On January 24 Alicia McBride from Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) will join us for Meeting. She will give the message and after Meeting she will join us to discuss the FCNL publication, A Theological Perspective on Quaker Lobbying.
This is available for you to read here, or email Doug Bennett (dougb AT earlham DOT edu) to request a copy.
Alicia will also share FCNL current work on legislation related to Indigenous sovereignty.
Cafe Corner is an online social experiment hosted by Durham Friends. We’ll revel in fellowship and creative sharing. The debut is Wednesday, Dec 30th, from 7pm to 8pm (Eastern Time) for a special edition, ” Holiday Cheer.”
We’ll continue periodically on select Thursdays; please read the newsletter and visit the web site for future listings. The Zoom link for Sunday worship will be used to join.
The gathering is facilitated by Mey Hasbrook, Meeting Care Coordinator
And join us afterwards for a festive Christmas caravan that will stop by a few Durham Friends to share greetings from “afar”.
“Decolonizing in Everyday Life” is a worship-focused discussion hosted by Durham Friends Meeting on Thursday, December 10th, from 7:30pm to 8:45pm (Eastern Time). The event will use the Zoom link from Sunday worship. We especially invite local and area Friends to join us for a time of deep listening and self-examination.
The evening is a springboard from a recent series on anti-racism. A common point of reference will be Sacred Instructions: Indigneous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset. A land acknowledgement and introduction will be made by Ingrid Chalufuour, clerk of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee. An extended time in small groups will be offered.
Contributors are Mimi Marstaller, member of Durham Friends currently residing in Salt Lake City; and Mey Hasbrook, a Durham attender and member of Kalamazoo Friends Meeting (Michigan). Mimi will share experiences as a teacher about the “throes of labor pains” within the education community around de-centered collective action, racism, and equity. Mey will offer reflections as a person of mixed lineage (Cherokee-Irish Descent) and a traveling minister among the Religious Society of Friends.
Durham Friends are invited to join an ongoing series of Meetings for Healing, hosted by Portland Friends Meeting on Thursdays at 7 p.m. From the convenors: “Meeting for Worship for Healing is an old Quaker tradition. Our goal with this meeting is to focus on the physical and spiritual illnesses of the current world. It’s not intended to be the same as a full meeting for worship but instead is meant to be focused communal prayer. We may be blessed with a time of deep silence. Messages may arise but should be de-centered from our ego.”
Meetings are held via Zoom. Because of changes to Zoom you may be in a waiting room. Don’t worry, someone will let you in soon. (https://zoom.us/j/91925135193,Meeting ID: 919 2513 5193)
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting will meet on Saturday, October 24, 10am to Noon. The Meeting will take place via ZOOM. Link information:
Mark your calendars! Teens from Southern Maine who are Quaker or curious about the Quaker way are getting together for an afternoon of fellowship and fun in person.
We’ll meet outside at Durham Friends Meeting and spend time playing games, going for a short hike, and enjoying meaningful discussion with a small group of youth and staff.
RSVP here and use that form to let us know your ideas for more things we could do together.
For more information, contact Maggie Nelson, Young Friends Events Organizer, at maggie@neym.org or at 978-382-1850.
An Invitation from Peace and Social Concerns
In Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to be an Antiracist, he says, “Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equality and are substantiated by antiracist ideas.” Join the Peace and Social Concerns Committee in an examination of racist ideas and policies with a goal of moving our thinking and actions toward an antiracist future.
Meet with us on Zoom on the following Tuesdays at 7:00:
September 15 – Where are you in your journey toward antiracism? What are you reading and thinking about? Where do you see, through reading or lived experience, racism in our society and our communities? Have you had new insights into the way systemic racism has played out in our country?
Readings: Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations, The Atlantic, June 2014. Nikole Hannah-Jones, What Is Owed, NYTimes, June 26, 2020. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story (TED Talk). Leonard Pitts, The Appraisal of How Little a Black Life Is Worth Begins at Birth
October 6 – Where do we see change happening? What do you understand about making change happen? Can attitudes and beliefs be changed or is policy the route to change? Does changed policy lead to changed attitudes and beliefs?
