Dorothy’s aunt, Helen Clarkson.
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends Business Meeting Minutes, December 21, 2025 DRAFT
Ellen Bennett — Recording Clerk
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, December 21, 2025, with thirteen people in attendance at the Meetinghouse.
1. Meeting Opening
Clerk read an excerpt from Heartwood, by Amity Gage.
“Here’s an idea: All emotions start out as love. Later, they are worked on by the forces of luck and suffering.
Hate is soured love.
Fear is wounded love.
Longing is homeless love.
Love, not pain, is the mother. Love is the taproot.”
2. Approval of Minutes of November 2025
The Meeting approved the Minutes of the November 15, 2025 Business Meeting.
3. Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote
Please see report. Preparations and logistics for Ed Hinshaw’s memorial service, to be held January 10, 2026, were reviewed. Thoughts about resuming childcare were shared. It was noted that background checks for all childcare givers are required. M&C will reach out to others to gauge interest.
4. Finance Committee — Nancy Marstaller
Please see report. Draft budget for 2026 was reviewed. There were some changes from the budget presentation in November: Meetinghouse insurance increased, as did hosting for the internet. Projected deficit is: $1,110.
Meeting approved the 2026 budget, with thanks.
5. Nominating Committee Report — Wendy Schlotterbeck
Please see reports.
How we reach out to encourage others — members and attenders — to join committees was discussed. Clerks recommended appointing someone to nominating committee. Tess Hartford volunteered to join that committee.
Meeting accepted the nominating report, with gratitude.
6. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
The report was read. It is both a year-end review as well as a 5-year review of the programmatic genesis and scope of this active committee. Members expressed appreciation for the upcoming “New Paths” conference (which is a project of Mawoluhkhotipon), in light of the current national temperament around DEI. It is a wonderful example of communal leading — what a leading is supposed to be and what it can generate. Leadings get something started, and individuals may step back out of the way to pursue new, different leadings. People are walking with us through these programs, people who have been inspired and taken up this leading.
With much gratitude and appreciation, Meeting accepted the report.
The success of these programs, along with a new slate of members on the Brunswick Town Council, prompted Doug Bennett to offer to draft a new letter to theTown Council regarding renaming the 250th anniversary park.
7. 2026 Clerking Schedule
Meeting approved this rotation of Clerks for 2026.
8. Other Business
Eileen Babcock estate update: Next step will be a trial the beginning of March.
Website: Note Laura Ellison information, first pastor of Durham Friends, is available on the website.
Clerk closed the meeting with a moment of silence.
Respectfully Submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
Thanks to Earlham’s splendid Quaker historian, Tom Hamm, we mow have information about Laura Ellison, the first pastor at Durham Friends. Appointed in 1914, she served eight years. Here’s her obituary from The American Friend, September 17, 1951.
“Died, Laura A. Ellison, on August 10, at Amesbury, Massachusetts, aged 87.
She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of James and Ann Tetley Ellison. She taught in the Lynn schools for 24 years. During this time she became interested in Friends, and although reared as an Episcopalian, she joined the Lynn Meeting. She became an elder and was also recorded a minister in the Lynn Meeting.
Feeling a definite call to pastoral service, she attended and graduated from White’s Bible Institute in New York City and in 1914 went to Durham, Maine, Monthly Meeting as its first pastor. She remained there 8 years, leaving to care for her sister.
After her sister’s death, she suffered from ill health and spent the years until 1942 in Old Orchard, Maine, then entering the Huntington Home for Aged Friends in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
She always retained a loving interest in all the members of Friends and their various branches of work, especially in the Women’s Missionary Society. She was a valued member of the W.C.T.U. and a loyal supporter of the American Bible Society. A contribution was sent to that cause in the place of flowers at the funeral. In her last years in Amesbury she gave her service to the regular visitation of the sick and shut-ins.
She is survived by 4 nieces, 5 grandnieces, and 7 great-grandnieces.
Her funeral was conducted by Carlton Jones, minister of the Lynn Meeting. Interment was in Wenham Cemetery, Wenham, Massachusetts.”
Through Wendy Schlotterbeck, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is asking us to participate this month in a campaign they are calling Letter by Letter: Building Solidarity with Migrants.
“Throughout the fall, FCNL is collecting handwritten letters to deliver to Congress on December 18 for International Migrants Day. We’re sending a clear message: Immigrants make this nation whole. Unchecked, clandestine detention and deportation must stop.”
More information on the Campaign is available HERE.
Time is of the essence. Wendy will be delivering our letters on December 18. She’ll be at Meeting this Sunday, December 14, equipped with pens, paper and envelopes to write letters right then and there. This Sunday will be the best day to get to her for her to carry to Collins’s office.
Here’s more from FCNL:
“Legislators must reject President Trump’s efforts to deport millions, close the border to families and children seeking refuge from persecution, and strip protections from sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and places of worship. His administration has moved to deputize the military for civil immigration enforcement and divert funds Congress set aside for humanitarian and migration needs.
“This is not an immigration policy—it is a reckless, punitive, and unconstitutional abuse of executive power. It’s an assault on our faith calling to love the immigrant as thyself. It’s an abandonment of American values. Members of Congress can still choose another path.
“Constituent handwritten letters cut through the noise like little else. Below are talking points on four themes to help you begin: refugee admissions, threats to Dreamers, enforcement in sensitive places, and military involvement in immigration enforcement. Share your story, how your community is affected, and urge your members of Congress to act.”
further details when available
Leslie Manning’s message at Durham Friends Meeting on December 7, 2025 concluded with this poem by Brother David Steindl-Rast:
May You Grow Still by Brother David Steindl-Rast
May you grow still enough to hear the small noises Earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow.
May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at Earth’s fiery core.
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.