Readings: Zona Douthit, OK, Boomer, It’s Time To Fund Reparations, Friends Journal, September 1, 2020. Parker Palmer, The Broken Open Heart, Weavings, March/April 2009.
October 27 – Where are you feeling called to act? What is your leading at this time? Do you feel complicit? How? What would lead you being more antiracist?
Readings: Catherine Besteman and Joseph N. Jackson, Maine Voices: Want to help remedy racial inequity in Maine? Here are places to start, Portland Press Herald, June 13, 2020. Bill Brown, What Do Quakers Owe Blacks? Tools for Racial Justice, July 2002.
November 17 – Hold the date for a possible follow-up discussion
**Please prepare for the first discussion by reading one or both of the double-starred articles on the list below. Both are available on the Durham Meeting website. We recommend other readings in addition (see list below), particularly Ibram X. Kendi’s book.
Links to other readings are on the Peace and Social Concerns page of the Durham Friends Meeting website.)
Clarabel Marstaller’s Memorial Service will be held at the meetinghouse and on Zoom on August 8, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. We look forward to celebrating her life and sharing memories with as many people as possible.
As we are still in a pandemic and are limited in how many can physically be present at the meetinghouse, we encourage people to attend by Zoom. If you do want to attend in person, please let Nancy Marstaller at marstallern@gmail.com or 207 725-4294 know so she can make sure we are following current guidelines. Face masks will be required to enter the meetinghouse and there will be no refreshments after the service.
To join the meeting by Zoom you may log on through the Durham Friends Meeting website: https://www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org/.
You can log on after 1 p.m. on August 8.
The family thanks everyone for all their support.
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting asks: How are we being nourished?
Friends, it’s good to feel nourished, especially in times of heightened concern. Falmouth Quarter intends to meet on Saturday July 25 for fellowship, spiritual nourishment and worship. We will use the Zoom format and gather there from 10 to noon.
We invite each meeting to bring a reflection/meditation to share on what you have discovered in this season of virtual community and bring a query that all can respond to. We are imagining each meeting would share their thoughts and query, followed by worship sharing, repeated six times for all six meetings.
We hope all meetings will feel led to participate in this time to gather, connect, share and worship together as a larger community. Durham Friends who would like to be involved in any way, please reach out to Sarah Sprogell at sarahsprogell@gmail.com or 319-5077.
In Peace and Gratitude for our gathered communities, Sarah Sprogell and Fritz Weiss, co-conveners of Falmouth Quarter.
Durham Friends Meeting will hold a game night for children and adults of all ages on Saturday, August 15 at 6:30 pm.
There will be trivia questions!
Durham Friends Meeting will sponsor an outdoor adventure, a short walk together, on Sunday, July 12 at 3pm. Together, we will walk the loop at Cox Pinnacle, a 1.8 mile walk.
All participants will be asked to wear masks to keep one another safer. Everyone, children especially, encouraged to participate.
CALLING DURHAM PRAYER WARRIORS!
Conversations about an ongoing, active prayer group or practice have been happening for several months now, and it is time to act! A meeting to discuss how we are to proceed will take place via Zoom and telephone on Thursday, June 18 at 8:30 am. Please bring your experience, ideas and your spirit to help us launch another way for us to pray together.
Praying has always been important to the Society of Friends and in the life of Friends in Durham Meeting. Prayer chains, contemplative prayer groups, healing circles, for local and world needs are examples of our involvement in prayer. Individual prayer and requests for special prayer from within the Society of Friends are ongoing ways we seek the Light.
Remember to join the meeting by Zoom on the Durham Meeting site, or by telephone. We are looking forward to our time together. Information on how to connect is here.
Joyce Gibson
| On June 20th, there will be the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low-wealth people, moral and religious leaders, advocates, and people of conscience in this nation’s history. A global pandemic is exposing even more the already existing crisis of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. On June 20, the 140 million poor and low-income people across this nation will be heard! Dear Friends, Hope you are staying well during these challenging times. We are at a crucial moment in history when we could go back to “business as usual” with its racism, militarism, poverty and ecological devastation or we could use this as an opportunity to build a build a new society – with justice for all, peace with the rest of the world, and living in harmony with Mother Earth. A massive peoples movement is already underway and we all have an opportunity to join in this effort. I am very impressed with the Poor Peoples Campaign: a National Call for a Moral Revival (PPC). Led by Co-Chairs Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, the PPC has organized a people power movement in 45 states to challenge what Martin Luther King called the triple evils of racism, militarism and poverty (building on MLK’s last campaign, known as the Poor Peoples Campaign, in which I had the opportunity to be involved back in 1968). You can join the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering by tuning in live to June2020.org at 10am EST on Saturday June 20 – or join the rebroadcast at 3pm PST ( 6pm EST) the same day or at 6pm EST on Sunday, June 21. More than 100 organizations will participate, along with 16 religious denominations, and national figures and celebrities including Al Gore, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Debra Messing and Jane Fonda. But the core of the program will be the words and experiences of poor and impacted people from across the country. Please invite your friends, family and your networks to join us as well. See the list of Demands and the Moral Budget of the Poor Peoples Campaign at their website: poorpeoplescampaign.org. Warm Greeting and Peace, David Hartsough WHATThe Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington will be the largest digital gathering of poor, dispossessed and impacted people, faith leaders, and people of conscience on June 20, 2020.The increasing urgency of a broad movement led by the poor and most impacted is more apparent every day. Now is the time to organize towards collective action to enact a moral agenda for the nation. As our ranks grow in the coming months due to COVID-19 and the ongoing crisis of poverty, building a platform for the plight, fight, and insight of the poor is even more urgent.We are marshaling our collective voices to demonstrate the power of our communities. We demand that both major political parties address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism by implementing our Moral Agenda. WHENThis 2 hour program will be broadcast live on Saturday June 20th at 10:00am EST and again at 6:00pm EST. You can also listen in on Sunday, June 21st at 6:00pm EST. Adjust all to your time zone. WHERE The Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington is going digital! We will gather from all 50 U.S. states and territories, and from across the world. Visit June2020.org to tune in. WHY We are gathering on June 20, 2020 to dramatize the pain and prophetic leadership of the poor and build power to enact our demands.We are waking the nation to the interlocking injustices facing 140 million poor and low-income people, 43% of the nation.But it’s not enough just to be awake. It’s not the waking, it’s the rising. On June 20, 2020, we rise together!If the rejected millions—the poor without health insurance, without living wages, without clean water, without voting protections—unite, we can move the moral and political imagination of this country and revive the heart of our democracy! WHO The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is made up of people of all backgrounds, we are Black, Brown, White, Native, and Asian; we are old and young; we are Christian, Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim; we are people of faith and not of faith; we are people of all sexual orientations and gender identities; we are led by poor people and we are a cross-class movement; we are people of all abilities; and we live across this nation, from Alabama to Alaska, from Maine to California to Mississippi. HOW We will gather online on June 20, 2020 from across the country and world.We will launch a robust accessibility campaign to ensure those of us most affected by poverty and its interlocking injustices are able to participate fully.To begin, go to www.june2020.org to let us know you will join us on June 20, 2020.Spread the word in your networks and social media.Get connected to your state’s coordinating committee. —David Hartsough, author of WAGING PEACE: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, PM press 2014. Available through Peaceworkers for $20 at 721 Shrader St., San Francisco, CA 94117. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead |
| Our mailing address is: Peaceworkers721 Shrader StreetSan Francisco, CA 94117 |
Plans are being developed to celebrate Durham Friends’ Meeting children and youth on our traditional Children’s Day on the first Sunday of June (June 7).
We will be inviting families to come to the horse shed sometime before June 7 and while observing physical distance (if others are present) complete activities and choose some gifts including a plant or flower to plant June 7. Meeting for Worship via Zoom on June 7 will include content directed at our younger participants. Stay tuned for more information!
The Poor Peopler’s Campaign will be hosting two facilitated discussions of We Cried Power, a documentary about the PPC. The first discussion will be Friday, May 29th at 7 and the second will be Wednesday, June 3rd at 7.The PPC is committed to the structural change of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation, and the warped moral narrative that allows these problems to continue. If you are not familiar with the PPC, please visit https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/.
These showings/discussions will be a lead-in to a huge virtual event the PPC will be holding on June 20th and we are looking for the support of Maine people of faith. June 20th will be the largest digital gathering of poor, dispossessed and impacted people, faith leaders, and people of conscience.
More information about the Poor People’s Campaign follows:
What is the Poor People’s Campaign?
Are you looking for a way to get involved in the Poor People’s Campaign?
Annual Plant Sale! Durham Friends Meeting will be holding a safe, self-serve (no contact) plant sale from Thursday June 4 through Monday, June 8 or until all plants are sold.
Please bring plants to the Meetinghouse horse shed by Wednesday June 4.
We ask that donations include a tag with as many details as possible (see list below). Extra pots and tags are available in the horse shed. Ask Wendy for any help with tags! There will be clear signs and a locked cash box for cash or check donations. Members of CE may be inside the Meetinghouse to oversee the sale from the window.
The proceeds will be used to support the Durham Young Friends Kakamega sponsee, Cornelius.,
Beginning this Wednesday, April 28, at 6:45 pm, Durham Friends will be hosting a virtual story time especially for the children and youth in our Meeting community. Listen to the story and then linger if you wish for a few minutes of wondering and sharing. Feel free to log-in as early as 6:30 to greet others.
Wear pajamas if you want and bring your favorite stuffed animal to show off. This week, viewers will meet Wendy’s favorite stuffed rabbit from her childhood!
The zoom login is below- it is the same one used for Meeting for Worship and other meetings at our beloved Durham Friends community. To provide a secure experience, you can share the opportunity with trusted friends. However others more distant who want to join- please send them my e-mail Wendy.schlotterbeck@gmail.com for log in information.
Questions? Call Wendy at 777-1980 or text her cell phone at 513-9187. (My cell phone does not get good reception at my house for talking or voicemail but texts eventually come through!)
Durham Friends is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Durham Friends StorytimeTime: Apr 29, 2020 6:45 PM Eastern Time
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2814426094
Meeting ID: 281 442 6094;
One tap mobile+19292056099,,2814426094#,,1#,1775# US (New York)
Session 2 of Peace and Social Concerns “Educate and Advocate Series” will be Sunday March 22 at 12:15. The focus will be understanding the Green New Deal and providing information about some important bills in the federal and state legislatures.
We hope you can all come.
On January 26, Peace and Social Concerns will be hosting an event after Meeting, the first in a series examining current events of concern to Friends. These discussions are designed to inform letter writing.
On the 26th we will discuss the U.S. military’s carbon footprint. Please plan to stay after meeting to join us.
You are invited to celebrate Homecoming Sunday with our beloved Durham Friends community on Sunday, October 6, World Quaker Day 2019, joining Friends around the world. We look forward to experiencing the fullness of the many people who have been a part of Durham Meeting and for whom Durham Meeting has been an important part of their life.
As we think about our Friends at Durham and around the world from the present and the past, we encourage anyone who is unable to attend in person to send a message with your memories, stories, and even pictures.
Children will be most welcome to join us for the entire Meeting. (Childcare will be available as well.)
Following Meeting for Worship, all are invited to share a meal and conversation with us.
Hope to see you there!
